just plodding along

i don't much like quiche

channel ten's live telecast of the sydney swans ticketape parade is pretty quality.

i wonder if sydney will get bagillions more club members because of this year? next year will be my 10th year as a swans member.

meanwhile, sometimes i like wearing strange combinations of clothes. today i have jeans, white skirt with green vines on it, white peasant singlet embroided at the bottom with green vines, and my green fleece op shop jumper. it's just fun.

back from the po. nice pics joshy.

tired. headache.

nice to be home.

spag bol tonight. yum.

looking forward to four-six days of recuperation.

God's still good.

belated

but cheer cheer! good job boys. so so stressful! but yay!!!

and for the benefit of patrick, click here for a basic summary of the rules of AFL.

Go the swans! sure am wearing my swans jersey all day. as are a few other people in the po. oh i hope we win.

meanwhile quality sleep would be tops.

and hoorah for joshy with wireless. and just hoorah for him in general. not just coz of wireless.

well i'm already tired. only 9 sleeps to go.

so much scaredness. it's yucky.

but hey, you get over these things.

another jet plane

off to poetryland, as debbie and sam like to call it. nine days. i'm going to miss my bed. as always, i'm stressing about being late to check in. i think i'm a few kilos under 20kg, so that's good. i've got so many jumpers packed. i fear it shall be quite the cold. especially at night. i think i packed pjs. yeh, i'm pretty sure. blah blah blah. have to see if i can find the afl record at the airport. one for me and one for rohan. we shall see.

fare thee well.

although, both howie and josh have laptops with wireless so i'm sure i'll write again before back to sydney.

these are a few of my favourite things

~xander
~clouds
~sleep
~laughter
~honey jumbles
~new car smell
~jesus shoes
~target
~photos
~singing real loud
~grapes
~trees
~lord of the rings
~afl
~singing in the car
~scars
~dvd and a doona
~IKEA
~donut king vanilla milkshake with skim milk
~good memories
~hockey
~musical movies from my childhood
~walking in the rain
~singlet tops
~having a tan
~flute
~fresh air
~wakeboarding
~writing
~matthew reilly books
~silliness
~howie (edit)

i know i can always add more. but i better get ready for work. have a good day people.

For those who like cheap thrills

Push your eyes for interesting light show
(Amusement Potential: 1-5 minutes)
See a variety of blobs, stars and flashes. Try to make out things - is your subconscious trying to send you a message? Can you control what you see by pressing different areas with different forces?

See how long you can hold your breath
(Amusement Potential: 4-20 minutes)
Not that much fun, but it sure passes the time. Play with a friend, or try to beat your own personal best. Some tips: hyperventilate before hand, and stay as still as possible.

Try to not think about polar bears
(Amusement Potential: 1-5 minutes)
This is especially hard, because by trying too much, you remember what you were trying to avoid thinking of. If you try too little, you end up thinking about polar bears anyway.

Repeat the same word over and over until it loses its meaning
(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
Pick a random word out of a magazine and say it aloud to yourself until it becomes a meaningless set of noises.

Get into a parked car in a busy street with sunglasses on and point a hairdryer at passers by
(Amusement Potential: 5 minutes-2 hours depending on traffic)
See how many weird looks you can get - you're guaranteed at least 23.5.

See what's in your neighbour's trash
(Amusement Potential: 20-30 minutes)
You can learn a lot about people by what they throw out. You might uncover some dark secret about them. Plus, they might be throwing out something with value that still works, like a VCR.

Have a "Who is less competitive" competition
(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
Trying to win at this will make you lose. Trying to lose makes you win which makes you lose. Not trying at all makes you lose which makes you win which makes you lose. Think about it...

Thanks to Ben who stole it from someone else

i'm excited that survivor is back. now i will intentionally watch two hours of tv each week.

ooh, what cd to listen to

carn the mighty swans

its a bit of an oxymoron, maybe it sould say dainty swans.

but nevertheless, what a fourth quarter! we watched the last half at gap, and i must admit i was ready to write the swans off before the game had even begun. shame. but then again, i'm already ready to write them off before the grand final too - regardless of if they play james' beloved eagles, or the crows. gives me much more jubilation when they do win, and softens the blow if they don't. yep.

but i'm in tasmania for the grand final! now, it's not that tassie doesn't have television, they even have live television, but i don't know how available i'll be to watch it. the second time my swans are in grand final in my living memory and i don't get to watch it?! i don't think so buddy. i've got rohan pulling some strings.

but go the red and white!

i just wanted to say that lachie is such a top bloke. he's been very helpful to me this week, so good on him. i reckon everyone should have a lachie. thanks lach!

go see ben's site. it's only fair.

one for the allen key

howie and i went to rhodes ikea coz new catalogue. they had new things dotted throughout the store (and thankfully still had the things we like from the old catalogue). we walked past a big sign that said:

NEW!
Box with lid

i wish i had a camera. ikea sure are answering the call for new and improved homewares.

the long and winding road

duckie just drove his 50000th kilometre! howie and i celebrated by dancing for that entire kilometre. the piece of radio music we chose was phil collins' sussudio, due to lack of anything else.

happy birthdays justine and will!

i swear

can you ever be "too" honest? i know that biblically we are told not to lie, which in my mind includes bending the truth and conveniently forgetting to tell all the bits of the truth. but in the past i have been on the receiving end of someone who is being honest, at least in their mind, and feels the need to share with me what seems to be all their ever is to share. i think i immediately sense when the 'too honest' line has been crossed. but i couldn't define it. but it's hard when being honest with someone else to tell when you get to that too honest line. if the truth is good, why does it have to be so uncomfortable or hurt so much? i guess we're just broken people. well, i know we are.

i am looking forward to cleaning my room on the weekend. that's not a lie.

every day i feel nauseous and headachy for at least part of the day. i don't think this to be a good thing.

looking forward to sleep tonight. oh i love sleep.

thanks Lachie!

just a snippet of a funny email of one-liners:

I realised I was dyslexic when I went to a toga party dressed as a goat
- Marcus Brigstocke

Cats have nine lives. Which makes them ideal for experimentation
- Jimmy Carr

I saw that show, 50 Things To Do Before You Die. I would have thought the
obvious one was "Shout For Help"
- Mark Watson, Rhod Gilbert

Employee of the month is a good example of how somebody can be both a
winner and a loser at the same time
- Demetri Martin

It's easy to distract fat people. It's a piece of cake
- Chris Addison

If you're being chased by a police dog, try not to go through a tunnel,
then on to a little seesaw, then jump through a hoop of fire.
They're trained for that
- Milton Jones

And howie’s favourite…

My dad is Irish and my mum is Iranian, which meant that we spent most of
our family holidays in Customs
- Patrick Monahan

Walking home from Pennant Hills I hear a siren behind me. Nothing unusual. A fire engine drives past in all it’s loudness crossing three lanes into the slow lane, which I thought a little strange, but it ended up stopping outside pizza hut. And I thought, oooh, a fire in pizza hut. Perhaps one of the boxes in the heating thingy caught on fire, and it spread to the massive pizza box shelf, and has ripped through the store. Sure there wasn’t any smoke, but that’s irrelevant.

There’s already a policeman there. Just one. The firemen make their way out of the truck – not really in any rush, so I figure there’s no major fire. Especially since a pizza hut guy is poking his head out the store door. I’m still a little distance up the road, and see them all peer behind one of those green electrical box thingys that sticks up out of the ground. There’s a black thing there. I think maybe it’s a bomb! And the policeman will come up to me and say “I’m sorry ma’am, we’ve got a situation. You can’t walk past here” and stop all the traffic so can safely cross to the other side of the road. But I get closer, and there’s just a smoldering mass, and smoldering bit of wall. I guess maybe an electrical fault? So I worked my way through the maze of firemen and a policeman, who doesn’t even acknowledge me, and continue on my way, a bit disappointed really.

i love it when you know you're in a dream, and you go to grab the tiger-repelling spray from the cupboard, but it's not there, but you know it's ok to just grab at thin air, knowing that when you need it, the spray will materialise. takes the fear out of being chased by a tiger.

it's ok, i'm perfectly normal.

such a girl

i feel i am becoming much more girly in my attire. bought a decidedly girly skirt today. makes me feel strange.

i guess i am feeling better than i was this morning. quite tired though. had to take day off work. had a temperature, nausea and was friends with the toilet. got some more sleep, and some resting. i think my body will appreciate that.

i should comment on the swans game. oh the suspense! although i had taken a maxalon, and so was pretty woozy, so i think i probably missed half the game. but i was wide awake when the last few seconds came around. talk about luck! or fluke! but we were on the right side of it, so it's ok. as phil said, don't envy their job next week end. beating the saints will be a tough ask.

meanwhile, i echo howie's post, we certainly don't swear or abuse players/umpires enough to be a part of the concourse. we must be stand snobs.

oh please make it a good day God. it hasn't started off the best.

caffeine free-ish

it's kinda hard not eating chocolate anymore. sometimes i just want some - old habits. i also haven't had pepsi max for almost three weeks although i've had diet coke a few times. i have had a few teas. hence the "ish".

i like when we have stationary orders delivered.

firstly, you get free jelly beans in a little bag that says "have a good one". secondly, the delivery man is always so friendly and thirdly, they deliver same day.

so a big hoorah for Academy Office Supplies in Hornsby!

i decided i like making earrings. maybe i can go into business with michaela.

I thought I’d blatantly copy howie and do a little photo post of our time in Greece

Visited Olympic park, this was by a nice water feature

face painting at Ptolameida

a hill by some lake

good buddies, kostas and howie - kostas is greek

old Albanian men

Albanian kiddies

a Macedonian/Albanian woman with some cows

ruins at philippi

the erastus inscription at corinth

temple of apollos at corinth

yes, there are over 300 more. plenty of good shots.

jet lag

not too too bad - but not fun.

bed at 11:45
sleep at 12:25
wake 12:30
sleep 12:35
wake 3:43
sleep 4:40
wake 5:30
sleep 5:40
wake 9:44
sleep 9:44
wake 11:40

silly body. i'm sure it has no idea what's going on. i guess that's still about 10 hours sleep. doesn't feel like it.

so brave

gee it's cold in sydney isn't it.

home at last. pretty tired and woozy. sleep will be good if i get there. keen to kick jet lag quickly.

how good are stroop waffles.

singapore once again - hoorah for free internet.

sometimes plane flights can be the longest 8 hours of your life. i'm glad i don't have an 8 hour wait here like some others. we still have one 8 hour flgiht to go. then home sweet home. so tired.

why is it that when they turn off the seat belt sign, that's when the turbulence begins?

this trip has been incident free so far in terms of water cup spillage. howie is tutoring me in the best way to open them, coz i have a poor record.

jet plane

last day in greece... we kinda came full circle in two weeks, staying at the same place last night as on the first night.

the last couple of days we visited philippi and corinth. it was pretty interesting in parts. bringing the Bible a bit more to life once again.

on one of our last days in korce, a pastor came and spoke to us. his name was alton. he had a pretty amazing life story. one thing that he said particularly stuck out to me. if you just sit and listen in church, you internalise or learn 10% of what you've been taught. if you discuss it afterwards, that gets you to 50%. if you put it into action, that pushes you to 90%. i reckon that's pretty significant.

anyways, we had a big celebration dinner last night. i had heaps of fun chatting at the end with howie, kostas and eleni. i love laughing with people.

it's kinda sad and relieving and good all at once to be going home. i'm not quite sure how to answer the question "how was it?" yet. there aren't enough words. and 'awesome' just doesn't cut it.

a very different experience to last year.

and hoorah coz i am well today. wasn't too good a couple of days ago. stupid body.

ummmm.... guess i'll be seeing you peoples, if i see you, when i see you.

back monday night. yay!

can't wait for summer! bring on the beach and brownness!

oooh, and yay for a home final for the swans. thanks rohan for the updates!