Guess who I bumped into today?

Well after my driving lesson I was gonna walk around Parra Westfield for a half hour til the train came. But then, I saw Sonia sitting on one of the benches, for people who don't remember, Sonia was one of the girls in the special class in PLC. Short, skinny Indian girl. Now lives in Mildura, got married at 19, now divorced at 21, had a daughter with her ex-husband. Unbelievable. She's still shaped like a toothpick after childbirth. She doesn't look like she's grown at all.
Amazing coincidence.

Afternoon tea on Tuesday is now on the query list. I'm waiting for my supervisor to reply to an email, and if I don't stay back... gaaaahhh... I gotta pick up my passport at Central as well. So, options are still La Renaissance, but I wanna call up and say to save me one of the cakes. Otherwise, the time will be changed to 1430.

Very annoying with the passports now. People, DO NOT show teeth, (after September 11th, smiling and showing the teeth changes the facial structure so NO teeth). Bastards, I had to go back to the post office (after already paying with credit card and priority fee), take another set of passport photos and got my Uncle Friend Calvin to guarantor for me. And so no other hiccups could occur, I'm gonna pick up the passport at Central next week. Also my new passort photo, darnit I look stoned man... the other one showing teeth, that was perfect, but this one, I look stoned...
And for people who got their last passport as a child, you now must apply for a passport as an adult, NOT renewal. Also passport prices are going up by $20 in July. Remember now as an adult, it lasts 10 years, not 5 years for kids.

Going shopping with Mish Saturday morning. Gotta write up a confirmed list of what to cook. I'm having a 21st birthday dinner at church Monday night instead of yabs. So Mish and I are cooking and possibly Steve if he replies back with ideas. Gonna cook a lot. Kinda stuff I'd cook at home... well save some desserty type stuff. Will take photos and post to make various people hungry.

Which family are you in?
1. "I'm-inviting-you-to-a-party-and-I-pay" coz it's my birthday
2. "Invitees-split-equally-and-pay-for-the-dinner"

I'm strongly in the first family of etiquette.
Is it the Chinese etiquette of one person paying for the entire meal coming out in me? Or is it the general thing to do for a significant birthday?

Recent purchases:
- 3 pairs of panties - like I could resist pantie sales
- funky deep purple velvet, silk jacket
- 2 tops

A few more 21sts to go...

Thank you Alex for celebrating your 21st with us, even though it was belated I hope you had lotsa fun talking and hanging around. :D
It's so good to get together and talk and just laugh, I hope we get to do more of this soon ;)

Alex's 21st photos are up on My photos so follow the link. And I'd love to see the one that your mum took of all of us. ;) Oh yes, unfortunately I wasn't allowed to put them all up coz Karen threatened me with publication of one of my more embarrassing photos...

Don't mind me giving an account of the night eh? I'm doing it so Leachypoo can have some entertainment while reading in Portugal or London... or somewhere.

So for Alex's, we got there a tad late, ehehehe. I forget how far off from civilisation her house is. No no I kid, I kid ;) So Lena, Kat, Viv, Karen and myself turned up first, stripped off our large cloaks and scarves and gave the presents. A couple which had to be put into the fridge to keep cool.
So we got some drinks (Houghton's white... I don't know what variety, Ciata, Pub Squash) and sat around the unstable coffee table in front of the fire eating olives, pickled onions (which Lena will never ever eat again), cheeeeese, chips, crackers and guac, tzatziki and hommous. Mmm hommous. Conversations varied from how to wear suspender belts, lying, Karen's bitterness about nursing, Dave, Trees' beau, much innuendo (which is always fun) and all in the midst of that Angi and Cat showed up as well. So after much, much more talking, playing musical floor spots and leaning back on couches, we went to kitchen for some dinner.

Mr. and Mrs. Swan very kindly cooked us dinner, first course homemade tandoori chicken pizza (including the base), sooo nice. And garden salad with the optional dressing, and bread rolls and butter. Then came second course of a very, very lovely lasagna, mmm... very, very nice, liked it very much.

And after more basking in front of the fire, squashing people, photos and general banter, some about weird foot/shoe fetishes, and opening of presents, it twas time for cake! Presents twere 'From Blushing Brides to Wedded Wife', Bijoux pink earrings, a smelly scarf, 2 bottles of Moet & Chandon, and a Myer gift card, was there anything else?
Zee birthday cake was chocolate mudcake, with full fat vanilla ice cream and peaches, mmm... and of course a glass of the Moet & Chandon champers. Mmmm... then more chatting in front of the fire and then moving into zee cozy side room for a couple of rounds of Substitution. Songs included Ooompa Loompa, Brick, You Belong to me, No Aphrodisiac, All Star, Everything I do I do it for you. Lena left first and then the rest of us left some 10min later. All up twas a very, very good night!

Hope you enjoy the Moet Alex!

JUST FOUND OUT I NEED A NEW PASSPORT! CRAAAAAAAP!
GOING TO PARRAMATTA AND TAKING PASSPORT PHOTOS AND GETTING AN APPLICATION FORM TOMORROW. PRIORITY FEE AS WELL, DAMMIT.

In other news:
I've finished my assessment which was due nearly 2 months ago! So for the past few days, I'd been living on coffee, freshly brewed in the dripolator but I think I'm all coffee-ed out now. I need to take a shower right now, my hair is all... yea. Shower = good.

Currently reading Druid's Sword by Sara Douglass, am 3 sevenths of the way through. Yays! I love this series. Unfortunately I have to return it when I'm done but I'll be waiting for the PB to come out in 2008. Yays for not-so-guilty reading!

Have to go to CUM tomorrow to work out Ethics Application. God help me.

Will sort out things to do on my bday. Perhaps afternoon tea in the city??

Chicken hearts so soft and tender...

Yum! Just quickly added EVOO, garlic salt and black pepper. And grilled it on the George Foreman, mmmm tasty... I think next time I'll add oyster and soy sauce and a bit of tomato sauce to make it BBQ chicken hearts. Tasty!



Still got gizzards to go!

Bwhahahahahaha!

So I'm getting my butt kicked and I'm doing my work right now, well was since 1000 today. But I'm planning all nighters til Friday.

*goes to get another chicken heart kebab*

Innuendo ff - Returning the Favour by njhill22 - All Harry wanted was to figure out how to open the golden egg. He got a lot more than he bargained for...now all he wants is to get out of the prefect's bathroom unscathed. Amusing.

http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?chapterid=195458

Studying techniques

Do people Rote learn or do we actually understand completely the information being absorbed?
I wonder coz I've never been one to study in any way, save the 3 night cramming before exams, and consequently I don't remember any Maths, Chem and yes even the torturous love/hate relationship with Physics (ok well some of Physics, only coz I hated/enjoyed it).

There was always a plan to read the textbooks and specific topics before moving onto the next topic, but there never seemed to be time, or they never were realistic goals? I mean, I read what I'm interested in, and I love A&P, pathophysiology, but I'm not interested in Psych (even though my highest marks were in Psych).
Funny that. That seems to have been the way in all the things I do. The things I love, I work hard in and my marks don't turn out that great. Then there's the subjects I detest, but I do best in, eg. I have better results in paso doble *hiss* than I do in the cha cha.
Then there's the subjects where you just don't give a rats about, eg. Chem and Maths, lol, yikes. Like I thought back in year 12 'What am I gonna use polynomials for??' 'What am I gonna do with trigonometric equations??' Well there wasn't really a point was there? But then again, I doubt they would've let me do Physics if I didn't do Maths, but if I could go back, I'd drop Chem and pick up Biology. Even the minor amount of chemistry we have in nursing, we already learnt about in Prelim Physics. But then again the biology in nursing is more complicated than the HSC syllabus I'm assuming. But then again I used to read How the body works? and the Great Science books when I was a kid so the basics I got. Oh lordy I was a nerd...

Walked around Parra for hours today, my feet are killing me, see one foot is trying to wrap itself around my neck. I got some Chinese food yays! Chicken chow mien, yea, salt and pepper squid sounded tempting too but meh (getting hungry now).

Recent purchases:
- knee length dark brown Colorado boots - was talking to sales lady about heffa of calves, surprisingly zipped up after a little squeeze. Was v pleased, bought immediately.
- Possession by A.S. Byatt - so I'm guaranteed to read it Cat, whether I'm 21 or 121, it'll now be sitting in my room, calling.
- a wine insulator - goodeo, I've been searching for one, finally got one at Bar World. Yea.
- Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany - bought with 20% off voucher at Borders Parra. I couldn't find it at A&R or Dymocks and yays! Twas in Borders :D Some very light bedtime reading, after my full on Eve: Sex, Childbirth and Motherhood.

Health probs... irritations more like

- Strained (R) wrist, currently having great time attempting to move wrist every which way. *sigh* I was thinking of making sticky date pudding, but my (R) wrist is sore.
- Slight acne and pimples - stupid testosterone levels... oooh I should go get my blood test done... ... or perhaps the SBHG. But I'm not that hirsute am I?? Say what month is it now? June... *goes to look in diary* okay, I'm still on schedule. (haha! too much information!)

Is anyone else going "Oooh Oooh" and jumping up and down at all the sales going on? I've got 20% off vouchers just in the last 2 weeks to buy stuff. I suspect I'll be in Parra shopping on Friday (driving lesson as well), someone keep me away, away from Max Brenner, have been there nearly every weeeeeek... ... ... bad, bad yes I know...

I was actually looking for a recipe for Banoffee pie but look what I stumbled across... sus webpage though, it makes you sign up before you can get the results.
Also I'm thankfully getting my butt whipped. You know I'm a sadomasochist. I really need someone to push me. You know if I was dating, do you think I'd be coerced into working by my beau or would I not do any kinda work at all??? Bad question? Or is it rhetorical?

Recent purchases:
- long brown velvety coat
- black and white lolita gothic skirt - niiiice

Pecan PIE You scored 49 childishness and 47 evilosity!

Sweet but surprisingly naughty, you can sometimes be a handful but only in the name of fun. There's plenty to you and generally speaking, one slice is just right for most people. All possible kinds of people PIE: http://www.okcupid.com/tests/describescore?testid=12182938420541748145&category=1">Mushroom PIE Chicken and leek PIE Steak and kidney pudding Broccoli and asparagus PIE Spinach and ricotta PIE Fish PIE Shepherd's" PIE Apple PIE Key lime PIE Pecan PIE Chocolate and cardamom tart Cherry PIE Lemon meringue PIE Banoffee PIE Mississippi mud PIE

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 43% on childishness You scored higher than 80% on evilness

Link: The what kind of PIE am I? Test written by gronksnorf on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Black Tie Dinner for FEVA

Dinner was held at Ryde Anglican Centre, FEVA is a church for College of Fine Arts, UNSW and UTS's visual art students. The dinner was mainly for old members and staff who have the money to donate towards the church. (This church doesn't get any financial support from the diocese nor any other larger organisations).

So last night was good, unfortunately no photos and I did put a bid down on the silent auction, but alas, they raised the reserve price of the pearl necklaces so I didn't try any more... even though my ebay instincts were kicking in and screaming at me to bid, bid! It was pretty but not that pretty.

So it started around 1900 or so, everybody was dressed lovely-like. I wore my engagement ring which is of course stunningly beautiful. ;) The dinner had a modern Asian theme, there were some beautiful prints done by the FEVA students, stunning, very mod Asian (Belinda bought one of the prints at the end of the night).

I drank around 6 glasses of coconut juice (2 not being my own - 2 of the gals don't drink coconut juice - shock horror!! That's one of my favourite summer drinks) and had another few glasses of sparkling grape juice as well. The lime drink I passed on but Michelle unfortunately got a glass, and didn't finish it.

Entree:
- Asian clear noodles, roast duck and plum sauce salad - can you believe people haven't ever eaten duck??
- or Vietnamese prawn and cabbage salad - not bad, ate a piece of chilli that shocked me a bit

Mains (this was to share):
- Beef rendang
- Mee goreng - nicely done I have to say :)
- Hainan chicken - yum! I finished the dish off
- Stir fried vegies
- Chicken curry - traditional kinda curry, tasted like the ones we make at home
- Prawns (I think) in a sweet and sour sauce - it was quite sweet
- Steamed rice
- Pandan coconut rice

Dessert
- Poached pear in red wine with a dark chocolate ganache sauce - looked very, very nice but alas
- or Ginger and lime creme brulee with a coconut wafer - alright, but I think I woulda risked the pear...

Auctions were good sounding, shame I couldn't afford it. A mountain holiday for 8 including central heating and electric blankets always sounds good to me.
So no sugar-daddies last night, although we did have a good amount of teasing at Michelle about it. So after having full bellies and waiting around a little bit, (the girls went nuts with the digital camera), we all set off home, so I got home round 2340. Not too badder night, $70 well spent.

Recent purchases:
- long sleeved, lacey dark brown bolero - was gonna wear last night, then decided I'll be cold enough as it is
- small George Foreman grill - knocks out fat! - I wanna try it out, let's see what do we have in the fridge... hmmm... baby octopus?? I was thinking of marinating it first... hmmm... garlic, olive oil, basil, chilli, dill? Nah no dill, oregano, hmmm... no marjoram...