Procrastination by Blog

Goodbye #2

2009-04-28T23:25:00.002+10:00

The sun was shining, the birds were singing. And I was off to a funeral.

I was talking to a coworker the other day about death and that I’m fine with older people dying as much as one can be. The pecking order needs to be predictable. Almost that same day, a young man made the choice to leave his family and friends. This wasn't predictable. Today I went to his funeral. I was there particularly to support to his brother.

It’s just under two years since I went to another friends funeral under similar circumstances. It certainly didn’t make it any easier the second time around. Both were 27/28 years old, well loved, quirky, attractive, intelligent, funny, music loving, active people. Both, however, had their grey matter wired incorrectly. Mental illness rears it’s ugly head once more. Often the symptoms are hard to identify. Some take a lot longer to become apparent, especially if you aren’t with someone 24/7. The symptoms and effects of mental illness are most definitely hard to manage – particularly in the case of schizophrenia. Unfortunately, for both of these guys, in their eyes, the cons outweighed life’s positives and they made a very significant and irreversible decision. And acted on this. I certainly hope they are now at peace with themselves.

The funeral was touching. I haven’t enjoyed the last few religious based funerals I’ve been to – too much pomp and ceremony and not enough about the dearly departed. This one was as perfect as I think a funeral can be. The music was beautiful, the readings (in my mind) worth reflecting on and the printed song lyrics especially relevant to the non religious amongst us. I re-read them later on with a few more tears escaping. Most touching were the reflections by those closest to him. They made the crowd smile, laugh and cry.

Now the hardest part begins for his family … whenever and in what ever way we can, we’ll be here to help support you.
xxxxx

Um...

2008-06-21T23:16:00.002+10:00

So as I was just about to hit the 'publish post' button to submit my tirade relating to the boy standing me up when my phone rings. It was the Dr. He's doing the doctorly thing, you know, riding in ambulences with patients and stuff. He misinterpreted my last correspondence, and thought I was flaking on him, so off he trots to work. Of course being someone with a job of a somewhat important nature, the phone was not in his hot little hand, hence no response until he saw my 'you've not responded, boo' msg and my missed call. That's his story. I'll buy it. So a few simple things for me to remember a) be very specific with a busy busy person. He'll make time, but being flakey doesn't work so well. b) don't spit the dummy too early c) deep breathing

Anyhoo, my music marathon was fantabulous. Just wrapping up my Samiam session now. Almost time to curl up with my book - and my slightly calmer mood.

Stop. Boy rant time.

2008-06-21T21:36:00.002+10:00

GRRRRRRRRRRRR!

It's winter. We all know how I break in winter. But so far, things have been moving along tres nicely. I'm not entirely sure that my precious fragile skin likes being out on a motorcycle for a zillion hours, but ce la vie! I'm also working my way back to blondeness. Do gentlemen prefer blonde Sarah? But most importantly, after the great man drought of um, 2006 - 2008, I seem to have got my groove back. I've been out chasing boys. The audience goes wild!! They even chased back which is a bonus when you want them to chase back. In the past weeks, I've been lucky enough to dance & run amuck with the most gorgeous guy I've ever been allowed to touch (EVER). I also met another guy, not my regular sort but he definately guaged more than a little curiousity from me.

But alas, he's now stood me up. I believe this is the first time in all my years that this has happened, me stood up after a zillion years - WTF!?! I'm pissy as hell. I want reasons dammit! Especially as this guy brought up the, 'Please don't waste my time spiel'. Yes, it is only date 3. However, today of all days, rejection is an even less tolerated offence. I'm pmt-ing my head off! I think there really should be a law against standing up a gal with pmt. I mean not just for your own safety, but for society. My neighbours probably agree with this concept, as I now have itunes a cranking to get me through this. Anyhoo, I know you are thinking 'ahh our little drama queen is back on the scene'. The one you all know and love so well. But dammit, we are not children anymore. Return a phone call damn you. Don't leave me at home on a Saturday night (even if it was unlikely I would make it out of the house anyhoo...). Had I known I was to be stood up I'd be out in Newtown with my mates. I salute you with my middle finger Mr Standmeup.

This is how I deal with rejection:

Ok, normally, my method of dealing with most things would be to get a kick ass cocktail in my hand - right freaking now. But no, I have a migraine. I'm on boring-but-necessary migraine drugs that get my head out of planet pain & confusion, and I'm under the impression I'm not meant to mix these with booze. So the next best thing to assist these feelings of rejection, sadness and the big one 'will I always be the solo person at dinner parties?' = MUSIC! Here's a bit of my set list from the last hour... Take all choices with pinch of salt and more importantly, a shot of tequila. I'm in uber 'girl has been wronged mode'.

Hot Chip, I'm afraid, you aren't rocking my world, skip.
Cold War Kids are helping, hang me out to dry anyone?
Time to ruin any street cred I may have by posting it up here - Diry Dancing soundtrack. Oh woe is me.
Placebo covering the Pixies 'Where is my mind?' - I thank thee.
Jebidiah - I'm Sorry (yes, I am)

My singing is out there too. Watch out kids, out come the so-cal late 90s punk's coming to get you.

Diesel Boy - Titty Twister 'Fuck you, I hate you is all she said As she slapped my face and spit beer on me'
The Distillers - cranky girl singers unite. Go Brody go! Seneca Falls - Are you ready to be liberated...

Dizzee Rascal - Just a Rascal. Ahhh Hackney.
Dolly Parton - Joelene
Dusty Springfield - I only want to be with you (ignore the lyrics, I just like the fact I know five words of it!)
Elastica - Stutter. Have you found a new mate? Is she really great?
Elvis Presley - Suspiscious Minds. This one got played as my friend Murielle just sent me a consolatory text message, and we spent many an inebirated night back at hers for a night cap singing Elvis.
Embrace - Ashes. Life goes on. Watch me rise up
Faker - This Heart Attack. Don't try to call my telephone, it's disconnected.
British India - Run the Red Light.

Hmm, is it time for Billy Bragg - New England? It's a great singalong song, and one that I sing about 10 times during every uni assignment. Fact: It's my replacement for chocolate consumption. Billy Bragg does not get you fat. There is a song I really wanted to play too - it was in one of the early episodes of The Mighty Boosh. But I'm too lazy to move away from my ipod and watch it to figure it out. I'm pretty sure it was a big 80s song. I thought at the time it would be a perfect kareoke tune...

I think to wrap up this blog & song fest, I need more pop punk trash to get me back to cranky, as I'm starting to mellow somewhat. Sad pants off, get me cranky pants back on. Hmm, what about some great break up tunes of past years - Millenconlin, Samiam, Satanic Surfers, Snuff and Rancid?

Sorry neighbours, hope the trashy punk stuff didn't ruin your ears. I've turned the bass down for you :) .

Musicians of the world, I thank you. Nothing that a few select songs can help me sing out my issues... actually, maybe this rejection thing worked well. I've really enjoyed raiding my music collection.

Ciao kiddies,

S
xxx

Look at me!!!

2008-04-06T21:52:00.003+10:00

Something uber weird has happened. I'd class myself as happy & healthy! Last night I was buzzing about like someone had slipped me something ilicit. I was bouncing of the walls, dancing around listening to Triple J play a bunch of awesome songs. Alas, I was meant to be churning out an essay. So a vodka & cointreau helped me relax and get the verbal diahorrea flowing.

Unfortunatly, the booze didn't help my feelings of wanting to go and run amuck. Lucky for me, those who regularly lead me to temptation were not being tempted last night. DAMN THEM! I watched the minutes tick away, and as the clock struck midnight, I knew that this Cinderella was not going out to party. So reverted to the essay once more.

I have skin. Real human skin. Not crazy red and flaking. Just lovely, glowing normal skin. Woot woot! At last! It's much easier to concentrate when body is not insanely messed up. I seem to be getting migraines less too. They still kick me about harshly when I do, but less frequently. I changed my medications about, got rid of some and voila, here I am. The person I wanted to be but, but struggled to be to these evil forces.

Works all fine. I'm getting the hang of uni now. I've given up trying to study during daylight hours. It just doesnt do it for me. So today I went for a ride and hung out with my mate Steve and watched the footy and shovelled food into my face. Now I'm typing up a blog post. Poor assignment. You'll get my full attention in 5 more minutes.

I'm shedding some kilos (4 down, 3 to go for ultimate hotness), looking less like a potential Jenny Craig candidate and more like I'll be able to kick some serious ass next touch footy season. This season I had moments of glory and got myself a decent number of tries (was the top girl scorer in my team). But my ability to sprint was hinder by the 7 extra kilos that had jump on for the ride. We're getting there. Truly. My very cool team came minor premiers, but lost the grandfinal. I wasn't there, neither was another key player. That weekend everyone had stuff on, mostly involving vast amounts of booze. A valient effort was put forward, and they lost by 1 try. The team blamed me & Adam for not being there.

My knees aren't happy with the exercise regime, but they are learning to stay quiet. Several times a week I hit the gym. 45 minutes on the cross trainer, 45 on the bike and 35 on the treadmill (walking, jesus, I'm not super woman!). I'd like to thank Fox8's programming of King of the Hill, The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy and then The Simpsons once more. My attention span is on the tv and not the monotonous calorie crunching I put my body through. We'll see how the body balance classes go in helping my snowboarding in a few months. Balance and working the core stregnth baby. Just what the doctor ordered. First class hurt me. But I'll go back again. Though seeing peoples bare feet at close range did gross me out a bit.

I've got the hang of riding my motorbike. Yeah, so I stall still at random times, but I've got the hang of kicking her over and getting on with it. I still get nervous before climbing on, but 5 minutes later that's in the back of my mind. I'm zipping around the city more regularly and in some high traffic areas. Phew, I soo thought I was never going to make it this far!!

Ahh, soo many things are good right now, and thanks to soo many people have seen me through all these frustrating things.

She's a happy little Vegiemite as bright as bright can be.... and here's the photographic evidence - this is after about 2 months of healthy goodnees!

xxxx

Oh the neglect....

2007-12-08T00:00:00.000+11:00

Poor little bloglet. How I neglect thee.

That brief flirtation with nasty myspace. A more involved relationship with facebook. And you still wait patiently for my attention. Well now you have it. Why, I feel like ranting. And that my blog, is what you were created for. It's going to be a short rant, as I feel like doing what all moanie girls do when they are wanting (needing?) some love and attention, yet are finding the right provider of said love and attention difficult to source.

Yes, I'll put an episode of sex in the city on.

I ate real food!

2007-07-23T22:47:00.000+10:00

Ok, so I know this is the stage where I get bored of having eaten the blandest food combos & written down everything I've consumed for almost a month, and get all wild & crazy. And go to the dark side - and eat REAL HUMAN FOOD!

List of real human takeaway foods I ate over the weekend - without breaking:

Bar snacks at the pub- spring rols, meatballs, chicken nuggets (no dipping sauces though)
Veal schnitzel, chips, salada, bread, butter
Oporto O'Tropo meal - burger, chips & lemonade
Pad thai
Muffins from Muffin Break
Vodka
Wine - ok, so it's cask moselle - but I sooo enjoyed it!

But I know my time is limited, so I'm back to being better behaved during the weekdays. I'm taking small amounts of steroids & having tanning sessions as I'm sure that UV is a treatment for ezcema.

I think it's now half way through winter, so not long to go until that sweet sweet humidity my crazy skin craves, comes back haunt all those with curly hair. Speaking of curly hair, I'm off to a fake hair party this weekend. Bring it on...the invite encouraged wigs, eyelashes & merkins. I've been provided a bevvie of blonde curls with a green gem in their midst. It's been about 4 years since I've been blonde. Should be enjoyable...let's see if they do have more fun (though I can't misbehave too much as I have to do my motorbike rider training out at Clyde the next afternoon. And you have to be sober for it.

Time for me to catch some much needed shuteye. Night all!

Sick Sick & Sick

2007-07-11T23:05:00.000+10:00

This is my rant, and I'll rant if I want too. This post is a 'I'm sick' rant. You've been warned.

It's that time of year. My body can't handle anything. Bad ass reactions keep happening. I'm miserable... I managed a good weekend first in a long time. Didn't even misbehave that much, ut leasrt I got out, had a few drinks, danced my tush off, pretended I was a real human.

Thanks be to antihistamines & steroids. But surely, there has to be a better cure. I'm writing down everything I'm eating, and I can't spot a major pattern yet. Which is making me sad. I was tearing myself apart yesterday. Heart racing, skin burning, eyes gooping up, scratch. Itch. Repeat. Swallow tablets. Fingers crossed. Who know's how bad things could get without the tablets. I'm too scared of letting it go any further than necessary.

It makes it worse that I'm conscious of what I'm putting into my body. I've almost been writing up what I've eaten & drunk for the past month. I'm off to the allergist on 21st August, but thats still soo long away. Soo many questions to ask. Wish I was rich, and could afford to have all sorts of blood tests & when I have a reaction to see an allergist to say look - whats going on NOW. I doubt there are answers for my questions. As with most of my skin issues, it will no doubt be ultra random, or worst still, something out of my control. Like perfume. I'll end up in therapy at this rate. I'm up & down, mostly down, like a yo yo. Grrrr. I want to be happy Sarah. But fark, it's just beyond me at the moment.

I think I may have the most supportive bosses on the planet. To put up with me, whilst having a reaction/reactive week really deserves sainthood. Allergy Sarah is pure evil. I must be good at my job for them to keep me on with my behaviour as it is when I'm sick.

Right, sleep time. Least thats one thing I can get right with my allergic issues, and a little help from the antihistamines :)

Last Goodbye

2007-06-30T00:24:00.000+10:00

In the beginning, the first place we met, most surely was at a Cooper party. 1996/7 or there abouts.

In the middle, life continued to involve partying. Drunken nights, my 21st, after work city drinks, house parties and the like.

In the end, there was a funeral. In attendance, the same group of guys whom I met at the Cooper party of 1997, minus the tall, eccentric red head.

Just under two weeks ago I found out that F was no longer with us. His choice. And it hurt. I didn’t feel that I had the right to feel as sad as I did. He wasn’t a close friend, or someone I saw regularly. He was one of those unique characters who left an impression on you.

F was one of the guys that I knew through M & A. They were always up for a good time, their favourite pastimes usually involving extremes. Be it adventures or drinking. The last time we were all out, I piked early. That was after bad dancing & absinthe at one of the cheesiest, crappiest bars in the CBD. Twas much fun though.

The time before, the boys headed to my place at Coogee, for what I was led to believe may have been a great party. My memories are somewhat hazy. There was a guy rapping. I was singing along to Green Day & drinking hefty amounts of Absolute. The photos reveal that M, A, F & myself were all super photogenic that night. As the party ended, I was sitting down, talking shite with F through the wee hours. We may have had a race to see who could pass out the fastest. Maybe it wasn’t a race. Maybe it just happened.

Lots of things just happen. Some are fun. And some are not. That someone who I knew, chose to opt out of life has made me think; to ponder the big questions in life. To think about the smaller things. To wonder how terrible it must feel to get to the lowest of lows. Lots of thoughts. I came to the conclusion that we all should be nicer to each other. Listen & hope that we can all get through the things that come our way.

F, you made your decision. Just wish we could have helped done something to sway you before you made it final.

You truly were ace, I’m sad to see you go.

S
xxxx

So much younger than today...

2007-06-10T22:27:00.000+10:00

My little (and only) brother had his 21st on Saturday night. ohh. He's all grown up now.

It was a dress up party...had to come as an 86 year old. Oh me oh my!

Here's me & my dad, super stylin' or what?

All over the shop...

2007-06-04T20:17:00.000+10:00

Dear readers,

I had a bit of a one-of-those weekends. It didn't involve alcohol, which maybe that's what I'm missing?? Not sure.

Well I have learnt that migraines & booze are not a good combination, especially when taking medication. Enough of us remember my last big 'trolleyed' efforts with that great combo back in Vancouver... So I avoid the two at the same time.

So therefore, it was just my brain being frazzled. Friday night - being the young & groovy type that I am, I did a cleanathon, to get the house looking as pretty as this ghetto gets. New housemate Nicole was moving in on Sunday, so time to impress. I painted some of the ultra skanky parts in the bathroom. Looks much better. Saturday I went to the hardware store, to get yet another shower head as the last one exploded, it blasted off towards the roof, water gushing every where - me with conditioner running into my eyes. Insert much Sarah type cursing. New shower head is much better. It should be, cost twicce the price. But it is water efficient which is important in this drought ravaged land. It was off to watch Australia play Uruguay in the football out at Homebush that night. Which we lost. U_R_GAY! Somehow, I managed to leave the house without my wallet. My mobile battery was dying as well. So trying to find friends at homebush with 2 battery cells left was fun. But it happened. We were lucky enough to get a ride back to the city after the match. Or so we thought we were lucky. The traffic around the stadium was of course insane. I think by the time we left Homebush, dropped Ian off in Newtown and finally got to Oxford Street in the City, it was a good 1.5 hours. Oh there was a Maccas stop in there too. Yum, cheap & cheesey. I think I paid the price for it the next day. Must work on figuring out my allergies one day...but the car ride had some of the best singing I've heard in years. We rocked. I'm personally glad I'm missing a chunk of hearing. Made our singalong sound even better. Makes my singing so much better too! All I can say is bring oon a road trip to the snow, which may have 2 others from Saturday night in the car too. It will be the acest! Choir Boys was a favourite.

Sunday morning, went for a stroll, to grab a muffin and to see if there were any garage sales happening nearby. Strolling, window shopping, was all good. I made it up to the charity shop & went to get my wallet out. OH .... Where the hell is my wallet?? AAGHGHGHGHGH! And then I thought - ok, bad enough to lose my wallet, but shit where are my keys! New housemate coming in an hour and wouldn't it be great if I'd welcome them by making them sit in the truck while I get a locksmith out. Boooo. Boo then turned to slight relief, finding I'd been smart enough not to slip my key into my wallet. So i re-traced my steps, thinking what a waste of time. It's Saturday, in the middle of the day in Bondi. Peak people traffic times. But I needed to make my way home anyway...retrace, retrace. Looked up at a sign on a light pole - 'Wallet found, 12:15pm, 3rd June, please call....' HOLY CRAP BALLS BATMAN! And I even had credit on my phone - bring bring - 'Hi,. my names Sarah and I lost a little blue wallet.....' Yup, come to the cafe and you can collect it!'

Yay! I almost skipped up the street, clicking my heels with glee! Lucky for my fascination with garage sales and posters on street posts these days...

I got to the cafe, and the finders were so, so nice, wouldn't even let me buy them lunch! All the cash was in there too.

So in honour of good honest folk still existing in the big smoke, I donated the $30 i had in my wallet to Medicin sans Frontieres http://www.msf.org/ . Everyone won that day.

On a less happy note, I now need to work on my group project. It's due Thursday. Then I'll be such a relieved camper. No university for almost 2 months - bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!

OVER IT!

2007-05-28T00:13:00.000+10:00

Last Inequality essay due Wednesday night. Full of theoretical crap & my little brain is about to explode.

Working with communities - run through it tomorrow. Actuall presentation on Thursday. Group report due following Thursday.

Then I become a fully function normal grown up again! Hurrah - bring on inter semester holidays I say!

I must remember to breathe deeply & everything will be ok....

Inhale...

Exhale.....

Inhale........

Exhale..........

Heads are over-rated!

2007-05-13T14:18:00.000+10:00

I couldn't resist taking a pic of this poor headless pigeon outside my flat. Poor pigeon.

M & my new toy...

2007-04-14T17:20:00.000+10:00

Here is my new love...

Kristen, please note - these are your old Target jeans - the only jeans I own that I can comfortably ride in (and without having half my ass out on public display - sorry for the visual dear readers!).

I've almost decided which fancy pants Kevlar jeans I'm getting. Draggin skins, stretchy blue jeans, look like the winner at the moment. A bit too skin tight alright for my liking for the size I need them in if I want them not to gape at the waist, not complete slutdom, though close enough for daylight adventures. The plus side is that they are hipsters - yes, biker jeans for girls that sit below the navel! See, riding jeans are made for safety, and having hot little hipsters on when you crash, with their lack of protection around you hips, really does defeat the purpose of having fancy kevlar riding jeans on in the first place. Harry highpants, however, feel just WRONG

Viva la hipster! Right, now I'm back to my essays...deadline Monday & Thursday.

Ride #2

2007-04-09T23:26:00.000+10:00

Ok, so you can all tell I'm a weee bit excited about my newest hobby by the number of posts.

However, seeing that the majority of the weekend was spent devoted to uni work - the first essay that I've written in 11 years. Definately hurting my brain. Consuming vast amounts of chocolate at my parents place and sleep were the other highlights. Yawn.

Day 2 saw me getting more coordinated. Liz & her mate Tanya went for a walk and let me play for an hour or so. I even made it out on to the road at the end of the hour - down into the new estate. I found more gears. My top speed was about 40kph. Thankfully, Coughlan Road is a peaceful street on the weekend. Clutches, apparently, like to be used almost all the time & bike indicators don't turn themselves off. Grrr. The realisation that this is a motorbike and not a push bike, meaning it's damn heavy & I can't ride without my hands when I get tired.

I can't believe I actually am learning to ride a motorbike. I'm stoked.

Brrrrrm Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm!

2007-04-08T12:59:00.000+10:00

I rode my *new* - new as in 2nd hand new to me new - motorcycle today! Eeek! Very very excited! My old highschool came in handy for learner burner riding time. Ahh the BHS bus bay. Such memories...now new memories of learning - some 11 years on!

Instructor Liz didn't look completely petrified, at least most of the time. So I mustn't have completely sucked. I even went out on the street - twice - used my indicator and all!

Tomorrow morn, I shall be back at it. And then next Saturday I'll come up the mountains again, to make use of the tranquil, long wide, empty streets. Then Liz brings my new toy down to the chaos of the eastern suburbs. Scary scary canary.

Holy crap!

2007-04-06T13:32:00.000+10:00

I bought a motorbike! Months of talking, lookng & now it's all systems go. It's red. it's a Honda.

It's paid for and my mates taking me for lessons on Sunday & Monday mornings!

I'm just a bit scared. Well, if i'm completely honest, I'm shit scared!

Pictures soon I promise.

University - Kingswood Campus Highlights

2007-04-02T20:36:00.000+10:00

Week 6 - and finally the delivery of text books for us Inequality & Human Rights students!

I like the ceiling near the Co-op Bookshop.

Strange, I'd never noticed it in my previous 10 visits to the store.

The gardens are looking quite pretty considering - and they smell devine - it was warm out west today, and the sun was heating the gardenias and the fragrance was amazing!

Way out west. Where appropriate behaviours don't grow....

2007-04-01T11:29:00.000+10:00

Ahh, Kingswood - how I love thee!

This weeks joyful story from Kingswood, again, takes place very near to where our friend on the bicycle, with his case of VB was cycling by last week. The Great Western Highway - now days, it isn't the key route out beyond Penrith or beyond to the Mountains. However, it still gets a good volume of traffic. Powerwalking back from campus to the Station, I'm ipodless due to my brain not remembering to charge it up. So I;m just walking to the beat of whatever song I'm singing out of tune, in my head. And being the observant type that I like to think I am, I observe things. Things that I wish I didn't have to observe. Time was 12.45pm. Middle of the day, broad daylight, in an area well know for pedestrian traffic due to the uni 15 minutes walk away, and this being the main walking route. Thought I heard someone watering the gardens, a normal occurence. Once upon a time, non Australians please note - as we're drought stricken, there are water restrictions limiting both the days you may water your garden, and also the times. It has to be after 4pm I think - later afternoon either way - after the heat of the day has mostly passed to maximise water usuage.

How irresponsible, you know being the grown up with grown up thoughts that I keep having. Frankly, a few of the gardens around here don't need watering. Weeds grow regardless.

Then I realised..oh yes, why of course you can water any time of the day with that sort of HOSE.

Yes, a guy, not that much older than myself, was watering the garden with his 'own' personal hose. 12:45pm, watering a garden along side the highway. There was a bit of tree coverage, I mean, the non highway / footpath / main thouroughfare side of the appartment building may have been more appropriate peeing location, but no, nothing like a good public pee for the exhibitionists.

Repeat after me: I LOVE KINGSWOOD. Hmm, that could be a uni student t-shirt design I may just need to work on. Better than the rubbish UWS hoodies...

Does urine works as well as the more plain sort of water that comes out of the garden hose or tap?

The Pixies

2007-04-01T10:47:00.001+10:00

I got to see the band that inspired a thousand cool bands since they formed back in the 80's. What a moment.

I confess, I'm not a Pixies obsessive. However, I have lived with a Pixies obsessive, and when the Kasbah kids said pre-sale tix were available, I jumped at the chance to grab a ticket. I was also having a bad day at work, which helped my willingness to part with a decent amount of cash without more than a second of thought as to my budget plans.

Friday night, I rock up to Luna Park. Loads of guys & gals, decked in black, black & a few other deviations of black. I deffinately was part of the younger part of the crowd, which is to be expected from a band that started when they did. I'm certain the the conservative residents of Milsons Point love a good alternative band act destroying the sound scape & breaking up the chinos & blue or pink Polo shirts that is the Friday 'casual' look for many of the residents..

It was ace. I've not seen the Pixies before, and I'm guessing that most of their australian fans haven't due to this being their first Australian tour ever. There were a lot of grown up sorts (physically anyways), with looks of anticipation, hope, glee - they've waited a long time.

Will they be disappointed? Lights, camera - ACTION!

I think for the first few songs, the crowd seemed a bit awestruck. Didn't take too long for the crowd to get over the 'Oh my god, i'm seeing the Pixies. In Australia. Oh my god!' phase, they kicked up there heels & rocked out with the band.

Thanks to my Pixies obsessive, indie clubs throughout the world, and probably Triple J, I knew just over half the set. Yes, all the big huge songs. Debaser, Here comes my man, This monkeys gone to heaven, Wave of mutilation, even Gigantic, which they finished on. I enjoyed it muchly. I've no previous experiences to compare them with, but I left with a smile. I hope the hardcore fans weren't disappointed.

Voting - Oz Style

2007-03-25T15:16:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was time for the NSW state election. In Land of Oz, voting is compulsory - if you are enrolled & don't vote you get a fine sent to you. So on a beautiful sunny Saturday I was more than glad to have the excuse to leave the house (hahaha, bye bye studying) and go down to the nearest school to have my say. Unfortunately, I didn't change my address in time, so I was still voting under the Blue Mountains area. Oh well. A ballot form is still a ballot form. It was long - hmm, 70cm long perhaps? It had boxes. And it had very funny candidates/parties that you could vote for!

My favourite parties names were: The Fishing Party, Horse Riders / Outdoor Recreation Pary, Save our Suburbs. The Shooters Party (or whatever they call themselves). None of them got my number 1 vote alas.

As was expected, the Labor party are back in power. No one really wanted them in. It really was a battle of the best of a bad bunch. More people wanted them in than the Liberal party from the voting front -and in Australia - the Liberal's are actually like conservatives elsewhere, we're a bit upside down here.

Way out west. Where style don't grow....

2007-03-23T21:12:00.000+11:00

Oh yeah - classic effort by the western suburbs of Sydney. Thursday morning I go to uni - so I got off the train, got my morning tea from Subway @ Kingswood and do the 15 minutes hike to campus.

Walking to uni & I could see a cyclist trying to get around me, so I pull off to the side of the footpath and the dude cycles slooooooooowly by.

The dude, he was all class. Had the best aussie looking green & gold trackie dacks (circa 1982), an old bike, his helmet - which suprised me - that he actually was wearing one. His shirt is irrelevant as the trackies were just too ace. Can't take me eyes off of you....

Then I saw what he had occy strapped to his bike rack.

Yup, at 9.45am he had bought a case of VB (beer) & was heading into one of the less classy appartment blocks upon the highway. You can actually see the pub/hotel from the front of his appartment block, so the poor dear musn't be strong enough to carry the case the 400 metres to his house.

Kingswood - home of champions!

I am...

2007-03-18T22:40:00.001+11:00

How evil are you?

Life Savers - Get a whole lot more out of life!

2007-03-18T22:01:00.000+11:00

I did a good deed for the day!

So after a pathetic effort at running - 15 minutes would be boosting it somewhat - I did have a migraine this weekend, so I'm blaming it for my lack lustre efforts, I was coming up the stairs & housemate Keen Bean was about to hit the surf & said he'd wait for me to get my swimming gear on. Off with sweaty running gear, on went the lycra skimpys. Grabbed our bikes & off we went.

The weather is making it known that summer is O_V_E_R. Today Sydney was grey. Without Keen Bean I would have procrastinated a bit more, rather than reading up on neo-liberalism, efficient markets & other riveting stuff. Instead I got my daily dose of salt & water. Iwan (aka Keen Bean) was heading up the south end to battle for waves, and I headed to the north end as it's usually better for swimming. Today decided that my swim would be just a quick dip, as the water was 'sharky' looking. Grey & murky & lurky. You know what I mean, it's 5.50pm, there's no sun, overcast, the water just looks scary. (yes, Sarah means princess, I get a bit princessy about water).

So I went in, water temperature was lovely. Decided that there were too many choppy waves for me to battle with my glasses on. See, often when it's flatish, and I'm just in for a quick swim, I'll leave my glasses on and swim. As opposed to popping in some contacts & going crazy with sight. But today, I thought I'd check out swimming blind. My blindness isn't blind blind. I can see big objects, everythings fuzzy & faceless. I can see things clearly when they get within say 30cm of my eyes. Handy huh? So there was a lot of pull from the water. The waves weren't that forcefull, but the current was sneaky enough. One minute you're within the flags, the next you're no where near them. (Non-aussies: by flags I'm referring to the red & yellow flags showing the patrolled area of the beach). I kept paddling back into the flags to be a good girl. There were a few people out, not a great deal.

A few young girls were swimming near by, No adults though. Mother Hen Sarah kept her eyes peeled (ok, mostly was my ears doing the watching). The water got a bit more intense, and one of the girls got a bit out of her depth, then realised the current was taking her. She got slapped by a wave. A few too many mouthfuls of water were swallowed. Her friend had managed to get out of the current. But this lil lass was starting to panic.

Seeing the lifeguards had packed up - but left the flags up, it looked like it was my duty to go & grab her. Yay for children being compact creatures. I paddled over to her & asked if she wanted me to take her in to shore. Yes. Poor thing was getting teary, snotty & coughing up the water. Picked her up & made our way in. Got her to shore & her mum came down to see what had happened. She was thankful that I'd got her little one back to shore. All was fine.

Lesson of the day: the ocean is always the boss.

2007-03-12T20:43:00.000+11:00

Let this be a warning to you all...

2007-03-11T22:26:00.000+11:00

Currently we have a little situation on our hands in the Big Brown Box - (aka, my current abode). Seems the cockroaches think this is a super fine place to live, as do we. 10 minutes walk to one of the more famous beaches in the world - who would complain!

We (human flat dwellers) can't seem to come to an agreement on their space vs our space. For the first time in many years, I'm resorting to bug spray & the inhuman practice of mass murder. I'm pretty tolerant of basic bug populations sharing my space, ever since I moved to the eastern beaches and the tendancy for old buildings not to have fly screens. We don't get many flys around here, definately a postive. The ants that seemed to love our basil plant. Arnold the Huntsman spider - leg span the size of the palm of a guys hand...who scared the crap out of us often whilst living in the stairwell was a lovely guest.

Our 'mates' the cockroaches more than make up for it.

We're getting the giant ones - for you non bug fiends - they're about 2 inches long , 3/4inch wide - upside - making them easy targets. Downside - they love to fly - always fun when you're trying to get to sleep and these bastards flutter by your face...yes, such a wonderful feeling. We're also being infiltrated by the smaller versions of cocheroachus. I haven't quite gotten identification down pat as to which will grow up to be big mama's and which won't. I just aim & thwack. I'm so desperate to minimise the colonies that I have resorted to squashing with whatever comes to hand quickest. Usually this is a bare body part - I squashed a huge on the other day with my bare foot. My housemate swears she heard the cracking of Mr C's shell from down the hall. And my "Eeeeeeeeeeeek, Ewwwwwwwwww''. Poor Roach - my foot was probably the filthiest thing he'd come across in his life.

We all know I'm going to hell. My bug squashing is taking me a few notches closer.

Happy 100th Blog to Me!!!

2007-03-05T23:28:00.000+11:00

Dear fans,

Hurrah! My 100th rant. Wow. Whoever would have thought we'd reach such dizzying heights! I've been meaning to update you all for sometime. Yes, I've neglected you over the summer, but the love is still there. The beach has been my priority. How that stops me blogging, ahh is irrelevant. I've been surfing the net & wasting countless hours messaging, instead of ranting. It is truly beyond me, but I'm sticking to that lame, non plausible excuse for right now.

Life of Sarah. Hmm. Maybe a few dot points.

Highlights - swimming almost the full lenth of the Bondi beach in one go, feeling fitter & happier from playing tough footy & oztag, scoring several tries at footy, meeting fab new mates through that, buying very foxy red patent pointy shoes, getting my motorbike bike learner permit, getting accepted into uni, still enjoying my job - almost 9 months now, not loosing a mobile phone in 9 months, seeing the Killers, having an organised bedroom in lovely flat, cool new housemate to replace old cool housemate, swimming at the beach after work, perving at Bondi, new camera, seeing the Violent Femmes, getting closer to 1 year since my last scary allergic reaction, finally shedding a few kgs to get my ass into some new slinky jeans, running continuously for 27 minutes - my personal best, longest run ever in my whole life, taking things easy, Whittakes Dark Chocolate (go you kiwi chocolate makers), starting uni (after many years talking crap about starting, this time I suceeded!)....and of course my family & friends.

Lowlights - figuring out uni timetables, figuring out crappy uni web system, going to uni out west, getting blisters from foxy red patent shoes, getting stress bumps, not sleeping enough, stressing over uni timetablings, working full time & studying part time during the days, trying to buy 2nd hand motorbike, learning to read big words, flat reshuffle, hating my new camera, restricting my diet, restricting my alcohol consumption, my office having no aircon for the whole summer therefore me sweating like a pig in a sauna every day this summer. Mmm.

I'm sure there are more '-lights' in both camps. But that's a start.

I thank you for all your sentiments, comments & nude pics that have gotten me through an interesting 2 years back in Oz.

Love,

Sarah

For the longest time...

2007-02-06T23:17:00.000+11:00

Wow. I stopped writing. Why? Um... I guess I've been out doing real stuff in the real world.

Things are good. Busy. But good.

Major achievement of the year occurred today - getting my butt to the beach before work. It took new housemate Keen Bean to suggest a pre work surf/swim but it worked. Pity about my cold & lack of sleep last night. I didn't really enjoy it so much, but a goal has been achieved.

I need sleep...

Life in Bondi

2006-12-10T20:18:00.000+11:00

Is wonderful! The water is still a tad brisk for my liking. I went in twice over the weekend, today my swim was all over in 5 minutes. Too chilly.

Mates SM & L visited yesterday morn for breaky. So our mission, to find a good cafe. Bondi is loaded with cafes, and I've only eaten at about 3 places. One was BEYOND bad, I don't rememember the name, but it's been blacklisted. So we stumbled across a little cafe called Brave @ 68 Gould Street. Perfecto. Faritrade coffee. I'm not sure if it's 100% organic or not. But damn, it's good. The Carni Breakfast, (for us canivores, not travelling circus folk) was fabulous, and soo filling. Toast, chipolatas, tomato, perfectly poached eggs mushrooms and a lovely potato cake. Mmmm. Heaven. And the watermelon, mint & pear juice was devine. $21 well spent. (Yes, canadians, not Nazi breakfast cafe nearby, had to go yuppy). I hardly ate for the rest of the day - a few choc chips & 2 slices of toast for dinner. How's that for amazing. Me going without 3 meals & countless snacks? I have a feeling it might be the antibiotics. Damn I hope they clear up my chest infection (gross huh?). Def over my cold saga (week 6 now I believe). It's yuck. I sound like I'm a 40 cigarettes a day type smoker. Soo attractive....

Today the folks & bro & gf came down and we went to Doyles by the Beach at Watsons Bay. Lovely little spot, the charge for it too. I had a lovely piece of fish with an even tasty mango, tomato, red onion & corriander (cilantro) salad. Lush. My chocolate cake that followed wasn't quite as perfect as lunch. My over has no temperature markings on it, so I kind of guesstimated the temp, turns out I under guesstimated and we had a VERY moist cake. It's still delish if you like uber rich chocolatey things as much as me.

So that's it from the Big Brown Box in Bondi today.

Movember

2006-11-25T00:38:00.000+11:00

I'm not sure that you're all aware that it is the month of MOVEMBER.

www.movember.com.au - The concept is that the sisterhood gets in to really support breast cancer & womens health issues in general, but boys, being boys tend to shy away from discussing & getting checked out for things like cancer in their private bits & areas. Movember is about changing that. The idea is that you boys & any slightly hairier than average women sign up to grow a mo & raise sponship money during the month of November. Truely an ace idea don't you think? I have a thing for moustaches. I love that porn star look they can instantly give just about any guy if they grow a mo. (Well, exccept for those exceptions to the rule where the mo just makes 'em look kinda ratty / weedy / dorky - poor little guys).

However, the only issue I have with Movember is figuring out a serious moustache wearer and people doing it purely for Movember. As a single young woman eyeing off potential male prospects, it does make it hard. Do you wear that mo 365 days a year seriously or is it a Movember mo. I have often pondered this month. Time will soon tell when the men of this city return to their hairless ways.

Sigh. What will make me smile next month when all the taches disappear?

LIfe Update

2006-11-21T23:36:00.000+11:00

Came back from Brisvegas on Sunday. Had the loveliest weekend up there. Strolled about Brisvegas's Southbank on the Friday night. Saturday we hit the beach up at Moolooabar, great, except from my white belly, which is finally not glowing red (bad Sarah). Saturday night had the best steak I've possibly had, thank you Regatta bar. And whilst we were out in the Valley, even managed a random meet up with my friend Mich, our diaries hardly ever sync in Sydney, but seems we can co-ordinate better when we find each other in random cities on a random weekend. Was great (as always) to get out of the city of Sydney..(and when I got back my lovely housemate Seabasser greated me at the airport - how cool is that?). Got to meet Narhans lovely lady friend, and thought what an excellent pairing up. My seal of approval. So glad another one of my mates has made an ace choice in partner. This does of course mean no one is allowed to break up!

Except for me. Well ok, maybe I need to pair up before I can break up, update there is that date 3 with MIU#2 is taking it's sweet time. I was away last weekend, he's away this weekend. Ce la vie. Meant to be, it's meant to be....

Seems my fish & I have a much stronger bond than previously thought. I've been away twice since I became a fishy mum. And on each occasion I came back to a dead fishlet. BOOOOO. And then there were 2. Yes, only 2 little fishlets left. Sigh. I tested the water for pH, nitrates & something else, and tests were so close to perfecto I couldn't believe it. So a broken fishy heart is all I could think of. BOOOOO. I'll try to get some more fish poss members tmw, as these guys like to school, and they are looking freaked out now there are only 2 in there crew.

Oh another footy match, another injury. Minor, but hurts like a MOFO I tell you. Clearly, I was never meant to be a pretty, girly girl. Cause I got my right big toe stomped on last night. Though, oh joy, I shall have matching blackened big toenails. However... this toe got a bit weirdo on me. It started out all black, and when i squeezed it, it all squirted out. And then came the goop. Today, it was sore. And left toe gooped more. And then i went to footy training. And then I came home (via a lovely team bonding sesh at the Robin Hood pub, including $6 steaks - YUM), i showered, and toe gooped more. So now I've nuked left toe with betadine. I'm still on antibiotics for my laryngitis, so hope they kill two evil health issues at the same time.

Yes, my laryngitis. 6 freaking days I was VOICELESS. Yes, me, sans voice, 6 days. Do you feel my pain? Today which is the 10th day since I lost my voice, I'm all husky phone sex operator type vocals. Beggars can't be chosers at this point, and I'm using it to the best of my ability, well maybe not. I haven't tried to use it seductively yet.

Football, Dating, Drag Queens

2006-11-12T23:08:00.000+11:00

Dating, such a weird concept. An interview for love is my view on it really. Especially when it comes down to meeting people outside of your circles of friends/colleagues/random drunken nights out. Yes folks, online dating. Lot's of people I know have lost their single status to it. In my group of friends I know of one engagement & one living in sin arrangement. When you've exhausted your friends supply of elligble males & you work with a heavily married population of train geeks, it just seems that online may be the place to look.

So with dating, everyone has their own personality & style. I'm not much of a 'let's do coffee sort'. Mainly as I don't drink coffee that often, and usually when I do it's for medicinal purposes only. Like waking up at work.

I'm def a few drinks kind of gal (surprise!).

Date one with MIU#2 (man in uniform #2...yes....different type of uniform this time...don't ask....why are they drawn to me, it's like cats, you don't like them, they just want to rub against you all the time. Hmmm...). Drinks down in Bondi. Great way to kill some time on a sunny but very breazey day in the east. Sitting in the pub, conversation not a problem. All went very well. Until I got a text later from MIU#2 - he got a parking ticket. But still wanted to see me again. Date number 2. Hmmm. Me being me, eating out isn't the best option (hence why I like drinks). Special needs and all, best not to have an evil food reaction whilst trying to impress. MIU#2 suggested that he and a few friends (nothing to be scared) were going to a pub in Glebe for the hermit crab racing. Such an excellent idea. Try as I might to make it out that night, my cold got the better of me. BOOO! So Friday night we both had flexible plans. I suggested going to see Sydney FC (football/soccer). He'd not been to a football match before, and I haven't seen the new league either. One of my other friend's was going & had a free ticket, so it was decided. Football. Hilarious night out. Sitting in the cove, with all the lads. Sydney FC hadn't won a match in 6 games or so, so they were overdue. We met some very interesting people that night. A few hilarious guys from Sefton. They were impressed with my use of orange & red accessories to brighten my outfit. I was more impressed that they noticed. They made me & MIU#2 laugh. Syd FC had got themselves sorted and whacked in 4 goals, admittedly against the team sitting bottom of the comp, but take what you can get right?

Post match required more drinking & more celebrating. I was supposedly on my best behaviour that night, as I was doing my motorbike course and needed to be up at 6.45am the next morning & sober (eeeek!).

However, I was lead astray by all & sundry. Our group ended up at a gay bar near the stadium (gays = protection from bogans, it's great!). Yes, I take boys to football matches & for drinks at a gay bar. I'm not sure that's common practice in the dating world, but it was ace fun. Good to check out the potential new beau isn't homophobic. MIU#2 looked like he didn't have any issues being there, nor making friends with some other boys at the bar who called him over. I was too busy ranting to Maria about the good old days of Club Marconi, big hair & bad 80s songs (which the queens were singing & dancing about up on stage).

The night ended with me being whisked off home in a taxi, several drinks too many, thinking crap, I need to be up in 5 hours & sober...but I had a taxi driver who knew my street - wonders will never cease! But how can date 3 top a football match & a gay bar with a drag show? Where ever do we go from here?

Motorcycles

2006-11-12T22:59:00.000+11:00

I really have the kids in Vancouver to blame for my interest in motorbikes. Adam, first & foremost, then Jess.

After much talk & much waiting, myself, Sarah May & Georgie got up far to early (for a weekend) and headed out to Botany to do our pre learner motorbike course.

Yes, pre learner - before you can get your Learner permint on a motorbike in NSW, you must attend compulsory training ($69 for 8 hours training is pretty good though, yay for the government subsidising & trying to save lives).

I was nervous. I don't have a car licence. I've never ever driven a manual car. I've prob only driven a car 15 times in my life...

But dammit, I did it! Such a sense of achievement. I'm not really known for pushing myself to learn new things. This was a big step in itself really. To add to my learning curve was my loss of voice. So not only am I bopping about in a fullface helmut, my hearing as dodgey as ever but with the added bonus of a croaky voice. Hurrah!

Motorcylces. Wow, so much going on. People make them look so easy to ride. But every bit of you're body is doing something. Both hands, both feet, knees in, keep your posture relaxed, wrists down...talk about multi tasking. Then the whole gears thingy. Yes, got there eventually. My preferred learning style is discuss/do/write down. Tends to stay in my head best. However, no time for that. Prob not quite enough time on some of the activities to master things, but gradually, it makes sense... Practice makes perfect.

Now I just need to do some more demo questions on:

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/tests/driverknowledgetest/
Then go to: demonstrationdriverknowledgetest (i had to break the link as it was upsetting a blogreader with it's destruction of my paragraph set up)

and once I get my voice back I'll be heading down to the RTA to sit the written/computer test. Then I scope out quiet practice places. Then I can go buy me a motorbike...eeek! Liz, help please!

2006-11-03T20:33:00.000+11:00

Day 4 - Heal you little bastard (without scaring please)!

Sporty Spice

2006-11-03T20:30:00.000+11:00

Touch footy, used to be one of my great loves. I stopped when i moved overseas. Now I know why!!!

When I play, I play with, ahh, passion & commitment - I've no qualms diving to make a touch (especially as I'm no sprint star these days). I'm usually quite good at landing. This time I got the touch. Was chuffed that after 5 years of not playing, and getting closer to my 3rd decade on this here earth I landed well. Walked around for a bit, plulled a few bindies out of my hands (prickly spikey things that grow in grass in Oz, as opposed to Steve Irwins daughter).

Then I looked down at my leg. Yuck. I was pissed off. I was going to be in pain in the shower that night. Yuck, took a lovely slice of skin off my leg and donated it to the playing fields of Centennial Park. DOH!

This is the biggest scrape I've had on me - ever. Yes, I appreciate I've been insanely lucky not to have done more damage done to myself in 28 years.

I don't want a scar. The doctor (no I didn't go just for my scrape) reckons I'll prob have some change in the pigmentation on my leg. There goes my modelling career. Grrr. You get interesting looks off people, when you're running about the city, dressed for work in cute, knee length skirts with a big uncovered graze. Esp from guys. I guess guys don't dig chicks with scars (or maybe just scabs..)

I'll be happy when I can run again with out it hurting. Or at least without cracking the scab open and it oozing everywhere. Realistically, I'll give up on that idea on Monday when I play footy again.

2006-10-18T23:34:00.000+10:00

Two of the Test Fish Crew of Bondi

Here fishy, fishy, fishy!

2006-10-18T23:33:00.000+10:00

I must be getting to 'that age' where my biological clock is kicking in (again, stupid hormones). Or that I'm happy in the one spot to stay here and to think about getting a pet. Either way. Being the scratchy allergy girl I am, and Seabass being the sneezey girl she is, and our rental property, the most logical progression was for a few fishes to keep me happy. My lovely housemates gave me fish for my birthday. Yay.

So our first fish posse at the Big Brown Box consisted of 4 zippy, darty fishes.

Breed - Golden Medaka aka rice fish.
Size - super tiny. Longest one was about the length of the top joint of your thumb.
Personality: Super curious, darty, like to swim as a posse. They are happy to come right up to the glass and check you out.

We named our little guys too. Well, kinda. Problemo was that we had two bigger than tiny & two teeny tinys, and they looked REALLY similar. Through our brainstorming we came up with 'TF-1 - 4'. Setting up a new home for fish can be challenging, and sometimes a few fish go to fish heaven. Our fish therefore are Test Fish 1, Test Fish 2, Test Fish 3 and Test Fish 4.

Unfortunately, on the weekend, on of the Test Fish - bigger than tiny models, went belly up. Bless it's lil fishy soul. He's now been converted into the soil of an aloe vera plant, so hopefully by the end of summer, he'll have a soothing effect on me once again :)

Tomorrow night is science lab night for the fish tank. Water test time. Gotta see if we've a harmonious tank... result shall be posted..

Fingers crossed for my lil fishies!

2006-10-18T23:12:00.000+10:00

Bless those hair & makeup folks. And ok, credit to the pharmaceutical company's too.

Here comes the bride....

2006-10-16T22:24:00.000+10:00

Wedding time!

My longest bestest friend Kate is now married to Sean. The day was gorgeous. It was a natural progression, some say long over due (10 years together already) but it is still strange that my friends are newly weds. They are proper grown ups now. But such a fun day was had, I think by just about everyone.

We woke at 6am, the sun streaming in, unseasonably warm for mid October. 32 degrees celcius was the top that day. Hair & makeup started at 9am. We left the hotel after 1pm. That's a long time trying to stay pretty. Bless air conditioning. Imagine, me, trying not to touch or pick at my foundation.

Us ladies made it down the aisle (the staircase, down the side of the beach, the lizards stayed hidden this time, hurrah) to meet the boys for a beautiful ceremony. Sun was streaming, flies were out in full force. Groomsman Mark's flower jumped off mid ceremony, well ok, so maybe it just melted off! We had a great mingle on the beach after the ceremony, and the photographer made Kate & Sean do romantic photos & then got on to the silly stuff, which is clearly where we all excel. Photo shoot was lots of fun. Photographer was soo on the same wavelength as us.

Reception was lovely too, really fab venue, right on the beach front. Lot's more fun was had. And did I mention bad dancing? Lot's of that my friends.

Fun continued right til 4am in the lobby bar of our hotel, bride & groom included. We had a kebab run about 2.30am, friends were napping at tables by themselves, and such a lot of silly photos shot. Poor hotel lobby bar.

And to cap off a fab day, Laura suggested that we do commando rolls down the hallway to our room. And we did.

2006-10-09T23:08:00.000+10:00

Brrr! Love being on the mountainside! NZ is fab.

I HATE IT!

2006-09-05T18:46:00.000+10:00

I just want to cry. That sums it up really. Hormones. What good are they anyway? One day you're all fine, works a bit busy, but nothing you couldn't handle if your hormones weren't dancing around like the lil mofos they are. Next thing I can hardle stay awake, thinking isn't working. Lucky I had to run a few errands today, as I certainly wasn't able to focus on anything else, besides wanting to kill my computer (again, this is a daily issue though) I was wanting to tell everyone I came in contact with to just, ahh go to hell. Madness. So it's 6.30pm, I've had some fat (kettle chips) and some sugar & fat (dark chocolate chips). Now I'm going to bed to sleep. How crap is it. That's my rant for today.

Frosty

2006-08-14T23:57:00.000+10:00

Just back from Queenstown, NZ. Loved it. Beautiful place. Fresh air, mountains, fresh snow. Least on the last day. If my computer behaves I'll post some pics.

Smiling

2006-07-02T14:15:00.000+10:00

Strange but true. I think I'm happy at the moment. I'm tempted to put in a 'really' in front of the word happy, but let's not tempt fate with Kristen leaving on the 12th July. I've been socialising, jobs going well, been socialising, been getting fit, super excited about going to New Zealand to snowboard in August, been socialising, trying to be nice to my body (allegies wise), been socialising a bit more. This morning, after a lovely evening on the town (and crawling into bed at 4am after Portugal finished the Poms off), I woke at 9am. I got out of bed. I cleaned stuff. Then I moseyed on up to the gym and hit it hard for an hour. Crazy. Me @ the gym on a sunday MORNING. What the hell is that about? Sarah being happy & waking up early - I told my housemates they should take a photo of this moment. Let's hope it stays a while....

Everyday life

2006-06-21T22:42:00.000+10:00

I find every day life, can, at times, work a charm on keeping me amused.

For example, my beloved tracky dacks. I got these trackies second hand, when I was about 16 from a friends older brother. They were black, Mizuno slinky trackies. I wore them to death. Goal keeping, touch footy, walking, running, eating dinner - everything. Mum dutifully patched the knees time and time again. It's cold here in Sydney these days, and post gym sesh, I need anther layer to get me home on the bus. So I find my oldest, dearest trackies and start wearing them again. The drawstrings long since upped & left. So I fold down the waistband a few times. To warm up for my jog, I decided a bit of a skip is in order. Jump, jump, twirl, jump, hmm, trackies, stay with me. They rebelled. Slowly, they slipped, down, down, then I see my housemate, 'Bass - look, my pants are falling down' She's laughing at me, and then i hear a noise...and see one of my building-next-door neighbours walking about. AHGGHGHH! I grab my pants and leg it inside. Only to go jogging and discover the pants falling down issue, was an issue not only wth skipping. Jogging too.More laughter. Sigh. I'm simple sometimes.

There

2006-06-03T20:39:00.000+10:00

So this is the train ride i can't remember! Do we look like we've had 7 cocktails & a glass of wine before diner?

Gainfully Employed

2006-05-31T18:14:00.000+10:00

I finished up at Fitness First on 19th May. I got a lovely hamper full of chocolates, vino, biscuits, sweets etc and off I ran. I had a crazy time there, it was punishing more often than not, but I kinda like that.

I enjoyed my week off, and on the Thursday one agency called and said, company likes your CV, need someone urgently, can you interview tmw? Yes, yes I said. I was a bit horrified when I got into my suit (lost weight, it's a bit baggy, but horrified at being suited!) & took out my nose ring (the new lows I've gone to for the love of decent $) and strutted on into the city.

The interview was without doubt the most fun I've been to yet! After waiting for a while, the ladies came in to grill me. Belinda is a nutter (good nutter, just the way I like em, loud, over the top, Irene, much calmer, friendly & really lovely too. They even laughed at my jokes :)

Whilst I had a job description in front of me, and we discused what the position entailed, I walked out thinking, 'Hmmmm, this sounds pretty good'. So I left a voicemail for my agent, saying "The interview was great fun, and I think i get a fab feeling, BUT - I think anyone could have that feeling from those two!"

Got a call 15 mins later. Agency.

Vicky - how did it go?
Me - Good, I feel good about it. Funnest interview, they were lovely, but maybe they are lovely to everyone.
Vicky - If they offered it, would you take it?
Me - Definately!
Vicky - Congratulations, you're now employed! They loved you!
Me - HURRAH!

So I'm gainfully employed for a governmental body that looks after trains & stuff. I even get to go on an excursion so I get a feel for one of the projects I'll be helping out with.

Oh yeah - and I have a new title.

Sarah - Project Officer

I even got listed on the organisational chart (which I had to create). This is the first time EVER I've made an org chart of a company. I must say, I do feel special.

The team are realllllllllllllllllly lovely. And were so glad that I came back to the office this morning after working on committee papers til 7pm last night. I told them I don't scare that easily (less so after my last assignment!)

From Monday this week until December I'm booked in for, if the projects extend, so may I. Maybe til University starts, which they know about.

We've a happy camper here folks!

I gave up my...

2006-05-30T21:20:00.000+10:00

Partner in crime last night. No, not Kristen. We have WAAAAAY to much fun for her to ditch me, or me to ditch her. As much as we can't be trusted with $11 cocktails & dance floors, I think even bloke, her John is seeing the humour in our mayhem :)

No, I decided to bail on the boy that has been keeping me slightly occupied (slightly, due to shift work. Don't date a shift worker, esp if you're a 9 - 5er with a short attention span).

No, PC Plod/Dudley Do-Right/all your various other names for the boy, who will no longer be THE BOY I will talk about.

There's an interesting tale to be told of how & why I'm once again on the meat market, but alas, I'm in two minds about ranting online. I want to rant, you know I do, however, I think he may read my blog.

Which could of course:

a) taint my rant
b) make him feel special that i finally gave him a proper mention on my blog
c)um, I forgot

So after getting in trouble with my doling Friday night, today, I'm holding back.

You want my rant - hit me up at my hotmail accout.

London Days Revisted

2006-05-28T18:02:00.000+10:00

My very good friend Kristen & I went through a phase when I last lived in London, of getting a bit 'thirsty' on Friday nights. Which was convinient as we were working together at that point. She was my boss actually. For 3 Friday nights in a row, starting on Bonfire night, we went out like crazy women. It was ACE. Stumbling in at 5am, god I loved the number 8 night bus. We had to put a stop to it after 3 Fridays in a row as it made us poor.

So Friday night, we decided to hit my fave cocktail bar in Newtown - Kuletos. Kristens eyes sparkled when she saw 2 for 1 - and that a standard cocktail is $11.50.... So chocolate martinis, lotus chill, martinis, margaritas, more chocolate martinis, champagne cocktails and I have a feeling there was one more drink but I can't remember which one it was. Yes, did i mention that these were consumed on an empty stomach. I had an interview and didn't eat lunch. Dinner wasn't til after the cocktails. Yum, Saray - turkish pide. So good. I don't know why we stopped at one!

So then it was time to jump a train to Central. We could read the train timetable, and figured we could slip in a glass of vino at the Townhall. I.D. please...I remember suggesting to the bouncer that I'm too old looking to be asked for ID. He said no. Clearly being close to 28, I should pass with flyig colours. Im surprised he let us in, as I would have thought we were ahh a little too merry at this point.

Bit of a haze from the Town Hall (hmmm always is with the Townie!)to Newtown Station to Central. But with body on autopilot, we got to Snakers just in time. Sneakers was pleasantly full. None of the summer chaos of being wedged in. A bit of breathing space & room to groove...Kristen & I haven't trampled a dance floor together since my last Saturday in London. God it was good fun. I'm over the fact that half the kids are exactly that. Alcohol dulls the mother hen feeling. So we drank more there. God knows why, normally my thirst for water kicks in but Friday night was beyond special. Forgot about the delayed onset of cocktailitis. So eventually after twirling Kristen around the dancefloor, with big hugs & all, I disappeared into the bathroom. Eventually I did surface, feeling very unsober & looking much as to be expected. A guy came up and asked if i was ok, I said, not particularly. He offered to help me get a cab, and off I zoomed to Coogee. Thankfully the strata/body corporate people have fixed the back light so no need to be scared of the dark at the end of the driveway and I clambered into my bedroom. I couldn't figure out how my purse was attached when I was trying to pay the cabbie. I'd looped the strap through my belt loop. My belt and jeans were all done up - my belt buckle had jammed - yay for my recent weight loss - could still get my jeans off. Into bed I jumped, out like a light....

11.30am Saturday morning. F U C K - Kristen. Must call. S H I T - another Sneakers night another missing phone. So not only did i loss my best mate, but my phone with all her contact details in it. So i run (as best I could) into Grants room saying 'help'. I look a mess, and he gives me a big hug, reassuring me that 'it's going to be ok, what the hell have you been up to & why wasnt I invited?' So I get on the net, god only knows how I managed to type, but i was sooo worried and kicking myself - how could this happen? All these years of drunken stupidity (highlights being a Goldman Sachs Nat's farewell in London & the Tropical Party of 2080 Graveley being two stand out examples)I've never lost my mate. So I find her listed on whitepages.com.au and call. When her bro called her name, I was sooo relieved.

Kristen got her husband to come and rescue her. Bless John's cotton socks. Her phone battery was dead & she had to resort to a payphone. Our alcohol addled brains had both kind of forgotten about each other, survival instincts kicked in. Safe & sound in the end.

The tally of what was lost that night goes something like this:

My mobile phone
My stomach contents
More than $100 spent
Broke my wallet when I ripped it off my jeans

Kristens Creative (20gb MP3 player)
John being unable to work that day
Stomach contentsSore leg muslces
Again, lot's of $$$ spent

So yeah. My most drunken & stupid night ever I'm pretty sure. I did go to my mates house party last night - they were all surprised to see me in semi human form - they'd been drunken texted by me requesting their company. Damn smart girls & boys to turn down my offer. Must have been something in the air on Friday night, call it Friday night fever if you wish - my other mate just reports that he misplaced his whole bag, also containing MP3 player etc....damn them lucky kids who find our stuff - though my mobile phone SUCKS, so maybe I'll buy one that I don't have to switch to loud speaker to hear.

So a word to the wise, just say no to Sarah & Kristen if they invite you out on a Friday night. It could be more trouble than it's worth.

P.S. I may have lost something else, I'm not sure yet...I'll get back to you on that.

2006-05-09T21:46:00.000+10:00

After Luke & Lyndals wedding, still looking glam!

Glowing good health

2006-05-09T21:35:00.000+10:00

So post easter I got broken. See two posts below. I've found another doctor locally. Who really seemed concerned, wants me to keep an eye on myself & my diet, and with winter being my bad skin getting broken season, to take the steroids only if necessary to prevent escalation. To always have the drugs not too far from reach. Moderation is key. I'm trying REALLY hard. This time for sure. I must grow up, accept my luck is fragile skin & allergies and take steps to prevent as much that is preventable.

So diet wise, I'm very much on dairy free, gluten & wheat free. Also, much as it pains me, keeping my sugar & yeast levels low low & low. I'm keeping anything exotic like spices to a minimum. Lot's of home cooking for me. Which is fine, I do like cooking & it's winter around the corner, so keeping warm by my stove will just have to be my hobby.

I must be good! I must be good!

2006-05-09T21:11:00.000+10:00

Easter Racing Carnival! Me, Yasmin & Margie all glam & read for fun!

ER - Staring Sarah Locks as the skanky looking patient!

2006-04-23T18:10:00.000+10:00

So realising that my allergic reaction hadn't disappeared over night, as I had hoped it would, I thought I should visit a doctor. Now lucky for me, when I get an allergic reaction these are my key issues: I puff up (this time my left eye won the puffy contest, I was left with no eyelid creases - thats how puffy it got), I itch like a mofo, my skin peels off, leaving sores & a beautiful pink layer revealed to the outside world. My throat swells a little, as does my neck (the rugby players would have been jealous of my neck structure today), but over all, going on my previous reactions, nothing is life threatening. I stroll into the doctors. His response - go to hospital now. See, he's not seen my bodys reactions before & i think is just hoping that I don't go into anaphalactic shock right there. So that was the end of that visit. I go back to my place, throw a few things in a bag & head to Prince of Wales in Randwick, where funnily enough, I had been 2 weeks previous to see an immunologist. Hospital staff were lovely, quick & laughed at all my jokes about my gorgeous face. But this time I could see out of my eyes again, just. They gave me a first dose of phenergan. We dicussed my issues further & they also decided to give me the added boost of the steroid prednisolone. I hate taking steroids for skin issues, but today, I would have taken anything to relieve my issues. So I get to take more phenergan in a bit & more steroids tmw. I look almost like a human again. Yay. I feel a bit smilier too. Oh oh yeah - I got the cool hospital bracelet too - which I'm keeping on til I decide if I'm going to work tmw or now.

Hope everyone else had fun weekends to make up for the loss of mine.

Toodle pip.

Refund please!

2006-04-22T21:32:00.000+10:00

Ahh what a week. Food poisoning on Monday night, had Tuesday off to recover (well ok, so i couldn't drag myself away from the bathroom to get to work). Throw in a neck ache, and now, an allergic reaction. Yay. Who's a skany puffy happy camper right now!

Today I have my cranky pants on

2006-04-16T16:35:00.000+10:00

AGHGAHGAHGAHGAHHAGHAGH
AGHAGHAGHAGAHGAHG
AHGAHGAHGHAGHAGHAGAHGAHGHAGAHGH
AGHAGHAGHAGHAGHAGH
AGHAGHAGHGHGHAGHAGHAGHAGHA
GHAGHAGHAGHAGHAGHAGHAGH
AGHAGHAGHAGHAGHAGAHGHAGHAGAHGAHGAHGAHG
AHGAHGAHGAHGAHGAHGAHGAHGAHGAH
AGHAGAHGAHGAHAGHAGAHGAHAGHAGAHGAHAGH
AGAHGAHAGAHAGHAGHAGHAGHAGAHG
AHGAHGAHAGHAGHAGHAGAHGAHGAHGHAGHAGAHG
AHAGHAGHAGAHAGH
AGHAGH
AGAHGAHGAHG
AHAGHAGHAG

My life online....

2006-04-12T20:22:00.000+10:00

Is it easter yet? I broke my anti chocolate binge. Bag of M&M speckled eggs. I feel ill...

Um...

2006-04-11T18:52:00.000+10:00

Last update was the party. Where to start. Well...

I went to the immunologist. Who is fairly sure I don't have a really really scary affects a lot of important parts of your body time vascular disease. He took blood and is running tests just to check that my immune system is in no way disease compromised. Just me putting toxic waste into it. Margarita anyone? He did suggest I go on a elimination diet. And yes, it's totally as fun as it sounds. You eliminate most of the scary & well known allergens and then you test yourself with 'food challenges'. Yeah, that soo isn't happening over easter.

I've cut back severely on the sugar lately, and wow, results are good. Which I'm equal parts happy & sad about. Sugar is my best friend.

Um, I met a cool boy. 3 dates so far, I know, I know - you're all saying 'Wow, Sarah's in a long term relationship'. Smartasses. Which, technically, by my standards, that comment wouldn't be entirely untrue. But that's all I'm writing up here. I think he reads my blog. Ner Ner.

I also get to do more housesitting. Totally sweet 1 bedder in Randwick, it's gorgeous, I can pretend I'm part of the grown up world for another 3.5 weeks, not my little ghetto world by the beach.

But now I'm wrecked. I wonder if i can see the pizza shop across the roads phone number from the sunroom?

Party = Booze = Trouble = Fun times = Yay

2006-03-26T19:33:00.000+11:00

We had a party! We had a party! I love parties.

I love friends who come to parties to make them extra fun. Many thanks to all the crazy kids who showed up & got stuck into the good times.

Highlights of the night were:

Absolut Rasberri Vodka (my partner in crime)
Nick & his cask of goon
'10 Questions on Camera' Andy (also birthday Andy)
Drinking from the bladder of said goon
Rapper Steve
Wall of Scrawl (fave comment to be announced soon)
Spurting goon over selected friends
The broken glass clock
Memory gaps (i'm guessing i was having too much fun to remember!)
Nick passed out @ 11pm
Mood lighting, red in lounge, blue in the waiting room.
Nick passed out & being drawn on (with permanent markers. Nick had to go to work the next morning. Did he get the moustache off? Remember Michelle!)
Singing up a storm
Nick setting up bed under the table for protection
Bad ass dancing
Drunk phone calls (that I don't recall having)

The morning after the night before. I woke kinda late to see bliss! The house was semi spotless. God bless Grants cotton socks. I stumbled down the street to have brunch (fry up!) & then we met some of the overniters for a pub session. Hair of dog did not work today. Bollocks. 2 hours later we left the pub. I crawled up the hill in the blasting sun & came and surfed the net. That was all i was able to do. Now I'm off to hang my washing out in the dark. It's 6.30pm and it's getting dark. Who let this happen? Summer wants to go bye byes! And now so shall I.

2006-03-04T20:58:00.000+11:00

All those years of orthodontics paid off.

2006-03-04T20:30:00.000+11:00

Me @ the Races for a friends Hens day.

My life online....

2006-03-04T20:27:00.000+11:00

Bridesmaid shopping. How many people can i offend in one day. I'm a bit of a critic/whinger, and well putting on shitty frocks def brought it out in me. Until we found some good uns. We've got the style that we want, we both look lovely in it. The colour is almost decided too. Potentially deep aubergine (deep purple - eggplant purple) or maybe pale blue. Trying on dresses does a few things to you.
A) Make you feel fat
B) Make you feel gorgeous
C) Make you hate sales people
D) Make you glad you aren't trying on bridal gowns!

I do love a good dress up though. And then the hair will be done & the makeup... but even better - there is talk of a stretch chevvy being the vehicle that wisks us away to the reception. Now that would be sweet. Crusing around Kiama & Wollongong in a chev. Bring it on!

And so

2006-03-02T21:01:00.000+11:00

I did it!

I managed a year away from London. Without consulting last years diary, or my memory bank, I'd planned a night on the disco dance floor (ok, so it's a cool lil pub that has a cool indie night, not quite disco, but the beer garden cranks with all the cool kids) last Friday night, with Kristen, John & Liamski. And by Friday afternoon I was in no shape to go out. No, I hadn't cracked the bottle of emergency bubbly in my cupboard at the office, I just felt wrong. Thought just maybe a power nap & a cool shower would do the trick & some necessary medication. Nope. Night out CANCELLED. I made it down the street to buy a kebab & curled up on the lounge to watch Jaws (wow, sooo slow) & read, before the 11 hours of snoozing that followed. Straight, no wake up in between. Must have been necessary. I read my last years diary & found out that the last Friday in February last year - I'd gone out for my last dance at the Borderline in London with none other than Kristen, John & Liam. D'oh. One year on, I feel ok about where I am with myself at the moment. I kinda like Sydney. It’s public transport is rubbish though, so I still feel isolated. With a few more mates moving to the city though, that should help things out…..settling in takes such a long time. I’m so impatient.

Believe it or not, I'm walking on air. Never thought I could feel so free…flying away on a wing & a prayer, who could it be… believe it or not it's just me. Oh err..i digress. I loved that song as a kid. Tell me who sings it & what show it was the theme song for & you get 10 brownie points.

Had to cancel the next night out too - housewarming & pub crawl. I was sad. Sad that the coincidence didn't quite happen, sad that another year's passed and there are so many things I need to do - I just don't know what they are. I think my next goal, is......

to buy a motorbike, after I get my motorbike learners permit. Just gotta save up a wee bit more cash.

Anyone got any suggestions for hobbies I should take up, cause clearly, snowboarding just isn't doing it for me at the moment. Given I'm about 10 hours away from the nearest rideable mountain. And that’s 10 plane hours...

What about me?

2006-02-15T20:37:00.000+11:00

http://kevan.org/johari?name=sarahlocks

My life online....

2006-02-07T18:03:00.000+11:00

I ate too much cookie dough. Homemade though, gluten& wheat free, dairy free sort - that tasted pretty good. I'm getting better at 'free' everything cookies!

Endearing Sarah

2006-01-28T15:32:00.000+11:00

Or should that be Enduring. I'm not the easiest person to get along with (sometimes), all depending on the state of my frazzled brain. Friends have helped make some of my traits & habites easier to love, they've come up with the following:

Shower Kittens - the name for the furry dreadlocks I leave on the shower flower after washing my hair.

Hair Farmer - my new job title due to my lack of leg waxing.

and apparently, I remind my work colleague of her little maltese fluffball due to my incessant scratching!

So truly, every aspect can have a positive (this is said very tounge in cheek my friends..)

So what about my crazy blcoked nose huh? Now when that becomes endearing, just let me know.....

My life online....

2006-01-19T20:47:00.000+11:00

I got accepted into university! Yay for being an old fart, they let just about anyone my age in!

But in true Sarah style. I'm going to put it off. Yup, 'cause guess who has a bunch of medical bills to pay off? And a job I committed too (and am enjoying).

I'm going to try for second semester, so we'll just have to wait & see....

In the meantime, I need to start finding me a rich man to support my habbits whilst I'm a student.

Any offers?

The Results....

2006-01-18T20:43:00.000+11:00

Outcome: I'm not broken. So where the hell does that leave me?

Soft tissue = good
Sinuses = slight swelling
Nose = sensitive little guy, mustn't like a lot of things in the air
Structural = good
Allegies = no major response to anything
I've cytomegalovirus. Which isn't as cool or as bad as it sounds.
I have the coldsore virus.

The ONLY thing that came back as something we need to further investigate is:

antinuclear antibodies

Again - a cool sounding name for a band. My interpretation of this is cells in your body that attack other cells, when they shouldn't as the play for the same team.

Bastards. So that's where I'm at right now. Sitting here cursing....

2006-01-09T20:00:00.000+11:00

Me & Kate, out the Grove, for Geez Jen's 30!

2006-01-09T19:26:00.000+11:00

A recent shot. And yes, I may have a few bevvies under my belt..

With the aim of not being broken anymore...

2006-01-09T19:21:00.000+11:00

So today I had the last of my 4 tests.

Test #1 - First up on the 23rd Dec, the doctor sprayed a numbing fluid up my nose & then shoved a wicked ass camera down my schnoz. And he turned it around so i could look in my own nose - rad huh? Rad does come with a price though - $230 and the instructions to go and have 3 more tests.

Test #2 - blood work - allergy testing. Take as much blood as you want from me, it doesn't hurt. They haven't sent the bill yet. I'm guessing there should be a few things pop up, though i don't majorly react to things, just lots of small reactions to everything. Dairy I'm almost sure will come up.

Test #3 - CT scan with contrast (with contrast means they shove a HUGE needle in your arm and pump about 200ml of Iodine in your arm and make this machine do 360s around you. If you're really lucky the iodine starts coming into the back of your throat and I also thought i could feel/taste it in my eyes...$583.50 later - god bless medicare (govt healthcare) meaning I only had to pay $150.

Test #3 - MRI scan - you know in the movies when people are being diagnosed with something serious - they are wearing a white gown and lay on a long bench and then they get slid into the tunnel. That was how i spent about 25 minutes today. And after they had checked my CT scans, they decided I needed contrast again, meaning another needle. Luckily, it was a baby needle in comparison to the last. Let me tell you that crazy machine makes a hell of a racket. I had to wear fluro green ear plugs and all. Which is kinda funny seeing the reason I'm partially in this machine getting radiated is because i lost too much hearing over a short space of time!

So besides potentially having something not nice going wrong in my head, there is the very delicate issue of body piercings. Last week I had to take my nose stud out & again today, which the ends are both the same size and the post is much thinner - meaning much pain when you drag it out - and now much gunk as it trys to heal. And as for my tragus piercing, it now sports an ugly silver sleeper (ring with hinge) for easier access as the ring i had in i need tools to fix it back into my ear. Will wait til after D Day to see if i can bejewel myself again, without fear of more skanky ear puss or if i need to have more scans...

So D Day for me is January 18th @ 4.30pm. Keep your fingers crossed I'm not seriously broken.

Merry Chrimbo!

2005-12-24T21:20:00.000+11:00

Hey all my dear friends who read my rant.

Wishing you a fantabulous Christmas. Sydney is sweltering, god bless the advent of the air con unit.

Ho ho ho,

Love,

Sarah

Friday

2005-12-09T23:33:00.000+11:00

Yay, the working week is over! My week was quite scatty in the office, too much bits & pieces interupting my big commission task at hand. Too many nights with not quite enough sleep. It's going to be a still day on Sunday so I can do some catch up work down the beach. That's the plan, Stan. Friday, insanely busy in Sydney. Xmas Party season & fine weather making it just crazily busy. Lucky myself & Sarah-May can lower our standards easily enough to sit in the outside area of the Paragon in Circular Quay. But we made a pact to do some high class evenings out. When we are slightly more financial. yay. I do love having a few friends who do stuff with me around again, even if they aren't quite close enough at the moment, they'll soon be within 10kms...

Now, time for bed. Zzzzz.....work Xmas party tmw night...I work for the worlds largest fitness centre chain in the world.

There will be some eye candy available I believe....

Thursday Night

2005-12-09T23:18:00.000+11:00

On Thursday night, I welcomed into my fold the fabulous Kye. Kye is an acquired friend of a friend, acquired during my Canadian stint. Kye filled me in on the joys of her recent travels, (over fab burger at Burgelicious) ahh, sooo envious! Then we toddled down to @Newtown (formerly known as the Newtown RSL) to see The Kills. Drinks on level one firstly. Intense discussion on East Enders. Enjoying our tipple, trying to not pay attention to the dire drag queen on stage . Eventually we had no choice but to partake in her show. She insisted on clambering on our table(we were on tall bar stools). In her 4 inch heels and Tina Turner sequined frock. Dancing & singing aren't really her strong points, poor lass. Then she lays down on the table, asks us to hold her legs (yes..and we complied..). And she eventually flips over the side of the table. Red sequined knickers are where its at. Apparently. So a big welcome back to Kye, who I've insisted that she will attend countless gigs, when we both have money. Viva live music!

2005-12-09T22:59:00.000+11:00

AGHGHG! What - these folks are messing in our flat! Oh yeah it's a party. Me & Grantis Housemateis.

Wednesday

2005-12-09T22:56:00.000+11:00

I've been all social. Yes, stranger things and all - I even left the east!

Wednesday night- drinks at Opera Bar, it was still close on 40 degrees at 5.30pm when I left the office, so sitting by the waters edge, drink in hand was such a fab idea. Not so fab was my incessant chatting, which lead me to opening my mouth and a fly making the dash for my tonsils. I spluttered, coughed, ew, yuck, I don't know why i swallowed that fly. Ok, so I do - I had no choice in the matter. DAMMIT! Yuck. Blah. Lucky i'm not vegan huh? Left the harbours edge at 11pm after a enjoyable eve. May I all remind you how beautiful Sydney Harbour is. I then received a text from Crazy Steve, who is my best mate in Coogee. So I then made my way from Circular Quay to Coogee Bay Ghetto, I mean hotel. Whilst I was not dealing well with booze than eve (migraines & booze - not friends- who'd have thought?). Steve did well, lasted several hours & several beers & didn't get booted out! Hooray! So got dinner about 1am (yes, a school night, crazy huh?) and mosied up the hill and was tucked up loosely in my sheets (remember it was 40 degrees just a few hours earlier) and snoozing not long after 2am. I repeat, ON A SCHOOL NIGHT!

2005-12-09T22:46:00.000+11:00

Me & Mr Randwick. At the flat warming. I'm so hopeless at remembering names...

Praia, plage, playa - BEACH!

2005-12-04T21:30:00.000+11:00

I've got to say, living by the beach is the best thing I’ve done in such a long time. Besides, not having enough friends to come and just hang with me, the crappy queues at the supermarket and having no decent local pub to booze at, I’m enjoying my stay here. This lack of friends thing is an issue. One that I’m trying to deal with, but alas, I don’t think I’m working through it. So this week, I’m meeting up with a few girls who I’ve met online who are kinda new to the area and also looking for people just to hang out with. I really, really, miss having one of my old time mates to just call up and say, want to go for a few bevvies at the pub? Want to come around and watch crap tv for a few hours? Let’s go for a swim and then have lunch? That’s what I need. My housemates are ace. Truly they are, but alas, they work weekends. I’m a social girl, I need contact with more than 2 people over an entire weekend.

So after scouring my phone trying to harass a few of my local mates into coming to the beach, I got a response from my newest mate Steve (although I think we’ve been mates since August now). He was out at the markets shopping but said he’d be back & we’d go buy him some boardies & then hit the ocean. Yay – a positive response! I went for a swim, read some of the paper, went for another swim and heard ‘Sarah’ being called out, which is a fairly common name. It was housemate Grantis calling, yay swim bud! Grantis, who convinced me it was time for lunch! (yes, it’s always hard to convince me to eat…). The thai place is near Steves place, so I swung by after, saw their new purchases (money box & bonsai) and then we beelined for the beach (after getting Steve beach gear). We christened the new Frisbee, which we deemed crapola (or was that just us?). Though apparently a good way to meet girls in the water…whoops, sorry, didn’t mean to splash you! Then as with all good friends, we ended up at the Coogee Bay for a few quite bevvies. This is what life should be about. The simple things in life are often the best.

Good times – without 3months of planning. Right.

Is it time for in with the new, out with the old?

Fight ..for your right.. to P A R T Y...

2005-11-29T20:15:00.000+11:00

Our house is officially warm! So what, we've been here since late July - no time like the present to celebrate! Had an awesome time, much booze, bbq, blue lighting & fairy lights. Somehow managed to kick the guests out by 1am and ended up at a club night on Broadway @ The Abercrombie. Which was fab. I aint danced in way too long, so this was just what i needed. Note to self, don't wear heeled boots next time, poor feet the next day were v. sad with me (thought they looked pretty cool with my frock I had on..). I'm now suffering the effects of way to little sleep. And maybe 2 packs of tim tams in 2 days is excessive...photos soon. Hit me with a message if you want the link.

Behave kids.

Could it be...

2005-11-19T19:24:00.000+11:00

Food: my love love relationship keeps involving less love, and more hate. Not to mention more bloating & gurgling.
Last nights potential culprits:

Pizza
Garlic Bread
Sparkling mineral water
4 pieces of Violet Crumble (choc coated honeycomb for those not in the know)

Just 3 short hours after I ingested it, I was feeling beyond yuck. Head started feeling awful, and my stomach was having a disco with a thousand little food particles dancing up a storm inside me, or maybe they were moshing, yeah, moshing. Which didn't cap off my cool & cruisey evening spent with my mates Carlie & Kris, their lil 6mth old Jakson (who didn't scream when he saw me this time - yes!) & their babysitting charge Teana.

I twisted my ankle walking to their place too. In all my years of playing soccer & touch footy - i maybe have twisted my ankle once. I did it badly once at netball - but I was about 14 then. So in 10 years I've been kind to my ankles - and then steeping down from the lowest point of a driveway onto the road and OWWWWWWWWWWW! Damn those 2 inch drops. So slowly I made my way to my mates. It's fragile but completely useable, which is fab. As it was a good 30 minutes walk home. Managed 20 minutes on the cross trainer at the gym today to, but then caught the fragile ankle as i was getting off a weights machine. More swearing under my breath. Fingers crossed it will be happy swimming in the ocean tmw..

Today I went to the dentist, seing this weekend is all about punishing my body. Least this was good punishment - my super enamel-lacking back molars now are coated in lovely white filling.

So sugar & booze here I come. Ok mum, then, well maybe after I let this skin & belly craziness receede.

Not far from the truth

2005-11-17T20:27:00.000+11:00

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Street Smart Sarah

2005-11-17T20:22:00.000+11:00

Street Smart

You're street smart. This type of intelligence is very closely tied to being 'socially smart' - your intelligence comes from a high amount of applied education - you've learned, and continue to learn, from your environment. You know the ins and outs of real-life situations, and could probably talk your way out of a fight better than any of those theoreticians could.

20% applied intelligence
80% learned intelligence

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

The drugs don't work....

2005-11-11T21:22:00.000+11:00

Migraines SUCK. Really. They do. I'm at the end of my incredibly short tether. So today, I went to the doctor - to book in for a bit of needle work - acupuncture. I've had it before, and found it amazingly bizarre and calming and well those who know me, probably think this isn't a bad thing for me to try. The other thing is drugs to mess my hormone levels. Dammit, i want something to work.

How long without is too long?

2005-11-08T18:57:00.000+11:00

Get your minds outta the gutter kids. This short post is about friends. And the possibility that they don't want to be friends anymore.

How many messages/phone calls does one make to a friend who never returns them back, before disconnecting from the friendship?

Since I've been back I've heard from one particular person a handful of times, since I've moved into the east (late July), I've heard from them twice - once was an rsvp to my bday bash and the other when I asked about something v important in their life.

I'm probabley just being a demi-drama queen - but I think I'm giving up on this one, putting them in the too hard basket....funny, a few of my mates are going this way.

Maybe it's just me....

2005-10-29T18:01:00.000+10:00

A little blurry at a cantina mexicana in Newtown late September for Grantis bday bash

My blog is worthless...

2005-10-29T17:41:00.001+10:00

My blog is worth $0.00.
How'>http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/">How much is your blog worth?

2005-10-21T20:49:00.000+10:00

The Ranter

2005-10-11T18:32:00.000+10:00

Pink boots - what can I say? Having a girly phase...

Go them magpies/tigers/wests/balmain!

2005-10-02T21:22:00.000+10:00

Yeah baby! Being subjected by my father to support the Maggies, means that right now, I'm happy that they got a grandfinal win, and a try right on the buzzer, under their belts. Esp happy as my folks are coming down to say hello tmw, and this means Dad will be a happy camper!

Other news: the pink boots had their first outing. I got blisters. They are soo cool.

Last Sunday was 6 months since I left London. I had such a rubbish day. But then this week - voila! Complete opposite, i've had so much fun, spent so much cashola, and am soo happy. I think i was out almost every night last night, Mon - gym, Tues - dinner with Grant & Chris, Wed - medical survey, Thurs - Grants birthday bash, Fri - submitted uni application and went and hit the bars with Gutch & Mal. Was fab. Good company then good pizza for dinner, and a short wait for the bus. Sat - noon, lucnh with Carlie & Mich at Coogee Bay Hotel, went home for a few hours, then my housemate wouldnt come to the movies with me, so they recruited their other friend to come and hangout. He's cool, so no probs. I'll buy mates off Ebay if I have too to go to the pub. Palace/Aquarium bar 1st stop. Everyone else had been to the races, and was glam beyond glam. We were just normal. Service is DIRE there. Grant joined us after a while, and we continued our gutteresque conversations and headed to the Coogee Bay Hotel, where the bouncer looked more wired than the patrons...and that's saying something.
We gave up about 2.30am, due to lack of funds. I kept up with the boys drinks wise, not a bad effort, esp as I only had a naan bread for dinner. Highly irresponsible I know. Seems my tolerance has increased once again. D'oh. All in all, I had a fab day, it ended ever so late...

Sunday I caught a lift to the city, bought new cds - Zutons & Franz Ferdinands newie. Went to the markets at Bondi to see Gunther, Sooz was there to - nice just to catch up with people briefly.

Oh yeah, summer is here, and perving season is full swing.

I've got my bikini & im not affraid to use it...

Behave kids, I certainly am not.

2005-09-27T19:56:00.000+10:00

My new pink boots....better pics soon!

2005-09-24T16:43:00.000+10:00

Yay team! Yay for birthdays!

2005-09-24T16:39:00.000+10:00

Me & Pabs, my head at right angles once again. I think i was having issues holding it up straight!

2005-09-24T16:36:00.000+10:00

Silly drunkards..

2005-09-13T17:10:00.000+10:00

Sigh. I seem to sigh quite a bit these days. Todays sigh is an aid to divert my attention away from my slowly shutting eyelids. I still have 30 minutes left of work. My sore throat is getting worse. I went to bed ever so late after a gossip with flatmate S last night. 3 late nights in a row. Not a smart move by myself. I was hoping to go and see Charlie & the Chocolate Factory tonight, but I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe tomorrow night. Yawn.

Piece of political info:

In Canada it is illegal to use asbestos - that nasty stuff that gives people cancer. However, they mine it and ship it over to 3rd world countries where it isn't illegal to do so! Crazy. That just seems so un-Canadian. Anyhoo, the reason I bring it up is due to the protest that was happening on Friday. Right outside the front of our building - as the Canadian Consulate is housed in this building. I walked out the doors and bang into my good mate N Noodle, who is an avid union supporter. Was great to catch up and learn something new that day. Not that what I learnt was that nice, but knowledge is the key.

yawn. i'm audi!

2005-09-12T22:01:00.000+10:00

Yay for birthdays! S & N

Bday wishes for fishes

2005-09-12T21:09:00.000+10:00

We did the bash. We did the birthday bash.

The 'As annual as we can' Sarah & Nicki birthday bash occured on Saturday night. My first bday in Oz in 5 years...what a scorcher. I'd tell you all about it if i had better recollection of parts of the night...

The start was bad. I had a clothing crisis, followed by housemates hating each other crisis, followed by chocolate throwing/door slamming/stereo cranked 5 minutes before I was leaving the house. Great, just the mood i wanted to go to my party in. Sneeky vodka and out the door i ran. Taxi!

The the 'i can't make it' texts started flowing. Of all nights. Bad enough my housemate couldn't go due to world war 3 that had hit before i left the house. Grrr. Then another friend. Then one of my best friends K bailed too. I was very close to throwing a tanty. Luckily, my friends agreed that the best course of action was several vodkas in quick sucession! AND PRAISE BE - it worked! And then a few mates came out, one who I thought would bail, as he is K's other half, he's also been my friend for as long, but he works hard and get's up at stupid a'clock always. So that made me super happy. And after that the night steam rollled ahead...

I believe the night was a success! I can't remember much of the music at the club, they did play - 'I got soul but i'm not a soldier', by the Killers, that was great. I saw a girl I went to school with too. I can't hide in Sydney. I think i only ended up a heap on the floor once. Yeah, i think I hit the bottle too hard. It was medicinal purposes though!

I was lucky later on i found a lovely, tall, resting post. The other birthday gals man got booted from the club. Apparently he was sleeping. On the dance floor. However, E was standing, moving, dancing. Bouncers are SOOO full of shit so often. The boys got me a beautiful flashing ring. It continued flashing until 10pm when housemate G showed us trade secrets and turned it off. No more dico fruit bowl.

I even forgot about the troubles in our little flat by the beach....so glad they're over. I'll post some pics so you can laugh at moi.

2005-09-12T20:10:00.000+10:00

Yay! The household embraced, the angels sung, apologies accepted.

We are all friends again. Hoorah.

My life online....

2005-09-08T19:54:00.000+10:00

Wow! My blogs gone back to it's normal shape again! YAY!

2005-09-08T19:29:00.000+10:00

1 day, 18 hours, 48 minutes and 58 seconds

Until it begins.

Birthday week! Yay! What makes this years birthday week extra special:

Last birthday I had in Oz was in the year 2000.

Previous 4 birthdays have been in London.

Reuniting with Nicki for joint birthday chaos once again!

Unfortunately, the days previous to my favourite event of the year have not been blessed with my usual good fortune. My crap news, now seems so stupid to be that concerned with, compared to the awful news we received yesterday in the midst of planning the party evening.

It is, however, still crap news. My housemate S, has decided to bail on us. Yes, yes, it’s annoying whenever a housemate leaves (unless the housemate sucked, and then we sing songs of joy & hit the pub to celebrate, this is not the case). However, it is super financially annoying when that housemate shared a bedroom with the other housemate (romantically, not like sharing a room London style). Meaning, there is no room to fill. Meaning, we must empty our pockets of a hell of a lot more cash each month. Roughly to the tune of $300+ dollars. You can imagine how THRILLED I am…When I get work, I usually make a decent amount of cash, and that’s great. I moved in with these guys knowing we wouldn’t live anywhere to fancy. My life was blessed when when we found this place, rent would be dirt cheap by Sydney standards. Life was going to be sweet. Summer especially so. Now, not so. To ADD to my annoyance, the now bad flatmate decides to tell me via a text message to my mobile phone of her intentions. No move out date. What drives me most insane about the situation is the lack of apology. NADA. For that she is bestowed with the title WENCH, until a time I see fit to talk to her. Yes, I’m that annoyed, I have removed the joys of conversation from our partnership. Me, refraining from speaking is a special skill I keep tucked under my belt for when needed. So every month that we don’t have 3 people in our 2 bedroom apartment, I pay an extra $300 a month, meaning next year, I most likely won’t be living away of home whilst going to uni, because someone has sabotaged my savings plan. Enough. I’ve stressed out enough over this already. It’s my birthday week, and no-one has the right to mess with birthday week.

Now, for the real disaster. Birthday week involves my friend, the infamous N-in_Pink, who I lived with in the Hackney Massive in London. Our first meeting involved a brief discussion on T-in-the Park festival in Scotland, and the merits of seeing Muse & Weezer live. Within 2 minutes of knowing each other, we were planning a festival weekend. It was love at first NME reading. N-in_Pink, now located in Melbourne, is coming up for the weekend to party with our combined London & Sydney friends, and the love of her life. Yesterday, whilst fine tuning our Saturday night game plan, an unexpected email from N-in_Pink came through. The news was not in the slightest way pleasant. One of her ex boyfriends from London was found by his landlady, dead in his apartment. Overdose apparently. Unsure as yet if it was accidental or not. I only met D a few times, he was the sweetest, funniest, quirky guy. It’s really sad that he’s departed this world so young, had he even reached 21 yet? Clearly in not the best state of mind. You can never tell where we’ll all end up, or how.

So this weekend, we’ll party for the good times & memories, past, present and hopefully, for a happy future too.

2005-08-29T21:53:00.000+10:00

Me, my last night boozing in London.

2005-08-29T21:49:00.000+10:00

South end of Coogee Beach. I'm so glad to have moved 8 minutes walk from the beach!

2005-08-27T18:08:00.000+10:00

To blog or not to blog. That is the question. Due to the many requests I have received, insisting I update my blog, I have found the perfect day to do it.

Saturday 27th August – It’s grey outside. It may be winter, however grey is no excuse. I shall remind you that I live in Sydney, Australia. Grey is just not allowed. I have a sensational migraine. Ok, it’s not bad, but there are no signs of goodness.

Work – seems to have dried up, which is a great shame….I hate working, but money is super handy. So I’m super poor. Credit card is thriving. Checked out a sugar daddy website out of curiousity. Nope, still can’t bring myself to be even a selective ‘ho even. Doh.

Health – my usual. Migraines, check, eczema, check, crazy nose, check, food issues, check. I have even developed a slight stigmatism in one of my eyes since my last eye test (my cornea has changed from a soccer ball shap to a rugby ball shape – or something like that, I don’t know the complications). It’s ‘be good to my body’ week this week though. No sugar(refined)/dairy/yeast/fun. Today is day 6. Day 4 saw a fab time had by myself and my newest mates Steve & Dave. Vodka soda was my trick for the evening…I’m on my way to looking slim, trim & fabulous. Tested out the public opinion at the pub the other night, seems the male population approves of my current look (even though I was the most covered up under 30yo in the bar). Tres bien!

Flat – way cool…3 blocks from the beach. 3 blocks from the pub. 30 minutes by bus to the city (where I normally work). 2 blocks to the supermarket. What more could a girl want. We have a great set of kitchen knives & matching cutlery. My housemates are fab. My mate Grant, and his girlfriend, Seabastion are the lucky new folks who get to live with me. However, I shall not call Seabass as Grants girlfriend, as I’ve decided she’s way too cool to keep to himself. Seabass, you will now be listed/known as friend/housemate. Grant said I would like her, and I shouldn’t have doubted him, but how many times has that happened and then you’ve just been soo let down…in this case no let down. She even forced me to go to the local scabby gym. $5 a visit, all us temporarily poor people can afford. No Barbie dolls there. Been twice. Forgot how good it feels to exercise.

Life - settling back into Oz life. Had a disastrous hairdressing appointment, I walked out with the worst foils ever. Lucky I was sick for the next 4 days so no one saw my hideous hair. I went in for an emergency do near my parents house. Looks much better…damn all that money gone on hair! Had a bunch of my friends over to show, as opposed to ‘show off’ our new abode. Was great to see them in my own shared rental property. And it was great to remind myself that I do have friends here in Sydney. I think this is the hardest thing to get used to. Getting in peoples calendars. Admittedly, I prob haven’t been trying hard enough, I spend soo much time moaning with my migraines, I forget to make an effort when I’m not sick! Caught up with a few folks lately, and made some new friends. Viva the internet for new friends! Esp as the live 3 blocks away and love going to the pub. Just like moi. Both are fabulously nuts and very entertaining. Sydney being so small, that when Steve said he knew someone from the Mtns, I said ok, who, and it was a guy I went to school with and haven’t seen in 8 years or so. His housemate Dave grew up in Islington/Camden areas of London, so we have common stories about north London haunts – Hope & Anchor, ahh the days my friends. The London Days, that I still think about more than regularly, and just as fondly.

Enough, time to hunt me down some food.

2005-06-27T21:59:00.000+10:00

....Degrees of Separation...

I have many hours commuting each week (over 15 hours...yawn!), I think alot, mostly about irrelevant stuff. A common thought is how tiny Sydney is, how minute the Mountains are (my local area), and how I bump into people all over.

The world therefore is SMALL.

I was at a party the other week, in Annandale, and somehow, an ex housemate had left a random array of books at the house. The Kevin Bacon Game (!) being one of them.

So, 6 degrees of separation, Kevin Bacon & my long hours on the late running trains, my recent fascination with celebs, spawned ideas.

Who could I link to in 6 degrees, or less. Hmm, a few minor Oz radio dj's/former punk rockers in 3 degrees. Can we link up & go a little more global...

Listening to White Stripes cd and I heard the song 'It's true that we love one another' White Stripes & Holly Golightly...hang on former housemate in east London Ed, plays guitar for Holly. Holly recorded with White Stripes. B I N G O (and BINGO was his name oooooooo). And Jack White dated Renee Zwellegar.

Wow, I can link to half of Hollywood now.

I can do another smaller scale link to Hollywood, my friend Murielle (not her real name, but she is terrible!), cousin Gia is married to Anthony La Paglia. More possibilities from there!

So I'm lame. It's mountains life I tells ya.

Anyone else have enough time to think about linking people to themselves??