Roadtrip = hiatus

Um, HI. I kind of took an unintentional hiatus for the better part of a week courtesy of a wee trip up to Canberra. 

So what did I do while I was in our nation's capital? 

- Went to precisely zero cultural institutions or attractions. I didn't even see Parliament House. It was kind of amazing.

- Hung out with two of my best friends an awful lot. 

- Spent a lot of time wiping snotty noses and grubby hands.

- Had mint hot chocolate at two different places. The Max Brenner one was spectacularly good, despite the totally weird-ass mug. 

WTF IS THIS. 

- Caught up with my friends LB (who's expecting a baby any day!) and Femaelstrom, who I hadn't seen in three years. So that was awesome.

- Ate a lot. 

- Cracked up repeatedly over things that Clapton and Bowie said. I'd show you pictures, but I feel a liiiiiiittle weird posting pictures of kids I'm not related to. 

- No, but seriously. I ate SO MUCH. Including my beloved and obligatory trip-to-Canberra Turkish food. Mmmmm, zucchini puffs...

- Marvelled at the awesome ridiculousness of the (sadly temporary) makeover that the Holbrook submarine has had:

LOOK AT THIS INCREDIBLENESS OMG.

- Had a two month old baby fall in love with me. Seriously, he would just stare at me for like 20 minutes at a time. It was a little weird. 

- Caught up with some of C's friends (who are also friends of mine) for the first time in a couple of years and marvelled at how terrifyingly grown up their lives are compared to mine.

- Read less than I have in approximately forever.

- Introduced a sixteen year old girl to the wonderfulness that is Clueless.

- Bought two new pairs of jeans that are actually long enough for a total of $60. MIRACLE. 

- Spent very limited time on the internet because the free wifi at our hotel was slow and crappy. I was torn as to whether it was a relief or really weird to be away from the internet that much. 

So. What's news with you guys?

K xx

Update all the updates

Sooooo. It's been a while since I've talked about anything besides books and movies, huh? I guess that means it's time to give you guys a few updates on some stuff that's happening...

1. WE FINISHED ANGEL OMG
Yes, a couple of weeks ago, we officially posted our very last Angel recap over on Snark Squad. Since then, we've wrapped things up and, while I still have one more video to make on my own channel because Lor and Sweeney were dirty cheaters and changed the rules after I'd made my wrap-up videos, we are FINISHED with the Buffyverse. Which is crazy exciting.

But don't fret - you'll still see plenty of me over on Snark Squad. We're nearing the end of season 1 of Supernatural, and I'm working on TWO super secret projects over there as well. One will launch next week, while the other won't go live until October. But we've already started writing because we're weirdos like that.

2. I'M GOING TO ENGLAND OMG
That's right, I've booked a plane ticket and I'm heading to Old Blighty for three weeks in September! Well. More like two and a bit weeks in England and five or six days in Portugal, but whatever. It's pretty damned exciting either way. There will be all kinds of family shenanigans, and I plan on catching up with/meeting some of my favourite people. It's going to be pretty interesting, I suspect. Especially as I haven't been to the UK in 12 years, and on that particular occasion I spent all of about six hours in London!

3. I JOINED MEDIAVENGERS OMG
So after an increasing amount of weirdness and insanity on Tumblr, my BFF Kim decided that she was going to move MediAvengers to Blogger and reinvent it. And she asked me to join her, which UM DUH. So you can now find me over there on the regular, being all meta about the media pieces that Kim creates around Marvel Cinematic Universe events and characters wheeeeeee. No, but seriously. Check it out. It's pretty cool.

4. I'M GOING TO CANBERRA OMG
Not QUITE as exciting as some of the other news in this post, but Mum and I are heading up to Canberra next weekend for a few days to catch up with people and meet new babies and probably freeze to death. And to go to the bakery in Holbrook, because that's pretty much the only reason to spend seven hours on the Hume Highway...

5. I HAVE A JOB UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR OMG
Admittedly, it's only one day a week, but that's better than zero days a week! And a year working in the one place definitely looks better on my CV than two months or four months, so YAY.

6. I FINALLY FINISHED WATCHING CHARMED OMG
It only took me the better part of seven months to get through eight seasons!! And one of these days, I'll actually get around to blogging about seasons 4-8 to fit in with the ones I've already done... But for now? I've very happily moved onto Friday Night Lights. Although I don't think I'll be sharing All The Thoughts about that one. Mostly because it seems far too much like hard work!

So. What's new with you guys?

K xx

Another year over. What?!

I honestly can't even begin to process the fact that it's the 31st of December already. RIDICULOUS. Anyway, instead of doing my usual year in review post with a million links to a million posts that no one will actually bother to click through to, I figured that I'd do this year's wrap up in vlog form.


Happy New Year, y'all. I'll catch you in 2014!!

K xx

Who wants to go on a roadtrip?

It's a surprisingly short roadtrip - it'll only take you four minutes!



Other things that happened in Canberra?

• Little Miss A looked at a picture of Dame Edna and yelled "Hey, it's Lady Gaga!!"
• Clapton decided that I was her favourite person of ever and spent a decent chunk of the time I was in Canberra demanding that I pick her up.
• I ate my body weight in zucchini puffs, because it's obligatory.
• Little Miss A tried a bite of my dessert, and decided it was hers. RUDE.
• I caught up with LB, which was most excellent.
• Em and I decided that Scarlett O'Hara is the actual worst and had no redeeming features at all. (Discuss.)
• Matt beat the pants off us all at Trivial Pursuit. Again. 
• I ate a lot of cake, and it was excellent. Diet schmiet.

What's news with you guys?

K xx

2012 in review

It's the end of another year, kids. And that means it's time to review! And by review, I mean recap stuff that actually happened this year, rather than just recapping all the good/bad movies and books and music from 2012. Because I've already done that.

I've written 240 posts this year, not including this one. That scares me a little, because it seems inevitable that I'll eventually reach the point where I'm posting every day, and that seems like a lot of pressure, you know??

Anyway, I didn't miss a single Movie Monday, which I'm quite impressed about, and I'm also in the process of writing and scheduling my Movie Monday posts for January, seeing that I'm going to be gallivanting about the US.

January saw the year starting rather...interestingly...down at the beach. I overhead someone saying that I looked like Kim Kardashian. I crossed two things off my 101 in 1001 list, had Dessert Day #2 with Deidre, I was super judgmental about the kinds of people you find at the gym, and I ate a potato on a stick at the Lunar New Year festival. It was delicious:

Oh, and Kim redesigned my blog into the spectacularness that you see today. Want a blog redesign? GO TALK TO KIM. NOW. Seriously.

February started with me being voted Featured Blogger on the Month on 20SB. I vlogged in honour of the occasion. And half of you went "OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE AN ACCENT!!!". Yes. Yes, I do. Deidre and I held a World Nutella Day edition of Dessert Day, which was delicious. I decided to go back to university again, and started my Ancient History series. I wrote a letter to my high school self, and roadtripped to Canberra with Paulie:

Paulie on the HMAS Otway. Which is 2 hours from the ocean.

And my Gran passed away, which led to me writing this blog post, my brother reading said blog post at her funeral, me ugly crying as a result, him ugly crying as a result of me ugly crying, and Paulie having to shovel chocolate tarts into both of us until we felt better.

March brought me losing at Monopoly to Little Miss A. This was the beginning of a trend that would continue for the remainder of 2012:

March 2012

December 2012. The bank was literally out of £100 notes

I made cider cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day, and asked for ideas for what to do with a plaster cast of my teeth. Also, our house got broken into and my SLR got stolen. Also, I ranted about accents, which involved me singing a snippet of Les Mis.

April contained Easter, which meant a healthy dose of me sending myself to hell. I got a replacement SLR, and wrote about internet friendships. Also, I saw The Avengers and fangirled like a crazy person. I still haven't finished fangirling, to be perfectly honest! Also also, I turned 29 and did absolutely nothing to celebrate. It was awesome.

May saw me pass my 400th post, and head to Canberra again for Emily's baby shower. While there, we saw this completely bizarre parking space, which I had intentions of writing a blog post about, and then never did. Better late than never??

*confused dog head tilt*

I also finished rewatching all of Dawson's Creek, and am still a Pacey Witter fangirl. Also also? EUROVISION HAPPENED.

June saw the end of semester, and me continuing my "rewatch ALL the 90s television" plan by blogging about the first season of The X-Files. Deidre and I went to a macaron making course, and I made a vlog about all the weird Google searches that have led people to my blog. My all-time favourite will forever be "I hate it when I'm trying to study and a velociraptor throws bananas at me."

July brought with it the worst movie of ever, I started writing recaps of Buffy with Lor over on Snark Squad,  and I finally got rid of my hideous passport photo. I also taught Little Miss A how to bake:

August led to an interesting encounter with the police, me showing you the true horrors of my music collection, and discovering Community. If you're not watching Community, WHY THE HELL NOT??? It also featured an awesome bloggy lunch, and the return of Doctor Who.

September made my credit card hurt, because I booked my flights to the US (I LEAVE ON THURSDAY!!!!!!!!) and discovered that my travel agency was staffed by idiots. My parents went overseas, and I reverted to being a teenager as a result. The hard drive on my (three month old) laptop crashed, resulting in me losing a major assignment, and having a small nervous breakdown as a result.

October brought more weird Google searches, along with me holding a themed dinner party and cooking ALL the Mexican food. I also had my third blogiversary and celebrated my 500th post with a rather ridiculous vlog. I also handed in my last assignment for the semester, and celebrated with a gif party.

November? That was NaBloPoMo, and I posted every freaking day, even when I really didn't want to. Deidre and I held another Dessert Day, this time with almond themed deliciousness. I created my hug bucket, finished watching Dark Angel, and got horribly confused about the bands that are touring to Melbourne in the next little while. I headed to Canberra AGAIN (seriously, three times in one year?!) for an industry placement, which involved three weeks of hanging out with cats and babies, and wrote about my make up collection.

And that brings us to December. I was epically vague for quite a while, thanks to the end of NaBloPoMo and the continuation of my industry placement. I flew back to Melbourne, played Lego Lord of the Rings with my brother, and met up with Pretzel Thief. And I did my 'Best of 2012' series. Oh, also? All our appliances randomly started catching fire/producing sparks. We've gotten a new iron AND a new food processor in the past week. We're all waiting with baited breath to see what the third thing will be...

I can't wait to see what 2013 (which brings with it not only a trip to the US with some of my best friends, but my 30th birthday. EEEEEK!!) has in store.

K xx

PS. I will obviously be here tomorrow for Movie Monday. Mostly, I wanted an excuse to use that gif. YOU'RE WELCOME, WORLD. 

Epic vagueness

In all the "YAY I DON'T HAVE TO WRITE A BLOG POST!!!"-ness that inevitably follows NaBloPoMo, I slacked off a little bit more than I meant to. WHOOPS. I haven't forgotten about you all, I promise. It's just that I'm sliiiiiiiiiightly braindead, and in dire need of not having an alarm go off in my ear at 6.20am.

There's not really all that much of interest going on at the moment. But I shall bullet point it all nonetheless:

• I finish my internship tomorrow, and will be flying back to Melbourne tomorrow night. I have not yet packed on account of it takes effort and I'm lazy. I suspect it will end with me jamming everything into my suitcase five minutes before I have to leave for the airport. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
• I made my triple chocolate brownies last night. Turns out, they go FABULOUSLY with Connoisseur Raspberry and White Chocolate ice cream:

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM.

• This morning, I ate breakfast with my hair up in a towel turban. This is not at all unusual, but this morning, the twins were awake. And apparently they'd never seen someone with their hair up in a towel turban before, because their facial expressions were priceless. Clapton gave me the stink eye and a face that screamed "What the fuck is on your head, lady? Are you aware that you look like a COMPLETE idiot??", while Bowie's eyes got reeeeeeeeeeeally big and she stared at me for five minutes with a face that yelled "DUDE. THERE IS A THING ON YOUR HEAD. IT'S EATING YOUR BRAINS. SERIOUSLY. IT'S TERRIFYING. YOU SHOULD GO AND LOOK IN THE MIRROR. OMFG." It was kind of hilarious. 

(To clarify, Clapton and Bowie are NOT their real names. I just couldn't cope with the addition of two more Little Miss [Initial] nicknames!)

• I saw a truck this morning with a Montana licence plate. IN CANBERRA. I am still confused about this, twelve hours later.
• I just saw an ad for a Broncos vs Raiders game on TV, and my first thought was "It's December. Doesn't rugby season end like a week after football season?!?!?!". And then I realised it was the DENVER Broncos vs the OAKLAND Raiders, not the Brisbane Broncos vs the Canberra Raiders like my brain told me it was. 
• I have done precisely zero Christmas shopping. Whoops?
• I apologise for the fact that I haven't been replying to comments, or commenting on all your blogs. I *have* been reading them. I've just been reading them on my phone on the bus, and by the time I'm on my laptop, I'm back to being vague again. 

YAY, VAGUENESS!! 

How are you guys? Hopefully less vague than me??

K xx

Currently...

It's a millionty degrees at the moment (okay, that's a lie. It was 34 today, but it's due to be in the 30s every day this week, and EEEEEUW (America, that's in the mid-90s Fahrenheit)), and as a result, I shall quote Lolcats: I cannot brain today, I has the dumb.

So instead of thinking up a blog post, I figured I'd steal borrow an idea from Liz and do the 'currently' meme/blog post/thing.

Watching:
Right this second? Some documentary on the History Channel about Australian federation. I haven't really been watching a whole lot of TV since I got to Canberra, mostly because I've been going to bed at 10pm! I did go and see Skyfall last night with LB. I thoroughly enjoyed it - unlike Quantum of Solace, it actually had a plot (gasp)! I'm really looking forward to seeing where they take the Bond series in the future. Also, they showed the trailers for Les Miserables and The Hobbit, and I fangirl flailed in my chair, and wished Gina was there with me so we could squee together.

Listening to:
Mendelssohn's "Wedding March". It's playing on the documentary about federation. Also, crying babies. Babies do NOT like hot weather as it turns out. Interestingly, I've stopped using my iPod since I got to Canberra. I have no idea why. I think it's because the first day of my internship, I was wearing a skirt and didn't have a pocket to shove my iPod in. I'm not really missing it at the moment. Also also, one of the cats meowing in my ear. He snuck up behind me, the little urchin.

Planning:
My trip to the US in January. What I'm going to get people for Christmas (albeit in an incredibly half arsed way). Meet ups with friends before Christmas. What I'm going to do next weekend. Some baking. I don't know what or when, but it's been far too long since I baked any of my old favourites (namely brownies). My blog posts for the rest of November.

Thinking about:
My uni results. They're released tomorrow morning, and I'm kind of freaking out because for one subject I've only gotten a mark back for ONE assignment, so I have almost no idea how I've done. The email I just got from one of my uni friends in response to an email asking her where I could get a new brain because mine was full. Her reply? "573.86". I laughed far harder than it warranted. Librarians: we're big with the nerdy.

Looking forward to:
JANUARY!!!!!! Lor and Alice and Emmy and Gina and Eileen and Sarah in one month? I think I'm going to explode from the awesome. Seeing my BFF, Sara, in Florida. Les Miserables. The Hobbit. Seeing Pitch Perfect with Deidre. Knowing my results tomorrow. I HATE not knowing things, and am terribly impatient when it comes to things like this. Having ice cream for dessert. Christmas being over so I don't have to listen to the stupid songs any more.

Reading:
Cinder by Marissa Meyer. A cyborg retelling of Cinderella? YES PLEASE. I'm 26% done according to the Kindle, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I also just finished Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls. It was brilliant. I also have The Great Gatsby waiting in wings (I've never read it), but I've been reading so much YA in recent months that I'm not sure how I'll cope with it!

Making me happy:
The fact that I got a high distinction for my semester long group assignment. It was a LOT of work, and I'm thrilled that we pulled it off. Spending the weekend with friends. The fact that I'm not a total cripple after going to Body Step yesterday. I genuinely thought I would be. Playing with collection items at my internship tomorrow. Good friends, good food, good books, good movies.

How was your weekend?

K xx

101 in 1001 #80

This morning, LB and I were up by 8.30am with intentions of heading to a 9.30am Pump class. But fate conspired against us, and we were informed that arriving at 9.32am was unacceptable and that we weren't allowed in.

So instead, we headed out to the Capital Region Farmers Market to pick up a couple of things, wander around and grab some breakfast. Conveniently, this crossed #80 off my Day Zero list - visit a farmers market!

It was pretty crowded, but lots of fun. There was a huge variety of stuff, from fresh pasta to flowers, from meat to macarons. There's a possibility that we each had a macaron as a pre-breakfast snack. They were delicious. They were huge as far as macarons go, so were a total bargain at $2.50 each!

After a bit more of a wander around, we stopped for breakfast at a Belgian creperie before going to eat our crepes outside in the shade. LB had the spiced apple crepe (I tried the filling - yuuuuuuuuuuum), and mine was strawberries and cream. The strawberries, unlike a lot of what's come out of the strawberry glut this year, were delicious. And the crepes themselves were cooked right in front of us. I briefly considered going back to get a second one, but restrained myself.

If I'd known that farmers markets came with delicious food stalls like this, I would have visited one much sooner!!

K xx

PS. LB and I made up for our failed attempt at going to Pump this morning with a Step class this afternoon. Since when does Step include tracks that require you to do jump squats across the step while holding a 2.5kg plate?!?! O.o

Canberra update

So Canberra is going well. I'm learning tons at my placement, and getting up at 6.25 in the morning is surprisingly NOT killing me!

Other things that are happening:

• The cats have stopped running away from me
• The babies have stopped giving me the stink eye whenever I'm in their line of sight
• I'm watching all manner of trashy TV (think Dance Moms and Toddlers and Tiaras), on account of I CAN.
• I stole borrowed my mum's Kindle so that I don't have to carry a bunch of books around with me. It's very convenient, but having to turn the page twice as often is INCREDIBLY irritating. 
• I have NOT missed Canberra's buses. Yesterday, a girl was talking on her phone and walked into the road without looking, and the bus driver had to slam on the brakes to not kill her, and a kid went flying into the front of the bus and had to be taken to hospital with potential broken ribs.
• I fell over when the bus driver braked, but didn't injure myself on account of falling on other people. YAY.
• Being a proper grown up makes me sleepy like whoa, and as a result, I've been in bed before 10.30 every night since I got here.
• It seems like my hair REALLY likes Canberra water. I don't think my hair has been this smooth and shiny in years.
• I HAVE ACCESS TO ZUCCHINI PUFFS AND PIDES AGAIN!!!!! Seriously, I don't think you guys entirely understand just how exciting this is. 

What's new with you guys?

K xx

30 Days of Photography: Day 24

The theme for Day 24 was 'animal'. I've been holding off on this one because I knew that once I got to Canberra, I'd have access to cats and therefore be able to take photos of something other than the manky birds in the front garden at home...

So here - meet Missy:

I don't think she was particularly impressed with me shoving a camera in her face...

K xx

Airport o'clock

So I'm currently sitting in the lounge at Gate 5, Terminal 3, Melbourne Airport. I actually had grand plans for recording a vlog at the airport, a la John Green, but this plan went to hell when a) the airport was really busy, b) the gate my plane leaves from is opposite a cafe and people are apparently ALL about the coffee this afternoon, and c) the little announcements woman is on the loud speaker approximately every 30 seconds. Also, a small child just walked past me and yelled "I'M GOING TO DO A WEE!!!". So while that vlog would have been potentially hilarious, it also would have taken me approximately three hundred years to say anything even vaguely understandable, so no.

Anyway, I'm off to Canberra is approximately 25 minutes. I'm equal parts excited and apprehensive. Did you know that it's really hard to pack for a three week internship in a city where you'll be catching up with people and possibly going to the gym and staying in a house with twin five month olds? Because IT IS. So I'm stressing that I haven't packed enough shoes and that I've forgotten my toothbrush and that the airline will somehow lose my luggage in the next hour and I'll be forced to turn up at my internship tomorrow in skinny jeans, Cons and a three year old stripey t-shirt.

Also, despite the fact that I've been flying on the regular since I was a baby, I realised on the way to the airport that the last time I was on a plane was when I flew back from the US in October 2011, and now I'm having a small "Oh God, what if they've changed all the procedures and kick me off the plane for sneezing??" freak out.

Oh wait. The small child just walked past me again and yelled "WE'RE BACK FROM THE TOOOOOOOOOOOOILET!!". And his sisters are smooshing their faces against the windows and smearing them around. If they let them on the plane, clearly they'll let anyone on!

K xx

Capture the Colour

So apparently there's a new meme/competition/thing floating around the blogosphere, all about travel photography. And there are prizes!!! #ZOMG

You want details, you say? BAM: Travel Supermarket are running a competition called Capture The Colour, where they are encouraging bloggers to share photos from their travels featuring 5 colours, being blue, yellow, green, red and white. A grab of the story behind the photo is encouraged! 

I was nominated by the lovely Tash of jouljet to share my five photos. WHEEEEEEEE!!!! (And incidentally? I'm super jealous of Tash because she's in the middle of a three month stint in Toronto, and can therefore have Tim Horton's whenever she wants. Although I'm not super jealous of the disgustingly humid Toronto summer weather. I remember that all too well!!)

ANYWAY. On with the photos!! 

Blue: 

2008 was a rather exciting year for me. I quit my job in Brewery Land (for good!!), went to South and Central America for nine weeks (which didn't QUITE go as planned), and moved to Canberra to start a post graduate degree in museum studies. Just after the great Peruvian medical evacuation saga, I spent a week in the Galapagos. I was literally about a metre away from this blue footed booby on North Seymour island. (And yes, I was freaking out a little because I have bird phobia...)

Yellow: 

You guys have seen this one before. I took it last year when I was in Colorado for Megan's wedding. On my last day before flying home, Lyndsy took me on a drive up to the mountains to see if we could find any early autumn leaves. Boy, did we ever! This patch of aspens was smack in the middle of a pine forest by the side of the highway.

Green: 

This is part of another story that will be coming up (eventually) as part of the Ancient History series. It was quite possibly the most exciting day of my life (and also the most disgusting I have ever felt - 35ish degrees C + 90% humidity + mosquitoes the size of cows = EEEEEEEEEEEUW), because this is Tikal in Guatemala, which was the first of the Mesoamerican ruins we visited. This is the view from the top of Temple V. I love the way the city buildings stick up out of the trees - the only sign that there's anything there at all.

Red:

Sure, I used to live in Canberra, so including a photo of the poppies on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial might be cheating a little bit. But I was living in Melbourne and visiting Canberra when I took this, so it technically still counts as travel photography. The Roll of Honour breaks my heart a little bit more every time I see it - so many men who never made it home. It's nice to see this many poppies and know that they're still remembered, and still cared about.

White:

Washington DC is basically one big city of impressive white stone these days. And they're adding more to it all the time. I love the Lincoln Memorial so I was pretty thrilled last year that I was able to get a photo of it that was a little out of the ordinary!

And now to my nominees!

Kat from The Engineer's Other Life

Deidre from Decoybetty

Pretzel Thief from Pretzel Thief

Kerri from Answers in the Journey

Ness from The Teensy Tiny Insignificant Details

How to enter:
1. Publish a Capture the Colour post on your blog with images for all 5 colours if possible. Bloggers who don’t have photos for all 5 colours will still be in with a chance of winning the iPad category prize but to be eligible to win the £2000 overall prize your blog post should feature photos for all 5 categories.

Within your post, be sure to mention the Travel Supermarket competition page http://www.travelsupermarket.com/c/holidays/capture-the-colour/ so that your readers know what Capture the Colour is.

2. Nominate 5 fellow bloggers to take part in Capture the Colour at the end of your post and notify them via Twitter or Facebook.

3. By 29th August 2012, let Travel Supermarket know you’ve entered by either:

- Linking to your blog post on your Facebook wall mentioning Capture the Colour and tagging the TravelSupermarket.com Facebook page or…
- Linking to your post via Twitter including @travelsupermkt and #capturethecolour in your tweet or…
- Email your entry to capturethecolour@travelsupermarket.com, including your name, email address and phone number.

4. The best Capture the Colour entries will be shared throughout the competition by the expert judges and Travel Supermarket social accounts…

5. Each judge will select their own colour category winners. The judges will then combine to select the overall winner of the £2,000 travel prize. For further information about the judging and the prizes see the Terms & Conditions here.

Want to know more?
If you want to know more about the competition or if you have any questions please get in touch with Travel Supermarket via either Twitter (@travelsupermkt) or email (capturethecolour@travelsupermarket.com).

K xx

Does this mean I'm cool now?

So I realised that I never told you guys about my trip to Canberra. But it can basically be summed up as follows:

• A shit ton of time in the car.
• A slightly troublesome dinner with Em and Matt (pregnant ladies should not eat salmon which turns out to still be raw and frozen in the centre...).
• Breakfast with my delightful friend and former coworker, L.
• The baby shower. Apparently baby showers include trivia games, which our team managed to win, and cake, and lots of tiny pink clothes.
• Discovering quite possibly the trendiest bar in the ACT. Obviously, this would happen nine months AFTER I moved back to Melbourne...
• A delightful Mother's Day lunch of McDonald's fries and an apple purchased at a truck stop and washed in a truck stop bathroom. 
• Did I mention a shit ton of time in the car??? Yeah...

Oh, and while we were EATING our delightful lunch (in the car park at McDonald's, for some reason that I now can't remember) with the windows open, a sparrow hopped up on a the side mirror and tried to FLY INTO THE CAR. About five times. Because what you want when you're eating your super classy McDonald's lunch in the car is the addition of an angry disease-ridden bird...

ANYWAY.

While I was in Canberra, the lovely Ti from A Cup of Ti presented me with this:

The Liebster Blog Award. Thank you so much, Ti - I'm so thrilled! <3

Liebster means dearest or beloved or favourite (I think. Nikki - feel free to correct me!!), and the award is specifically for blogs with less than 200 followers who deserve a little more attention. 

Here are the (slightly boring) rules:
1. Thank the person who gave me the award and link back to them. 
2. Nominate up to five others for the award.
3. Let them know via comment on their blog.
4. Post the award on your blog.

And here are my five other awesome bloggers. Go and give them some love:

Kat from The Engineer's Other Life. Kat's one of my IRL BFFs. She's an amazing photographer, and has just opened an online store for her photos, which you should definitely go and check out! We've had some amazing times together in Thailand, Melbourne AND the US. I have no doubt that there will be numerous adventures together in the future! Her blog is filled with photos I'm crazy jealous of, and sewing projects I have no chance in Hell of recreating, and you should definitely check it out.

Gina from This Is Not Your Blog. There are no words for how much I love Gina. I have no idea how she crams as much into her life as she does - three kids, three blogs, reading, a Masters degree, AND she and her husband and kids are about to move half way across the country. I'd pretty much be comatose by lunchtime dealing with all of that. I'm kind of pining for her batshit crazy painkiller induced dreams (the good ones, not the nightmares!!) from when she had her gall bladder out, but I still do a happy dance every time there's a new post from her.

Alice from The Rabbit Hole of Alice. I adore this girl. Sometimes I'm convinced that we're the same person, only on other sides of the world and born five years apart... (One day, the TARDIS will come along and we'll finally be able to hang out for real!!) Her writing is honest and vulnerable, and she's always there when I need to rant. <3

Pretzel Thief from Pretzel Thief. Holy crap, this girl cracks me up. Her posts are brilliant, and she leaves the most amazing comments. AND she's a fellow member of Team Pacey. One of these days, we'll have to arrange a Melbourne blogger meet up so that we can meet for real. IT WILL BE AMAZING. (There may have to be some gratuitous Joshua Jackson included somewhere. Obviously.)

Katie from Katiefoolery. I love Katie's blog. Her posts are always filled with incredible photos and fun stories, not to mention knitted Daleks!! You really can't go wrong with knitted Daleks. She's constantly going on fun adventures all over Victoria, and seems to find a never ending stream of unusual places to visit.

So, has a sparrow ever tried to get into your car at McDonald's?? Seriously. This is an important question and I need answers!!

K xx

Oh, hai

So I realised over the weekend that it had been a while since I talked to you guys properly, and I figured that it was about time I gave you a general update on life and stuff!

So. Um.... Let's see...

• Group projects are sent by the Devil to torment people.
• I had this Facebook chat conversation with my brother, who's currently in America:  

C: Guess who we met in LA?
Me: Who?
C: Josh Duvall!
Me: Who the hell is Josh Duvall?????
Me: Is he some music person that I'm not cool enough to know about?
Me: Wait.
Me: Do you mean Josh DUHAMEL??
C: Yeah, that's the one. Mr. Fergie.
Me: *head desk*

• I fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally got the replacement for my 50mm prime lens today. HURRAH! There was this whole messy complicated thing where the guy at the camera shop said they'd courier it to me, but then someone else at the camera shop told him that I'd picked up the rest of my camera, and so I was obviously going to pick this up too. So they didn't courier it, and my poor lens was stuck sitting around the camera shop for an entire week.
• Uni is going pretty well. It's still kind of hard to tell, because we've only had one assignment back from each class. But I've got three high distinctions and one distinction, so I guess that's a good sign??
• I'm heading to Canberra for the weekend on Friday morning. Yay? It's for Emily's baby shower, and it will be good to catch up with everyone. But considering my entire experience of baby showers is the episode of Gilmore Girls where Rory and Lorelai go to Sherry's baby shower, I'm slightly scared that I'm going to have to shovel ping pong balls into a shoe box with a baby's face on it, or sniff nappies (American translation: diapers) with various smelly substances in them... 
• I'm over at Childhood Trauma today talking about which of The Avengers are hot (and, you know, other stuff about The Avengers) with some of the greatest girls you can find on 20SB: Lor, Nugs, Harley and Shelly. It's pretty hilariously awesome, and you should check it out. 

How are things with you guys? Also, what the hell happens at a baby shower??? Seriously. Help a girl out.

K xx

Favourite photos of 2011: Volume 4

I've decided to combine the last two categories - 'People' and 'Macro' - into one post, because there didn't seem to be enough of either to warrant a post each. So this might get a little long. But it'll be filled with (what I think are) awesome photos, so you won't really mind right? Right??? It's also occurred to me that a lot of the shots I deem 'macro' shots aren't technically macro. They're just close ups. So I'm going to call them 'macro-ish' and be done with it!

Anyway, without further ado, let's press on.

People

September - Vietnam Nurses' Memorial, Washington DC

September - Oriels vs Red Sox at Fenway Park, Boston

I really wish that wire hadn't been in the way...

September - Megan on her wedding day

December - Little Miss A

She would now be horrified by this photo because she doesn't have
decorative bits of fringe hanging in her face.........

Macro(ish)

January - A bee on lavender, Canberra

May - Blue food colouring in water makes pretty patterns

September - Starfish at the New England Aquarium, Boston

September - Aspen leaves, Colorado

September - Aspen tree, Colorado

So, which one's your favourite?

K xx

Canberra shenanigans, Part 2

If you missed Part 1, it's here. If you've forgotten what happened, Paulie and I drove to Canberra. We stopped at ridiculous sights along the way. I made a Fruit Tingles cake, which was universally declared to be awesome, and then I made a Firefly reference about a cloud and everyone thought I was crazy.

Oh, and this is what I made Matt for his birthday. I meant to include this picture last time and forgot:

Punny, no?

Anyway, on the Sunday, we pottered about the place doing dishes and generally cleaning up from the party  while Paulie went mountain biking at Mount Stromlo because he's much more of a morning person than the rest of us are.

In the afternoon, we went to the Handwritten exhibition at the National Library. Drop what you're doing this minute, go to Canberra, and SEE THAT EXHIBITION. Because it's awesome. You don't get many chances to see documents written by Einstein, Machiavelli, Galileo, Dickens, Darwin and Florence Nightingale all in the one place. Not to mention handwritten scores by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Haydn!  It was pretty crowded, but we still got to see every single object up close and personal. Sample conversations?

Me: OMG, SCHLIEMANN!!!
Matt: I KNOW, SO EXCITING!!
Paulie: Who the hell is Schliemann?
Me and Matt: He discovered Troy!
(#archaeologynerds)

Paulie: Wouldn't it be nice if you could actually READ these things?
Me: [stares at Dickens' letter] "My Dear Mrs Cattermole, I have just received your three notes together. I answer them very briefly for I am only in town to day..."
Paulie: Show off.

Indeed. (In case you're curious, they have full transcriptions available online. I didn't actually memorise the letter from Charles Dickens!)

After the exhibition, we took a wee jaunt up Mount Ainslie, but ran away very quickly before the quite obvious storm decided to break:

And then we went out for Turkish food. I got so excited about the zucchini puffs (kabak mucver) that I did a happy dance in my chair and everyone thought I was crazy. You know, just for a change... But what can I say? I loves me some zucchini puffs!

Monday proved to be quite exciting, starting with inadvertently locking the car keys in the house. Luckily, it turned out that we hadn't locked the door properly, so it was more of a hypothetical panic than a real panic. We headed to the museum, where Paulie looked around and I hung out with some of my ex-work besties and caught up on six months worth of gossip, before doing a quick run around the gallery saying hello to all my objects. And cleaning showcases with my shirt, because apparently I'm incapable of not doing that...

After a bite of lunch, we headed to Parliament House where I neglected to take any photos because I was feeling lazy. It looked much the same as it always does, unsurprisingly! From there, we headed over to the War Memorial. It was slightly rushed because we were trying to cram the whole place into about an hour and a half. But I think we made it through everything that Paulie wanted to see, along with the added bonus of being there for the closing ceremony.

Bugler playing The Last Post at the Memorial closing ceremony

Then came the super exciting part of the day. We headed over to Tongue & Groove to meet up with Vanisha and Louise. And it was so lovely to finally meet them both! I mean, how can you go wrong with bloggy friends, cider and $5 tapas?? ALL AROUND WIN. (And if you go to Tongue & Groove, I highly recommend the southwest chicken tapas! Also, the pizookies are AMAZEBALLS, from past experience)

From there, we headed to the supermarket to get some stuff for dinner. And it wasn't until we were going through the self serve checkout that I remembered that plastic bags are now banned in the ACT. So we got to walk through the Canberra Centre juggling the following because they don't sell the reusable bags at the self serve checkouts:

• 2 bags of rigatoni
• A large red capsicum
• A bag of baby spinach
• Half a butternut pumpkin
• A packet of chicken
• A punnet of cherry tomatoes
• A jar of basil pesto
• A bag of romano cheese
• A tub of Belgian chocolate ice cream
• A bunch of asparagus

And I was in three inch heels, and had to walk down a non-moving travellator. Fun times all round! O.o 

The next morning, we threw all the stuff back in the car and bid farewell to Canberra. One of the cats decided that my bag looked interesting and tried to come with us:

Oh, hai... I can haz trip to Melbourne?

The drive back wasn't particularly exciting - I mean, we'd seen all the spectacular sights on the way up!! - other than that the bag of jelly snakes we'd brought with us had melted into a giant blob in the back of the car, and I had to rip it into chunks before we could eat them. There was one disgustingly memorable moment in which we got stuck behind a truck carrying some kind of sewage. Paulie thought I'd farted (uh, thanks??) and not said anything. I thought there was a massively stinky dead kangaroo somewhere nearby, and that it was coming through the air conditioning system. But no. Sewage truck of chokingly awful stenches. 

And that about sums things up, really. What more could you want from a long weekend than good friends, good cider, delicious cake, awesome historical documents and entertaining stories to tell?!

K xx

Favourite photos of 2011: Volume 1

I realised the other day that it's been a while since I did any photography posts. I am actually planning on FINISHING the 30 Days of Photography challenge at SOME point, I just need to remember to leave the house after dark to take some long exposure shots first! Hopefully I can get some taken in the next week or so, seeing as all my classes for uni are in the evenings.

Anyway, for now, I'm copying my BFF Kat and posting my favourite photos from 2011. Unlike Kat, I'm indecisive and unable to limit myself to a handful of awesome photos. (Mostly because she's a much better photographer than me!!) So to save you an insanely picture-heavy post, I've divided them into the following categories:

• Macro
• People
• Animals
• Natural Environment
• Built Environment

I'm going to start off with Built Environment, because I'm a rebel that way. And they're chronological because it hurts my brain for them not to be.

May - Reflection on the side of the museum

July - Melbourne from the roof of Council House 2

I like the juxtaposition of old and new buildings

August - Millennium Park and Cloud Gate, Chicago

August - Downtown Chicago

I like the light. Also the old/new combination

[Do you guys have any idea how hard it is to write 'Downtown' when you're a fan of Downton Abbey??]

September - The Capitol Building, Washington DC

It's kind of postcard-y. But I don't really care.

September - Metal tree in the American Art Museum Sculpture Garden, Washington DC

September - Enclosed courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Okay. Apparently I *really* like old stuff and new stuff close together...

September - The roof of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC

Because sometimes you just have to point your
camera straight up in the air.

September - Statue of Liberty, New York

I love how it looks like her torch has gone out
because of where the cloud is!

September - Flowers at the 9/11 Memorial, New York

September - 9/11 Memorial, New York

September - Manhattan from Top of the Rock, New York

It's a little overexposed, but I like that it incorporates New York's three most
famous skyscrapers - Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and 30 Rock!

September - The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

For such a (supposedly) haunted building, it's very pretty!

December - St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne

So there you have it! Well. The 'Built Environment' photos, anyway. I'm not convinced that my photography is getting any better over time, but that's completely my own fault for not thinking about the shots more before I take them! 

What do you guys think? And does anyone else love the juxtaposition of old and new like I apparently do? (Hell, does anyone else love the word 'juxtaposition' like I do?!)

Next instalment coming soon, whether you like it or not ;)

K xx

Canberra shenanigans, Part 1

At 9.15 on Friday morning, Paulie and I loaded up his car and set off for Canberra. I was slightly apprehensive about it, as Paulie has a...somewhat limited?...attention span at times, and I once told him that I'd never EVER set foot on a plane with him. Which of course he reminded me of as we headed for the Hume Highway and the seven hour drive to the ACT...

But with the help of Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone and a number of stops, we managed to avoid killing each other. We saw all FOUR of the sights the Hume has to offer between Melbourne and Canberra:

1. The chicken tree just past the exit to Clonbinane:

2. The giant-ish fibreglass Ned Kelly statue at Glenrowan:

3. The HMAS Otway in Holbrook (which is at least 2 hours drive from the ocean):

4. The Dog on the Tuckerbox outside Gundagai:

Holbrook is also home to three of my favourite things about the drive from Melbourne to Canberra.
1. The Holbrook Bakery, which features many tasty noms.
2. This sign:

3. A clothing shop with the following range:

Basically? You need to stop in Holbrook, because it's AWESOME.

We also had a few little incidents with Sparkles, the GPS. Sure, you don't really need a GPS to get from Melbourne to Canberra (get on the Hume, drive straight for 600 kilometres, turn off at the Barton Highway), but it was fun to watch Sparkles have little "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???? YOU'RE DRIVING IN A PADDOCK AT 110 KPH!!!" panic attacks when her software didn't know that the Tarcutta bypass had been opened.

The trip itself was fairly uneventful, with the exception of hitting an ENORMOUS locust, which created a delightful splatter of lumpy bug guts half way up the windscreen, and which felt the need to hang out on the windscreen wiper for a little while so we could appreciate what it had once been. We then spent the next hour of the drive marvelling at how disgusting its remnants were. I'll spare you the photos.

As we came down the Barton Highway, it started to pour with rain. And just outside Murrumbateman (spell check options for Murrumbateman? Guatemalan, masturbation and Northumberland. WHAT.), the rain reached a level of ridiculous where we couldn't even see the road any more.

And of course, that was right about the point where some moron decided he needed to overtake us. Fun times!

Thankfully, we made it into Canberra and to Em and Matt's without any dramas. Although I suspect if Sparkles had said "Continue straight through the roundabout" one more time, she would have been thrown out the window!

I spent Saturday morning making an epic mess Fruit Tingles icing for Matt's birthday cake. But it was so very VERY worth it:

(If you want to make your own Fruit Tingles cake, the recipe is here) The cake disappeared in about five minutes flat after the obligatory Happy Birthdays had been sung, so I guess everyone thought it was pretty good! (Let's just ignore the fact that half the population of Canberra will now develop diabetes thanks to my cake...)

As people were leaving the party that night, a bunch of us ended up standing outside watching a cloud in the distance. There was no rain from it, and you couldn't hear any thunder. But there was CONSTANT lightning, which was very cool indeed. And so of course, this happened:
Guest 1: Wow, look at all the lightning in that cloud!
Guest 2: That's pretty impressive.
Me: I know, right?! It reminds me of that scene in Serenity when the Reaver ships appear out of the ion cloud.
*crickets chirping*
Me: Crap. That was too nerdy, wasn't it?
Guest 1: I've seen Star Wars, does that help?

Look out for my book, How To Avoid Making Friends Through Nerdy Comments, soon to be available in all good bookstores! (Okay, not really. But I'm definitely a subject matter expert on that topic...)

Part 2 of the Canberra trip coming soon. If I tried to cram it all into one post, you'd all die of Kirstiisreallylongwindeditis! And we can't have THAT, now can we?

How was everyone else's weekend? (Also, please tell me that SOMEONE knows what I'm talking about with the whole Reavers/ion cloud thing??)

K xx