My butt is wet.

So I started out this day rather well. I was on time for Spanish and I managed to come up with some pretty decent answers (partly because I've done this tense before). My deberes (discussion hw) were all correct too, cos I had Carolina look them over the night before . I also had a chat with this Aussie-Portuguese girl from class who is very very good in Spanish and she will be reviewing with me, so that should help me with the exam next Wednesday.

Then I went to change my flight and my travel agent and I had a laugh about how mum kept changing her mind. He was like, "you're going to charge your mum cos its her fault, right?" and I was like, "yeah!!! totally!!!" Anyway, my new flight back here is Jan 8. I arrive in Sydney Jan 9, and would ideally like to go to NZ within the next 2 days, as mum wants to spend some time with her friend in Auckland, and I would like to go visit Ees in Welly.

Then I got home. Now we have two main doors, the front door which has barred gate and the back door, which includes the courtyard gate. The courtyard gate door and the back door have the same key and its the key I've got. Sacha and I use the back door and Carolina & Pat use the front, as those are they keys that we have. When it rains, or right after, the lock gets stuck and its usually a pain in the ass to get the key out. This past week has been particularly bad. Last Monday Carolina and I had to pour canola oil on it to get it out, on Monday evening I had to go to Derek's house (our neighbor) to borrow oil and Luke, his housemate had to help me get the damn key out.

Today it was just stuck. The friendly cafe across the road gave me oil but it didn't work. It was also raining and I got wet trying to get it out and trying to cross the road when the cars splashed me. Then I went to the physics building to see if Derek was there. He wasn't, but Luke was and Luke gave me a scientific explanation on how it was pointless for me to use oil and that I should call a locksmith. So I trudged back home and called the real estate. I waited for an hour, got frustrated, went to Yuga, my fave neighborhood cafe, had an apple & honey pie and a chai latte. While waiting for the locksmith to call i whined to my cousin who said, "go ahead, you're allowed to eat chocolate cake." but in fairness I didn't. The cashier was also kind enough to let me go even if I didn't have enough to pay - I was going to eftpos but there was a minimum and my bill was 11 dollars, 4 dollars too little. So I paid 10.50 and she said pay again next time.

I called the real estate and the nice receptionist followed up with the locksmith and gave me their number. They should arrive between 430-5pm today. Pat also said he would be home around 4 so since it was 30 minutes to 4 I decided (quite moneyless) to wait it out by napping on the armchair in the courtyard. (Thank God Pat decided to just leave it there) It was nice and soft, but quite wet as it had been raining. My butt was very very wet already from sitting on it previously while waiting, but I still managed to take and on-off nap till Pat got home at 415. All in all I have missed my accounting class, waited since about 130 and the locksmith isn't here yet. I will call them in 5 minutes if he isn't here.

I've also downloaded the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album. Blood Sugar Sex Magic pa rin forever ang no 1 fave ko, and I've noticed this album in particular they all kind of sound the same. Nevertheless its pretty okay.

I am participating in a blogging experiment hosted at dearauthor.com. To enter the contest, put up this blurb, image, and trackback and you are entered to win the following prize package.

• $200 Amazon gift certificate


• Signed copy of Slave to Sensation


• New Zealand goodies chosen by Singh


• ARC of Christine Feehan's October 31 release: Conspiracy Game

You can read about the experiment here and you can download the code that you need to participate here.

SLAVE TO SENSATION

Nalini Singh

Berkley / September 2006

Welcome to a future where emotion is a crime and powers of the mind clash brutally against those of the heart.

Sascha Duncan is one of the Psy, a psychic race that has cut off its emotions in an effort to prevent murderous insanity. Those who feel are punished by having their brains wiped clean, their personalities and memories destroyed.

Lucas Hunter is a Changeling, a shapeshifter who craves sensation, lives for touch. When their separate worlds collide in the serial murders of Changeling women, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities�or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation.

Excerpt

Where have you been these past 5 years?

grabbed from tahara_l

FIVE YEARS AGO...

How old were you? 22

Where did you go to school? I had already graduated from University

Where did you work? I was jobless until October of that year when I started with eTelecare

Where did you live? With my mom and my lola in Makati, PH

Where did you hang out? In Starbucks, with the equally jobless Falx & Ceres sharing one coffee, In my house where the food was free, In Oakwood working out, In PSI learning things, At mass with Joey smoking our lungs out, (usually sharing one pack of winston kaloks!) and wherever I went when I was dating...

How was your hair style ? I was growing my hair at that point. It was chin to shoulder length

Did you wear braces? no

Did you wear glasses? yes for reading sometimes

Who was your best friend? Jen, Joey, Ceres, Falx, Sundyne, San

Who was your regular-person crush? Hmmm...wala

How many tattoos did you have? .0

How many piercing did you have? 2

What car did you drive? In fairness, a 1999 mazda automatic. i had just learnt to drive properly and would drive it around with the driver

What was your favorite band/group? 2001? Musta been Britney, sorry to say. Also Dave Matthews Band and U2

What was your worst fear? Not being thin enough, or beautiful enough for someone to love me.

Had you smoked a cigarette yet? Yes

Had you driven yet? Yeah

Had you been arrested? no

Had you been to a real party yet? Yeah.

Had your heart broken? Yes I think.

Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: How about...in a time of exploration?

**HA HA!!! LETS SEE WHAT YOU ARE NOW! **

August 2006

How old are you? 27

What grade are you in? I am in my last semester of my masters degree

Where did you go to school? University of Sydney

Where do you work? Salesforce, Inc

Where do you live? Glebe, NSW, Australia

Where do you hang out? Glebe, Newtown, the City

Do you have braces? No

Do you wear glasses? yep

Who are your best friends? Jen, Joey, San, Sacha,

Still talk to any of your old friends? Yep.

Who is your celebrity crush? Currently? In fairness there is no one that really rocks my socks and makes me squeee as of now.

How many piercing do you have? 2 pa rin

How many tattoos? none

What kind of car do you have? None

What is your favorite band/group? Currently its Gnarls Barkley, Sergion Mendes/anything with salsa, and I'm discovering Dashboard Confessional. Also eagerly awaiting Christina Aguilera and Ludacris's latest. Forever a U2 fan.

What is your biggest fear? rejection, failure and abandonment

Have you been arrested since if so how many? nada

Has your heart been broken? I think so

Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: QuirkyAlone

I tag: Kat and Duke

Book meme

Tagged by Duke

Books that changed your life?
From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Freidman - I never got to finish it, in fact I think I only made it to chapter 4 or something. However, it was the first book I ever read on current events, and in my CNN obssessed phase at that time, it helped me understand the whole Israel Thing and how it went further back than I ever imagined.

The Alchemist - which I read in 1998, thank you very much. I resent all those people in Friendster who put it down as their favorite book because its the only bloody one they've read and they only read it because everyone else did (its next to the Da Vinci Code and Tuesdays With Morrie). Nevertheless it was an excellent book with a strong message on dreams

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux - read at the age of 12, and kickstarted my romance novel

The Godfather by Mario Puzo - the first ever 'grown up book' I read

The Sanman series by Neil Gaiman - enough said.

I could throw in the Prince by Machiavelli, I don't entirely remember it I just remember "The End Justifies the Means" inspired me.

Books you have read more than once? - The Godfather, Archangel by Sharon Shinn, Too many romance novels, The Belgariad & The Mallorean, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Edith Hamilton's Mythology, Linnets and Valerians, I could go on...

Books you would want on a desert island? A survival guide, A romance novel, and something on how to build a boat with minimal supplies!

One book that made you laugh? - A Year in Merde (I haven't finished it yet)

the last book that made me laugh out loud was: "Surrender to a Wicked Spy" it involved wooden prosthetics in the 1800s. And a man with a very large appendege. I will leave that to you to work out.

One book that made you cry? - I've uhm, never cried reading a book. The Time Traveller's Wife was one of the saddest books I've ever read though.

One book you wish you had written? - absolutely anything Neil Gaiman has done.

One book you wish had never been written? - in fairness, wala pa ata.

One book you are currently reading? - Don't Look Down by Suzanne Enoch, A People's History of Britain by Rebecca Fraser, Financial Accounting

I always read 3 books at the same time. In this case, with the last one I have no choice :P

One book you have been meaning to read? - Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

Our company was the official seller of tickets for Cirque du Soleil's Varekai. As a result, we got a free ticket each to the opening night!!! It was an absolutely excellent show, I think it's safe to say there's nothing quite like it and I would really recommend seeing it if you had the chance. Here is a sample of what we got to see... 

This is the peacock man. You weren't actually allowed to take pictures inside, but before and after the show there were creatures milling about that gamely post for pictures and were very true to form. We even saw a leopard trying to hunt this deer/wildebeast 

Vanessa, me and Pauline at Cirque du Soleil's Varekai. We got all dressed up for the After Party only to find they'd cancelled our invites...oh well. We looked nice anyway! 

Vanessa and her matching peacock 

Me and the lovely bird 

Pauline and the lioness..  

Memeng meme na.

I am so sleepy. I have slept for ten hours but I still feel narcoleptic.

Friday
Friday saw me doing a split shift - 845-1245 and then 5-9 at work. Between that I had a meeting for my Careers Day workshop, plus I had to go home and do something I'm trying to remember now. It rained so hard last Friday. It was like a bagyo. My boots were soaked and I know for sure that I need galoshes but haven't the least idea how to go about getting them. (Ok I'm going to Kmart one of these days...)

After dinner I discovered that there was only one box of chocolates left from the stuff we had bought from lala0range. I think I'll get some new stuff when I get paid next. Of all those chocolates I bought I only more than half a box of maltesers and some milk ways (the milky way box is still at work). This means Sacha ate everything else, of course, with some help from Carolina and Derek. Pat didn't even get to taste any, I think.

Saturday
Saturday saw me at the Pyrmont Markets. It was raining again so it wasn't as full as it usually is. I met up with my cousin Miel who woke up late. In fairness, I was still in bed when she got on the train. I literally rolled out of bed, got dressed and waited and waited for the bus. (Weekend timetables never predict bus arrivals with much accuracy) We took the tram to Star City and met up with Kat and Caleb who was a sweetheart as usual. Apparently if Caleb likes you he blows strawberries at you and tries to show off his clothes. Which he kept doing when he saw me and I was thinking, why is this child making belat with some blubber? And I was this close to going, Caleb stop that its rude but apparently he likes me, so that's okay. He is very cute. I think he is two next month.

After Pyrmont we went back to my house where we ate pancakes and bacon. My cousin was wearing tights and a mini and if it were up to me I would bloody freeze to death but she seemed fine. Next we went shopping. I needed pants that weren't jeans and a bunch of bras, as I'm tired of squeezing into my bras from college. (Yes, I still have them) After going to David Jones and not really finding anything, we went off to Myer where I ended up with 3 bras.

I ended up with cargo pants from Just jeans and my cousin persuaded me to have my eyebrows done by Martha, the eyebrow expert at the Mac counter in David Jones. It was 45 bucks but redeemable through make up, which meant she was able to buy eyeshadow and concealer and really meant that I forked out 70 bucks for my blusher and concealer brush. I have decided that I want a complete set of brushes someday, the real kind, not the chipipay stuff. Martha used this lovely brush with white tips that could pretty much do anything and it was 80 bucks. I will save up for that.

I ended up buying stuff from priceline - body wash and a new pair of tweezers as mine have disappeared - plus going to body shop and getting eye cream and an exfoliator. Martha was like the nth person to tell me I was extra dry under the eye and I thought, God this many people can't be wrong, you have to spend money already (cos eye creams are damn expensive).

Went home, went to church and then swung by Newtown to grab dinner. Had a craving for Sweet and Sour Pork which I ate in front of the tv with Pat, who for the first time in months had a Saturday off! We ended up watching bits of Dennis the Menance. He was in bed by ten, which is so unusual for him, as he usally doesn't get home till about two on Saturdays. I took a looong shower, listened to Gnarls Barkley and checked out my new gadget.

Sunday
Woke up at ten. Still sleepy. Have uni stuff to do. Have a surprise party but don't really feel like going anymore. I figure though, if all am going to do is sleep, might as well go cos if my excuse is uni, I have to do uni, right? I hope I can be home by dinner.

I'm so sleepy. I have resolved to play all the music I haven't listened to in my itunes. I started with Gnarls Barkley, who sounds like a funky rnb bit of early moby (think the play album) and was great. I finally listened to Coldplay-yes I have never heard a full album. Just yellow, i think, and whatever they've played on the radio and I'm sure I had no idea it was them. Now I'm playing Massive Attack. Seriously enjoying all this stuff.

I also keep finding stuff that I never knew I had. Like a shitload of placebo, radiohead and Rihanna. (Where did I get Rihanna from?) Also thanks to Rey I have Cinderella. Who are they?

Also currently downloading Dashboard Confessional, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Los Lonely Boys, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and the Dixie Chicks. Anyone else who has music to recommend, feel free to leave a note!

Okay I think I'll roll out of bed now...

And all that I can see...is just another lemon tree

Last Saturday I went to my friend Jaya's house to have my hair cut. Jaya is my lesbian ex-hairdresser friend from work who has a filo partner. She does great haircuts. I asked her to put streaks in my hair. I asked for red streaks, but either she didn't have enough red, or she put too much of the mahogany mix cos I ended up with too much of a brown.

I spent the ride home - there was trackwork over the weekend so it was quite a trek to get to Allawah on the bus - wondering if I looked like one of them filo ho's from SoCal with fake blondies, huge tits and cars that make bayo.

I was fine till the evening when I looked at the mirror in the bathroom, where in the light I swear it was positively orangey looking. Frantic MMSes later I was reassured by my cousin honey76 and sanshine_butete who said and I quote, "You're insane, you look good." I'm still getting used to it, as I really wanted that red.

I reformatted my computer last Saturday night. I kept thinking, you know this has gone too quickly, I must be missing something. This was pointed out to me the next day when my housemate Pat said, after attempting to configure the internet: "You haven't got any drivers installed."

Kakahiya! I was in tech support pa naman!!! Also I backed up my bookmarks, and I don't know where they are. I remember where i put them, and I remember I burnt those files into a folder but guess what, I don't know where the fuck that cd is. Ah well, its been a while. Buti na lang I'm not in the middle of the semester and am fine with just grabbing the bookmarks again. Most of my blogs are on feedblitz, so its not a big deal.

Sunday was spent cleaning the bathroom, working, practicing my spanish (un poco) with Karina, my Chilean workmate, and then having a family dinner with my Auntie Angie who is visiting from pinas. Mum sent my old Spanish stuff, including my weatherbeaten old notebook from 96-99 which had no cover.

It brought up memories of Spanish class... my first one in Instituto Cervantes, where I discovered Real Madrid, got totally drunk on tequila and in fairness, went on my first dates ever. And then there was the one in Ateneo. Where I met Patutski Pie and Ramon. How strange, two of the people I ever liked I met in like, Spanish. The first one didn't pan out, but I was like seventeen and wait, I remember! He used to call me when I was sleeping! And I was like this valium like creature who would fall asleep all the time - like I'd go to bed at 7pm - so I would answer the phone and get pissed so he never called again. Bwahahaha. Now that I'm older I can reminisce and laugh, when I was that age I was too afraid of commitment to be in anything but denial. :P

Monday had me late for Spanish. At which point I froze up during recitation. I need to get over my fear and build up my confidence. My classmates are a mixture of different levels, but what seems to be common is no one hesitates to speak, I mean, several of us stumble and stuff on occasion but it doesn't matter, they're not afraid to make mistakes and misconjugate. I, on the other hand am totally terrified. I'm working on getting over it now, hopefully by reviewing it more thoroughly.

In the afternoon I met up with Ala and got my five packs of chocolate in support of her program. It was nice to finally meet her and we talked about moving to Australia and the "adjustment curve" that my counselor talked to me about ages ago, complete with me dramatizing the illustrations on the chart. Kat joined us after walking down from the library in Glebe, and then we parted ways, as Kat & I had to go to class.

I got home, cooked fish fingers that were totally burnt cos the outside cooked and the inside was raw, and it took forever. (Never mind cos the ketchup made up for it) I also made tuna casserole for lunch tomorrow. I am ashamed to say that we saw the finale for Big Brother 6. I don't really like it, but I can follow it to an extent because Sacha seems to like watching it, and if it's on tv, I end up watching bits of it. Also the dude at Ralph's, the cafe at uni was on it as well, and you got a dollar off your coffee if you voted for him.

Have decided to buy my friend Natasha's Queen Mattress and I will just invest in a better bed frame. As my cousin pointed out, I have broken two ikea beds already - neither of which were my fault, okay. The first one in epping just broke, I didn't even jump on the bed, and the second, my current one, the middle plank doesn't seem like its wide enough to hold the slats. Also the fact that five people have looked at this bed and we've all tried to fix it kind of means that not all of us could have gotten this wrong...

Tomorrow, I am off to work (I wonder what's on sale...) and then hopefully some grocery shopping before practicing my Spanish then off to my Proj Mgmt class.

It's my last semester. Go Me!