The best motivation.

So yesterday marked my the first day back at uni for 2011. That's right, after six, long years - I'm finally in my seventh. If I didn't think I had staying power before, I certainly do now!

You can't deny it.

So I drove in to the cement carpark where nothing had changed and I pay a premium to be.

But I can imagine that it's cheap compared to many.

I walked through the over airconditioned office and was spoken to like I was the biggest inconvenience known to man, or in this case, woman, and I felt like I was home.

Then I went into the cafeteria, where I paid $5.50 for a ham and cheese sandwich, and $3.50 for a small, diet coke. I washed up in the bathroom with no soap, a disctint smell of urine and toilet paper on the floor, and then hiked through the tired halls to the lecture theatre to find my seat.

The lecture began, and I huffed and sighed and grunted - trying in vain to get comfortable in the flip down plastic they pass off as seats. I rolled my eyes when told we should try to cram as much into our lives and cope, all the while getting fantastic marks. Because apparently it looks better on your resume if you can cook, clean, work a job, volunteer in the community on the side whilst studying full time and still get distinctions. It shows you are capable of multitasking.

I wonder if they would say the same if it was a lecture theatre full of men?

Then I hoorayed when the next lecturer told us the importance of prioritising this year. And then rolled my eyes again at the conflicting advice.

Typical University.

And then, when I was feeling stressed, and annoyed, and hungry (the ham sandwich didn't cut it) - they flashed up this:

To see those words. Final year! I can't believe it. All the hard work, sweat, tears and maybe a few times - blood (!) I am about to finish what I started all those years ago. And you know what? I'll probably miss the piss toilets and the shitty, overpriced food. I'll even miss the cement carpark! But at the same time, Im so excited to be something I only ever dreamed of being. A nurse.

Wish me luck and good learning vibes!

xx

21 - 8 = 13.

And that is the amount of days that have gone by without a post to speak of. Why is this so? Well - really, it's because I have been so completely flat out. Doing nothing - but fun things.

That's right. The kids went back to school/kindy/daycare, which means I have had three days a week with no kids, so whilst I have done the right thing some of the time; meaning I have started to prepare for this coming semester at uni, and I have been learning how to do drug calculations.

Without a calculator. I know. Scary and shit huh?

I have also been doing a whole lot of shopping, drinking coffee,

Gloria Jeans staff may or may not know my name.

And catching up on Season One of The OC (which, by the way, I never watched the first time because I thought it was lame. I'm still convinced it's not lame, but I'm watching it all the same). That rhymed.

And amongst all of this nothingness, there has been a whole lot of nothing going on in the brain department too. So posts that have been started and deleted have gone a little something like this.

"So, how's stuff? Do you like stuff? I like stuff. 


How annoying are people? Do people annoy you? People annoy me.


How hard are drug calcs? Drug calcs are so hard without a calculator. I hate maths."


So yeah. Be grateful, internets, that I haven't blogged in thirteen days. Because otherwise you would actually be dumber after reading it. And have wasted valuable time, which could be said about this post. Except that I thought I would share with you my art house film I talked about ages ago...you know the one for the family competition??

Well, here is my entry. It features none other than Eddie, from which the name of this blog was inspired.

Enjoy.

Comment your thoughts on the meaning of, or lack of, the film you are about to embark on.

xx

Holy No Post Batman!

Yep, I know. Blog drought. But you know what they say - the greater the drought, the greater the flood - which is a really bad pun in relation to the flood of photos about to hit this post, and also a little not cool in relation to QLD and their floods.

Different. Not the same. I am totally aware of this.

So, where have you been? Well, on top of the Annual Australia Day/Triple J Hottest 100 BBQ which is an event I look forward from on the 27th of January every year, all year, there is another such event. The Annual Big Day Out. Which for those of you who don't know what that is

Get out of under that rock you have been hiding under..

It's where a whole lot of awesome Australian and International bands group together as one and tour the Australia, putting on all ages, one day events in major cities across Australia. Which, by the way DOES include Adelaide - so there! We are so totally major.

Suck it.

And it is totally all ages (over 15), from teens to great grandpas. Honestly, how awesome are old rockers in The Who t-shirts?

Adam and I have been every year we've been together minus a few where unforeseen circumstances like trips to England (which, incidentally was foreseen) and pregnancy and breastfeeding episodes (half of which were also foreseen) have not allowed this to occur. Actually, Adam totally broke my BDO cherry by buying me my first ticket back in 2002.

He's awesome like that.

Over the years it has expanded to include an entire weekend away, as we quickly came to realise that the Big Day Out was so big, it needed a day of recovery. So we conned the parentals to particpate by adopting our kids for a whole weekend, and now the BDO is a whole, big, fat weekend out. That's right, the BDO followed by two nights in a hotel room. Where we sleep.

And stuff.

There is so much I love about the BDO which includes that fact that it is in the hottest part of summer and so warrants giant sunflowers that spray water onto the crowd to keep them cool.

And the fact that this random dude totally wore this hat. And no shirt.

And the fact that there is an area called 'Lilyworld' where giant red balls float around from group to group, and giant inflatable, fairy like mushrooms represent what has most likely been consumed in the area from maybe fifty percent of it's patrons.

I am in the other fifty percent.

And whilst Reggie Watts sets up his own gear, there are psychedelic dancers flapping their arms around.

Quite possibly the weirdest part of the day, but equally as peace loving and awesome. And Reggie Watts, man you can stack some shit bro!

Love.

The day after the BDO event, we lazily make our way (after a huge and massive sleep in, till 9am) through the bookshops and other exciting places we don't have locally, but the 'city' so generously opens up to us. And then we head to the Central Markets.

I luuuuuurve the Central Markets. We ate lunch in the asian food hall and then shopped for all things plattery and antipastoish to eat later in our hotel room.

My favourites are the plum quince paste, marinated fetta and the sneaky little lemon curd tart which made it in to the shopping bag.

Nice one Lemon Curd Tart, I salute you (and then I ate you).

And because the stars aligned and smiled on our weekend, the cricket final happened to fall on our second anti-child night, and so we totally attended that too.

And they won. And Adam was glad.

And the best part of our totally awesome, Big Day Out weekend of eating, sleeping and luxury, and much needed one on one, no kids time?

Was coming home to those two - who we actually got a chance to miss. Which is a great feeling hey? So Tilly and I celebrated by having tea for two. And then we had the inaugural bi-annual KFC lunch, which of course led to the post-KFC hate fest (Where my stomach and 'stines hated me for two days after) and we were all once again reminded of the reason why we never eat KFC. Except after six months when we've forgotten how it's an awesome at the time, shit later kind of idea.

The end.

xx

The adventures of Sophia.

One day, when the sister had appointments, appointments that little baby girls like to disrupt with a combination of cute little baby faces, or evil - can't wait another millisecond for milk - screams; Sophia went to play at her favourite Auntie's house. 

Now, this was the first time that Sophia had been to play at anyone else's house, so naturally, she was pretty sad when she had to say goodbye to her mum. She's a bit clingy like that.

See the devastation?


Once Sophia had calmed down, she asked to see what cousin Darcy was doing. She was suitably impressed by his game playing skills, and secretly planned to one day surpass his ability in playing Mario Brothers.

Then, Uncle Adam decided to take advantage of the situation and began the indoctrination of a small young mind to all things cricket. Sophia, who isn't as vague as she may seem to most, assumed the sleep position almost immediately in an attempt to stop the man from talking. It seemed that Sophia was on to something, for he did indeed stop. And there was no offence taken, because sleeping babies are generally considered good babies. So Adam was happy. And Sophia was happier.

See? Instant sleeping baby.

But, Sophia, being the intelligent one that she is, knows an opportunity when she sees one, and she wasn't about to let a bit of cricket propaganda get in the way of a formal introduction to Littlest Pet Shops.

It was a Tilly Alice introduction. And, once again, Sophia was suitably impressed. So far, this was shaping up to be the best play date she had ever had.

At one stage, there was mass confusion when Auntie Rach went back to the big large screen which had only just previously been the source of the cricket brainwashing session. But instead this time, it was a farm. Some might know it as farmville. It was all too much for Sophia who slipped quickly into a coma to alleviate the sensory overload.

The coma lead to Sophia being wrapped like a pea in a pod. And sleeping followed. It was hard stuff learning all these new things.

And then something happened. There was a rumble in the tummy. And the clock ticked over to three hours. And we all know what that means.

A hungry baby. Which in Sophia land means 'Yo bitches, food, now!'.

But Auntie Rach's boobs were broken - and there is a whole world of inappropriateness in breastfeeding another's baby anyway, so crisis started.

And Auntie Rach did a bit of this. Before she quickly realised that if warm, liquid gold wasn't available inside the flesh of a mother, it would come in the form of a silver tap in ceramic heaven. In other words. A bath. And a warm one at that.

And it worked. And Sophia was happy once more. Even if she did have an audience - which now is ok, but not so much in twenty years time. We hope.

And when Sophia went home, all wrapped snug in her mothers arms, she looked back to the house of her first adventure and thought zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The end.

xx

I am a little bit chuffed with today's sewing project. I made a layer cake skirt, thanks to the online tutorial posted by Prudent Baby.

Here's the end result of a couple of hours sewing this afternoon:

A fun little skirt and one happy kid! You should totally try and make one. If I can make it, you totally can!

Happy Australia Day!

Or happy Invasion Day. Which ever helps you to sleep at night. Without getting all political and heavy, we mainly throw our annual party to celebrate a great year of music by voting in and listening to Triple J's Hottest 100 and enjoying the company of great family and friends who are united by living in a country that provides amazing opportunities. 

For most people. 

I haven't forgotten what this day means to the Indigenous population of Australia. And it's something that is important to me too.

The beginning of the celebrations usually satrts about a fortnight before, with me and Adam putting in our votes for the hottest 100. We like to make a night of it coupled with a few beers and some nice takeaway - once the kids are in bed of course. This year my list looked like this:

Angus And Julia Stone - Big Jet Plane

Kid Cudi, Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend & Best Coast - All Summer

Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - Somebody To Love Me {Ft. Boy George & Andrew Wyatt}

Kele - Everything You Wanted

Birds Of Tokyo - Plans

Yeasayer - O.N.E

Tame Impala - Solitude Is Bliss

Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill

Gotye - Eyes Wide Open

Little Red - Rock It

And look closely people..I had 3 in the top 10 - which includes two in position one, and two.

Excellent.

The day is always great fun, with plenty of good food and plenty to drink. We were blessed with amazing weather, 29 degrees and sunny. This was just enough for the compulsory slip and slide action that this day wouldn't be complete with out. 

Side note: After slip and slide action, Tilly dressed herself - I think it was time to get physical...

On another side note. How good are mums? I asked my mum to help out by bringing a couple of salads. Check out what she made - anyone want to invite her to your BBQ?

Too bad. She's mine.

The day is held in the backyard which is also the home to Robbie's Bar. What is Robbie's Bar I hear you ask? Well, a little story for you.

My grandfather was the best bloke ever. And I mean it when I say bloke. He was a sailor in the war, he was a sailor after the war. He was the Commodore of their local yacht club and he liked his beer. He was a brutally honest man, but when he said he loved you - you knew he meant it. He was so much fun and even had his own happy hour at his place. Every day. How many of you could say that you truly partied with your grandfather? 

Everyday. 

He died a few years ago. And not long after his wife sent us some money. Adam and I were still pretty upset and wanted to use the money for something that we didn't need, but that would remind us of him. So we turned our rumpus room into a bar. Robbie's Bar (he was knows as Robbie) and started hosting our own Friday night happy hour for family and friends.

I couldn't keep up with every day...Could you?

And it's one of the best things we ever did.

One of the main Australia Day events is the Annual Robbie's Bar Pool Competition. It's for all who wish to take part, which means some games are nail biters which are over fairly quickly, and others (mine included) last 45 minutes and get cheers if balls are actually hit, rather than pocketed. Yep - all skill levels included in this competition.

Names are randomly pulled from a pot. This years first prize was a Sturt's Desert Pea...very Australian don't you think?

And the other highlight for regulars to the Annual Australia Day Festivities?

Mini Fillet Mignons. Looks closely - little steak squares, wrapped in bacon and cooked on the barbie. 

Drool factor 2000.

Funnily enough for me Australia day feels more like my New Year. I put so much into it and build it up to one of our most favourite days of the year, but unlike New Year - it never disappoints. It always lives up to expectations, but it's nothing Adam or I do - it's because we have such amazing family and friends who are always up for a good time, who will welcome strangers with open arms and make the feel at home. 

And then check out this sunset we had - now that's the sign I needed that this is going to be a great year. Because we're going to make it great.

Aren't we? YES!

xx

The pillow that won't shut up.

I made this pillow case tonight. I got the fabric for $5 a metre at Ikea.

And I went to Ikea and only spent $28.50, which if you knew me, is a minor miracle.

It took me about half and hour, from start to finish. I am really chuffed with it, but may have to readjust the size I cut the fabric to. Because I accidentally made a talking pillow.

It won't shut up, and it keeps smiling at me.

I can't like it.