The Dumps

I am literally in them.

I actually stayed in my bed today until about 2:30pm.. until one of my friends convinced me to go the hell out somewhere.  So I did.. I drove two hours to eat Italian and drove two hours back.  Granted it was the best spinach ricotta of my life, but if I know me at all (which I kind of do sometimes) I know that exaggerating actions are almost certainly a sign that I'm not doing so great.

That and wearing heels of the beach has to be a sign of madness.

But at least it was a great view.

Peppermint Epiphany

The tea that started it all :P

Just elaborating on my facebook status here: "This is going to sound retarded.. but as I was eating my toast this morning with peppermint tea I realised that I have a personality and that I had this person in me that I'd completely forgotten over time.. Go me?".

In a nutshell without knowing me, I'm going to start by saying that the past couple of years have been difficult emotionally.  Even though I've gained many great things, like a wonderful boyfriend of nearly two years and my lovely rattikin trio,  I have to admit that I've felt really aloof with what kind of person I am (or even what kind of person I'd like to be).  I used to have a really strong identity.. I felt like I was the kind of person that could be friends with anyone and I used my social skills to the max.  Then for certain reasons I started to doubt myself.  Doubt turned into pushing away and secluding.  Eventually that doubt become massive social anxiety - the thought of doing anything with strangers, even friends was so emotionally crushing that I would be in hysterics before it and completely drained after it.  And I'd always think I'd made a fool of myself.  I think most people mistook this as being quiet, but it was more that I was afraid of everything to do with social situations.

When Justin said he was going away for 6-8 weeks, I thought I'd be stuffed.  I've left myself in this position of not having very much to do with myself and sans many friends, so the thought of being alone for that long was a really scary one.  But I really wanted to be strong.  So what did I discover this morning over a cup of peppermint tea?  I realised that I own myself.  That all along I had all these unique wants and likes, that I have things that I'm proud of - that I'm great at.  I've been so afraid of who I am this whole time that I tried to make myself about certain things that I could cling onto, that I forgot all the things that made me.. well ME.  And those things I've been clinging onto?  I don't resent them at all, in fact they've only made me feel stronger about what I've hung onto desperately to get through the rainy days.  And now - I'm just super excited :)  There's sooo much to do, I'm sure the next few weeks are absolutely going to fly. xx

Back to Work!

In a past life (as in six months ago) before I started my professional student life, I used to work in a balloon shop near my house.  A balloon shop?  Yeah.. basically we specialise in making anything out of balloons - sculptures, bouquets, columns, arches, balloon drops - you name it we probably do it.  It's actually a really crazy job.. my favourite thing to do is bouquets - I love designing and choosing things to go together and then decorating to the max.  To be honest (and I can say this in hindsight) I really loved my job, but I was going through a tough period and it made everything bad.. that's why I left.. but now I'm back and I get a lot of free rein with what I do with my (few) days there.

So the highlight of today for me was making a Green Thumb bouquet and matching gift wine:

So this is the bouquet altogether.

Close up of the watering can.

The wine bottle I decorated to go with the bouquet, I thought the flower on top was really cute :D

Dad's Birthday

Today it was my dad's birthday.  In typical fashion my mum gave him the same ol' gift of Baileys, except this year she gave him two.  For some reason she thought it was a hilarious idea to wrap them both differently and then died of laughter when he asked which one he should open first.  Sigh, my mum..

We went up to Mt. Tamborine which is about half hour from my parents house and had a look around the gallery walk (which is a street full of little shops at the top of the mountain).  My favourite store is the German Cuckoo Clock store.  I went to Germany when I was 16 and pretty much love anything to do with the country - I am totally dirty that I never got to see the cuckoo clock place in the Black Forest.. one day.  I also love clocks, because my granddad was a watchmaker and I have very fond memories of all the amazing clocks that he used to make and fix.. he had so many around his house that every time I see a clock I think of him.  Here's a pic of one wall of the cuckoo clock place, so you have some idea of how jam packed this place is with clocks:

We were meant to have lunch, but we actually ended up getting up there too late for lunch and too early for dinner.. so instead we went for a walk at Curtis Falls.

What I really like about the walks at Mt Tamborine is that there's a real rainforest feel to them, with occasional bits and pieces of normal Australian bush.  The waterfall was beautiful, not flowing very much because of the lack of rainfall.  There's lots of birds in there too, you can always hear them chirping away and some random turkeys that go skittering in front of you as you walk along haha.  Definitely one of my favourite places in Qld.

Bath time!

I love a good bath.. it kills me that back home we don't have a bathtub, so when I visit my parents (particularly when it's a little on the cool side!) I looooove to have baths.  I've been feeling pretty down and crumby lately, so it was really great to just chill and loosen up a little.  I mean there's bubbles - they make everything alright ;)

Lots of bubbles at that!  And Miss Rubber Ducky decided she wanted a piece of that action!

Ripley's and Timezone

The last time that I went to Ripley's on the Gold Coast was probably about 12-14 years ago.  I didn't remember anything about the place, but I did know that I thought it was the bomb-diggity.  Fast forward to 2010, Ripley's have spent about six months redoing the entire place because of the new construction going on around it.  I've been dying to go since they reopened in February, so I firmly persisted with my friend Patrick until he agreed to come check out the place (He'd never been so he was the perfect candidate, plus I may have bribed him by promising a visit to the massive Timezone there lol).  Behold some highlights from Ripley's!

Badass Shrunken Head.  It's like seriously the size of a computer mouse or something.

This is a tiny painting, with Pat standing in as my comparison!

An amazing sculpture of Dame Edna made entirely of chicken wire.  The detail on the glasses is great.

This wedding dress is made entirely out of toilet paper!  Patrick joked that I had found my dream dress - I can guarantee for those taking note that I wouldn't be caught dead with pink on my dream dress :P

Pat on the dodgem cars.  I don't think I've seen him more happy than when he realised Timezone had dodgem cars lol!  Had to take a photo of this momentous occasion.

Me at the wheel of a dodgem car.. yes I was aiming for a cheesy photo haha!  I actually drove these surprisingly well, if only dodgem cars were the norm on our roads.

Patrick lining up the shot for the final hole on 18-hole putt putt.  This is a tricky shot because of the slope before the hole.  It was a really up and down game and we actually ended up tying at 52 points each.

I am such a student..

...when I get uber-excited about buying a backpack.  I decided it was time to bid my messenger bag farewell for going to uni, because sweet mercy it was killing my shoulders and spine.  So sensible backpack it is.  I'd been eyeing off one on ebay for about a week, it was purrrfect (lined fleece section for my laptop and everything!) however it was a love affair that was never to be... since I lost hard in the auction yesterday :(

Perhaps in a bid to make up for my feelings of rejection and depressing in the wake of losing my one true love, I headed out today with the sole mission of finding 'The Next Best Thing'.  Finally I found this little cutie - half price!

Movies - Twilight 3: Eclipse

Lol anyone actually reading this is going to start thinking that all I do is read books and go to movies!  Last night it was TY3, today L&G I bring you the lowdown on Eclipse - book 3 of the Twilight Saga...

Rachel asked me to go see it with her today and I was like HELLS YES!  Despite the fact that I was on like 5 hours sleep, mostly delirious and flying high on V juice.  Despite the fact that there were 1000's of teenagers encircling the movie cinema foyer - my butt was on that seat faster.. than two minute noodles my friend.

"Face it - I am hotter than you" - Yes Jacob, we know it!

Going in I seriously forgot the entire plot of the third book.  I kept thinking of the fourth book watching the whole time and then wondered why none of the stuff I thought was going to happen actually happened.  So don't ask me about accuracy here, I'm assuming most of it was there cause I haven't heard the twi-hards crying too loudly on the internets.

Bella, one day when you grow up you'll realise it's actually a lot harder to get a guy to propose to you a thousand times than it is to get in his pants - priorities girlfriend priorities!!  (Oh and tell him to fire his stylist.. he looks like Wolverine).

Look comparing it to the previous two movies, I think this one had way more effort put into it.  Different director I think?  I'm not sure how easy it is for a non-twilight reader to understand.. it did seem to chop around a bit.. but it's pretty good, they can actually act to save their lives and the right balance of drama/romance/comedy/action is there.  Thumbs up from me, I look forward to watching this one with a glass of vodka and crying at how unfair it is that Bella has the ultimate romantic and the ultimate sex on leg's chasing after her despite being a plain and boring character.  Life's tough bro.

Movies - Toy Story 3

A few weeks ago I saw a Facebook page named along the lines of 'Move out of the way kid, I've been waiting (x) amount of years for the 3rd Toy Story!'.  So freaking true!  I loved the first two as.. well a young teen I'm thinking?  Rex and Slinky were my fav fav's.. because slinky's are freaking cool and so are dinosaurs!!

Number three was really really great.  I love what Pixar do with there story lines and I really am glad that they haven't cheapened this franchise - all three of these movies are equally amazing and wonderful in their own right.  Now in the spirit I won't spoil anything (mostly because my boyfriend will have my head), but please if you haven't seen it yet - GO SEE IT!  And if you get a bit teary at the end it's okay.. my mum cried :P

In other news my other half is boarding a plane to Bangkok right now.. he's off to London for an unspecified amount of time.  So on one hand I'll probably have more to write about in an attempt to get a life.. on the other hand it's probably going to be pretty obvious I'm compensating for something.

Books - Open: Andre Agassi's Biography

I started reading this book a few weeks ago before we left for Hamilton Island.  My Justin is a big tennis fan, before I met him I didn't even understand how the game worked let alone who the main players were.  So when he urged me to read the biography, I didn't honestly think I'd enjoy it very much.  Now that I've finished it, I can't tell you that I like tennis more than when I began, but I did enjoy it for what it was - another person's life.   It was particularly interesting because of Agassi's confession of hating the game that brought him so much fame, success and even love with his wife of 9 years, Steffi Graf.

He was the american saviour of tennis in his heyday.  The chicks loved him and the guys wanted to be him.  I can't believe he seriously got around with a mullet back in the day but there's the 90's for you I guess.  Most of all it's crazy how important this signature look was to him, since it wasn't even his own natural hair!  I think the best thing he got out of his relationship with Brooke Shields was her suggestion to shave that atrocity off and get rid of the guise.  Which of course brings me to my next point about the book - the Nikon ad that allowed the press to slaughter his character because of one catch phrase not even created by Agassi but written into a script by the company - 'Image is Everything'.  Watch the ad here.

I also found this interview by 60 minutes in America interesting, he seems to me to be a very genuine and likeable person.  I think most people can relate to not being happy with what we've got in life, I don't think that just because someone is rich that it doesn't give them the right to lament their lack of choice in life.  I also like that Agassi has given back a lot, reading about his education foundation and prep school was really interesting, given his lack of being able to have a proper education.