Kezziness

Random pic from our city travels

2009-11-16T14:58:00.002+11:00

^ taken yesterday whilst walking around in the city. I thought it was a random shop window display.

Spelling!

2009-10-19T17:31:00.000+11:00

^ Spot the spelling mistake. I laughed.

he's for sale!

2009-10-19T17:23:00.001+11:00

^You can buy him for $6! I saw this whilst shopping with M. I had to laugh!

M and Portia

2009-10-19T16:27:00.002+11:00

^ Portia and M. Our chooks are quite tame. M has trained Portia to sit on his arm. She sits quietly on his arm and doesn't try to get off. Portia is the tamest of all the chooks.
This particular time she was eager to keep eating. Usually she is quite happy to sit on his arm for a few minutes.

Unique find

2009-10-19T15:59:00.002+11:00

^ I found this unique serviette holder at one one of the local op-shops yesterday. What a find! Cost 40 cents! I love the box it came in, vintage and cute.

Creative writing course week 2

2009-10-16T06:54:00.004+11:00

This lesson we learned about some different poetry forms.

The forms that we learned were limerick, villanelle and haiku.
I knew how to do limerick and haiku, but had never heard of villanelle before.

Limerick and haiku are fairly easy, but villanelle is a bit more challenging.

An example of a limerick:

Once, while under the trees (A)
a dear lady sat drinking her teas (A)
out came the host (B)
they had a good toast (B)
but before they had a good squeeze (A)

Written by me.

It has a certain rhythm and rhyme to it.
There are two sets of rhyming couplets as shown and then the last line rhymes with the first two lines. There is also a songlike quality to the way it's read.

Haiku poems are very simple and short.
It is 3 lines long
The first line must use a nature or season word
There has to be one cutting or terminating word at the end of one of the lines
no rhyme or metaphor
The Japanese way of writing Haiku is the 5 - 7 - 5 syllable rule. However it is not necessary to stick to this rule in English Haiku.

Rain uncovers new dirt
heavy black clouds
thirsty plants refreshed

Written by me.

A Villanelle is six stanzas long, each stanza has 3 lines of poetry except for the last stanza. It is based around a rhyming couplet which is worked into the poem in a A B pattern. The last stanza consists of 4 lines with the last two lines being the base rhyming couplet.
There are five tercets (3 lines) and one concluding quatrain (4 lines).

It uses this form:

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 2 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 4 (a)

Line 5 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 7 (a)

Line 8 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 10 (a)

Line 11 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Line 13 (a)

Line 14 (b)

Refrain 2 (A²)

Line 16 (a)

Line 17 (b)

Refrain 1 (A¹)

Refrain 2 (A²)

An example.

Edwin Arlington Robinson's villanelle The House on the Hill was first published in The Globe in September 1894.

They are all gone away, (A¹)

The House is shut and still, (b)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

Through broken walls and gray (a)

The winds blow bleak and shrill. (b)

They are all gone away. (A²)

Nor is there one to-day (a)

To speak them good or ill: (b)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

Why is it then we stray (a)

Around the sunken sill? (b)

They are all gone away, (A²)

And our poor fancy-play (a)

For them is wasted skill: (b)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

There is ruin and decay (a)

In the House on the Hill: (b)

They are all gone away, (A¹)

There is nothing more to say. (A²)

Source: wikipedia

I must confess I struggled with this form of poetry as I am not used to structured poetry and rhyming poetry. I write free verse poetry mostly.
However I am finding it to be an interesting style, one I think I will get better at as I learn more.

I have ordered a rhyming dictionary and a phrase thesaurus so that will definitely help me.

Creative writing course

2009-10-08T21:37:00.006+11:00

I had my first lesson for the creative writing course. It was really good. I really enjoyed myself. The teacher/presenter did a good job too.
There were about 11 or 12 people in the group. There was only one male. Most were older - 40-60s age group. There was one girl that was around my age - we sort connected because of that and also because we didn't know anyone else. The others all seemed to know each other. Not that it mattered everyone was treated the same.

There were five writing exercises that we did.

The first one was we had to write whatever came to mind for five minutes. We had to use the sentence 'bring me the sunset in a cup' somewhere in the writing though.
This was alot of fun and I came up with all sorts of random things. After the 5 minutes was up we were given the choice to share our writings. Everyone did except for one person. As each person read their piece of writing; the group would respond positively. The group had a positive and relaxing atmosphere about it. Even though I didn't know anyone, I felt accept and not judged. It was quite unusual, but nice for a change.

The second one we were given a scenario and we had to write using that scenario. The scenario was; leaning against a tree listening to a storyteller tell a story. We had to write what the story was. We had 15 minutes to write whatever story we came up with. After the 15 minutes those that wanted shared their stories. Once again everyone was very accepting and enthusiastic about each persons story.

The third writing exercise was writing a poem - my forte! However we were given a list of words to incorporate into the poem. We had to use 5 out of the 7 words.
The words are:
black
emerald
wild
blue
moonrain
angels
sulky

We all shared our poems - each person had such different ideas and poems. I think mine was the darkest. I couldn't get past the word black - it kept bringing the rest of the words down.
here is my poem:

Wild black thoughts

On an emerald day

My sulky mood

Waits for nothing

I sit

think

thoughts

Many thoughts

tumble over

red, purple and pink

there are too many

overwhelmed

my sulky mood

on an emerald day

Wild black thoughts

return

dominate

control

must break free

The fourth writing exercise we were given a scenario where we were invisible and we had to write what we would do, say and listen to. It was quite a fun writing exercise. There were some funny stories that came out of it.

The fifth writing exercise was similar to the first. We had to write whatever came to mind. However there was no sentence we had to include.

We were also given homework - either keep working on one of the exercises/stories I have started or invent a character and write three journal entries that tell a story.

It was a very fun learning experience. I am so glad I signed up for it. I believe it will be one of the best things I have done.

Book quotes

2009-10-07T07:10:00.002+11:00

A few quotes from one of my favourite books. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

"She laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music. She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person.."

"She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew."

New adventures

2009-10-06T21:01:00.001+11:00

I'm going to be going to the art group on Fridays from now on. I'm really looking forward to it.
I have also signed up to go to a creative writing course that runs for 2 months or so. It is run by a poet, and children's writer. I am really looking forward to that too. Exciting times ahead.

Creativity

2009-10-05T15:54:00.003+11:00

Art: I'm possibly going to be able to go to an art group thing from 11 - 4 on Fridays. I'm very excited! I find out tomorrow.
It will be good to have space, time and support regarding my creative journey.

Realisation

2009-10-03T12:03:00.004+10:00

A day of blah...well that's how I feel. Today is a day of realisation.

Image courtesy of stock.xchng.com

Aging....not really.

2009-10-02T14:37:00.003+10:00

Trying to see if I've aged (ie look older) hmm...was looking at photos from when I first got married to now. I don't feel older, prob look it. Although I have been told that I look as young as 18-20 - nice compliment really seeing that I'm going to be 26 next year. I'd rather look younger than older. I hope it stays that way as I get older.

It was like that even when I was a teenager. People who met my sister and I used to think my sister was older than I. It annoyed me somewhat at the time, but now I'm glad. I remember when I was 17 being told I looked 13. That was an insult then, not so much now.
Having said that, my sister wore makeup alot whereas I never wore it. That could be one reason why. I still don't wear make up (hardly ever anyway). It doesn't appeal to me to put on a mask to improve how I look. I'd rather be myself.

Amused

2009-10-01T16:17:00.001+10:00

These two 'how to' links amused me.

Create your own language

Create your own style

Random.

Squashed seedlings

2009-10-01T16:12:00.004+10:00

Tiger was sleeping on my seedlings today. He was curled up in the box I have them in, sleeping right on top of them and squashing them! *screams in frustration*
Cats!

Anaglyph

2009-10-01T14:07:00.003+10:00

I created this anaglyph effect in Photoshop. It's actually for an assignment I am doing at the moment, believe it or not. I have to write a unit of work for students that involve technology - any technology - computers, printers, cameras, scanners, various programs. I came up with this idea, I got the tutorial from worth1000.com and thought why not. Then I had the fun task of making it an actual assignment and to make it more involved rather than just a simple task as making this effect in Photoshop.
So I'm going to get students to collect 8-10 items that reflect who they are and photograph them and making it a anaglyph - put simply. I have to make examples of what the work looks like as part of my assignment so there's my anaglyph with my reflectional items about me.

Now I just need some 3D glasses.

Our chooks

2009-10-01T13:45:00.001+10:00

^ photos of our chooks. They are funny to watch and quite tame.

Past thoughts

2009-10-01T12:02:00.005+10:00

I found a piece of prose I'd written ages ago. Probably close to 8 years ago. It was an odd experience I had when I was relaxing on my bed. I think I was listening to Linkin Park, but I can't really remember.

The sound of the ocean sounded so surreal all around me.
The distant waves crashed onto the towering cliff, the sound was so real.
I looked at the calm waves beside me, gently nudging the shore.
The sky was hard, cold and wintery looking,
and yet it looked fresh as though it were new.
The spray from the distant waves splattered the cliff,
like the many more waves to come.
Then all of a sudden I heard a loud noise beside me
of a breaking wave,
I felt the wave pull me toward the sea bed,
I floated along with it
and it felt like I was nothing, totally weightless
as I floated and moved with the motion of the ocean.
Then suddenly I shook myself
and I was back on my bed,
half expecting to be surrounded by water.

Image courtesy of: http://www.sxc.hu/home

Amusing quote

2009-10-01T11:51:00.008+10:00

I just found a quote of Andy Warhol's that I had written down when I was younger. I just had to share it. I must have liked it then and still do. It's amusing.

"My favourite thing to buy is underwear. I think buying underwear is the most personal thing you can do, and if you could watch a person buying underwear you would really get to know them. I mean, I would rather watch somebody buying their underwear than read a book they wrote. I think the strangest people are the ones who send somebody else to buy their underwear for them. I also wonder about people who don't buy underwear. I can understand not wearing it, but not buying it?" Andy Warhol.

Image courtesy of: http://www.sxc.hu/home

It's been way too long!!!

2009-09-21T13:37:00.002+10:00

Gosh I haven't blogged for ages. I've not had the inspiration or desire to.
I've been so busy with lots of things, working mainly until last week - it was random casual work that my husband's work gave me. The work itself was rather boring - entering numbers, checking things off and helping with bank recos. I've also been busy getting our garden and yard organised and sowing seeds. You see, we are getting chooks soon. We have the chook house and yard made up. M and I worked on it together. We got the chook house off ebay - a flat pack kit house that seems pretty sturdy. It also seems fox and snake proof which is good. We are getting the chooks tonight - we're both excited. it's going to be a new experience and fun as well. Tiger will be rather intrigued by the newcomers. I'm not sure what he will do. I'm sure it will be amusing to watch though.

I have also been making ginger beer. The first batch is nearly ready. I can't wait to drink some. I'm sure it will be great!

The main reason I wanted to blog is because I wanted to share that I have finally made a book of all my poems using lulu.com It's great because I can get my book printed but I don't have to sell it. I designed it in Indesign and found great free stock photos on stock xchng.com
Alot of work went into and I've been working on it for a year. I am so glad it's finally done!
Most of the poems that are in the book are poems I wrote during my teenage years, there are some from my childhood too. I used to be able to compose poems in my head and write them out. Or they would just come to me in a flash of inspiration. Unfortunately I have lost that somewhat - probably because I haven't used it enough. I have been too busy and weighed down with life. I want to get back into poetry writing though. I really really enjoy it. It's really fun and inspiring once I get into it. The book looks really good. Of course M helped me design it because he is a graphic designer. He knows so much about Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. I was trying to design my book and having a few troubles. I ask M for help and he spends a few minutes working on it and it looks amazing!! I am so blessed to have a graphic designer husband - it comes in handy :)
There is a poem writing contest that's on at the moment. I really want to enter. I haven't written anything yet, but I'm planning on it. Just need to set aside some time for it.

That's just a taste of what I've been doing - there's lots more.
Right now though I am beginning my studies - it is rather late to start I know. There was alot of organising for the Uni to do before I could start. I'm doing these two subjects as a one off distance thing because my cross institutional didn't work out. I'm eternally grateful though that I am able to finally complete my teaching. It's been a long time coming, I can tell you that. So I really have to get my butt into action and get my study done on time.

We also recently celebrated our 2nd anniversary of marriage. Which gave us time to reflect on the past 2 years. We are happier than ever and taking steps to become even closer and building a better marriage. It's great.

I also bought a few books - that I want to eventually read. One of them is about the inner child. it's called Homecoming by John Bradshaw. I'm really enjoying reading it. It explains so much about all the crap that people pick up from their childhoods and how it gets passed on from parent to child in a crazy vicious cycle that won't stop unless someone makes a decision to break the cycle. Which I have decided to do. I don't want to pass on all the crap that my parents gave me onto our future children. No offense to my parents of course - they couldn't help it. No one can. They've done an amazing job and did the best they could with what they had at the time.

The rest of the books are about materialism, the effects of advertising (how it manipulates people into buying more stuff), more family stuff (it's called "They F*** you up") and the history of perfume. I love reading stuff about the world and what makes it tick. I also love reading biographies, particularly about people that have survived abuse.

Overheard conversation

2009-08-27T18:15:00.003+10:00

I don't normally listen to other peoples' conversations. I tend to listen to my ipod and zone out while traveling on public transport.
Today however, I heard this: (between two upper primary students)

boy: "Why would she wear a bikini when she doesn't have a pubic chest?"

*silence* for a few moments

(meanwhile I'm laughing to myself)

girl: "Why don't you just say boobs?"

boy: "Because I'm not that sort of guy"

girl: "oh yeah...whatever."

I was amused for quite awhile after that

The rest of their conversation was quite amusing too, but this stuck out.

Limes, lemons & lemonades...

2009-07-28T09:57:00.002+10:00

I have been quite busy. Recently I was given lots of limes and lemonades from a friend. I also got some free lemons from somewhere else. All up I'm guessing I had around 4 kg of limes, 4 kg of lemonades and 10 kg of lemons. That's alot of citrus! There is a purpose to the mad bulkness. I juiced the majority of the lemons and limes and froze the juice in small plastic bag ice cubes (Glad of course). So I will not run out of lime or lemon juice for a long time. I also grated the rind of 60 lemons and froze it, so I won't be running out of rind anytime soon either.

With the majority of the lemonades and some limes I made lemonade syrup concentrate. I now have lots of lemonade syrup. It's very delicious, very easy to make and very cheap too. Recipe here. I added lemon rind to it also as other recipes I found for lemonade syrup said to add that too.

With some of the lemons I made lemon butter for the first time and it didn't quite turn out as well as I'd hoped. I tried to preserve them, but I will have to redo two of the jars as they didn't pop in.

I will be attempting to make meringues today as lemon butter requires only egg yolks, so I have lots of egg white that needs using.

The house smells of lemons.

our outback trip

2009-07-20T16:21:00.005+10:00

I've been rather busy since I returned from my trip to visit M's family. It was a lovely trip. M's grandfather didn't know we were there until we surprised him. He was speechless when he first saw us, but was very happy. I am glad we could make him so happy for his 90th birthday.

Overall we had a great time, it was very relaxing and much needed for M and I. The drive wasn't as long as I thought it would be, and I enjoyed the actual travelling. There were lots of cute little country towns along the way. We'd like to go back to one or two of them someday.
It was good to see M's family again, we hadn't really seen them since we moved Feb last year, particularly his grandparents.

M got a hair cut, it went from just above his shoulders to really short. His mum demanded he have a haircut and said "M, your hair is disgusting!" Thus he got a haircut.

The two days of driving there and back that we did, we left really early before sunrise so we were able to get get beautiful photos of the sunrise. The morning we took these it was a frost, freezing cold and there was ice all over the car.

The dog photo is M's pop's (not his grandfather) dog. He is a very well trained dog. If M's Pop wants his slippers, he just has to ask the dog and he will get them for him. He also collects the mail, brings the clappers to Pop and one other thing...can't remember what. He loves playing ball though, so we were throwing the ball for him to catch and he caught it and I took the photo.

The old car and building are where we went when we first started going out over 4 years ago. We haven't been back since, so we decided to have a look and get some photos while we were there. It is a beautiful place to photograph and have photoshoots. I need models to come out there...such a long way though—sigh.

We also went to our favourite milk bar, it is set up like the 1950s and has amazing flavours for milkshakes and spiders. Everytime we go to visit (which has only been once so far) we go there. But when we lived there, we would go there quite a bit.
It was a wonderful but way too short trip. Of course I had to look in op-shops in pretty much every place we stopped at, just can't get enough of it.

My favourite Coldplay songs

2009-07-02T10:17:00.002+10:00

Animals: B-Sides (Disc 2)
No More Keeping My Feet Off The Ground: B-Sides (Disc 1)
A Message: X & Y
Til Kingdom Come (Bonus Track): X & Y
Everything's Not Lost: Parachutes
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face: A Rush Of Blood To The Head
The Scientist: A Rush Of Blood To The Head
White Shadows: X & Y
Fix You: X & Y
Speed Of Sound: X & Y
Such A Rush: B-Sides (Disc 1)
Bigger Stronger: B-Sides (Disc 1)
For You: B-Sides (Disc 1)
Lost!: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Viva La Vida: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Violet Hill: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
42: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
One I love: Castles
Brothers & Sisters: B sides (Disc 1)
Where is my boy: B sides (disc 2)
Moses: Castles

I like all their music, but these ones really are fantastic in my opinion.

I can remember the exact moment when I became a fan of Coldplay. I was 16 and studying for my year 11 exams (in NZ so prob year 10 in Oz). I had the radio on, I heard this amazing song, I could not believe my ears and the vocals were so unusual sounding. I wanted to hear more and find out who they were. The song was Yellow—I fell in love with Coldplay at that moment of first hearing them and have been a fan ever since. I remember most people I met not really liking Coldplay, but I remained a faithful fan! It's coming up to 10 years of being a fan—wow! That's gone fast. Their sound has changed somewhat, but they are still good as always.

I have all their music, albums, B sides–everything! (That I know about).

I'm liking their new album Viva La Vida or Death and all his friends–its a different sound to their older music, but I think its an improvement, change is good anyway.

Holiday

2009-07-01T16:11:00.002+10:00

I'm going on a short holiday. It is M's grandfather's 90th birthday, so we are driving 12 hours to see M's family for the weekend. It will be a welcome break—chance to see family and to photograph different places. Where M's family live is outback Australia, in the desert, with lots of red dirt, sun and no mountains; it is very flat. The colours are very different to where we live, will be a welcome change. I am also looking forward to the trip out there—photographing different places we pass through.

A think

2009-07-01T13:36:00.004+10:00

It's a crazy world when there are people saying there is no God, people saying there is a God and people saying they are god.

It's all about choice.

A thought.

holidays!

2009-06-30T18:07:00.002+10:00

Gosh it's been awhile!
I have been busy studying for my exam, but all that's over now, so gratefully glad! It's time to go crazy! Flying on the crazyness of my mind, being free all the time!!!

I've been listening to Linnkin Park and gosh...I'm loving it! I haven't listened to them for ages.

I just don't know what to do with myself—there's so many options, so many possibilities!

Time to fly!

4 year anniversary

2009-06-17T18:38:00.004+10:00

4 years ago today my dear sweet (now) husband asked me out to be his girlfriend. I can remember every detail. I remember where we were standing, in which town and what he said. It was a wonderful moment, I will treasure it always in my heart. It was funny actually because he kissed me (just a light kiss on the lips) before he even asked me out. We were talking about the fact that it had been 4 years since we started dating. I asked him if he remembered our first kiss, he didn't. So I told him the story of our first kiss, he didn't believe that it was before he asked me out.

I really can't believe it has been 4 years, its gone so fast. So much as changed too. I am glad we are together and stronger than ever.

Ah, but now you want to know the story of how it all came to be...
Perhaps in another post, another time.

Poem

2009-06-17T14:21:00.005+10:00

What intrigues you, dear cat,
as you sit upon your rock,
inspecting
What do you long to capture
will you jump, or
will you sit?
You sniff the air so fresh,
contemplating your next move.
You sit upon your rock
so proud, so bold,
yet you do not move.
What has captured your attention?
For I cannot see your intrigument.

I composed this poem after a short refreshing walk in the cool air with the lovely warm winter sun on my face. I happened upon Tiger perched upon a rock and was inspired. I broke out into poem right there and then as he sat upon his rock ignoring me as I spoke my poem to him.

Fresh water

2009-06-16T14:25:00.004+10:00

We fill up our water from this natural spring in the mountains, its fresh and lovely tasting. Every time we drive up there to fill up there is almost always at least 4-5 cars waiting to fill up. It is rather popular. Some people have a trailer load of empty bottles to fill up. It's kinda frustrating for us if we are in line behind them as we only have 6 bottles to fill.
We have been drinking this water for over a year and had no problems. Its lovely water to drink. At least it doesn't have all those nasty added chemicals - chlorine, fluoride and whatever else is added to water these days. I cannot stand the taste of tap water - it tastes salty and chlorinated to me - not fresh at all. If we ever move, we are so getting a water filter.

A new pet!

2009-06-16T14:12:00.002+10:00

We now are the proud owners of a lovely goldfish. We got him from M's workmate who is sadly moving to another city due to various issues. The poor thing hadn't had a clean tank in awhile so we gave it a clean for him. Not that reflects his previous owner - she looked after him fine.
She called him Kingkong, so I guess we will continue to call him that.

Tiger has been rather intrigued by Kingkong, he tries to get as close to the glass as he can to see if he can catch him. I'll be watching Tiger though and making sure he doesn't eat Kingkong.

Strange Ivy

2009-06-13T13:10:00.003+10:00

We just had someone come to our door asking if they could cut some of our Ive off our fence. We were rather confused. It is a weed - people want to get rid of it! We want to get rid of it! People amaze me with their randomness - I am glad though. It makes me laugh.

SNOW!!

2009-06-11T18:22:00.004+10:00

It's snowing on the Mt of (....) in (....) he he. It's lovely, lots of amazing soft, fresh fallen snow.
Della, myself and M (husby) went to see the snow yesterday. It was wonderful and very cold. There was a huge amount of snow, the road to the top of the mountain was closed. It started snowing when we arrived which made for a lovely blanket of fresh fallen snow.
I took my cloak up, Della and M were taking photos of me wearing it. It was fun! I haven't had much chance to wear my cloak yet, its not the sort of outfit one wears just anywhere (unless I want to scare people). There are more photos here.
We are going up again tomorrow to spend more time at the snow and take more photos.

What happens when no one is looking

2009-06-10T15:24:00.002+10:00

Over the weekend (as posted previously) we had Harry aka the orange kitty visit us. Tiger does not like Harry at all. Whenever Harry is around, Tioger looks agitated and annoyed. He hisses and growls at him on occasion too. Harry is of course totally oblivious to Tiger's dislike of him and chases Tiger around. Tiger does not like this at all and has batted at Harry with his paws, to warn him away.
On Monday (it was a long weekend so M was home) we were both at our computers doing stuff. I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. I peeked out the window, there was Tiger and Harry lying in the exact same position next to each other, one on each chair. I raced to tell M. M laughed so hard when he saw them. M said, "quick get a photo. Where's your camera?" "It's right here," I replied, pointing at my camera. M grabbed my camera and took photos - all the while taking care not to disturb Harry and Tiger. When M had finished I got a few photos too. Throughout this time Harry and Tiger did not notice us taking photos. I'm sure if they did, Tiger would have started hissing and growling.
Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Harry and Tiger lying in the exact same position. It's still hilarious though, Tiger had been so adamant that he disliked Harry...

Bulkness - cat food and other bargains

2009-06-09T18:24:00.006+10:00

I am somewhat of a bulk Queen. I love buying in bulk - I simply cannot help myself. I have been known to buy 9 kgs of washing powder in the past. I walk past something really cheap in the supermarket (that we need) and I cannot resist grabbing multiples. I dislike buying small packets of things when I can buy big - uber Big! It works out alot cheaper in the end anyway. Which brings me to explaining the photo.

This past weekend my husband and I were driving to closest biggest shopping mall (around 40 min away) and we stopped to fill up petrol as the car was almost empty. Right next door to the petrol station is a bulk pet/stock food & supplies store. I said to my husband "I will go and check it out while you fill up." He nodded, knowing we needed cat food. I wandered into the shop, it was cold. It was one of those open, cement floor places with no heating. I wandered around trying to find the cat food section. Eventually I found it, the section didn't have alot of range. There was mainly cat biscuits, not tins. This was fine though as we needed biscuits. I looked at the range of cat biscuits and the prices. By this time M had finished filling up and was looking at the cat biscuits too. We worked out the price per kilo for each of the different brands. We worked out the cheapest one which is the one pictured above. It was $26.90 (AUD) for 8kg, which works out to be $3.40 per kg.That is quite cheap. We decided we would check out the price per kg in the supermarket of the same brand before buying it. We had to buy other items anyway.
We left the shop, continued driving, arrived at our destination and did the rest of the shopping. We looked at the prices of the same brand in the supermarket, it was around $7.50 per kg - what a difference. We finished the shopping, drove back and bought the huge bag of cat biscuits. We were a bit worried that Tiger wouldn't like them - as he is super fussy, but he loves them. I think 8kg works out to be around 4 months supply of cat biscuits too.

Other items I have in bulk (or have bought)
Wheat 20 kg (we have stone mill grinder - so can grind our own wholemeal flour)
Rice (Basmati) 10 kg
Lentils 3 kg
Brown Rice 5 kg
Chickpeas 4 kg
Red Kidney beans 3 kg
Honey 3 kg
Black beans 3kg
Toilet paper 8 double length rolls
Olive oil 4 litres
Sesame seeds 3 kg
Linseed 3 kg
Cashews 2 kg
Pumpkin seeds 2 kg
Sunflower seeds 2 kg
Shampoo & Conditioner 6 lots of 300ml bottles (they were $2.95 each on special)
Fruit Juice 2x 3 litres

As you can see I like to stock up. I dislike having to run to the shop all the time and buy pathetic small overpriced packets of the above items. When I can buy them in bulk for much cheaper and it lasts for ages.
I have even considered buying 12 bottles of tomato sauce because it is $1 cheaper per bottle than buying it in less than 12. This is not just any tomato sauce, it is homemade style sauce from a lady who sells them in markets. It is the best tomato sauce I have ever tasted, better than the disgusting artificial crap in supermarkets (which doesn't even taste like tomatoes). This actually tastes like tomatoes and has a small amount of spice to it. Its fantastic. The company is called Hells Breath, she also makes chill sauces.

I have inherited this buying in bulk and finding bargains trait of my Dad. If there is something cheaper out there, my Dad will find it. He buys lots of stuff in bulk. He has even bought chilli sauce in bulk. I remember having a 4 litre bottle of chilli sauce and a 5 litre bottle of tomato sauce often in stock when I was a child. He also would buy a whole box of bananas (the huge boxes that bananas are shipped in) and freeze most of them. He did the same with tomatoes, peaches, pears, apples - whatever he could find that was cheap and able to be bought in bulk.
He also bought all the beans, rice and wheat in bulk. We always had huge buckets full of wheat, beans, rice when I was child. Pretty much anything that could be bought in bulk, we had in bulk.
My Dad also has a knack for finding bargains, as I do too. However he can take it to extreme and spend hours comparing and looking for something cheaper. I however do not so much. I do like to compare prices and shop around, but not spend hours doing so.
My parents also used to bottle all the perishables they bought in bulk. So as a child, I had unlimited access to bottled peaches, tomatoes, apple sauce, feijoas, apricots, and ...can't remember what else.
I can remember having weetbix and apple sauce for breakfast - I loved apple sauce.
Oh yeah...I remember one other thing my Dad bought in bulk, probably the best ever actually.
He bought Swiss chocolate (cooking) in bulk. Dark, and milk chocolate in 2 kg blocks, absolute heaven. My sister, brother and I used to sneak into my parents walk in wardrobe and steal the chocolate, oh so naughty but oh so yummy! It was more my Sister and I actually. My Dad used to hide the chocolate from us, but we would always find it. After we took it, he would usually find out and then make us pay for a new block. It was worth it though as we had more chocolate, he he (so naughty!). I think we had to pay $20 NZD per 2 kg block. I don't know if I ever paid it all back to him either. I think he forgot about it after I left home.
So there you have it, the history of the bulk Queen.

Orange kitty - hooded and dangerous

2009-06-09T18:13:00.002+10:00

We had the privilege of having the lovely orange kitten visiting us again this weekend. He was here for the whole weekend. On Friday night we had a Della around for tea. Whilst my husband was preparing tea - I did help, (which was fantastic and scrumptious mini pizzas) we (Della and I) had the wonderful idea of putting the orange kitty into M's hood. We put him in and he stayed there for ages. Long enough for us to get a photo of him sitting there in wonder and confusion.
After about 2-3 minutes orange kitty decided he had had enough and proceeded to reach his sharp claws up onto M's shoulder's. M let out a screech of pain while we rescued him and took the orange kitty out of M's hood.

We found out that the orange kitty has a name. His name is Harry - after Prince Harry.

Kuini - funny story from my childhood

2009-06-06T18:49:00.004+10:00

A little background first (for the photo)
For most of my childhood/teenage years grew up in NZ, living on the North Island. When we (my family) lived in Kerikeri we had 12 acres of land with a lovely big house. We had room for lots of pets, cows, chooks and a horse. It was a wonderful time during my teenage years.

I had a dog called Kuini (pronounced Queenie - its Maori), we got her from a Maori family and they had already named her. Another name for her was Hamu (which meant greedy). She was a lovely dog. We also had two cats, one of which had kittens about 2-3 times during the time we had her. This particular time she had 3 kittens, I think 2 died and 1 lived. The one that lived was spoilt by her, she kept feeding it till it was about 3 months. Then she got pregnant again and kicked the kitten/cat out. The kitten feeling sorry for itself, looked for the next available mother, Kuini. Kuini set about motherhing the kitten, loving it and then producing milk for it.

Yes! Producing milk. This dog had never ever had puppies before and she produced milk for a half grown kitten. I couldn't resist photographing this incident - which are the above photos. This happened about 7-9 years ago. It is an amazing story. Not only can cats and dogs get along they can also 'mother' each other. Amazing!

Another story involving Kuini:

We often bought alot of calves and raised them. This involved feeding them milk and caring for them. My Dad bought about 22 or calves and a 15 or so calf feeder. A calf feeder is a container that one puts the milk in and there are teats for the calves to drink from.
The calves had to be fed 2 times a day at first and then once and then were weaned.
After the calves were fed, they would want to suck your fingers. My dad and brother would often let the calves suck their fingers. I wasn't so keen on it. On particular day, my dad called us all out to the top paddock (it wasn't that far from our house) to have a look at Kuini. There's Kuini, standing there, a calf either side of her and sucking her ears (she had quite long ears for a little dog). She's just standing there enjoying it. It was hilarious and so cute.

Animals always have a way of making me laugh and showing me the odd things in life. I enjoy that.

Take two!

2009-06-04T16:46:00.002+10:00

Just after I posted my brain holiday post. I had a look at it in my blog setting just to see how it looked. You all do this, come on. Just to see what your blog looks like.
Anyway...I clicked on the picture and then tried to close it by going to the red dot on the left corner of the picture - duh!! Try it. Click on the picture in my previous post, look at the red dot on the left corner - if you use a Mac, it will be confusing.
I have to laugh at myself, what a character I am.

Brain holiday

2009-06-04T16:24:00.006+10:00

Yesterday I was trying to reformat an external hard drive from MAC format to FAT 32 or MS-Dos format. I wanted to get some stuff of my husband's computer (his is a PC), it was too big for a USB and his DVD burner is broken. I had recently formatted the external hard drive to MAC format. I hadn't written anything to the hard drive yet. Anyway, back to the story. I went to Disk Utility on my computer and tried to find where I could change the format. I had changed the format on other hard drives and USBs before, so I knew what I was doing. This particular time I couldn't see MS-Dos. I talked to my husband on Gmail chat to get some help. He was at work. We chatted for quite awhile as to what it could be. Then I decided to send him a screenshot of the list of format options, he found the problem straight away. I was so oblivious to the MS-Dos thing, I didn't even see it. It was there all along. My brain decided to go on holiday for a bit I guess. *Giggles*

Later that evening...
I am getting my computer ready to move downstairs, which is where my husband and I spend our evenings now as it is alot warmer and easier to heat. We were going to watch Star trek (M's fave - I'm kind like yeah whatever, plus we need to watch it and send back to QuickFlix). However, bit off track there. I eject my external hard drive and proceed to unplug everything including my mouse and key board. At this point my husband walks in and says "Aren't you going to turn your computer off first?" I reply; "Oh? Yeah, that's right." You see I have to lean behind my computer screen and unplug everything. By the time I got behind there I had completely forgotten that I hadn't turned my computer off. So I go back to the front of my computer and see that it is still on. After he says this I try to move my mouse, it doesn't move. He says to me "You unplugged your mouse." I reply, "Oh yeah, thats right." *blushes and giggles* I crack myself up sometimes.

Tiger takes over my desk

2009-06-03T18:29:00.006+10:00

Yesterday while I was trying to study, Tiger took over my desk. He lay on my keyboard, stood in front of my screen, turned the brightness of my screen down and switched between screens about 10 times. I think he also tried to look at a photography site. It was frustrating at the time, hilarious later on. Attention grabbing cat.

The craziness of cats once again

2009-06-01T16:24:00.004+10:00

On Thursday when I was studying and the incident with Tiger happened in my previous posts. Tiger was being all happy and affectionate. While he is a cute cat and cuddly. When Tiger is purring and affectionate he has a tendency to dribble. Which is gross, but I try to ignore it. This particular afternoon Tiger was rubbing up against my cup and dribbled in it. I wrote a note to remind myself that this had happened. I knew that I would forget what had happened and use the cup again. Anyway I got absorbed in my study and got alot done. I took a break and did some housework. When I had finished, I started looking for my cup. I then remembered it was in the study. I went and got it, saw the note and laughed. I had totally forgotten the incident with Tiger and would have definitely used the cup had I not written myself a note. At the time of writing the note, I was almost laughing at myself for how ridiculous I was being by writing a note. After this had happened, I was glad that I had written a note. What a funny one I am.

Tiger and the bells

2009-05-28T17:32:00.003+10:00

I have four of these bells on my door in the study. I am not sure why. I do like hearing them jingle whenever I open the door. M doesn't though, he finds them rather annoying.
Tiger (of course) just a moment ago was getting agitated and wanted to go out of the room. I heard a jingle at the door. I turned around and there was Tiger on his hind legs ringing the bells trying to get my attention. It was so adorable. He really wants to go outside though. I'd better let him out.

Tiger and his quirks

2009-05-28T16:54:00.003+10:00

I know I have posted this image before, but it suits the story

Tiger my cat is a funny cat. Usually he is friendly, cuddly and happy. However, he has his moments. Today was one of those moments.
I was in the study at my computer desk editing an essay, I took a break and brought Tiger inside. He was all over me, cuddling, purring, walking all over my desk, knocking stuff over, sitting on my journal articles for research and of course standing right in front of my computer screen. There goes my essay editing. After a few minutes of doing this, Tiger decides he is bored and jumps down. I continue editing my essay and get quite engrossed in it. I am brought back to reality by a pair of claws scratching the back of my chair. I reach out my arm to stop Tiger scratching and what do you know, he bites my arm (through my clothes so it didn't hurt). I pick him up and hold him, he continues to try and bite me. I tell him, "you are a naughty boy." I put him outside my study and close the door. I push the draft stopper snake against the door to stop the draft. It makes a banging noise when I do this. I hear a loud bang on the other side of the door. Tiger is expressing his annoyance. I finish arranging the draft stopper snake and am about to sit at my desk. I hear Tiger clawing outside the door and decide to bring him in. I open the door and pick him up. He is a different cat - purring, cuddling once again. What is it with cats? The whole process nearly happened again after I brought him in the second time except he didn't try to bite me. Cats...they're crazy!

A very weird dream

2009-05-27T17:44:00.004+10:00

Last night I had the strangest dream. Actually I think it was closer to the early morning. Anyway...

My dream:

I was in a house, it was an odd house. It felt like home to me (in my dream that is but it was not my house at all) and there were these odd hippie type people. I think a man, woman and a child. They all had blonde hair and were into the normal health stuff that hippies are usually into. The house had no power at all. Every thing was either solar powered or just old school type stuff - hole toilet, hand washing type thing. I think there was a commune of hippies living there.
At first it was just me the weird couple, but we didn't talk.
Then more and more people appeared, none of which I knew. We were talking about how good it was to have a house with no power that was free. One person started saying how were we going to survive the hot summer. Someone else suggested solar powered fans which we set about trying to make. I remember trying to put a solar panel on a weird looking fan.
The scene kinda changed and my husband was there. I think we were still at the same commune house place. My parents were also there, but not much apart of the scene, just there. My husband had to drive and get supplies somewhere. I think he was buying food. He was gone a long time. I tried to ring his mobile to see where he was. The phone did not connect, it said the phone was out of range or something. Then a strange thing happened; whilst still on the phone, the call was put through to some woman. She told me that the person who owned this phone was out of range and that their car had a broken oil tube (or something like that). So I decided that my husband was lost and I had no idea where to find him. I talked to my parents about this and we decided to travel up to QLD (where they live) and I would live there. Whilst travelling there, I decided that I had better ring my Mother in law and tell her that M was lost and we couldn't find him. I remember I had the phone number list of family & friends that is actually on my fridge in real life. I was looking at her number and trying to remember it before dialling. I got the phone and tried to dial, then I realised I had forgotten the number and was dialing some random mobile number. I tried again and again to dial and I couldn't. It took me around half an hour to dial the phone number. When I finally got through I told her what had happened, I can't remember her reaction though. I soon woke up after this - I was very freaked out. My husband walked in the door (in real life) from having a shower and I was like I'm scared, hold my hand and I told him about the dream.

Other dreams of note:

I have had a recurring dream where I am climbing on a very steep and narrow cliff near the ocean. Then I fall and I'm fallling....falling....falling and then I hit the water. When I hit the water I wake up for real and sorta hit the ground/bed like I have been falling. It is a very weird feeling. I usually have this dream whilst I am semi-awake, like within 30 min of going to bed. I haven't had it for ages, but at least five times in my life.

Dreams are odd.

Update...

2009-05-27T16:13:00.000+10:00

On Friday I received my practicum folder with my marks in it. I was utterly shocked when I saw the result - 98% a HD. I still am shocked. I don't know how/why I got such a high mark. I honestly believed that I hadn't done that well with the assignments and my prac also. I struggled through my prac (due to all the evacuating we had to do - fires). I struggled through the assignments in my prac folder - I felt I didn't do enough, couldn't get the words right and was still recovering from the shock of the fires and all the evacuating. What a crazy time and an unbelievable mark!
I am glad its all over for now and that something good did come out of the fires - for me personally anyway.

Right now; its raining and I have washing on the line. It was somewhat sunny/cloudy this morning and the forecast did say late rain - its not that late! At least we have a huge indoor line that I can hang up the washing and leave for a few days till its dry.

My parents were here for just under a week. I had a fantastic time with them and I miss them so much already. The weather was absolutely perfectly well behaved while they were here and now its gone onto being its normal self. The days were not really cold at all while they were here. I was so glad. My parents had only booked carry on luggage so that meant they couldn't bring much stuff. My Mum was rather worried it would be too cold and they wouldn't have enough warm clothes, but she needn't have worried.

I did a photoshoot with my parents, mainly to practice photographing people but it was also nice to get some lovely photos of my parents. Some of the photos will be posted on my photo blog at some stage.

Op-shop update

2009-05-22T11:07:00.002+10:00

Remember when I posted about how I totally lost contact with L, the ex op-shop manager. My parents and I were driving along the main street of town and I saw L. I'm like "oh my goodness! We must turn around and I need to say hi." We turn around and go back, park and I jump out of the car. I walk up to L and we greet and hug. She had been meaning to catch up with me and tell me what happened. It turns out she didn't just randomly resign. She was fired! Fired for standing up against something she didn't agree with that the higher up manager people were doing. I can't believe that. Anyway she is suing them for how they treated her (good on her!). She said it's not about the money, but about the principle. We chatted a bit more about other stuff, how we're going to catch up and have each other over for meals etc. We swapped numbers and are going to catch up sometimes soon. I am so grateful that I didn't lose contact with her.
It's all about timing, the journey...it worked out right.
L is one of those people I really click well with.
I was so excited when I saw her and so glad that we could catch up.

Weekend update...

2009-05-19T17:48:00.003+10:00

The weekend was fantastic. Alot happened. It is hard to keep track of and remember, but it was all very good and fun. Friday night; DH and I went to a friend's place for tea, that was lovely. The host cooked chickpea and tomato soup, very interesting flavour, but delicious. After this DH and went to another friend's place and played board games. M (DH) is very into board games and now he has gotten me into them. There are some fantastic board games out there - non mainstream of course. I will review some that I have played, later though.
Saturday, went to church like usual and that was great. Then we had an unusual fun experience. A married couple at our church invited us to their place for a meal to celebrate their 20th Anniversary - they wanted to "Pay it forward." There were around 10 other married couples around our age there also - from church so we knew them. On the table there was a list of questions about marriage, romance etc - conversation starters. It was interesting to hear other couples stories about their relationship, romance, and ideas about marriage. After this we watched a movie called Fireproof, a Christian movie about marriage. It was a reasonably good movie for a Christian movie, but a little over dramatised and cheesy in parts. It did get the message across though. The movie had in it a book called The Love Dare, which was used to enrich and work on the marriage in the movie. After the movie finished, the married couple celebrating their 20th anniversary challenged all the married couples there to take on the Love Dare and handed out Love Dare books to all couples who wanted to take on the challenge. Of course we took on the challenge. The book is a 40 day journey that couples take & read the book and make changes to improve their marriage. We are on day 3 and enjoying it. The first day: we had to try and practice patience, particularly trying not to say anything negative to each other. The second day: keep trying not to say anything negative to each other and do something unexpectedly kind for each other. The third day: still try not to say anything negative to each other and buy something for each other (a selfless gift). I am enjoying the journey of change in our marriage.
On Sunday I did a photoshoot of some lovely locations I found. I took over 300 photographs.
The weekend was relaxing and lovely.

Daily photo post

2009-05-15T13:36:00.001+10:00

Daily photo posts have moved to here.
This blog is more for ideas, ramblings, creative ideas and whatever my mind comes up with.

New blog

2009-05-14T22:11:00.003+10:00

I have created a new blog for my photography business. No information on it yet, but soon. I am sooo excited! I have taken my first step and now I'm gonna fly, cause these are my wings to fly through life.

Daily photo post - better late than never

2009-05-14T21:17:00.003+10:00

I was feeling rather dejected today due to finding out that I will not be receiving my Ruddy money because I did earn enough. I earnt under the tax free threshold of $6,000 which means I cannot receive it. Such is life - the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
But alas I still have my photography and here are my daily photographs. This time of leaves and good ol' hills hoist full of clothes.

On another note, this lack of Ruddy money has forced me to think about my life, lack of money, etc. I am starting a business, yikes! Over the next few weeks I will be organising my Photography business. For a limited time I will be offering free, yes FREE photoshoots of people - family, individual, pets, themed...whatever. More information coming. Keep your eyes out.
I am excited but oh so nervous, this is my dream, to photograph people, families, life, pets, to capture their moments in life...

Stay tuned.

Funny Tshirts

2009-05-13T16:39:00.004+10:00

I stumbled across this site that sells funny, random Tshirts for $6 USD. There are some hilarious tshirts on there. I want to get some of them, and for that price, I am not too worried about getting a few. I don't normally like slogan shirts (most are cheesy and over rated) but these are pretty good.
I have a few favourites already, but these two would have to be the ones I like the best.

Other sites that sell offbeat, funny and wrong tshirts: Tshirt Hell, Red Bubble clothing

The $6 site also has a mystry tshirt deal, where you can buy tshirts for $2.95, but you don't know what you will get.

Tiger and the tree

2009-05-13T14:50:00.006+10:00

A stunning tree and of course the adorable Tiger.

Daily post of my photography adventures

2009-05-13T11:02:00.003+10:00

It is truly amazing how delightful one's backyard can be for fantastic photograph opportunities. All one has to do is look, truly open's eyes and be prepared to be amazed!

Cold misty morning

2009-05-12T11:00:00.005+10:00

It was another lovely fresh morning, the mountain was covered with a thick fog casting interesting lighting as the sun struggled to shine through. The fog looked so beautiful, fresh and cold. Tiger of course followed me as I took photos and I can never resist photographing him.

I am aiming to take photos everyday. At this very moment I am thinking of ideas for a self-portrait. I stumbled across this site that had an assignment to take a self-portrait in a weird, interesting way using a timer or remote. "It cannot be a generic self portrait of you sitting/standing and smiling (no senior portrait-type photos) It's gotta be strange, off the wall, your not-so-typical self portrait. Use your best judgement on this one." I have been thinking about ideas for a self-portrait that is odd, strange and looks interesting.

morning photos - experiments

2009-05-11T10:55:00.004+10:00

I had a good time taking photos this morning as the sun was coming up over the mountain. The last two were kinda an accident. The swirly one, I was about to take a photo then moved my hand in circle whilst taking it and the result is the fun swirly thing. The second to last one I decided to try out zoom blur. This is done by half pressing to focus on something and then whilst taking the photo I zoomed in with the lens. I like the results. I have forgotten what it is called. It was inspiring to take photos on such a lovely cold morning.

Sunday exploration

2009-05-10T18:20:00.002+10:00

My DH and I went on a driving tangent, I took these photos with his iphone (not bad for a small point and shoot). It was a beautiful day, fairly mild and lots of sun. We went for a long drive on this dirt road, we didn't get to the end as it was so long. We were getting hungry too, so we decided to turn around and go back home. It was very beautiful driving along in the bush with the sun shining through the trees sending soft rays of light across the road and patches of grass. The air was so fresh, and had this wonderous alive smell about it. It was beautiful to breathe in as we drove along this lovely country bush road.

Cirque Du Soleil

2009-05-09T16:20:00.007+10:00

My DH and I went to see a matinee performance of Cirque Du Soleil on Friday afternoon. It was a fantastic performance. It was so amazingly performed and put together. The best show I have ever seen. The costumes and make up were fantastic, so detailed and intricate. The talent/ability of the performers was outstanding. There was one girl who did all these different acrobatic movements while holding herself up with one hand, it was amazing to watch. There were many other amazing acrobatics - the use of trampolines to run up walls and do flips and incorporate dancing. They even jumped from trampoline to trampoline.
I loved the clowns too. They really made the show, it was hilarious at the beginning there was this frightful but funny looking clown (he had black and white hair sticking up straight) walking around the audience and teasing people. Stealing their popcorn, their tickets, sitting in their laps, telling them to go to the wrong seat. It was so funny to watch. I was glad we had got there early to see the the funny happenings whilst people arrived.

I was very impressed with the two singers also. There was a male and a female singer in the show. The male singer was a soprano and he sang really high, it was amazing. The female singer at one point in the show sang whilst suspended in the air. I don't know how she did it. It's hard enough singing whilst standing on the ground let alone in mid air and trying to get support without one's feet on the ground.

Of course the music was very impressive, really amazing and all live too.
I could go on and on about how amazing it was. The lighting, sound, stage was also very impressive. It is definitely worth going to see.
I had a fantastic afternoon/evening with DH.

On another note; whilst at the Docklands (where Cirque was) I stumbled across a Mövenpick Ice cream franchise and was very excited about this. When I lived in NZ, my family used to buy Mövenpick ice cream on special occasions like my Dad's birthday. It is a Swiss ice cream. It was very expensive around $7 a litre but amazingly delicious. Since moving to Australia I had not been able to buy Mövenpick ice cream because it wasn't sold over here. However, it is now being introduced to Australia via ice cream franchise. I didn't get to buy any ice cream because the shop was closed after the Dralion show, but I will definitely be going back there for a visit. More info here. I can't wait to try some.

Placenta...what the...?

2009-05-07T14:42:00.003+10:00

Upon reading this about the uses of placenta (human) I decided to research more about it. I found this article. Please read. It is the most disgusting thing I have ever read or heard of. I nearly threw up. It is that gross. I have no words...

Delightful dandelion

2009-05-05T17:22:00.003+10:00

The Tree Prince

2009-05-05T16:22:00.005+10:00

My lovely tree prince Tiger - following him around this afternoon as he climbed a tree and began to act playfully. It was so adorable.

Beautiful Autumnness...

2009-05-04T17:09:00.005+10:00

A monstrous leaf - its bigger than my face.

Tiger

2009-05-04T13:28:00.008+10:00

Arghhhh....just cannot resist posting photos of Tiger. I found these on my camera. I hadn't uploaded my camera for ages. I've been using my DH's Canon Digital SLR rather than my own. So here's the cute photos of Tiger.

Latest cooking adventures

2009-04-30T17:56:00.004+10:00

I made these crackers on Thursday night (why isn't it called Thurnight? hmm.... DH and I were pondering this the other day; Wednight, Monnight, Sunnight....hmmm) it was lots of fun and rewarding. The crackers are called Graham Crackers (randomly - I wonder who Graham is) and are something my Mum made when I was a child. I loved them then and still do. So many lovely memories. I particularly love eating the dough, it tastes so nice.
Here is the recipe:

Graham Crackers

2 cups of rolled oats
1 cup of whole wheat
1 cup of white flour
½ cup oil
just less than a cup of hot hot water
a good heaped teaspoon of salt

Method
1. Set the oven for 200°C - 220°C
2. Mix all dry ingredients into a bowl
3. Add hot water and oil and mix
4. Sit pastry for 10 min
5. Roll out pastry and cut out crackers
6. Oil a tray and put crackers on the tray
7. Put in oven and cook until lightly brown

Makes about 45 crackers.

Giant Mug...

2009-04-29T17:20:00.004+10:00

A cute photo of Tiger I shot today. The boots make the photo look interesting - adds a leading line to Tiger. I do love our cat, he's so lovable, and cuddly.

This is my new Mug, its massive, at least 25cm tall. I got it from the cheap shop down the road in town. Plenty of leisurely hot drinks to be had from this Mug - especially on cold days and nights. That cookie is homemade, very scrumptious and full of choc chips. Its best melted in the microwave for a few seconds or dipped into a hot choc drink. Arghh...must not bang teeth on Mug when drinking. I got one for my DH too, which he is rather delighted about. Together we can sip hot drinks on cold days and forget about the cold for a bit. Ah great dreams and times. It would be great for soup too. Hmm....must make soup. It's now the perfect temperature for soup. Pumpkin soup, vegetable soup, lentil/kumara soup....any other soup ideas?

Street art on Hosier Lane

2009-04-28T20:06:00.003+10:00

These pics are from Hosier Lane in Melbourne. There is lots of interesting street art around Melbourne and its always changing. It is a very fertile art form. For my prac on February I taught a unit of work to the year 10s on Street art and they really enjoyed it. They worked on creating a stencil and then the art teacher and I bought two big boards and painted them pale blue. We chose three colours to work with in spray paint and the students sprayed their work onto the board. It looked fantastic. Should upload some pics of the boards. The boards are going to be put up as a mural.
That was just a little side note to my street art post. We (myself, my husband and my brother in law A) went to the city for the afternoon. It was crappy, rainy, cold weather but we went anyway. I am glad we did, because I finally got to see Hosier Lane, have been wanting to see it for ages.
I really like street art, its so different to any other art form, so free, fertile and interesting. It can be rather confronting also.

We also went to two vintage clothes shops in Melbourne, expensive but had some interesting clothes. There was a lovely dress there for $50, but I was like, nah! Op-shopping is way better and more fun, even though it takes longer to find vintage stuff.

Of late the weather here has been super cold and horrible. Not worth going outside really...hardly any sun either. I don't really like it, but can't do much about it. It has been snowing though, from what I've heard. I haven't physically been to the snow yet.

Missed Opportunity

2009-04-24T14:13:00.003+10:00

I'm feeling rather crestfallen after what has happened this week. Its probably not major compared to some things, but it did impact me alot.
I have been a volunteer at the local op-shop for a few weeks now, this was partly because of the Manager L inviting me to help out with window displays. I instantly liked her and she me. She was around my age, probably a bit older. Anyway we instantly clicked and got on really well. I went in a few times and did window displays and had lots of fun - chatting to L and also being creative with the window displays. This week I find out from one of the other volunteers whom I randomly saw in the supermarket that L had left the op-shop for good on Monday. This was rather odd, surprising and shocking as I had only seen L in the shop quite happy and chirpy on Sunday. We'd had a good chat too and wanted to invite each other around to our houses so we could chat and get to know each other. My husband M also liked L as a friend of course. L had a bf, (I think he was her bf, but not entirely sure) whom we also liked and got on well with. Anyway upon hearing this rather shocking news I was very downcast and crestfallen as I now knew I had no way of contacting L. Rather foolish of me to not ask for her number, I had been meaning to, just hadn't. The thing about L is that she is rather intense as a person so I always forgot to ask her because she talked about so many different things. She distracted me. I do tend to get distracted very easily though.
I was due to go into the shop today (Friday 24/04) and didn't really feel like going, partly because I knew L wouldn't be there and also because I wasn't sure if I was still needed. The only reason I agreed to become a volunteer was because L wanted me to do the window displays. Now that L isn't there anymore I wasn't sure how it would work and what would happen.

Upon arrival of the op-shop I was greeted with deathly silence and a rather sparse, drab looking shop. Everything had been changed around, it looked terrible, almost like a graveyard. I immediately knew I did not want to stay there, especially today. There was no music playing, no people in the shop at all. Everything was changed and the shop no longer looked fun, funky and happening, it looked dead.

I have no idea what happened and why L left, seeing as she had only been there 4-5 months. I have a feeling that it might have been to do with how she ran the shop and the head people have a certain way that all op-shops of this title/company are set up. They probably didn't like the way she did things. I think she did a great job, the shop looked great, it was fun, happening, funky. Now it looks dead, and boring. There are hardly any funky clothes now too...that may change. But still...what a shock! I hope where ever L is that she is happy and glad that she chose to leave. I would have loved to get to know her better, but I am so glad that I met her and had a little bit of her sunshine in my life. She was a sunshine!

Dancing housemate

2009-04-23T16:13:00.004+10:00

A few years ago when I was sharing a house with people whilst still studying. I had a hilarious thing happen to me. I was really good friends with the guy who own the house J and we got on really well. J had his own business which he ran from home so he was often home too. Anyway this particular afternoon I was in my room minding my own business, studying and listening to music. In walks J and starts full on dancing, I'm like, "what the....?" and start laughing. I think I had some dancy music on. J's like, come on Kez, dance! I couldn't dance because I was laughing so hard. He looked sooooo ridiculous and funny. I snapped some photos of him dancing, I intentionally blurred them to show the crazy movements he was doing. He has this interesting and funny way of dancing. Its not bad, it was just a funny situation.

Tiger - the cuddly giant

2009-04-23T11:13:00.006+10:00

I like this photo - the "Wild Love" soft toy and Tiger next to it - hmm....
Tiger thought he would help me study - he didn't get very far, but at least he is cute and cuddly.

5 am cleaning...

2009-04-22T20:02:00.002+10:00

About a month ago I honestly woke up at 5am on a Friday morning (which is the only week day my husband is home and we usually sleep in somewhat) and cleaned the house. I went through a stage of waking up super early and feeling energetic and ready to go. This particular morning I was lying in bed awake from about 4:30am and just could not sleep so I decided to get up and clean the house. I had most of the cleaning done by about 9:30am which is when my husband woke up. Just a random fact about my life. I go through sleepless, energetic stages and just want to get out of bed early. Its fun but somewhat annoying when I am super tired.

Fire fry pan

2009-04-22T19:51:00.002+10:00

Last night whilst preparing for cooking tea our fry pan caught alight with massive amounts of flame. I had the fry pan on fairly hot as I wanted to cook it hot like the Asian style cooking - hot and fast (so wrong sounding!). Anyway I had the heat on high and put a bit of oil into the fry pan and was just about to put the onions in to fry when it suddenly caught alight. Arrrghhh! I was holding the fry pan at this stage and you can imagine my response - a big scream and then I threw it on the floor. Thankfully the fry pan landed face down and the flames were smothered out. My husband stood on the fry pan to make sure it was out. We both got quite a fright and were shaken. We were both so grateful that it didn't turn into a fire or anything frightful like that - particularly after what has recently happened with Black Saturday and all. I found it a bit amusing afterwards though, just the craziness of it all. I have never had that happen to me before and now that it has happened I can understand how easy it is to start a fire in a house. Beware fires are everywhere - just waiting to happen.

Wedding

2009-04-21T18:27:00.002+10:00

I went to a friend's wedding about a month ago, she had a beautiful wedding. This photo is my favourite photo out of all the ones I took. It was also a good time to catch up with friends from college who I don't get to see much. We had a great time and took some fun photos. I also gave my friend marriage advice, he he, she asked me. It was fun to give advice particularly on a certain topic. She wanted to know a few things so I told her.

Black Saturday

2009-04-21T17:52:00.005+10:00

These are some photos that I took on Black Saturday around our house. It was pretty crazy, looking back, we were a bit silly to be there then. We had no idea about fires and how bad it was, it was a big wake up call. I am so glad that nothing happened to us in our naivety. We are so grateful and lucky. We have learnt so much about fires now and how to prepare for them, when to leave or whether to stay or go. Its been a big learning curve, but so glad we are ok. Unfortunately so many people lost their lives and weren't the lucky ones. It was a very sad, traumatic time for Australia, particularly Victoria. Let's hope more preparation is done in the future, more fire breaks, more cutting down of trees around houses, etc.
I couldn't believe it when it first happened, it was crazy. A moment's silence for the victims and their families........................................................................................................................................

Washing Line fun

2009-04-21T16:43:00.004+10:00

These photos were taken about 2 months ago, just before the fires. It was a hot afternoon and we were bored. I was in a creative mood and this is the result. There is a little bit of leg where I'm hanging on the line, but it was such a fun photo to shoot! I love photo shoots, I don't get enough of them.

About time...

2009-04-21T10:39:00.006+10:00

It has been a long time since I last blogged anything. So much has happened too. It's been crazy. I can't even remember last time I blogged, around our one year anniversary I think. Thats over 6 months ago now. Wow! Between now and then, I have visited family in QLD over Christmas, had our families come to visit us, been through the Black Saturday fires and had to evacuate, had prac teaching during the fires and evacuation, been camping together first time since we got married, got back into the study, become a St Vinnies volunteer and lots more. Its been busy. I haven't really felt like writing or thought I had much to write about, but I guess I do.

I just got back from Brisbane after visiting my family, my Dad has just turned 50 and I flew up there to celebrate. I had a great time seeing family again. My parents are staying in this tiny cottage that has only got solar power and a generator. It does not have a flushing toilet but a compost hole toilet. Its not that backward though, the inside of the place is very nice and homey. It was an interesting time though as they didnt have curtains and there is only one room. So my sister and I slept in the lounge/kitchen/dining part of the cottage. My Dad snores, so this was rather frustrating trying to sleep. It didnt matter too much about no curtains because the place is out in the country with no houses nearby, although it was hard to sleep in as it gets so bright early. Lucky I brought my ear plugs and eye cover thing, it helped.
We had a party for my Dad's 50th on Sat night which was alot of fun. We got people who were there to share stories about my Dad. My sis and I shared some funny stories about him. There were some people who were from my Dad's first ever church from Wellington NZ (they live in Brisbane now). Anyway one of the girls told a story about my Dad from when she was little. My Dad used to come around to their place to give Bible studies (her and some other kids), this particular afternoon they didn't want to have Bible study, so they blocked the door with chairs and hid. Well my Dad arrives unsuspectingly and tries to get inside, knocks on the door, but can't get in. The girls are all hiding and giggling. My dad keeps knocking and trying to get in, but to no avail. There is a piece of the window broken near the door handle, so my Dad puts his hand through the hole to open the door. One of the girls seeing this, crawls over and bites (yes bites) my Dad's hand. My Dad is like, what is going on? She keeps biting and I think he eventually goes away. I had never heard this story and neither had the parents of these girls. When everyone heard this story, they all just burst out laughing for ages and ages. I couldn't believe it! It was so random and funny! They said that my Dad was just like another youth and that they had been taught to respect the pastor, but my Dad broke all the rules. It was so refreshing and funny to hear.

I also got to catch up with one of my high school friends G, whom I hadn't seen in like 3 years or so. G's Mum and my Mum are really good friends and we were next door neighbours when we lived in NZ. It was really good to catch up with him. We had a really good catch up, talking about high school days and such. He is also good friends with one of my ex's D (as am I) and we talked a bit about D. He didnt even know the latest news about D, it was funny. I had chatted to my ex D more than G had. Even though D is my ex, we are still really good friends and have a deep soul connection.

Evacuating

My husband and I and our cat evacuated 3 times during the month of Feb after Black Saturday. It was a crazy, stressful time and took me a long time to get over. In fact I still feel like I am month behind in everything and cannot believe that April is nearly over, the year feels like it has just started in some ways. We stayed with church members for the last 2 times and got to know some really nice people and their kids. One couple had a really flash house, well it was more like a mansion. It was huge! We slept in a little separate part to the house, that had our own bathroom, bedroom etc. It was like staying in a hotel, it was great. The house had 5 bedrooms, 3 living areas and I think 4 bathrooms. It was massive. They had it set up really nice too, with bits of modern and antique stuff throughout. The yard was huge too, kinda like a country setting but in the suburbs, with trees, and lots of privacy. Even though the places we stayed at were great, it was still a strain on us to have nowhere to really go and not knowing if our house was going to be there when we got back. We also got quite a few phone calls from people around Australia that we knew asking to see if we were ok. It was nice to know that people were thinking of us and worried about us.

By the end of it all I was completely and utterly over it all and just wanted to go home and stay there. During all this upheaval I was also prac teaching at school and had barely any time to prepare lessons, and get into the mind frame. I felt like a zombie for most of my prac, just doing the bare minimum to get it done. I still got a good mark, but felt like I had barely done anything at all. I was so glad when it was all over, it took me about a month to feel settled again and to get into my study. I am rather behind now, but glad that its over.

Op-Shopping

Recently I have been doing lots of op-shopping, mainly to increase my winter wardrobe as I did not have enough last winter to survive the cold weather. I have found so many wonderful bargains, it has been so much fun! I have been thinking about photographing some of my finds and blogging about them, but there are now so many it would take so long so I may just put a few up from now on.

Some recent finds though are:
black leather knee high boots in my size for $5
a black bag with floral imprints $5
woollen lined coat $6
2 pairs of really nice curtains $8 pair
a table with 5 chairs $50
argh its hard to explain it.

I find it alot of fun to go op-shopping because I never know what I am going to find and I can buy lots of stuff for hardly anything at all and still look good. Its great. I have decided that I am going to buy most of the clothes I need/want from op-shops unless it is impractical or hard to find in a op-shop such as underwear (gross!) or socks or singlets. Those kinda things are hard to find and a bit gross to buy second hand. Mind you I have found some bras that fit me from the op-shop but always washed them before wearing with canesten wash.
I am now also a volunteer at the local op-shop, doing window displays, its alot of fun. I haven't done much lately as I have been away this last weekend, and the weekend before it was Easter so was closed for some days. This Friday I will be getting into it though and having lots of fun doing up a display. Its kinda hard volunteering there now because I pretty much always find something when I go in to do work, its good though because I get to see stuff as it comes in.

That about sums up parts of what has happened lately. My husband and I are happier together too, not that we weren't happy before we have just improved a few things and feel more happy together, its great. He's a sweety.

Broken inspiration

2009-01-22T14:50:00.002+11:00

I write from a silent world of retreat that cannot be expressed without brokenness...oh brokenness inside me. A long time has passed since I wrote anything, about five months. I went through a period of no inspiration, no desire to write, create, improve. Desireless, I sat on the edge of my life thinking, longing, hoping for a change in me. I want to change, but no idea how. A long time has passed since I created, felt creative and expressed myself...it hurts to create sometimes.

One Year anniversary

2008-08-27T12:44:00.003+10:00

It is our one year anniversary, almost! We are going away for a long weekend away, it will be lots of fun. I have created a wordle thing for my husband and I. Reflecting back on the first year of marriage and kinda how it has been for us. Its going to be great to get away just the two of us and not have to worry about responsibilities and the mundane things in life!

On another note (was there ever another another note?)

2008-08-20T21:37:00.004+10:00

I have been frustrated with life lately, partly because of certain reasons and partly because I sometimes get annoyed very easily by little things. I have no idea why. For example the other day my husband and I came home from working (at the same place), there was lots of washing up to do, tea hadn't been cooked and I was tired. For some reason I got very annoyed and upset because of this. My husband cooked tea and did some of the washing up for me while I sat quietly doing something on the computer and drinking a chamomile tea (which he made me - awwww!). This did help me calm down and feel better. I guess that's just life, things are not always going to be perfect! That's something I need to remember, I tend to be rather perfectionistic and get stressed when it doesn't turn out how I like.

I have been thinking about my favourite movies lately and realised there are quite a few that I like and started sorting them into categories in my mind.

Independent/Foreign/Arthouse:
Paris J'Taime
Amelie
Tideland
I do (French movie - I don't know French name)
Science of Sleep
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
House of Flying Daggers
Hero
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
I love Huckabees
Garden State
Little Miss Sunshine
My best friend (French)
The bothersome man (odd, but interesting concept)

Sci-Fi:
The Matrix (first one only)
Momento
Star Wars - all of them
Star Trek (what I have seen, I liked)
Cypher

Action:
Deja Vu (Sci-fi also)
Domino
V for Vendetta
Batman Begins

Other:
The Illusionist
A beautiful mind (not sure what cateogory this is)
Scent of a woman
Saved
Brokeback Mountain
The Four feathers

Adventure:
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Lion, the witch and the wardrobe
Prince Capsian

Australian:
Rabbit Proof fence
Candy (Heath Ledger is in this one - bonus!)
Strange Bedfellows
Priscilla Queen of the Desert (gosh that made me laugh!)

Family/feel good/ inspirational:
I am Sam
Molly
Benny & Joon
Keeping Mum
Freedom Writers
A bear called Winnie (about the real Winnie the Pooh)
School of Life

Johnny Depp movies:
Benny & Joon
Edward Scissor hands
Chocolat
Ed Wood

I am super tired and I can't think of anymore at this stage, will keep adding some as I remember. I have seen soooo many movies that have impacted me and that I have liked that I can't remember them all.

Photo editing

2008-08-20T21:26:00.005+10:00

Today I have been photo editing for part of the day. I had lots of fun editing a photo of a friend and I loved the result. Here it is:

Apart from that I have been busy studying and also had a few part time work days which is great for the extra money. I should have been studying instead of editing this pic, but I felt rather creative so ignored the little voice that said "study girl!! study."
Ah the joys of creativity!

Solution to telemarketer problem

2008-08-14T17:59:00.004+10:00

From here.

I think I might need to say a bit about this vid. First of all I have had a few telemarketers ring up lately and they really annoy me. I found this video, it is perfect, funny and so true.

Also the whole site where I found this video has some really funny videos about relationships, sex, and other aspects of life.

Thursday; the new Friday

2008-08-07T06:55:00.003+10:00

Thursday has now become Friday in my mind. I used to always clean the house on Friday to prepare for Sabbath etc, but now I like to get the cleaning done before Friday so I can relax and enjoy Friday rather than stress and have to do lots of work. Of course it probably has something to do with the fact that my husband has Fridays off and I want to spend time with him doing whatever. Its sort of messed with my mind and weirded me out a bit as I feel strange not cleaning the house on Friday. I was so used to cleaning on Friday, but now Thursday has become the day to clean.

I do like getting the cleaning done early though.
Cleaning is also calming for me. There's nothing like a good clean to chase away frustration, anxiety and fear.

Really excited!!

2008-08-06T15:55:00.005+10:00

I used to live in NZ, in fact I lived there for 16 years of my life, so I am familiar with the culture, accent, food, mannerisms etc over there. There is one particular cookie that NZ makes and sells and I cannot buy it over here. I have missed it very much, its the yummiest cookie I have ever had in my life. Its a large cookie, with massive chocolate chips. I have known and eaten it all my life whilst in NZ. However since living in Australia, I have really missed it. Its called 'Cookie Time.' Due to missing this cookie alot and also being reminded of it on someone's facebook, I decided to research about it and see if I could find out about it online and if there was a way of buying it online. Amazingly enough there is and I am very excited about this. I am going to buy 20 or something ridiculous like that because I have missed them so much. They are $2 each (NZD) which works out cheaper so am going to buy lots. Plus my husband will get to eat some, if he's lucky. I might eat them all. The website is called NZedge and it has lots of NZ stuff on there.

Anyway, am super excited about this, going to buy lots to eat and share (maybe).

The cookie time cookie!

Too long since I last wrote

2008-08-06T08:27:00.014+10:00

Thoughts

It has been nearly a month since I last wrote something, a lot has been going on and happening in my life. Firstly I made a decision that I was not going to spend my days attached to a computer, I wanted to do stuff, be more active and proactive, be alive. So I started a new routine, instead of lazing and feeling sorry for myself because I was alone all day or whatever. I decided to do something about it. I got up the same time as my husband (6am) so we could spend more time together and be more of a team and not feel so disconnected from each other. That was great. I also wanted to get the housework etc done early so it was done and I didn't have to worry about it. Anyway. I found it made my life so much easier and I felt happier too. It worked wonderfully for 2 weeks and I was doing it all so well. I have also been exercising for an hour everyday, 6 days a week and feel fantastic. Now I am at the stage where I am struggling to keep the routine going, but I have been pushing myself to keep at it. I have realised that I give up way too easily and then get mad at myself for giving up, but then don't try again. Realising this I vowed to not let it happen again, I must keep at it.
So anyway that is why I have not written anything, I have been busy and happy with my life, till now. Isn't it funny that life can seem so wonderful for a bit and then it goes downhill...
Happens to me all the time, I get so frustrated when that happens. I think to myself, why can't life be easy? Of course I then realise how unrealistic I am being and that its this way for a reason.

Alot has been going on in my head too. I have been thinking and realising that I need to change and be a better person. There are so many things I wish I wasn't. Partly because it hurts me and also because it hurts others. I want to be the person that God wants me to be. That's the journey I am on.

Another thing I am trying to do is to be honest with myself and not deny things. Its so easy to pretend that nothing is wrong and that everything is alright in life. I do not want to be like that. Sadly most of the world is like that, pretend 'its all good' and then try to get on with life. Well I refuse to be like that. I have problems, upsets, make mistakes, get mad, don't forgive when I should, lie to myself about problems, be negative instead of positive, hold onto grudges, stay in my comfort zone, don't reach out to those who need it, try to make my life perfect (not caring about others), judge others, the list goes on...
While it is good to be honest, its also very hard. I hate admitting that I have done something wrong especially to someone I have wronged that I don't know very well (eeek!)
Beside the point though...it is very much a freedom process being honest with myself and others (when I can). I am alot happier for it. Being honest is not the end for me, thats the beginning, it marks the process of change for me.

I have been sewing again finally, and found it to be very fulfilling. I enjoy the process of making an item of clothing from start to finish and then being able to proudly wear something that I made, it is definitely rewarding, alot more rewarding than buying clothes, for me anyway.
When I have finished sewing all items of clothing that I have material for I will have sewn 4 skirts, 1 pair trackpants, spring/summer dress top, polar fleece hoody/jacket. I might put photographs of these items on here when I have finished them. At the moment I have finished 3 of the skirts, the trackpants and nearly finished the top. I am in the process of making the polar fleece hoody.
I don't like following the instructions for the patterns though, they are annoyingly confusing. They say what to do and then don't explain how to do it and show a tiny diagram of how to do it that I can't really see what to do. My husband has been helping me alot with my sewing in the pattern instruction bit anyway...he can understand what to do better than I can. He can sew too, which is good. He sewed himself a polar fleece hoody, I am going to get him to make himself a pair of cord pants. I have the material, just need the pattern, zip, thread and button.

I have been enjoying exercise, I have forced myself to get into a routine. There have been days where I really did not want to go outside, but made myself do it because I knew it was good for me. I didn't regret it. I am also going to try pilates, I have a DVD, and mat. I tried it the other day and it is so hard. All the correct breathing, odd poses and coordination, none of which I am good at all at the same time. I want to learn though. It will definitely be beneficial. In fact, my husband and I would like to do it together three times a week. I think he would benefit from it too, its just a matter of motivation on his part.

That was an odd assortment of thoughts, catch-up and phrases that I can not repeat now. Its all done and has worn me out. I have enjoyed just being able to write again, to get my thoughts flowing out of my mind like a river, its great.

Ok, so I can't change the size of the font in the second half of this post, odd. I have no idea why.

Banksy

2008-07-09T10:09:00.006+10:00

TV Has made us Monsters

While I was studying, in one of my art classes all students had to talk about something that they were passionate about - whether it be an artist, book, saying etc.
Anyway one girl in my class talked about this graffiti artist Banksy from London. She was fascinated by his work, she brought along his book to our class so everyone could see his work. I was amazed. It was fascinating work. Since that class alot of stuff happened and changed in my life and I kinda forgot about stuff I had learned. I even forgot his name. Recently though I remembered his work and still could not remember his name. However I googled him and found his name - Banksy. I was looking at his website and also fan page on facebook and was mesmerised once again by his work. It is very thought provoking and interesting. What's more no one knows his real identity and the police want to arrest him because of his supposedly offensive work.
I have added one of his drawings to my blog, I really like this work, it speaks so much more powerfully than words. I also like some of his other drawings from his website, one about the fall of man. There is also one of the Pope flashing and he has legs like Marilyn Monroe, rather random, but funny.

I also liked what he did, he went to the Louvre in Paris and put up a similar painting of the Mona Lisa but with a smiley face over her face, he also put an official looking info card with information on it - it got taken down soon after, but it proved a point. I like his approach. This is a quote of his regarding that incident, "To actually [have to] go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring, It's a lot more fun to go and put your own one up."

He primarily works at night, but plans his stencils beforehand. He makes sure no one sees him and spray paints his work onto various places that will have impact on people.

Recent thoughts

2008-07-01T15:05:00.004+10:00

Lately I have been thinking a lot about certain things, in particular atheism, evolution, values (morals) and suicide, not necessarily in that order. last Saturday morning I attended a meeting/breakfast thing. It was about realness in life and religion. It was quite interesting, the guy gave a history about evolution, atheism and also schools of thought from Modernism to Post Modernism. I found it fascinating how different schools of thought and philosophers are still influencing our society. The phrase "I think; therefore I am" was said by Rene Descartes in the 1600s and it is still influencing society today. "Therefore, Descartes concluded, if he doubted, then something or someone must be doing the doubting, therefore the very fact that he doubted proved his existence. "The simple meaning of the phrase is that if someone is wondering whether or not he exists, that is in and of itself proof that he does exist" (Wiki site about Rene Descarte). Hmm...I can understand where Atheism fits in. I digress; this talk was interesting. He talked about how postmodernism is impacting our current culture. Post modernism was a movement that began with architecture, however it has moved into all parts of society, even to how people think. "Postmodern architecture began the reaction against the almost totalitarian qualities of Modernist thought, favoring personal preferences and variety over objective, ultimate truths or principles. It is this atmosphere of criticism, skepticism and subjectivity that defines the postmodern philosophy" (Wiki site about Postmodernism). There are no absolutes with postmodernism, what another person believes is ok as long as they are ok with what I believe. In other words it doesn't matter what I believe, it doesn't matter what someone else believes. It's all relative. I remember when I was studying in my first of Uni in NZ I had to do an essay on Cultural Relativism, I can't remember what I wrote, but I do remember being confused. If there is no set law or set of values then how does one know what is right? Relativity is defined as the absence of standards of absolute and universal application. Hm... this was one of the points the guy was trying to make about our society and why it is becoming so confusing to live in. I don't know enough about post-modernism, relativism and such. I do know one thing though, I am a product of the post-modern relative society. Many times I have not said anything about my beliefs because in the end it doesn't matter anyway, who is going to listen to me and who is going to believe that what I believe is right? Its all relative.

Lack of internet...a good thing

2008-06-29T14:53:00.013+10:00

For the past week and a bit (nearly 2 weeks) we have had no Internet. It was a Friday afternoon and my husband and I were surfing the net and then suddenly the Internet just stopped working for no apparent reason. It was altogether very frustrating for both of us as we are (he he he) addicted to the internet...(there I said it). My husband called our internet provider to see what the problem was and seeing that it was after hours they weren't there. Unfortunate for us. He did lodge a technical error complaint though. We waited all weekend, eagerly looking forward to the internet working again. But alas it was not to be. Annoyingly enough we were plagued with constant voice recorded phone calls from our internet provider informing us that they were working on the problem. It got rather annoying, to the point that I eventually hung up when I realised what it was.
Days went by and we heard nothing, absolutely nothing. I was getting rather frustrated as I needed the internet to finish some assignments that were due (and still are and are late now). I urged my trusty husband to ring our internet provider again to find out what was happening. They weren't entirely sure what was going on either...so we waited. Whilst waiting my husband and I did some figuring out of our own as to why our internet may not be working. We realised that it was in fact our Router that was not working. After much figuring out and phone calls and also a visit from Telstra (aren't we lucky) we finally sent our broken router back to the company we bought it off and spent the next few days waiting for our new one. When it finally arrived (Wednesday 25th June) I was so glad. Unfortunately I had to wait until my husband came home from work to use the internet as I didn't know how to set it up wirelessly...etc. He had been messing around with it before and had changed the password also and I didn't know the password.

During that time without internet I got to the point where I didn't know what to do with myself...I couldn't work on my assignments as I needed to do research on the internet. It gave me lots of time to relax and do things I had been wanting to do for ages but hadn't. Isn't it interesting how pointless surfing of the internet can waste so much time and when it comes to doing something worthwhile - "I don't have time." Goodness me...I'm a silly.

Not having the internet turned out to be a good thing for me. One afternoon I set up my art studio something I have been meaning to do ever since we moved here, but haven't because "I don't have time." It was so much fun setting it up and putting various things on the walls to inspire creativity and also setting up my sound system (small might I add). It consists of small ipod speakers and my ipod. It isn't the most amazing sound system but at least it plays all my favourite music, which in turn releases my creativity. It didn't take me very long to set up my art studio, maybe 3 hours at the most. Once it was done though, the happiness I felt could not be described. I felt so free, so alive and real. I also had the biggest flow of creative ideas I had had in a long time and am now considering creating some of these ideas.

I had finally created my own creative space, a place where I can be free to be me, to express myself through opinions, ideas and of course some form of art medium. A place I can make a mess in and not worry too much, a place I can think what I want, do what I want and be what I want. I did not realise how important it was to me to have a space that is purely mine to create, think, express and mainly just be...in.

Here is my art studio...a glance into my creative world.

My desk - where all the planning takes place.

My creative wall with some of my artworks on them.

After all being creative is the joy of my life.

I have found it hard now that I have the internet again. I have to learn to share my time with all sorts of things in my life. I particularly don't want to forget about my art studio now that I have the internet again.

On another note. During our internet famine I was often in my art studio creating something...my husband had no idea what to do with himself while I was in my studio. Poor thing...he usually sits on his computer doing something or other on the internet, or he spends time with me. Now that I have my studio....he didn't know what to do. I like my own time and to do my own thing. Even though we are married...I still like doing my own thing and having my own interests which I pursue. I try to encourage my husband to do the same.

In the end I realised how much I had come to rely on the internet for entertainment, ideas and resources. I had lost perspective of my creativity somewhere in the big wide web and now thanks to our router breaking I have regained some sense of creativity and am back on my journey to becoming a creatively in-tune artist, rather than an entertainment hungry consumer.

My Favourite song

2008-06-28T20:47:00.006+10:00

I have become a fan of Josh Groban in the past few weeks and now I totally love his songs/music.
"Don't give up/You are loved" is the song that totally sold me on Josh Groban. The words of the song are amazing and the way he sings it is incredible. I had never really been that into Josh Groban. I knew he had a more traditional style of singing and mostly that didn't really interest me. Now it is different, I have changed. I have become a fan...he he he. The more I listened to his music and how he sings, the more I admired him and was glad to become a fan. He has earned my respect and fan(ism?).

Ah yes...I forgot to talk about why I liked this song so much. It is inspiring and positive, I have not found a lot of mainstream songs to be mostly positive, which is unfortunate. Listening to this song also puts me in a good mood, which I am thankful for.

Growing fuel prices

2008-06-27T13:42:00.003+10:00

I have found a good animation on the increasing fuel prices...in particular for Australia. Enjoy!
I have been a fan of this animator for a year or so...he has done some good animations. Short and to the point.

Time stealers!!!

2008-06-27T11:42:00.003+10:00

There are certain people in our society that steal time; I am talking about telephone sales people that randomly ring up trying to sell some load of crap to me that I do not give a care about and they talk incessantly so I can not say anything to get rid of them (viruses!!). I have had a few such experiences over the weeks/months and I am beginning to hate them. Firstly I am usually in the middle of doing something important or time consuming, like cooking, or trying to do an assignment. As soon as I hear that it's one of 'them' I tune out and start doing things that I can do whilst on the phone, like fold clothes or close the curtains or whatever you can do whilst on the phone and not listening. I then try to look for a spot of silence in the space of incessant and annoying talking that I do not care about to tell them that I am not interested and to STOP wasting my time. They really are time wasters. How do I deal with someone who is first and foremost rude to me and inconsiderate of my time and what I was doing and has no respect for me as a person? All they want is my money (when I have hardly any anyway & certainly not for the likes of them)! How rude!!! It really annoys me and I wish they would just go away and never come back.
It makes me angry that they take advantage of me and push me around because they know that I don't really care and just want them to go away. I feel kinda happy when after 20 minutes of listening to some piece of rubbish about what I can get if I do whatever, I simply tell them 'No I am not interested' and hang up. I feel glad that I wasted their time and they didn't get anything because I said no. But I still wish that I did not have to deal with such annoying people who are leeches.

I feel better I have had my rant.

My cat eyes

2008-06-03T17:23:00.006+10:00

I cannot resist putting this photo of Tiger, our cat on my blog. I was following him around the yard the other day taking photos and this photo was one of the many I took. I love it. Although it doesn't capture his personality, it's an effective photo anyways. Looks very impressive as a desktop picture.

WWJD? from a non-Christian's P.O.V

2008-05-27T18:09:00.003+10:00

I found this article the other day. It really appealed to me and what Christianity is all about. I liked reading their point of view on the Bible, Jesus and Christianity today. I am questioning the validity of some traditions and religiousness. I found this to be a fresh point of view and also refreshing coming from a non-Christian. I appreciate it when outsiders from Christianity say the truth about what they think. Unfortunately this is not always positive. I take this as advice on what to change and improve on rather than getting offended because someone dares disagree with me.
In fact the whole site that I got that article from has some very fascinating articles and I found them to be informing and thought provoking; which I always like.

Facebook

2008-05-22T12:00:00.005+10:00

I found this article that explains Facebook terminology. It's rather funny...I can relate though. I like Facebook chicken, I am doing that. There are some people I would like to add but don't know them well enough to add them, therefore am doing the Facebook chicken...lol.

Facebook has become a culture all of it's own...
I have found so many people that I know/knew from various parts of my life, it is really great to see where everyone is and what they are up to. Some people that I thought I had lost contact with, I found through Facebook. I was quite happy about that as I didn't want to lose contact with them.

Wolf Whistle strip

2008-05-22T12:00:00.002+10:00

Ok that is a random sounding title...but I will explain.

A woman in NZ, Kerikeri to be exact was using the atm when some guys wolf whistled at her. Guess what she did! She stripped off her clothes, used the atm and put her clothes back on. She reasoned that she was sick of being wolf whistled at by men so she decided to show them what she had. She also got taken to the Police Station and told that people in NZ don't do that. For the full story read here.

I find this story incredibly funny...and I say 'go girl!' I cannot believe it at the same time, it's such a good statement to men out there who do it.
Another random thing: I used to live in Kerikeri.

Face Transformer

2008-05-20T17:21:00.009+10:00

Upload a photo of yourself and transform away....loads of fun! There are different face settings to choose from. It is called Face Transformer.

Myself as a Manga character...hm...

Op Shopping

2008-05-20T16:45:00.002+10:00

I love op shopping; the thrill of not knowing what I am going to find. I had the opportunity to do op shopping the other day. I found some amazing clothes for the price. I spent $24 and got about 10 items of clothing; most of which were good quality. I even got a black velvet matching skirt and jacket (which fits me perfectly) - was amazed at this...I love velvet!

Other items of clothing I got:

A big warm long winter jacket (not trench coat style) - ex Target
two cute winter dresses...old school but very hip
purple track pants
Brown dress jacket with missing buttons (am replacing them though)
5 turtleneck/skivvies

I might photograph them at some stage and show off...

It never ceases to amaze me the wonderful clothes I find at op shops...there are some awesome unique clothes.

A window life...?

2008-05-20T09:11:00.004+10:00

Where I work, all that I see of the outside world is a small piece of window that is off in the distance. Sometimes I feel that way about my life, as if I am looking at my life from a distance and there is only a small window to see it by. At the moment the sun is shining outside and I can see it streaming across the tree that sits directly across from my desk (outside of course). I wish I were outside instead, basking in the sunlight.

I often wish that I could be in my life as it is, instead of feeling like I am looking from a distance and looking through a window. Of course I am probably over analysing a particular situation. I like to find symbols and deeper meanings in the everyday...it's everywhere; I just have to find it.

Imagine if life were really lived as through it were viewed through a window. It would be a rather vicarious situation.

At the moment I am vicariously living my life outside through the window...

Perfume, fragance and nice smells

2008-05-19T16:44:00.004+10:00

I like perfume, I have begun an affair with it in fact. It began when I first smelt J'adore by Christian Dior, that was one amazing smell. It took me so many places when I smelt it. The next perfume I inhaled was Pleasures Delight by Estee Lauder, it is a very beautiful fragance that took me on a heady experience of freshness and fruitiness. Since inhaling those two perfumes I have begun to collect perfume and when I get the chance I try to find more that I am drawn to. My collection so far consists of: Red Door by Elizabeth Arden, Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden, Baby Rose Jeans by Visace, Pleasures Delight by Estee Lauder. Two perfumes that I would love to own would be J'adore by Christian Dior and Tabu by Dana. Each has their own pleasant smelling characteristics which draw me to them.

The thing about perfume which attracts me is being able to complete a look with smell, I believe smell/perfume is the finishing touch to any outfit. There is nothing worse than seeing a really fashionably dressed person and then smelling B.O. on them, not a good look. I must admit though, that I have been a victim of that myself in the past, before I began my love affair with perfume.

I love perfume. I have even considered buying books about the history of perfume and learning about how it came to be so important in culture.

I have had quite a few chats with a work colleague about perfume. He and I have often noted that perfume just goes that extra mile to impress when coming into contact with others. We have discussed perfumes that we like (he likes to choose perfumes for his wife - I think that is so romantic) and he has shared a few that he likes which gave me ideas of what perfumes to try out.

One movie that I found interesting is a French movie called "I Do" (in English, not sure what it is called in French), anyway the main character works for a perfume factory, in fact he creates perfumes. I found this fascinating, to be able to create a scent...and that scent is worn by thousands of people....fascinating. He also had spent his whole life trying to recreate the scent of his first real love....how delightfully sweet. He eventually figured out how to recreate the scent of his first love....I found it fascinating, trying to capture a person through scent. (This is a great movie - although that is not the main story; a smaller sub story which I enjoyed). My husband and I actually saw this movie on our honeymoon and there was hardly anyone in the cinema which we didnt mind at all.

Passion

2008-05-19T16:16:00.003+10:00

I am a rather passionate person, however I find my passion comes in bursts and then slowly ebbs away. I am not talking about physical passion, I am talking about passion for life and for various things/hobbies in life. I have so many ideas and goals for my life, then I get overwhelmed i.e. my last post and am not quite sure where I am at. Then I feel really passionate about one or two things, at this stage it is sewing and working on my book of Poems (due out soon - hopefully). Then it goes away somewhat and I find a new thing that I am passionate about. At the moment it is myself and my husband's travel plans to the UK (at the end of next year so far). I am super excited about it and there is so much to plan and lots of money to save up too. We are hoping to live there for two years working full time and traveling when we can. I want to see the house my Dad grew up in in Switzerland, the house is apparently 300-400 years old and three stories. Sounds fascinating to me. I am also excited about using my Swiss citizenship for traveling. I have always used my Australian citizenship and now I will finally get to use my Swiss citizenship.

Back to passions. I am passionate about making this trip happen. I have always wanted to travel, see the world and experience new cultures, like really experience them. Not just get the tourists view of the culture.

I am afraid to say that my passions do not always include the people/things that they should, like my husband, God, family. I get too distracted sometimes by the flashingness of life and get really drawn in. It is hard not to sometimes; I like interesting things and to me these things are interesting.

Dictionary.com defines passionate as: having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling; fervid and also intense or vehement, as emotions or feelings. That about describes what I go through each time I have a passionate stage of a various interest in my life.
I like feeling passionate about something, it makes me feel way more empowered than if I were just doing something because I had to.

Overwhelmed

2008-05-08T14:44:00.007+10:00

Lately I have noticed that I have so many things in my life that I want to do and not enough time. This is because my time is often taken up by things that need doing (although I'd rather not do them at all sometimes). I also do not understand TVs, they take up so much time that is mainly pointless. My husband and I don't own a T.V. at all. I was thinking to myself recently how if we did own a T.V. I would never have time to watch it or I would get distracted and watch it and then do nothing with my life. Which I don't really want because there is so much that I want to do with my life and sometimes I just don't know where to start. I also dislike doing menial tasks such as cooking and house cleaning...I think they take up too much time. I would love to own a robot that could do all my housework and cooking for me to allow me to pursue all the things that I want to do. I don't think that will happen anytime soon...unfortunately. Although there is now the technology for it. Hurry up and make it cheap for everyday people!

Back to the point of the whole post. I feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of desires and goals that I have for me life. Like for example I want to travel around the world and get to know lots of different cultures, I want to write a book, I want to write more, I want to create more (art, photos, sculpture, installation), I want to publish all my poems in a book....the list goes on. But back to the reality of my situation...I just can't fit it all in. I have to help maintain the house, cook, clean, study, maintain relationships, work...the list goes on. There are two diverse opposites pulling at me, part of me just wants to go and do all the things that I want to do and then another part of me says "hello!!! There are responsibilities!" I really don't like being responsible sometimes it takes away too much of my life and what I want to do.

Just a thought or two for today.

Secret Stories

2008-04-30T14:36:00.008+10:00

I am amazed at the secret things people admit to doing on the MSN site. For example; one woman secretly dated her best friend's brother. She then drunkenly told her best friend that she was dating him. Soon after revealing this to her now ex-best friend she found out she was pregnant by him. She then broke it off with him and moved away and never told him. That wasn't the worst, but I was surprised that she wasn't honest with him about the baby. I think one of the worst was this woman pretending to be a new work colleague at her work and setting up a new email account and then emailing her boss raunchy emails. He then responded with raunchy emails and pictures! She kept pretending for awhile and then ended it and quite her job. That one made me laugh and how embarrassing for the boss. Not that he ever knew.

Some of these stories brought to mind how different my life is to others. They also really interested me in that I can live vicariously through others mistakes and not get the consequences. I don't think I would dare do half of the stuff that has been admitted on there. Although I do think it is a good idea for people to be able to tell their secrets anonymously to get it off their chest and hopefully move on in life. For some though it was sad as they said they would take the secret to the grave with them and never share it with anyone.

I am sure that everyone has secrets of some sort filtered throughout their colourful lives, many would not admit to it. I must admit that I definitely have a secret or two that I would not dare tell anyone, apart from my husband. I think it is important that some things are not mentioned or told to too many people.

Closed doors and secrets...hmm...

Josef Fritzl

2008-04-29T17:05:00.006+10:00

Image taken from http://www.independent.co.uk/

This news story has been rather shocking for me, what Father would do that to their child? It never ceases to amaze me the type of things people do. I also think that Josef Fritzl is scary looking and I disagree with the quote, I can believe he would do such horrible things, he looks scary and seedy enough. The poor girl and all her incestual children. What will become of them now? At least the horror is over. Now that it is over they will struggle to know and find what normal is because it was normal for them to be locked in a cellar with no sunlight and who knows what else.

I wonder what went through his head...

Donnie Darko - Mad World

2008-04-29T15:49:00.008+10:00

Whilst listening to Mad World from the movie Donnie Darko I am reminded of the fascinating filming from Donnie Darko. It is an interestingly odd movie that I felt drawn to and also frightened by. The strange, odd characters that appear in almost normal situations throughout the movie and yet the movie isn't normal at all. I felt intrigued by Donnie Darko, who like the name suggests is a dark, twisted and confused individual who doesn't know really what is going on and yet at the same time he does. I was also confused by this movie, time seems to go on and on in a circle that doesn't end. Yet it does end. Frank the Rabbit is of course the scariest character of all, he is real, yet he isn't. Frank the Rabbit wears a strange and scary Rabbit suit that looks like the Rabbit from hell. He visits Donnie, tells him things from the future, teaches him about time travel and tells him to do crazy things that often result in consequences.

I think the song Mad World, best describes the movie, Donnie just seems to be going nowhere and in the end he ends up nowhere. At the end its like the future never happened and he is now free.

I didn't particularly like the movie, but at the same time I was drawn into the story. It reminds me of Alice in Wonderland a little bit. There is a rabbit, weird things happen and time goes strange. Maybe its a teenage version of Alice in Wonderland.

I think my favourite character was Roberta Sparrow, the little old lady that stands in the road every day, all day waiting for the letter that never comes. She is in some ways the heart of the story, as she wrote the book that Donnie is reading about time travel. She seems interesting in a strange way also. I can relate to her though, sometimes I feel as I am constantly waiting for my letter to come and it never does.