Cruel and unusual

In my infinite wisdom I decided I should do one of those seven day detox things. I chose to start this weekend, i.e. the weekend that it's raining and Mel left for a week overseas. So I am stuck indoors with a toddler on a rainy weekend. I used to love rainy weekends. Rainy weekends are excellent for staying in bed, reading a book (writing a book even!), having a long, hot bath or watching endless DVD's. All of these things are not possible when one is alone in the house with a two-year-old. Rainy weekends with a toddler are actually quite torturous. And this particular weekend I have chosen to deprive myself of caffeine and alcohol.

The sun came out briefly so I piled us into the car and we headed to the beach. Annabelle refused to walk at all and I hadn't taken a pram. I'm thinking "It just gets better and better" as I lug 15kg of chatty toddler along the waterfront. When we got to my favourite coffee shop, I ordered a large decaf (Swiss filter decaffeinated so no chemicals used in the decaffeinating process) soy flat white with no sugar to go. mmmmm YUMMY!

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. I'm not dead yet so that's a good sign.

My newest addiction

The West Wing.

I finished all four seasons of Grey's Anatomy aaaaaaages ago. Yes, I've finished the season that is currently screening thanks to Mel's regular trips overseas and his access to dodgy (read: cheap) pirate copies. So there's no point watching it on Sunday nights, hence I decided to see what the fuss was about with WW. I'm almost through Season One now and I LOVE IT!

They're all so smart and witty and good-looking and important. I might even be getting a slightly better understand of politics but I don't watch it for that. And I'm sure it's nothing like real life. Surely not, right? There aren't that many smart and funny and good-looking*, important people all working in the same place and loving their jobs.

*Except the chick that helps out CJ with the big teeth - she's not that good-looking but I suppose they figured it was unrealistic to have everyone being so good-looking so they threw in some slightly unattractive ones as well.

Only six seasons to go. Is it any wonder I don't get anything done?.....

One for the fat people

I was at the gym today, jogging/walking on the treadmill. A bunch of women were gossiping loudly near me. One of them - a bleached blonde mutton dressed up as lamb with her bling bling and her big hair, said to another woman - who was very plain looking and very overweight, "Oh, I'm sorry I'm gas-bagging and holding you up! Hey, want to run together?" (About now I was totally sympathising with the fat woman. That has to be anyone's worst nightmare. Who wants a running buddy on a treadmill?) So they get on their treadmills.. fat woman looking decidedly uncomfortable...

Mutton: So how fast do you normally run?
Fatty Boombah: (looking embarrassed) Oh, not very fast. Really. I go slow.
Mutton: What, 12? 11? (kph)
Me (in my head): Oh you stupid, stupid cow.
Fatty: Oh no.. more like 8.5. I told you I go slow (now looking like she wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole)
Me (in my head): Geezus isn't it lucky treadmills are for SOLO activities and you don't actually have to run at the same pace? And even better you can run side by side if you really want to and not even know how fast the other person is going!!

So they get going - Fatty plodding along at 8.5 and Mutton cranking it up to 12..

Mutton: So how far do you go?
Fatty: Oh it depends (about now you can tell she's wishing this bitch would just go away) I start off aiming for 4km and see what happens
Mutton: oh right.. yes *pant pant gasp* well I'll stop talking now so you can get on with it
Fatty keeps plodding along at 8.5kph
Mutton: ooh boy, I forgot how fast these things go (umm... you set the speed, love). Oh look I'm out of water. I think I'll go top it up...

So she stops the treadmill, fills her water bottle and comes back only to crank it up again. After about one minute she says "ooh gosh *gasp pant pant* Is it frightfully hot in here?"
Fatty: hmmm... I'm ok
Mutton: Right yes *pant pant*

About a minute later:
Mutton: Gee those bikes are certainly looking appealing
Fatty: hmmmm (keeps running)
Mutton: Well, I think I'll get on the bike for 10 minutes and finish up
Fatty: Ok then.. see ya (keeps running)

Me (in my head): HIGH FIVE!!!!!!!!

Bugger this parenting caper ruining my fun

We've got EXCELLENT tickets to Matchbox Twenty and Thirsty Merc tonight. Like five rows from the front. Samantha is here from Sydney to babysit. It's been planned for months.

And now Annabelle is sick. She has been all week... Any parent with a conscience surely could not leave a sick toddler at home, even if the tickets did cost almost $300.

Bugger. :(

I'm praying for a miraculous recovery.

I got another letter...

The first letter from uni said I was on the Dean's Merit List. For that you needed a GPA of 6.0 or above (Distinction) and be in the top 10%.

The second letter said that I will graduate with Distinction, and that this special thing would be noted on my Diploma.

The third letter arrived on Friday and said that I have been awarded the Dean's Medal for outstanding academic performance. And I bet the Dean doesn't even know that I did that course as a single parent with a baby who never slept through the night... ha! Now that is outstanding. I had to look up what it means and apparently it is for graduating in the top 2%, so no, contrary to what the letter says, it isn't THE Dean's Medal, as in.. there's not just one of them.

So I'm waiting for my next letter now. Surely there must be some other grand prize I can collect? Perhaps a gold trophy or a cash scholarship? Entry to any Masters degree in the country? What they expect me to happy with a little old Dean's Medal when clearly I'm a freakin' genius??!!

So I will be there on June 3rd to collect my medal. I need to find a babysitter (such is my life.. Mel will be in Noosa for "work") but I'll be there with bells on so Sydney folk, put me in your diaries. Hooray for an excuse to go to Sydney! That's the most exciting bit of the whole thing. :)

Virtual reality

Today I was talking to my good friend Jen who I haven't spoken to in aaaaages and it was so great. We were bridesmaids at each other's weddings but these days it's hard to stay in very close communication so every now and then we get on the phone and talk for hours to make up for the months in between.

Anyway... I was telling Jen about my book idea and we were talking about the whole "living in the moment" thing which is quite fundamental to Buddhist teachings - something we're both drawn to. Jen was saying that they (she and her hubby) have been to a lot of 21st birthday parties lately since their daughter is turning 21 and they have noticed something very strange about today's younger generation. They don't actually have fun. Instead they spend their whole time using their mobile phones and digital cameras to take photos of themselves "having fun" so they can msg their mates with said photos, email them or whack them on facebook to prove how much "fun" they had. But it's pretend fun.. all performed for the camera. How bizarre!?!

It really highlighted for me the gulf there is between Gen X and Gen Y (if you choose to assign labels which I normally don't but for the sake of ease of reference....). Their whole concept of 'happiness' is based on the answers to such questions as how big is your plasma, how slim is your phone and how fast is your freakin' download speed?

It certainly highlighted to me that the more affluent we become and the more sophisticated our technology, the more we seem to lose touch with the simple pleasures in life. So instead of being happier, we're more dissatisfied, less connected, have more shallow relationships and are ultimately much LESS happy. Sheesh! Something is wrong with this picture.

I was going to post this on the 'other' blog but don't have the time right now to pretty it up and make it suitable for public viewing. I just had to share it though so I thought I'd offload it here.

I'm back!

I finished with the admin job a week ago but man, I think I needed a week to recover! Finally I'm feeling great again - inspired and energetic to get on with achieving my goals. I've been to the gym twice this weekend and have been dieting with good old calorie king (love it). Admittedly I've only been on the diet for two days but I already feel SO much better and healthier for it. And I've already lost half a kilo so that always puts me in a good mood. :)

Thank God daylight savings is finished! I'm always relieved when it's over and we get some light back in the mornings and I hated it being extended for an extra week. Do the stupid daylight savings planners not realise that computers and mobile phones automatically revert to non-daylight savings time at the end of March? Sheesh.. talk about confusion! So to celebrate the lovely morning light today, we all went for a bike ride to the beach and had a coffee, then played on the grass on the waterfront. It was so lovely. It helps that the weather is fantastic (for a change!) so it was a gorgeous morning to be out doing active things together.

ummm... what else can I report? oh *whispers* Mel turns 40 tomorrow. He's coming to terms with it now but he was a bit of a cranky pants for a while there. I keep telling him life begins at 40... 40's the new 30 and all that but do you think he believes me? Eventually I just told him to get over himself and stop making the rest of us miserable and I think that did the trick. He tells me I'm such a good coach.. NOT. Heh. Whatever works, eh?

What would a blog post be without an update on my chit-chats with the spirit world? This week, quite coincidentally, I had a tarot card reading and a play with the ouija board on the same day. I was obviously meant to get some messages that day. We chit-chatted with Dija's cousin, Floren, on the board. He was fun. He died of cancer when he was 15 and Dija talks to him quite a lot. At one stage he was telling me something totally unbelievable and I was like "No way!" and he spells out "April...". It was April Fools Day!! Cheeky bugger. Dija told him that he's the fool since it was after midday and he spelled out "Not in America". How funny.

Right well.. we have some Sydney mates coming to visit this arv so I better go tidy up and make the place presentable. It's good to be back!