Sunday, May 28, 2006
A Photo Essay
Today I went to file my application for another IELTS test (to prove that I can speak english). It did not occur to me, though it should have, that I would need passport pictures so I rushed out to get some done after grabbing the application form. I had no idea that my hair wasn't fixed - I had brushed _and_ fixed my hair that morning, which is more than usual - so the resulting picture made me laugh. As a result upon reaching home I decided to take a look at all my passport/visa pictures, and post them here so you can join in me the hilarity that is the evolution of me in photos. Enjoy! Bwahahahahahaha!
This was my last passport and possibly one of the few pictures I have of scary anorexic me. This is what happens when you have an eating disorder, weigh about 90 pounds (or less) and think you're still fat. I was 22. Think of this as a cautionary picture. Even if I could fit in size 24 jeans, I'm glad I don't look this way or weigh this much anymore.
Hello Brangelina!
I have been waiting for Angelina Jolie to give birth for ages. It started out as a joke, to sort of mockery of the celebrity obssessed world (including myself) but suddenly, after the Cruise baby was born I began to actually take it seriously. So the past few days rumors have been abounding as to whether or not she was in labor, etc. Personally, I was thinking she wasn't due until June, I suppose she was just early.
Today, ironically after checking my daily gossip sheets, (the day she was rumored to give birth last week I checked obssessively almost on the hour, before saying to my cousin, "see, see! it was all bullshit. i knew it! she isn't due yet!") I went out with my housemates to have dessert, only to get a text from my cousin maybe 20 minutes later, "Brangelina gave birth to a baby girl!".
I went on with my evening (I'm not _that_ obssessed!). And upon returning home googled the meaning of the baby's name, which incidentally is Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. Shiloh, aside from being the dog in the Newberry Award Winning Classic (which I knew) and the site of an American Civil War Battle in Tennessee (which I didn't know) means "Place of Peace" in the Bible (I'm presuming Hebrew but could be wrong, the Bible wasn't all written in Hebrew, as far as I know). Its a place where the Israelites took refuge. Have asked Sacha to ask her boyfriend, Shai, who is Jewish from Israel.
Nouvel, on the other hand, turned out to be the last name of a famous french architect and as Brad is said to have an interest in architecture this was the explanation that made the most sense. I could, obviously, be wrong about this too as information made to the public - other than the child's name (as in not even poundage) - has not really been released.
Shiloh, joins the list of funkily named kids who have been born lately: Suri, Grier, Kingston James, Moses and my personal(wtf) favorite, Bluebell Madonna. Don't think I'll ever get over the origin of that one. Kingston and Moses I think are tied for "the most normal sounding" names of the bunch, though this is not to say that I don't like the other ones, I actually think Suri is nice and Grier, possibly after the feminist is pretty cool. Bluebell Madonna, is a different story altogether. I have of ourse, no right to criticize the choice of the particular parents who have chosen these names, and so I will say nothing further about that one.
And I cannot, cannot believe I obssessed about 'the most beautiful baby on earth' so muuuuuuch. I hope that the child does not grow up to be traumatized for any reason and does not develop a big head or insecurities from that press created monicker. I hope that it (oops, she) grows up to be happy, healthy, well rounded and free from public pressure to be beautiful, well aware that she can be who she wants to be... (with parents like that, it looks like they'll make sure that she knows) also, I hope that she doesn't get called SHee-Loh like Shee-Ra or Shee-loh Beeelo or Shee Shee or whatever else she would be if she lived in the Philippines.
Also: Apple is not a weird name. I knew an Apple, Orange, Peaches, and more than one person with those names. I am from the Philippines, where somewhere, some way, I am sure a child will be born that _will_ actually (possibly) be named Brangelina.
Today, ironically after checking my daily gossip sheets, (the day she was rumored to give birth last week I checked obssessively almost on the hour, before saying to my cousin, "see, see! it was all bullshit. i knew it! she isn't due yet!") I went out with my housemates to have dessert, only to get a text from my cousin maybe 20 minutes later, "Brangelina gave birth to a baby girl!".
I went on with my evening (I'm not _that_ obssessed!). And upon returning home googled the meaning of the baby's name, which incidentally is Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. Shiloh, aside from being the dog in the Newberry Award Winning Classic (which I knew) and the site of an American Civil War Battle in Tennessee (which I didn't know) means "Place of Peace" in the Bible (I'm presuming Hebrew but could be wrong, the Bible wasn't all written in Hebrew, as far as I know). Its a place where the Israelites took refuge. Have asked Sacha to ask her boyfriend, Shai, who is Jewish from Israel.
Nouvel, on the other hand, turned out to be the last name of a famous french architect and as Brad is said to have an interest in architecture this was the explanation that made the most sense. I could, obviously, be wrong about this too as information made to the public - other than the child's name (as in not even poundage) - has not really been released.
Shiloh, joins the list of funkily named kids who have been born lately: Suri, Grier, Kingston James, Moses and my personal(wtf) favorite, Bluebell Madonna. Don't think I'll ever get over the origin of that one. Kingston and Moses I think are tied for "the most normal sounding" names of the bunch, though this is not to say that I don't like the other ones, I actually think Suri is nice and Grier, possibly after the feminist is pretty cool. Bluebell Madonna, is a different story altogether. I have of ourse, no right to criticize the choice of the particular parents who have chosen these names, and so I will say nothing further about that one.
And I cannot, cannot believe I obssessed about 'the most beautiful baby on earth' so muuuuuuch. I hope that the child does not grow up to be traumatized for any reason and does not develop a big head or insecurities from that press created monicker. I hope that it (oops, she) grows up to be happy, healthy, well rounded and free from public pressure to be beautiful, well aware that she can be who she wants to be... (with parents like that, it looks like they'll make sure that she knows) also, I hope that she doesn't get called SHee-Loh like Shee-Ra or Shee-loh Beeelo or Shee Shee or whatever else she would be if she lived in the Philippines.
Also: Apple is not a weird name. I knew an Apple, Orange, Peaches, and more than one person with those names. I am from the Philippines, where somewhere, some way, I am sure a child will be born that _will_ actually (possibly) be named Brangelina.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Lessons from my Childhood
Last night, as my super creative and crafty housemate was helping me make Bucephalus, the cardboard cut out horse for my law presentation (yes, I know, I'll explain later), we started talking about the stuff we learnt as kids. Her mom teaches 4 year olds in the IS in Jakarta and she was telling us how they always had to take the glue away from the kids because they always used too much glue. This was after I overlined the end of Bucephalus' mane and squished it onto his head. I was telling her how we had sewing and ballroom dancing as children in school.
In primary school we had to learn how to embroider because, I presume we were little girls and still not old enough to use sewing machines unattended. I remember the style of teaching in my old school as fairly critical and very authoritarian (and no, for my old chums, it wasn't just Miss Manila). I think the style of teaching is very different now, I remember I quite used to get reprimanded for doing things wrong, when now everyone is a lot more encouraging and focused on positive reinforcement vs negative. I do remember a lot of our primary school teachers were kind of masungit (cranky? Pia, you write copy! what's this in english?).
I remember in 4th grade we had to make bags out of basketweave, the ever infamous material and exhibit our sewing prowess by sewing different rows of embroidery stitches on the front and then sew a peace themed design on the back. The first row was running stitch, then backstitch, etc. This is quite possibly the only subject my best friend Jenny has ever done badly in, because she never finished her bag as she just wouldn't do it. Now she's like, completely an expert at all mommy-related things, simply because she's creative (not that she has any kids). I on the other hand, totally cheated all the way. My mother realised that I couldn't sew, and so the women in my household - then my yaya, my lola and my cousin Loudette - took it upon themselves to help me finish my project. I think sewing is the only thing they ever really took over. Everything else I pretty much did on my own, with minimal assistance.
The thing to do in fourth grade was to use funky colored thread. I had been given this aqua blue thread by a friend, I remember this distinctly, as I think it was the same friend who got me, the Barbie hating one, to play Barbies with her. It was the funky kind that started out in bright aqua then along the line it faded to white, like those tie-dyed shirts. I ran out of thread in the middle of the line where we were supposed to demonstrate our mastery of the "Cross Stitch" and then completely forgot and submitted the whole bag with a bunch of crosses not Xed.
In my freshman year in high school we had to make a jumper in sewing class, with real machines. I absolutely refused, as it was this flowered thing that you cut out, measuring your own shape and sewed together. Like it would ever really be worn. I think I just passed sewing class, and the jumpers got put to good use in Music class - when each group had to reenact a musical and my group did the Sound of Music. As I was the boy (again) I got to wear shorts and fake leiderhosen (i think someone lent me suspenders. or at the very least they were shorts with a long sleeved top and a blazer) and there was no need for me to ever complete that jumper.
Now reminscing aside, it occured to me as I was using too much glue that the reason why I thought I couldn't sew and do all these things was simply because I was told I couldn't do it. As a child, I think in my household, it was automatically assumed that if I couldn't do something, it was either done for me, or I was told I couldn't do it. I have since discovered that barring a few things (like coloring within the lines 100% of the time) I can do anything I set my mind to. Which is why technically if I choose to sew, I can sew and if I chose to crochet, I could crochet (my beloved lola did all that for me...), and possibly if wool didn't make me sneeze I could knit. Seriously, people can do anything they set their minds to, barring any health or other people related reasons (i.e. if you needed another person to help you accomplish whatever and that person refused, like lets say someone had to, i don't know, lend you their priceless picasso for an exhibit or something).
I with that I had known this when I was five. Or fifteen. Or even when I was twenty. I could have done so much more. But I guess it was different when we were growing up- the style of parenting (maybe it was just my house) and teaching was more authoritarian, and maybe I was just too afraid. I think over the years I have grown braver - or possibly taught myself to be more brave- and that coming here opened up a new world for me. That and a few seminars I have taken over the years have encouraged me to try everything, within reason. I know that there are some things I'll never do - like you're never going to get me to see a horror movie and I will never ever in my life ride any theme park rides that go up and down, also I don't think I'll ever crochet, its too boring - but I do believe there's a lot more things that I can do. I may not end up being a master at them, like I can swim but you know, I suck, but at least I can say that I've done them, that I've tried, and maybe I'll even keep trying, if its something I like.
This, in a scary way, combined with that musical I saw last weekend, called Babies - which was about what babies think and feel from 0-2 weeks, acted out by an amateur teenage production - kind of shows how much influence parents and other authority figures have on our lives as we are growing up. I mean, I don't blame anyone but myself for my lack of will to try when I was a kid, but really, there's a lot that people do that they don't know have affected others. In the musical the "babies" sing a song called "Blank piece of paper" as soon as they are born, and they talk about how when they are born there's literally nothing there, and there's a line of five babies, and five different kinds of parents singing (e.g. hippies, yuppies, country folk, etc.) and they each give the kid a gift, like a stuffed animal or a football and its like, from being "blank" that's the first thing they get and it starts from there. And I thought it was really scary how parents really just can mold a child without really even trying or knowing what they're doing, and how much influence exists. Thank God I don't have to think about this again until I decide I want to be a parent and actually go about producing one. (Which won't be for a while...)The musical was very enjoyable though, it was fun and funny and although the sound system was kind of crap - sometimes you couldn't hear them and we were in the third row - it was pretty good for an amateur production. I also got free tickets from work.
Bucephalus is done. He is part of our role play for our group presentation in law class. He was made from brown and black cartolina, which in this country cost me about 7 dollars. We are reinacting a case, where Bucephalus was bought by Margaret who needed him for a horse breeding business. Bob, the seller's representative told her that he was fit for breeding and that "he has sired 5 champions". (I have read this case so much I have memorized the lines) She then signed the contract even though the terms in it said nothing about breeding. They also struck a seperate deal where she said, "i'll give you an extra 1,000 if you can guarantee he has no bad habits or vices". Margaret got the horse and found out that he was sterile and that he bit people. We are supposed to give her legal advice in the form of our presentation.
And that's why last night my housemate drew me a horse and we cut it out and used lotsa glue :)
In primary school we had to learn how to embroider because, I presume we were little girls and still not old enough to use sewing machines unattended. I remember the style of teaching in my old school as fairly critical and very authoritarian (and no, for my old chums, it wasn't just Miss Manila). I think the style of teaching is very different now, I remember I quite used to get reprimanded for doing things wrong, when now everyone is a lot more encouraging and focused on positive reinforcement vs negative. I do remember a lot of our primary school teachers were kind of masungit (cranky? Pia, you write copy! what's this in english?).
I remember in 4th grade we had to make bags out of basketweave, the ever infamous material and exhibit our sewing prowess by sewing different rows of embroidery stitches on the front and then sew a peace themed design on the back. The first row was running stitch, then backstitch, etc. This is quite possibly the only subject my best friend Jenny has ever done badly in, because she never finished her bag as she just wouldn't do it. Now she's like, completely an expert at all mommy-related things, simply because she's creative (not that she has any kids). I on the other hand, totally cheated all the way. My mother realised that I couldn't sew, and so the women in my household - then my yaya, my lola and my cousin Loudette - took it upon themselves to help me finish my project. I think sewing is the only thing they ever really took over. Everything else I pretty much did on my own, with minimal assistance.
The thing to do in fourth grade was to use funky colored thread. I had been given this aqua blue thread by a friend, I remember this distinctly, as I think it was the same friend who got me, the Barbie hating one, to play Barbies with her. It was the funky kind that started out in bright aqua then along the line it faded to white, like those tie-dyed shirts. I ran out of thread in the middle of the line where we were supposed to demonstrate our mastery of the "Cross Stitch" and then completely forgot and submitted the whole bag with a bunch of crosses not Xed.
In my freshman year in high school we had to make a jumper in sewing class, with real machines. I absolutely refused, as it was this flowered thing that you cut out, measuring your own shape and sewed together. Like it would ever really be worn. I think I just passed sewing class, and the jumpers got put to good use in Music class - when each group had to reenact a musical and my group did the Sound of Music. As I was the boy (again) I got to wear shorts and fake leiderhosen (i think someone lent me suspenders. or at the very least they were shorts with a long sleeved top and a blazer) and there was no need for me to ever complete that jumper.
Now reminscing aside, it occured to me as I was using too much glue that the reason why I thought I couldn't sew and do all these things was simply because I was told I couldn't do it. As a child, I think in my household, it was automatically assumed that if I couldn't do something, it was either done for me, or I was told I couldn't do it. I have since discovered that barring a few things (like coloring within the lines 100% of the time) I can do anything I set my mind to. Which is why technically if I choose to sew, I can sew and if I chose to crochet, I could crochet (my beloved lola did all that for me...), and possibly if wool didn't make me sneeze I could knit. Seriously, people can do anything they set their minds to, barring any health or other people related reasons (i.e. if you needed another person to help you accomplish whatever and that person refused, like lets say someone had to, i don't know, lend you their priceless picasso for an exhibit or something).
I with that I had known this when I was five. Or fifteen. Or even when I was twenty. I could have done so much more. But I guess it was different when we were growing up- the style of parenting (maybe it was just my house) and teaching was more authoritarian, and maybe I was just too afraid. I think over the years I have grown braver - or possibly taught myself to be more brave- and that coming here opened up a new world for me. That and a few seminars I have taken over the years have encouraged me to try everything, within reason. I know that there are some things I'll never do - like you're never going to get me to see a horror movie and I will never ever in my life ride any theme park rides that go up and down, also I don't think I'll ever crochet, its too boring - but I do believe there's a lot more things that I can do. I may not end up being a master at them, like I can swim but you know, I suck, but at least I can say that I've done them, that I've tried, and maybe I'll even keep trying, if its something I like.
This, in a scary way, combined with that musical I saw last weekend, called Babies - which was about what babies think and feel from 0-2 weeks, acted out by an amateur teenage production - kind of shows how much influence parents and other authority figures have on our lives as we are growing up. I mean, I don't blame anyone but myself for my lack of will to try when I was a kid, but really, there's a lot that people do that they don't know have affected others. In the musical the "babies" sing a song called "Blank piece of paper" as soon as they are born, and they talk about how when they are born there's literally nothing there, and there's a line of five babies, and five different kinds of parents singing (e.g. hippies, yuppies, country folk, etc.) and they each give the kid a gift, like a stuffed animal or a football and its like, from being "blank" that's the first thing they get and it starts from there. And I thought it was really scary how parents really just can mold a child without really even trying or knowing what they're doing, and how much influence exists. Thank God I don't have to think about this again until I decide I want to be a parent and actually go about producing one. (Which won't be for a while...)The musical was very enjoyable though, it was fun and funny and although the sound system was kind of crap - sometimes you couldn't hear them and we were in the third row - it was pretty good for an amateur production. I also got free tickets from work.
Bucephalus is done. He is part of our role play for our group presentation in law class. He was made from brown and black cartolina, which in this country cost me about 7 dollars. We are reinacting a case, where Bucephalus was bought by Margaret who needed him for a horse breeding business. Bob, the seller's representative told her that he was fit for breeding and that "he has sired 5 champions". (I have read this case so much I have memorized the lines) She then signed the contract even though the terms in it said nothing about breeding. They also struck a seperate deal where she said, "i'll give you an extra 1,000 if you can guarantee he has no bad habits or vices". Margaret got the horse and found out that he was sterile and that he bit people. We are supposed to give her legal advice in the form of our presentation.
And that's why last night my housemate drew me a horse and we cut it out and used lotsa glue :)
Friday, May 19, 2006
What the fuck is up with all this Da Vinci Code crap?
I just got home only to find waiting for me, email, which I'm sure was a forward, from a nice, well meaning (Opus Dei) friend who is a part of my college mailing list. Its a statement about the Da Vinci Code. I thought that being across the ocean I would not be subject to all the unecessary hullaballoo at home but no. I get mail that says "watching the Da Vinci Code will hurt Jesus."
Excuse me, but how do you know that?
Its all just bullshit. I mean, its a movie. By saying that its something else means you allow for it to affect you and you are in a way saying that it has some truth. If you just released a statement that says, we think its false and did nothing else or ignored the whole thing altogether, it wouldn't generate so much publicity (and you gotta admire that really well done PR) that people would be encouraged to see it. Doesn't anyone remember how the best way to tempt someone to do things is to forbid them to do it?!?!
People should have the right to make their own judgements about A WORK OF FICTION.
I should at this point say that although I know the story, I have not read the book. I made a decision not to read it because I felt it was overhyped and having read Angels and Demons I felt that was enough religious symbiology. I also thought at first that I would just watch the movie. I have since decided not to see it - although this whole thing has made me pissed off enough to want to watch it just to prove freedom of choice - initially because I'm not really keen on Tom Hanks and now because I just don't want to be a part of the fuss.
I wanted to reply and say I think this is a big fuss over nothing and its just a movie but I would probably with my usual directness hurt her forwarded feelings and she's really a nice girl.
And do we not have better things to fuss over, like the state of our country, the politics, the fact that in this scenario there appears to be a difficulty in separating church and state and you know, there's the ever prevalent problem of poverty?!?
Sigh. Must our country always have to find a source of drama? And why is everyone making a fuss? I'm now making a fuss over everyone making a fuss because I just don't get what the point is.
Excuse me, but how do you know that?
Its all just bullshit. I mean, its a movie. By saying that its something else means you allow for it to affect you and you are in a way saying that it has some truth. If you just released a statement that says, we think its false and did nothing else or ignored the whole thing altogether, it wouldn't generate so much publicity (and you gotta admire that really well done PR) that people would be encouraged to see it. Doesn't anyone remember how the best way to tempt someone to do things is to forbid them to do it?!?!
People should have the right to make their own judgements about A WORK OF FICTION.
I should at this point say that although I know the story, I have not read the book. I made a decision not to read it because I felt it was overhyped and having read Angels and Demons I felt that was enough religious symbiology. I also thought at first that I would just watch the movie. I have since decided not to see it - although this whole thing has made me pissed off enough to want to watch it just to prove freedom of choice - initially because I'm not really keen on Tom Hanks and now because I just don't want to be a part of the fuss.
I wanted to reply and say I think this is a big fuss over nothing and its just a movie but I would probably with my usual directness hurt her forwarded feelings and she's really a nice girl.
And do we not have better things to fuss over, like the state of our country, the politics, the fact that in this scenario there appears to be a difficulty in separating church and state and you know, there's the ever prevalent problem of poverty?!?
Sigh. Must our country always have to find a source of drama? And why is everyone making a fuss? I'm now making a fuss over everyone making a fuss because I just don't get what the point is.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
May
Again, in Summary :)
May 05
Para Bailar La Bamba
Today I've made chorizo and red wine sauce with pasta for lunch. I don't really like red wine sauce but its the jar that Sacha bought so there you go. I added real red wine and mushrooms and lots of cheese. I usually like my red wine sauce on steaks, not pasta. I'm bringing the rest of it to work because well, again, I don't really like red wine sauce.
Since they've cancelled work tomorrow I'm just going to go to kickboxing and then meet up with Rose, who I haven't seen in ages. Then go home and do homework, and spend my Saturday evening researching my next brief.
Last night's brazilian party was unbelievably boring. There was a crush of people, mostly older and they were all having fun, but it was like, not our thing. There was an intro to latin dancing downstairs and I enjoyed learning how to mambo. When we started, Sacha and I had to be partners because there weren't enough boys. And then they went, okay switch partners clockwise (bec no one really knew each other). I ended up with this vietnamese/chinese dude who was pretty good but wouldn't look me in the eye. Sacha ended up with a guy who said, "You've never done this before, have you? I think I'll sit this one out" and promptly moved to another partner!!! When it came time to switch I had her dance with my partner.
We left the brazilian party and then moved to The Establishment, Sydney's premiere meat market. I suppose I'm a bit too picky, there really wasn't anyone I liked. Sacha of course, by then had been hit on once, and when we got to Establishment she got hit on twice I think. Everytime Sacha gets picked up I slip away because well, that's their thing. She got hit on by this nice looking black dude on the dance floor, and I just went and danced on my own, near this group of white aussie chicks who couldn't dance for shit, it was so weird I couldn't tell if they were just having fun by dancing funny or they really couldn't dance (what's up with aussies and they're yeah, if i move like this and shake and flail my arms about this is dancing! I would love to generalise and say white people can't dance, but I think Sacha can, so...) Then he asked Sacha out and she said she was seeing someone and he just turned around and walked away! I thought, okay, fair enough, you don't have to waste your time but really, you could have at least said goodbye.
Derek, Sacha's friend from physics who we've both known for quite a while came over to join us. We promised to be his "wing women" i.e. help him pick up the chicks while he would be our (or rather mine, unless Sacha found a really cute one) wingman. From Establishment we went to The Orient, which was full of old people and then to Cargo Bar, which was totally dead, for a Thursday night and then I got hungry so we walked down King St Wharf (Darling Harbor) and found La Cita.
La Cita was a salsa place and it was great. I had beef empanadas, which were great too! We had a drink each and then we started dancing. Derek had taken salsa lessons before so he was trying to teach me. After some time bobbing around I realised that this was quite possibly the first time I had ever danced with a partner and not had to lead!!!
In high school we had to take ballroom dancing. And one of us had to be the boy. And since I looked like a boy anyway, I was the boy. I was always the boy (even in class plays). My partner was darth_stitch. Our best dances were the waltz - we could box step quite well, thank you - and the cha-cha. We could boogie okay but we were absolutely horrible with the tango.
In the first place I don't think we were taught right. I think we were taught to tango ballroom dancing style - the kind your lola does - and not the real argentinian version. Also, darth_stitch had a back problem (?) possibly and couldn't really bend backwards. Actually, no one in the class could bend backwards. So everytime we had to make a dip, darth_stitch (and every other girl in the class) would just bend her neck backwards and look up at the sky, while I would bend forward and bend my knee. We were pathetic but hilarious.
Our final presentation was done to the theme of "That's Entertainment" because we couldn't be bothered to practice and actually do anything. cheese dip was german moreno. and she ripped her pants right after her first introduction and had to borrow my spare pair! All of us "boys" especially me and Naj, who looked equally as much of a boy as I did, looked like we were from La Salle GH, one of the boys schools. Black pants, white shirt.
And so I learnt how to lead, and still have to fight a bit when I start dancing (especially the swing) because as my previous partners have said, "You have to stop leading because I'm the boy."
Roooight.
May 7
Your mission, should you choose to accept it.
So Miel and I saw Mission Impossible 3 which was great. I have been action movie starved for ages and ages. It has been such a long time since I've seen a movie where things have been blown up, the plot is slightly if not completely implausible and they have all these cool gadgets. I was perfectly happy with this movie. Tom was tom, and he was the same cool almost unflappable kick ass dude and that was completely believable and not annoying. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who perhaps because of his general stature sometimes makes me mix him up with Jack Black was excellent, as always and the rest of the supporting cast was great. Keri Russell was in that movie for five minutes.
Miel and I went to the movie with Claudia who is quite the noisiest person to see a movie with. Miel and I are usually very talkative as well, but we speak in hushed tones and I've realised that because its fast paced and you don't always have the time to comment I don't usually do that for action movies. Claudia was kinda loud and excited and she kept trying to guess what was going to happen and although I thought her comments were funny there were some times when I wanted to say, hinay hinay, Claudia like I was calming down a rearing horse. It was kinda llike that. (Miel, i know you're going to read this, I like Claudia, but you know, it was funny.)
My housemate Kartini is moving out (don't know if I've mentioned this before) to a castle, which is actually a big house in Annandale (next to Leichhardt where I used to live) with a friend. The rent is really cheap, like a hundred bucks and its a converted ballroom that's been split up to several rooms. Her friend's family is a bit eccentric, his parents live in one wing, and he lives in the other and they've got all this stuff stored in different rooms, like a whole room full of piano music (the kind that plays automatically on those old pianos) and an old elevator sitting in the garden. His father apparently refuses to throw everything out, so they're just basically waiting for him to die (he's in his 70s) to throw everything out. Its got a nice view of the city and the river and since Kartini's hardly ever home, its not such a big deal for her that the place doesn't have internet and all the other stuff. She's leaving most of her furtniture as all she needs is bedroom stuff.
We've all pretty much gotten along well so it will be sad for her to go but its okay, and its not as if we're not going to see each other again. Also I am going to move into her room when she leaves, which will be a pain in the ass to get my stuff together (will have to dismantle wardrobe and possibly bed as well) but what the heck, its bigger and quieter.
May 7
Winter is coming
I have been in denial of winter for well, ages. I wear long sleeved shirts, thick jackets and thongs . Yesterday when I was late for work (and no one noticed) I ran out of the house in thongs and it was just so wrong. The wind started on sunday and it hasn't really stopped since. This morning was the coldest in Sydney so far, at 9 degrees. (Thank God I slept through it in the warmth of my doona) Last night my housemate from Indonesia brought up her giant heater and put it on. I assembled my heater at midnight (naks, parang may magical properties from doing that) and tested it for a bit but I slept without it on.
I've become more acclimatised to the weather, I don't get as cold as often, I've decided the more I can stand the cold the easier for me it will be to get warm - less layers and the less electric heating needed.
So today, hearbreaking as it is, I am packing up my summer clothes. Last Sunday I aired out all my coats, washed all my scarves and beanies and now I'm ready for winter. As much as I appreciate a cool day every now and then, I miss my singlets and my thongs, and my gnarly feet (which are so gnarly they are not funny). As I write this I am wearing a light sweater (the one I got in Switzerland 9 years ago and shrunk in someone's dryer in Texas) knee length pjs and knee length uggs. I also own fuzzy light purple slippers that say "thrill" and "me" (the alternatives were "yes" and "no" in fuschia and "its all about me" in green) for days when i don't quite need the uggs.
I've arranged to keep my socks in the little box with the singlets so I will always remember they are there and I can use them appropriately for layering. I also intend to buy a shoe rack so I can just put all my shoes on it, as the mess is getting slightly annoying. I also own more thongs/slippers than any other pair of shoes, but that's not such a big surprise.
At present
I went to salsa lessons this week, and it was fun. Will go back as soon as I am able - this week I had to work on stuff and next week have got the Sydney Writer's Festival. So far people I have been dancing with have been telling me I'm pretty natural at it so its a bit surprising to actually find out that you're good at something naturally - I've always kind of hoped there would be something, you know how people naturally excel at swimming or basketball or what not. I had sort of reached a point where I was thinking, what if you aren't naturally good at something, so this is surprising but good to say the least.
The other day I had chocolate - tea doesn't quite cut it - at the Lindt Cafe with Kat. We had a cake and a dark chocolate each. Despite my attempts to have chocolate not as frequently as before - now 3-4 times a week which is better than everyday - my stomach has thrown a fit. So no more choccy for a while again. Must get used to not having it often.
My friend Nic is visiting from Brissie and another friend, Andrea, my former housemate is visiting from Melb. Andrea is staying with us, Nic is staying at her family's house in Woolhara.
Today Andrea and I went to see The Crying Men which is basically a showcase of Sam Taylor-Wood, a photographer's works. She took shots of 27 male artistas crying. Of course I could identify 90% :P (there was a dude I didn't know and a couple who you couldn't tell because they had their hands on their faces) My favorites were Hayden, of course, Jude, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Downey Jr. Lawrence Fishbourne had a very striking picture as well. There was also this video that was commissioned by the National Gallery of London that featured David Beckham sleeping. It was supposed to be a "sensual portrait of an icon in repose" or something like that but he just looked so bloody restless. He was sleeping on his side, on an arm and I thought, but your arm will die and you will get cramps. Also, would you be fully accessorized if you were sleeping?
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I am going to boxing now and then I have to do my law. I will update from the Writer's Festival very soon :)
May 05
Para Bailar La Bamba
Today I've made chorizo and red wine sauce with pasta for lunch. I don't really like red wine sauce but its the jar that Sacha bought so there you go. I added real red wine and mushrooms and lots of cheese. I usually like my red wine sauce on steaks, not pasta. I'm bringing the rest of it to work because well, again, I don't really like red wine sauce.
Since they've cancelled work tomorrow I'm just going to go to kickboxing and then meet up with Rose, who I haven't seen in ages. Then go home and do homework, and spend my Saturday evening researching my next brief.
Last night's brazilian party was unbelievably boring. There was a crush of people, mostly older and they were all having fun, but it was like, not our thing. There was an intro to latin dancing downstairs and I enjoyed learning how to mambo. When we started, Sacha and I had to be partners because there weren't enough boys. And then they went, okay switch partners clockwise (bec no one really knew each other). I ended up with this vietnamese/chinese dude who was pretty good but wouldn't look me in the eye. Sacha ended up with a guy who said, "You've never done this before, have you? I think I'll sit this one out" and promptly moved to another partner!!! When it came time to switch I had her dance with my partner.
We left the brazilian party and then moved to The Establishment, Sydney's premiere meat market. I suppose I'm a bit too picky, there really wasn't anyone I liked. Sacha of course, by then had been hit on once, and when we got to Establishment she got hit on twice I think. Everytime Sacha gets picked up I slip away because well, that's their thing. She got hit on by this nice looking black dude on the dance floor, and I just went and danced on my own, near this group of white aussie chicks who couldn't dance for shit, it was so weird I couldn't tell if they were just having fun by dancing funny or they really couldn't dance (what's up with aussies and they're yeah, if i move like this and shake and flail my arms about this is dancing! I would love to generalise and say white people can't dance, but I think Sacha can, so...) Then he asked Sacha out and she said she was seeing someone and he just turned around and walked away! I thought, okay, fair enough, you don't have to waste your time but really, you could have at least said goodbye.
Derek, Sacha's friend from physics who we've both known for quite a while came over to join us. We promised to be his "wing women" i.e. help him pick up the chicks while he would be our (or rather mine, unless Sacha found a really cute one) wingman. From Establishment we went to The Orient, which was full of old people and then to Cargo Bar, which was totally dead, for a Thursday night and then I got hungry so we walked down King St Wharf (Darling Harbor) and found La Cita.
La Cita was a salsa place and it was great. I had beef empanadas, which were great too! We had a drink each and then we started dancing. Derek had taken salsa lessons before so he was trying to teach me. After some time bobbing around I realised that this was quite possibly the first time I had ever danced with a partner and not had to lead!!!
In high school we had to take ballroom dancing. And one of us had to be the boy. And since I looked like a boy anyway, I was the boy. I was always the boy (even in class plays). My partner was darth_stitch. Our best dances were the waltz - we could box step quite well, thank you - and the cha-cha. We could boogie okay but we were absolutely horrible with the tango.
In the first place I don't think we were taught right. I think we were taught to tango ballroom dancing style - the kind your lola does - and not the real argentinian version. Also, darth_stitch had a back problem (?) possibly and couldn't really bend backwards. Actually, no one in the class could bend backwards. So everytime we had to make a dip, darth_stitch (and every other girl in the class) would just bend her neck backwards and look up at the sky, while I would bend forward and bend my knee. We were pathetic but hilarious.
Our final presentation was done to the theme of "That's Entertainment" because we couldn't be bothered to practice and actually do anything. cheese dip was german moreno. and she ripped her pants right after her first introduction and had to borrow my spare pair! All of us "boys" especially me and Naj, who looked equally as much of a boy as I did, looked like we were from La Salle GH, one of the boys schools. Black pants, white shirt.
And so I learnt how to lead, and still have to fight a bit when I start dancing (especially the swing) because as my previous partners have said, "You have to stop leading because I'm the boy."
Roooight.
May 7
Your mission, should you choose to accept it.
So Miel and I saw Mission Impossible 3 which was great. I have been action movie starved for ages and ages. It has been such a long time since I've seen a movie where things have been blown up, the plot is slightly if not completely implausible and they have all these cool gadgets. I was perfectly happy with this movie. Tom was tom, and he was the same cool almost unflappable kick ass dude and that was completely believable and not annoying. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who perhaps because of his general stature sometimes makes me mix him up with Jack Black was excellent, as always and the rest of the supporting cast was great. Keri Russell was in that movie for five minutes.
Miel and I went to the movie with Claudia who is quite the noisiest person to see a movie with. Miel and I are usually very talkative as well, but we speak in hushed tones and I've realised that because its fast paced and you don't always have the time to comment I don't usually do that for action movies. Claudia was kinda loud and excited and she kept trying to guess what was going to happen and although I thought her comments were funny there were some times when I wanted to say, hinay hinay, Claudia like I was calming down a rearing horse. It was kinda llike that. (Miel, i know you're going to read this, I like Claudia, but you know, it was funny.)
My housemate Kartini is moving out (don't know if I've mentioned this before) to a castle, which is actually a big house in Annandale (next to Leichhardt where I used to live) with a friend. The rent is really cheap, like a hundred bucks and its a converted ballroom that's been split up to several rooms. Her friend's family is a bit eccentric, his parents live in one wing, and he lives in the other and they've got all this stuff stored in different rooms, like a whole room full of piano music (the kind that plays automatically on those old pianos) and an old elevator sitting in the garden. His father apparently refuses to throw everything out, so they're just basically waiting for him to die (he's in his 70s) to throw everything out. Its got a nice view of the city and the river and since Kartini's hardly ever home, its not such a big deal for her that the place doesn't have internet and all the other stuff. She's leaving most of her furtniture as all she needs is bedroom stuff.
We've all pretty much gotten along well so it will be sad for her to go but its okay, and its not as if we're not going to see each other again. Also I am going to move into her room when she leaves, which will be a pain in the ass to get my stuff together (will have to dismantle wardrobe and possibly bed as well) but what the heck, its bigger and quieter.
May 7
Winter is coming
I have been in denial of winter for well, ages. I wear long sleeved shirts, thick jackets and thongs . Yesterday when I was late for work (and no one noticed) I ran out of the house in thongs and it was just so wrong. The wind started on sunday and it hasn't really stopped since. This morning was the coldest in Sydney so far, at 9 degrees. (Thank God I slept through it in the warmth of my doona) Last night my housemate from Indonesia brought up her giant heater and put it on. I assembled my heater at midnight (naks, parang may magical properties from doing that) and tested it for a bit but I slept without it on.
I've become more acclimatised to the weather, I don't get as cold as often, I've decided the more I can stand the cold the easier for me it will be to get warm - less layers and the less electric heating needed.
So today, hearbreaking as it is, I am packing up my summer clothes. Last Sunday I aired out all my coats, washed all my scarves and beanies and now I'm ready for winter. As much as I appreciate a cool day every now and then, I miss my singlets and my thongs, and my gnarly feet (which are so gnarly they are not funny). As I write this I am wearing a light sweater (the one I got in Switzerland 9 years ago and shrunk in someone's dryer in Texas) knee length pjs and knee length uggs. I also own fuzzy light purple slippers that say "thrill" and "me" (the alternatives were "yes" and "no" in fuschia and "its all about me" in green) for days when i don't quite need the uggs.
I've arranged to keep my socks in the little box with the singlets so I will always remember they are there and I can use them appropriately for layering. I also intend to buy a shoe rack so I can just put all my shoes on it, as the mess is getting slightly annoying. I also own more thongs/slippers than any other pair of shoes, but that's not such a big surprise.
At present
I went to salsa lessons this week, and it was fun. Will go back as soon as I am able - this week I had to work on stuff and next week have got the Sydney Writer's Festival. So far people I have been dancing with have been telling me I'm pretty natural at it so its a bit surprising to actually find out that you're good at something naturally - I've always kind of hoped there would be something, you know how people naturally excel at swimming or basketball or what not. I had sort of reached a point where I was thinking, what if you aren't naturally good at something, so this is surprising but good to say the least.
The other day I had chocolate - tea doesn't quite cut it - at the Lindt Cafe with Kat. We had a cake and a dark chocolate each. Despite my attempts to have chocolate not as frequently as before - now 3-4 times a week which is better than everyday - my stomach has thrown a fit. So no more choccy for a while again. Must get used to not having it often.
My friend Nic is visiting from Brissie and another friend, Andrea, my former housemate is visiting from Melb. Andrea is staying with us, Nic is staying at her family's house in Woolhara.
Today Andrea and I went to see The Crying Men which is basically a showcase of Sam Taylor-Wood, a photographer's works. She took shots of 27 male artistas crying. Of course I could identify 90% :P (there was a dude I didn't know and a couple who you couldn't tell because they had their hands on their faces) My favorites were Hayden, of course, Jude, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Downey Jr. Lawrence Fishbourne had a very striking picture as well. There was also this video that was commissioned by the National Gallery of London that featured David Beckham sleeping. It was supposed to be a "sensual portrait of an icon in repose" or something like that but he just looked so bloody restless. He was sleeping on his side, on an arm and I thought, but your arm will die and you will get cramps. Also, would you be fully accessorized if you were sleeping?
title or description"/>I am going to boxing now and then I have to do my law. I will update from the Writer's Festival very soon :)
Friday, April 21, 2006
April, in Bits and Pieces
This is a picture of Me in Melbourne happily eating a bratwurst.
I have yet to blog about my Melbourne trip, but here is so far what has been happening this April. I went to More Concerts Than I Have Ever Been In My Entire Life (as you can tell from the previous entry on Kanye West), had a food filled Easter and so far am on holiday till the end of this week.
Papa Was a Rolling Stone (April 11)
When I grow old, i want to be Mick Jagger.
(or at least in fairness have his energy and puwede na rin his money, but not any related injuries or diseases that may have resulted from his lycra wearing past, though I'm sure that if I were him I would regret nothing, but i digress...)
The stage at Telstra Stadium, exactly the same as they used in their free concert in Brazil
My friend Pauline & Me and our tickets
I've also confirmed that not only can white men _not_ dance, but middle aged women are fun to watch when they dance. Which means whatever you want to interpret it to be.
And if I had a webcam I would demonstrate it for you. Promise.
Here is my conversation with a friend right after the concert, which pretty much summarizes the whole thing.
Lars : mic jagger changed outfits more than britney ever did
Lars : i swear.
volcanogirl28 : no way
volcanogirl28 : but not as much as cher
Lars: feeling ko si britney mga thrice lang kasi madming eklat choo
Lars : si mick with his tight pants nagpapalit lang siya ng top
Lars : oh, id ont think anyone can beat cher.
Lars : as in meron siyang gold and then red tapos floor length ang kanyang coat
and only jagger can get away with wearing a feathery fur coat with a matching hat
Lars : and you know what, when i get old, i want to have as much energy as a rolling stone
Lars : promise. mick jagger had more energy than me and you and san combined
Lars : tang ina patalon talon siya everywhere
Lars : ako nakatayo kang ako dun tang ina pagod na ko
Lars : but no, mick jagger bouncing and running up and down and screaming and all that
Lars : kakaiba.
volcanogirl28 : he must be on steroids
Lars : it must have been all the drugs he took in his youth.
volcanogirl28 : tara, drugs na din tayo
Lars : i prefer to think it had something to do with his colorful tight lycra wearing past.
Lars : sabi nung kasama ko "do you think they'll be in tights? i've only seen pictures of them in tights"
volcanogirl28 : whut
Lars : i think that was a rational assumption
Lars : tang ina lahat kaya ng costumes nila dati lyyyyyycra
Lars : and their guitarist was wearing a JEWELED BELT
Lars ): as in the wide silver spangly kind
Lars : hello.
volcanogirl28 : some people just have "it"
Lars : i know. carry nila, carry
Lars : i knew 8 songs from the playlist im so proud of me
Lars : this is given na WALA AKONG ALAM last week kundi paint it black at satisfaction
volcanogirl28: bwahahhaha
Me Against the Music (April 12)
It all started because my friend Rey G, the computer god sent me a portable hard drive at my request because I was out of space for my mp3s.He was kind enough to format and set everything up for me before it even got here. So I transferred all of them over. I also wired my itunes to detect them in that folder. Occasionally I have to keep replugging it in because its not detected, which I assume because this is a portable computer and it moves around a lot and it is a device that is plugged in.
Rey G also included his mp3s, as a well meaning surprise. So my 13mb Mp3 collection shot up to an unwarranted number with a whole lot of songs that I didn't really need. Granted, I loved all his RnB stuff but there was nothing alternative he had that I didn't already have, and really do I need "Hagibis", "Boyfriends" (who are they?!?!) or "Freestyle". I don't do Freestyle. (I did, however keep the Apo songs as a rememberance of my childhood. And yes, I kept Katawan. What do you think? I grew up on "Palibhasa Lalake" too...lalalalalalalalala) And I just wanted to say, really a person's Mp3 collection can tell you a lot about the person who owns them. Hmmm... ;)WEG.
So after editing out the doubles and shit I found that stuff still couldn't fit in my ipod. And/or it wasn't detecting. And/or it informed me that it couldn't copy playlists. Which effectively suddenly turned my ipod into one blank disc every podders worst nightmare.
Repeated troubleshooting and deleting later it is now it is finally copying all the files back - I'm on song no. 322 of 4676. We'll get there eventually. I just want my ipod back. Its name is Bono I love you II and I want it back in its proper form. Baby come back!
(on a tiny troubleshooting note, i have discovered that everytime i turn my pc back on or it comes back from standby i have to plug and replug my portable hard drive so that it redetects and registers that the songs are there. i don't mind, but i don't think that's supposed to happen, right?)
On a side note: My ipod is now fixed. I have since discovered the 80s music that Rey added and I am now a happy bunny. Thank you Rey! Mwa mwa!
She sees specks in her eyes now, which the doctor says are permanent and they're like loose tissues. There's not anything that can be done, and its not a big deal he says as he was a soccer player sometime ago, and he has a lot of those floating in his eye. Which of course means that mum is now in league with David Beckham, Ronaldo, etc. who probably have equal amounts of tissue floating in their eyes thanks to hitting balls with their heads. Mum of course got hers from tripping over a parking guard and smacking herself on the ground.
Today Sacha and I saw the India.Arie Concert. All my pictures are fuzzy because its dark but all I have to say is that it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. (Now all I have to do is wait for Bono to come back...)
Easter Consumption (April 17)
Strangely, have discovered that I no longer crave chocolate as much as I used to, having given up chocolate (and chips) quite successfully for lent. I suppose we'll have to see if that's still the truth next week. Yesterday got off work early. My friend Karina and I shared the chocolate cadbury bunny I got myself to end my lenten fast and I discovered that I couldn't really glomp down chocolate straight anymore. I also turned down her offer of kit kat bites.
After work, I swung by the bookstore to grab the sequel to the romance novel I had inadvertedly bought without knowing it was a two parter then headed off to church. Unlike Manila, you either go to mass in the morning or the afternoon, there is no such thing as a midday or a midafternoon mass on a Sunday so having missed the 7am mass thanks to work and having a family whole day affair that I was already late to resulting in me missing the last remaining mass of the day, I decided to just pass by to say hi and thank you.
Headed off to Epping, got picked up by my cousin Rochelle's boyfriend Sean, who is well, family they've been together for ages. We waited for my cousin Miel, the cake baker who was in the train right after mine and then headed over. I was so hungry because I hadn't eaten a thing since breakfast and a danish that I smushed into my mouth because I knew there would be tons for lunch and therefore did not eat, and it was almost three and I was starving. Sean, Rochelle and my cousin Lara all had to go, they had stayed to say hi to us and because they were leaving we all had to have picture taking. After the picture taking, galit-galit muna and I just kept on stuffing my face with my Auntie Genie's pork steak in mama sita sauce (Go Mama Sita!) and rice. (God I miss rice, I can never cook it right I have it max once a week now)
After nibbling on Miel's chocolate cake we hung out for a bit, laughed and exchanged stories. The highlights of the evening were mom's insistence of Miel's need to find a mate, thus telling cousin Andrew, who arrived with his Indo-Chinese girlfriend Natalie (who I like except theyre both _really_ _really_ high school type clingy) to find Miel a boyfriend and giving me the feeling that really they were treating her like some sort of animal that needed to reproduce. This lead to her trying to push it on _Me_ as the next oldest single person in the room.
Then there was mom explaining about what she saw in the Easter Show, leading her to say: "Ang lalaki ng mga Kalabaw." Which promted me, in my conoest best to say, "Mom, cows are bakas, okay! Kalabaws are carabaos. You saw bakas!"
Headed home instead of staying over and got home around 9ish. Today got up a bit late, headed to Manly with Mom and Vanessa to have lunch with family friends Tony and Jan. We had fish and chips by the beach, where it was hot but super windy making it cold anyway. Took a walk to Shelley Beach down by the inlet and had smoothies and some ice cream while everyone else had cappucinos.
Finished up and headed to Miel's for dinner. I cooked fish cakes, she made sinigang, of which I had 2 servings (Go Pinoy Food!). They said my fish cakes were good but I didn't try them because I was too busy eating the sinigang I've been craving for for the past two weeks - I can go for more than a month without philo food, don't even notice I'm missing it, because its too much of a waste to cook that much, though its kind of sad. And yes, had cake/ice cream for dessert.
Now I'm home and surprise, so are my housemates, which is a big change from the last week when none of us were home. Last night it was just me even. Found a giant chocolate bunny on my desk, which I think is from Sacha (left her one for easter saturday). I will save it for a moment when I truly feel like having a choccy.
The giant chocolate bunny. I took it to work, shared it with people, ate about a quarter and kinda fucked over my tummy.
Bugbog. (April 21)
Today I have eaten myself to a heartburn. I have had pasta for brunch, an assorted bit of snacks including chips and grapes, a few bites of a muffin, chicken and corn soup (even if i'm not supposed to eat corn, a friend made it, and it was good) massive amounts of water and a tiny chai latte. I ate the twisties like there was no tomorrow, it being my first twisties pack in over a month. It is now time to go back to no chips.
Yesterday I got beaten up in kickboxing, although unintentionally. My partner was a nice indian girl with a mean right hook (if I could do hooks like that...champion talaga). She did regular boxing classes downstairs and was really good at punching. She was kind of new to kicks and she wasn't very good. Everyone who starts generally sucks but she sometimes had trouble hitting the pad. She narrowly missed my crotch during the inner thigh kicks and thus I have a large purple bruise on my inner left thigh. I also have two black bruises on my right one.
Since everyone else in the class is more experienced, we had inner and outer thigh and sweep kicks, which was a bit difficult for the two girls who had never done it before including her. It was also one of those warm downs that my instructor, Jo loves, the kind where you do 10 kicks on either side then ten push ups. And then 10 kicks on either side somewhere else (e.g. outer thigh) and then 9 push ups and it goes in descending order. We only did up to 5 push ups this time, thank God. Otherwise I think I might have died.
For the first time since I ditched chocolate and cheese my stomach feels like it is loaded and it will burst. Having lived for the past 40 days with a clean and healthy stomach, I realise the difference and know that it is the better feeling. So back to chocolate only for special occasions (like, max once a week, it really is the shits when I have it) and chips well, hopefully rarer! They are harder to resist now because they don't do anything to my beloved tummy.
Okay. We are not doing corn again. Heck, we are not eating the combination of foods we just had today again.
That has been my April so far... more as it happens.
I have yet to blog about my Melbourne trip, but here is so far what has been happening this April. I went to More Concerts Than I Have Ever Been In My Entire Life (as you can tell from the previous entry on Kanye West), had a food filled Easter and so far am on holiday till the end of this week.
Papa Was a Rolling Stone (April 11)
When I grow old, i want to be Mick Jagger.
(or at least in fairness have his energy and puwede na rin his money, but not any related injuries or diseases that may have resulted from his lycra wearing past, though I'm sure that if I were him I would regret nothing, but i digress...)
The stage at Telstra Stadium, exactly the same as they used in their free concert in Brazil
My friend Pauline & Me and our ticketsI've also confirmed that not only can white men _not_ dance, but middle aged women are fun to watch when they dance. Which means whatever you want to interpret it to be.
And if I had a webcam I would demonstrate it for you. Promise.
Here is my conversation with a friend right after the concert, which pretty much summarizes the whole thing.
Lars : mic jagger changed outfits more than britney ever did
Lars : i swear.
volcanogirl28 : no way
volcanogirl28 : but not as much as cher
Lars: feeling ko si britney mga thrice lang kasi madming eklat choo
Lars : si mick with his tight pants nagpapalit lang siya ng top
Lars : oh, id ont think anyone can beat cher.
Lars : as in meron siyang gold and then red tapos floor length ang kanyang coat
and only jagger can get away with wearing a feathery fur coat with a matching hat
Lars : and you know what, when i get old, i want to have as much energy as a rolling stone
Lars : promise. mick jagger had more energy than me and you and san combined
Lars : tang ina patalon talon siya everywhere
Lars : ako nakatayo kang ako dun tang ina pagod na ko
Lars : but no, mick jagger bouncing and running up and down and screaming and all that
Lars : kakaiba.
volcanogirl28 : he must be on steroids
Lars : it must have been all the drugs he took in his youth.
volcanogirl28 : tara, drugs na din tayo
Lars : i prefer to think it had something to do with his colorful tight lycra wearing past.
Lars : sabi nung kasama ko "do you think they'll be in tights? i've only seen pictures of them in tights"
volcanogirl28 : whut
Lars : i think that was a rational assumption
Lars : tang ina lahat kaya ng costumes nila dati lyyyyyycra
Lars : and their guitarist was wearing a JEWELED BELT
Lars ): as in the wide silver spangly kind
Lars : hello.
volcanogirl28 : some people just have "it"
Lars : i know. carry nila, carry
Lars : i knew 8 songs from the playlist im so proud of me
Lars : this is given na WALA AKONG ALAM last week kundi paint it black at satisfaction
volcanogirl28: bwahahhaha
Me Against the Music (April 12)
It all started because my friend Rey G, the computer god sent me a portable hard drive at my request because I was out of space for my mp3s.He was kind enough to format and set everything up for me before it even got here. So I transferred all of them over. I also wired my itunes to detect them in that folder. Occasionally I have to keep replugging it in because its not detected, which I assume because this is a portable computer and it moves around a lot and it is a device that is plugged in.Rey G also included his mp3s, as a well meaning surprise. So my 13mb Mp3 collection shot up to an unwarranted number with a whole lot of songs that I didn't really need. Granted, I loved all his RnB stuff but there was nothing alternative he had that I didn't already have, and really do I need "Hagibis", "Boyfriends" (who are they?!?!) or "Freestyle". I don't do Freestyle. (I did, however keep the Apo songs as a rememberance of my childhood. And yes, I kept Katawan. What do you think? I grew up on "Palibhasa Lalake" too...lalalalalalalalala) And I just wanted to say, really a person's Mp3 collection can tell you a lot about the person who owns them. Hmmm... ;)WEG.
So after editing out the doubles and shit I found that stuff still couldn't fit in my ipod. And/or it wasn't detecting. And/or it informed me that it couldn't copy playlists. Which effectively suddenly turned my ipod into one blank disc every podders worst nightmare.
Repeated troubleshooting and deleting later it is now it is finally copying all the files back - I'm on song no. 322 of 4676. We'll get there eventually. I just want my ipod back. Its name is Bono I love you II and I want it back in its proper form. Baby come back!
(on a tiny troubleshooting note, i have discovered that everytime i turn my pc back on or it comes back from standby i have to plug and replug my portable hard drive so that it redetects and registers that the songs are there. i don't mind, but i don't think that's supposed to happen, right?)
On a side note: My ipod is now fixed. I have since discovered the 80s music that Rey added and I am now a happy bunny. Thank you Rey! Mwa mwa!
Prelude to Easter (April 15)
Mum is here visiting. She went to Yamba with my relations (somewhere upstate near the border of Queensland) for a week. On the first day there she promptly tripped over a parking guard in the supermarket and had to be rushed to the hospital. She had bruises on her face, a split lip (which they glued together), and two broken teeth (pustiso, thank God) . Its not as bad as it sounds and she's okay.She sees specks in her eyes now, which the doctor says are permanent and they're like loose tissues. There's not anything that can be done, and its not a big deal he says as he was a soccer player sometime ago, and he has a lot of those floating in his eye. Which of course means that mum is now in league with David Beckham, Ronaldo, etc. who probably have equal amounts of tissue floating in their eyes thanks to hitting balls with their heads. Mum of course got hers from tripping over a parking guard and smacking herself on the ground.
Today Sacha and I saw the India.Arie Concert. All my pictures are fuzzy because its dark but all I have to say is that it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. (Now all I have to do is wait for Bono to come back...)
Easter Consumption (April 17)
Strangely, have discovered that I no longer crave chocolate as much as I used to, having given up chocolate (and chips) quite successfully for lent. I suppose we'll have to see if that's still the truth next week. Yesterday got off work early. My friend Karina and I shared the chocolate cadbury bunny I got myself to end my lenten fast and I discovered that I couldn't really glomp down chocolate straight anymore. I also turned down her offer of kit kat bites.After work, I swung by the bookstore to grab the sequel to the romance novel I had inadvertedly bought without knowing it was a two parter then headed off to church. Unlike Manila, you either go to mass in the morning or the afternoon, there is no such thing as a midday or a midafternoon mass on a Sunday so having missed the 7am mass thanks to work and having a family whole day affair that I was already late to resulting in me missing the last remaining mass of the day, I decided to just pass by to say hi and thank you.
Headed off to Epping, got picked up by my cousin Rochelle's boyfriend Sean, who is well, family they've been together for ages. We waited for my cousin Miel, the cake baker who was in the train right after mine and then headed over. I was so hungry because I hadn't eaten a thing since breakfast and a danish that I smushed into my mouth because I knew there would be tons for lunch and therefore did not eat, and it was almost three and I was starving. Sean, Rochelle and my cousin Lara all had to go, they had stayed to say hi to us and because they were leaving we all had to have picture taking. After the picture taking, galit-galit muna and I just kept on stuffing my face with my Auntie Genie's pork steak in mama sita sauce (Go Mama Sita!) and rice. (God I miss rice, I can never cook it right I have it max once a week now)
After nibbling on Miel's chocolate cake we hung out for a bit, laughed and exchanged stories. The highlights of the evening were mom's insistence of Miel's need to find a mate, thus telling cousin Andrew, who arrived with his Indo-Chinese girlfriend Natalie (who I like except theyre both _really_ _really_ high school type clingy) to find Miel a boyfriend and giving me the feeling that really they were treating her like some sort of animal that needed to reproduce. This lead to her trying to push it on _Me_ as the next oldest single person in the room.
Then there was mom explaining about what she saw in the Easter Show, leading her to say: "Ang lalaki ng mga Kalabaw." Which promted me, in my conoest best to say, "Mom, cows are bakas, okay! Kalabaws are carabaos. You saw bakas!"
Headed home instead of staying over and got home around 9ish. Today got up a bit late, headed to Manly with Mom and Vanessa to have lunch with family friends Tony and Jan. We had fish and chips by the beach, where it was hot but super windy making it cold anyway. Took a walk to Shelley Beach down by the inlet and had smoothies and some ice cream while everyone else had cappucinos.
Finished up and headed to Miel's for dinner. I cooked fish cakes, she made sinigang, of which I had 2 servings (Go Pinoy Food!). They said my fish cakes were good but I didn't try them because I was too busy eating the sinigang I've been craving for for the past two weeks - I can go for more than a month without philo food, don't even notice I'm missing it, because its too much of a waste to cook that much, though its kind of sad. And yes, had cake/ice cream for dessert.
Now I'm home and surprise, so are my housemates, which is a big change from the last week when none of us were home. Last night it was just me even. Found a giant chocolate bunny on my desk, which I think is from Sacha (left her one for easter saturday). I will save it for a moment when I truly feel like having a choccy.
The giant chocolate bunny. I took it to work, shared it with people, ate about a quarter and kinda fucked over my tummy.
Bugbog. (April 21)
Today I have eaten myself to a heartburn. I have had pasta for brunch, an assorted bit of snacks including chips and grapes, a few bites of a muffin, chicken and corn soup (even if i'm not supposed to eat corn, a friend made it, and it was good) massive amounts of water and a tiny chai latte. I ate the twisties like there was no tomorrow, it being my first twisties pack in over a month. It is now time to go back to no chips.Yesterday I got beaten up in kickboxing, although unintentionally. My partner was a nice indian girl with a mean right hook (if I could do hooks like that...champion talaga). She did regular boxing classes downstairs and was really good at punching. She was kind of new to kicks and she wasn't very good. Everyone who starts generally sucks but she sometimes had trouble hitting the pad. She narrowly missed my crotch during the inner thigh kicks and thus I have a large purple bruise on my inner left thigh. I also have two black bruises on my right one.
Since everyone else in the class is more experienced, we had inner and outer thigh and sweep kicks, which was a bit difficult for the two girls who had never done it before including her. It was also one of those warm downs that my instructor, Jo loves, the kind where you do 10 kicks on either side then ten push ups. And then 10 kicks on either side somewhere else (e.g. outer thigh) and then 9 push ups and it goes in descending order. We only did up to 5 push ups this time, thank God. Otherwise I think I might have died.
For the first time since I ditched chocolate and cheese my stomach feels like it is loaded and it will burst. Having lived for the past 40 days with a clean and healthy stomach, I realise the difference and know that it is the better feeling. So back to chocolate only for special occasions (like, max once a week, it really is the shits when I have it) and chips well, hopefully rarer! They are harder to resist now because they don't do anything to my beloved tummy.
Okay. We are not doing corn again. Heck, we are not eating the combination of foods we just had today again.
That has been my April so far... more as it happens.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Yes, I know we look alike. The youngest half of our generation (I barely make it and its only because the next oldest is 6 years older) takes a pose. I suppose when we were 5, 7 and 10 respectively we never envisioned ourselves sitting together at a restaurant in Sydney as a government employee looking for a better job, a future doctor/med student and a postgrad student in IT...
Sunday, April 02, 2006
I think I'm Kind of Important Now.
I cannot be enthused enough about Kanye West's concert. From the moment he opened with "Diamonds are Forever" it was absolutely electric.
Sacha and I sat on the last row of the dress circle in the Concert Hall of the Opera House. I can finally say that I've seen something in it! We were pretty lucky to get tickets - as Kanye said later, the concert sold out in 3 minutes. You could still see him clearly but couldn't make out any faces. We waited for perhaps about 30 minutes before the concert started.
The 18 piece string orchestra - all women in lovely black dresses - filled in. The lead violinist, who we later found out is with Kanye's team and is in charge of teaching all the orchestras the sequencing and practicing with them before every concert was in white. She was rather enthusiastic and kept waving at everybody and dancing up and down, even chatting with some people on the sides, which I found rather unprofessional, given that the rest of the orchestra was just sitting on stage. I kept wondering, what is up with this girl but then that was explained later when Kanye introduced his band. Everyone in the orchestra wore red wraparound shades to protect them from the strobe lights.
I was sort of feeling a little old, a lot of the people there were teenagers in retro clothes - I have never understood the 80s resurrection, the big belts, the weird Madonna style layering (sleeveless with off the shoulder), the high waists, I could go on. This was slightly alleviated by the fact that there were some older people, plus he did a slight retrospective on music that influenced him - with some Jackson 5 and AHA's Take On Me which everyone sang along to. I really enjoyed that - especially since he did some 80s dancing to Take On Me - and then I began to wonder if everyone else knew what it was because of the 80s bands or because of the boyband revivals...
We were up on our feet the moment he started. We sat down every now and then but a lot of people just didn't bother. A whole lot of them knew the lyrics to every song, I could only follow along with some of them. Sacha and I had just gotten his first album, College Dropout, courtesy of Pat our nice housemate who downloaded it using torrents recently and I didn't really listen to it much so there were some songs that sounded familiar but I didn't know the lyrics too.
In the middle of it all, he did a retrospective on the hiphop songs that influenced him, and he talked about how he had produced a lot of songs from famous hip hop artists like Ludacris. Kanye being Kanye, he also talked about himself a lot. Whatever anyone's ever said about his ego is true. I found it funny, as he makes fun of himself in a disparaging/egoistic way as well. Sacha thought that he was "like a child" because he lapped up all the attention we gave him. I suppose it didn't help that no matter what he said we all screamed anyway, even when he talked about his contribution to hip hop and said, "I think I'm a notch above everyone else" and, "I think I'm Kind of Important Now." Which I found funny but true. I don't know enough about hip hop to say what kind of important contribution he's made, although I've heard it said, but I love his music so he's important to me!.
The orchestra was excellent as well, and the lead violinist chick kept bouncing up and down. We all went crazy when he did Golddigger and then the lights went out, which I presume is the way he ends it, because every performer has about 2 songs as an encore and they always make it sound like they never plan it and the audience has to force them but really its planned all along. Well, we all certainly encouraged him, everyone screamed and clapped and someone even yelled out, "Wake Up Mr West!".
When he came back on he asked everyone to scream "so loud that I shouldn't even be able to hear the music" and we obliged. He also thanked all of us for coming and said, "thank you to all the girls who spent a little extra time getting ready because they knew they were going to see Kanye." I found that funny. The girl next to me was practically hyperventilating everytime a new song came out going, "Oh My God, Oh My God!". She knew every line, including the ones from the intros to his songs where he was just talking, as he did the intros too. (It made me wonder how wacko my friend Nic and I are going to be when we get to U2)
He ended the night with Touch the Sky, which is my favorite Kanye song and of course we all went wild. It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to (not that I've been to much, I seem to be making up for it this month...).
And yes, I am a hip hop fan. (but I'm not jologz :P)
Sacha and I sat on the last row of the dress circle in the Concert Hall of the Opera House. I can finally say that I've seen something in it! We were pretty lucky to get tickets - as Kanye said later, the concert sold out in 3 minutes. You could still see him clearly but couldn't make out any faces. We waited for perhaps about 30 minutes before the concert started.
The 18 piece string orchestra - all women in lovely black dresses - filled in. The lead violinist, who we later found out is with Kanye's team and is in charge of teaching all the orchestras the sequencing and practicing with them before every concert was in white. She was rather enthusiastic and kept waving at everybody and dancing up and down, even chatting with some people on the sides, which I found rather unprofessional, given that the rest of the orchestra was just sitting on stage. I kept wondering, what is up with this girl but then that was explained later when Kanye introduced his band. Everyone in the orchestra wore red wraparound shades to protect them from the strobe lights.
I was sort of feeling a little old, a lot of the people there were teenagers in retro clothes - I have never understood the 80s resurrection, the big belts, the weird Madonna style layering (sleeveless with off the shoulder), the high waists, I could go on. This was slightly alleviated by the fact that there were some older people, plus he did a slight retrospective on music that influenced him - with some Jackson 5 and AHA's Take On Me which everyone sang along to. I really enjoyed that - especially since he did some 80s dancing to Take On Me - and then I began to wonder if everyone else knew what it was because of the 80s bands or because of the boyband revivals...
We were up on our feet the moment he started. We sat down every now and then but a lot of people just didn't bother. A whole lot of them knew the lyrics to every song, I could only follow along with some of them. Sacha and I had just gotten his first album, College Dropout, courtesy of Pat our nice housemate who downloaded it using torrents recently and I didn't really listen to it much so there were some songs that sounded familiar but I didn't know the lyrics too.
In the middle of it all, he did a retrospective on the hiphop songs that influenced him, and he talked about how he had produced a lot of songs from famous hip hop artists like Ludacris. Kanye being Kanye, he also talked about himself a lot. Whatever anyone's ever said about his ego is true. I found it funny, as he makes fun of himself in a disparaging/egoistic way as well. Sacha thought that he was "like a child" because he lapped up all the attention we gave him. I suppose it didn't help that no matter what he said we all screamed anyway, even when he talked about his contribution to hip hop and said, "I think I'm a notch above everyone else" and, "I think I'm Kind of Important Now." Which I found funny but true. I don't know enough about hip hop to say what kind of important contribution he's made, although I've heard it said, but I love his music so he's important to me!.
The orchestra was excellent as well, and the lead violinist chick kept bouncing up and down. We all went crazy when he did Golddigger and then the lights went out, which I presume is the way he ends it, because every performer has about 2 songs as an encore and they always make it sound like they never plan it and the audience has to force them but really its planned all along. Well, we all certainly encouraged him, everyone screamed and clapped and someone even yelled out, "Wake Up Mr West!".
When he came back on he asked everyone to scream "so loud that I shouldn't even be able to hear the music" and we obliged. He also thanked all of us for coming and said, "thank you to all the girls who spent a little extra time getting ready because they knew they were going to see Kanye." I found that funny. The girl next to me was practically hyperventilating everytime a new song came out going, "Oh My God, Oh My God!". She knew every line, including the ones from the intros to his songs where he was just talking, as he did the intros too. (It made me wonder how wacko my friend Nic and I are going to be when we get to U2)
He ended the night with Touch the Sky, which is my favorite Kanye song and of course we all went wild. It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to (not that I've been to much, I seem to be making up for it this month...).
And yes, I am a hip hop fan. (but I'm not jologz :P)
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Hachoo
Last Sunday I took to cleaning the lounge room, or rather the little nook in the corner where my cousin will be staying. Since our house used to be a shop, the front part has this little entry way where i presume people came in which is now closed up. I only have a picture of it without the bed in it so just try to imagine that little door with a mattress in front of it.
Its actually quite cozy what with the nice blankets and covering that you'll have to imagine and some linen hanging on the wall as decoration.
Now in the process of cleaning this and stuffing the tiny holes - which were again, for the shop - in the ground with bluetack to avoid the unecessary entry of the insect variety and sweeping I developed allergies which have now escalated to what appears to be a cold and a slight dry cough.
Thankfully I had no work today so I stayed at home except for the immediate rush to the pharmacy when I woke up and found myself hoarse. I obtained Dry cough medicine and betadine gargle to supplement my kick ass antihistamines and the Pei Pao Kua - known as Pippa Gao here - that is downstairs and belongs to my housemate.
I underestimated, or rather forgot the effect of my antihistamines and as such knocked out while trying to read marxism for class and woke up to discover I had highlighted myself purple, resulting in me putting my favorite light blue shirt in a napisan dip. (Go Napisan! I believe in you!)
I managed to finish my article and am now reading about systems design. I also discovered that there was an extra oh, i don't know 50 pages to read for law in another book, that I tried to print off the internet and resulted in me completely draining my printer ink.
I am now in the midst of packing for Melbourne plus finishing systems design plus trying to remain coherent enough to be able to answer some of the law questiosn that we all said we would do by tomorrow for my group work. I tried to change my flight to Thursday morning but the Filipino - I am so definately sure that I was connected to a call centre in Manila even if we didn't acknowledge each other's Filipinoness (hello my name is maria! im sure he guessed) - I spoke to said it would cost an extra 70 dollars so there you go, I passed.
I have decided that if I still feel like shit tomorrow I will skip one class and then come home directly after the quiz in my third class to grab my stuff and go to the airport. I am arriving at something like 1045 and will have to take a train plus walk for about 20 minutes to get to my friend's place. I borrowed Sacha's red mini-maleta in anticipation of the books I will bring home. I'm also taking homework with me, how sad is that?
Anyway, I don't think I'm supremely sick because I have the energy to do stuff, I'm just perpetually sneezy and groggy. Hopefully all this preventive medication will work and I will be good enough for a jaunt to Melbourne and Kaaaaaanyeeeee when I get back!
Its actually quite cozy what with the nice blankets and covering that you'll have to imagine and some linen hanging on the wall as decoration.
Now in the process of cleaning this and stuffing the tiny holes - which were again, for the shop - in the ground with bluetack to avoid the unecessary entry of the insect variety and sweeping I developed allergies which have now escalated to what appears to be a cold and a slight dry cough.
Thankfully I had no work today so I stayed at home except for the immediate rush to the pharmacy when I woke up and found myself hoarse. I obtained Dry cough medicine and betadine gargle to supplement my kick ass antihistamines and the Pei Pao Kua - known as Pippa Gao here - that is downstairs and belongs to my housemate.
I underestimated, or rather forgot the effect of my antihistamines and as such knocked out while trying to read marxism for class and woke up to discover I had highlighted myself purple, resulting in me putting my favorite light blue shirt in a napisan dip. (Go Napisan! I believe in you!)
I managed to finish my article and am now reading about systems design. I also discovered that there was an extra oh, i don't know 50 pages to read for law in another book, that I tried to print off the internet and resulted in me completely draining my printer ink.
I am now in the midst of packing for Melbourne plus finishing systems design plus trying to remain coherent enough to be able to answer some of the law questiosn that we all said we would do by tomorrow for my group work. I tried to change my flight to Thursday morning but the Filipino - I am so definately sure that I was connected to a call centre in Manila even if we didn't acknowledge each other's Filipinoness (hello my name is maria! im sure he guessed) - I spoke to said it would cost an extra 70 dollars so there you go, I passed.
I have decided that if I still feel like shit tomorrow I will skip one class and then come home directly after the quiz in my third class to grab my stuff and go to the airport. I am arriving at something like 1045 and will have to take a train plus walk for about 20 minutes to get to my friend's place. I borrowed Sacha's red mini-maleta in anticipation of the books I will bring home. I'm also taking homework with me, how sad is that?
Anyway, I don't think I'm supremely sick because I have the energy to do stuff, I'm just perpetually sneezy and groggy. Hopefully all this preventive medication will work and I will be good enough for a jaunt to Melbourne and Kaaaaaanyeeeee when I get back!
Monday, March 20, 2006
And so it begins.
This semester after some manuevering and trying out different classes I have ended up with law, business intelligence, IT risk management and assurance and the politics of the world economy. I also managed to make it so I only had to go to uni for 2 days - Monday for one class and the rest on Wednesday.
Needless to say, by the end of my last class at 9pm on Wed I'm pretty burnt out. And I need massive doses of sugar and on occasion the forbidden fruit known as caffeine to get me through it, though our teacher is excellent. The fact is, its a 9 hour day with a one hour space in between and that's it.
Law is proving to be quite interesting and despite being only at it for 2 weeks I have been enjoying it. As I told my best friend Jenny, "This is the part where we find out if my father was right and whether or not I should have taken law." (Not that it means that I will suddenly take up law), which by the way is the chosen profession that everyone nominated for me in one of those forwards that you pass around and ask people questions about yourself to see how well they know you. In the part where it says, "What do you think I should be when I grow up?" I distinctly remember a whole shitload of people in the office saying either "Law or Rule the World".
As I have no desire to be the next Oprah or a member of the British Royal Family or I don't know, American, (or Republican!) I suppose my attempt in law will have to suffice.
I've been perpetually sleepy of late, which is a switch from last week's "I couldn't sleep at all" thanks to the variety of noises outside my room including the pain in the ass fire alarm from the building acrosss the road on tuesday night, and the drunken couple on wednesday night. Looks like we are moving in July.
My mother is arriving next week, with my cousin otherwise known as "she who could not decide whether to come or not and took so long she missed tickets to the lion king and thus will have to go on a different day." I will be housing my cousin for two weeks, in the bed in the little nook in the living room. She is known for being rather sheltered and I am told, incapable of making a decision on her own, aka one of those "I don't know, it's up to you, bahala ka" nahihiya types, which needless to say is the bane of existence of every only child. I am somewhat of the belief that she may turn out to be a bit more self-assertive as she too is an only child, so we may end up just clashing with me making her go the way I want her to. At least this time she's too old to bite me, which she did quite often as a small child.
I have, however, in preparation had my mother set her expectations. (now, don't say i didn't learn anything from you, d.e.b... :P)
I will have to figure out how to now fit family into my ever pressing schedule. I was planning on doing more volunteer work at uni this semester but I don't know how to fit it in anymore, I hope I can do more of it sometime.
I am going to Melbourne next week, to meet up with mum and my cousin. The U2 concert was postponed to November due to "the illness of a family member" (who we all suspect is Edge's 8 year old daughter who has cancer) and so I'm going to meet up with them that weekend instead and catch the Lion King, see friends and go see the romance novel bookstore!.
In the meantime, I'm off to finish that episode of South Park that was banned from being shown because it prominently featured Scientology and a certain couch jumping man protested.
And then I've got to get back to that law book and finish Chapter 8.
Needless to say, by the end of my last class at 9pm on Wed I'm pretty burnt out. And I need massive doses of sugar and on occasion the forbidden fruit known as caffeine to get me through it, though our teacher is excellent. The fact is, its a 9 hour day with a one hour space in between and that's it.
Law is proving to be quite interesting and despite being only at it for 2 weeks I have been enjoying it. As I told my best friend Jenny, "This is the part where we find out if my father was right and whether or not I should have taken law." (Not that it means that I will suddenly take up law), which by the way is the chosen profession that everyone nominated for me in one of those forwards that you pass around and ask people questions about yourself to see how well they know you. In the part where it says, "What do you think I should be when I grow up?" I distinctly remember a whole shitload of people in the office saying either "Law or Rule the World".
As I have no desire to be the next Oprah or a member of the British Royal Family or I don't know, American, (or Republican!) I suppose my attempt in law will have to suffice.
I've been perpetually sleepy of late, which is a switch from last week's "I couldn't sleep at all" thanks to the variety of noises outside my room including the pain in the ass fire alarm from the building acrosss the road on tuesday night, and the drunken couple on wednesday night. Looks like we are moving in July.
My mother is arriving next week, with my cousin otherwise known as "she who could not decide whether to come or not and took so long she missed tickets to the lion king and thus will have to go on a different day." I will be housing my cousin for two weeks, in the bed in the little nook in the living room. She is known for being rather sheltered and I am told, incapable of making a decision on her own, aka one of those "I don't know, it's up to you, bahala ka" nahihiya types, which needless to say is the bane of existence of every only child. I am somewhat of the belief that she may turn out to be a bit more self-assertive as she too is an only child, so we may end up just clashing with me making her go the way I want her to. At least this time she's too old to bite me, which she did quite often as a small child.
I have, however, in preparation had my mother set her expectations. (now, don't say i didn't learn anything from you, d.e.b... :P)
I will have to figure out how to now fit family into my ever pressing schedule. I was planning on doing more volunteer work at uni this semester but I don't know how to fit it in anymore, I hope I can do more of it sometime.
I am going to Melbourne next week, to meet up with mum and my cousin. The U2 concert was postponed to November due to "the illness of a family member" (who we all suspect is Edge's 8 year old daughter who has cancer) and so I'm going to meet up with them that weekend instead and catch the Lion King, see friends and go see the romance novel bookstore!.
In the meantime, I'm off to finish that episode of South Park that was banned from being shown because it prominently featured Scientology and a certain couch jumping man protested.
And then I've got to get back to that law book and finish Chapter 8.
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