acceptance.

a great way of encouraging all the best parts of you to shine through,
a great way of stimulating of your own acceptance of who you are and where you fit;

is to surround yourself with good friends whose diverse characters and skills have led them through equally diverse places and positions and experiences,

...to remind yourself that the entire notion of 'normality' is utter bullshit, and that happiness is everywhere you care to look for it.

everything is going to be ok. it's easier to remind yourself of this when your friends are supportive, and not competitive.

silent disco.

always my favorite way to party.

girls just wanna have fun (again)

good friends, good times. thanks for the memories. 

the little prince.

last supper.

friday was the last day i cooked for my housemates. and so i treated them to some sushi and grilled rice balls. :)

i found a recipe for rice balls on www.bento.com, but it called for numerous hyper-linked ingredients, which had their very own recipes which took literally weeks to make (reminiscent of polyjuice potion mebe?). so i just mixed sushi rice with some rice vinegar and soy sauce and it seemed to do the trick. dobbed a blob of miso on the top of each one and hey presto!

my best friend.

I love her. And Portobello Road.

girls just wanna have fun.

Today was my friends Inga's birthday, so we had a BBQ and a little picnic in the garden. Craig set up his record player to play Cyndi Lauper and Bob Marley out the window. It was a little bit awesome.

Almost as awesome as this video clip, which I only saw for the first time today.

If there was ever a reason to shave off half your hair and dye the rest red...I think I just found it.

heckyeatumblr#9.

http://tumblr.com/xsx1xkgzm5

9. Write about each of the places which you have called 'home'.


Kelso Road, Bury St Edmunds


This is the house where I grew up. I lived here for 11 happy years with my Mum, Dad, sister and number of guinea-pigs and gerbils. It was a smallish house, with a little garden. I remember that every surface was covered in ornamental pigs or pot plants, courtesy of Mum. We had a rubber plant which grew all the way around the living room ceiling. There was at least one cabinet full of the pigs, and they filled the mantelpiece of the fireplace, in front of which sat four very heavy brass crocodiles, which were most definitely not meant to be toys but were always used as such.


There was one bathroom, which was decorated luminous turquoise and black, with some sort of fish in every potential fishy space (ie on top of the toilet, on the window ledge, on the ceiling).


The upstairs hallway, like the rest of the house, was small, but it managed to have room for a huge copy of Steve Pearson's 'Wings of Love', with an overly ornate gold frame.

The Warren

This is the first house my parents ever looked at buying, but as a newly wed couple they couldn't afford it. Fifteen years later the house went back up on the market and they could - so we moved 10 minutes up the road into a beautiful chalet bungalow with a large (for a town-house) garden. We've been here 11 years now, and since then basically re-built the whole thing, as a lot of work was needed. I love this house. It really is like a warren; there's a main hallway with lots of little rooms coming off it, including a hidden staircase which leads to the upstairs, where I live when I come home now. Nice and private since my sister moved out two years ago. Mum and Dad spend all their time in the garden with various odd jobs and gardening, Mum grows heaps of vegetables when the weather lets her, and Dad takes care of all the fruit trees and rhubarb. There's lots of 'stuff' everywhere, but I love all of it, because it's home. Since my grandparents died, we took on some of the ornaments and furniture and paintings. They lived in a really big old country house with high ceilings; their things look COMPLETELY out of place here, but I think that's pretty cool. My great-grandmother was a painter, and we have several of her paintings up, even though they take up half the bloody wall space.


The Ziggurats
 I lived on campus for my first year at university. I had my own little room in a flat for 14 people on the ground floor of the the 'ziggurats', which are listed buildings. Sharing a kitchen with 13 other people was...interesting. And I definitely wouldn't live there again. But I made some really cool friends, and I am glad I spent my first year there.

Bland Road

I have lived here on and off for the past three years, though with different people as registered 'tenants' at each of the addresses, I have more or less lived with the same group of friends, as everyone loiters and we hang out a lot, and cook for each other. I spend a lot of my time being miserable and whining about the state of the house, as it's pretty gross...no-one else really cleans apart from me. To be honest, it's a shame that I have had to live with the friends that I have lived with because if we had never been housemates I think we would all be closer, as I wouldn't be so angry with them a lot of the time. Despite this, I love being able to eat with my friends every evening, and I love that I have met and got to know some of the most interesting, independent, cultured, obscure (?!), honest, loving and passionate people I think I have ever met. As well as this, adventures with aforesaid house mates make for i) some pretty cool anecdotes and ii) some vital life-lessons in patience....

Evatt House

This is where I lived during my year at Newcastle Uni, Australia. I loved it here. There were two 'quads' comprised of 10 blocks in total, each block being two flats of 10. Each flat had their own 'Residential Assistant', and participated in 'blunctions' regularly, which could have been trips to a restaurant, to a movie, dessert night etc...The college had heaps of activities going on all the time, games and nights out....I miss it :( It's also where I met my boyfriend, Sam. He lived just across the hallway from me...we would stay up late talking on facebook chat because we were too shy to go and see each other...sometimes I could hear him typing...Unfortunately keyboards are a major part of our relationship again now, but not for too much longer. I made some really awesome friends here, and even though lots of them have moved on to new cities/ states, I really hope they can come visit/ I have enough money to go and visit them.

Writing all this is making me very sad. So I'll stop now. 

denmark, WA.

I made some wonderful, inspiring friends. One day I'll go back and visit them, I just hope I can make them proud.

a day in the park set.

the date is set but the details are hazy.

i'm going home to see my beautiful boy and a few lovely friends, but leaving home and my beautiful friends and family behind.

things like this are helping to get excited about what the future might bring, instead of worrying.

anger.

As I type, my ears are falling victim to 'Anger' tag radio on last.fm. Feel free to add your own background music. Just make sure it's angry.

In the past 4 years of study, I have had some wonderful wonderful experiences. Coming to university has been the single greatest decision I have ever made.

HOWEVER. When I graduate, I don't just want a BSc (Hons). I also want an Honorary Patience Diploma.

In the past four years of study, I have lived with some truly beautiful, intelligent, fun, enlightening, open minded and genuine people. And in their own little way, I have loved each and every one of them for the special person they are.

HOWEVER.

In the past four years of study, I have lived with some selfish, ignorant and dirty idiots too. I still value who they are and enjoy their company, and I have no doubt we will stay in touch. But I can't wait to not be sharing any of my space with them any more.

That you can share a living space with just 4 other friends without holding any regard for their lifestyle or attitudes is just mind boggling. And it never fails to be. I have hit breaking point so many times. I have cried so many times. I have screamed so many times. I have had countless patient little talks so many times. But it will never come to anything.

I know that there isn't long to go. I know that these people are my friends. But the fact that I know, and my friends know, and my family know that I am far from an unreasonable person- but that I am admitting that I am finding this to be a HUGE mental strain to maintain politeness around these people - has to mean something.

It's time to grow up now.

So clean your fucking shit up.

To put it bluntly, this is all I want:
Hoover floors at least once a week/ when they are dirty!
Clean the sink and draining board at least once a week/ when they are empty!
Empty the bins when they are full!
Wipe down the stove when you have finished cooking!
Clean out the microwave if you make it dirty/ notice it's already dirty!
Do you like looking at pubes on the sink while you're brushing your teeth? Clean the sink when it's dirty!
Clean the shower tray once a week/ when you can see it's dirty!
Put rubbish in the bin (that one's a real challenge.)
Abide by the rules of the contract: yes, our landlord is a dick. This doesn't mean that your disregard of the contract is a good way to get back at him: it means he is much more likely to keep our deposit...So yes, a bit of a paradox there. But just fucking do it, because it's my fucking money.

Basically: yes, it takes effort to keep a house clean. But we're adults living in a shared space. More importantly, we're friends living in a shared space. So respect our space, respect me, respect each other.

Yup.

Now I am going to go for a very very angry run and burn lots and lots of calories. Then I am going to get drunk.

Then I won't be angry anymore.

cappadocia.

June 2008.