List Update: July poem, Dish 1, gardens...

How-dee-do folks! Well it is now August, so let me just say.. WHAT THE FUCK OMG! How time flies hey? We all know it. I don't know why i bothered to say it really, it just took me by surprise...again! So in my list of wonder I challenged myself to write 1 poem per month and cook 1 new dish every week for the next year, well until my 24th Birthday on June 30. So I was out on Saturday night (July 31st) and it was about 10pm when I realised that I only had 2 hours to write my poem for July! ~*pAnIc MoDe*~ I certainly didn't want to start screwing up the list and letting myself down within the first week, so I was that idiot yelling "Does anyone have a PEN?!?!!" at a nice bar where surely nobody is carrying their usual bag of tricks. Much to my embarassment nobody had a pen....but everybody had an iPhone. It was like being interviewed on my way out of a court hearing, there were iPhones aimed at me everywhere. Being the noob that I am, it took me a good...i dont know... 3 hours to write this lame haiku:

Apples and friendship

Can be crushed into cider

Bulmers in my hand

It's a haiku so it's not meant to make sense. I was drinking a pint of cider though, that part is true! Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions that were actually a lot better than my ideas, it was a shame that I have to write the monthly poems (monthlies lol) on my own... a culmination would have been better by far haha. Seriously i'm so slow with iPhones.. and technology in general. Don't ask me how i'm able to maintain a blog, i just drool on the keyboard hoping that it short circuits and magic does the rest of the work for me. It's worked so far! Seona took a picture of me looking thoughtful writing the poem...and Ruari in the background crunching some big numbers...

Yeah I promise the August poem will be a long awesome one! YAY! Ok, now to the topic of food! What a great topic! I cooked my dish for Week 1 on Friday night. I have decided that I will cook a total of 52 dishes, but there are now only like 48 weeks until my bday so some weeks i will have to double up. Also, if I hit 52 new dishes before my Birthday i might think of some more! I made a list which is quite long :P Last week's dish was Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta:

I kiiinda winged it. I had a recipe for the pesto but it got soaked in sundried tomato oil leakage and got ruined! ROONT! Basically i made the pesto, cooked some onion, bacon and chicken, then added some white wine and pesto, then the cream. I thickened it with flour and a bit more cheese. It was yummo!

Ok now onto ANOTHER list item!! My aunty said i could have lots of her plants from her courtyard. There are so many!! I took quite a few but left some for another person who wanted some ferns etc. I might get more down the track cos she wants absolutely ZERO greenery. So here is the outside of my house before en-ay-thang has been done.

Yeah nice huh? *screws up face* I was in the gardens for 3 hours a few weeks ago mowing and toiling the soil cos it is like clay with some rocks in it for good measure. Pretty dissapointing. At the moment I am trying to get the grass to grow over those faded patches. It's hard work, I need to go out there and massage the soil in the moonlight, sing the grass and weeds sweet lullabyes. Once it looks a little thicker I'll give it a mow. It's weird having to think about this stuff- I never noticed it when i lived at home. So yes that's the before. Don't ask what's with the 2 random little plants near the front window - i moved them to the backyard. To the left of where i am standing there is a massive lavender bush and behind me the council just planted some frangipani trees :) After I picked up the plants from my aunty, we headed back home with a trailer full of: 1 lemon tree, 1 port wine magnolia tree, 1 big leafy tree, 1 tropical looking plant, 2 yuccas, 5 camelia bushes, and a bunch of mondo grass. Like i said there is probably more if i want it. which i do. Here is my dad helping to dig holes - much quicker and less painful than shoveling...

Here is the front of the house after the plants went in. Don't know what's going on with that curved and messed up Yucca. I'll stake it up straight soon.

I think it's looking a little better! The majority went in the backyard just because i want the front to look tidy for when i have to find new tenants down the track. I will probably separate the mondos a bit as they grow more, but i just needed to get them in the ground so they can enjoy all the rain that's coming! I couldn't take any pics of the back-yard as the sun had set and we were working in darkness haha. And that was Saturday arvo, and i havent been back there in daylight hours since. Maybe tomorrow arvo...or Wed morning...? Anway ~*^*~Funniest Home Video Moment~*^*~ ...when one of my helpers was filling up the water bucket, he turned the tap so much that the handle came unscrewed and the water pressure shot it up and hit him square in the forehead!! haha so bad, then the water was shooting into the sky higher than the roof - hilarious! If it wasnt so cold i would have stripped off and done my nude-in-public list item. Actually that would have been wierd - you know... family around etc... Yeah so that's how i'm going with my list after 1 week or so! I am excited! Who knows what i'll cook this week! Not even I do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

list progress

Hi thererererereererrrr! In case you are wondering, no I have not abandoned my list of wonder. In fact i am well on my way, from misery to happiness to-day. uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh.. yeah i know... but what can i do when my brain is leaking from my ears? meh.

What i mean to say is that I have been actively making plans to complete my list. To satisy item 18 (Cook 1 new dish every week) I have been creating a list of recipes i've always wanted to cook, or ones that I tried to cook which were a disaster. I have to add a little * to that one to explain that it is 1 every week or a total of 52. There arent 52 weeks until my bday but i'm going to make it so i have to do 52 dishes anyway. It's much more "Julie and Julia" haha. So this is week 1, and i am going to make a new dish tonight - Sun-Dried tomato pesto pasta from scratch. Maybe not the actual pasta from scratch - don't think i have le time. But it should be delicious. I hope it's delicious because I got my ingredients from the Queen Vic Market and those $8.40 sundried tomatoes and $8.30 parmigiano reggiano are making this one gourmet dish! I will report on my efforts a little later.

Also, I almost have enough money saved for the materials to build my pergola (7), so I think that should be happening in the next month or so :D Oh and my aunty just shifted into a new place and she doesnt want any of the plants in the backyard - like NONE of them - so I am picking them up tomorrow which helps heaps with #8. I will have to take before shots in the morning to prove that anything has changed haha

In regards to #11, I attended a meeting for Big Brothers, Big Sisters about 1-2 weeks ago and have now filled out an application form to become a "Big Sister" (Like on the Simpsons)! How exciting! If that doesn't work out - ie. if i fail my police check haha - I have some backup options of volunteer areas/organisations i have always been curious about.

Hmm, now in regards to item 19 (Write 1 poem every month) I only have today and tomorrow left to write my July Poem. I have had serious writers block, BUT that's why I put it on the list in the first place hey. I want the thrill of writing whimsical poems back! I re-read some of my others but no inspiration is coming. I may have to get out the shisha and use that as inspiration haha. Yah right, if i wanted to take 4 hours to write 4 lines which turned out to be nonsensical mush upon reflection the following day. Well, i must be off now - TOODLES

12) Build a generously endowed snowman

TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!


Aight, so I may have put this one on my list of wonder knowing that i was going to the snow in a matter of days, BUT i know i probably won't be heading back there for a few years so you know what they say... When opportunity knocks, invite it in and have steamy sex with it on the kitchen bench! So my first list item was completed on Saturday, woohoo!! At work we got offered spots on a famil trip to Mt. Buller for $104 for the day. That included bus transfer to and from the mountain, snowboard hire, pants/jacket/boot hire, a snowboarding lesson, a day's lift pass, free beer and some pizza. I think that was it but usually a lift pass is $100 by itself, so yeah as if i was gonna pass this up! So here's me with my glasses under my goggles. fog central...

During the lesson, looking at the amazing view. It was clear skies and about 7C (which is pretty warm), and we were actually sweating. It took me a while and a lot of falling on my bot bot to master the art of snowboarding but i eventually got it and was soon going way too fast to stop. But the easiest way to stop in those circumstances is to stack it. Hard.

After the lesson, i was too sore to continue doing any freestyle boarding so I decided to start on my snowman! All i had to do was kneel in the snow and start digging, and i was suddenly surrounded by Indian kids who wanted to help me :) They were so cute, and they told me i had a pretty name! I get that a lot, and usually it's followed by "oh wow, thats my dog's name!!" haha

So eventually their parents coaxed them away from the strange lady (ie. me) building the snowman and i was left to my own devices. Usually that's where the trouble begins. So without their young impressionable minds around, and with the sun rapidly setting upon my work station, I had to hurry up and finish my rude snowman. Here we are getting all hot and heavy:

We got along famously! Hmm, I feel kinda bad cos the little kids gave me the carrot to use in my filthy plot! Haha oh well! If you haven't been, Mt. Buller is awesome! It can get pretty expensive I guess but great times are to be had up there, that's fo sho! It was a great great loooong day, and i came away relatively unscathed - which is more than i can say for my boss who broke his wrist and elbow :O i had no idea it was that bad cos he put on a brave face, but when his hand turned blue and swollen we realised he was probably in a lot of pain. I guess that's what you get for turning down a snowboard lesson and trying to teach yourself on the intermediate run huh? I heard that even after he did it, he kept going and just trid not to land on it!! Oh my gawwwwwd what a silly billy!

So in terms of the other list items, I have to think of a new dish to cook for this week, and have to think of a July poem too. My friend Megan wants to help me achieve list items 15) camping and 20) skinny dipping! AND her boyfriend owns a shisha so she says I can use that to achieve #3! Smoke up smoke up!

24 things...

Hey crew! So lately I have been thinking of direction. Direction of everything in life! As you know I haven't been blogging as avidly as I used to. Part of this is because I lost motivation to do anything that constituted as interesting and felt that nobody really wanted to hear about what I had to say. So i basically stopped. But that is no direction. Now I realise again that I am super awesome and you peasants should feel lucky to read anything that I produce. You're lucky i don't charge you to read this, really. So I decided that the only way is up (BABY)... or forward. So as I have many things i have to work through financially this next year, instead of letting that get me down and being the focus of my life, I am going to create a list of things to keep myself pre-occupied. I'm sick of never meeting my little 'goals' i set for myself, and I'm sick of saying "one day i'll..." or "i've always wanted to...". Those thoughts can S my D as far as I'm concerned. So everyone, behold my amazing list:

24 things to do before I turn 24…

1) Create a piece of Art for the house
2) Have a feast in an African Restaurant
3) Smoke from a Shisha (Hookah)
4) Go to Darwin
5) Make a Croquenbush
6) Have a “Cry Fest” Movie Marathon of the saddest movies ever made
7) Help build a pergola for the backyard
8) Give the Front and back gardens a cheap make-over
9) Visit 5 new Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurants
10) Try 5 new fruits eg. Custard Apple, Dragon Fruit etc.
11) Do some volunteer work
12) Build a generously endowed snowman
13) Visit an “abandonment” and take photos
14) Adopt a foreign accent for a whole day
15) Go Proper Camping… no electricity
16) Road Trip to a new location
17) Weekend Sleep Deprivation test – Do not sleep Friday or Saturday night
18) Cook 1 new dish every week
19) Write 1 poem every month
20) Go Skinny Dipping/Frolic Naked/Nude Beach
21) Build a chicken coop and get some chickens
22) Climb a mountain without hyperventilating
23) Sleep under the stars
24) Have a picnic in a strange location

Ok so it has taken me a few days to get this list to a place that I like. There are a few things on there that I have talked about doing for years - as silly as they may seem I just want to do them. A few other things are those things you always think about or look into or even joke about but never go through with. I didn't want to add anything too hard that i won't follow through with, or anything too expensive that will destroy my budget. Of course they should make for interesting reading/pictures - especially the naked one :P As soon as I push "Publish Post" it is on. If this is succesful by my 24th birthday on June 30th 2011 then my list for next year will be even more amazing and daring! STAY TUNED!

dinner with hollywood

in the usual split second decision making moment in which i come up with a post title, that popped out. I must explain. I have a friend who is an aspiring actress. We used to work at the reception desk of a backpacker hostel together and she left to go to Hollywood to pursue her dream. No joke! So off she went, and now she is back - about a year or more later! Last night we caught up for dinner and she told me all about from when she had lunch with David Wenham in Hollywood all the way up to her audition earlier that day for the role of "dead girl" on City Homicide. I asked if she has been practising laying on the floor and trying not to breathe or blink, and she said she hadn't thought of that yet :O That would be totally hard. So anyway yeah she went to hollywood, and the word "Hollywood" makes me think of these guys:


And these guys used the nickname for a guy from L.A, therefore thats now her name. So Hollywood and I went out for a coffee in Degraves Street where she showed me her paper wallet. That is not a euphemism, she really does have a paper wallet, see:

And that's her being all gangstaaaaaaa with all her $5 and sugar packet ciggie. After that we thought it would be fitting if we went to the same place as our last "date" which happened to be a soup shop in Campell Arcade (the extension of Degraves). This is the creepy yet cool arcade...

And this is "The Soup Place". I got Morroccan Chicken and she got Soup of the day which was potato, leek and mushroom i think. Pretty good, and we got a spinach and fetta borek to share, mmmm-mmm!

Mine was really good, i pretty much inhaled it. I only wish it wasn't so freaking cold outside! It was about 8pm when we left and it must have been below 5C at that point. I was seriously frozen as it was outdoor seating only and no heaters. Yeah then I had to go to Flinders St Station and wait another 20mins in the cold for a train. I was feeling soooooo sore and ill by the time i got home, and was super glad to see Haydz home cos i knew the heater would be blasting. And it was. And it was amazing. And may I add that it was one of the best showers I have ever had! The worst was in a Buddhist Temple in Japan atop a freezing cold hill where the hot water had run out... ordinarily it would have been awesome, but... y'know.

mouse corpse last supper: chili and pink lemonade

Costa Rica to all of you, and to all a good flight! So hopefully everyone had nice weekends!! I sure did - despite the FUCKING FREEZING COLD WINTER WEATHER! On Saturday morning my mum, brother and I headed up to Trentham (again) for the farmers market! I recalled the last time that Josh and I went there that the outside temperature displayed in my car was 5 degrees C (41F for those very few still playing in the Imperial System). This time it was 4 degrees! EEP! I cannot recall ever been so cold during the day man. We were walking around that market pretty damn fast, make no lie! chuckle chuckle. My mum made such a faux pas... i was sampling some olive oils using the small cubes of bread provided. I told mum to try the lemon olive oil so she dipped her finger right in the bowl of oil and licked it. The oil lady's face was like "WOT...." and she was trying to be cool about it but I was all "MUM! You can't do that, you have to use the bread!" and she got all embarrassed and as soon as we walked away the oil lady was inspecting the bowl rather closely heh. Anyway I got 5kg of trentham red potatoes (mm) and some organic apples (4 for $2.50... in hindsight they weren't THAT great) and some granola to have for brekky-poos at work. Mum went back to the olive place and bought some tapenade to make amends for contaminating the oil. Oh mother. I was going to try and get a photo of me blowing out... smoke..? frost....? steam...? in the freezing cold air, but the Christmas Carolers were putting me off. I have no idea why there were carolers there but it was not making the cold easier to bear. hey i did a rhyme!

Anyway after that we went back to Blackwood which is just before Trentham and got a snack and some antiques. Well not really. My mum got some chairs and i got a picnic basket for $25. Prob shouldn't have got it but i have been wanting a new picnic basket for so long now so i thought i'd treat myself. Hooray! At the Blackwood General Store, you can find groceries and a deli, a cafe with alfresco dining, and an antique shop all in one. It's actually kind of cool. Would have been better in warm weather but there was a log fire in the enclosed outdoor dining area so it was OK. Their dog Tyson sat and watched us the whole time...

and then just after i took this photo he ran toward me and barked and i got frightened! Apparently he just wanted outside, but i think HE thought i stole his soul. Probably. Oh here's my little picnic basket! Expect to see more of THIS in warmer months!! I wish it had another basket bit on the other side of the drink holder, then it would look like Elsa Billgren's.. *sigh*



Oh well! Anyway, Blackwood is an interesting little old mining town. It reminds me of a gingerbread village mixed with incestuous hillbillies. Kind of like the little town of Hotshot from the True Blood books :O but prettier. You drive into the main street which has a few stores - General Store, Pub, Wine Bar/Restaurant, and maybe a few others.. and on your right there are residential streets that snake their way uphill or downhill - it is a hilly place! So some houses sit atop a crest looking down at you through the undercast, whereas others can just be spotted by their rooves peeping out beside the road. There are even log houses. LOG HOUSES! I want to go back there and walk around and peep around and take pictures! Maybe this time I wont get assaulted by a dirtbike gang zooming all around me in the middle of the road!!

Ok enough of that, look as this pretty present Josh got me:

It was yummy! Pink Lemonade mm-mmm! We all shared it and drank from wine glasses :) Nice work Josh! Yeah so i had a chilled night at home on Saturday with Hayden and Mel watching movies with the heater on, the wine flowing, and minestrone soup a-brewin! It was fun, and distracted us from money- or lack thereof haha. I watched "Some like it hot" for the first time and thought it was really really cool! Reminded me of Sorority Boys! it must be the original concept... which was quite daring for the time!

So then on Sunday I got a surprise visit from my darling friend Sarah who moved to Darwin after her wedding in Feb! What a shock! Luckily I couldn't sleep properly on Sunday morning and cleaned the house up a bit, so she saw it for the first time relatively tidy! I even cleaned the shower - my most hated chore. And i use the word chore on purpose here. Yuck showers yuck. It was great to see Sarah anyway! The poor thing has forgotten what winter is after moving to Darwin and she was suffering! Sunday was about 12C and raining or something shocking like that. She is here for the next 2 weeks so hopefully i can organise some cool activities with her during that time :)

Sunday night I decided to finally make Chili con carne. I used a Women's Weekly recipe, but i don't think it went right. It tastes too watery, i want it rich and tangy! I will have to compare it with some other recipes and make an ultimate chili con carne recipe to end all others and try my luck again. It had a 3 hour cooking time... i just don't get it. Anyway forgotten. Here are the ambitious pictures i took BEFORE eating it. This first one is the stewing of the beef steak stage. It reminded me of LOTR when frodo sees the evil souls under the water....

Then after an hour of stewing the beef, you have to shred it like shredder on the ninja turtles:

And cook some onions, garlic, spices etc then add everything else to the pot and cook for another 1.5 hours...

voila. crap.

not fair.

Anyway, at work I am cleaning up the area under the stairs where we keep old files. There is little to no order under there and I have been feeling very driven and organised lately so I have been sorting and categorising things. When I was in there last Friday I happened to see this:

Correct. A decomposed mouse. Fucking GROSS (Yet interesting). If that wasn't gross enough, check it out from another angle...

So yeah I have to go back in there now to sort out some more stuff but i'm not game to go near that little corpse again. So I'm kiiinda excited cos I'm catching up with an old friend from work tonight. I havent seen her in like 1.5-2 years as she went to America to persue her dream of becoming an actress! We have finally got our shite together and will be catching up after i finish work today! How cool! Also, I will be seeing my friend from school on Saturday at Mt. Buller!! She has been travelling around doing seasonal jobs for the past year and i havent seen her in as long so that will be cool too. Although I have to go to HER as she is working in the snow and can't really leave the mountain! Haha. Well if i wanted to see her any earlier than now I would have had to go to Canada or to Queensland to the pumpkin farm she was working on!! I wonder where she will go next!? I guess I'll ask her on Saturday!!

gyozaaaaa!!

howdy y'all! This here is the first food post in a coon's age :O sorry, I have been reading a lot of True Blood and that's the kind of thing you'd be likely to find in there - right alongside "making whoopee" and "Mr. Happy" in reference to a penis. Hmm.

Anyway, seeing as i haven't cooked anything new or blogworthy in about a month, and haven't been grocery shopping in about as long, I decided this week that must end. Last night I had Japanese noodle soup and spent the rest of the night making GYOZA!!! My freezer is empty now as I have been super lazy of late and eaten all the frozen leftovers that thoughtful prehistoric Jade put in there for the CBF future Jade. I killed them. LOL... "I killed them all. They're dead, every single one of them. And not just the men, but the women and the children, too. They're like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals. I HATE THEM!".... 10 points if you get that joke.

So now I have to start stocking up again with little freezer filling goodies :) I've been wanting to make gyoza again for a while, and this time i made 2 fillings!! I made my usual pork ones and i tried a prawn and leek filling too. Here are some pixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

The cabbage for the pork ones

The prawns for the prawn ones (duh)

I wanted to watch about 3 shows in a row last night so I set up a "floor kitchen" with an old beach towel so I could enjoy the best of both worlds. If you happened to catch it, the Mighty Boosh doco was rather fun :)

Chester was mighty curious at the smell of pork and prawn ^_^

Here's the "sex pork" mix... mmm

and the "raunchy prawn" mix. hey if i ever open a bar i'll call it the raunchy prawn. haha

And those are my little gyoza babies! I birthed quite a few on my loungeroom floor, yessir. Like a bitch and her pups i was. Stupidly I didn't count how many i made, and i forgot to bring the recipes today so i could put them up here... i'll have to update later but i hope you enjoy the pics nonetheless! You know what else is exciting?? I'm seeing Eclipse again tonight :D hoorah! Jackson Rathbone watch out xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

look what i got at the REJECT SHOP!

Hey hey hey! So, to say that I was totes excited to get home last night cos it meant that my new bedside tables would be there would be a gross understatement. This is one of them:

My cousin and friend both contacted me about this range of furniture at the Reject Shop and i was really pumped. I dont want to tell you what i had been using previously as bedside tables... they ruined the whole vibe of my room. And I am getting really excited about my room now. For ages it was a shambles and I didn't like going in there but now it is becomming my little peaceful zone and I love it :) I even have 2 chairs in there now! Anyway the bedside tables were $80 each - which is really good compared to some of the other ones i liked from other stores :O

My favourite thing to do in my bedroom, contrary to Josh's Lafayette-style website, is to read in bed on a weekend morning with a cup of tea and maybe some toast. The sun comes in and warms up the room as i read on and on, with chester snoozing beside me. So good.

So last night as i was removing my other bedside tables and all the junk they held, i came across some of my school year books. My friend Mel was desperate to see what I looked like 7 years ago in Year 11. She saw the picture of me on my Japan camp... in the middle of Japanese summer with my t-shirt sleeves rolled up, wearing a visor, skate shoes and 3/4 denim....shorts...? pants...? anyway I haven't heard her cackle that loud before I don't think. I'll admit it was funny, and yes Maki was correct when he said i looked butch. Looking back on those photos is embarrassing and i wish i could go back and correct all those mistakes, but we all make mistakes in fashion right? yes. The funniest part was that Mel saw me in my school uniform - collar shirt and tartan skirt - and was like "oh, you look alright here... more feminine." MORE feminine! NOOO!

Anyway here is my stool. I was meant to post a finished picture ages ago but i lost track. The other one broke when Josh sat on it - him and all his whopping 55kg! I also have a mirror or 2, they are still to come as i havent properly removed the tape from the glass haha!

Also, I don't have any other pictures in relation to the topic, so here is the creepy Gelati van that used to drive around near my old house:

It was creepy.

~-*-~the sound of wonder~-*-~

ohmygosh! Last night I got home from work and checked the letterbox for bills or other stupid letters, and to my ultimate supreeze (Count Olaf) there was a little letter in there for me from OVERSEAS! YAY! I love getting personal mail! This one turned out to be from my family in England. My uncle was transfered there for work early this year and they are having a blast! My 2 cousins are attending Primary School there, and they have been travelling all over Europe every chance they get. Amazing opportunity, nay? Here's my birthday card:

After I got all excited about getting this card I said to Maki that I was expecting a package from my cousin Andrew too and was worried nobody would be here to collect it. That's when he pointed out that it was sitting on the table and I had totally overlooked it. I was like double triple a billion excited! OK, I want to explain about my cousin! So, my dad's side of the family is HA-YUUUUGE! He is the youngest of 8, and he is nearly 51! My nana was/is a good Catholic woman and swears that each child was an immaculate conception. Ah-huh, sure thing sweet cheeks! So Andrew is a bit older than me and we didn't really grow up together. As soon as he was old enough he was out in the world travelling and having fun with his camera skillz - and i guess i was still in school so in a total different place!

Anyway so I can probably count the amount of times I've talked to him on my fingers, but it's cool cos he's awesome and it's not awkward at all when we do. Except for this one time about mmm 5 years ago haha! i was seeing the "Ramones: End of the Century" documentary in the city with some friends - and I was fresh out of high school in my tight black jeans, chuck taylors, purple/black hair and probably a Ramones t-shirt for the occasion. After the movie we were leaving the building when i saw him (on a date?) entering the building to see the next session. I was like "ANDREW!!?" and he spun around with a smile on his face, expecting to see a dear aquaintence, which faded ever so slowly as he failed to recognise who I was. He looked pretty confused, so I explained "It's Jade!.....(nothing).... your cousin!" then he clicked and was all apologies! He explained later that it had been years since he'd last seen me and I look way older and super different to what he expected. I think he feels pretty bad about it though, especially since at my Birthday dinner last week Josh told him that I still go on and on about that Ramones day, and Andrew kinda belived him a little i think. I was trying to disprove Josh's cheeky antics... hopefully he doesn't think I'm hung up on it. To be honest I had forgotten all about it until he brought it up at dinner. On my card he wrote something along the lines of "If you have received this card and gift it means I recognise you. You are my cousin. Jade." which i totally didn't get and he had to remind me! haha!

So anywayyyy he has been travelling the world and works as a photographer and has some cool pictures and lots of stories! Some of which are about India as he spent 3 months there one time! I am dyiiinnngggg to go to India - possibly late next year - so he said I should read this book called "Holy Cow". He said "I'll post it to you!" and he did. I am discovering that he is an action man:

And he also included this CD he was telling me about called "The Sound of Wonder" which is a compilation of the best 60's and 70's tracks from Pakistani Lollywood films:

I put it on last night and was blown away. I only wish there was someone with me to experience it too. Maybe tonight I will play it for Josh and dance a little? It is soooo trippy and crazy and awesome. I cannot explain, you will just have to hear it for yourself...

I made that lame little track listing there for my own reference. When I listen to it again i can pick out my faves. I remember track 3 having a really strange beginning where the guy was making lots of bonkers noises with his mouth! So anyway, I am thankful to my Random Action Man cousin (RAM) {ramalamadingdong} for sending me those gifts. I'll have to figure out what to do with the book cos he is going overseas soon to hang out with my other cousin who lives in New York with her photographer husband Keate Barker (who is by the way apparently a big deal these days). I'll keep it safe until his return :) YAY for snail mail!!

go shawtie, it's your birfday!

¿Cómo estás bitches?!?! Today marks the 1 week anniversary of my bee-day. I have been pretty pretty pretty busy lately, so I haven't had a chance to organise myself and my presents until last night!! I felt like such a spoiled brat on my birthday, I got so many amazing gifts! I guess I'm just a super cute and lovable person! I basked in the bright spotlight all day! Josh made me some breakfast in bed at his place, and put on True Blood to keep me occupied while he went to make it! After that I had to go register my car at the Carlton Vic Roads, which was definately NOT the highlight of my day. The staff there are totally not friendly and made me feel like i was about 2cm tall and that i know nothing about cars. Well that part is true, but those sperm whales didn't have to get up in my grill about it. Lucky i had birthday magic going for me and they didn't get me too low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low (Shawty had them Apple Bottom Jeans [Jeans] Boots with the fur [With the fur] The whole club was lookin at her.....) ahem. Now that I have fluffy dice in my car I am no longer immune to Flo Rida.

So after spending $757 registering my car at Vic Roads (Happy Birthday to me...) Josh and I had some Pizza on Lygon Street seeing as we were there. We went to this place called Tiamo across from the Nova Cinemas which I'd been to before and really like! Not only is the food great but they serve Mandarine Juice and the waiters are cute boys with broken English. Josh if you are reading this, that was the reason I was smiling to myself when you asked hehe! After that I went home and ended up napping for a few hours. On the night of my birthday I had a big dinner party of 14 people at my favourite local Indian restaurant! Even my estranged cousin Andrew (will explain later) came along which was awesome! And I got super spoiled by everyone! So after my party and dinner and everything, I decided to take pictures of a few of my gifts like Krisatomic would.

I didn't get this for my birthday, but I bought it from the antique shop in Nagambie when we went there for my pre-birthday getaway! How pretty is it!? I want to put perfume in it, I will have to make sure I don't stuff it up though :P

Ah yes, True Blood! My friend let me borrow the first 3 books to read. I had just gotten through 1.5 books before my birthday and obviously hadn't stopped talking about it because I got season 1 and 2 (from different people) as well as these from my estranged cousin:

Haha I didn't even know there were Merlotte's shirts available! I was curious as to how he knew that I would LOVE this present... turns out my dad told him :) And of course I got some Twilight stuff:

Hayden got me the t-shirt which I wore to the MIDNIGHT SCREENING at IMAX on the night of my birthday! I was super excited, what a good day/night!

Somehow Jackson Rathbone tracked me down - no doubt through his obsession with my blog - and gave me this card! What a thoughtful guy! *sigh*

Oh yeah and I got some new nail polishes which i've tested 2 of so far, and a cool harajuku lovers perfume, and this L'Occitane Jasmine perfume i have been drooling over for months. I am a VIP cardholder at the store but only because i have spent so many hundreds there on presents for other people! I haven't got one thing for myself until this perfume - which funnily enough was a gift too! It is so beautiful, go check out the store!

I got some lovely bottles of plonk which i have safely put away in my wardrobe for a special occasion.

Oh yes, and I got these lovely teacups! There were many other beautiful things not pictured and I love them all and I will get around to having them in pictures soon I promise :) So if anyone thinks i didn't like their present they are sorely mistaken. Very sorely!

So there you have it, my 23rd Birthday in a very small nutshell. It's scary how fast time flies, i still feel about 17-18 in the head. I have been asking people lately how old they feel in the head, it is interesting what some of the responses have been. Try asking yourself or your parents :D