Daybook i

I always enjoy it when Danielle does these, so here’s my version.


Outside my window there’s a train arriving at the station.  I live directly opposite a train station and my room is at the front of the house, like maybe 20m away from the track.  It’s surprising how quickly you get used to the noise.

I have been listening to Brooke Fraser’s album ‘Albertine’.  I brought it when it first came out which was… 2007 according to wikipedia.  I was a huge fan of her first album and brought this one, her second, almost immediately.  And I gotta confess, I did not like it at all. I can say with an assured tone that I have not listened to it once since the first listen.  But now, like six years later (ok, the whole ‘SIX YEARS LATER’ thing just floored me), a song came up on shuffle and I really liked it.  Her voice is just so beautiful and the songs are about love and patience and I think I can relate to it more now.  I guess I’m just in a different place to where I was when I first heard the album.

I have been wearing work clothes and PJs.  I really haven’t gone out anywhere that warrants wearing anything other than work clothes or PJs. 

I am thankful for friends and family.  And things that I fall into absolutely, that chew me up (and hopefully will never spit me out), whether it be books, or TV shows, or movies.

I am pondering life in general.  Feeling a bit in a rut recently and I know it’s my own fault for being so stagnant.  Got a few big choices to make.

I am reading The Hobbit.  I’ve been reading it for like a month now and getting nowhere.  I still maintain that Tolkein is a dry writer and am very thankful for Peter Jackson for making the movies and showing how wonderful the storyline and world is.  I am also reading “Bitterblue” by Kristin Cashore, another fantasy novel.  It is a somewhat sequel to another book that I enjoyed.  However it has been so long since I read the prequel that I’m finding it hard to get into this one.  I shall persevere though!

I am creating this blog post.  And hopefully finishing up a story in time to enter an online competition.  I’m trying not to get too carried away but it’s basically the best competition ever and so I really want to win… which is giving me some crazy writer’s block.  Murphy’s law :)

A picture-thought I'm sharing is this naughty boy that I will be looking after for a week starting from tomorrow!  He is just adorable and I love him SO much!!!!  I hope he doesn’t roll in mud whilst I am looking after him though.

Update 2.0

Most recently, I got my first real vet nurse wound.  I would take a picture but it’s sadly not that impressive.  It just looks like a hangnail.  Which is a shame because it REALLY hurt at the time and quite frankly, my finger still hurts.  It was my own stupid fault.  I was trying to get this cat to take a tablet and I should have gotten him out of his cage but I was rushing and so I thought I’d leave him in the cage..  Because I didn’t have as much room to manoeuvre, I couldn’t get my finger out of the cat’s mouth quick enough once I’d put the tablet in his mouth and he crunched down on my finger. Ugh, I can still hear the crunch noise it made!  The cat wasn’t being mean, it just shut its mouth, and my finger happened to be in the way.  I was quite proud that I didn’t cry.  Even though I really wanted to!

Work is about to get super crazy.  My beloved Jess is leaving in two weeks to go back to uni to become a vet and while we’re waiting for someone to fill in, I’ll be working 45 hours a week!  Ouch.  So I will probably be around even less.  So basically I guess I won’t be around at all.

Here is a picture of ponies in cardigans to end on a happy note.

New Year’s Misgivings

I recently made a new year’s resolution to be able to run 5k in 18 minutes.  I didn’t think about it that much, I just saw it on a few running message boards and it seemed like a standard RUNNER’S time for a 5k.  
I told my dad about it because he is also a runner.  He’s actually a really, really good runner and used to run for New Zealand in his younger days.  He frowned when I mentioned the time and used maths (not my strongest point) to show me that I’d have to run each kilometre in about 3 and a half minutes and keep up that pace for five kilometres.  
He basically told me it was impossible.  Now that I've really thought about it, I have to say I kind of agree with him… BUT I have the whole year to work towards this.  And it’s a good goal to work towards.  Even if I don’t make that 18 minute mark, it won’t have been in vain.  And I really want to be able to do it just so I can wave it in his face!
Right now I can run 5k in about 25 minutes.  I haven’t really been trying for speed, just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other.  So here’s to shaving a whole seven minutes off my time this year.  I can do it!!...????

Break again

And so I must leave you again.  My house/pet sitting thing has really taken off.  However, I do find it quite stressful.  Having to move my whole life somewhere else for a week, two weeks, three weeks.  It gets me out of my routine and it always takes me a while to get back into my normal life.  And then usually by the time I feel 'normal' again at my house... it's time to hit the road again.  I think this year, I might try and ease it back.  Try not to take on new clients.

Just off for a short house-sitting sesh with two dogs, a cat and a couple of mice.  I am paranoid that I'll forget to feed the mice as they live in a separate part of the house that I don't really go in to.  I won't have internet access but I'm hoping to be bored out of my brain and write some posts to publish when I get home.

Work has been good.  We are week one into a new roster that has been reshuffled.  It means that instead of nurse overlaps, there will usually be two people (at least) on during the day which makes my life SO much less stressful.  I hope it continues!

My New Year’s Resolutions

I have three, I think.

1) Be able to run a 5k in 18 minutes.  I’ve seen that time on a couple of running sites.  It’s a really good time, but it’s attainable too.  At the moment, I can run 5k in about 30 minutes, so it will take some work.  But that’s what the entire year is for.

2) Cosplay.  Every year, I say that I want to dress up and go to Supanova (our Aussie version of Comic Con) and every year, I don’t.  I actually didn’t even go to it last year, so that’s my excuse.  I would LOVE to cosplay as Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones, but considering that would involve making my own costume, I think we’ll work up to her.

I just really feel like I could pull off that facial expression.

3) I’ve seen this floating around the internet for the last few years and this year, Imma gonna do it.  You take a jar, and every time something good happens, you write it down and put it in the jar.  Then at the end of the year, you have a record of a GOOD year.  I have even prepped my jar.


I taped a Neil Gaiman quote to the outside.  “May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself”

And I apply that quote to all of you too.  If there’s anyone left that still pops by from time to time.
NB: I am just casually not saying anything about the fact that I didn’t blog for like three months.  But… if you do still read this blog, maybe you could fill me in on what you’ve been up to?

Away again

Since Monday, I have been house sitting.  I'll be away for about a month.  And won't have internet.  So yet again, I must bid you adieu.  But I will be home every once in a while and I plan on writing blog posts to queue up in the mean time.  That's the grand plan anyway :)

I am looking after little Ted.  This is him a few months ago, last time I looked after him.

Now a few months on, he is six months old.  In that last picture, he was up to my knees.  Now he is up to my hip.  This is a particularly cute picture of him that I took today.  And he is still growing!!

He is still very much a puppy and trips over his feet when he chases the ball.  And slobbers ALL over me.  Every time I go outside to see him, I have to wash- not just my hands- but all the way up my arms too!  Being a puppy, he gets over excited and jumps up on me.  Which is a nightmare!!  He's nearly bowled me over a couple of times.  Taking him for walks is quite a mission.  But luckily there is a small park nearby and I can let him off the lead.  Even though he's still learning, he is a real people pleaser and always comes back when I call him.  I think he's such a goodnatured doofus.  And only I get to call him a 'doofus', if anyone else called him that I'd be offended!  From what I've seen of these big dogs at work, all of them seem to have that 'friendly giant' in their personality.  I can see why people are taken with those breeds.  I just wish they didn't slobber so much!

I have been getting TONS of house sitting offers.  On the one hand, it's great because it's money and people have super nice houses that I get to live in and I get to look after some of the sweetest sweeties.  But on the other hand... I miss my house and my Roomies!!

Blu Ray Thursday #4

The movie: Like Crazy


Girl Roomie and I have been dying to see this movie.  It’s a story about an American guy and an English girl who fall in love when she is studying in America and their trials during a long distance relationship.
It was SUCH a hipster movie.  Sorry if it is your favourite movie but it wasn’t for me.  The leads were really good and genuinely likable   And Alex Kingston and Jennifer Lawrence were in it (two of my fave ladies!) but it just didn’t GO anywhere.  And I guess that was the whole point of it.  Love isn’t like what we see in the movies, you have to work to make it work.  The dialogue was as banal as conversations in every day life, which again I think was a conscious effort on the movie’s behalf but I have to live with stuff like that everyday.  I want my characters to be witty and insightful, coz I use movies as escapism.  I feel bad ragging on an indie movie, especially because I’m sure a movie like that must have some hardcore fans.

Recommended?: “Like Crazy”?  Like crazy boring.

Boom.