Wedesday 15th May

Today my joyous moment was buying one of those block coloured uni hoodies with the uni's name screaming all over it. They were on a two for one sale, and luckily today was one of the few days I was walking round campus, between classes, with a friend around. (It's sad, I know, but my one hour break between all my classes, means no-one has a remotely similar timetable to me).Yay for uni pride and unique timetabling.

hummm..

So I've been trying to think of a happy thing to write about, but I can't really seem to pinpoint any one thing. Perhaps a chicken and avocado sandwich? I've been trying to get my hands on one of these from the canteen for a week now because they look so absolutely delicious, all toasted and oozing with onions and avocado and all that goodness and healthiness- they're always there at about 10am when I've just had breakfast so I'm not really hungry and by midday they're all gone! Today I made the trek halfway across campus to the canteen in my quest for this toastie and I ended up trekking back to the station and resorting to junk food.. again, although admittedly, a burger and fries and icecream is quite satisfying, in that oily bad but yummy sense.. and cheaper too.  

Friday April 26

In light of recent events, my mum has inspired me to write a 'happy journal', a journal with one happy thing a day.

So today I'll start with the easiest thing. Family. Family for me has meant more than it ever has; I guess I've always taken it for granted, even when I think I'm not, but for the first time in my whole life I've learnt to savour a simple family lunch, a dinner, the quiet footsteps down the corridor in the middle of the night, just being able to sleep under the same roof together, having people around you who know almost every page of your life. The greatest gift I've ever had is my family, and that is definitely something to be happy about.

A changing tide

These last two weeks, I've had one of those painfully and devastatingly life changing events that puts your life into perspective and makes all those petty little matters and worries that I've ever rambled about feel so folly and ridiculous. This week I learnt to truly understand and appreciate that life and time are frail, unpredictable, fleeting and so, so valuable; that each moment we spend with our families and relatives and friends are precious- I just wish I could've captured every loving memory not only in my mind but in hardcopy to cherish forever- and that these moments can be cut short so quickly, so abruptly, so suddenly...that life and function can deteriorate in an instant, that the truths and genetics of living are real and unforgiving. I don't know what more we will encounter, where things will go from here, but for now all we can do is embrace each day as they come, cherish every moment, capture every piece of happiness; hope, wish, love-I just hope we're all strong enough.   

My 10th or so Easter Show Experience!!

For those who've been around me for a while or who've seen the wardrobe in our house toppling with showbags collected from years gone by, they'll know that Easter for me means..the ROYAL EASTER SHOW! So every year, provided I'm in town, I celebrate the release of showbags on my msn status (which sadly won't ever happen again on msn!), I print off vouchers and daily highlight plans- where I diligently highlight events and their times-more diligently then any homework I've ever done, I check the weather in advance for the perfect day and I try and rally up my friends and persuade them to come to the show with me; flooding them with stories of food dome sampling, sheep shearing, pig racing, showbag buying fun. Usually I'm pretty unsuccessful and I end up dragging along my trusty family, something they've become pretty accustomed to since I was about 5. This year was yet again one of those years where finding a non related willing person who didn't scorn the show as a place for little kids was almost impossible (although the rows of parked prams outside the farmyard nursery was pretty impressive); so I went with my cousin.

Arriving at 11am I got my free, well free after I paid the entry fee, breakfast at the cereal store, and was greeted by the smiling faces of the 1D truck. My day could not've started better! We did the typical yearly stuff; ate dagwood dogs, were starstruck by the Wiggles, watched racing pigs through a gap in the cloth under the stands, ate oysters at the food dome and patted alpacas.

This year I bought 3 showbags; which I admit were pretty impulsive despite the three hours of exhausting deliberation in a packed showbag pavillion. After buying a gym bag with magazines, I thought, I want a backpack showbag too, and after that I just felt like buying another one since I was there. I would've bought another bag, except I needed money for dinner. What was hilarious though, were the number of parents in the showbag pavillion groaning 'we've been here for hours' at their kids and  'we've walked around this place three times and you still haven't picked one, if you don't pick one now we're leaving.' Perks of going without parents.

Anyway, all in all, I had yet another year of fun at the Easter Show (although all the baby goats kept running away from me for some reason), I am content with my showbag collection for now, and I have added to my ever growing number of showtime memories : )

Allysway-my highlights of the week

This week, well for two nights, I finally felt like a normal teen, rather than the nerd who watches way too much tv and whose idea of a social life revolves around day time activities of shopping, cafe hopping and going out for lunch.

Partying it up and a day of calm

Today I woke up at 8am and felt completely normal; free from the pressure of the usual Tuesday morning assignment rush, no urgency to run out the door and sprint for the bus, my mind not throbbing with house beats from the night before- a very calm, wonderfully peaceful morning : ) I got up and ate my normal bowl of cereal and an extremely  nutella-d piece of bread- I don't even bother spreading my nutella anymore, I eat it in giant chocolate like clumps. I was feeling so good I even washed the clothes, am about to wash a week's worth of drink bottles and watched Taylor Swift's '22' video which I absol-mal-utely love, even though I'm not 22! I totally wish I was right now! And what's great about that video is that it makes me feel so not old, so I'll never complain about how old I'm getting again! (except maybe on Saturday when I'm surrounded by a bunch of 8 year olds who call me 'Miss'.)  

So you might be wondering, where have I been for the last week or so? I actually went on camp!(where everyone and everything including windows and doors got smashed.) A typical booze filled college party complete with college cups, vomiting, funny costumes, and other gossipy scandals. I was sadly enough one of about three sober people, who stuck to a cup of punch, and spent extra time on the non alcholic activites station to get out of skulling beer; and you probably guessed it, I was the vaguely responsible one who sat listening to the drunk rants of friends trying to sober themselves and work out who they made out with.

Nevertheless partying and dancing crazily past midnight while sober is still totally fun (until the photos of my ridiculous 'dancing' get posted on fb)and I have a huge respect for any non-drinking kid who has the strength to withstand the peer pressure of skulling alcohol (which led to very embarrassing mornings for a lot of drunk and later passed out people who went overboard on unlimited alcohol.) Somehow I still managed to wake up the next morning feeling like I'd passed out, with absolutely no idea where I was and no idea why I have a bruise on my arm. I had a pretty interesting time, but I did miss Ellen in Sydney, which was pretty devastating!

study study study boooo : (

So you might've thought that I'd totally neglected my blog after a week of post-less-ness; but I'm happy to declare that I'm still blogging!- just battling with time at the moment and drowning under piles of assignments and quizzes in an attempt to 'settle' into uni life,and let me tell you, the time they organise for you to 'settle' is really a two week sweet period to let you find your way round the campus and have your first introductory 'here's the schedule, this is your textbook' talk. Then comes the third week when they bombard you with a tonne of endless weekly assessments- which is where I am right now. This week I handed in the most embarrassingly- poorly- footnoted, barely edited assignment I can imagine, which I managed to scramble into the computer lab and send in 3 minutes before the due date (well due time really).  Thankfully it was due at midday so I had the morning and of course the class before to work on it, but sadly the internet was cut off in that room, which was quite the drama. Assessments just keep coming and coming, with new content we practically just learnt! I haven't been to clubs that I signed up and paid for, even though they're meant to help you settle, but how could they possibly help you settle when you haven't even done your homework readings?! I have nevertheless managed to sample almost every lunch available at the food court- a costly process, made slightly easier with O week coupons. So I wish I could say I'm loving Uni life, but really..let's hope it gets better fast!

Allygator

Flats! So I was at an event in a crowded room where we had to stand around, network, talk for a couple of hours. In the morning I'd thought, I'll wear my comfy flats. Anyway by the time the launch had finished my feet were aching, my back was aching..next time I'm rocking up in sneakers, so much for smart casual!

how hectic is uni

So last week I was super pumped for uni- I had all my brand new colour coded folders ready complete with sheets of reinforced lined paper and gripped pens. This week I'm exhausted from walking across campus daily, semi consciously dozing off and extraordinarily tempted to leave lectures halfway through, bombarded with textbook readings and sheets of paper- it's amazing how one week of uni can just throw your life into complete disarray! My room is absolutely flooded with random lecture notes and paper piled roughly over the floor, my desk is, well what desk?! What was once a nice long contemporary ikea table is now a sea of manilla folders and diaries and more sheets flying everywhere, it's almost impossible to clear a flat spot to work! Last week I thought I was completely in control. This week, well..   

ALLYSWAY- my weekly highlights

This week I've decided to post 'allysway' to celebrate my first week of uni, and one less day of work!
I could easily embed an 'allygator' post here about the monotony of lectures and the inevitable half an hour of textbook and society advertising before each lecture; but instead I will tell you about the freebies of O week.
So over the last few days I've managed to collect a vast array of pens, canvas bags, a vibrantly colourful collection of post it notes, rulers, a microfibre towel, a canteen/bottle, a tonne of coupons, a keyring bottle opener, highlighters, cans of coke, muffins, snow cones, and other strange concoctions and some other bits and pieces- I love freebies! ( I am sad however that I missed out on free pancakes and  usbs and gym bags and battery charging ipod cases (which I actually really need!), but nevertheless free stuff is always good and I am satisfied with my week's worth of hoarding.)

First day of Autumn

What a way to signify the end of Summer with a down pour of rain- and a runny nose. My sore throat seems to be getting slightly better, I've been trying to cure it with everything- salt water, honey, grapes, vitamin c, bottles of soft drink - I'm not really sure if they actually work but let me tell you one thing, one cup of chilled ice tea is a very welcome temporary relief for a burning sore throat.

Today I woke up early to buy tickets online for a camp and I lingered around the computer waiting for tickets to be released. Turns out I couldv'e woken up about an hour later and I still would've been fine. As a non alcohol drinker I also freaked out when I read that a huge chunk of the ticket goes toward the cost of unlimited alcohol, so I guess I'll just have to get my money's worth of lemon lime and bitters (sad I know).

Tues 26 Feb

Today I made it to 200 pageviews!!! Woot!

So I started Uni yesterday and what a hectic day it was! Sadly I have made no new friends except perhaps a bag filled with brick weighing textbooks and I spent most of the day hanging around the courtyard, collecting free diaries and pens, signing up for stuff and trying to get away from people who tried to sign me up to their random clubs. At one point one of the clubs signed me up themselves after getting enough information from me from conversation, even though I told them I was busy every day they have a meeting! I also had my first lecture which I won't bore you with the details with because I would fall asleep before then and I ended up looking at Oscars best dressed links anyway.. 

Wednesday 20 Feb

Today I'm so tired from working late and next week I've been scheduled to work even later*sigh*.
Anyway I realised last night that my holidays are fast dwindling away and that I've had almost a whole 4 months off already! It's so incredible how the holiday routine is so easy to fall into even if sometimes it feels as if you're running out of purpose and things to do; but now that they're almost over I've realised how much there is to do and that I'll probably never do them! (for instance, I've been 'cleaning my room' for four months and the most I've chucked out is a scrap of paper)

Tuesday 19 Feb

Today I walked around the whole block which is on a hill so I literally went round and round the (mini) mountain and I put the clothes out to dry (that's right Mum, I do do work at home away from the computer). It's now 9am, which is amazing because I'm usually fast asleep, happily in another world at this time, but the sun was penetrating my curtains at about 7am and my room was slowly cooking me so I had to wake up. I managed to hand out two flyers today at a bus stop and it was really awkard even though I vaguely knew one of the two people. I'm still looking out for a new job, I've been sending resumes here and there, checking online, obsessively looking in the corner of store windows quite often to find that the exciting piece of paper is just a security notice or opening hours sheet. I also need to buy uni books, but once again there is a Chinese New Year superstition that means I can't buy them till next week after the New Year's fortnight, so by the time I get my books we'll be through a few chapters already. And for lunch today I'm looking forward to spag bol! Yum! : )

Yesterday was Sunday

As you can probably guess from the title, today is Monday and this morning I woke up at 7.45am after missing two alarms, and scrambled out of bed, skipping breakfast, hoping to get to the bus stop in time and yet I still missed the 8:10am crowd. I felt better than the school girl though, who was practically falling off the kerb frantically waving as the bus drove right past. I might have done that a few times in my school career, but I was always pretty calm, if not exctied, about missing the bus and spending class time strolling to school.

So yesterday was Sunday and I finally managed to buy some work clothes that fit! (and weren't too expensive.) So now I have a pair of black work pants and a black skirt, so on sweltering 30 degree days I no longer have to stand outdoors in my black winter jeans, absorbing heat and sweat and my endless moans. Luckily I bought a pair of peach flats about 3 weeks ago, because my favourite black ones are officially falling to pieces, and I'm not allowed to buy shoes until the end of this week because of some Chinese New Year superstition. I also got back in time to watch 'Elementary' which I've been following since it started airing on tv  (my mum is an avid Sherlock Holmes fan) and like most crime shows it's pretty fascinating, slightly predicatable, and plays on my mind enough to keep me awake for an extra half hour at night and make me slightly paranoid in the morning. I've never been a crime fan but I have definitely grown a lot since the days when I had nightmares after watching Mission Impossible.

I also went to a huge CNY dinner on Saturday in the city, but that was pretty average; basically everyone was frocked or suited up around big tables with nice large plates of food that was served after the lion dancing and the inevitable rambly speeches and photos of politicians who all admirably but awkwardly ended with a couple of lines of mandarin and an energetic and completely off  'gung hei fat choi.' There were more speeches than usual, not surprisingly, I mean it is election year and some even unsubtly alluded to the election and its date. There was also this new rule where raffle winners have to stay in there seat and wait for people to bring their prize to them, which was pretty underwhelming compared to every other year when the winners run to the stage shouting 'I won, I won'. ( I did that last year, perhaps that's why they changed the rules). Sadly we didn't win anything even with fifty odd tickets in the raffle draw, which was a slight let down.
   

ALLYGATOR-my weekly bite at the world

This week I was going to pass on 'allygator' because it seemed too selfish to complain when nothing has really gone wrong these past few days. That was until this afternoon.

I love my house in suburban Sydney, I really do. It's spacious, it's on a peaceful street filled with kids on bikes and trees, we have a vibrant garden bursting with colour- and here lies the problem- why do people feel the need to cut down trees and trim them and blow leaves every week, for goodness sake, just let them grow. Right now my left ear is being bombarded with the noise of our neighbour across the road doing some hideously loud mechanical tree chopping in the backyard, which has been going on for the last few hours. In my right ear, the house on the other side is also trimming hedges with one of those higher pitched mechanical saws. I have closed all the windows and there is no place in my house which is free from blaring tree cutting noise. Honestly how many trees do you need to cut people? SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT AND MY EARS AND MY SANITY PLEASE!!!

Today I went to a cafe

I'm beginning to understand the whole idea of sitting in a brightly lit rustic cafe, sipping on a warm cappucino with a plate of cinnamon and ricotta waffles (even if it's not in Florence, sigh, one day). I went out to brunch with some friends and whilst it was rather costly for a plate of four waffles, it was a very quaint and artistic cafe with the whole antique aspect going; wooden shelves, little bronze dial up phone figurines holding up table numbers, menus printed on scrunched brown recycled paper in typewriter font, brown opaque glass bottles of salt (I admit these looked like something out of the doctor's clinic) - its like the place was designed for instagram. But what a welcome relief from the stunning silence of the office where the only thing we ever hear is the deep whir of the air conditioner and the person who frantically types. If only I'd gone to the cafe last Wednesday..(that's a Taylor Swift reference btw!) 

an exciting valentine's day

This afternoon I spent 6 and a half hours facing a computer writing year 5 math questions so really I shouldn't be typing anymore or looking at a screen for that matter. But at work today we all got given a little red pocket with 5 bucks tucked in it! Which was really sweet considering most people who work there aren't even Chinese. So I'm slowly being won over by the nice perks and food and stuff although that I guess even that doesn't really alleviate the tedium of paper work.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! Seeing as I'm lonely and about to go to work today I thought why not share the love with my fam & friends (&dog) anyway. So here's my new wall of hearts! Enjoy : ) (and I hope you guys can work out which category you're in!) 

Chinese New Year! Feasts, Fate & Fortune cookies

Before I begin, I'd like to wish you all a very
Happy Chinese New Year Week!!! May you live long and prosper and fill your tummies with bowls of pork crackling and leen goh!

On Saturday night, CNY eve, we went out to our local Chinese restuarant where we ate one of those huge family banquet dinners with our cousins and aunts. Like Christmas eve, the Chinese New Year Eve dinner is a massive event on the restaurant calendar so the place was bustling with chatter and laughter with people bellowing toasts to the new year. It was ridiculously crowded-the waiters were hectically squeezing though crowds, running with teapots and bills, glass spoons and plates clattering and breaking here and there; we had a table reservation in the second dinner session that night and expectedly the restaurant was running over schedule leaving tonnes of people huddled outside waiting, more like haggling, for a table.Thankfully my aunt is a heavy tipping yumcha regular so our wait wasn't too long. The food though took forever to come, so long that the woman at the table behind us went beserk and threw a fit at the waiters.Eventually we ate a delicious feast of shark fin soup and king crab and oysters and chicken and noodles and mushrooms and roast pork and tong yuun in a black sesame sweet soup, while listening to B-list Chinese tv celebrities dressed in Chinese Opera getup sing festive songs in piercing voices. On the bright side they gave us red packets with little red new years lollies in them. It was a fun night, filled with food galore- the table was bursting with colour at one point, and it's always good to catch up with relatives even if our table chatter inevitably turns into some heated debate over some trivial matter. What did feel like it was missing this year though was the lion dancing and blaring drums which is always my favourite part (beside the roast piglet).

The next day, New Years Day, we woke up at midday to a scorching Summer day and after lunch drove the hour drive to Bondi to cool off. Sadly, by the time we got there it started pouring, the bus stops were swarmed with people trying to get out of the rain, and I remebered that I'd left all my clothes outside to dry. There were all of about ten people in the water with almost no towels laid out on the beach and as much sand space as we wanted, which is such an unusual sight. We even found a parking spot a few streets from the beach, a miracle compared to our usual spot a good half an hour walk away-around the corner, through a park, up a few hills. We bought fish and chips and a box of calamari and chips. To my mum's sudden distress, she told us that calamari is a New Year no-no- in Chinese it becomes 'Tsao yau yu' which translates to 'getting fired'. But I love calamari rings so I ate them anyway, which is great considering it's only taken me a few months to find my first job. This was however better than last year when I bought a book on New Year's Day- book translates to 'shue' or 'lose' and I did in fact have a pretty unlucky, loserish year. I also really want a new pair of comfy shoes for uni, but I have to wait another 2 weeks because apparently 'shoes' sounds like a sigh in Chinese which is yet another bad omen. I even deterred my friends from buying sale $10 heels just in case. I'm also not allowed to eat fortune cookies- not so much because they carry an omen but because my parents are convinced that putting paper inside them is unhygienic.

Seeing as I didn't want to waste our trip to Bondi I braved the wind and waves with my jacket on until my mum got stung by a blue bottle; so we drove home and ate vegetables and vermicelli, which is a must on New Years Day. Our leen goh, a sweet, jelly like- new years cake very unfortunately turned mouldy so we ate the dragonfruit instead. And so far that's it for my CNY 2013!

Allysway-my weekly highlights

Having been working long hours, I've almost forgotten the luxury of sitting at a dining table eating dinner with the fam (or for our family at the kitchen bench cos our dining table is perenially filled with my parents' newspapers and catalogues and folders). So having eaten most of my meals at the train station between train changes or clambering bits of sandwich into my mouth whilst running to work, my highlight this week is coming home weary and unmotivated and seeing a homely clingwrapped plate of warm rice and beef and cauliflower on the kitchen bench. That really made my day!

Allygator- my weekly bite at the world

This week I have nothing to complain about, amazingly enough. I am temporarily content and am loving my doses of white choocolate and strawberry icecream.

I'm ridiculously exhausted from doing tediously long hours of primary school homework, where my eyes end up glazing over hundreds of additions and subtractions and close passages on monkeys. But I was totally comforted when one of my friends told me that she had to wake up at 5:30am for a 7am coffee shop start, working on award wage. So I guess doing 8 hours of primary school work isn't quite that bad, after all a job's a job.

Tues 5 February 2013

Today I went to work and did 8 hours of Yr 6 homework. Algebra, general ability, reading comprehension, problem solving.. it's like school all over again! And to be completely honest I think that's the most homework I've ever done in my life. Even for the hsc I didn't study that much! (Which probably explains why I'm where I am right now.) At least at school though, in math class, we could eat or plug into music and do a few questions before our inevitable social math session- at work we're under contract not to chat, not to eat, not to listen to music, so every time I reach for that tuna sandwich in my bag I think, no stop, I want to get paid! If only they made us work like that in school. I would've been such a genius : /

Monday Feb 4 2013

Today I went to the orthodontist for the last time! I'm not sure how that's an interesting subject at all, but the journey there was definitely far more exciting than the destination (not terribly cliche at all, I know.) So the trains were delayed massively all day but somehow in the afternoon I was lucky enough to get on every train with less than 5 minutes wait even though they weren't running on schedule! Going there I sprinted to catch a bus to get an earlier delayed train, rather than my usual half an hour uphill walk, because I wanted to be on time for my last appointment and to avoid the after school rush. So I managed to scramble on to the bus and catch the train thinking I'd only be about ten minutes late as there was meant to be a 40 minute delay, but somehow I must have gotten some super early train that got seriously delayed and I made it with 30 minutes to spare!

That's my story for the day. Oh, and then I bought myself a raisin bun : ) yum

Another very average day

Today I woke up once at 7:30am, as usual, because of my parents' kitchen clatter and their far from quiet mad rush to work, and then again at 9:30am to actually get up. This week I've been mixing three different cereals together in my breakfast bowl; weet bix, weet bix apricot bites, and special k, just to jazz up the dull routine of breakfast a little (although my parents were nice enough to leave me a hard boiled egg this morning). I'm just about to go for a walk on this sunny and windy day and put out the washing in the hope it dries in a couple of hours so I can wear my clothes tonight. (We're not allowed to use our drier- somthing along the lines of changing the pipes and opening the back door to use it so it doesn't combust.) Also my parents are under the impression that it's better to dry clothes in the sun to kill off germs with the sun's all-natural healing, penetrating rays.

Now it's getting really windy, I still haven't moved from the computer even though I set a time limit where I was meant to get up and walk half an hour ago and I don't think the conditions are quite right for walking anymore. I guess I can only blame myself, the icecream and the weather for my one kilo weight gain this week. Perhaps I'll just sit and watch some tv : )

More scribbles- but today is a gift

So I said on my last scribble post that I bought a waffle maker for a friend's birthday. Yesterday we went to her birthday high tea party, not a wild 18th costume house party where everyone dresses as Alice or the Madhatter, but a calm, civilised, sparkling wine controlled and might I say, a rather ritzy and pricey waterside-view restaurant, high tea. And it turns out that in her 18 years of existence, this was her first birthday party! Her first time with bags of presents, opening them on the spot, keeping a happy straight face even if it's a box of candles (thankfully there were none, but mine always seem to end up in the black out kit). Which makes me wonder- how much has she missed out on?

I personally remember each of my parties quite distinctly, from the huge scale kindy parties at McDonalds where everyone invites the whole class for an afternoon of duck duck goose, to the putt putt golf party phase, to the humble movie flick-pizza house parties, and then to my last birthday party, which was a disastrous 15th singstar house party. I valued each and every birthday until I was 15, and after that they've all been filled with facebook and texted happy birthdays including my 18th right before the HSC (I celebrated that one with a few others, namely a textbook and my new phone). But even then birthdays and celebrating them has always been a big deal to me considering I once organised my own party half a year in advance and showed all my plans including a garage makeover to my parents to convince them to let me hold a party. I also glare at friends who forget the date of my birthday or can't work out the password to my phone (come on whose password isn't their birthday these days??).

Anyway being one of those wonderful people who likes everything, she liked the waffle maker, the mug, the inevitable boxes of body wash, and even the bits of foam packaging the body wash!
And all in all the high tea was nice (although it better have been for how ridiculously much it cost)- there were little duck pies and chicken & avocado sandwiches, prawn finger breads and cakes and macarons and creme brulees. Not quite the traditional high tea, but nevertheless surprisingly filling and yummers : ) And of course any view of Sydney Harbour is spectacular!

So what last year for us would have been an average school day where we all sat around the canteen, outside the toilets sitting and chatting, it's nice to know that we're now at high tea in the city sitting and chatting whilst thousands of kids sit around canteens and toil through totally fun, interactive science classes at school- ahaha one day peeps, one day.

ALLYSWAY- my highlights of the week!

One of the things I think we so often forget (well I do anyway) is to be 'thankful for everything we have.'

Today one of my 'wonderbar' friends was telling me about how she started cooking for her family as much as she can to show how grateful she is for her fam and their support and that she's not just another gen Y computer bound house staying kid. (I take that back; she totally is and can recite every single song on Glee and the time in the episode and season that song appeared- it's sad I know).

Still, she reminded me to be thankful for eveything we have; so while I was whining through whatsapp about the blocked toilet, my miserly minimum wage pay and my friend who gets quadruple my pay in an hour I thought why not start the opposite of 'ALLYGATOR-my weekly bite of the world.' Why not look at the positives in the world?! So I thought I'll add a new thread 'ALLYSWAY-my highlights of the week!'

SO THE FIRST HIGHLIGHT: Today I passed 100 pageviews! So an absomulately ginormous THANK YOU to everyone who's been reading my blog; I hope you enjoy  it and I'll keep you posted!!

ALLYGATOR- My weekly bite at the world

This week our drains are blocked and our bathroom is currently flooded with gross toilet water : ( 

Also going down on my list are waiters who say that the food on the menu isn't spicy at all when it is! We were out eating Thai food and ended up drinking about ten bottles of water and drowning our pieces of meat in bowls of water before eating it. One of my friends worked out her golden ratio was one piece of lamb to two cups of water. Ok I admit I'm not the most spice tolerant person, but still!  

More scribbles of a very average person

Today I woke up, sat on my bed for a very long time, thought about the thousands of kiddos who probably just started their first class at school for the year and thought ahaha thank goodness, no more math for me, I'm finally free!

Clearly a very eventful day ahead. I'm currently thinking about going for a walk (well I've actually been thinking about it for two hours now).

It has however been quite strange walking straight past 'back to school' sales for the first time and not feeling the urge to buy a box full of 10 cent exercise books and folders and notebooks and pens. It's not too sad though considering icecream has also been on half price sales! Yummers! Although yet again I feel myself gaining weight and my favourite orange skinny jeans are slowly getting harder to squeeze into.

So this week I finally got my first job as a tutor, and whilst it's not in retail I'm glad I finally have something relatively productive to do this month. I spent my first day at work ushering kids into classrooms, watching them run around the playground (despite my valiant efforts to uphold the 'no running at all times' rule) and marking their work. I may have possibly infringed some tutor codes of conduct e.g. wearing a skirt instead of long pants, not chatting through marking sessions for more than a half a minute, not chatting on subjects other than marking material (although there was an article on modern family, so technically I was ok there!)...It's definitely not the funnest job but perks are: I can go shopping now! (Oh and of course the joy and satisfaction and appreciation of innocence and energy and ladidadida of being around and helping out cute little kids.) Only problem is when I go shopping now I compare a shirt with about an hours' worth of work and after a while I feel so guilty I don't feel like buying anything anymore. Yesterday I bought a shirt and maroon pants and that was almost two hours of part time work gone so I kerbed my need to splurge after that. We also bought a cool waffle maker for a friend's birthday present, which we very proudly found on sale!

Allygator- my weekly bite at the world

This week I'm still bothered by how tough it is to break into the retail industry with no connections. Currently: still unemployed. Resumes sent out: like a billion. Replies: - none-

I'm also slightly fed up with the amount of tennis on tv at prime time, especially when they start replaying afternoon matches at night. It was fun to watch last week but I'm glad it's almost over.

The scribbles of a very normal average person

Today I was hoping to finally get out of my house and do some exercise and go for a swim, but the weather's just too dark and ominous (well not really, it's just cloudy, but that makes for a better excuse). So I've been stuck in my house for a while now; it took me three days to sleep off jetlag and I've spent the rest of the week standing around, staring at walls, slowly clearing out clothes and notes in my room and the occassional walk up the street. It's been super hot, sizzling over 40 degree heat round here, the hottest day in 150 years, but now it's just raining or looking like it's about to. In the past scorching days all I've wanted to do is bask in the soothing air con, watch the tennis on tv and eat icecream; I've eaten a lot of icecream recently! We've stocked up on cookies and cream, cornettos, honey and macadamia icecream, yum yum, there goes that new year's resolution, and of course my excuse is the blaring heat. Semi legit in my mind.

I've also been out grocery shopping a lot, restocking after our holiday fridge clearance. Yesterday we bought a heap of bargain meat because of those wonderful Australia Day sales, some rye and raisin sourdough- our current family fad, and a couple of bags of late night reduced priced bread and finger buns-hurray.

As for a job, I'm still very unemployed, I haven't earnt a cent on shares, my room is still a complete mess,yes, the rest of the month is looking rather bleak in my new Harrods diary (which I bought hoping to inspire myself; clearly working). I have however started reading again. Amazing right? The last book I touched was probably a biology textbook, the last novel was Frankenstein for high school English, and the last leisure book was honestly probably Harry Potter. So I haven't moved on very far, I've been engrossed in the Hunger Games series, which is actually very addictive and much easier to read after watching the movie, although it does feel like a mix of Twilight and Harry Potter and maybe Gladiators all in one. To pass more time I've also started Ellen's 'Seriously...I'm not kidding' which is a nice, light read. I love her humour as always and can't wait till she comes to Australia! And to pass even more time (how much time do I have?!?) on this very long 'staycation' I've picked up playing piano again, which is a testiment to how bored I must be, considering that wondrous blanket of fluffy dust on our piano, and I can't bring myself to play anything other than calm, honest, melodic pieces that suit my slow, passing time mood or Bach's Well Tempered Clavier (I  just added that to sound more cultured.) 

And now that I've reached the end of the day and unachieved nothing exciting in particular I guess it's time to call it another stressless night and look forward to yet another exciting day with a midday sleep in! Woot! Hopefully I'll enjoy them while they last!

ALLYGATOR- my weekly bite at the world

Toilets in Europe which cost money.

So I went on a very calm schoolies to Europe and the one thing that bugged me was how much it cost to use public toilets. In some places it cost more to go to the toilet than buy a cappucino. Perhaps the cappucino was strategically cheap..On one of the days our toilet money, of three people combined, cost more than a yummy spag bowl +raspberry tart lunch! Thankfully they are pretty clean though.