Holidays Day 3

Listening (watching) to: Bones

It's the third day of the holidays and I am slowly getting into a rhythm of waking up late, watching TV, having long warm showers and then going out at night time and catching up with friends and eating yummy food. It's quite a good routine I would say, but I think I eat too much and am very quickly putting on lots of weight...which was happening from a couple of weeks ago due to my exam-period-binge-eating-of-chocolate-icecream-brownies-and-other-such-good-tasting-things... XD Unfortunately since I made my pact to lose 5kilos I haven't lost anything....in fact I've probably done the opposite. Working harder from now on!!

Last night I went to karaoke with Annabel, Jess, Lulu, Abbey and Alex. It was lots of fun! We did 3 hours of singing and got some chips and chocolate and mini cans of sprite from the supermarket around the corner before we went in and sang a lot of old songs and weird songs and disney songs and took a lot of photos! It's really funny to laugh at the pictures and videos that go with the songs, and also when the words are wrong...like in Mambo no. 5 "a little bit of MARDI GRAS in my life..."....haha!


Tonight I'm going to Pat's for FrankZappaGanza 2009! Which involves (apparently) nachos, icecream, jamming, twister, and of course frank zapper! My contribution is some of those awesome lime and pepper chips XD They're so yummy! I'm gonna take lots of photos, just because I have a new found hobby which is taking lots of photos of everything that I do. I figure, when I was in Japan I took a lot of photos all year of everyday things, so why not keep on doing that now I'm back in Australia? I've got some nice photos as well!

In other news: It's exactly a week till my birthday today and I can't think of anything to tell my mum when she asks me what I would like. I can't believe I'm going to be 20...that is so old (no offence to anyone who is already old, haha). I don't think I'm mature enough to be 20...but I guess it's an inevitable development because I can't really avoid aging after all. I haven't really decided whether I want to do something for my birthday or not but I guess it's getting a bit late for that. Plus, my house isn't exactly the BEST place to have people over.

Random Thoughts for the Day: Only 4 more days until Soon comes home and I won't have to be a loser and go shopping by myself anymore, haha XD
Also: Brad's birthday is...tomorrow? I must remember to get him a present, or at least an awesome card. We might go and see Transformers on the weekend so that will be a good chance to see him!
Also: Good luck to people who still haven't finished exams! (I know most people will be finished by tomorrow anyway)
Also: A lot of people seem to have problems lately...I hope that everyone is okay. It makes me feel sorta guilty for being happy.

Okay, I'm gonna go and eat some yummy creamy coconut slice that I made yesterday XD

Freedom!

Listening to: Kiseki - GReeeeN

I'm so happy and relieved and tired and everything all at once, but it's a good feeling. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I can just be happy and not worry anymore about whether I've remembered the right things and failing and all that... XD Not till exam results come out anyway. Haha

So now that I am on holidays officially, I went shopping this afternoon and bought a dress in celebration of my freedom. It's cute, so I was happy. I don't have many nice clothes so I have been trying to not be a slob all the time. I spend most of my life in jeans and my ANU jumper (as glamorous as that is). I was bored at home today so I pulled out all the ridiculous things in my wardrobe and tried them all on and took funny pictures and it was lots of fun. I like to try things on and make myself look funny and making myself look different. Or the same but just crazy. It's a good boredom buster anyway XD

*my new dress, what do you think?*

Today was so cold outside when there was no sun, so I wasn't very happy. But I went over to Alice's for an orchestra get together and she had a fire going and it was nice and warm around the fire...We played articulate and I was on the losing team every time, but around 10 my body just started shutting down from tiredness and I couldn't even articulate "Rambo" and started laughing incessantly at nothing, haha. So tired....Right now I am lying in my bed propped up on pillows under my blankets and watching Japanese drama and writing in this blog. I know I don't have anything particularly interesting to say, but I'm writing anyway!

I'm so excited for the holidays! Soon will be home and I'm gonna make sure that it's a fun holidays! And today, I realised it's only 10 days till my birthday, and I still don't know whether I want to do something for my birthday, or even what I would like for my birthday and my parents keep asking! But for the moment, I just want to sleep lots and go shopping and do silly things like watching movies and being social. Karaoke on Monday! And my voice has finally come back just in time! So exciting

My worry of the week: I eat way too much. Today I bought a block of peppermint chocolate in celebration of having no exams, and I ate almost the whole thing in about an hour. And then I went to Alice's and ate almost a whole box of jatz and dip. To be fair I didn't have any dinner other than junk. My resolution for the holidays is to lose 5 kilos. I don't really know how, cause I haven't got any self control in stopping myself from eating and I don't do much exercise to compensate for it.

In other news: Less than a week and then everything will be fantastically great. I need to think of a birthday present for Soon this week before he comes home so I can get it without him there to spy on me. I have to get thinking.

Also: I need to decide what I'm going to do next semester and enrol in classes. But I don't know whether or not I should be in university or not. I never seem to be able to do anything or pass most things or anything. Mmm....lots of thinking to do.

Oh well that will be all for today! My brain doesn't work properly at the moment. It's 12oclock and that means I am allowed to be disturbing now!!

One down, two to go!

Listening (watching) to: Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (J-drama)

This morning was my first exam! I ventured out into the freezing cold Canberra morning and hoped I wouldn't fail my Japanese exam which turned out to be hard and long and had way to much writing for only 1 hour, but it's over! No more JPNS3005 for me XD

I finally caught my cold that has been trying to get me for about a week and half now, and I am slowly dying...I look terrible and I can't pretend I'm not sick cause I have a red nose from using tissues, and huge circles under my eyes from being sick...it's crazy. Nobody come near me cause I might infect you.

But since I finished exams and was feeling like eating something warm, I came home and turned on the rice cooker and made gyudon! It was really yummy and I was so full afterwards, but it was worth it. I wish I could make yummy food like my favourite host dad, I really want to eat his sukiyaki the other day XD One time I will get him to teach me how to make all his yummy food and then come home and make if for you guys and you will understand!

Gyudon is really easy to make! If you ever want some yummy food of the rice and meat kind, try making it!

Recipe
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups of stock (i used beef)
5 Tspoons of soy sauce
3 Tspoons of mirin
2 Tspoons of sugar
1 Tspoons of sake
1 onion cut into slices
Thinly cut beef
Rice
Method:
Cook the rice so that it will ready to use straight away!
Put the stock, soy sauce, mirin, sugar and sake into a saucepan and heat up
Add onions and leave to simmer for a while
Add beef and let simmer
Leave for about 10-15mins
Put rice in bowl, the beef on rice!
Eat deliciously with chopsticks and enjoy! XD

In other news: On Saturday night I went to dinner at Pat's house and we ate yummy food and Pat made chocolate pudding for dessert, and then we watched Shrek (my choice, much to Pat's disgust). It was fun to see people and it seemed like ages since I'd seen Pat and Rob and people, and I hadn't seen Angie in a while either.

Tonight I'm going to a work dinner at Hogs Breath in Civic, which is the first one I've been to. It sucks that I'm sick, but I will try my hardest and make conversation!

Next exam: Thursday, Linguistics. I haven't done ANY linguistics study yet, but I plan to just look over my assignments in the next couple of days. One of the girls in my Archaeology class is going to sell me her textbook so I can have it, cause the Co-op couldn't get them in and I don't have one yet. I have to go and pick that up this afternoon as well.

My goals: I have been thinking this week, some things have happened, and I need to work harder on telling people how I feel when something bothers me, or when something is wrong. I've known that for a long time, but I'm afraid that I'm never going to get any better at it, or even just that every time I try to get better it doesn't work so I am going to vow to get better!
Also: Study more. I am really good at procrastinating, and I need to be more focused!

Random Thoughts: Wimbeldon starts next week and I am so excited! I love it when there's tennis on and I want to watch Federer play again XD
Also: I can't wait for the holidays! I'm gonna do lots of exciting things and take lots of pictures and make lots of good memories~
Also: Good luck with exams everyone and anyone! I know you're going to do well and afterwards you can have heaps of time to relax!

Now to my studying goal and back to archaeology...but maybe I'll watch TV for a little bit first ;) haha
Have a great day!

Viewing Settlement Systems

Listening to: Self Control - Dave Sinclair

I was just doing Topic 9 of my archaeology lectures which is called "Viewing Settlement Systems". It's all about classifying how the economic system of ancient civilisations operated, and classifying their communities as sedentary or highly mobile and stuff like that. It's not that interesting...(haha) but there are more interesting things in my course so it's OK XD

Today was my mum's birthday! I woke up around 10 and she was out shopping so I made her a cake for her birthday ready to eat when she got back. It was vanilla cake, and because she doesn't like icing, I wrote "MUM" on it using an icing sugar stencil. It's a really easy cake and it always tastes good! I usually make it in a donut shaped tin but today I made a square, and it sunk a little bit but it tastes really good.

It's a really easy recipe, you should try making it sometime~

Easy Lemon (Vanilla) Cake Recipe!

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
113g margarine
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup SR flour
finely grate lemon rind (OR vanilla essence)

Preheat oven to 180degrees
Sift flour and combine with sugar.
Melt margarine and add to flour/sugar with eggs, milk and vanilla/lemon rind
Beat well with electric beater (you can do it by hand but you'll get really tired!) for about 5mins
Put into a greased tin and cook for 30mins
Ice with lemon or vanilla icing (optional, dusting with icing sugar works just as well!)

My other exciting news for the day is that I was reading a Clints catalogue and I saw that they were selling Asian pots! Perfect for nabe! So I went and got one! And it has a small detachable "teppenyaki" plate that I'm pretty sure could be very easily used for yaki-niku...so tomorrow I'm going to the asian supermarket to buy lots of yummy things and make a nabe for dinner tomorrow. If all works out then I will invite you all over and we can eat nabe together and it will be lots of delicious fun!

Speaking of getting together, I was thinking in the holidays of having people over to my house (which I know is usually very boring...) but I was thinking of having a Disney Movie Marathon with lotsa yummy food and singing and non-sleeping...we can play Wii and stuff like that too, and I want to have a sandwich/pizza making party where we can make our own disgusting food creations...how does that sound? Because I owe a certain someone a very disgusting sandwich (vegemite, salad and tomato sauce) and I would love to see his face when he eats it!!! I'm really into making cute food at the moment too so I might make disney cookies and cupcakes and stuff. Just an idea anyway!

In other news: my procrastination skills are getting more and more honed as the exams creep closer towards me...which isn't really a good thing but I hope it will all work out anyway! *fingers crossed*

My Rage for the Day: I hate it when people are invited to do something, like go study together or have lunch or go out or anything, and they say they might go but they might not, just incase they get a better offer. That makes me feel like you obviously think I'm not good enough for you to grace me with your presence unless you have to to avoid sitting bored at home. If you don't want to come, say no. If you do, say yes. It's not that hard.

Random Thoughts: ABBA just came on and I realised that I didn't even like ABBA before I saw Mamma Mia, and I still like the Mamma Mia soundtrack better than the real thing.
Also: I finished watching another Japanese drama today (Kimi wa Petto - You are my Pet) which was slightly disturbing and weird but it was good and they still managed to make the end very dramatic and awesome so I feel satisfied that I spent my last few days constructively (in inverted commas...haha)
Also: Orange highlighters are really good for highlighting!

...And back (once again) to archaeology. If anyone wants to know about Masaccan settlements in Western Arnhem land and how foreign contact affected aboriginals in the area, feel free to ask!

Stuvac?

Listening to: The Cookie Song - Cookie Monster

When I was in Sydney on the long weekend I made the discovery of the word "stuvac"...which is apparently Sydney talk meaning "Study vacation". Maybe I'm the only one that didn't know that, but I've never really given any meaningful name to the period before exams when there aren't any classes and you stay at home and "study" (more like procrastinate....haha) But apparently the rest of Australia has lots of words that we don't use in Canberra, like "Mufti Day" = "Uniform-free Day". That one confused me for a while too. Obviously we're just not as pretentious as all the other states and just say things how they are instead of giving them fancy names (go on, challenge me! ;D)

As I mentioned before I was in Sydney last weekend for the long weekend, which was fun! Sydney is so warm...I actually spent one morning with just a t-shirt and jeans on, and NO jumper. It was a big moment for me. Soon took me to the city and we were touristy and took photos with the opera house, and ate asian food at china town. We had bubble tea too (yumm) and we were going to go and see a movie but there is NOTHING to go and see on...so sad. Next time XD I went and saw Soon play trumpet in an orchestra and band concert on Friday night too, which was really good. I hadn't heard him play trumpet in a really long time so it was really...reminiscent (?) of all those high school band times, haha. But the band was really good and it was a fun concert. Other than that, we did lots of studying, and lots of sleeping and eating dining hall food...I had a really good sandwich on Monday lunchtime! But since I've come home I've been eating non-stop....so if I suddenly get fat you will know why ;)



Otherwise, my week has been pretty uneventful...just sitting at home mostly, watching TV, facebook-ing, doing some study every now and then. My glands are swollen like buggery and it's quite painful, but I haven't got a cold so I'm just waiting for them to go away. I have to go to the dentist on Friday and get the scoop on what is happening with my darling wisdom teeth...hopefully nothing but knowing me probably something that involves being fixed using painful methods. I tend to have that kind of luck (haha)

Writing this and listening to my music on iTunes I am realising how much terrible music I have on my computer....sigh. Lots of random stuff that I haven't even recognised has been playing in chunks all together...That must be why I always listen to my playlists. I decided to branch out today, and I don't know that it is paying off.

My random thoughts for the day:
I wish that my hobby was something awesome like watching old, obscure movies or taking polaroid pictures of things. I was watching an old movie today on TV which had a very young Sean Connery and Michael Caine in it, and I sorta wished I watched more old movies like that.
Also, there are SO MANY Land Before Time movies....my sister found one on TV tonight and is downstairs watching it now...it's number 7.
Also, I want to know how to make awesome lamingtons. I don't really like lamingtons as a rule but I think if I learnt to make awesome ones I might like them. Anyone wanna give me a recipe? Tomorrow I'm gonna make caramel slice as another procrastination tool XD

And now to go and read another Japanese article to make up for the time I will be wasting tomorrow making caramel slice!