Made It

When I was in primary school, I represented my school (area?) in Zone Athletics. The fact that I had come third in high jump in my age group at our school's athletics carnival apparently qualified me to compete against kids who, I don't know, actually knew how to do the flop thing instead of the scissor kick I did.

Needless to say, it was not a massive success, but hey I got a day off school! The point is, I didn't really have to try hard to make a team I had no aspirations to be on.

I played NT Champs in basketball one year, but that was a matter of our club rounding up enough people to call a team. This included myself; at the time, and pretty much any time, a league reserve player playing up.

So I've never really had to try out for anything (oh! except Hall soccer! when we won the Cup! hell yeah) - even when I went to Mixed Nats I was just asked to be on the team - until now. And guess what?! I made it!

I made Indies.

What's My Age Again?

Today is my birthday and I am wishing for summer on my birthday candles.

I'm also wishing for these things, or a time machine so they could be around when I would be age-appropriate for them.



Heelys.
Last year Montana and I heelyed around on Christmas Eve. I would love to wear them to work but alas, we don't sell them in my size.



Ripstik.
When I went up to Darwin for skywalker's birthday this year, my neighbourhood kids (all grown up since I've been away!) let me have a go on theirs. I was pretty bad at it, but I could be awesome with a bit of practice!



Kids' Jeep.
How awesome is that?! It fully goes, none of this pedaling or push along like I had to do with my fire engine. Uphill, in the snow, both ways.



Trampoline.
The obsession continues.

What was your best birthday present ever? What did you always wish for?

The Odyssey

At my school (which is now my brother's school) the Year 11s do a trip down the east coast. This trip, called the Odyssey, flies them from Darwin to somewhere on the north-east of the country (I went to Cairns, skywalker went to Brisbane) then busses them all the way down the east coast, visiting theme parks, national monuments, and (for most, for the first time) SNOW.

Skywalker left yesterday and will be travelling for two weeks before finishing the Odyssey in Melbourne and flying to Adelaide to visit me. This will be the update page for his adventures.

Mon 15, 11:03am: Odyssey!
(Me: Whoo dude have an awesome time and keep me updated)
Mon 15, 11:51am: Kk. C u in 2 weeks.

Mon 15, 6:36pm: Just got my luggage from brisbane.
(Me: Cool i just watched my breath at frisbee)

Thurs 18, 5:39pm: *sigh* i have managed to lose my Tower of Terror photo already... :(

Fri 19, 1:37pm: We're in SYD!
(Me: Have an awesome time and don't fall off the bridge. How's it going?)
Fri 19, 6:35pm: Lol, kk. Cold but awesome. Going to the rugby atm

Mon 22, 9:55am: This is insane. We have been driving for like 1 1/2 hours and we are still in syd

(Me, Mon night: I won female MVP!)
Tues 23, 3:09am: Wooo! Gratz.
Tues 23, 7:10am: It is now -2...
Tues 23, 9:48am: Snow is fun!!

Wed 24, 12:47pm: Btw may not be coming to Adelaide
(Me: Whaaaaaaaat?)
Wed 24, 1:58pm: 2 kids with flu maybe swine flu, getting tested. Whole bus could be quarrantined
(Me: Where are you now? You just chillin on the bus?)
Wed 24, 1:13pm: Yeah in ACT. Prob not gonna get to origin.
(Me: If ur quarrantined will you make up the time? Get to melb late?)
Wed 24, 1:43pm: Melb in 2 or 4 days. We are going to origin. Ppl who have been in the same groups as sickies will be tested tomorrow. Its unlikely that it is swine flu. If it was we would all be sick by now.
(Me: Kk. Also there will be frisbee training and possibly pick up game you can come to if ur here on a monday)
Wed 24, 1:56pm: Yes!!!!

Wed 24, 6:41pm: Im at origin, straight behind the goals, near the QLD contingent
Wed 24, 8:26pm: 6-18, QLD up
(Me: Nice and cold?)
Wed 24, 8:28pm: Yes but it isnt too bad
Wed 24, 8:28pm: Nsw just scored
Wed 24, 9:56pm: QLD WIN!!!

Thurs 25, 7:51am: 4 ppl confirmed as flu *might* be swine flu
(Me: When do you find out?)
Thurs 25, 5:13pm: Tomorrow at the latest
(Me: Cool. What did they let you do today?)
Thurs 25, 5:20pm: War memorial, ANZAC parade, AIS, aust museum, art gallery and had a look at the embassies
(Me: Oh cool. So they're letting you do stuff. Any sniffles?)
Thurs 25, 6:08pm: Yeah but i had them the whole trip. They are from the cold
(Me: Good stick with that story. And if all the ais athletes come down with it...!)
Thurs 25, 6:11pm: Lol yeah

Fri 26, 6:06pm: There is no swine flu, we are all ok

Sat 27, 4:30pm: In in wicked atm, @ interval
(Me: Jealous. Is it awesome?)
Sat 27, 5:15pm: It was wicked

Sun 28, 2:32pm: My feet are sore...And chelsea has blisters
(Me: Thanks for the update. You at the footy atm?)
Sun 28, 2:36pm: Nah he made it non compulsesy so i didn't go
(Me: Dude i'm at work i could've seen you on tv! What are you doing instead?)
Sun 28, 2:38pm: Playing cars with chel and emma
(Me: That's the most exciting thing you could find to do in melb?)
Sun 28, 2:40pm: Yeah Lol Nah our feet are sore
(Me: Go sit on a tram! What time is your flight tomorrow? Do you have to wait after the others come back? Anyone else coming?)
Sun 28, 2:48pm: I cant be bothered with the tram, in ou use but i will check, i think i will be about the same time, no one else
(Me: Cool. call gma before you leave so she picks you up. And call me when you're at hers and we can make a plan)
Sun 28, 2:50pm: Kk

(Me: Hey girlies. My bro is down from darwin and we're going iceskating his last night. We'd love you to join us, fri 3 7:30 til 11pm. Cost is $17. Hope to see you soon)
Sun 28, 5:32pm: Lol kk
(Me: Should be a good night)
Sun 28, 5:33pm: Hell yeah, tell me who else says yes

Mon 29, 9:11pm: I'm here!

Isn't it all just fascinating? I'm riveted. Also, I wish I had some pics of my trip to show you. I took five rolls of pre-digital film. That doesn't seem like so many photos now, but it was hells expensive to develop.

Plans Just Aren't What They Used To Be

I think I'm going to blame mobile phones for this one.

In the old days, you would make a plan, sometimes weeks or months in advance, and you would have the relevant details (when, where, for how long, etc) way beforehand and set in stone. This was because you didn't have a mobile that you could use to text someone two minutes before you were supposed to meet them, telling them you all of a sudden weren't coming.

Mobiles have enabled us to call our parents for a ride or our mates for a spur of the moment ice cream mission, but they have also encouraged us to be poorly planned and inconsiderate of other people and prior plans.

Here's an idea, youth of today: make a plan, stick to it. Want to go to dinner? Let's decide to go to dinner! And let's actually go to dinner, when and where we said we would.

Tales From After School Care

I attended After School Care almost every day of my primary school life. In Year 7 I rebelled a little and either rode my bike home, caught the bus, or delayed leaving my classroom long enough to make it slightly annoying to (I would imagine) my teacher, the ASC staff, and my (fee-paying) parents. But before then I was a complete regular.

***

Early on, my mum instituted a policy of me changing out of my school uniform as soon as possible after having my name marked off. This was embarrassing to me for three reasons, although the second I probably couldn’t have articulated for most of the time the policy was in force. (Again, later on I fought it, and since by that time we were content to chill instead of running around outside, it was allowed.) The first was that no-one else had to change. Everyone else’s parents were content for them to ruin their uniforms in the dust and the dirt. Secondly, the clothes I had to change into were daggy. They were play clothes and as such were not required (or so my mum thought) to possess any sort of fashionable qualities whatsoever. And thirdly … I had to run across one courtyard or the other and go to the toilets to get changed.

Now this might not seem so bad. The ASC room was slap in the middle of the school, with the Trannies*, 1s and 2s on one side, and the Year 3s and above on the other. I, for some reason, developed a massive fear of the toilets, and the upper school one in particular. No way would I go there, and naturally, for some time I didn’t have to. The junior one was bad enough, and I could cope, if I rushed and kept my time in there to the absolute minimum. But one day (I think when I was still in Year 2, so … why? I was still a little kid and should have been allowed to use the little kids’ toilet, am I right?) the boss of the After School Care laid down the law to me: “Why are you going to that one? You can use the big kids’ toilets from now on.” And that was it. I had to face the ghost (I think it was a ghost) of the upper school toilets every afternoon, until I either forgot about it or stopped changing out of my uniform, and I really couldn’t tell you which came first.

*Transition. The grade before One and after Preschool.

***

Two of the main games I remember from ASC were Poison Ball Against The Wall and Brandy. Poison Ball was from the era when we had young and energetic caregivers, who were quite happy to stand at the front of the stage and pelt us with balls until we’d all been hit, at which time we’d all come in again. I think the appeal was that we didn’t really have to do any work ourselves. Brandy, on the other had the attraction of being banned at school. No one had ever said it was banned outside of school hours though, and we took advantage. (Damn those adults getting wise to us, though.) Brandy – which it has only lately occurred to me may have actually started out named Brandings – is where you all run around a specified space, such as the big courtyard, and try to peg a tennis ball at your friends. Yes, it hurts.

***

As we got a bit older, as I mentioned, we settled down to indoor activities a bit. When I was in Year 6, my best ASC mate Patricia and I would rush (without appearing to rush – too cool for school, man) to the games cupboard after roll call to claim Monopoly for ourselves and whatever younger kids we felt like ripping off that day. This was freaking cutthroat finance, dude, and you had to be quick. We were not above distracting our competitors in order to let someone else roll the dice hurriedly to end the turn – and avoid paying what were often massive rent payments. We were also quite the little benefactresses, and would draw the attention of the really needy to a rent they may have been about to miss collecting. After all, you can’t beat up little kids if none of them come to play. We sound terrible, but I believe a lot of fun was had – and not just by us – and hey, at least we were practicing our maths skills.

Better To Give

When I think back to my high-school group and our present-giving habits, were we fricking insane? Like, we would spend $75 on a bracelet for someone's 17th birthday. Which was totally lovely of us, I'll admit, and it was always reciprocated, so that wasn't an issue, but really? A group of high-school students, two-thirds (or later, three-fifths) of which was unemployed, and we're dropping that kind of cash?

I think we need to have some rules about presents.

If someone "throws" a party, like in primary school, when you go to someone's house and there's fairy bread and pass-the-parcel, you definitely bring a present. Chances are great that the accompanying card will be the same as someone else's.

If someone invites forty people from the Hall to Hog's Breath (think Outback) and twenty people show up, I don't think you usually have to bring a present, when everyone is paying for themselves. (If the birthday girl/boy is paying, hell yes you bring a present.)

BUT, if the person having the dinner is a good friend, you should bring a present, even if it's just a token gift to mark the occasion. But then where is the line? How do you decide, 'oh you're good enough for a card but not a gift.' Or 'oh, I'm just here for the food and didn't even know it was your birthday, so no present for you.' Or do you always take a gift, no matter what? Always bring a card?

Maybe decide on the basis of 'I totally forgot until another girl from work messaged me, didn't have time to get a card, but happen to have a Body Shop gift pack lying around'? Works for me. This time.

Easter Raffle

My primary school (elementary school) has an Easter Raffle every year. People bring in Easter eggs, and students are sent home with ticket books. For the week or so before Easter, the office overflows with Easter eggs. Usually there are around 60 prizes, although I imagine the number has kept increasing.

I have never won the Easter Raffle. Ok, I might have won Prize Number 54. Once. In the eight years I was there! In grade seven, I decided this was my year. I deserved it. Why I deserved it more than the fifty or so other year sevens, most of whom had also been there since Transition (Reception for you South Australians, I don't know what for everyone else. Kindergarten?), I have no idea. But I did. This was going to be it. They would call my name, I would act all cool - like, I'm too cool for Easter Raffles, they're for grade sixers, - get my prize, and draw someone else's name. Then I'd go and sit on the stage with my prize and gloat. I would no doubt be sitting near Jess O, whose family always always won at least three prizes.

Needless to say, it did not work that way. I sat there for hours. They called name after name, and none were mine. So much for my year.

And so it was with the bajillion or so Pay It Forward contests I entered. Seriously Random Number Generator, what's the go? Do you seriously not like me? Maybe you were distracted that day. Would you like to call for a redraw?

Oh yeah, and the next year, when Skywalker started primary school and I left and started high school? The little shit won. If he starts entering Pay It Forwards and wins, I am so not sending him a postcard from San Francisco.

The Fourth

I have this work friend, we'll call her CC, who is the most enthusiastic person I know. Everyone should have a co-worker like her. I don't mean she's happy all the time, although she is a very cheerful person, but she'll dive into whatever with total enthusiasm. If it's something you're thrilled about, she's thrilled too. If you want to have a bitch about someone, she will hate on them with you. This rocks.

It is my birthday in ONE MONTH. My birthday is my favouritest day of the year. Most of the time, I believe I am the most important person in the whole world. But on this one day, not only do I have permission to indulge this belief, but everyone else can believe it too! It's a great feeling.

Due to a bizarre time-space continuum thing whereby I leave San Francisco on the 2nd of August, fly twenty hours, and arrive home two days later, I get back from the BlogHer and Beyond Trip of 2008 on my birthday.

This might seem sucky, but I get back in the morning, so most of my birthday will be here. A whole bunch of people will be checking my ID on that day, giving even more people the opportunity to realise that I am a princess on that day. And I will be crazy tired and jet-lagged, which means I will be fricking hilarious.

Plus, thanks to the enthusiasm of CC when she was presented with a half-arsed maybe ideee, I am having a party that night. ON MY BIRTHDAY.

Cray-zee.

Anyway, I need to get this all organised before I leave (in TEN DAYS!) so I need your help. Girly pajama party it is. I need girly movies to watch and yummy cocktails to make and drink. Go!

(And if you're really helpful, I will totally send an invite your way.)



And also, have a great long weekend everyone in the USA. These fireworks are from the 4th of July, 2005. You can really tell, can't you?

What I Want To Do Weekends, Part 4: Los Angeles

Here's my thing about California in general: I'm pretty sure many famous people could walk right past me and I wouldn't recognise them. Or I would be so busy taking a photo of a sign that said 'Orange County' or something that I totally wouldn't be paying attention to all the famous people I would recognise. Famous people? Pretty much wasted on me.

However! LA is a big city; I'm thinking we can find something else to keep me occupied.

On a side note, I have been to LA before. Twice, actually. The first time all I saw was LAX. The second time, I'd been from France back to England, a day or so there, then to New York, a day (more or less) in JFK, then to LAX, then several hours there while they realised that a door was broken and couldn't be fixed. So I got to see lots of neon signs on the way to the hotel they put us up in. That night in the hotel after ten bajillion years of travelling was heaven. AND I got to see photos from Fashion Week in New York that this Australian photographer had just taken.

So no, I haven't been to LA, or seen any of the things on the list below:

I want to take a photo of the Hollywood sign, and a sign that says The OC. Also signs that say UCLA and the Staples Center.

There seem to be a lot of streets that I should see: Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard. Ok that doesn't seem like a lot when I put it like that. What did I forget?

I want to see Venice Beach. Ooh, we could go surfing! Do I know how to surf? Not in the least.

If there's time, Disneyland and/or Universal Studios would be awesome.

Oh, and? I just remembered something that wasn't on my USA list but I'm pretty sure we could do in LA: one of those hotdogs from the carts like on the sidewalk. Yeah!

Now that I've demonstrated I know absolutely nothing about LA, could you help me out? What do I need to do in LA?

Health and Fitness (HA!)

I have a cough. It sounds like a fake cough. And I can't control it. I am going to stab myself in the throat soon.

On the plus side, it's really working out my stomach muscles, which is a great segue into my second point.

In our backyard, there is a shed. In the shed, there is an exercise bike.

Being that my physical activity has gone from playing (two grades plus social), coaching (two teams), and reffing basketball, to um, nothing, I thought maybe I should do something with this bike. Like, I don't know, exercise?

I'm sure this is all fascinating, but the point is that you can now pop back in any weekday and nag ask me if I've done my thirty minutes of cycling. And then kick my arse for being lazy. Deal?

Dinner's Ready

When I was little, my dad would sometimes call me from work when I got home from school and ask me to take the meat for dinner out of the freezer and let it chill out in the fridge. Invariably I would forget until some point later in the afternoon, but this was ok as I could simply take it out, leave it on the bench in Darwin's lovely (read: stinking hot) weather, and it would be defrosted in time for dad to cook it for dinner.

It seems that my childhood left me illprepared for both following instructions and defrosting food in Adelaide's more chilly climate.

What I Want To Do Weekends, Part 1: USA

Welcome to the first edition of What I Want To Do Weekends, all about what I'm planning for the Great BlogHer08 Trip. (It could have been Wednesdays, but first of all, that's already taken, and second, that is so restricting. This way, I figure I have at least four days in which to post. Everyone knows Thursday is the new start of the weekend, and maybe you got the day off on Monday, and if all that fails, it's probably still the weekend where you are, right?) I would appreciate any additions or comments or whatever. The list is continually growing.

So. Part One: USA.

I should mention that I've been there before. In the (American) summer of 2005, I was a summer camp counselor at a sports-oriented camp in New York state. I travelled to Washington DC, New York City, Boston, Niagara Falls, England, and France afterwards. (This is a whole 'nother bajillion posts, which may or may not ever happen.) Point is, some of these things are coming from there, for example, my love of Ben and Jerry, and some are me watching too much American tv. Ok? Awesome.

WHAT I WANT TO DO – AMERICA

I want to eat Ben&Jerry’s, Wendy’s, and Dunkin Donuts. (All summer camp memories.)

I want to eat at Chili’s (like on Veronica Mars), Outback Steakhouse (like Holly), and TGIFriday’s (cos I like the name).

I want to stock up on a particular moisturiser at Walmart ("Marco!" "Polo!") and shop at Super Target (just like Zoot). I want bags from Macy's and Bloomingdales. I want things from Sephora (Advice Smackdown!) and Victoria's Secret. And I want to have breakfast at Tiffany and buy something so I can have another one of those blue boxes.

I want to go through a drive-thru ATM and take a photo of one of those letterboxes with the little red flags.

And I want to go to an NFL or Major League Baseball game.

Phew. I'm very demanding. Any thoughts/additions/reality checks you'd like to put forward?

WiWtdWs will be back next weekend - give or take a day or so - and we are now one weekend closer to BlogHer08!

Let The Rain Fall Down

When I was young, we were down here on holidays one year, and we went to lunch at the house of one of my cousins. I remember Lou taught me how to make flowers out of napkins.

At one point there was a huge thundering sound that wasn't thunder. There is nothing exactly like hail on a tin shed roof. We could hear it coming towards us and then all of a sudden, it was hailing!

Coming from Darwin "Fine and Humid" NT, this was my first experience of hail. It was incredibly exciting. To honour the occasion, I made a hail man. Like a snowman, y'know? He was about 10cms tall.

What? I was a kid. Although here is our weather forecast for today ...



... and I have to say, if it does start hailing tonight, I can't promise that tomorrow won't bring a post entitled "Haily II."

In the meantime, I will be curled up in my bed reading (what else is a rainy day for?) either White Noise (for uni) or Promise Me (because Chris reminded me that Harlen Coben is pretty awesome). You can guess which one will be read first.

Countdown to BlogHer: 60 Days

So, yesterday I was looking at the website for the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (because how awesome would that be? The MGM in Vegas) and I had to click on a drop-down menu to select a month.

And you know what? July is right near the top of the list. We're halfway through May, not at the beginning, and I leave for San Francisco in the middle of July, not the end, as I've somehow convinced myself.



In fact, in just two months I will extremely bored as I fly for a bajillion hours to BlogHer. (Where I will not be bored. Drunk maybe.)

However, I am incredibly old and wise now, thanks to my 2005 trip to America (and then England and France). On that occasion, everything was exciting! And I couldn't sleep in case I missed something! This is an experience! That should be experienced! And yet ... no. Sleep is good. Sleep is so your friend.

Sleep means you will be awake when you get to San Francisco and it is early afternoon and yet it was just night but I left in the morning and ooh vodka.

Because a random flashback is better than another whinge

So there was this girl in my class. Who was on the large size. We'll call her Chip.

Anyway, one day this other girl, who we'll call Flea, had gone out of the classroom for some reason. So had Chip, for another reason.

Flea comes back, and quietly shuts the door behind her.

While she's standing in the doorway quietly shutting the door, unbeknownst to Flea but beknownst to everyone else in the classroom, Chip comes up behind her. Flea continues shutting the door, essentially in Chip's face, but not on purpose because her back is to the door.

"Oops, sorry Chip, I didn't see you there."

The class cracks up because, duh, Chip is large and we are teenagers, so this is hilarious.

The end. I have no idea why I remembered this today, or why this is such a strong memory, but there you go.

Read-A-Picture: The Pine Log

This post was brought to you by the fact that I am completely unable to remember the name of a book skywalker had when he was little or find anyone who can based on my description, and vsquared and skywalker's mad photography skillz.

When I was little, and did lots of cool stuff. We especially liked riding our although I don't think he liked the part where I kicked him in his back from my little seat on the back of his . When I graduated to a of my own, sometimes we'd go on rides together when he'd always pretend he was lost, and sometimes I would ride while he walked.

We went to the a fair bit. I loved the and could push me so high that he'd run underneath me. Awesome. There was also a which I think we used to pretend was a or something like that. Also at the park: .

I challenge you to walk past a without experiencing the urge to walk along it. I was an expert walker, and never missed an opportunity to show off my skill. This particular day, I had ridden to the park, and had walked, and we'd bought along some (the park had a ) and probably a or something. We'd played and swung and fought and it was time to go - by way of a of course.

Some of the were close together, and some were a bit tricky, but as I said, I was an expert. So I'm walking along, and 's jumping me over the really huge gaps, but I was feeling stubborn and independent and insisted I could do the rest. And of course, I fell. I missed the , and stepped into and scraped all my up on the I'd just left.

Dude, it really hurt.

So picked up and and the and the and ran as fast as we he could. As far as I can remember, there was a scrape from my tailbone to my shoulderblades, but I'm thinking my memory may be exaggerating. I don't have a scar, but both have the lovely memories of our time at the .

Happy Birthday, LMC!

This story is dedicated to my cousin, LMC, whose birthday it is today. So you should all wish her a Happy Birthday, even though she may be too drunk to hear you.

Once upon a time, there were two little girls. They were born three months apart, and their mothers were sisters, so they basically grew up together.



They did all sorts of things, like ride to the shops for ice-cream, play basketball, and tease their younger brothers. Then they turned 18, and did all sorts of other things, like drink a lot of alcohol.



They both got jobs working with kids, which neither of them would have predicted, I don't think.



A bit later, they travelled to distant areas of the globe, to places like Adelaide and Lebanon, where they met a lot of awesome people and one of them got a tattoo and her belly pierced.



While they were away, they spent more time talking on msn than they ever spent together when they lived in the same city.



They are now looking forward to drinking, shopping, and going to the beach when LMC gets here in 28 days.

Happy Birthday, LMC. Hope it's a great one. See you soon.

Edited to add this, cos this site is hell funny: