a little piece of me is in London

It's over two weeks ago now, but here am I: displayed proudly in a glass case in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. I'm the big one in the middle; you may JUST be able to see a sketch of a vase. As the public walked into this particular room, we were given a card and a pencil and asked to draw our favourite ceramic from home; minutes later, we were part of an exhibition. Little pieces of people.

And now I'm home. There are wonderful things about being home:
- seeing people: family, flatmates, friends.
- living in a country where cigarettes are unpopular and where smokers are subject to etiquette.
- a silly and unpredictable climate which makes me feel quite a fondness for little old New Zealand, buffeted on all sides by the weather.
- ducklings, daffodils... etc.
- getting involved in the History department again.

Less wonderful are:
- the constant questions of "how was Europe?" What else can I say but "er, really good. Do you want more detail?"
- catching up on two months of missed Russian language classes. MY HEAD HURTS.
- a feeling of boredom as I go from extreme activeness to moments of free time.
- most of all, feeling like there is a little piece of me missing.

Here is what I wrote in my diary, sitting in Heathrow Airport on 29 September, waiting to leave London:

"I cannot believe it's only two months since I came through Heathrow for the first time, but at the same time it feels like yesterday. Up until writing, I've felt very matter-of-fact about it all--oh yes, I'll be in Christchurch on Thursday--but suddenly, a wave of unease hits me, and I just know I don't want to go. New Zealand is still my favourite place in the entire world--make that GALAXY--but I feel torn. I absolutely love this place; I've no idea when I will come back, if ever; it has been, possibly, the time of my life. And I'm supposed to just go back home and settle into life again? to consider my future in an unbiased manner when everything is whispering "England! England!"? I'm one of those people I hate, Miss Travelling-CHANGED-Me - no, I'm not. At least, I hope not. But I won't be able to explain it to anyone without hurting their feelings or elevating the NZ inferiority complex, which is not my intent or purpose at all. Being away has heightened my appreciation of what we have at home to a huge extent. But I want to be in two places at once, which we all know is impossible."

So here I am now. Loving being home; missing London. Struggling to find my niche.

accidental fortuitous irregularity

The word "random" being so 2001, this is a list of 25 Haphazard Things About Me or Somehow Related to Me or What I Am Thinking About Now. (Okay, so "haphazard" is not a perfect synonym, but that's all the thesaurus had. Neither is it a catchy little title. No excuses in that case.)

1. I used to play in a recorder quintet in Perth, Australia. The people whose house we practised in had a budgie who could whistle Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, and the budgie frequently joined in while we played.

2. I should be studying harder. But I'm not. It's going to take me a while to master this Masters thing (actually no pun intended) of self-motivated study.

3. I am listening to the new U2 album right now! No Line on the Horizon. I love it so far! My feeling is: still U2 produced by Brian Eno, but a developing sound. Contemporary but not too overtly fashionable. Very listenable. Rough-edged, which is how I like it. Creative vocals.

4. There is a guy at my church who is very goodlooking, in a very unconventional way. Although he's a very nice guy, we don't have much in common and I'm not interested, so there's no need for me to start behaving oddly, but it is nice to have some man candy around. Is that sexist?

5. I am hoping that this year I will be able to visit the UK for research purposes - there are two archives I would love to visit, one in London and one in Brighton. I won't be able to afford to do much stuff or stay for long but I'm hoping I'll have at least one or two weekends free to see something, and I've wanted to go to Bath for a long time, so that goes straight to the top of the list...

6. ... and, as it turns out, very fortuitously, at precisely the time I am planning to be in the UK (September), the Jane Austen Centre of Bath is holding a JANE AUSTEN FESTIVAL!!! And, one of my best friends, who is a big Austen fan too, will be in the UK at the same time, exploring a little before she starts working in France! I think that constitutes clear guidance - I must go to the UK in September!

7. My name in Cyrillic alphabet is: ЭЛЕЙ

8. I have a god-daughter.

9. I keep having dreams about this one guy that I used to work with, and I can't figure out why. I actually told him about the first one of them, in which I got married to him and then he left me the next day for a man. He found it hilariously funny. But I thought it might be a bit much to try to explain why I've had at least five dreams featuring him since then.

10. I am currently reading The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis. Good book.

11. I have eleven nieces and nephews, all of whom I love very much but have taught me a lot. Namely, that parenthood is not something to be entered into lightly.

12. I tire easily of making lists and 25 is just too big a number. Let's make it twelve.

all grown up

I have moved out of home - GASP!

I am now a resident of Number X, XXX Street, along with four other girls - should be an interesting year! Surprisingly, I am having a lot of fun. I thought I would take a lot of adjusting, having to share the one shower with four other people, being around so many people all the time, after it just being me and Dad for several years now. But it's fine. I suspect all that will come later - what joy is in store for me!

I'm already a bit on edge, though. I used to live in the sleepiest neighbourhood in which I am sure there is not even a whiff of crime; suddenly I am pitchforked into the big bad suburb of Ilam, where professional robbers target student flats because students are usually at uni during the daytime and because there are usually several things like multiple laptops for the taking. Yesterday, one of the girls was home alone and someone knocked on the door. As she came to answer it, she saw a man through the window, but when she opened it, he was heading out onto the street. Suspicious? Creepy? I THINK SO! So today I was paranoid about not leaving the house unless someone else was here to make sure we don't have any scary robbers breaking in, and very, very soon I am going to get myself contents insurance.

On a more positive note, it is a whole lot of fun arranging my new room. I have a really big room that used to be a lounge, and apart from its one drawback (no storage eg wardrobe), it's GREAT having room to move, for the first time in five years! I was thinking maybe a paddling pool in the big space of carpet in the middle of the room? or fill the middle of the room ankle-deep with plastic balls, like at those playgrounds? Any more space-using suggestions, anyone? After all, I wouldn't want to be wasteful.

blast from the past

I've been going through my things, because I'm moving into a flat soon, and trying to bring myself to chuck out all the stuff I have kept over the years just in case I needed it some day (like my notes from Maths from fourth form - and no, I have never looked at them since fourth form).

One of the things I found were my things from my early primary school years - all those good behaviour certificates and the books of stories I wrote when I was five or six. I'm trying to bring myself to throw out most of the certificates, but no way am I throwing out the stories. Anyway, I thought I'd share some with you. I started school age 5, in 1991.



From Mrs Moore, in 1992.

Yup, I won a medal at our school 'Olympic Games'. I think it was for the sack race, or maybe for egg and spoon race (which was actually a potato and spoon race because eggs break).

From Mrs Strang, in 1994. I remember being so annoyed at this. I had learnt to swim properly over the summer, but then when I came back to school they put me in the junior group for swimming lessons. I had to swim with the five-year-olds. How humiliating.

I was a relative whiz at spelling in my school but no one ever told me. I learned a few years ago that in a parent-teacher interview when I was about eight, Mrs Lowry told my mum that I was doing better in spelling than all the other kids in the school, even the oldest kids (aged eleven). Mum asked her not to tell me that because she thought I would show off about it. Ah, she knew me so well.

This is one of my early forays into the world of art. My skill is evident even then. I present... a postmodern comment on life in the modern world.

And if you can translate this, I will be very grateful. It reads, as far as I can tell, "I like Mum. She is nice. She let me ...... when I saw a [horse? house?]."

Has anyone else got souvenirs from their childhood to share?

TOO... HOT...

If only I were a ski instructor, I could follow winter around the world...

got some answers?

Why do I sometimes crave a food that doesn't seem to exist? I walk around the supermarket searching for it and it just isn't there! (That wasn't supposed to be an existential question even though it sounds like it.)

Can the phenomenon of Nazism be adequately explained within the framework of Marxism?

People seem to like the sweets of their own particular countries, and other countries' versions of them never quite live up. Are we, therefore, taught to like chocolate by our upbringings, or is chocolate or saturated fat intrinsincally yummy?

Why are people stupid? Myself included?

Why is it that baby creatures are so much cuter than adult creatures? Of any species?

Is being an academic really a justifiable career?

Why do dictators have moustaches?

Nicos Poulantzas' Fascism and Dictatorship: is his argument really original or is he merely putting his fingers in his ears and insisting that everyone else is wrong?

Should I have a stir fry or pasta for dinner tonight?

Do real skeleton keys, that could open ANY door, actually exist?

Analyse the controversy between 'intentionalist' and 'structuralist' historians over the genesis of the Holocaust. Is it possible, at last, to resolve the main points of the debate?

Did my entire ancestry exist just to produce me? :)

blah

So, I haven't been here for a while because I can't think of anything to blog about. If I have learnt anything from the blogging I have done, it is not to write these posts. You know, the ones that go, I'm bored, I can't think of anything to write about, and here's some stream-of-consciousness going on in my head right now.

In the last couple of weeks I have:
a. spent five days in another city with my uncomfortable, heavily pregnant sister.
b. walked uphill, whinging, for a very long time (that was this morning and I am SORE) but also admiring the beautiful scenery and weather.
c. stared out the window at the hail, lightning and thunder.
d. avoided typing because I am developing RSI, otherwise known as OOS, again.
e. bought the new Coldplay CD (it's GOOD) and another CD I have been wanting for ages, Two Shoes, by the Cat Empire.
f. been told by my supervisor to write a 2000-4000 word version of my thesis over the next seven days.

Whoever thinks of an interesting idea for my next blog post can give themselves a pat on the back. (Sorry, no real prizes - I'm poor and postage overseas is a killer!)

this is my official consent form

Please slap me in the face if:

a) I become one of those girls who, because she has a crush on a guy, goes along with everything he says ["that's right, we should start hanging or garrotting or impaling murderers"; "mmm, yes, cocaine isn't really addictive"] or doesn't stick up for her friends because it's him that's attacking them.

b) I ever consider working for Studylink, that evil bourgeois oppressor of the hard-working student.

c) I ever start skipping over the news of cyclones in Myanmar and earthquakes in China for the article about what Prince William's gone and done now. Easy to do. Necessary constantly to fight.

d) I start thinking that drinking so much you become comatose is funny.

e) I ever consider being a diplomat again. These last few weeks have been quite enough to convince me that I am anything but diplomatic. And also that politics, especially international diplomatic politics, bores me intensely.

negativity and positivity

I just read a blog post of Beck's a few hours ago that I really loved; hence, this post. I'm not sure if Beck set out exactly to list things she doesn't like, but since I love doing just that, that is the task for today. However, life is just going so well right now that I am going to have to tack some positive stuff on the end.

Dislikes

I don't like finding out that I'm a hypocrite. I tend to be a little judgmental of spelling mistakes. I've been trying to stop because it feels kind of elitist/bourgeois/fascist of me to do this, but the problem persists. Anyway, yesterday I discovered that I have been spelling (and probably saying) the word "procrastinate" wrong for my entire life! I always thought it was "procastinate", or at least spelt it that way without thinking. I feel humbled and worm-like.

I don't like going to the mall, or town, and running up against swarms of teenage girls wearing t-shirts saying things like "My boyfriend's hotter than yours" or "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" or (oh-so-politically sophisticated) "killing whales is stupid", carrying huge bags from horrid little teenybopper shops like Supré, cackling, and walking about ten abreast.

I don't like spiders. Nothing surprising there, I suppose. I found a huge white-tail spider in the kitchen this morning; these are slightly poisonous. Not fatal, but reasonably painful. I caught it in a cup, drove ten minutes away, and let it go. I don't like killing them because they're big enough to make me feel guilty about it.

I don't like academic books or articles that insist on using Big And Obscure Words. I read an article today and spent about three minutes (until I gave up) trying to understand this sentence: "The salience of the rubric is inescapable, identifying as it does the project's tendentious literalism." Oh, of course. Utterly inescapable.

Likes

I like the star charts me and K. made for the honours room. Almost everyone who uses the room has opted in. Every can of V (energy drink) drunk gets one green star. (I'm winning so far!) Every book bought or borrowed from the library gets a different coloured dot, depending on how many pages there are. Every time someone goes upstairs to wash the teaspoons or fill the kettle, they get a blue star. Communal purchases such as milk or sugar or coffee get a red star. Anytime someone procrastinates they receive a silver star. Special awards earn a gold star. (Example of how this works: J. suggested K. and I deserved the first gold stars and not him, because we had done most of the work, and so we awarded him a special award for being noble.) If anyone spends ten solid hours or more at uni, they get a smiley face (or, if they feel like it, an unhappy face).

I like nice wine! Exclamation mark - because this is a real accomplishment for me. I've realised I like white wine, not red. And it has to be nice stuff, not cheap and nasty. I still don't drink much at all because I only need to have about one glass before I start feeling the effects, but it's a real relief to discover I could like it!

I like babies. Mmmm. And by the way... I'm a godmother. :)

I like buying CDs. Despite not having much money at the moment, sigh. When will I learn to economise?

growing up

You Are Somewhat Mature

You definitely act like an adult sometimes, but a big part of you is still a kid at heart. While your immature side is definitely fun, you're going to have to grow up sooner or later.

Are You Immature?

When I was at school, I always felt a little older intellectually than most people in my class or year group. Especially boys - and I don't think that's uncommon at all!

Once I got to uni, however... for the last three years I've always felt a little behind where others are on most of the obvious levels. Let's say that practically I feel inexperienced. I haven't really had any serious relationships, up until this year I hated alcohol and would have no idea how to order myself a beer at a pub, I live at home with my father, I don't own a car, I came to uni straight from school whereas a lot of people in my classes spent a year abroad or doing other things first. So on and so forth.

Maybe these are all slightly superficial but it did make me feel different to most of the people around me at university. And I found it very strange if anyone ever called me a "woman" because I felt like I was hardly out of school. "Girl" was the more appropriate term.

This year, though - I think this is the first year I am beginning to feel like an adult. Not a lot of those obvious things have changed. I still live with my dad - but when I hear how huge the student loans are of my classmates who have flatted since they started uni, I really don't feel embarrassed. I still don't own a car. I am still almost completely inexperienced in lurve. (I write "lurve" because I'm still so immature it feels silly to write "love".) But this doesn't seem to matter so much now. I have good reasons for living at home; it's not just because I want to skive off my dad. I have good reasons for not buying a car; what would be the point if next year I left New Zealand? I think I know myself well enough now to not really care what other people might see in my circumstances, and I wonder if this is the beginning of maturity.

I still feel young. When I hear about an old school friend who is thinking about buying a house or a business, it still freaks me out. I still find it incredibly surprising that so many of my peers are getting married or having kids. But I don't feel like an awkward teenager anymore and I feel like I can make my own rules now. If you know what I mean. I can think about things like PhDs or careers without flipping out (almost). I've got a lot more growing up to do. But I'm starting to think that perhaps I won't be an awkward kid forever.

being a copycat

Jenkneebee has just done a fantastic blog post on the St. Paul Stone Arch Bridge as part of something called My Town Monday. Being, uh, me, I wanted to do the same thing! (I love how this form of plagiarism is acceptable while blogging!) I don't exactly intend to do something like this every single Monday but I do think it's a cool idea. So, I have chosen to write the Arts Centre, which is in the heart of Christchurch and one of my favourite places to go. (Here is the website for it.)

The University of Canterbury was founded in 1873 and what is now the Arts Centre was the site. Unfortunately for me, the university moved in 1974 to its current campus in Ilam, which is just not as pretty as the Arts Centre, though bigger. My dad studied at the original site in his days of BSc and MSc, and below are some older photos of the buildings and grounds.


The modern Arts Centre has kept its Gothic architecture, thank goodness, but the contents of it are quite different now. Restaurants, cafes, arty shops and galleries and workshops. I think some parts of the buildings are even apartments now, but most of the area is open to the public and there are heaps of things to do and see.

There is also at the Arts Centre a fantastic little movie theatre called Academy Cinema, which plays any slightly arty or special movie that has just come out, and also regularly plays a few films that are just so good people keep coming back. Gloomy Sunday has been playing there every night at 7.15pm for about five years now, in a tiny little theatre that seats about nine people. Also at the Arts Centre is the Court Theatre, which always has something of very high quality on - Shakespeare, modern drama, improvised comedy, musicals, you name it.
The Arts Centre is just about the most popular wedding photo destination in Christchurch (as below), and it is general practice now to book different areas in it for photos so that there are not huge numbers of bridal parties fighting it out for the best photos. Venues at the Arts Centre like the Great Hall can be hired for weddings as well.
There are heaps of cool little shops at the Arts Centre which I have loved to visit all my life. The Fudge Cottage (below), is one of the best. The fudge is delicious, and there are always free samples to taste. :) Another favourite of mine is Beadz Unlimited, a fantastic shop filled with a huge amount of beautiful beads and everything you could ever need to make your own jewellery. Even if I don't want to buy anything I visit it every time I go to the Arts Centre. Besides these particular shops, there's a huge amount of little arty shops filled with paintings, pottery, woodwork, and so on. Great for wedding presents or any kind of present that you want to be slightly special.

However, my favourite, favourite part of the Arts Centre is the markets that you can shop at on Saturdays and Sundays (below). These are random, arty and eclectic, some are expensive items, some are cheap. There's always some buskers round (including, in 2006, yours truly) and great food to sample. Even if you don't buy anything it's fun to look around.
The restaurants and cafes are also some of my favourites in town. The Dux de Lux is a vegetarian and fish restaurant that occupies the old Student Union building. Le Cafe has the best chicken nachos and coffee, and a great brunch menu. Alchemy cafe, down the road at the Art Gallery, makes the best iced coffee I've ever had. One of the best parts, though, is the ethnic food stalls that are open on the weekends, where you can buy incredibly yummy food from all over the world and then eat it on the sunny North Quad lawn.

Technically not in the Arts Centre, but so close that I have to mention them, are some other great places: Across the road, the Botanic Gardens and the Canterbury Museum (below)...

... the Antigua Boatsheds (below), where you can hire canoes for an hour or two and paddle up and down the Avon River, or hire some time on a punt, being peacefully punted along the river by a nice looking man in a funny uniform and flat hat...
... and the Christchurch Art Gallery (below), which is obviously a building of more modern architecture, but which I think is really quite beautiful, and filled with fantastic artwork, a very cool bookshop, and, as I mentioned before, a fantastic cafe.
The End. Come visit me and I'll show you around!

things that I think are beautiful

Since I got my new camera I haven't had a lot of chances to use it. But here are some photos I've taken over the last couple of months which might not necessarily be that great composition-wise but which I love to look at because I think they're beautiful, for various reasons.

Greenness.
Sun shining through water onto pebbles below.
Rice crackers in neat little piles.
One of my best friends.

Bark on a tree that looks like a cross.
A little guest in our home.
Swimming.
A bee in our garden.
Cows grazing the big mound of dirt that was left by builders down the road from my home.

Ordinary. Everyday. But I still think they're beautiful.

random

Rules to this tag/meme/thing:

1. You link back to the person who tagged you. Sara of Putting the Sara in Sarakastic. Sara, I have an important question for you. Do you pronounce your name Sah-ra or Sarah?

2. Post these rules on your blog.

3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.

4. Tag six random people at the end of your entry.

5. Let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs.

This picture was labelled "Random-Apophysis_PitcherPlant.jpg" which is a mystery to me, but I found it by entering "random" into Google Images. And it's pretty.

So:

1. Today I went on a field trip with the other honours students and the Head of Department to the city archives in the public library and the museum. Not much use to me because my honours thesis is nothing to do with New Zealand or Antarctic history, but I love field trips, and old books are cool!

2. Speaking of honours theses... I am going to be researching and writing about non-Russians who went to Stalin's Russia (ie North Americans or Europeans who moved there voluntarily, unfortunate people from Eastern Europe who were plucked from their homes and sent to the gulag, POWs of WWII, possibly Jews, etc) and their impressions. But I haven't got any further than that in identifying where I'm going with it.

3. I would like to pick up the clarinet again this year, or possibly the saxophone, or alternatively continue learning German. But it's not going to happen. Sigh.

4. I have not told anyone this but I have a stupid, stupid crush on a totally inappropriate person. And by inappropriate I mean in about five separate ways. Pshsbcakcbhduwi!!! (That was me making an incomprehensible groaning/snorting sound.) Sometimes I frustrate myself very much indeed.

5. I am 21 years old and already three of my friends are married, two more are engaged, and two friends have bought houses. At least no one is pregnant yet. This state of affairs seems strange to me but perhaps it is not unusual? Please, older and wiser people, tell me how things were back in the day when you were a sprightly 21 year old.

6. I am in love with drinking tea. I have sort of gone off coffee because of it, at least, very strong or milky coffee. Tea is much more subtle. My favourite is Dilmah's Ceylon Supreme, but I also like Earl Gray or English Breakfast or Peppermint tea. This is so weird because I never thought I would be a tea drinker. The best thing about our honours room is the kettle - I am saving so much money on drinks. And the best thing about tea is that I can drink it before I go to bed without staying up half the night.

I am not going to tag anyone. Because I am exhausted and lazy and I just want to go to bed, and I can't be bothered informing people I have tagged them. But please! don't let my bad attitude put you off doing this yourself.

a story that will be funny in two years

Okay, so you know how I was getting my cast off on Monday? Well, it's off! (And that's not the punchline.) Unfortunately there was no skipping around shopping for me - I found it even harder trying to learn to walk again, and I go even slower. Anyway that was all very depressing until Wednesday, when it got even worse.

I fell off a chair.

There is no dignified way to say it.

And landed on my right heel and ended up sitting on the kitchen floor going "Owwwwww! GET ME ICE!!!" and bursting into tears because I've only just got out of a cast and probably was going to have to get back into one.

So after I'd waited an hour and it hadn't got any less painful, Dad took me into the ED. Finally I got sent through to Orthopaedics and had an x-ray done. Phe-ew. It's not broken again. And I'm on painkillers. Happy happy. Still, it just shows - you can get all intellectual and think you're so smart, and then you fall off a chair, and suddenly you're incredibly stupid. The worst part was explaining to the hot-doctor-with-English-accent what happened.

I went to see a physio today, and she thinks it should be okay after 48 hours if I put ice on it regularly etc etc, and then I can try learning to walk again.

Part of me wishes that when people ask me "so, how was your summer?" and I say "crap" and they say "why?", I could say "I broke my heel twice." But the rest of me is so relieved I haven't done more lasting damage.

Honestly, I feel like the last week and a half is the most emotional of my life. I've probably burst into tears at least once a day. Mostly because I've read a sad book or something but I'm not usually this high-strung... I think.

my resolutions (of sorts)

It is just under a week until I can finally get my cast off (broken heel, see November '07 posts) and although the preceding five weeks actually went pretty fast, this week is about the slowest of my life. I am getting so frustrated! So, I am going to be make an effort to be positive on here. Instead of new year's resolutions, I am making a list of what I am going to do on Monday when I can walk again.

1. Wander. I will go into town and just walk, around the botanic gardens, the museum, the art gallery, the arts centre, by the river, and so on. Wherever I feel like, without having to think everything through beforehand or getting dropped off at the most convenient location.

2. I am going to get a souvlaki at Dimitri's on Colombo St, the best souvlaki place in town.

3. I am going to go for a looooong drive, with nobody else. Maybe up the hill or to the beach. Maybe convince Dad to let me borrow the car and go away for a night somewhere. (I really need to buy my own car.)

4. I am going to go to Alice in Videoland and get out a DVD - Sophie Scholl - which I've been wanting to see for ages. (Alice's is a really big video store with a whole heap of arty/foreign/classic/alternative/etc films as well as the normal range. It's slightly inconvenient to get to and I'd have to return this, a new release, the next day, so I haven't managed to get it out before.)

5. I am going to go swimming.

6. SHOPPING! Clothes, birthday present for a few people, wedding present for a friend, anything that takes my fancy within reason.

7. I am going to play the piano and use my right foot to pedal. I have been using my uninjured left foot for the last few weeks, which feels a bit strange.

8. I am going to take my (new) camera and go for a long walk and take lots and lots of beautiful photos.

Of course, the nature of my injury and its treatment means I may not be able to walk properly for a while. I will have lost basically all my muscle strength in my right foot and lower leg. I don't know if I'll be able to drive straightaway and apparently I'll need a lot of physiotherapy. Bummer. But at the moment I am trying to look at Monday as my date of release from prison, or I will just find it too depressing.

the Christmas spirit

Some photos from Phi Phi Island in Thailand: My brother and family on the long tail boat at the Phi Phi Islands
A long tail boat from outside
Around the coast of Phi Phi Ley, a smaller island, and near where we snorkelled. The island itself was just beautiful - it felt like we were in a mini-fjord at times, with those big rocky walls, except the water wasn't very deep.
The beach outside the place we stayed on Koh Phi Phi. The restaurant was right by the beach, and the swimming was amazing - right by our doorstep.
The sunset on, funnily enough, the night I broke my heel.

Guess what? I'm going home next week. The insurance company just rang to check flight details with me. Leaving here on the 12th, arriving on the 13th. I will have been away from Christchurch for exactly five months. I'm so excited! Anyway - onto the main blog business:

It is December, which means I'm feeling Christmassy - of course. I know it's possible to get a bit silly about Christmas, but I love it too much to be sensible. I can't wait to start wrapping up presents and decorating and cooking etc - almost all of which will be, of course, very difficult on my gammy leg but I'm sure to try! This morning I spent a long time on iTunes going through carols and buying a selection for my listening pleasure - carols are almost my favourite thing about Christmas. I bought:

- Good King Wenceslas

- Joy to the World

- God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen

- Es ist ein' Ros' entsprungen

- Ding Dong Merrily on High

- For unto us a son is born (from Messiah)

- The Coventry Carol

- O Come, O Come Emmanuel

- Stille Nacht

- What Child Is This?

- Fairytale of New York (okay, so a little different to the others, but this is almost the only modern Christmas song I actually like)

- Away in a Manger (with the alternate, less common tune, and sung by Ella Fitzgerald)

Favourite carols, anyone? Any recommendations?

Also, all this dwelling on Christmas made me remember an email my sister sent me last Christmas which I have probably shared on here before - but it always cracks me up, so here it is:

"It is that time of year and we better get ingredients this weekend and start baking our Christmas cakes, if you have not done so already. Thought I would pass on this wonderful recipe to all of you. Read it, you will be inspired to get baking!

CHRISTMAS CAKE

Ingredients:

1 cup of water

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup of brown sugar

lemon juice

4 large eggs

nuts

1 bottle Vodka

2 cups of dried fruit

Instructions:

Sample the vodka to check quality. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.

Take a large bowl, check the vodka again.

Turn on the electric mixer.

Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar.

Beat again.

At this point it\'s best to make sure the vodka is shtill OK.

Try another cup .... just in case.

Turn off the mixerer.

Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick fruit off floor.

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the vodka to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who giveshz a ***.

Check the vodka.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table.

Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the vodka and kick the cat.

CHERRY MISTMAS"

the soundtrack of my life... so far

The soundtrack of my life - it's the name of a story I wrote a while ago which I can't bear to read now - but more relevantly it's the concept of my brother-in-law, who thinks that everyone has a virtual soundtrack of songs that are "fate songs". Not only are they songs you like but they are songs that meant something to you at that time. This is my attempt to write down what I think could be my album of fate songs. Obviously, the last few years are always going to seem the most eventful because I can actually remember the songs I listened to and the things that happened. But I've had a go at the early years too.

Babyhood: Phantom of the Opera. Okay, so most parents don't play their baby songs about murder, seduction and intrigue but apparently this was my favourite music - and I still love it.

Toddler: Jesus Bids Us Shine... with a clear "blue" light, according to my version of the children's hymn I would not stop singing and didn't understand a word of.

Child:

In the Hall of the Mountain King (by Grieg) - In our household this was known as the troll music. Classical music was definitely not boring then.

A Whole New World, from Aladdin - When I was a kid my sisters and I used to do a lot of singing around the piano together, which I loved. I remember lots of laughing and, at risk of sounding corny, that fantastic feeling of acceptance and understanding that comes with sisterhood. Some of our favourite songs were from a Disney songbook and this was one of the best. It makes me feel nostalgic.

Age 9-10ish: Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven). This was a major turning point and one of the most obvious fate songs on this list for me. It was the song that I thought was heavenly that I decided to learn to play on the piano by hook or by crook - and once I was able to play it, I had got past the drudgery of learning an instrument and I was in love with the piano.

Age 13ish: I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor. Grooooaaaaan. Aaaaaaggggggghhhh. Stupid "relationship" with silly "boyfriend" - in which I was totally overdramatic and is too embarrassing to think about much. Anyway, when he dumped me, I used to sing this all the time because, obviously, a 2 month relationship at age thirteen warrants this kind of emotion.

14: Oh Daisy, Zed. Don't be surprised if you haven't heard of them - they're a Christchurch band that I was completely obsessed with for a while. I, like, got Ben and Adrian's autographs! And Nathan wrote me a birthday card!!!! This was the beginning of a stream of obsessions which (obviously) I am still in the throes of. I'm beginning to think that I must be obsessed with something or I'll die.

15ish: Strong, Robbie Williams. For those who don't know the lyrics: You think that I'm strong, you're wrong, you're wrong. My mum was sick with cancer all through high school and I was very insecure about a lot of things - but somehow some of my friends were jealous of me for things like good grades, and I couldn't do anything right without feeling guilty about it or anything wrong without them being pleased. It got on my nerves just a bit.

17: Saving the World, Brooke Fraser. And while we're waiting, we could try saving the world - or are we storing that up for a rainy day? Got me interested in social justice. And is also a very cool song.

19: The Scientist, Coldplay. Nobody said it was easy, it's such a shame for us to part - nobody said it was easy, nobody said that it would be this hard. Mum's death. I am not exaggerating when I say that this song was playing almost constantly at the time in my stereo and in my head.

20: Nothing Ever Happens, Del Amitri. Just because I think they're great lyrics...

Bill hoardings advertise products that nobody needs / While Angry from Manchester writes to complain about all the repeats on TV / And computer terminals report some gains on the values of copper and tin / While American businessmen snap up Van Goghs for the price of a hospital wing / Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all / The needle returns to the start of the song and we all sing along like before / Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all / They'll burn down the synagogues at six o'clock and we'll all go along like before / And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow...

In short - my cynical and slightly angry phase. Another song from this phase - Mad World. I'm not altogether sure this phase is over and I'm aware I might not even sound like I'm passing through it - but let's just say the last year has not been filled with daisies and bunny rabbits.

At the same time, On Fire, Switchfoot - When everything inside me looks like everything I hate, you are the hope I have for change, you are the only chance I'll take... And just to make it absolutely clear, to me, "you" = God.

Age 21: Welcome Home, Dave Dobbyn. There’s a woman with her hands trembling - haere mai / And she sings with a mountain’s memory - haere mai / There’s a cloud the full length of these isles / Just playing chase with the sun / And it’s black and it’s white and it’s wild / All the colours are one / So welcome home... This is a song written by a Kiwi for Kiwis coming home. About a fifth of New Zealanders do not live in New Zealand - at the moment, that includes me. We Kiwis don't have a reputation for jingoism but this song makes me tear up and I'll be playing it on my ipod as the plane lands in Christchurch on 24 December.

Also age 21: Liquid, Jars of Clay. This is the one thing, the one thing that I know / Blood-stained brow / He wasn't broken for nothing / Arms nailed down / He didn't die for nothing. So in summary - I'm basically confused at the moment, as anyone who reads my God blog will probably have guessed - but this song expresses the only thing I know right now as well.

(Feel free to be tagged if you want.)

I am 21, 21 am I

Well, today (that's 30 October for all you people on the wrong side of the world) I turned 21. It's strange being away from home and having a birthday; other than my sister and brother-in-law, I think one person in Perth knows it's my birthday. But I got lots of cards and text messages etc from home so I feel a lot better.

I opened my cards/presents at breakfast. Among them was a card a lot of people from my home church signed which was very very sweet. Also there was the card pictured above, from my niece Lydia, who is ten. This is the poem she wrote inside it:
Allie
Action woman
Likeable
Laughter
Icing on the cake
Ecstatic

I think she's destined for great things.

I also got this book, The Jane Austen Miscellany, from my niece Ruby who turned one six days ago (the one I am living with). Ruby has great taste for one so young.

I had a lovely day - I met my sister near her work for lunch, and then I went for a swim in the afternoon, and I did THIRTY LAPS. (I am so proud of myself. I have been going regularly for a couple of weeks now, and doing thirty or forty laps each time. I decided to take it easier today because after all, it's my birthday.) Then this evening when J&J got home from work, we had:
Cake. Janet's almost unbeatable Armenian nutmeg cake. Yummmmm...

Then this evening we went out for dinner to the Little Creatures brewery which is also a really popular bar/restaurant. Very cool. And Little Creatures beer is actually nice. My sister is going to kill me for including the lower photo; somehow my photos of her always make her look like an alien.

And in just over two weeks, I am off on my birthday present from my family - a trip to Malaysia to visit my brother and family, from whence we shall drive to Krabi in Thailand. Huzzah!

advertisements

Perhaps I just need to get out more. Every time I've watched TV over the last week or so, I've been mentally summing up the message of each advert in one sentence, an exercise that may sound a bit lame but made me laugh, for one.

My sister started me off with this one: "If you use Solagard solar heating, cute little frogs will come and live in your bathroom."

Schick Quattro razors for men: "Whenever you use this razor, women will fall off treadmills."

My favourite so far was advertised on the rural Australian channel while I was in the countryside, for Statewide Steel. Basically, "at Statewide Steel, we employ hot girls wearing next to nothing, because steel is sexy and manly".

V50 shampoo: "Bad hair is just as much a medical emergency as a coma or heart attack."

Lamb: "If you can only find a partner who loves eating lamb as much as you do, you will live happily ever after."

Sleepyhead beds: "If you wake up in the morning looking fresh, well-rested and fabulous, immediately go and purchase a new Sleepyhead bed."

Particularly sentimental ads in New Zealand tend to come from insurance companies, such as State: "Buying insurance at State means you will have a very long, fulfilled and balanced life."
or AMI: "At AMI, we are responsible for every smile that passes from one person to another in New Zealand."

Special K breakfast cereal: "If you are one of those annoying freaks who must needs take part in every health food fad, we are the cereal for you."
or...
"If you eat Special K [and exercise and diet and have lipo] you could lose 1kg every week! Miraculous!"

Telecom Broadband: "If you don't get your children highspeed broadband internet with Telecom, you are failing them in their educational needs, and they will never get to university."

Well, I'm sure you've got the picture after that and have seen basically the same ads for many different products, many different times. What else do the ads on your television channels tell you?

living the good life

Yesterday my sister, Ruby and I drove down south a couple of hours to Bunbury, a town that apparently doesn't really have any special about it but which I am disposed to like because it has the same name as the fictitious invalid in The Importance of Being Earnest. We are staying at the Sanctuary Golf Resort at which my sister is taking a refresher course in some aspect of paediatric medicine and I am doing the babysitting during the day. It's SO much nicer than a backpackers with squeaky bunk beds - instead, I have my own room and my own bathroom - phwoar! There's a pool and a spa (as in, Jacuzzi) and a golf course. I could get used to this.

And recently in Australian news (and world news so it’s quite likely you’ve already heard this): in Sydney at the moment the APEC conference has just finished. Security has been very, very high, as there are 25 world leaders there such as the Chinese President and Vladimir Putin and none other than George W. Bush. (And New Zealand’s Helen Clark, who is, naturally, just as much a security priority as any of those. Perhaps.) There happens to be this show called The Chaser on Australian TV which I have become thoroughly addicted to since I got here. The show is presented by five comedians who target other TV shows or politicians or just ordinary people, and is – not to exaggerate at all – the most hilarious show on television. Last week on the show they spent some time trying to get past APEC security, but on the news this week we found out what was planned for Wednesday’s episode. On Thursday, the boys from The Chaser got themselves a motorcade, put some Canadian and American flags on the limousine (note that Canada is not even an APEC country), got past about three or four security checkpoints, and finally managed to get somewhere near George Bush, when one jumped out of the car dressed as Osama bin Laden.

It was inevitable that they get arrested, all five comedians and six other people in their crew. But it really makes the whole APEC thing a lot more fun, don’t you think? And of course the television shows which have been targeted in the past by The Chaser are having a field day, with great headlines such as "This time The Chaser goes TOO FAR!!!" in deathly serious voices. Personally, I think that perhaps instead of blaming The Chaser for being irresponsible, they should instead look at how somehow some pranksters managed to get through that many checkpoints that were touted as being so high in security without being stopped.