What with World Youth Day going on just down the road from our house over the weekend, the fam and I made the wise decision to go away for the weekend. Which was especially lucky as apparently the pilgrims stayed up until 3am or later singing religous songs. Not exactly my idea of a good time.
But we DID have a good time in the hunter! They were having a running festival up there and my dad entered the 10km event. We went up on saturday morning and went to collect my dad's entry kit in time for the race on sunday morning. Inside the kit was his electronic timer, a tshirt, waterbottle and a whole lot of coupons for free stuff. Then we looked around some shops nearby.
Each of them had these cute little houses attached to the wall outside. I never figured out what they were for. I think maybe to hide their alarm systems?
There was a pretty pond with some Koi gold fish in it too
We ate dinner at Harrigan's, an Irish pub near our hotel that is supposed to be pretty popular. I thought it was pretty crap. We paid over $20 each for a woodfired pizza that wasn't even that great - in Randwick you can get one that size which is totally customized for half the price.
Anyway! on sunday, dad went out for the race and mum and I slept in a little, and walked to the finish line to cheer him at the end. It was quite fun. He heard my wooping and waved to us when he went through. Then we bought me a new pair of runners! they're brooks adrenaline, and they are super comfortable. Time to throw away my 'old faithful' nikes that I've had the last 10 years or so.. sob. LOL
Then we went for lunch at the Blue Tongue Beer Brewery, we had a beer sampler of 6 beers (the dark one was really nice, I'd buy it again) and a cheese platter to share before heading back to the finish line of the race for the announcing of the prizes. It was cool! dad came second in his age group! he got a bottle of wine for that, and then they had a prize draw based on the running numbers and dad won a tshirt and a water bottle and a hat. After the prize giving, we went for a look around the Hunter Valley gardens which were stunning, bearing in mind it's winter and hardly any of their rose section was flowering. I took some pictures. I especially liked the children's story book section, LOL.
Ornamental cabbages.. So pretty!
it smelt gorgeous too
the perfect frame - a hole in the hedge :)
Round doors like these are supposed to be lucky, right? Well you can never have too much luck!
We wished in the wishing well and then went through the Children's Story Book Garden. This bit was at the end of it! I hope we do all live happily ever after! (if only it was that simple)
We had dinner at Potter's Brewery which was probably the best damn schnitzel I've ever had in my life. Then today, monday, we drove home via Wiseman's ferry, which is a scenic route back to sydney. We stopped for lunch at the coolest place, I forget the name but it was this teeny little pub dating back to 1830 something! Photos:
Wild Kangaroo! It was sun basking. Too cute
tree plantation
this dog was sleeping in the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD when we first arrived... when we came outside after lunch she had migrated to this table in the sun, lol.
Wine, an open fire and the best damn ploughman's lunch I ever had - awesome bread, cheddar cheese, sundried tomatoes, olives, pickled onions, some kind of branston pickle stuff, a bit of chutney, ham, mortadella and some danish ham/salami thing.. as well as I think swiss cheese? anyway, it was delicious! mum, dad and I shared :)
And the outside. Such a cute little pub.
It was a lovely trip - seriously good food, my dad bought those Brooks adrenaline 8 shoes for me (thanks Dad!) and the beer was awesome too. The scenery was nice and it was great to get away... But it is SO good to get home. I missed my baby Willum. I think he missed us too. He spent all afternoon nudging my legs until I picked him up for a hug, Too cute!
Quickly, things I left out:
we got moved from our first room since the mini-spa bath leaked all through the kitchen and lounge when I tried to use it. Cold, wet, miserable when it's winter and around 4 degrees C is not fun. But management gave us a bottle of wine and an appology letter
I went for a 3k jog this evening around UNSW with my new Brooks. They were pretty comfortable! But my lungs are still hurting from all the uphills!
I think that's it!
Night night... I am SO tired!
is that either my life is really boring and I don't want to record it. Or something great happens and I don't want to do it an injustice by writing about it by posting in a hurry. But at the same time it's like, but I don't want to forget that memory!
- I'll graduate and get a job from whatever area I'm studying quite quickly after graduation
- I will have to make a choice between two men - one is intellectual, on the same wavelength as me, the other loves me a lot but needs more understanding from both parties for the relationship to work
- I will get the money I'm concerned about and it will be used for something useful, not frivolous or silly.
- I should and will go overseas - if ex # 5 really loves me he will understand and try again when I return
- I'll be married by 2012, pregnant by 2013 (last time she said not much before 2014)
- I should keep a purple stone in my room or on my person for luck
- 8 is my lucky number, there won't be problems in my life I can't solve if I'm patient
- In my future career, she saw me holding conferences and travelling a lot for work (but this could be teaching children, tour guiding, any number of things).
- I will have two children, one of which will definitely be a boy
- I will only get married once
- she will go on a trip fairly soon, and when she comes back...
- she'll meet a slightly older man who has a powerful/responsible job
- she'll be married by 2010
- she should wear gold things as they bring her luck
What's your favorite time of day and why?
My favourite time of day would be around 7:30 or 8:00pm. Our family always eats together and discusses the events of the day in the ad breaks of our favourite tv shows. Since I've been single I haven't been out all that much so it's really nice to connect with my family like this.
The other time of day I like is sunday morning. I go for a run around 9:30 ish, and then I come back and read the paper or go for breakfast with my sister. It's a really relaxing sunday ritual. My running time is my 'alone' time, and I love it!
As per every year, my definitive list of birthday gifts starts here.
My birthday wasn't really anything special this year, but I did enjoy it. On friday, my boss organised for the office to come into the board room and we had cake and tea and coffee. They gave me a card and a gift voucher for a women's clothing store. AND she gave me a one hour early mark!
then on saturday I went out with the uni girls for spanish food. Alison stayed overnight and we had breakfast on my birthday. It was really nice, just sitting in the sun and chatting.
Here is what I got:
From my Sister
Armand Basi perfume - "red" (it took us ages to choose. It's quite gingery and different.)
From my parents
- Garmin GPS watch forerunner 205 (can't wait to train with it!)
- bunny statue. I saw it and really loved it, I was just drawn. I usually hate that kind of dustcatching stuff, but I really wanted it!
- korres brand olive pit scrub (AWESOME stuff, really scrubs and moisturises too!
- mango and blossom body lotion (just a cheap brand but it smells really great!)
- sauna masque red hot earth for anti stress
- korres olive and rye moisturiser sample
- korres firming eye cream sample
- lindt chocolate 3 pack (I will keep these in my desk drawer at work)
From my Grandma
a cheque for $200. I love you grams!
From my friend Alison
- this awesome makeup book - Rae Morris 'Makeup - the ultimate guide' - there are some really awesome looks done step by step in here, and some interesting product info too. Can't wait to have a good read of it.
- UFO sherbet lollies. My faves. I've eaten them all now, LOL
- home made Eurovision song contest 2008 CD (it's a 'thing' that we love to do/watch together, LOL)
And from my friend Celia and her BF... a huuuge bunch of flowers. Just one of the perks of having an awesome florist as a friend, LOL. Lillies, cherry blossom and swiss cheese plant leaves.
Here is a close up of the rabbit face - I was just totally attracted to this funny little smile!
And some funny photos from Saturday night with the girls:
hee hee!
I saw this image mosaic tag game at www.verypink.com, and I thought it was cool!
The rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.
here is my result:
Do you know, whenever something happens that I'm not quite sure how to explain, I don't post. Usually it's something bad or awkward. And then as time goes on, it gets harder and harder to catch up so you have weeks without a post.
Sucks.
BUT
Here I am again :D The last few weeks have been a bit of a nightmare... last assignment for uni, FINALLY handed in! woohoo! then, ex # 5 rang me at like 3am one night and asked to talk and he sounded pretty glum so I went outside and sat in the street with him for a while. Knowing what I know now it's easy to make a decision but basically he begged me to get back together. He said I was the love of his life, he wanted to spend the rest of his days with me... he basically pushed all my buttons, said all the right things. And I thought, why didn't you say any of this when I was splitting up with you? I didn't really want to break up but I couldn't really see what else to do.
I spent time thinking about it, and worrying about it, and what I would say, and how I should say it, and what I should do...
And I thought, I love this guy. I really do. But enough is enough. I need to say 'no' so that I know that I can - that I'm not just going to cave every time someone asks me to do something for THEM. Because it hurts THEM to be apart. I was seriously stressed about it, thinking, I've already done this once, why should I have to go through this again? I hate hurting peoples feelings more than ANYTHING. Really, really hate it. I was the type of kid who cried when someone else did because it upset me to see them sad. So I worried away for a while, and I finally got up the courage and told him. And he said he already knew, and yada yada, and that it could have worked in another time and place, and basically left me feeling massively deflated - why say all that stuff, and then come back with that response? had he meant a single word of it? who knows? maybe he did at the time.
Anyway, so basically, I'm still single. The title of this post actually refers to something else though -
I finished my first ever knitted garment! and when I can be bothered charging my camera, taking photos, connecting the camera to my comp, uploading and resizing my photos etc, I will post a picture of it.
In other news, my 2 ebay items arrived, a pair of white/cream boots and a pleated wool skirt for work. V. Exciting stuff. Add to that, mum and I went to the craft fair the other day. My newest project is a star quilt. I bought a stack of material with Asian inspired prints - they are too adorable for words! I got a few patterns, inlcuding one that has red, cream/beige and brown fireflies on a dark blue background, and two which have the most adorable leaping bunnies on them. One is in red with beige bunnies and pink cherry blossoms, the other is dark blue with beige bunnies. I'm going to use them to make a whole lot of star squares for another double bed quilt. I'm going to make it bigger than my last one since even ex #5 who was a stick would hog the covers - it covers the bed really well but not when two people are sleeping in it. So the next one will be designed to fit two FAT people underneath :D
lol.
I should post pics. Will do soon, have to sleep now. Much crafting to do tomorrow, and possibly a run..
Today was pretty oddball all round.
For a start, I had to go to another work training day (paid). We're in the process of earning Certificate IV in frontline management, and this was our second training day (the last one was the day before ex #5 and I broke up you will recall! two weeks already!) So I got up early to go to work and I was playing with Willum. He was preening my clothes like he does, but he didn't realise that he was getting closer and closer to my skin, so I'm leaning over him on my hands and knees and kissing his back while he's preening the edge of my singlet top, and he accidentally caught my skin! I know he didn't mean to, but it's just so funny - I have what looks like a love bite on one of my boobs now from where he nipped me! (except that there is a cut from his sharp little fangs, haha!)
Then, I went into work, and embarrased myself on the bus when my earphones came out of my phone mp3 player right in the middle of an Abba song. Like way to get caught listening to shameful music!
The training was pretty ok, we talked about team development and individual development. It kind of annoys me that for this session we had to do two 1 page reports, and for next session (one month from now) we have ANOTHER 3 reports. They're to demonstrate that we understand the content of the units, but why not just get us to complete them in class? no one would know anyway.. my boss said we can do them at work though, and I think I'll do mine this week since in a month from now I won't remember everything we were speaking about.
Anyway! LUNCH! (paid for by work, which is really nice!) and I have a cappuccino. Then I remembered that my boss does coffee cup readings so she did a reading of mine. She picked up on some really interesting things so i can't wait to see what pans out! here is what she said so I have a reference for later:
- I should check the tires on my car - especially air pressure. Not likely to have an accident but could be inconvenienced by being stuck somewhere with crap tyres
- she saw a heart in the cup, but also a shield which represents protecting yourself or not being 100% open as you've been hurt (which is obviously completely natural in my case)
- she saw me going out with friends and having a good time, not being a hermit, or going crazy and over the top
- she saw the rabbit and laughed about him, she said he can tell that my energy has changed recently so if he's been acting really well lately it's because he knows I'm not myself and he wants to spoil me. The way she described it was that he has felt very loved by us so now he wants to show us that he will love me back.
- She saw me getting a lot of enjoyment and pleasure out of listening to music perhaps a guitar or a flute, something like that
- also that I should do things by myself if no one is available to them with me, to prove to myself that I can have fun doing things alone, but also because it's important for my spiritual growth (for want of a better phrase)
- she asked if I was considering moving out and said she saw some kind of distance from the home - maybe travel
- that I was weighing up a decision and comparing possible outcomes
- that I have been or will be soon looking at a necklace or something for around the neck, maybe a scarf, that costs a lot that I will go back and look at again and again (I couldn't think of anything that I've been eyeing off!)
- she saw me going somewhere hot
- basically, she could see in the cup that I am very focussed on my study and very stressed but that it's crucial that when I can I do things for myself and my own wellbeing. That travel/alone time or whatever is vital for me to move on in my life (I took it as changing my possible life direction?)
THEN she read the saucer which was really interesting!
- she saw the letter C which stands for commitment. She said she could see I wasn't afraid of commitment or of love (the letter L was also present) and then she explained that previously, the commitment and love were together, that the cup and saucer fitted (referring to the breakup) and that when I have had that alone time, when I've spent some time just doing things for ME, then the love and commitment that I'm looking for will all fall into place.
I love that kind of thing. Even if it isn't true in the sense that it's semi psychic or what have you, it's still good advice in my opinion and pretty much what I was planning on doing. I want to book a weekend away for just myself after semester is over, and I want to maybe go to the snow or somewhere, I'll be pampered, do nothing.. spend a lot of money. That was the basic plan. I'm happy being single, I'm not seeking out a relationship right now, although if one came along I wouldn't turn it down - I'm open to it, but I really do want to spend some time re evaluating who I am as a person now that I'm not 'Aaron's Girlfriend' which I guess sounds foolish but there you are.
Dinner with just Celia tonight as Janna is on her way to VIENNA (Lucky woman!) and Jasmine wasn't feeling well. Time to go to sleep now since my week is HEKTIK BRO!
quick run down even though this is the longest post ever:
monday-tuesday: assigment due on wednesday, days off work since I'm doing 2.5 full days this week instead of 5 half days.
wednesday: full day of work 8:30-5:30, hand the assignment in
thursday: half day, meeting Alerson for coffee in the morning (will bitch about men, eurovision etc!)
friday: full day
Weekend: start take home exam for HIST109 I imagine! arg!
And that is it from me. Much love, I am going to bed before I fall asleep right here. Have a good week yourselves!
Last night we had a farewell dinner for Janna as she's heading off to Vienna and Israel and such on sunday.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, being as how I'm single now and all - what exactly am I looking for? have I got unreasonable expectations in terms of relationships?
today we went to our rabbit breeder's house to get a calicivirus shot for willum. It was all the way out at Thirlmere, and I could not believe how pretty it was.
When we arrived they directed us into a big shed at the back of the house. Inside, there were a whole lot of cages, and maybe 40 odd rabbits! lots of different breeds, there were rex bunnies, and netherland dwarves, there were plush species and lops, it was amazing! some of them were sooo beautiful. The plush species had the most beautiful soft fur, but best of all were the babies. She picked out a 3 week old grey one for us to look at, and it was SO TEENY!
She cradled it on it's back in the palm of one hand!
She was really gentle with Willum when he got his shot and you could tell that all her bunnies loved her from the way they stuck their heads out of their cages when she walked past. She talked to them like we speak to Willum and he really liked her - he climbed onto her lap!
I was so proud of him, he didn't even flinch when he had the shot. Then he climbed onto my lap and licked my face and Kirsten, the breeder, told us that he looks very healthy and that she was impressed with him.
Then she lay him on his back, which is apparently a really good bonding thing to do with your bunny, it teaches them to relax, and she was rubbing his tummy and stroking his feet - he's never let us do that but I'll give it a go. I was always worried that it might hurt his spine, but now that I know it wont I'll be more confident.
I'm really glad we went - the other bunnies were beautiful, willum behaved like a star, and even the drive was very pretty. So many cute little federation style houses with picket fences and rose bushes. I loved it.
It's good to be home though, I'm going to head off to bed now, I am just exhausted!
