26 October - what i've been up to

Hmm yeah, so I was going to post about what I did on Monday and Tuesday.. first I think I’ll tell you about what I’m eating… I made myself a salad with lettuce leaves, spinach, tomato, a tiny bit of cheese, boiled egg, and croutons made out of toast. Its yum. And for afters, I’m having plain yoghurt, with a spoon of vanilla icecream, and real passionfruit stirred in. Yumtastic!!!
Oh and now the salad has creamy French dressing on it… except that I didn’t read the label until after I’d put it on and its got garlic in it… oops!! (I can’t eat garlic) Oh well, hopefully it wont play havoc with my tummy!!
So yeah, what was I talking about?

Monday I went shopping with Diane (I can’t remember the name of the place we went shopping) and we went to Big W and Kmart, where I got a lovely pink t-shirt, some pretty green eyeshadow, and the infamous rubber chicken. Oh joy, oh delight! I’ve wanted one for *so long* and now my life is complete!! =P
After that, we went grocery shopping, picked the kids up from school, and went to the library. I got two trashy womens magazines to read, and after realizing what absolute crap they are, I have decided to steer away from them in future. (I’m going to concentrate on putting more worthy things into my head!!) My aunty got some card-making magazines, so we’re going to have a go together sometime. (She already makes pretty cards, so hopefully I can make something worth looking at, lol!!)
(I’m just finishing off my salad and hey I’m impressed! It was a nice salad!! )
OH YUM!! Oh gee golly yum… I just tried the passionfruit yoghurt concoction and its sooo nice!! *licks lips* mmmmm!!
Er oh yeah, I was typing about stuff OTHER than food….!! Um… Hey Grant! Come back!!! (Only Steve will get that one)
Ooh! its just started raining! Hopefully it cools down a bit as its quite muggy and stickily warm…

Yeah, so Monday evening we had stuffed jacket potatoes for tea, which were really yummy, (ruh roh – I’m back to food again!!) (wow! when it rains here, it sure does rain hard!! I’ve got Media Player almost on full volume and still can’t hear it over the sound of the rain on the roof!) and then I had a nice early night.

Okay, so yesterday (Tuesday) I looked around the Queensland Museum for two hours, then sat down a wrote a letter for half an hour. I bought some postcards at the museum shop for my family and the girl I babysit. The Museum was really awesome, with big dinosaur skeletons (that even roared!!!), a beautiful marine display – painted up like the sea, and had turtles, sharks, seasnakes, and crocodiles – and a lovely endangered Australian animals exhibit. Very cool =)
[The rain has just stopped and the air feels so moist… the trees are just soaking up the moisture, so that’s probably why the air has a damp feel to it!]
After that I walked down to the Queen St mall to meet the infamous SAM. He’s nice, and I can tell my mother that he’s not some weird 40 year old man that’s stalking us through the internet… As Mike said, he looks like a younger version of Jim (without the sideburns!) and man does he remind me of Mike. Bizarre! And they even have some of the same mannerisms and quirks. *such* an odd feeling…
We walked to the Botanical gardens and tried to stay cool there, which was rather hard in the 29 degree heat! I then got on the train home, which was a totally new experience and I felt rather like a small, lost child trying to work it all out… Its funny getting to 21 and thinking you know everything, and when you find something so simple that everyone else understands as second nature makes you feel so very small! =)
Anyway I met a weird weird dude on the train, as I said in last nights post, who looked to be in his 50s and was either a millionaire or a wacko. I really have no idea which. I don’t have time to write the conversation all down, but some of the things he said went like this:
-You probably don’t really need your degree, though, do you? you can find a nice husband to work while you look after the children. you look like the sort of girl that would make a lovely mother.
-I told him that I had a boyfriend (hoping to scare him off) and he said ‘oh so you’ll be getting married then’ and I was like ‘er, its early days yet!!’ and he later asked me if my fiancé would be upset that I’d come to Australia by myself. He also asked if my fiancé would be worried that I’d fall in love with some tanned, muscly, Australian lifeguard… And when I said no, I’m a one man woman, he said ‘you wouldn’t be representative of new Zealand girls in general, would you? You seem rather old fashioned… I wish girls today were still like that’
-he told me about how he’d moved to Canada with his children, and left his wife, and he’d gotten Filipino nannies for the kids, but they’d all run off with local men.
-he asked me which of the copthorne, rydges, or hotel grand chancellor I’d recommend he stay in
-he mentioned living in phuket, Brisbane, NZ, Canada, and said he now wanted to buy a house in Christchurch.
-he gave me his business card and said that if I need assistance I should call him. He also mentioned that he didn’t really know many people in Christchurch…… (after establishing that I live there)
I mean, he looked like quite a tidy, respectable guy, but some of the things he said to me were rather odd to say the least.

Anyhoo – then I got off the train (at the same station as him) (unplanned) and my Aunty came and picked me up. We watched Bride and Prejudice with the kids – saved from total absurdity by the awesome Mr Collins character, who was great – then I went to bed late.
I think I shall go inside now… its so humid out on the deck now and I’m getting hot!!

26 October - FOOD!!!

I am eating chocolate. It is good!! Except that I have lots of pimples… Although that might be from the climate change… yeah I’ll go with that :D Firstly, and most importantly, lets talk about food. I have found flavoured Freddo frogs!!! I remember when I was little and would go to Supervalue Rangiora with Mum and she would occasionally let me buy a Freddo for about 35c. Except, like many things I loved when I was a child, they stopped making peppermint, strawberry and caramello Freddos, and just made plain chocolate ones. Anyway – I’ve found them here (except peppermint)!!! I’m so excited! Its like nostalgia all the way…
Also, you can buy big cherry ripe bars, or multipack mini size ones! Yumza! Usually I’m not a cherry flavouring fan, but I love coconut (and things like bounty bars) (just in case you are thinking about buying me chocolate) so that’s probably why I like cherry ripes. Oops – I brought a little dish out on to the deck with me with 3 mini chocolate bars and a carrot and I’ve eaten 2 out of 3 bars of chocolate in about 15 minutes *looks sheepish*
Hmm… what other food can I talk about? The carrots here (or maybe just the ones my aunty has) are crap, apparently so is the beef (as it is grain fed, not grass fed cos there isn’t enough grass to go around), the tomato sauce, the bread is average (there’s not much multigrain around)… and that’s about all I’ve really got to complain about.
I haven’t tried much, Diane and I had subway on Monday, so that’s a pretty generic taste, and yesterday SAM had red rooster, which is like KFC I guess (as all the meat seems to be chicken), so I haven’t tried anything too different.

Anyway – that’s enough about the food, especially seeing as its not something I’ve tried much of!
The weather..
Well its quite tropical here, my Aunty said its really similar to being in Malaysia, so I wasn’t really expecting that. It’s a lot more humid than I imagined (hence the frizzy hair), and the temperature at this time of year doesn’t seem to drop much below 23oC. On Monday night we had a thunder storm – well not much thunder, but absolutely cracker lightning… the storm lasted for about 3 hours (possibly longer, as I went to bed before it ended), but it didn’t bring much rain. The lightning wasn’t around here, so it was really awesome sitting out on the deck watching vivid light flashing in the dark sky in three out of four directions!
Yesterday got to 29 degrees, AND I was outside, so that was a bit of a shock! And then…
AND THEN…. at 1am I thought I heard the freakin loudest earthquake I’d ever heard in my life… absolutely scared the willies outa me!!! But as I was lying there nearly wetting myself I realized it was thunder!!!! then the lightening started, which lit up my room even though I had blinds pulled over the window!!! And then the rain started… It was so heavy! Anyway I’d just managed to talk myself into the idea of thunder, and it started to die down, and I began to drift off to sleep. Suddenly BANG and the thunder started again, jolting me awake!! Heh heh!! The cycle of me just getting used to it and dozing off to be awakened to another loud rumbling happened another one or two times before it finally stopped! This morning my Aunty told me it was the loudest thunder she’s EVER heard, and they’ve not had anything like it here in Brisbane before! he he!! aaaawesome =)

Okay, well I’m gonna write another post about what I did yesterday and Monday, so goodbye again from the hot, frizz-meister!

Sunday October 23rd

Well finally I have arrived in Australia!! I got heinously bored on the plane trip over, and felt a bit sick… I was sitting between an older couple (the man wanted the window seat and the lady wanted the aisle!!) who smelt of sweat, but were lovely. I managed to read a chapter of “the case for faith” by Lee Strobel, but that was about it….I had thought there’d be trashy womens magazines to read or something, but all that was on offer was Voyeur – the virgin blue magazine that is a total load of dung, and had about one article and the rest was advertising – and I didn’t have $12 to hire a movie player. Anyway by the time I got off the plane I was feeling rather ill and managed to hold it in until we got back to my Aunty’s place, where I promptly made an acquaintance with my white porcelain nemesis. Stupid fruit salad and bung neck.
Its really warm here… almost feels like a constant curtain of warmth… I slept in my summer pjyamas last night (after sleeping in brushed flannelette pjs with a hottie at the Flat!) and only a sheet on the bed. Crows woke me up at 4am (which was 7am NZtime, so that wasn’t a problem) and when I got up this morning I had a cool shower and am wearing shorts and a t-shirt (Without a singlet!! It really has to be hot for me not to wear my trusty singlet)
Australia (from what I have seen – which isn’t much!!) isn’t as beautiful as New Zealand, as the bush is mainly scraggy gum trees and the like, but its still something different, which is always beautiful in its own way. =)
I guess the thing that is the most different is all the wildlife… in the trees in the backyard are crows (or Rooks) (evil black things that make annoying noises), um… yeah… numerous other birds that I can’t name!, beetles, ants galore, and oh yeah – the best part of all – possums. (‘best’ because they didn’t make any noise and they aren’t crawling over my food…) There are two ‘pet’ possums that come out at night and they came out for me last night so I took a picture. I’m not sure if it will come out, but hey, they’re only possums…!! (Heh heh) They’re native animals here, and so are protected, so people don’t have the same loathing for them that New Zealanders do.
I suppose I should explain the living arrangements as referring to ‘we’ and ‘the backyard’ isn’t really helpful if you don’t know what I’m talking about!!! I’m staying with my aunty and uncle and two cousins (the Aunty that was at my 21st). They live in a place called ‘Chapel Hill’, which is close to the freeway, but not so close as to be affected by it… I can see it in the distance, but we’re on the top of a ‘hill’ and there’s lots of bush between here and the freeway. It’s a constant sort of noise in the background, and I thought it was the noise of rain when I woke up this morning, but no, its not!! A breeze has just ruffled up, which is nice… as its supposed to get to 29 degrees here today.
The house here has a sort of granny flat underneath, with a cool tile floor, a kitchenette, and a bathroom with shower and toilet. I’m staying there, which is nice to have a bit of space to myself.
I think the weirdest thing of all is probably the time difference.. its three hours behind New Zealand, but I guess that just means that I will get up earlier in the morning and go to bed earlier at night… Its nice because it means I’m ready for the day by 6.30am, and ready for bed by 7.30 at night, hee hee!!

Anyway, I think that will do for now… nothing much has happened, so there’s not really anything to post about!! My computer says 12.42pm as I write this, but my cellphone, on roaming, says 9.42. But it definitely feels like lunchtime, as I’ve been awake since about 5.45 (8.45 NZT)….. I think I shall go rustle up some lunch! Toodles!

australian sentences

Hello from Australia!
Just a temporary post until I can get my computer hooked up (i'm on my uncles at the moment). I've been writing posts in Word on my laptop, and hopefully soon I can get them up on my blog.

In the meantime - have a sentence or two.
I'm in Brisbane!
It is hot.
I am hot.
I have to shower two or three times a day to cool down!
I met SAM today... he is SOOO much like Mike its spooky!!
We spent most of our time together mocking each others accents... (but i have to agree- the New Zealand way of saying 'pest' does sound a lot like 'pissed'...)
My hair is ultra curly.... but ultra frizzy...
I bought myself a rubber chicken.
my feet are blistered and sore after a day of roaming the town in my sandals
i met a strange guy on the train who offered 'assistance' if i needed it, and gave me a business card. From what he told me, he seems like an eccentric millionaire. Or he could be nuts. Oh yeah, and he told me i need to find myself a nice husband, and said i look like i'd make a good mother. And asked me what my fiance did for a job. LOL!
I am going to bed because i am tired.
goodnight!

um...

does anyone want to come hang out with me at the airport on Sunday afternoon? I'll be there from 2-4.30pm. My parents will be away on holiday and Adam is working, so i'll be rather alone...

micropause

I like being busy... because it takes my mind off emotions. Right now, I am quite disappointed, a little upset, and rather bewildered.
However, today i've been into the Uni careers centre, to my grandparents house, had a doctors appointment, tidied all visible surfaces of my room (so that its all nice and clean for AJ, who is coming to stay here while I'm away), packed most of my suitcase for Aus, searched virgin blue's website to find out how much baggage I can take, when I have to be at the airport, and discovered that theres a $25 departure tax (because no one else has told me anything about what i'm supposed to do), and now I'm about to go to work.

I'm sure that if I hadn't been so occupied I would have been quite overwhelmed, and probably had a good cry.
Anyway, can't stop to blog, gotta keep moving....
;)

God works through the ordinary too =)

You know, sometimes health professionals do actually know what they're talking about.... Earlier this year when I went to the musculoskeletal specialist about my neck she gave me some exercises that I should do daily, and suggested that a daily 10 minute walk would also be helpful. Once in a blue moon I, albeit rather unenthusiastically, did the exercises.
Recently, Adam and I went for coffee with Lynton and Philippa, who run our university christian group, and they were asking about my neck problems. Philippa asked if there was anything I could do about my neck, and I told her about the exercises and the walk. She then asked if I did those exercises, to which I replied no, and then I realised how stupid I sounded - to be complaining about my chronic neck problems, but to not be taking the advice I had been given about how to help the problem. So i started doing the exercises, and, with a (large) push from Adam, I now do them daily. My neck is not all sunshine and lollipops (although I'm not sure that i'd want it to be...), but it is much better. Funny that.


I wonder how this can be applied to other areas of my life, and of other people's lives. For me to sit here praying for God to heal my neck, frustrated at His seeming silence for over a year, and then to be offered a way out by a medical professional and to not take it, seems like foolishness. "God has not yet given me a miracle, so I sit here and wait, and ask my friends to keep praying for my healing." Is good advice from a doctor not a form of healing?
I can apply this to depression... I could sit here and wait for that miracle for seven years, and let myself slip into a further depression from not having received healing, or I could start to note down what sets me off, what helps me out, which friends have offered me support and encouragement? Is using the friends that God has given, and the keys that He has shown me not a form of healing?
I'm sure this could be applied to situations of eating disorders, failed pregnancies, difficult marriage situations, etc... That sometimes we don't see the woods for the trees, that the blessings are mixed up in the darkness and we dont see them, or we rely completely on God for an escape to a situation that He's already provided a way out of.
Or maybe there isn't a way out right now, and we should sit tight and try to learn some lessons and show our strength of character by weathering the storm, rather than fleeing it.


I'm not sure if this is related, but I was reading a part of John Eldredge's 'Wild at Heart' yesterday, and it was describing the situation of a man who is having problems in his marriage, with a wife who is struggling, and their time together is tumultuous. This man was saying that he'd found another woman, and his time with her was peaceful, she was without problems, and was easy to manage. You can imagine who he'd rather spend his time with...
But the author was suggesting that this man should see his time with his wife as a journey, a challenge, a chance for him to step up to the mark and be her man. Be her hero. Help fight her battles with her, and be her rock when she alone can do the fighting. That his time with his wife would be far more rewarding than quiet days with his easygoing lover.

I thought that sounded cool =)
So i wonder if there's any relation? Staying and fighting your battles, or helping someone else to fight, rather than trying to flee. (Although in saying that, sometimes the best option is to flee, rather than to stand and resist) Maybe that's akin to trying to focus on the world around us, rather than continually hoping for a miracle. Thinking practically rather than just focussing on the supernatural. Yes, God is still in the business of miracles, but he also works through the everyday, mundane stuff too. I think sometimes we get so caught up in looking for the miracle, hoping for God to intercede in a big way, that we dont see what's around us, and the small-scale progress we're making. Just because it doesn't come with a flash of light doesn't mean its not from God =)
Or if you're in a crappy situation, it may not be directly from God, and He may let you remain there, but you can use your circumstances to show God what you've learnt through His influence in your life, and you can open your eyes wider to see what earthly resources God may have given you to eventually make your way out of the situation.


I think I'm twisting two issues into one, and i'm not sure if they really even go together... but hopefully it all makes sense. Anyway i just started off the post by having a laugh at my own foolishness at not listening to earthly helps, and it turned into a more serious rant.... It feels good to be back into the ranting again =)

odd weekend ramblings

Seeing as everyone else does it, and i'm a lemming, I shall post about my weekend.
This post is dedicated to cool people like Jazz and Luuk and Moff who like to read/write about weekends...

It is such a lovely feeling to be finished University.. I feel so guilty, and so slack, yet so free =) (guilty and slack because it seems that i should be doing more!)

On Friday it was my Mum's birthday, so I went home and had lunch with the family. And took the chariot of hotness (formerly the black beast) to get a WOF. $155 later, I got my WOF. As of yesterday, I owe $103 in registration fees for my car.
Stupid cars and how expensive they are!

On Saturday night Adam and I had a lovely romantic dinner at Jim and Joy's house. It was their gift to me for my 21st birthday. Joy had done such very pretty decorations that it almost seemed a pity to sit down and defile the tranquil beauty of it all!! Our waiter and waitress cooked a lovely meal, the entree was yum to the max, the mains was delicious, and the dessert was really great! In fact the whole evening was wonderful!! Go Joy and Jim =)

Sunday morning Adam and I went to Burnside Elim... It was cool. The people were really friendly, the church is just nicely pentecostal, and there are families from many cultures there. I like it and I shall go back =)
In the afternoon we had a picnic at Spencer Park, on the way from which Luuk and some friends passed us in their car and waved, and a bbq tea at the Castle.

Thats all for now cos i'm tired and going to bed!
Oh yeah - Adam and were going to have a LAN last night (yeah, we're geeks) but couldn't get the games to work on our computers, so we watched A Bug's Life instead..
(and now i feel like Luuk writing about all the little details of my weekend! How odd to have you all know exactly what i've been up to...!!)

quick like a fox

I think I had the quickest shower i've ever had in my life this morning! It was less than 3 minutes!!
I hopped in the shower, and thought crikey this is cold, i can't wait for it to warm up... but it didn't.... the joys of being the third girl in the shower, eh?!
However I did manage to wash and condition my hair, wash my body, and use Nivea body wash stuff!
Its a funny feeling, though, when you hop out of the shower and its warmer in the bathroom than it was in the shower...

Huzzah.. my first day of freedom... =)

End of an era....

I have finished university...
I have spent the last 16 years in the education system, and finally it is at an end... what a weird feeling!!
I'm sure i'll cry about the end of an era at some stage, but for now - i just want to relax and enjoy a few days with no pressure and no commitments =)

Oh yeah - and catch up on sleep!! I'm tired like a fox...
anyway just felt the urge to post about my new freedom!

oh and to tell you that i think i'm weird... My last test was today from 3-5, and my group of friends from class were sitting round afterwards and they asked me if i wanted to go for a drink with them. I said "no, actually, i'm going to McDonalds for a formal dinner with a few close friends... we're gonna have cutlery and champagne glasses and stuff..." and the classmates all turned to me with vaguely stunned/horrified looks on their faces, stammered and stuttered a bit, but then they seemed to come to and one said "yeah, hey after you've had your little dinner thing if you want to come for a drink, we'll be at the Palms"
An odd moment... I sort of smiled awkwardly and waved goodbye =)

I want to be your man...

Gar! My stupid RSS feed hasn't been working well lately, so i've been missing people's posts!! C'est agacant!

I like this song:

Your Man – Paul Colman Trio

I've been a tough man, I've been a hard man
I've been a man who's been willing to start a fight or three
I've been a harsh man and
I've been a get things done man
And I've seen a lot of things man
But now all I want is

I want to be your man

I've been a young man and I've been a foolish man
I've been a proud man
And worse than that I've been proud I am
I've been a loved man and I've been a wanted man
I've been a broken man but now all I want is

I want to be wise as a serpent
Gentle as a dove
I want to be quick to listen
And slow to speak above

So now I'm giving to you everything I am
I give you all that's in my hands
I lay my body down
And I'm giving you my heart
'Cause

rambles

Hmm... in a vaguely annoying way my trip to Australia has been put off a week. I am flying standby so will try to get over on the 23rd October, but if that flight is full then I will have to try for 6am Monday or Tuesday. Thats actually kinda sucky cos i will now have a whole week at home after finishing uni, and i've already got someone lined up to rent my room for those three weeks.
Now I have to work out what to do about that, and if I will work for that week, etc etc.
Plus it means that at the other end i'll either cut my trip short, or stay longer than i really wanted to!

So thats all rather annoying....
And I'm going to be at my Aunty's place, but she and my uncle work, plus my cousins will be at school. For a weekend I'm going to go to Mackay and see my other Aunty, who will take a day off school as well, so at least we'll be able to do stuff together =)

So yeah, kinda random, with rather mixed feelings towards this whole trip, but I think i'll be spending most of the time just chilling by myself in a strange city where I know but 5 people.....

Anyhoo... I am still grateful that they are paying for a trip for me, and it shall be lovely, i'm sure =)

No, i refuse to believe its 11.40! its TEN,TEN I SAY!

I really hate daylight savings... my poor body has been completely stuffed up!! Its 3 days after the evil hour of doom (when 2am became 3am...) and my body still doesn't know what time it is!
I have the biggest bags under my eyes that i've seen for a long time, and when i tried to go to bed early last night my body told me that it was 9.30, not 10.30, and thus it didn't want to go to sleep. And then i had set my alarm for 7.30 this morning, but my body refused to wake up until 8.30 (the old 7.30...)
I am hungry at extremely weird times, my whole body rhythm is out of whack, and I feel rather like i've been hit by a truck!!

I'm not sure whether to fight it, or go with it... I've been trying both, but it's still not working!!
Who was the pillock who invented daylight savings and thought he could stuff with nature like that?!
My body shakes its fist at you...

Anyhoo.. i'm studying... and extremely hungry. But i will not give in!! I shall tame the beast yet!! No eating until 12.15!!!
It is very windy today.. rather like a gale, infact. I looked out my window before when I opened the curtains and the man next door was standing out on his lawn, practising his golf swing, and chipping golf balls. Did I mention that there are strong 46 kph winds here today?!
Bizarre...

hehe

Oops... i got so excited that i didn't realise i'd already written nearly all that stuff on my last post, lol...
Oh well... it can stay up there!!

another post?!

I have not had any emails for three days! Otherwise translated, thats 73 hours without a single email! How very strange!
Next Wednesday I have a 35% 'final test' for my Political Behaviour and Psychology class, and on Thursday I have a 50% 'final test' for my Language Acquisition class.
Then I'm all done!!

And then I have 4 days until I am flying into the wild blue yonder of Australia! And I wont be back until the deepest, darkest days of November...

But yay... just over a week and I'm finished!

So borin' i'm snorin'!

Yesterday I finished my last university essay.... ever.
w00t!
Only two more weeks in which I have one 30% test and one 50% test, and then i've got about 4 days inbetween, and then i'm going to Australia for three weeks, then ...
i have to find a job ~slightly less enthusiastic 'w00t'~

So whats been happening in the life of Michelle lately?
-Well i've had 'lots' (in my terms) of study, so generally I was being a good girl and didn't procrastinate by writing on my blog, plus Jared, Christina, and Fraser seem to be the only people posting on their blogs, so I managed to concentrate on test/essay study quite well!
-Ray's 21st was last night, and was fun to see so many awesome costumes! I nearly got ravaged by a bevear, assimilated into Batman's cape, and was hugged by a powerpuff girl(!!) Ray's birthday was last wednesday and I hope she had a good day =)
-I saw Christina, Jazz, Haley, and Katherine at numerous stages over the last two weeks... So I did leave the house ... occasionally...!!
-Plus there's a boy whom I hang out with on the odd occasion...

Really apart from that not much has been going down! I've been making a better effort lately to get early nights and be more conscientious in my study =)

Aah well... that was a boring post! But I figured some people (Like Jazz and Moff) like to be updated, plus i wanted to proclaim the yay-ness of Uni nearly being ALL finished!!