Someday, I'll be Nigella Lawson. In the meantime, the kitchen really stinks.

In preparation for my diet this week, i have been cooking cooking and cooking. Okay since there is a limit of things that I can cook, its mostly been omelettes and things. I went to the grocery store earlier today and bought things to cook. So far I have made 3 omelettes with variations of roast turkey, ham, asparagus, mushrooms and cheese and stored them, because I am a lazy breakfast maker and cereal isnt allowed until possibly week 3. I also cooked an entire can of spam lite, which is allowed.

I am now frying bangus in olive oil. The instructions say 8 minutes on each side. Its been approximately 2 mintues and my kitchen smells like fish already. Ive closed all possible doors, opened the door to the garden, put on the kitchen fan and it stinks. This is why I deliberately waited until my housemates were gone before I cooked.

I am also cooking spaghetti sauce, which can be eaten without the pasta. I have cooked the beef the right way but right now it is sitting on a pot in my stove because I cant open the freaking sauce jar and believe me Ive been trying since 3ish. Its already five. Ive been outside the house twice to see if there is anyone who I can accost to open the jar for me but nooooo.

Everything is getting stored in nice little tupperware containers in my fridge for microwaving. I also have sirloin which I bought to make tapa with. Mum has sent instructions, etc. and I think i will have time to make them sometime on Wednesday or Thursday (Im so scheduled this week its not funny) but I may have bought the wrong thing. It also cost $14. I have never paid that much for meat, which is the sign that I may have bought the wrong thing. Well, no matter what happens I'll end up cooking it anyway, somehow some way...

Neil Gaiman and Me. 

July

In Summary, July was one big chaotic vacation. Uni ended and my mum arrived. I spent most of July taking her around and doing the goodbye thing as all my international friends (Dan, Colin, Laura) left. Every morning I went around with mum, every evening was a goodbye dinner for one of them which involved lots of alcohol. Consequently, I got sick and spent a week being taken care of by my mother (yay!) in Epping and being fed loads of filipino food. I got my grades and ended up failing a subject - the first time ever in my life - after dealing with the disappointment, embarrassment and the depression and talking to my professor I have moved on, am repeating it (I missed by 5 points and almost everyone in class didnt get anything resembling a 60, all of them were in the 50s, it was a hard class and there are various reasons why I didnt pass all relating to personal adjustments so I have chalked it up to settling and moved on) and have not told my parents - and no one better! - as I have to take extra courses anyway.

I am a lot more hopeful this semester. Part of this is because I feel more organized and that things are more put together now. I am trying to be a calmer and more organized person.

I have done a few one off jobs, one where I helped out at the academic dress shop putting people in togas and just last week I was distributing flyers for 8 hours at uni, something I'll be doing again next week. Uni has started again and I am better organized and hopeful. I have more excellent teachers this time around and it looks like Ive chosen good subjects. I have ten thousand things that I have to do, not least of which is clean the kitchen today, which is proving to be difficult as one of the dogs is still sunning itself in it, which defeats the purpose because they shed so much hair and i dont want to have to keep repeat cleaning.

I will have to look for a new house soon. My housemate Handle is moving out in October with his girlfriend Rebekah. My other housemates (the couple) have decided that we probably wont get anyone to take over his room for 2 months until December to give away the lease so they are moving in October. This I found out last week, so I have to move. Either I am going to find another place or I'm going to move in with my Auntie from Dee Why who is looking to buy a place closer to the city. We will see. All I know is I dont want to be moving until after my midterms because last time it was such a disaster doing both of that at the same time. I dont want anymore extra anxiety.

My friend Ivy is coming to visit August 20 and I am excited. I am going to have to come up with an itinerary of things for her to do while I am at uni, etc. She will be staying with me. I have two job interviews next week, one for a temp agency and the other for a uni contractual job. I am very interested in the uni job but it is only for three months and i need something that is more long term. They said they were very impressed by my application and that they had only shortlisted 3-4 candidates and I was one of them. I am very flattered and excited, I really like the job.

I also finished a group interview for a call center called SalesForce for their Ticketek Program (www.ticketek.com.au). They emailed D.E.B. at home to check my references already and I am also excited for this job. It pays well, you can do casual, and shifts are all in the day (calls are 9am-9pm) and they book you for 4-5 hour shifts mostly. What does the job involve? People call to buy tickets for concerts, theatre and sporting events. You say okay, take their money and place the order. Sometimes theres a bit of selling involved, and it looks like a fun company to work for (voted no.1 employer in Australia for 2004). Their promotions and intro and stuff sound just like eTel!!!

I am also going on a diet. I am about 5 kilos (12ish pounds) over the required weight for my height (too many chips and choccies and lovely ice cream with no dairy, etc. etc.) and my mother spent the whole time here telling me I had a beer belly when I dont even drink beer. (Tell that to the former anorexic, why dont you? I am so glad I no longer feel that insecure and as such feel the need to starve myself everytime someone says I have gained weight!) I think the problem is that although I walk a lot more I eat a lot more (mostly of wrong thigns) and thus need to exercise more and the gym is so expensive. Im going back to kickboxing, which starts again in two weeks. May also take salsa and try out a uni gym. I also promised my mother when she left this morning that I would be thinner the next time she saw me, which I should be if I want to have some semblance of a body when I put on a bikini in 4 months, damn it!

So South Beach Diet, here we come...

I have been loaded up with pinoy food, most of which I cant eat during the diet so right now I am cooking longaniza. Had no idea it took forever to cook and that, well, it cooked in its own fat. Also I didnt know how to tell when it was done, so I let all the water evaporate and then tasted it. It's pretty good, if I may say so. So I'm going to go eat it now and then finish cleaning the kitchen and then organise my study materials (if there is time, or I'll do that tonight) and then go to church.

And then it will be August...

Does this sound familiar?

Your Hidden Talent

You have the natural talent of rocking the boat, thwarting the system. And while this may not seem big, it can be. It's people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes. You're just a bit behind the scenes, so no one really notices.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

Excerpts from my week

These are all excerpts from letters or other journal entries...

7/4/05 10:50 am

I am officially a DUPPIE - a depressed urban professional which is defined as a person who once had a high power job but is now unemployed.

I actually do miss the call center i worked for but I am glad I am not there right now. They are in worse chaos than they were when I was there and they have one less person to keep things in control (not to be mayabang or anything). In fairness, I do give my babies pep talk calls every now and then.

I got this definition from the Cosmo Philippines that my mommy brought. I have all these nice things, but still no stiletto heels. (heheheh)

Last night part of my dream included wrestling over laundry with my friend from work, Eric. He was making ligaw this girl secretly and he put the evidence in my laundry. When he was about to be discovered he stole my laundry - we were perhaps, in a mall, a very white and shiny one - in its shangrila laundry bag and went running around in it. Of course I chased him and we were wrestling for the laundry on the floor. I kept saying, "Eric what about my underwear, I need my underwear. Give it back." It was very funny.

7/8/05 08:29 am

Today I woke up and there was another dog in the house. My housemate
says he's a stray that wandered in. I suppose that we are going to
find his owner. He is a gigantic labrador just like the one in
spanglish (or gus, if anyone remembers him) and he is at this moment sniffing around the kitchen. I have spent some time dodging his attempts to play, which have come in the form of him dragging toby's bone around and trying to get me to throw it. I refuse to end up like Paz Vega, perpetually throwing around balls, unless it means I get boobs like hers, which I doubt.

I got a one off job today. The Careers Centre called and asked if I was free so I will be working today and on Monday from 10-2 helping distribute academic dress. Its a start and I hope that it leads to a more long term position sometime soon.

Yesterday I went around dropping off resumes on norton and tomorrow sacha and i are going to bondi so we can shoe shop/resume drop.

I woke up this morning because someone was groaning in the middle of
the night. I got scared bec it was dark and four am and it sounded
like groans of agony. I asked my housemate about it he says it was
miki and i doubt it because i know what she sounds like and it sounded
more hungover to me (which i think he is this morning). My housemates
also had a fight this morning and she was crying when she left the
house. I think maybe later I'll mention something along the lines of -
maybe you should close the door when you fight, or something more
tactful.

The labrador is smelling my foot now. Must go.

7/9/05 01:04 PM

The house is in a tizzy as my housemates prepare for Mike's 30th birthday. Miki is busy cutting stuff and he is busy blowing up balloons with a tank. Chas, the guy who used to rent my room is here to help out. I did my part by doing dishes, sweeping up the living room and sticking things up with blutac. The party has a musical instrument theme, where everyone is supposed to bring their own instrument. I dont have one, but I live here so I figure I can grab a toilet paper roll put wax paper on the top and finish it off with a rubber band. There you go.

Am off to Bondi to go drop of resumes at the westfield mall there with sacha. she wants to go to manly so we may drop by after. Then i have to go to party then back to Epping because mummy wants me to sleepover so that we can hang tomorrow. The things you do for love.

I really need a vacation.

Must dash...