2014 - Year in Review

And so we come to New Year's Eve. Another year over, as John Lennon would say in one of the most depressing Christmas songs of ever. And I honestly have no idea what I've done with this year. Other than reading 275 books, that is.

It's been a pretty mixed year for me. Yes, I travelled and read and hung out with my niece. But I also spent a lot of time feeling useless and rudderless and getting absolutely nowhere with my quest to find a job in my field.

But let's focus on the good stuff, because even I don't want to think about the bad stuff. I went to England and Portugal and Canberra (one of these things is not like the others). I not only completed but coordinated (along with Emily) VEDA. I gave up on Vlogmas half way through because other things got in the way, but I coordinated that too.

I successfully completed NaNoWriMo, although I have yet to actually finish the novel I wrote 52,000 words of during November.

I got to spend a couple of weeks with my little brother, several days with my BFF Sara, and I got to meet Willie and hang out together in London. And yes, I will eventually get around to telling you about the rest of my trip.

I cemented some fabulous friendships with wonderful people that I've never met before.

We finally finished recapping Buffy and Angel over on Snark Squad. We started recapping Dawson's Creek and Doctor Who. And I convinced Anna to join me in recapping Supernatural, a thankless task that I'm regularly on the struggle bus with.

I learnt that Phantom Eye is a thing, and that Alice In Wonderland syndrome is oddly fascinating. And I survived without seeing any pictures of eyeballs with pencils/arrows/whatever hanging out of them, for which I am eternally grateful.

I saw Les Miserables and The Book of Mormon live on stage.

I finished (sort of) my 101 in 1001.

I joined Mediavengers (which I promise I'll write more content for in the new year).

I hung out with this dork a lot, and it was fabulous.

And I had a job, albeit part time, for the entire year when I was expecting it to only last for first term. Plus, I'll be back there next year, which was unexpected but pretty exciting.

So it wasn't the best year ever. But it still had plenty of highlights. Here's to a 2015 that features lots of fun and good times, at least a little bit of a travel, and the end to my job hunting woes.

Happy New Year, friends.

K xx

101 in 1001 update

I now have a slightly terrifying 60-something days left of my challenge, and there is no way in hell that I'm going to complete the remaining things on the list. However, a large number of them require money to complete, and when I wrote the list, I was kind of working on the assumption that I would be gainfully employed for the duration of the challenge, rather than for almost none of it...

I haven't yet decided what to do about the ones that I can't complete due to lack of funds. I might roll them over to the next list, or I might just feel guilty about not completing them. Or maybe I'll try and achieve them in a half arsed, cheater-y fashion. I just don't know...

ANYWAY. Let's talk about some of the stuff that I've crossed off or progressed in recent months but haven't updated you on.

6. Watch the AFI Top 100 Movies 2007 edition.
I've crossed another five titles off the list - On the Waterfront, Chinatown, Shane, Apocalypse Now and 12 Angry Men - and the only one I really enjoyed was 12 Angry Men, which was brilliant from start to finish. I didn't mind Chinatown or On the Waterfront. Shane was kind of dull, and Apocalypse Now was so long and painful that it made me want to shoot myself. Also, the water buffalo scene nearly made me vomit. So...yeah. That brings the total to 47. A bunch of the ones that are left are kind of hard to find, so I REALLY doubt that I'm going to finish this by 1 April...

7. Go out for New Year's.
I'm not sure what possessed me to put this on the list, because crowds freak me out, drunk people are annoying as all hell, and getting home would be insanely expensive and a total nightmare. Still, I left the house on New Year's Eve and went to see Desolation of Smaug with Deidre and her husband. Getting home required me to go through the (already packed) city centre, so TECHNICALLY I went out for New Year's. Although by midnight, I was at home and watching Iron Man. Because reasons.

9. Write a short story/novel.
I'm going to go ahead and count the 2,000-ish word one shot fic that I wrote a while back as a short story. Sure, it's kind of cheating, but it's a story and it's short so...yeah.

21. Get a job.
I honestly didn't expect it to take this long, but I HAVE A JOB!! Technically, I only have a job one day a week for the next ten weeks. But it might turn into something more permanent (emphasis on MIGHT) and it's better than the nothing I had before, right??

39. Clean out my closet.
DONE. With an extensive amount of help from Little Miss A and her insistence on me doing a fashion parade of the "maybe" pile, I got rid of a truly terrifying amount of stuff:

40. Go to ten new museums.
I was sitting on 8/10 before I went to New Zealand, and went to the Kaori Museum, the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and Te Papa while I was in the land of the long white cloud. Done and dusted AND stretch targeted.

45. Go on a roadtrip.
I've been on numerous trips to Canberra over the past two and a half years, as well as several day trips around Florida last January. However, I think our jaunt around New Zealand fits the bill most appropriately for this one. Sure, we knew where we were staying every night, but we took our time, stopped off at look outs, navigated from questionable maps, and generally made the most of things. Plus, there was one day where we had literally no plans, and just drove wherever we felt like. We ended up driving about 500km and I got sunburnt in the car. OBVIOUSLY.

68. Go hiking.
Okay, so it wasn't overnight or carrying a tent or whatever. But I wore hiking boots, carried a Goretex jacket, water and provisions. So I'd say that "tramping" in Tongariro National Park totally counts. Full story to come. Eventually...

79. Buy an expensive piece of jewellery for my 30th.
Yeah, the "expensive" part kind of got left by the wayside due to funding issues. But I *did* buy myself a ring not long after my birthday, so I say it counts.

#96 - Save all coins smaller than 50c and go shopping at the end
Last time I gave you an update on this, I had $14. I think I'm now up to about $30. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, SHOPPING SPREE!!!!!! Oh wait...

99. Try 5 new cocktails.
I'd already crossed four of these off the list, two of which were completely disgusting. The fifth, however? AMAZING. If you're ever at the Chateau Tongariro, I highly recommend having a Black Forest hot chocolate in the lounge.

51 down, 5 in progress, just over two months to go. Um, eek?

K xx

Movie Monday: Iron Man

I've made very little secret of the fact that I'm a massive fan of the MCU. And that I think Marvel is approximately 10,000 times better than DC. So it's kind of surprising that it's taken me this long to get around to covering where the latest stream of Marvel awesomeness began. Still, I got there eventually, and if you can think of a better way to spend New Year's Eve than going to see The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, then coming home and watching Iron Man, I think you're wrong.

Reasons why Iron Man is awesome:
1. Robert Downey Jr. I mean, come on. He's one of the most fabulous comeback stories in the world today.
2. Tony's response to testing the Jericho.
3. Gwyneth Paltrow. There are literally no words for how much I adore Pepper Potts in the movies, and I'm not sure anyone else could play her so brilliantly.
4. The press conferences.
5. Paul Bettany as Jarvis. Do not try and tell me Jarvis isn't a character. I will not believe you.
6. Tony's test flights.

Source

7. Clark Gregg as Coulson. As much as I find Agents of SHIELD to be incredibly dull, the MCU wouldn't be the same without Coulson.
8. The scene where Pepper's stealing files.
9. Terrence Howard as Rhodey. I adore Don Cheadle as Rhodey, but there's just something about Terrence Howard in the first one that makes him seem more...military. Or something. IDK, he's great.
10. The scene where the eyes on Obadiah's suit light up in the darkness.
11. Proof That Tony Stark Has A Heart.

Source

12. Ingenuity. Who else but Tony Stark could design and build a suit like that while being held captive in Afghanistan?
13. Jeff Bridges. He's a brilliant villain that you didn't see coming.
14. Tony hiding on the belly of a fighter jet.
15. The Mark 1 suit. Ugly as hell, but does the job.
16. Replacing Tony's arc reactor.

I tried really hard to find a gifset of this scene. Womp womp. Also, source.

17. The soundtrack.
18. Defending the innocent, then letting them get their own back.
19. The house in Malibu. I mean, come on. That house is fabulous.
20. Dummy and the fire extinguisher.

Plus, the following quotes:
- "Iron Man. That's kind of catchy. It's got a nice ring to it. I mean it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold titanium alloy, but it's kind of provocative, the imagery anyway."
- "So, you're a man who has everything...and nothing."
- "Okay, this is where I DON'T want to be."
- "Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!"
- "Well, Ms. Brown. It's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we got. I guarantee you the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals." "Rehearse that much?" "Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime."
- "Please don't follow me around with it either because I feel like I'm going to catch on fire spontaneously. Just stand down. If something happens, then come in."
- "Am I making you uncomfortable?" "Oh, no, I always forget to wear deodorant and dance with my boss in a room full of people I work with in a dress with no back.
- "The truth is...I am Iron Man."
- "If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college."
- "You are institutionally incapable of being responsible."
- "Who the hell are you?" "Nick Fury. Director of SHIELD." "Ah." "I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative."
- "I do anything and everything that Mr. Stark requires. Including occasionally taking out the trash."
- "Oh, my God, you crazy son of a bitch! You owe me a plane, you know that, right?" "Yeah, well, technically he hit me, so..."
- "What is going on in here?!" "Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."
- "Doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?!"
- "I'm sorry. This is the fun-vee. The humdrum-vee is back there."
- "Just call us SHIELD."
- "Good God, you're a woman! I honestly, I couldn't have called that. I mean, I would apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first." "I'm an airman."
- "Oh... ah... EWW, there's pus!" "It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge. It's from the device, not my body." "It smells!" "Yeah, it does."

Happy Monday, y'all.

K xx

Reso-what-tions?

Happy New Year, kids!

So last year, I actually wrote down my goals for the year, and it turned out reasonably well. As I said then, I don't like calling them resolutions because that tends to come with the expectation that they'll be abandoned by about the sixth of January. And I don't like to make them really specific - you know, the "lose 5kg" type - because you inevitably feel shit about yourself if you only lose 4.5kg.

So. Let's get to this year's goals, shall we?

1. Go to the gym regularly
Last year, I had "get fit" on the list. My fitness has definitely improved over this time last year, but after two weeks away from the gym when I was in New Zealand, I've struggled to get back into the routine and haven't been since a week before Christmas. So I need to get back into the habit of going to the gym AT LEAST twice a week. Three times a week would be better. I have ambitions to go four times a week, but I should probably build up to that, shouldn't I?!

2. Be accountable
This is partly about taking responsibility for my actions and their outcomes, but part of it relates to food. While I was in New Zealand, I stopped using MyFitnessPal, and I haven't really used it since. So I need to get back into the habit of logging what I eat and being accountable for it, rather than doing an "I ate pretty well today so I can just eat an extra slice of cheese and it won't really make a difference" thing.

3. Procrastinate less
I am the queen of procrastination, and I really need to work on abdicating my throne. Especially when it comes to job applications - "Oh, it's not due for two days" isn't a valid reason to leave the one remaining selection criterion for tomorrow, yo.

4. Keep writing
Last year, I had "write something ELSE" on the list. I didn't participate in NaNoWriMo, on account of being in New Zealand for half of it. Still, I did start working on something vaguely resembling an idea for a novel, which is currently standing at about 7,500 words. Plus, I wrote a 2,000-ish word one shot thing. So my goal for this year is to just keep writing, and try to turn that 7,500 words into something more substantial.

5. Vlog at least once a month
My biggest problem with this one is coming up with a topic every month, but I figure if I start keeping a list of things I want to talk about, maybe it'll be easier. I already have two ideas written down, so I'm good until March at this stage! I'm also planning on doing VEDA again, because it was awesome.

6. Buy what I need, rather than what I want
I think I did better last year at not doing the whole "Oh, this movie is only $20, I can totally afford that!" thing. This year I need to work on not just buying five new books for my Kindle rather than going to the library... This isn't to say that I can NEVER buy things that I want. It just means I need to put priorities in place when it comes to my spending.

7. Get in the damned photo, again
I definitely did better on this one last year. In 2012, I was tagged in 5 photos on Facebook, and only two of them were actually of me (in one of them, I was a small child, so it doesn't really count). In 2013? I was tagged in 54 photos on Facebook, and 43 of them were actually of me. Definitely an improvement! Hopefully I can keep it up this year...

8. Keep track of how many pages I read each day. 
This one is more curiosity than an attempt to read a certain number of pages. I mean, Goodreads may track how many pages I read each year, but I'm really interested to see what my average number of pages is, as well as the highest and lowest numbers. I tracked it for the last two weeks of December, and my highest was 581 pages and the lowest was 92.

9. DFTBA
Pretty self explanatory and one that will probably make the list every year.

Are you making resolutions or goals for this year? What are they?

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

A most unfortunate curse

So Kat mentioned in the comments of my last post something that I'd completely forgotten about - that Bethells Beach wasn't quite as close to deserted as we would have liked, in that there was a man quite a distance down the beach wandering around on his own who proved, upon closer (but not too close) examination to be rather elderly and completely naked.

And this, in turn, reminded me of another incident - New Year's Eve two years ago. In case you weren't around in those days and/or are too lazy to click on that link, I'll recap. I went to Fairhaven with my brother and a bunch of his mates. We decided that we'd wander down to the beach for actual midnight, and watch the fireworks display from Lorne across the water.

Somehow, we ended up with a crapton of glowsticks and sparklers, and so were playing around with those as 2012 commenced. Shortly thereafter, an incredibly drunk and incredibly naked New Zealander staggered up out of the surf. Someone informed this random dude that he should be carrying a glowstick so that we knew where he was, and didn't have to see his junk. Upon which he grabbed a glowstick from someone, shoved it between his butt cheeks, and ran off down the beach.

He then bent down to pick up his clothes, causing the glowstick to fall out from between his butt cheeks. So he kindly picked it up and threw it back to us. You've never seen a group of people scatter so quickly as when the butt germs glowstick fell towards us.

ANYWAY. Apparently that incident served as a precedent, and now I'm cursed to see naked New Zealanders every time I go to the beach. Because I'm about 99% sure I didn't go to the beach at all in between those two random-naked-New-Zealander events. And there was a small naked child running around during the five minutes Kim and I spent at the beach while I was in Wellington.

At least now I have a good excuse not to go to the beach?? "Oh, I can't, sorry. I'm cursed, you see. If I go with you, a naked New Zealander will appear and everything will get slightly weird..."

Are you randomly cursed in any way?

K xx

Out with the old...

Happy New Year, kids!! Hope you all had a good one. I spent mine having a delicious dinner, cider and silliness with one of my oldest friends, and watching the fireworks from the city. Okay, so that last part happened from QUITE some distance - the powers that be had announced that this year, you'd be able to see the city fireworks from anywhere you could see the city skyline. So we wandered down the road to a freeway overpass. I was too lazy to haul my SLR out of the cupboard, but I took a couple of pictures on my phone:

It was much more impressive in person...

Also, here's what they looked like up close, apparently:

Photo: Jay Town. Source.

ANYWAY. A new year traditionally means resolutions. But considering the general assumption is that resolutions will get thrown by the wayside by January 7th, I'm going to go ahead and call these 'goals' or 'projects' or 'schmesolutions' instead.

1. Get fit. I know the traditional one is "Lose [insert number here] kilos". But I feel like inserting a number there dooms me to failure. So I shall stick with the non-specific instead, and hope that weight loss is an associated side effect. I need to start exercising more regularly than I currently do, and not indulging in "It's raining, I can't possibly go to the gym" days like I did in 2012. Nikki and I have vague plans to keep each other in check on this one. Anyone else need a support system and want to join in??

2. Finish what I start. Primarily, this is about my Masters. All things going to plan, I should be finished by June. But I'm also going to add in things relating to the blog - I need to get moving on my 101 in 1001 challenge, given that I now have a year and three months in which to finish it. I also need to finish my Photography Challenge, and my Cookbook Challenge, both of which were started in 2011. Oy. This goal will NOT apply to super sucky books that I decide need to be abandoned for the sake of my sanity, or TV shows that get really shit after a certain point. The X-Files, I'm looking at you.

3. Sort out my finances. In part, this means applying for jobs when I get back from the US in February, and not stopping because I hate writing applications and going to interviews and generally trying to convince employers that I'm awesome and not a socially awkward weirdo who can't construct a coherent answer under pressure. But it ALSO means not buying people $100 birthday presents because I feel guilty about only spending $10 (even though that's all I can afford to spend), or justifying the purchase of books or DVDs  to myself because they were ONLY $20. Buy what you NEED, not what you want, you idiot.

4. Write something ELSE. Sure, I write a lot of blog posts (a LOT a lot when you add Snark Squad to the equation). And I write far more incredibly boring essays than I would like. But I see how many of my friends are doing NaNoWriMo or who are sending novels out to publishers, and I'm seriously impressed. I feel like I should give it a go this year, if only to see what I can come up with. Writing prompts are more than welcome!

5. Get in the damned photo. I was tagged in a whopping FIVE photos on Facebook in 2012. One was of a bus shelter with Doctor Who related graffiti on it. Two were of food. One was of me as a little kid. I mean, if I can publish half a dozen vlogs without worrying about how much of an idiot I look, I'm pretty sure I can get in the photo more often.

6. Be a better friend. I've found that I've started doing this thing where I assume because I've mentioned something on my blog or on Twitter, that EVERYONE knows about it. I need to work harder this year at regularly contacting the people who don't spend their entire lives on the internet. And remembering that sometimes, it's a good idea to pick up the phone and call someone.

7. Make the most of my travel opportunities. My upcoming trip to the US (I leave in TWO DAYS!!) is looking like it might be the last bit of travel I do for a while for reasons that mostly relate to number 3 on this list. Rather than doing my usual routine of spending free time sitting in hotel rooms because they have free wifi, I should go outside, see the sights, and do things that I can't do at home.

8. DFTBA. Pretty self explanatory, really!

What are you planning to focus on in 2013?

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. 

Year of the Dragon

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!! Tonight may officially mark the beginning of the Year of the Dragon, but the celebrations began in Melbourne over the course of the past few weeks. So last weekend, we went on a little family excursion to the Victoria Street Lunar New Year festival.

It was a really novel experience to be walking down the middle of one of Melbourne's busiest streets, and there were an INSANE number of people there. But it was totally worth it - it was so full of colour and life and fire crackers and delicious smelling food.

Plus, Little Miss A had an absolute blast on a giant slide that was shaped like the sinking Titanic. In bad taste? Definitely. Tons of fun? Apparently.

Anyway, I suspect my photos can sum it up better than I can, so I'll give you those instead:

The crowds

A spiralled potato on a stick. Battered, deep fried, covered  in salt. DELICIOUS. And apparently Korean...

Lion dancers

Giant slide shaped like the Titanic. You climb up the middle and hurl yourself
down either side like an aeroplane evacuation slide!

Fire cracker residue in the tram tracks

More lion dancing

Has anyone else been celebrating the Lunar New Year?

K xx

Um... What just happened?

So, kids. Here we are in 2012! How were your New Year's celebrations? Mine were...interesting. Here's what happened:

• I went to the beach with my brother and his friends
• Took a scenic tour of Melbourne to get there because you can't get on the freeway going south where we thought you could #mapreadinggeniuses

Source

• I turned into a four year old and sat in the back of the car going "Are we there yet? I'M SOOOOOOO HUUUUUUUUUUUNGRY!!!!" over and over again until we stopped.
• Had lunch at McDonald's. They now have to list the nutrition information on the menu boards. Pretty sure one burger combo shouldn't contain 75% of your daily calorie intake *shudder*
• Had a view of the lighthouse from Round the Twist from the balcony, but neglected to take even a single picture of it...
• Went to the beach. Highly unusual for me. I spent my time there covering as much of me as possible with a towel to prevent sunburn, trying to prevent sand from getting in the spine of my book, and trying to take photos without looking like a creeper. 

• Overheard one of my brother's friends coin the term 'festively plump'. Decided it's total genius.
• Sat through a LOT of "That's what she said" jokes. 
• Alternated between being intrigued and terrified (if you're new around here: Hi, I have bird phobia) by the massive numbers of king parrots, kookaburras and crimson rosellas that turned up at the bird feeders hanging off the side of the deck

• Played with glow sticks and sparklers, because apparently we're all five years old
• Between 10 of us, we ate our way through 2.3 KILOGRAMS of jelly snakes. 

Source

As for midnight, we all walked from the house down to the beach. We reached the beach with about a minute to spare until the new year, and brought out a bunch more glow sticks and a sparkler bomb, which fizzled out miserably. A bunch of small children at a nearby house screaming the countdown at the top of their lungs proved very helpful in establishing that 2011 was nearly over. From the beach, we could see the fireworks at Lorne, further down the coast, along with some incredibly illegal (but very pretty!) fireworks being set off by a bunch of people about 100 metres down the beach. 

I also spent a chunk of time staring up at the sky, because the stars were AMAZING. Sadly, a TARDIS didn't appear... *sigh*

Source

Then, out of nowhere, a random New Zealander appeared. He was stark naked (I gather skinny dipping was involved), very drunk, and *very* impressionable. Someone said something along the lines of "Jeez, mate. You should carry a glow stick so we know where you are and can avoid you [and, by extension, seeing your junk]!" In response, he grabbed a glow stick from someone, jammed it between his butt cheeks, and ran off down the beach.

Well. We could CERTAINLY see him then. Up until the point where he bent down to pick up his clothes, and the glow stick fell out. And he picked it up and THREW IT BACK TO US. This led to much screaming and yelling and "DON'T TOUCH THE GREEN ONE, IT HAS POO GERMS!!!"-ing from certain inebriated members of our group (not me), and the offending glow stick being kicked into a hole on the beach and buried. I pity the small child that inevitably found it the following day... O.o

So there you have it. Between that and Paulie telling me the next morning that he was woken up at 4am by an unidentified couple having very enthusiastic sex (complete with arse slapping) upstairs, I believe 2012 is keen to crown itself The Year of 'What The Fuck Just Happened?'...

Anyone else have any interesting New Year's experiences?

K xx

2011 in review

Confession: I just wrote "2001 in review" in the title line. Eventually, Brain, you're going to have to get used to writing a 1 rather than a 0...

Anyway. Here we are at the end of 2011. I honestly can't believe how fast this year has gone!! Christmas Day in Melbourne brought massive thunderstorms:

A shit ton of Doctor Who themed presents:

(In case you can't tell, that's the complete series 1-4 boxset, the complete specials box set, the 2010 Christmas special, the Doctor Who equivalent of Where's Wally, and a box of fruit flavoured Dalek shaped candy. WIN)

And an ice cream maker.

It's been quite the eventful year. I've written over 200 posts here, along with two guest posts.

January brought the dreaded Summernats car festival and me talking about being afraid of butterflies. It also brought the start of my cookbook challenge.

In February, I joined Twitter. I honestly can't believe it was less than a year ago. I also ploughed my way through five cookbook challenge recipes.

March featured me having to talk to a group of small children at work, reaching 150 posts, and being a bridesmaid for Em and Matt. I also went to see Red Riding Hood at the movies, and wished to God I hadn't.

April started off my participation in the 30 Days of Books challenge. It ended with me turning 28.

May started with ninjabread men. (That post brings me a truly disturbing amount of traffic) I also booked my trip to the US.

June? June was a big one. For starters, the gallery opened. (And if anyone wants any ACTUAL information on it, just flick me an email!) I also reached 200 posts, saw X-Men First Class in gold class, posted more random crap about myself than anyone ever wanted to know, and wrote a love letter to the BBC.

In July, I finally left Canberra and moved back to Melbourne. I also finished the 30 Days of Books challenge. And to fill the challenge void in my life, I decided I needed to do a Day Zero list.

August saw me head to Chicago for the 20SB Summit. It was amazing. As was meeting Sweeney, Lor and Penny.

September was spent hanging out with the bestest friends a girl could ever ask for, and visiting Colorado, Washington DC, New York and Boston. And an unexpected 24 hour stop over in Los Angeles. (Okay, most of those posts were written in October. That's totally not the point)

October saw the start of my Movie Mondays series. It also featured me crying a lot, when we had to have my beloved Domino put to sleep.

In November, I participated in National Blog Posting Month, and bored you all senseless wrote many wonderful posts about nothing. I also started the 30 Day Photography Challenge, which I honestly haven't forgotten about. I also took advantage of my unemployment to cross a few more things off the cookbook challenge list, and wrote a GIF-filled love letter to Doctor Who.

And that brings us to December, and the launch of Dessert Day with the lovely Deidre!

It's been a year filled with ups and downs, but also a lot of wonderful memories. So roll on 2012 - I can't wait to see what you've got to throw at me.

Source Also? I really hope you're right, Tennant.

I'm off to the beach with a bunch of friends for New Year's Eve. It's meant to be insanely hot, so it's definitely the place to be!

Who's doing something exciting for New Year's? And how's 2011 treated you?

K xx

The dregs of 2010

So, 2010 is over. As much as I spent the last month or so of it desperately wanting it to end, it didn't really treat me THAT badly. I spent the year hanging out with my BFF, Sara. I went to Tassie and the Northern Territory. I discovered roller derby and Ashes to Ashes, bought an SLR, and moved house AGAIN. And I baked. A lot... And I spent the last week of 2010 running around like a crazy person catching up with what seemed like half of Melbourne...

Unlike my last housemate, D was around for Christmas, and felt the need to decorate accordingly:

On the subject of Christmas, here's what I got my younger brother:

He's 25, incidentally. It turned out he already had Lego Harry Potter for Wii, so he's changed it for Donkey Kong for Wii - a much more mature choice... ;) Course, Sara and I promptly took over the Wii and played Lego Harry Potter for the better part of six hours every day we were there, so I expect he's taking my being back in Canberra as a positive thing, because it means he can actually access his Wii again...

Oh, and the night before I left for Melbourne, my housemate gave me my Christmas present:

Well, HELLO, Jake Gyllenhaal!! D officially knows me too well... :D

Our flight to Melbourne left at 8.45pm, which meant there was a pretty amazing sunset over the wing of the plane:

Christmas was the usual family nonsense, except with the added disadvantage of my poor puppy being not very well - he had to have a tooth removed on the 23rd, and then turned out to be allergic to the antibiotics he was on, and was generally pretty miserable.

Aaaaaaanyway, the bit after Christmas was FAR more enjoyable. I went to Richmond Hill Cafe for breakfast with my best friend from kindergarten, Char. I highly recommend the cheesy toast. GodDAMN, that stuff was good... I had a mini-Peru reunion with Jamie and Matt, accompanied by cider. Mmmmm, delicious cider...

I caught up with my BFF, Kat, who I've not seen since Thailand over a year ago. There were burritos, Thai food (although I'm pretty sure the pad thai in Phuket didn't feature potatoes or pumpkin...), cider, and large quantities of chocolate, along with a hefty quantity of ugly clothes mocking in the sales. But mostly, there was chocolate. We started out at Koko Black in the Block Arcade:

That's their incredible chocolate mousse on the left, and the summer special blood orange iced chocolate on the right. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good...

I, on the other hand, had their summer special strawberry iced chocolate.

It was pretty damned good, although nowhere near as good as last year's special raspberry iced chocolate. That was the bomb... *sigh* And then I *may* have bought a crapload of chocolates to take home. After Koko Black, there was a stop off at Haigh's in Royal Arcade for some chocolate freckles. I'm not a big fan of Haigh's - I'm really not sure why - but their freckles are awesome. Like an Easter egg dipped in hundreds and thousands. Mmmmmmmmmm...
In addition to a great day filled with rather more food than was necessary, Kat presented me with this apron:

 
She made it herself, as evidenced by the tag:

 
In return, being a talentless hack deprived of her baking pans, presented her with both the book and the DVD of Pride and Prejudice - the BBC version, obviously. I would NEVER force anyone to sit through the Keira Knightley/Matthew McFugly version. It's craptacular.
 
But that's beside the point. I also went on a lens buying expedition with Jamie's assistance, and came home several hundred dollars poorer, but carrying this:

 
It's pretty damned awesome, even though I haven't been able to try it out to the best of its ability yet. It's a 55mm - 300mm lens. Which basically means it can go from this:

 
To this without moving an inch:

 
I can't wait to test it out properly... Although I suspect I'm going to need to invest in a tripod before long. Hurrah - another trip to the camera shop!!! :D
 
I also got to catch up with Chelle, which featured chocolate chip muffins, and the better part of a year's worth of gossip. Although we STILL didn't get to do our "we're FINALLY able to consume alcohol at the same time" celebration *sigh*. Chelle - it'll happen eventually. I'll make sure of it... ;)
 
New Year's Eve, being 41 degrees, was spent hiding from the heat, playing Harry Potter and watching (and some degree of mocking - as much as I love it, it is pretty freaking ridiculous...) season 3 of True Blood. A much better alternative to going out in public, as far as I'm concerned!
 
And there we have it. I flew back to the 'berra this afternoon, and I really have to say, I hate it a little bit more every time I do... Course, it wasn't helped by the fact that I had a taxi driver who considered himself too good to help me with my luggage... Now there's just tomorrow to go, and then it's back to work *sigh*
 
Oh well. At least it's a short week, and I can get some baking done at the weekend, and christen both my shiny new apron, and my shiny new camera lens. Awesome sauce...
 
Hope everyone's Christmas and New Year was good!
 
K xx