Before I go any further, let me just offer this:

Don’t get me wrong. I, personally, do not hate sandcastles. I quite like them. I also like this kid. The thing I find funny about it is that, after I laughed at his expression, I then noticed that it looks like he’s been eating sand. I don’t think he really hates sandcastles, I think he loves them, but in a culinary sense. Perhaps his hatred is a front, an excuse for the destruction, then afterwards he’s like, “well, it’s ruined, you won’t mind if I take a piece. Nomnomnom.”

So anyway, on with what I actually meant to say… Tim is on his way home as I type this! YAY! I think he won’t be in the best of moods when he gets in, because his plane from LA to Sydney was delayed by about two hours, so he’s going to miss his connecting flight from Sydney to Brisbane. He had caught an earlier flight from New York to LA, because he was worried about making his LA to Sydney flight. LAX can be a real bitch for connections, because they’re so pedantic and annoying. Plus it’s just a stupid airport (so I’ve heard, from several different people). So I know he’ll be tired and fed up, but I’m just going to be so happy to have him home.

A slight deviation – If you are doing an image search, check out this site: Flickr Related Tag Browser

So, this has been Tim’s journey:

Brisbane -> Tokyo -> Singapore ->London -> Frankfurt -> Paris -> London -> Boston -> New Hampshire -> Boston -> New York -> Philadelphia -> New York -> LA -> Sydney -> Brisbane

All that in three weeks. I think that list is right… It’s just the side trips I’m not 100% sure of.

Chris came over this afternoon and hung out for a while. We watched Little People, Big World (there was a weekend marathon of LPBW on) and talked about things. Then, Noelle arrived and we had to stop talking about her and talk about something else. Just kidding. We still talked about her. Not. Ok. I’m going to stop that doubletalk now. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Chris and Noelle, and Po. We watched the Pilot episode of “Dead Like Me”, and then Chris went home to his Doon but Noelle and I kept watching episode after episode of Dead Like Me. I really like it. The girl looks like she’s about 15, but she has weird, grown-up hands. They’re creepy, but it really fits in with the whole grim reaper theme. It reminds me of one of the radio shows of Ricky, Karl and Steve when they were talking about how they had watched that interview with Michael Jackson, where that guy followed him around and you got to see what his life consisted of. When they asked Karl’s opinion on Michael Jackson, he said, “‘e’s got big ‘ands, ain’t ‘e?” (substitute the extra apostrophes for ‘h’ in case you’re not familiar with his accent). Ricky and Steve laughed at Karl, just one more in a long line of extreme non-sequiturs. I can’t listen to the podcasts without laughing out loud. Sometimes I have to stop what I’m doing so that I can concentrate on not laughing too loud, because when I’m listening to the shows I am at work. It’s my escape from the daily grind (like Gloria Jeans wants to be, but we have a coffee machine in the lunch room at work so why would I go all the way to Gloria Jeans to escape the daily grind, there’s not even one near my work.)

I’m really tired. Here is another funny picture (I find it funny. Actually, I find it hilarious. I’m not sure why. Don’t get mad at me if you don’t find it as amusing as I did):

I think I really like that the thing behind it is so ugly, and the text is small and plain, and you could sort of imagine that kitten saying that. If you’re great at anthropomorphising like I am. Not as great as Karl Pilkington, who apparently saw a bee have a heart attack (because London is so stressful and all). Karl also said that ginger cats are always fat (you never see a skinny ginger cat, according to Karl) because life’s more stressful for them than other cats, because they would get picked on for being ginger. He also said they always look ‘fed up’.

Lauren and Nathan are coming over tomorrow morning to hang out before we go get Tim from the airport. Yay!

Noelle and I went to see Trina last Wednesday at Flight Centre Stones Corner (PLUG! – Trina is THE bestest travel agent in the entire UNIVERSE!) and we got a tentative itinerary, and here it is:!!!!

1st Nov 08 – Brisbane -> Singapore
2nd Nov 08 – Singapore -> Barcelona
3rd Nov 08 – Barcelona
4th Nov 08 – Barcelona
5th Nov 08 – Barcelona
6th Nov 08 – Barcelona
7th Nov 08 – Barcelona -> London
8th Nov 08 – London
9th Nov 08 – London
10th Nov 08 – London
11th Nov 08 – London
12th Nov 08 – London -> Amsterdam
13th Nov 08 – Amsterdam
14th Nov 08 – Amsterdam
15th Nov 08 – Amsterdam (also Noelle’s birthday!)
16th Nov 08 – Amsterdam
17th Nov 08 – Amsterdam -> Munich
18th Nov 08 – Munich
19th Nov 08 – Munich
20th Nov 08 – Munich
21st Nov 08 – Munich -> Zurich
22nd Nov 08 – Zurich -> Singapore
23rd Nov 08 – Singapore – Brisbane

So that’s the deal so far. A couple of changes from the original vague plan we’d made to go to Denmark and Ireland. Trina said that Denmark is one of the most expensive countries in Europe, but I was still set on going to a country that I’d never been to before, so Barcelona was suggested. The more I think about it, the better an idea it seems, as I keep hearing that there’s no place in the world like Barcelona. I love Germany also, so going back there is going to be awesome. We didn’t get much time in Munich last time we were there (we spent quite a bit of time at Dachau concentration camp while we were in Munich). I’m especially looking forward to visiting the Hofbrauhaus again. This is what happened last time:

I wish I had a better picture of me with the stein of beer. You can hardly tell that it’s me. So I guess I can grant my own wish in a few months time, because we will be going there!

Lauren and Nathan got back from their five-week overseas honeymoon last night. We were at the airport to meet them. They said that they got stopped in customs and almost got arrested because of the present that they got for Tim. I still don’t know what it is, but they’re coming over tomorrow so I guess we’ll find out then. We also might be going out for Yum Cha beforehand.

I’m so psyched about this overseas trip. I have so many things to look forward to. If I look forward to the end of the year, and going to Europe, then I have to think, “but wait a minute, I’m going overseas in May!” and then I have to think about that for a while, and look forward to that as well.

YAY!

I am going to a lot of different places this year. I think it’s the year of travel for me. For the Chinese, it’s the year of the rat. I was in the Valley on Friday night (last night) and watched the dragon dancing around the tables at one of the Chinese restaurants, and listened to the banging of the gong. I also became mesmerised by the fish in the fish pond fountain in the Chinatown mall. I’m not sure if it’s usually there, but last night there was mist coming out from the top part of the fountain where the uplights are. Also, the water in the bottom part of the fountain, where the fish swim around, looked a bit more cloudy than usual, and there were more coins in there too. I felt sorry for the fish.

Anyway, here is the first of my travels:

Not actually the whole of Western Australia, just Perth. The trip over involves a red-eye flight several hours long. I feel like this should mean that people on the Western Coast would be different that the people of the East Coast of Australia, but I guess that we all started out from similar beginnings, and our beginnings weren’t that long ago.

Tim and I are traveling to San Francisco in May this year. It’s exciting because I’ve never been to America before, and this will be my first experience of traveling with Tim. I think we’ll be fine. Tim got the tickets using his frequent flyer miles, which is awesome, because he could have used his miles to get ONE business class return to San Francisco, but instead he got TWO economy return to San Francisco. We’re also going to Canada:

One leg of the trip will be by train, and one will be by plane. Apparently the train trip from San Francisco up to Vancouver is beautiful. I’m looking forward to it. I think we will get a sleeper cabin. Tim was also saying we could spend a couple of days in Seattle, which’ll be good, too. I checked online at the average temperatures for that time of year. The maximum is 17.5 degrees Celsius, which suits me so perfectly you can’t even imagine. I wouldn’t mind it being even cooler than that. Check out the picture of Canada – there are polar bears on there! I swear that means they exist there in real life. I love them. And the elk (if that’s what they are). Yay! It’s going to be amazing.

And finally, toward the end of the year, Noelle and I are traveling to Europe and the UK. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about revisiting Europe, especially when you consider all the people over there I will get to meet up with: Anna, Ben, Simone&Dave, Ruth… I am so psyched! We’re planning on spending time in London (& surrounds), Amsterdam (yay Anna!), Paris (I forgot to remind Noelle about this one :S), Denmark (yay legoland! and the little mermaid!), somewhere in Ireland (maybe Galway?)… and wherever else we have time to go. I’d love to visit Prague, but time constraints may make that difficult. Also the financial aspect… 

That’s it on the travel front. In other news, I have started my new job (the end of this week marked two weeks there). I’m exhausted, but appreciate the plus side. I guess you could say the end justifies the means. I got a new pair of boots today at DFO without worrying that they would break the bank. The fact that they were only $20 should illustrate my point. It felt so good to have my own money. I won’t be able to be this laissez-faire about my pay every week, but for this week it’s pretty nice. I’m going to start my hardcore savings as of next Thursday. Tim has been extremely helpful with this, and I’m glad that my working has been able to take some stress off him as well. I’m infinitely grateful to him for looking after me this entire time. Although it may seem strange, I feel like there is a good side to this entire experience, and that is to be able to know, without doubt or hesitation, that Tim’s love comes without condition. This is an amazing gift. Tim and Matt are currently playing Guitar Hero III, and bemoaning the insensitivity of the red button on our guitar. We had a nice dinner, a yummy dessert, and there is a Po here for entertainment. Life is pretty good.

I haven’t written a blog post on here for a while, and it occurred to me that I really should stop berating myself for it. 

I’ve been feeling weird lately, out of sorts I guess. I’m not sure what it is that’s causing this strange mood, it could be a lot of things. I think the base feeling is one of melancholy, and perhaps a quiet boredom. Sometimes I miss the things I used to do, and I wish I had the energy for it but I’m flat out just trying to get through each day of work.

I miss new experiences, new music, new people.

This train of thought is making me feel like listening to my “songs to cry to” playlist, but I also think that it’s not good for me to wallow.

It’s good to cry every now and then. For me, anyway. It’s like a release. Tim and Thomas were saying that crying is a woman’s secret weapon, and it’s always unfair, no matter when they use it. I don’t think it’s a conscious decision most of the time, I think it’s more of a defense mechanism. But apparently, men can’t cope with women crying. Why? It’s not the end of the world.

Maybe because it’s emo? Stupid emos.

I want to go overseas. I want to live in another country. I want to earn my wage in a different currency. I want to be cold most of the year instead of hot (not emotionally, GOSH!). I want to play in snow again. I want to know WHEN this will happen, not just have it be at some unknown point in the future. I want to go on weekend trips to different countries, and hear different languages being spoken around me. I want to try new things, step out of my comfort zone, get lost, have fun.

Oh my god I love doing those things!  Here are some skills that I own:

• cooking
• sewing
• cleaning
• talking
• random statements
• writing (usually)
• having a decent vocabulary
• knowing the difference between there, they’re & their; then & than; you, your & you’re
• laughing
• liking things
• liking people

I know there are other things. Life’s decent, isn’t it?

I am lucky.

Luck is not measured by that which others believe we should be thankful for, but rather the things that make us feel fulfilled. The things in our life which bring contentment. Sometimes they can be that which you would expect someone to feel fortunate for having – a roof over their head, food in their stomach, money in the bank. Sometimes it’s smaller things, such as getting a new video game you’ve been waiting weeks for, or coming home to find someone has cooked you your favourite meal for dinner.

I don’t think of luck as in singular moments – “I got lucky on the pokies!”, but rather a series of events and states of existence that lead you to feel life is not always a difficult, up-hill climb.

Some things that I feel lucky for:

* Living in a place where we can paint the walls if we want to, or put in picture hooks, or rip out the spiky plants in the garden, because we own it!

* Being in love with someone who is in love with me

* Tim’s family – his quiet, thoughtful father; his caring, protective mother; his vibrant, beautiful sister; his funny, skilful brother; their gorgeous, aloof, fluffy cat.

* Having a positive outcome from my spinal surgery

* Having an awesome, weird & wonderful family

* Owning a Napoleon cat, and before him, my wonderful Dinnacat. RIP, Dinna.

* Having a place to go home to in Yamba, our family home, with my amazing mother now living there and enjoying the peace and tranquillity

* Having tickets to San Francisco next May (woohoo!)

* Being able to watch and be part of the process of my beautiful older sister getting married to the love of her life

* Having a seriously cool brother-in-law

* Seeing Rosie making her way in the world (I’m very proud!)

* Having dreams of study, and people who believe in me

* Having Chris as a friend, someone who has known me since I was about 5 years old, and therefore understands a lot about the way I think and feel! I’m so happy for Chris that he has found a Doon, and that they are happy

I have so many other things I could write, but for now I will bask in the warm glow cast by all these thoughts.

Life wasn’t always this good, but it’s worth the pain in the end.

What? It’s not summer yet? How come I have to put up with this unbearable heat then?

What? You say it’s not unbearably hot? Yes, it is. GOSH.

It’s too early for me to think of decent things to post, but the “Press it! I stole the internets!” button keeps looking at me whenever I go into my Bookmarks, and so it has become a duty that I can’t ignore. Don’t get me wrong – I love posting blogs as much as the next person writing overly long and pointless blog posts, but not having the internet for a week made me apprehensive about the amount of posts I would have to do to catch up.

Stuff it, I’m extremely effusive, and who cares what I say on here anyway? Well, I guess Suncorp used to care, but not so much any more because I’m no longer associated with them. If I had a bad experience in one of their branches or with their internet banking or phone banking or whatever, I’m more than entitled to post the facts here. It’s free speech. So get lost, censors.

Yesterday was Noelle’s birthday. We had drinks and tapas at Jorge on George, and then made our way down to Parliament House. We had been planning on hanging out in the bar at Parliament House, but it turned out that pretty much everyone had left by the time we got there, the teetotallers. We visited Helen’s mum in her Office, and she shared a really nice Queensland red from the Granite Belt with us. I had to leave in the middle of our quite interesting conversation to go home (Tim, who wins the Best Boyfriend Award, picked me up out the front of Parliament House to make sure I got home safely). I had a really good time with Noelle, Brea, Helen & Renaye.

The new house r0×0rs, btw. As does our new lounge. Check it out (These photos are from a few days ago, when we had first moved in, so our new lounge isn’t in them, and all the boxes and stuff are still everywhere. Plus it’s still messy. I’ll take some new photos today of our nice, clean, tidy new house, and our awesome new lounge):

So, the last few days have been pretty hectic.

Thursday I spent the day at mum’s place packing the final miscellaneous items that I had left behind without realising it (I actually just didn’t pay that much attention to the contents of the cupboards & drawers in my room when I moved out). On our way home, on Kelvin Grove Road, we were involved in a car accident. Nothing too serious, no one hurt (as far as we could tell). The damage to Tim’s car is minimal, but the car behind us and the car behind the car behind us wasn’t that lucky. Well, I guess being that he was the one who caused the accident his damage should be more, but that could just be me being ignorant to cause & effect with relation to car accidents. Needless to say, I suppose, by the end of the day I was in considerable pain, and muscle spasms in my back and leg prevented me from getting to sleep when we got home.

Friday we had settlement of our new house (which we now own! For real!) at 2:15pm, then a dinner at mum’s place as a small farewell to my cousin Hugh, who jet-setted off to Heathrow last night at 11:45pm, and also to transport some furniture from mum’s to our new place. Rosie, Lauren & Nathan were there, and Trevor up from Yamba, Helen & Tony down from Townsville, Cherie, Reg, Georgia, and a couple of Hugh’s friends up from Lismore, so it ended up being a pretty fun little gathering. After dinner, we loaded up the truck with the furniture for our new place, and headed over. So far we’ve got the spare fridge in the garage, and a couple of mum’s paintings on the walls in the living area. So far it looks awesome . Next weekend, Tim and I will probably get a new lounge for our new house.

Today, Tim and I were up bright and early to help mum load the two hire trucks with her furniture and other belongings. Physically, I wasn’t able to help at all (which I never know how not to feel bad about – see if you can make sense of that sentence!) but I did hang around and try to provide comic relief (which probably wasn’t all that welcome in the end anyway…) and also indirectly berate the new owners of the house for trying to make mum feel bad about not paying extra to get the carpets machine-cleaned. The vacuum cleaner is a machine, isn’t it? Grow a brain, and buy a skirt that at least covers your ass! (Quite a few people who saw her thought she was wearing little short-shorts, but when it’s at that point I could say “what’s the difference?”) And also I would have loved to tell her that her face wouldn’t look like it was melting if she didn’t wear so much heavy foundation in such hot, humid weather.

I’m so catty at the moment, not sure why… it could just be that I feel very protective of mum. Yo momma jokes are all fine and dandy, but if anyone ever hassles my mum, they got me to deal with! Probably not that daunting in my current crippled state, but I could still go a couple of rounds of a walking stick challenge.

*Whew!* back on track, tonight we had Thomas & Seona over for dinner. The menu was a bit last-minute, because I only decided on what I was cooking just before we went shopping for the ingredients at lunchtime today. I ended up making lamb steaks baked with rosemary & garlic potatoes, and served with honey carrots, spicy fresh green beans, and a mint & whole seed mustard sauce. Thomas and Seona brought a pavlova for dessert, with fresh fruit and ice cream. Then we played Texas Hold ‘em poker, and I lost all my money. At least I would have were we playing for real moneys. I’d never played before, by the way.

Now I’m going to sleep! Or something. Maybe I’ll watch TV or whatever.

Tim and I are trying to get into the housing market. More specifically, we’re looking to buy our first home. This home could either be a house, or a townhouse, but we’re not really looking into units or apartments (it’d just be like moving out of one shoebox into another, with the difference being we would be allowed to put picture hooks in the walls).

On Saturday, Tim and I went to look at a couple of townhouses in Morningside. We only ended up looking at one, because the other one seemed not to be an open house (dumb agents not keeping realestate.com.au updated!). It wasn’t too much of a problem, the one townhouse we did see was gorgeous. It had ducted airconditioning, two bathrooms plus a third toilet downstairs, separate laundry, new quality appliances in the kitchen, and a beautiful courtyard full of baby trees and plants and one big grown-up tree, and a covered paved area perfect for a bbq and outdoor setting.

Far from wearing rose-coloured lenses, I will also note that the kitchen was small, there wasn’t much cupboard space, and the second bedroom was quite small too.

Still, it’s hard enough getting into the housing market, let alone being picky about little things that we would be able to live with without too much trouble.

Unfortunately, there was another couple there who felt the same way. In the end, they were waiting for their parents to show up to tell them how much they could offer for the place. The asking price was $375,000.00, and it was a competition between us and them – the winner being who could make the most attractive deal to the seller. We both had one chance to make an offer, and were encouraged to offer the very most we were willing to pay.

In the end, we lost out to the other couple, which was a bit disappointing. We’ll never know how much we lost by either. It could have been as little as $500, but that’s not really likely.

Anyway, we’re looking at a few more places in different areas now. What we’re aiming at doing is buying something a little bit smaller, and a bit cheaper (hence looking at townhouses as well), pay down the mortgage with extra repayments and keeping all our money in an offset account, and then in a few short years, using the equity in our house to get a new place that would probably be bigger and a more ideal “home”. Maybe something we’d stay in for quite a while. Then we can rent out the old place and use it as an investment property.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed we find a place soon – the housing market is a real cut-throat industry right now, and it’s difficult for first-home buyers to get their foot in the door.

I’d really prefer not having to go all the way out to Darra to find a place…

Tim gets back from New Zealand tonight. I’m looking forward to seeing him, because even though he’s only been gone for one night (two days), I still miss him.

I was a little apprehensive about Tim going to New Zealand in the first place, as the last two times he’s gone something bad has happened. First time was when I was assaulted by a cab driver (incidentally, QLD Police actually literally suck when it comes to protecting females from predatory males. Seriously, they don’t give a fuck). The second time he went away was when this pain from the prolapsed discs all began. So I thought it might be “third time’s the charm”, or something like that. But so far nothing too bad has happened. I did wake up last night unable to breathe from the stomach acid in my throat (caused by one of the painkillers I am on), and had to stand in the bathroom, coughing into the sink for about half an hour, but that’s happened at least three times before anyway. Granted, it was a little worse this time, but I dealt with it okay.

So anyway, it is our (Tim&Me) six-month anniversary on Tuesday 25th September – next week. Because I don’t have much money, I’m making something for him. It’s going to be a surprise so I won’t give away any details here as I know that he does read my blog sometimes. I’m sure he’s pondering the problem of what to get me, but I can’t give him any suggestions because he doesn’t want them – he wants to give me something he’s thought of himself. And fair enough, too. I would prefer it that way.

Since Tim is not here at the moment, it’s just been me & Napoleon in the apartment. When Tim is here, Napoleon doesn’t do too many naughty things. He’s quickly learned since moving in that he is not allowed up on the bench, or the dining table, or near any cords. Also, he is not allowed to walk on the beside tables. This is more just because he has a habit of batting things around with his paws, and pushing things off edges and onto the ground.

However, when Tim isn’t here (such as during workdays), Napoleon seems to slip back into his old bad-habity ways. I sleep much more soundly than Tim does – hardly anything can wake me up – so if Napoleon is out in the living room pushing things off tables and knocking things over while I am asleep, I generally won’t know about it until I wake up. This morning I came out to find that Napoleon had knocked over the glass of water in the kitchen which we have some flowers sitting in. The water spread over the bench, but thankfully didn’t drip over the edges onto the floor. It also, thankfully, didn’t touch any of Tim’s things, which were further up the other end of the bench. However, Napoleon had batted Tim’s train ticket onto the ground… I don’t think this is a huge deal because he didn’t ruin it, and it’s almost time for a new train ticket anyway.

It’s just like in a real family, where the dad is the disciplinarian, and the mother is the mild one. Good cop/bad cop type thing. I’m not trying to be weak and let Po walk all over me, but he’s just so cute and I hate shouting at him. Lucky that Tim is there to pick up the slack, and Napoleon doesn’t seem to love him any less.

Maybe it’s a boy thing.

This is one of my new favourite sites: Strapya. They specialise in mobile phone charms and straps, but there are a few other cool Japanese gadgets there. A couple of my favourites are the things for summer: -40 degree aircon in a spraycan, and a little personal fan that has a function where you can program a message to be displayed when the fan is on. Awesome!

Last week, Ken told me about how he had been at a funeral where, in the middle of the eulogy, someone’s mobile phone started ringing. Was there the possibility that this guy had forgotten to switch his phone off, or onto silent, before the service had commenced? Apparently not, as he answered his phone and started talking right there in the church. I thought that this had to be some sort of joke, because Ken and Co. are well versed in sarcasm and facetiousness. However, Ken assured me this was no joke. He was completely serious. I can’t imagine anyone thinking that it would be appropriate to have your phone on and answer any call that might come through while you are at a *funeral*. Tim told me that the last time he had been to a funeral, the priest had requested that everyone turn off their mobile phones out of respect for the deceased and bereaved. The fact that people actually have to be TOLD to turn off their mobile phones at a funeral is astounding.

*** Enough of fangry things, I have not been able to write in a while, so I should have other things to say too. Maybe. …

1. I’ve been playing Guitar Hero II all evening (except for when I was watching Grey’s Anatomy) and the tips of my fingers are half numb and half tingling with painful pins & needles. Plus my wrist doesn’t like being held at the angle needed for holding the guitar for so long (my robotic wrist, that is – not the real one). I can tell I’m getting better, but sometimes I lose concentration after looking at the screen for too long. My favourite song that I seem to do well on is “Crazy for you” by Heart. I liked their Barracuda song too.

2. I have the new Harry Potter book. I’ve already read about 210 pages out of the 600-odd total, which is pretty good considering I haven’t really spent that much time on it this weekend.

3. This probably should have been number 1, but I’m too tired to go back through and edit these points, so let’s just all agree they are not in order of importance. Good. Today is Tim’s birthday. We went out for dinner last night to Dos Amigos restaurant, which is just down from Tim’s place. The meal was really delicious, even though I had the same thing I always get (If God really dwells within us like they say, I sure hope he likes enchiladas, cause that’s what he’s gettin’!). Then we came back to Tim’s place and had an ice cream dessert log as a cake. We put candles in and sang happy birthday. It was a nice night.

4. Tim has gone to New Zealand until Friday, which means that I will be a little bit forlorn. But not too much. It may not sound like a long time, but it feels like ages to me. Probably just because hes’ in another country and another time zone, though it’s not nearly as bad as when he was in the UK & Ireland.

5. I ordered an MP3 player and a ninjapass for my DS last week. I’m hoping they arrive very soon – especially the mp3 player because I just got the new Interpol album, and I’ve been hanging out for something to listen to at work. Ninjapass should be awesome too though.

Anyway, I am very tired so I think i shall go to bed. Gute Nacht!