Whinge - Going no where

Image source: http://crossfitimpulse.com/crossfit-on-the-road

Every have that feeling like your trying you hardest but not really going anywhere? I sucks, and I've got it chronic right about now. Usually I'm pretty optomistic and upbeat, but every now and then, everyone gets a bit down. I feel like I'm trying my hardest, but haven't got a whole lot to show for it.

This is not some long depressing post, I promise. It's just a bad mood I'm in as a result of a letter I got in the snail mail, from myself. It was written on the 17/5/11. I don't even really remember writting it. It was an excericse that one of my lectures got us to do during class at uni, but I can't even remember which one. Basically, we had to write a list of goals for ourselves that we wanted to complete by the end of the year, and then the tutor kept them to send to us at a later date.

This is what I wrote.....

- Move into my own house

- Complete a fun run

- Gain work experience

- Produce my own media and publish it

- Get a HD on an assignment

- Take some form of Holiday/Road Trip

- Create a blog

- Present my own radio/flagship show

- Present news bullitins on SYN

- Try and get on-air/behind the scenes TV experience

- Start saving a planning an overseas trip

And what have I done off that list? Pretty much nothing.

If I was trying to be optomistic, I would tell myself that even though I havn't done a fun run, I can now run 5 kms, and that I HAVE gained work experience, working at Nuffnang, and I HAVE got a HD, and I HAVE created a blog (even though it's not a very good one),  and at least I HAVE traveled in the past, even if it was nearly 4 years ago. But the point is, I'm not in a optomistic mood. I'm one of those my-life-sucks, binge-on-chocolate moods. (I just ate half a packet of cooking chocolate. Yes, cooking chocolate.)

I know I'm being a brat, and I know I have so much to be thankful for, but at the moment, I'm just not feeling it. As much as I loved this year, I feel like there is so much I wanted to achieve that I didn't. Maybe I'm just aiming the bar too high, but I like to suceed. I like to do well. I'm not going to give up though. I will still do all of those things, they might just have to wait until next year, or maybe the year after.

So I'm just going to spend the rest of tonight sulking, and wallowing in my fowl mood, and then tomorrow, I will wake up and be ok. I hope.

Do you have moods like this? Is my mood justified, or should I just snap out of it?

Cup Weekend - Birthday Parties and Sheep

It's been a few weeks since my last post, but it's not just because I'm being lazy, I swear. I've been flat out with exams, a new job, bootcamp, birthdays, and everything else that seems to come up this time of year. 

Despite how busy the last few weeks have been, they have been really good. One of the highlights was Cup weekend. Long weekends are supposed to be a time to relax and take a break from everything. Some people get away for a few days, other catch up with friends, other take the chance to not much at all.

But not me. No, what did I do on the weekend? I spent Saturday and Sunday preparing a kids party, and Monday and Tuesday drenching, ringing, ear tagging and giving B12 injections to 300 sheep.As painful as that sounds, it wasn't that bad!

In my family, birthdays are a BIG deal. I spent all of Saturday cooking pizzas, cupcakes and cookie. Alana's birthday was on the Sunday, so I  stayed at my parents house for the night so that I could be there in the morning to make pancakes for breakfast, and watch the presents be opened.  The rest of the afternoon was a frantic rush to get all the cupcakes iced, the topping on the pizza's, the birthday cake make, the table decorated and all the other things that have to be done for kids birthday parties. 

Excuse the mess. It was all the kids, I swear. 

Halloween shaped cookies!

The final product. 

Her Birthday was the day before Halloween, so we made the party Halloween themed! All the little kids (and the big ones too) dressed up, and we decorated the house with pumpkins, spiders, ghosts, and anything else halloweeny that we found. The Birthday girl dressed up as a witch, and I thought that crimped hair would go well with her costume. She thought it was a great idea until she had to sit still for 45 minutes while a used mums ancient crimper on all her thick hair! It did look cute though :)

Birthday Girl! 

Decorations

Who would win, witch or vampire?

Unfortunately I didn't spend my Cup day trackside with a glass of Moscato in hand. I spend it paddock side, with an ear tagger in hand. My parents own a couple hundred acres of land in east Gippsland. They farm a few hundred Dorper sheep, as well as some cattle. 

Each year, all of the new lambies need to be ringed, ear tagged, drenched and given B12 injections. Being the amazing people we are, my boyfriend and I went down to help. One of my good friends for Uni has her heart set on marrying a farmer and living on a farm. She is obsessed with anything to do with the county. So, I decided it was a good opportunity to show her how a farm operates. She stuck around for a few hours on the first day, and was actually a good help for a city girl ;).  Although, it was quite amusing when she nearly got trampled by a heard of sheep running from the yard. 

We started the sheep on the Monday, but didn't managed to get them all done. I waved good bye to my cup day plans in exchanged for another day of sheep. Only it was worse this time because it was raining and they where WET! We finished just in time to watch the Cup. Even through we where huddled around a 30 year old TV with rabbit ear attenas that only just had reception, I was happy! 

After we finished the sheep I decided that the kids needed to be done to, so I chucked them up in the cradle. (The cradle is the thing that you put the sheep in when you doing what ever your doing to them.)

Note: I didn't really. Not children where harmed in the making of this blog. 

The Queens Visit

Now I am no royalist. I have very little interest in anything to do with royalty. I couldn't tell you how many kids Princess Mary has, or how Beatrice fits into the royal family.  I didn't even know that Prince Charles and Diana divorced until a couple of days ago. However, I unintentionally ended up in the city yesterday watching the Royal visit. 

I had organised to meet up with some uni friends for lunch. We caught the train in to the city and were going to go to St. Kilda, although the Queen interrupted our plans. I knew that she was visiting Melbourne yesterday, but I had no real desire to see her. What I didn't know was that both the road and the tram line to St. Kilda road where completely closed off due to her visit. With no way to get to St. Kilda, we changed plans and decided to go to Greville Street instead.

Unlike me, my darling mother loves the Queen. She took my little brother and sister out of school for the day so that they could go into the city to try and catch a glimpse of the queen. She was that excited that she couldn't eat her breakfast. I'm not even joking, she actually said that.

My lunch finished at about the same time as the queen was due to arrive at Federation square, so I decided that a might as well find Mum and watch the parade with her. By the time I got back to Flinders Street, the crowds were so big that you  couldn't move. People couldn't get in or out of Flinders Street station. Not only was in annoying for people who weren't there to see the Queen, but it was also pretty unsafe! 

This was about an hour before the queen arrived. This crowd more than doubled!

There was heaps and heaps of cops around too, and I had to have a giggle when I walked past to having a word to this old man about his 'protest'. His sign has something to do with how America saved Australia from Japanese invasion, and that Britain had betrayed us. They must have let him stay though, because he was still there when I walked back past later on! 

My friends and I couldn't be bother dealing with the crowds, so I gave up looking for Mum and headed further down St. Kilda road to get away from all the people. We found a nice grassy spot out the front of the arts center, and soaked up the sun while we waited for the queen to pass. 

As we walked down, I had another giggle at this bunch on the Balcony of the arts centre who had come out to see the Queen.  Not your typical royalists?? 

I'm glad that I wasn't particularly interested in seeing her, because the whole thing was a massive let down! When she eventually came past, all you could see was her brightly coloured hat near the front of the tram. It could have been anyone! My friends decided that this lady in the crowd was the Queen, and that everyone was looking in the wrong direction. For all you could see, it could have been this lady in the tram!

I kind of felt sorry for all the people who had waited for hours to see the Queen. You really couldn't see much at all. But Mum was happy. She walked around grinning for the rest of the day, and called me before I went to bed to ask what I had done that day, just do she could hear me say 'I went and saw the Queen.'. Cute. My little brother and sister where pretty un-fussed by the whole thing too. They were more concerned about going to Sugar Station. 

One of the best bits of the day was a compliment from my little brother that came while he was reminding us to go to Sugar station for the 50th time.  He told us that going there was more important than seeing the Queen, and that it was the most important bit of the whole day. After a short pause, he then added that I was 'a tiny bit' more important than lollies. 

More important than the Queen AND lollies! I must be important! haha

Class of 2010 Muck Up Day - The Day that wasn't

It's almost that time of year again, where society is tormented by evil brats. No, I'm not talking about Halloween, I'm talking about muck up day!

Muck up day, for those who don't know, is almost rite of passage. Basically, you get to mess sh*t up, because you're finishing school. It's a celebration that traditionally takes place on the last day of year 12. Student get to dress up, and mess up.

Not surprisingly, Muck Up day is banned at many school, as 'celebrations' often get out of hand. Think Xavier College Class of 2008. 

My school was no exception. Tomorrow, marks a year since that fateful day of my Muck up day. Technically, our school didn't even have Muck Up Day, instead it was meant to be a 'celebration' day. We were aloud to dress up, and cause a little bit of mischief, but almost everything we could cause mischief with was banned. Flour, banned. Baby oil, Banned.  Water pistols, banned. So basically, we couldn't do anything. 

But did the schools tactic of banning everything ensure an incident free Muck Up Day? Hell no. 

Instead, my classmate came up with more 'creative' ways to cause mischief. Someone (who will remained un-named) decided to put quick dry cement in the female toilets. And someone else put expander foam in several of the school locks. 

How they managed to do this, I have no idea. The school supposedly had security surveilling the school the night before Muck Up day, and the toilets should have been locked. 

The school discovered the damage before the school day even started, and they were not surprisingly very unimpressed. We spent the next few hours being screamed at by several teacher. They tried every tactic they could think of to get the culprits to admit. The threatened to cancel the Valedictory dinner, threatened police involvement and tried to make the culprits feel guilty for ruining the day. But, they never managed to find who did it. Well actually, everyone knew who did it, they just couldn't prove it! 

Pretty much the only half decent bit of the day was first thing in the morning, seeing everyone dressed up in the Supernatural theme. Apart from that, the rest of the 'celebration day' was pretty average! 

Me as a Zombie Doll.

Medusa, cross-dresser and zombie doll.
(Not sure how Darcy dressing as a girl was supernatural.
To be honest, I think he just wanted an excuse to dress as a girl) 

Vampire, Zombie dolls and the devil. 

Did you get to have a Muck Up Day? Did/has your school banned Muck Up Day? What did you do to celebrate the end of school? 

Shut Up & Dance - Melbourne Fringe Festival

Over the last few weeks, I have been volunteering at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. For those that don't know, Fringe is a festival that offers artists an opportunity to showcase their work to a wide audience. You can read more about it here.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see many performances, because I was quite sick with Bronchitis for most of the festival. However, on my last volunteer shift I hung around for a while in the Fringe Club, a bar in the North Melbourne Town Hall that offered free entertainment every night of the festival. The event for that particular night was titled 'Shut up and Dance'. The name alone had me interested, but as I watched all of the performers arrived in their costumes, I knew I had to stay and watch!

And I was glad I did! The basic format of the night was a whole range of different dancers performing for the audience. There was Go Go dancing, Samba dancing, 'Punjabi' dancing, cheerleading and square dancing. After performing, some of the acts then taught the audience of few moves. The crowd was fantastic, and everyone joined in. Picture over a hundred people, dancing in sync. It looked amazing!

Anna's Go Go Academy was my favourite act of the night. They performed a 60's style 'go go' dance, and sported full 60's costumes. Complete with bee hive and tiny shift dresses. After their dance, Anna, the founder of the academy taught some basic steps to the crowd. I loved it, and am now definitely considering trying out a few classes!

In between the acts, they had some 'free dancing' time. This was almost as good as the acts themselves, because the atmosphere was incredible! Almost everyone in the room was on there feet and dancing. And not just an awkward shuffle from side to size, or people grinding up on each other like everyone does in night clubs. People where actually dancing. Proper dancing! Their was people ballroom dancing, people doing break dancing, some latin dancing, and people doing there own style! Safe to say I think a lot of the audience where dancers. What I loved though was how into it everyone was. No one cared what they looked like, they where just having fun. And the energy was infectious!

I was kicking myself that I hadn't found out about it earlier, because I knew so many people that would have loved it just as much as me. I hope they do it again next year! I will be there for sure!

Here is a clip I found of the Samba dancers on YouTube. It gives you a little idea of what the night was like. (p.s It's worth watching just for the gorgeous dancers!)

Did you go to the Melbourne Fringe Festival this year? Have you been in previous years? 

Dressing up or Dress up?

Everyone loves dress up parties, especially ones with decade themes. There is just something so fun about dressing up in the ‘fashionable’ clothes your parents once wore. I love to giggle at Mums perm, shoulder pads and lycra, but I know that karma is going to bite me in the arse. And probably yours too. At some point in 20 or 30 years, the next generation will want to borrow OUR old clothes for a dress up party. They will be sniggering at what used to be OUR extremely fashionably wardrobe.

Although the idea of having our fashionable 2011 wardrobes ridiculed may seem absurd, it is highly likely. And, unless you want to spend your life wearing basic tees and bootcut jeans, it is unavoidable. Your current wardrobe will one day be giggled at, as the fashions of today give way to a new ear. The most important thing is that you love what you wear, and you feel great. So rock your leather shorts, fluro platforms or dip dyed hair. Just be ready to laugh at yourself in 20 years time, when your daughter rocks the same look for a dress-up party.

So what fashions will our generation be defined by? For the 80's, it was the perms, lycra and legwarmers. For the 70's, it was the flared pants, platform shoes and headbands. 

This is my list of the top 10 recent fashions most likely to resurface at a fancy dress party in 20 years. 

- low cut skinny jeans

- The colour blocking trend

- Jeggings/Leggings

- Maxi skirts/dresses

- Havianas

- Boot Shoes

- High wasted short shorts (Bum cleavage optional) 

- Ray Bans

- Anything Vintage

- Oversized Bags & Sunglasses

And finally, I need to add one more thing. It's not an item of clothing as such, so I didn't add it to my list, but it deserves a mention.

 Orange Fake Tan! (I have actually seen people this orange, on numerous occasion.)

Is there anything I've left out?  Do you agree with my predications? 

Let me know!

Gargoyles - Strange and Creepy or Loveable?

I think everybody (wether they admit it or not) has a weird or quirky interest. For me, it gargoyles. My love for these strange and often creepy little creature began when I spent a couple of weeks in Portugal and Spain when I was sixteen. These two countries are FULL of amazing castles and churches, that are adorned with these wonderful little stone beasts. 

As much as I love them, you do have to wonder, why there are stone creatures all over the castles and churches. Well, historically Gargoyles where used as ornamental water drains, but a much more exciting theory is that they where intended to scare away evil spirits. This was the most common explanation that I can across during my time in Europe, and my personal favourite.

There are several other theories, such as the idea the gargoyles are depictions of the evil spirits that the Christian Church had 'triumphed' over, or that they are in fact devils, frozen in stone as the fled the church. 

But Gargoyles aren't limited to just one form. While I travelled around the two countries, I saw a whole variety of different Gargoyles. I saw lions head, alligators, ghost looking creatures, dogs, demons, snakes and heaps more! Not surprisingly, I ended up with quite a collected of Gargoyle photos....

These aren't even half of them. I love looking through all of them, and the way that each picture reminds me of a part of my trip. I hope in time that I will be able to travel some more, and expand my collection of Gargoyle pictures (Notre Dame anyone?). 

What's your quirky interested? Do you have a thing for Gargoyles too, or do they creep you out a bit? 

Family gatherings with a side of Coconut Chicken Salad In Crispy Wong Tong Cups

Last weekend was my beautiful cousin Bridie's Birthday. She loves any excuse to get everyone together, (who doesn't?) and what better excuse is there than a birthday? 

My aunty invited the family over to her place last Friday night, and asked everyone to bring a plate to share. My family is huge, so I think that was good move. It saved her from having to do all the cooking and cleaning!

I pulled out the trusty Australian Woman's weekly Cook Book (which actually belongs to my boyfriend!) and flicked through the pages, trying to find a good finger food recipe. I finally decided on one for  'Coconut Chicken Salad In Crispy Wong Tong Cups'. Not at all the kind of thing I usually cook! I only began eating Asian style food in my mid-teens, as I came from a very meat and 3 veggies family. Although I am really enjoying eating it, I am yet to attempt to making it. 

I trudged off down to the shops to get everything I needed, contemplating grabbing a packet of Spinach and Ricotta Pastry Puffs in case my Wong Tongs didn't work out - which I fully expected they wouldn't. 

Well, I was wrong! They worked out perfect, and they received many complements from all of my family!

So pleased :)

There was quite a few steps to the recipe, including making the crispy Wong Tong cups out of spring roll pastry. They where supposed to be made with Wong Tong wrappers, but they didn't have them in my local supermarket. The recipe listed Spring roll pastry as a substitute, and it worked out fine. I made the cups by lining mini muffin trays with the pasty, and putting the in the oven for a few minutes. It was relatively simple, but they looked and tasted really good! I am thinking about trying them again with different fillings. 

I had a great night with all of my gorgeous family. It's always good to see everyone, and hear all the latest news. Why is it that when your enjoying yourself time goes so quick? I felt like I was there for half an hour, and then all of the sudden it was midnight and time to go home! 

Do you cook a lot of asian food? What is your favourite recipe? How do you celebrate special occasions?

Melbourne Zoo - One of my favourite places!

In anticipation for my upcoming 4 months off (hehehehe) I started to think about things I want to do over my break. 

One of my ultimate favourite things to do in Melbourne is to visit the Royal Melbourne Zoo. I go once a year, at least!

The Melbourne Zoo is one of those places that appeals to almost anyone. It has beautiful gardens, cute animals, awesome reptiles and stunning birds. 

I know some people are opposed to the idea of keeping animals in captivity, but the Melbourne Zoo has done amazing things with there enclosures. They resemble there natural habitats, and make sure they are stimulated, and have thir privacy. They also do so much for animal conservation. Almost every time I go there is a new baby something! 

I especially love going with my little brother and sister, because it gives me an excuse to run around like a little kid all day....

Another reason why I love to go with them is because I get to see their captivated little faces as they watch the animals. 

I love this photo of my gorgeous little sister watching the seals swim above her. 

There is nothing better than spending the whole day at the zoo, wandering around looking at all the different creatures.  I even like looking at the insects and spiders! (warning: scroll down quick if you are scared of spiders!)

Last time that I went to the Zoo, I came hope with a little souvenir. My boyfriend is a Ranga (aka. Redhead) so I thought this badge was highly appropriate. 

If I had to pick my favourite animal..... I couldn't! I love them all! I could happily go to the Zoo every month and not get sick of it! If you have never been, I highly suggest you do! Make sure you let me know what you think!

What's you favourite bit about going to the Zoo? What's you favourite animal? 

Westfield Fashion Shoot - Pretending to be a model

Photo courtesy of audreyeffect.tumblr.com

Last monday, I was lucky enough to get to model for Westfield!

I modelled in a photo shoot for  for The Westfield Insider blog. the The photos where being taken for a blog post offering women advice on how to find the perfect dress for different body shape. Five women where chosen from the Westfield Facebook community. None of us where professional models, we just wanted to pretend!

It wasn't until I arrived that I realised how lucky I was to have been picked. Over 100 women had applied!

 The shoot took place in a studio in Port Melbourne. I had never been in a proper studio before, but it was so cool! Huge lights, white walls, big fancy camera! 

The beautiful Alyce, who is the author of the blog, had picked a few different outfits for each of us. There was a whole rack of clothes, just for us! We tried them all one, and picked the best ones to model for the shoot. 

Photo courtesy of audreyeffect.tumblr.com

I wore an animal print maxi dress, from Dotti. The dress was so different from the sort of things I usually wear, but I quite liked it. Alyce matched the dress with chunky bronze bangles, a big ring (both from Diva) and amazing orange heels from Betts! 

We each did an individual shoot, which was actually much more difficult than I expected! It's quite hard to pose in front of a camera for 15 minutes! I think I got the hang of it by the end though.  I did pick up a few good tips from our lovely photographer! For example, she suggested that when you are standing side on, you should put back shoulder foreword to give you a nicer shape. 

Our gorgeous photographer

The lovely Sarah from audreyeffect.tumblr.com

My turn!

After we each had our individual shoot, we did a few group shots with all of the 'models' and Alyce. I couldn't get over how great all the girls look! I felt like I was in a real shoot, with real models!

Me (on the right) with some of the lovely models
Photo courtesy of  audreyeffect.tumblr.com

I had so much fun on the day! Maybe I should be a model now? haha


  If you want to see the final product, you can find the blog here:


http://blog.westfield.com.au/fashion/the-dress-decoder-finding-the-perfect-dress-for-your-body-shape-win/