Thursday 28 February 2008

Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite

You want to know something funny? I was in bed before 9:00 last night.

At 7:30 it felt like it was about 11:00pm instead so I decided that I should go to bed early and for once I actually managed it. So I should have gotten about 10 hours sleep, but I kept waking up through the night (which I don't normally do).

Tonight is the first night of Church camp so I probably won't be getting 10 hours of sleep tonight either, but I'll try to get as much as possible.

I'll post all about Church camp when I get back and have time.

Sunday 24 February 2008

Uni has begun...

Today was the first official day of semester 1 at the University of Tasmania- and most of my friends and I had had enough and wanted to go home by 10:00 this morning.

By that stage most of us had forked out large amounts off money buying the compulsory lab manuals and unit outlines and had done quite a lot of complaining about our compulsory Maria Island excursions (and seriously scared a first year student who was sitting on the bench next to us and eavesdropping).

Its really strange how much my attention span has shortened during the holidays- my mind was wandering so easily during the lectures. As it is now.

I'll come back and do some more complaining about uni when I don't feel quite so depressed about it all.

Sigh..................

Thursday 21 February 2008

What a week!!!!

This has been a big week in a lot of ways, but the most major important news are the following:

My brother, Robert has bought a house. Yes, an actual house- with windows and doors and everything.

And exciting fact number two- Tiani and Andrew are engaged. Yes, another two of my best friends are getting married- and to each other too. I've only just gotten over the last wedding and we're already planning the next one. Anybody know that song "All my friends are getting married..."

Friday 15 February 2008

Valentine's Day (and other stuff)

Well, after six days the burst water main was finally fixed on Thursday afternoon. And it wasn't a moment too soon I can tell you. One of my waterless days at 7:00 in the morning I figured that none of my neighbours would be up so it would be safe to run outside and turn the water on in my pj's so that I could have a shower. It wasn't. The water main is in the corner of our front yard behind lavender and geranium bushes so you have to squat down behind the bushes to turn the tap on. I ran out of my unit behind the bushes to turn the tap on and when I stood back up again I realised that the people across the road were standing in their driveway staring at me- I'm pretty sure they thought I was going to the toilet behind the bushes in my front yard-MAJOR embarressment!!!

Also on Thursday, my cousin, Ayden, and I finally went to see Sweeny Todd. We didn't go on Friday because someone (and it wasn't me) lost track of time and we missed the showing so instead we had a movie night at my place with Hannah (another good friend of mine). The next time we could manage to get together was Thursday so we organised to go to the movies then- I later realized that was valentines day, but as Ayden and I are both single it didn't matter if we wanted to go to the movies with our cousin anyway. Before the movie we went to the supermarket to get some munchies and to buy some flowers to take to our great grandmother for her 91st birthday the next day. Ayden and I were messing around in the queue at the check-out and I made him carry the flowers so that it didn't look like I was buying myself flowers on Valentine's Day. While we were being silly with the flowers he jokingly said "will you marry me" which he ALWAYS does whenever he has flowers in his hand to ANY female around him and I responded in the negative (can't remember exactly what I said)- you should have seen the girl in front of us, she had obviously overheard and could not believe I had turned down a valentine's day proposal- she gave me such a dirty look, but I don't think Ayden saw it.

I made Ayden an email address the other day so you can all expect him to leave comments on my blog now.

Anyway, I'd better go because I am supposed to be cleaning out my desk to get organised for uni- only one more week of work and then its back to classes for me (and don't tell anyone, but I'm actually looking forward to it- sshh, I said not to tell anyone).

Sunday 10 February 2008

Who ordered the lake in our front yard?...

Interesting title. The reason behind it is that on Friday night we discovered that we did (surprisingly) have a lake in our front yard.

I live in Unit 3- an African man lives in #1, #2 is currently empty (my really annoying neighbour moved out while I was in Melbourne), and a grumpy looking old man lives in #4. Well, on Friday night the grumpy old man knocked on my door and told me that we had a leaking mains pipe in our front yard. He then knocked on #1's door and the three of us congregated around the growing puddle on our footpath wondering what to do. None of us had been given an emerency number for our landlord, and we couldn't get to the mains tap to turn the water off so there was really nothing we could do.

Then on Saturday morning the grumpy old man knocked on my door again to let me know that he had gotten through to the rental agency and they were getting a plumber over to turn the water off. I then went over to Ayden's for a few hours and when I got home the grumpy old man knocked on my door again to let me know that the water was turned off and that we were allowed to turn it on for short amounts of time to have a shower and the plumber would be back on Tuesday sometime (as Monday is a public holiday).

So, its now Monday and I'm survivng quite well without running water. It was really good this morning because I had just gotten up and was thinking about going outside to turn the water on and have a shower and I heard the toilet start re-filling so I knew that one of my neighbours had just turned the water on so I just got to jump straight in the shower- a great start to the day. I allready knew that the day was going to be great because I was meant to be working today, but when I messaged Lavi last night to find out what time she wanted me at uni she replied that she had just realized it was a public holiday so she was taking the day off and I could as well. That made me very, very happy and I plan to have an absolutely splendid day.

I hope you all have a great day as well.

Friday 8 February 2008

I'm sorry Ayden

My friend (who also happens to be my cousin), Ayden, reminded me this morning that there were some things that I had planned to blog about that I hadn't gotten around to doing yet.

The first thing that I planned to blog about was THE GREAT BEANBAG INCIDENT.
The series of events refered to began with Ayden giving me a beanbag for Christmas and the promise that we would go together to purchase the beans and fill it. A few weeks later Ayden and I went on an adventure over the river to Eastlands to find two extremely large bags of beans (and a coffee, and a newspaper, and ...). By the time we got home Ayden needed to get ready for work so he dropped my off at my flat and left with the beans still in his car- the adventure of filling the beanbag was postponed.

The next morning we began the delicate operation of getting as many of the beans as possible into the beanbag without covering my entire flat in "snow". We actually did quite a good job and didn't spill many at all- which disappointed us greatly because we were both looking forward to making a huge mess and playing in the "snow".



Thus ends THE GREAT BEANBAG INCIDENT.

Around the same time as THE GREAT BEANBAG INCIDENT occured Ayden and I also starred in THE TWEETY BIRD ESCAPADE.

THE TWEETY BIRD ESCAPADE actually started whithout Ayden when I was at MacDonald's getting a frozen coke with my father (hi Dad!). I noticed while we were there that the current Happy Meal toys at the time were not the usual plastic junk but were soft toys of Warner Bros characters such as Sylvester the cat, Speedy Gonzales, Bugs Bunny, and my personal favourite, Tweety Bird.

The toys had stuck in my mind so I told Ayden about them and we began to formulate a plan of how to get one. Ayden came up with the brilliant idea of going through the drive-through to avoid the public embarressment of two adults buying a children's meal that comes in a very brightly coloured box.

This was a good idea and we began to put the plan into motion at lunch time one day. Unfortunately when we got the meal (plus all the stuff that Ayden ordered and confused the poor girl with) I looked inside and it was missing the toy. So I made Ayden park the car and come inside the resturant with me to ask for my toy- so we had to line up and wait for another 5 minutes and then still endure the public humiliation of standing at the counter and saying we ordered a happy meal and didn't get our toy, but for our effort I was rewarded with a Tweety Bird toy (and Ayden was rewarded with nothing- seems to be the way most of our outings turn out- he spoils me rotten).



Thus ends THE TWEETY BIRD ESCAPADE - tune in next week for THE GREAT SWEENY TODD ADVENTURE as Ayden and I are going to the cinema to see the movie "Sweeny Todd" on Monday night.

Tuesday 5 February 2008

The wedding...



It all started on Wednesday afternoon when I arrived at the Melbourne Airport. I was met and driven back to Dienece's house by Dienece and her mother, Dawn. Pretty much as soon as I got there we had to eat tea and quickly get ready for Wednesday evening church service. I got to see some people at the church that I met a year and a half ago when I was visiting Dienece - and I was surprised how many people actually remembered meeting me for such a short time so long ago.

After the service finished we (the wedding paty) moved around some furniture and decided on how to have the church arranged for the big day.

Eventually, we got back to the Gunther's (the couple Dienece has been living with for the last two years) and Barbara (Dienece's older sister) brought out some face masks so that we could have a little bit of a hen's night.
Dienece in her mask

Me, Jenny Risser (Bridesmaid and long time friend of Dienece), Lisa Gunther (Dienece's second mother), Barbara Green (Bridesmaid and Dieneces older sister), and of course the Bride, Dienece.

Eventually we did get to bed, but it was pretty late when we did. Barbara and Lisa had sneakily organised with Scott (the groom)'s mother and sister to whisk Dienece away for a nice lunch on Thursday to help her relax. We went to the Paperbark Native Plant Nursery Cafe. It was really nice so spend some time with just the girls.

Barbara, Scott's Mum (Jan), Scott's Sister (Jackie), and Dienece

Jenny, Dawn, and Lisa

When we got back to the house after our lovely lunch I got back to work on doing the calligraphy on Dienece and Scott's Wedding Certificate.


When that was done we all headed off the church to work on decorating. Barbara was doing all the flowers for the wedding as she is doing a floristry course at the moment- and I spent two days playing florist's assitant with her.



While we were at the church Dienece rang her hairdresser to make sure that everything was organized for the wedding morning, but it wasn't. So with no notice, and only one day left before the wedding Dienece had to find a new hairdresser. She managed to get an appointment for a trial the next day at 1:00 and then an appointment on Sat morning at 10:00. Eventually we left the church and got to bed.

Friday morning I'm not quite sure what we did, but I know that we were busy. Dienece went of the hairdressers and then I finally got to go over to her and Scott's house because I hadn't seen it yet-it's very nice. Then came more decorations and the last minute things that needed to be done and friday night was the rehersal dinner. This was the first time I had met the best man, but I had met the groomsmen about a year and a half ago. We went through the whole wedding 3 times and all ate alot of pizza before we finally got home. Dienece was meant to be in bed by midnight, but she wasn't quite ready to go to sleep yet so I sat on her bed with her and talked for a while until about 12:20 when we heard Robert Gunter (who had set the curfew) come home and we both rushed of to bed.

The wedding morning was, of course, flat out getting ready for the big event. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...


Pastor Veszley, Scott (Groom), Mark (Bestman), Shaun, and Simon