Floraish

On Friday (when I should’ve blogged), Steve and I went out for a movie and lunch.

It was really good, we finally went to Little Hong Kong, and I ordered for the both of us Steve had never had chinese styled roasts or barbecued meats before so I chose the BBQ Pork & Roast Duck combo for him with fried noodle. I had the Superior Prawn Wonton soup (only - in hindsight, I should’ve gotten noodles too) and we shared an entree of fried wontons! It was really nice. Steve was impressed, though he wasn’t too keen on duck (first time), which was okay. My only complaint was that it was so busy, we had to sit outside, which was fine, but happened to be in the pathway of some pretty big breezes. It made it IMPOSSIBLE to eat noodles. I like to take my time when eating but my food was pretty much snap frozen in mid air when I was holding onto it and talking to Steve at the same time. Anyways, so that was Friday.

On Saturday, I went out for a power walk again with the dogs and managed to do 6km, which isn’t too bad. I knew I wouldn’t have the time again until Tuesday. I ran about a million errands yesterday, but still managed to see Steve again for lunch. He’s going to be working 5 days now, on top of his freelancing and other projects. And uni! He’s going to be doing uni at night too. I’m working every night this week until Ashleigh comes back from SA. So we won’t be seeing each other again until the weekend (if we’re lucky). It sucks, but that’s life.
[Just reading that now, and I see I’ve managed to turn what would’ve been a paragraph about me, into about Steve - again :p]

Last night was really dead at work, but I had brought along a book to read. I only just bought Twilight on Saturday, and I just fell in love with the plot straight away! Managed to finish it 3 days. It’s kinda good that I jumped on the bandwagon now because even though it was first released in 2006, presently there are 2 more after it, with the 4th coming out next week sometime. So now I can read them all in one breath and not have to wait (Can anyone say Harry Potter?). I’m really in love with all the characters in the story. They’re even making a movie which is coming out in December, so that will be awesome. I can’t really verbalise how much I love this book, other than using the words ‘awesome’ and ‘love’ alot, so you’ll just need to read (or for those uncultured and extremely time poor - wait for the movie) and find out!

Other than all this reporting of my day to day life, nothing has been of much interest… Well just Steve and I really. We’re really good. A few discussions here and there, but he’s just about always the mature one with his strong and silent type. Sometimes I’m just a cry baby about certain things. Oh hot gossip; some random girl just tried to weasel her way back into his life last week. It just seems weird because from what he tells me; a) they weren’t even dating, b) she lives in Tweeds, c) they met online and d) three years ago and only met three times?

Anyways, this all seems frighteningly similar to what I’ve been through so I’m just going to relax and thank god that my boyfriend is hopelessly devoted to me and doesn’t think with his penis.

Can’t get this out of my head?

I want to sleep the dream of the apples,
to withdraw from the tumult of cemetries.
I want to sleep the dream of that child
who wanted to cut his heart on the high seas.

I don’t want to hear again that the dead do not lose their blood,
that the putrid mouth goes on asking for water.
I don’t want to learn of the tortures of the grass,
nor of the moon with a serpent’s mouth
that labors before dawn.

I want to sleep awhile,
awhile, a minute, a century;
but all must know that I have not died;
that there is a stable of gold in my lips;
that I am the small friend of the West wing;
that I am the intense shadows of my tears.

Cover me at dawn with a veil,
because dawn will throw fistfuls of ants at me,
and wet with hard water my shoes
so that the pincers of the scorpion slide.

For I want to sleep the dream of the apples,
to learn a lament that will cleanse me to earth;
for I want to live with that dark child
who wanted to cut his heart on the high seas.

That I am the immense shadow
Shadow of my tears

My whole body is so sore.

Anybody who says walking the dog isn’t real exercise hasn’t walked my two furballs. Yesterday I walked 5km with both of them dragging and pulling, and I did another 2.5km today. My whole body is aching! But it’s good exercise and I feel better already.

Had a pretty good start to the holidays so far, on Monday was the zoo, Tuesday was a day in with Steve, Wednesday was productive with the 5km walk, housework and picking Lex up from school. Also managed to score Marc Jacobs - Essence in 100ml for a really (and I mean really) good price. Today included cleaning a house and a small 2.5km walk.

Steve and I are meeting up again tomorrow for movie and lunch. No idea what we’re going to see yet, but we are definitely trying the new restaurant in Market Square - it’s called ‘Little Hong Kong’, run by the same people who have ‘Little Singapore’ which I can vouch for having the best ever Malay/Singaporean food and best value for money (Steve says, ‘Best Orange Juice’). Anyways, I walked past there last weekend and it was PACKED. So it seems very, very promising. I’m hanging out for a bowl of authentic wonton noodles.

Right now I’m waiting for Steve to get home so I can hamper him about the logistics for tomorrow. I miss him, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots… Okay you get the idea…

Today Steve and I went to Alma Park Zoo!

I’d been there previously, but Steve hadn’t and since it’s holidays and all, we wanted to do something different! Anyways, here are some pics and captions. I haven’t had the chance to edit them myself because my MacBook didn’t come home with iPhoto or any iLife applications! But here it is, raw zoo footage of Flora and Steve.

It ended up being a really peaceful day, full of excitement and anticipation. I think we both really enjoyed it. We left early enough to miss the baboon talks, but also missed afternoon peak hour traffic, so that was a bonus. I’m going to see Steve again today, but I think we’re staying in under some covers because it’s SHIT COLD! I can’t imagine doing anything else anyways.

Something else bothered me (only slightly) yesterday, it’s just since we’ve been together and stuff, everything has been great. I mean, everyone can attest to that when I won’t shut up about him, but I had forgotten how ambitious we both are. I still might be moving away to NT next year and Steve might be moving to Melbourne after his Masters next year. I know it’s all hypotheticals, but I had completely almost forgotten about the future.

Gah, I’m sure you can see where this will go… Maybe things will be different? Maybe we can stay? Maybe we won’t? Or maybe we can just see and find out, but a year is a long time.. I guess anything can change. I kind of wished he hadn’t said anything now because it’s not fun to live for hypotheticals. I mean, even though I told him all about NT and all, it was before we had gotten together (seriously), and now that we are; I barely mentioned it again because if things are going as well as I know they can, I’d stay.

Oh great, I was going to just write about the Zoo, but now I’m all tense again.

So I’m a little upset about one thing.

Amidst all this happy stuff going on, I can feel one negative thing happening - I’m gaining weight. Unwanted weight. It’s really terrible. It’s this terrible weather, it’s going out to eat every second day, it’s stress, it’s being comfortable, it’s everything! I step on the scales once a week and in the last month I’ve gained about 5kg. I was only ever just borderline acceptable before the weight gain, now I’m a fucking buttertroll. You think I’m exaggerating, and I probably am, but this is all how I feel. I feel so worthless, so hopeless, and so ugly.

Oh god, Steve would be disgusted and put off. I feel like such a whale. Bloated and beached. I never feel like doing anything, and I’m always tired. I can’t keep up with him. He’s always fit and exercising, I’m just too damn time poor to do anything about it.

I fucking hate it. I had a shower tonight and was revolted at the sight of my own body. It’s out of shape, it’s wobbly and parts jiggle. I’m really upset. I’ve never really had many body image issues, but for some reason I can’t stop hating on my body right now. Maybe I’m getting my period. Yes, that could be it. I can’t imagine why I’d be so emo otherwise.

Great, now I’m a fat, emo and (possible) menstruating girl.

What a mixed bag of a week!

Where shall I begin?

Tuesday morning: Between procrastinating my last ditch attempt to study for my Poli-Sci exam, I was watching Psych. Pretty unlucky because the hard drive on my Mac decided it would just die. Right then and there. It was fucked - in the most literal sense. Distraught, I called up Tatey who quickly came to the unfortunate conclusion that it was dead. Unwilling to believe, I called up the Apple store for a second opinion. Yep, sure is dead. Good news though; I have extended warranty until 2009. Dead hard drives? Sure, we cover those.

So fast forward, I realise it’s actually nearing 1PM. My exam was due to begin at 2:30PM. The original plan was that I would drive to uni, sit the exam, then drive to Steve’s and continue with whatever. But now the plan would have to include a detour to the Apple store in the City. That threw a spanner in the works and I had to reconfigure my plans - and quick! So I decided to inconvenience myself (and slightly Steve) by rushing off to take the next bus to uni, sit the exam, take a bus into the City, walk two blocks to the Apple store, wait 30 minutes before getting served, drop it in, find out how to take a bus to Steve’s house, get on said bus, travel 1.2 hours east, get Steve to pick me up.

Without going into TOO much detail (ha!), Tuesday was busy, and crap, but I got to spend a bit of the night with Steve, so all was not lost!

Wednesday: Cold turkey without my Macbook. I was in bed for most of the day, just looking at where the notebook sat, now an empty space. I managed a bit of reading and I even watched ‘View from the Top’ with my dad before having an afternoon nap. I really should’ve studied for my next exam, but the withdrawals were getting to me. It wasn’t like I didn’t have any access to the internet, it was just I didn’t like going downstairs and using my old and crappy PC. The Macbook was far, far, far superior in every sense.

Found out Erin got a promo gig at Kedron WoW for the next couple of weeks! Yay! Pretty sure she’s got a real job too- barista extraordinaire~ Congratulations to her. We’re going to be using this as an excuse for a celebration, so watch out!

Thursday: Another busy, run-around day. I woke up earlyish and attempted to call the Apple store. No answer. Obviously they didn’t open until 9AM, so I went back to bed for a quick snooze. When I finally did get through, I managed to talk to service guy into prioritizing my job as I was only going to be in the City until lunch time (true). Then I got up and got ready for my first day as a ‘JP in the Community’ and went off to my posting at Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown. It was actually pretty fun! Signing and stamping. Stamping and signing. I think I was only there for an hour, but I witnessed/certified over 50 documents! Because I was only required to be there for an hour or so, I left at 11:30AM and got on a bus to meet Steve in the City for lunch. We did our usual lunch date of Japanese food (Steve the curry, and I the udon - we’re very consistent) and did some mini window shopping and picked up my Macbook. It was great (side note: I love our mid week lunch meet ups!). Then Steve sent me off onto a bus into uni where I quickly did some very, very last minute cramming before the exam.

I went into the exam a little nervous, but as I flicked through the paper during perusal, I realised I knew the answer to just about all of the questions! I was practically laughing my way through the exam. It was pretty awesome! Hopefully I can at least get a Credit for the overall grade. Feeling confident

So even though I had a pretty busy and slightly crap week (losing data is a BITCH), it was fun, and time flew by really quickly. Tomorrow is Friday and I’ve promised Lex for the 50th time that we’re going to see Narnia, so we’ll do that and while we’re out I’m going to buy an external hard drive to use a backup/storage unit.

Finally figured out my next 12 months of uni life.

Semester Two 08

Summer Semester 08

Semester One 09

So now I only have one more year before graduation! I’m kind of kicking myself for not having the foresight previously to enroll in any Summer courses, which could’ve accelerated my studies even more - but hey, got there now. If you have a look the next three semesters are pretty much easy since I only have THREE compulsory courses to do out of ten, I’ve chosen Chinese as another minor and picked random things that might be of interest. The only thing I am unsure about is the final semester’s offering of CRIM3039 - I don’t know if they will offer it, but judging by pass course profiles, they seem to have a pattern of being on during Semester One only (THEY BETTER DAMN WELL OFFER IT BECAUSE I WANT OUT!^%). But we’ll work it out.

Steve finally lodged his uni application in and they were quite happy to accept it! We’re going to sit down together and I’m going to try my best to explain timetabling to him. I’ve got mine, so maybe we could compare and work something out to optimise our ‘together time’. ^______^

Yesterday was another really relaxing day.

Started the day by dropping off the Renault to Windsor for a service and Erin ended up picking me up so we could hit the shops at Chermside together. We hadn’t shopped in ages, so I ended up spending quite a bit; but it was fun, great fun and I had a great time. I bought a few DVDs I had been chasing, a new jacket, a cardigan and some other pits and pieces. Also got my Marcs Babydoll glasses fixed too, for the bargain price of $2.

So today, I just finished cleaning a house and am now just chilling out before work. Greg just called me up also with the exciting results of our Field Report for Victimology; turns out we gained a credit for it, which means.. *drum roll please*

I’VE PASSED VICTIMOLOGY WITHOUT EVEN SITTING THE EXAM YET!!!!!!

I’m really happy with myself and uni this semester, I’ve managed to successfully pass ALL of my subjects before final exams, so this means I can have a stress free break before results are announced because I know I’ve passed everything I really enjoy uni now, the rest of my uni career will be a nice little walk in the park and I’m going to just happily stroll along. I only have 3 more compulsory subjects to go; and 9 electives to do. I think I’m going to consider summer semester and fit an extra couple of subjects in so I can graduate that little bit earlier.

Also last night, I had the night off work so Steve and I went to the movies at Victoria Point Cineplex. First time for both of us, and we were really surprised. There weren’t many people, and the facilities were awesome. Apparently it’s only just a brand new complex too. They even have their own Gold Class type thing, and tickets are only $11.50! We’re definitely making plans to go back there again

I know I must talk about Steve a lot, but we’re really, really, really, happy. I guess the only reason why I go on about it so much is because I haven’t really been happy in a while, and I don’t mean the superficial kind of contentment you get from buying a new dress, or eating chocolate, but genuine happiness by sharing a connection with someone! I can’t explain the intensity, or the feelings but I sure do know they’re real. All I feel is just raw energy which draws me closer to him as a person because we’re compatible in almost every way - a perfect match.

So I’ve been really happy. It’s unreal.

I’ve basically just been cruising through life for the last month and having an absolute blast. Yesterday cemented another great day with an early wake up at 6AM. I didn’t mind, because I woke up feeling really confident about my Statistics exam. I got ready and drove myself down to the bus stop (since it was still dark outside), watched the sun rise from the bus and sat the exam all giddy.

The exam was over in 90 minutes and Tanya, my uni acquaintance offered to drive me to Sunnybank (close enough to home) as she was going there for bubble tea. So that was also awesome. Just jumped on a 130 bus straight home. Picked up my car and then took myself down to Civic for $1 Tuesdays! Hired out a diverse range of DVDs consisting of disc 1 & 2 of ‘Psych’ which I love, ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Fool’s Gold’ (terrible, please don’t even bother) and ‘Saw III’ (for Alex). Great day for just lounging around because I got home at the timely time of 10AM, the whole day was ahead of me! Also went into the local Woolie’s and bought a steak, and some pastry items from the bakery.

After getting bored of watching Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey’s on-screen sexual tension, I decided it was time to make myself lunch and cook the steak I had bought earlier. It turned out to be a disaster, and I fail as a domestic housewife on not being able to cook steak alone, but the independence was extremely satisfying.

So by the time the PM could up to me, it was time to pick Lex up from school. Originally we had an after school date to go see Narnia: Prince Caspian together, but I ended up having to work last night so that was cancelled, but I still picked him up anyway. Before that I ended up browsing the Borders with a ‘50% of second book’ voucher, so I used it to buy ‘Pitcairn: Paradise Lost’ and ‘Love my rifle more than you: Young and female in the US Army’, both are really A+ reads.

And now this morning, I am sitting here waiting for 11:30 to roll around so I can jump on a bus, and jump into my Steve’s arms for our midweek lunch date!

Happy days are here to stay!

Friday was my day!

Steve came over in the morning and then we ventured out to the Gold Coast! It was a reallllllly relaxing drive, we were going against the traffic, and we made it in good time. Since we were a bit early for our lunch date, I figured we’d stop into Harbour Town first and have a look around and find some bargains, which I did. So happy! Next stop was lunch! Now I had my a big deal about the location’s secrecy because.. well I don’t know why, but it ended up being a surprise! I had decided upon The Pink Poodle for lunch and drinks, but their limited lunch menu didn’t persuade us to eat there, so drinks it was!

I’m looking really sulky in the pic because I’m just a big whinge.

Anyways, it was a really, really, really, great day except for the small moment where Steve was driving home and the afternoon sun (and me being distracting) kinda caused Steve to drift sideways onto the other side of the (empty) road, but all good. It sounds dangerous, but we had a laugh over it. He’s still great company and I’m really glad we’re together, he doesn’t know it, but he’s making me a better person.