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It’s official: I’m putting this project on hold.
There is too much to do right now, and in a couple of weeks I’m going to be moving overseas for who knows how long. I don’t have time to be thinking about how many books I’ve read or albums I’ve listened to.
I’m leaving this blog active, as when I’m settled I may wish to resume or reshape this project.
Until then, you can follow my adventures over at my travel blog. Adieu, ciao, see ya!
In light of the fact that I’m going overseas in less than three weeks, and looking through my list and finding it a bit removed from the way I’m feeling right now, I’m considering putting this journey aside for now.
No decisions yet, we’ll see how I feel in a week.
It was around my 21st birthday that I started thinking about getting a tattoo. A couple of my friends did it for their birthdays, and the only thing stopping me was the indecision about where and what to get, as I’m not the sort of person that has ink indelibly pressed into my skin on a whim.
I have been thinking about the phrase ‘this too’ (part of ‘this too shall pass’) for almost as long, and to a point it has become my personal mantra. I have trouble letting go of things, both good and bad, and reminding myself of the inevitability of change has brought me back from the edge of madness many times.
I chose typewriter font because of my (still not altogether abandoned) dream of becoming a writer, and my foot because it is somewhere both easy for me to see and easy to hide. My father once said that if I ever got a tattoo it would be like stabbing him through the heart with a rusty knife, so my original wish to have it on my wrist was not a viable option. But as this tattoo is intended a note to self, getting it on my back or similar would have been useless.
The opportunity to actually get the thing done came up about a month ago, while discussing my friend K’s most recent tattoo, a beautiful lyre bird which her tattooist aunt was giving her as a birthday present. Of course, I jumped at the chance to go to the parlour with someone and be inked by a trusted source and on 7 May in Geelong I finally did it.
I’m not going to lie, it hurt! There were moments when it felt like the needle was going into my bones! I didn’t cry or anything, but I was a bit sweaty from the effort of keeping still. Thank goodness they give you a lollypop!
So, I’m pretty pleased with myself, though I’m a bit tired of all the after care, which I was totally unprepared for. Also, having to remind myself to not wander the house barefoot anymore is actually quite difficult. Good thing it isn’t summer!
Now I just have to decide what to get next!
Well, I’ve finally done it and hopefully now I can sleep a bit better. I was born moley. My upper arms and back are especially covered, which is fine, I don’t equate dark splotches on my skin with ugly. However, growing up in the ‘golden’ age of skin cancer in Australia I have always been painfully aware that each one could be a melanoma, quietly growing my death on me.
Dramatic? Yes, but also stupid, because my fear of finding out has prevented me from going for a check before now. The old ‘head in the sand’ routine, I know. Anyway, it’s over now so we don’t need to dwell on my stupidity.
I don’t have skin cancer, thank goodness, but I do need to go back at least once a year for checks. The doctor said that I’m ‘the exact sort of person this technology was meant for.’ Because of my thousands of moles. And now I can stop looking at my big toe with a feeling of impending doom.
Baby blanket for Bronwyn.
Finished this in the space of a few weeks, surprised by how easy and fun it was to make.
Still plowing on with Mum’s blanket, so this task will end up being at least 11 pieces rather than 10! Who know how many extras will be tacked on, turns out I really like making things for people.
Second task completed in March, hooray for some much needed momentum!
Just got back from the pool, feeling like a goddess. I win, pool! You lose!
It’s been a LOOOOOOONG journey to here, I (re)started swimming back in Dec 2008, and have been sporadically trying to get my distance up since then. To begin with I think the most I could manage was five laps of a 25m pool. Crazy.
I’ve gotten this far by swimming a combo of freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. I’m going to keep it up and try to improve my times and the proportion of laps I do freestyle. Still, I feel pretty great right now.
Well, I managed to go four weeks without purchasing a single book, CD, DVD or piece of camera equipment. That’s pretty impressive, especially if you knew my spending habits. The only thing I slipped up in was last week, when my boss took me on an excursion to the MOST AMAZING yarn shop I’ve ever seen, if I hadn’t bought anything it would have been rude, so I’m giving myself a pass. Also, I STILL haven’t bought anything three days into March so it balances out.
However, the main thing I was hoping for doing this task hasn’t happened. My credit debt is still there, and I haven’t managed to save any extra money for the trip. But with any luck I’ve taught myself the restraint I need to get those things under control in the next couple of months.
It feels good to get a task ticked off after such a long draught!
You may or may not know, I’m planning some WWW (world wide wandering) from June onwards, which leaves me about four months of Melbourne time to get stuff done. Many of my tasks are huge projects that CAN NOT be finished in this time, but below is a list of tasks that I would really like to have completed before I get on that plane.
3. Get a working visa for the UK.
4. Buy a Lensbaby.
11. Learn to run 1km.
13. Learn to swim 1km.
19. February 2010: buy nothing (excluding necessities) month.
21. Catalogue my books.
46. Finish Calendar Project.
53. Make 10 handmade presents for people I care about.
55. Make a postsecret postcard and mail it.
89. 53 LTLYM. Give advice to yourself in the past (list form.)
92. 45 LTLYM. Reread your favourite book from fifth grade. (The Farseekers – Isobelle Carmody)
97. Finish rainbow hexagon blanket.
12 in total, almost as many as I have completed so far, and with half the time. Eeep.
It’s been AGES since I finished this, but I forgot to post it while it was fresh, please excuse the delay.
This was my first ever crochet project, originally intended to be a full sized granny blanket, but impatience and dimishing wool supplies made me reconsider, so it became a lapghan instead.
I only learned to crochet in June, so it took me about 5 months to complete this. The sqaures are alternatiing plain grannies and ‘summer garden’ squares, the pattern for which I got from Attic24.
Each square was edged with a row of black and once joined I did several border rows of blue and black, ending with a shell border (also from Attic24 and not pictured.)
It’s very cosy for wrapping around the shoulders, but George is determined to knead it to death, so I can’t just leave it lying around.
February arrives on Monday, four very neat and conveniently placed weeks. The goal is to minimise consumption in all possible ways, but not at the expense of any social life.
The rules: Buy nothing unnecessary. This includes (but is not limited to) books, CDs, DVDs, clothes, camera accessories and film development costs. The only exception is possible future travel costs, including plane tickets, visas, etc and trips to the pool.
Spend less on necessities. Try to take lunches to work rather than buy them, eat out less (unless invited by friends.) Choose the free option where possible.
Save what I would have spent. Note down when a possible purchase has been avoided (seeing a coveted book, etc) and put the equivalent money into savings.
Catch up on to read/to watch lists when bored and tempted to spend.
Wish me luck!
If you have a sharp eye, you may have noticed a new Page has appeared in the sidebar. The List (Jan 2010) is finished, and I’m quite pleased with the changes. However, deleting tasks and adding new ones but being too lazy to change the tags section means that they are no longer seperated in pretty sections as they once were, nor are they in any type of order. I suppose I will get used to it in time.
Also, the links within the page have yet to be redone, so if in the next couple of days you click on a ‘HERE’ expecting it to do something and it doesn’t, it’s because I haven’t got round to it yet. Don’t rush me, I’m a busy woman!
In the spirit of the new year just around the corner (and based mostly on my own short attention span) I have decided to do a full audit of my current 101/1001 list and remove all the redundant tasks in favour of new and more interesting things I could be doing.
Perhaps this is cheating, but I don’t care. Is it anarchy? No! Is it exciting? YES! (well it is for me anyhow.)
So, over my Christmas break I will be making the changes, the old list will remain in the Pages section (but will be renamed ‘The Old List’) and the new one will take its place as ‘The List.’
Around the same time I hope to catch up with all the posts I’m currently behind on as well.
I had my very first professional massage in Thailand, the day after we arrived. I don’t really think that it’s weird that I haven’t been to masseuse before now, but many of my friends thought it outrageous. Anyway, no longer.
We went to the beauty parlour in out resort in Patong for an hour long massage. We had originally booked in for traditional Thai massages (which are cheaper) but were talked up to oil massages as they claimed the Thai massage would be ‘too strong’ for us. (I’m sure they were right in my case at least.)
On the whole, I would have found it quite a pleasant experience if it hadn’t been a full body massage that required the removal of all my clothing, which though I was under a towel the whole time made me quite tense, which is actually the opposite of what i was aiming for. I was also very self conscious about how our Thai ladies (mine was a ruthless looking old lady who laughed when she either tickled me or caused me pain, either seemed equally amusing to her) were having a conversation between themselves which may have been about the what they were going to have for dinner, but I suspect it was more likely to be about how we looked like enormous beached whales. Again, not very relaxing. Nor was the moment when my masseuse pressed her elbow into my groin for about 30 seconds. That was just mean.
I think the next time I go for a massage I will limit myself to back and shoulders so i can focus more on the muscle manipulations and less on the circumstances.
Tuk Tuk Blur, Patong.
I totally went to Thailand for a couple of weeks. (16/10-28/10/09)
The trip was planned because my dear friend K was having her wedding on Surin Beach in Phuket, so N and I stayed in Patong for a week, then up to Bangkok, which was supposed to be a three day stop over before a week in Vietnam, but stretched to a six day stay when N got gastro and ended up in the hospital for three days. And our trip to Vietnam got cancelled because of it 
Thailand is a lovely country filled with gorgeous friendly and polite people who treat you like royalty, but the tourists (especially the gross old man sex tourists) are disgusting, and I am ashamed I was one of them.
More details forthcoming on my other blog Adventures in Outer Suburbia.
My friend A had his birthday party here and I climbed a rock! Sure, it was only one of the kiddie practice walls, but it was higher than 2 metres so I’m fairly pleased with myself. My arms were incredibly sore even from that tiny venture, and the adrenalin gave me a headache afterwards, but I loved it! I wanna go again! Also, the absailing down is my favourite thing ever, just like I remember from high school. I love falling in a controlled way.
Completing this task also counts towards #35 Learn 10 new skills, as we had to participate in half an hour’s training on how to tie our ropes and belay.
Task from LTLYM (not done properly as it was meant to be a dance to ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’, but I’m a rebel and I do what I want.)
Last Friday night I made a video of my dear friend, A, dancing to Michael Jackson’s ‘The Way You Make Me Feel.’ It’s an hilarious clip, and my original intention with this task was to post the video here as proof, but I have since been asked not to show it publicly.
However, if you’d like to see it and I know you in real life, ask me about it.
Hawaiian Flower Brooches for Karlee (yellow) and Claire (purple.)
Crocheted, 21/08/09, pattern by Sarah London.
2 sets of magnets for Lian and Gretta. I forgot to take actual pictures of them, and they’re now in the post, but here is an approximation (old photo I used for sets on Etsy.)
Today I have just finished my two week ban on coffee.
The first two-three days were a nightmare, the next three were euphoric, and since then I have slowly been reverting to my normal self, though getting up in the morning seems consistently easier and I am also less prone to the grumps.
It’s good to know that while I was genuinely addicted to the stuff, the addiction was relatively simple to beat. Now I know I can get by without it, and I’m going to make it a new rule that I can only have one (or on VERY SPECIAL occasions two) a day and not first thing in the morning, ‘cos I don’t want to go back to that place either physically or emotionally.
Assignment #50
Take a flash photo under your bed.
Don’t vacuum or alter anything under your bed beforehand. Take a photo under there with a strong flash, preferably with the camera sitting on the ground. Make sure your photograph is in focus! We are looking for photos that depict the space between the bottom of the bed and the floor, please do not send us photos if your bed is flush against the floor or if it is a loft bed.
(from Learning to Love You More)
25/7/09
Under my bed there are many half filled Ikea storage boxes, filled with a variety of things that I have mostly not used or examined since I moved from Brunswick.
It’s also where odd socks and the occasional shoe go to die, and several books that have fallen off my headboard and never been retrieved.
