Books!Books!Books! - How Many Have You Read?

So.... i came across the meme on Kylie's page over at A Study In Contradictions   and i thought i'd play along. See, apparently the BBc has published a Top 100 booklist ( i'm not sure of what the list actually is tho - best books ever in, like, history? Bestsellers? Who knows... ) and they've come to the conclusion that the majority of people have only read 6 of the 100 books listed. Really? Only 6?
The aim of this game is to highlight in bold those which you have read, and italicize the ones you started but didnt finish, or have read parts of.
Feel free to play along!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ( one of my top 5 favourites.. )


2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien


3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (also a top 5 pick )
6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott  ( i read this when i was 11ish - i would love to revisit it now )
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ( i've read " Romeo and Juliet " and " Taming of the Shrew " )

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger ( i have to admit though for all its hype, i wasnt really a fan... )

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ( started this as a kid - i dont recall ever finishing it )

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen ( This is my current read - i'm halfway through and i gotta say Emma is not a likeable character at all... )
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (One of my Top Ten)

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ( loved the book, loved the movie... sooooooo want Keira Knightleys green dress! )

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (read this earlier this year and really enjoyed it )
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ( its kind of short, but its really ...well...good. Inspiring good. )

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( read some of the books as a child, but not all of them )

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Meme Time!

So my last post was a re-doing of a meme that wasnt really a meme because i'd never been tagged for it ( Got it? Good ). Today, my post is an actually meme because i was tagged for this one, and awarded some bloggy love, by the lovely Hayley at Our Unique Journey. She thinks i'm a Kreativ Blogger!

And, with so many blog awards, come the rules and regulations of the meme. This one wants me to tell you 7 random things about myself. I can't promise they'll be NEW things but i'll give it my best:

1. I secretly enjoy watching childrens television shows. I know in years to come i will probably be sick to death of them, but right now i enjoy both the programs themselves and the bright look they bring to my sons face. At almost 9 months old he's still a bit little to really WATCH tv, but we sit down together at 12pm and watch " Sesame Street " ( Elmo and Grover in particular get a huge smile ) and he also enjoys " The Magic Roundabout ". However, i shant be letting him watch shows that dont use proper language, such as " In The Night Garden ". I cant stand that show and cant understand why anyone would let a child who is developing their language skills watch a programme where all they do is babble nonsensically.

2. I enjoy driving in Sydney. This is possibly because i dont actually live there, so everytime i have the need to drive in there its because i'm on some little adventure. I'm sure if i actually resided in Sydney i'd feel different but for the time being i dont mind driving on the M4 or negotiating the one way streets in the city itself...

3. I never thought i'd have my first child with a man that i had only known a matter of months and wasnt married to ( i always pictured being married first, not that it matters ) but you know what ? The world works in mysterious ways. And i like it.

4. I'll admit it - i'm a pimple picker. I know your not supposed to pick and squeeze at them, but i just can't help it. If i feel a big hard, yucky lump under my skin, i have this compulsion to get it out. Yes, it'll probably scar, but i just cant help myself. Hey, at least i'm not a nose picker....

5. I failed my drivers licence test 3 times. Yep - 3. The first time i actually hit  a car while trying to reverse parallel park ( actually, it was when i was pulling out of the park... ), and the other two times had to with the " blink off " at roundabout road rule here in NSW. I'll cop to the first test, i should have failed that time, but the second and third times were just revenue raising.

6. I think i'm becoming a Zumba junkie. I'd always been in love with yoga ( and still am ) but almost 9 months after giving birth and not having shifted any weight, i decided to give something a bit more hi-impact a try. And i love it! I dont have to be a born dancer and you dont even have to get the steps 100% perfect all of the time, you just gotta feel the music and move. And its way fun!

7. I have a habit of surfing real estate websites for houses in my (pretend ) price range, even though i'm not yet in the market for a new home. We live in a duplex which the bank  I own, but at the end of next year or early 2012 i'd like to buy an actual house to raise our family in. So, even though its a year or two away, i like checking out what kind of homes are out there waiting for me to buy one day...

So there you be! I know i'm also supposed to give this award away to 7 of bloggers of my choice and link to their blogs...blah blah blah...but as i've done this meme before, i might skip that it this time. However, if you want the Kreativ Blogger award leave me a comment telling me how awesome i am ( ha! ) and i might just give you one...

Puzzle Pieces - Redux

So, i was going through my archive, torturing myself by reading every post i've ever made with reference to my now ex-friend ( i'm a sucker for punishment, but more on that at a later date ) when i came across a post i had real fun doing. Seeing as it was from way back in 2008 and i figure it was ripe for the re-doing. I think it was once a meme that i wasnt tagged for but stole anyway*. The idea was to head over to http://www.someecards.com/ and choose five cards that were representative of you and your life right now. Kind of like pretty, funny, little puzzle pieces. So i did just that - the five i have chosen are different to the ones i picked back in 2008 so here they be:

Ah, so this would should be self-explanatory ( and if it isnt, where have you been the last few days? Not on my blog apparently... ). Thats me in the cute dress, at the bottom. I may feel like i'm at the bottom of the whole friendship jungle gym there, but at least that means i can only go up ( and i'm wearing a cute dress. Always a bonus ).

Yea, thanks Mum and Dad. Oh, and thanks to me from Flynn. Over the years i've been a bit of a worry for my parents, not because i was the ultimate teen rebel but because i was the ultimate teen emo. I'm sure its taken its toll on their mental health ( although i think my dad's always been fairly wack ). And its fair to say the trials of Flynns first 8 months have done my head in some what - not that i was entirely stable to begin with. So thanks to my parents for keeping me as close to sane as possible!

I do. The thought of it scares me. It hasnt happened yet but there is a first time for everything. But the day i start singing along to Justin Bieber - not because a song has been on constant rotation and i cant get the bloody thing out of my head - but because i actually LIKE it, is the day you people need to promise to hunt me down and shoot me. Please?!?

Oh yea - I love you Mick! In fact, i love him so much, i havent even entertained thoughts of ever wanting to, or needing to, leave him. Thats love right? Hell, i didnt even have an escape plan for our first date ( you know, the one where you get your friend to call with some kind of emergency ? ), thats how much i liked him initially. Methinks i've got me a keeper...

And this, my lovelies, is for you all. Your kind comments have been a great, big, fat help the last few days. Its funny how people who have never met me in real life ( which is all but one of you ... ) can have a better read on my personality than someone i thought i was close to. Sure, there are two sides to every story and i'm sure ex-friends version of events is somewhat different to mine, but its nice to know that i have some support based not only on recent events but on what you guys have read over the past few years. I know that my blog is a true reflection of who I am, and to know that you guys support me based on what you've read - on what is ME , as it were - means a lot. So mucho gracias, dudes, mucho!

*Also, feel free to steal this idea if you want. Its not a meme so i aint tagging anyone but if you have bloggers block and are in need of a kick along, take this...

The A-B-C of A-M-Y

Aah, another gloriously stolen post idea! Once you start reading, its kind of self-explanatory, so, go ahead, read on....



A. Attached or single ? Eternally single, but if you read this blog you already knew that.



B.Best friend ? P - i've written about her before. She's been my best friend since our last few years of high school, and i only wish we got to hang out more. Its not that easy, what with her newly married status, and the fact that we live almost five hours drive apart, but somehow we make it work.



C.Cake or pie ? Hmm, i'm going to go with pie on this one. I love me some chocolate mudcake but, if it came down to it, i might pick some decadent caramel, or apple, or blueberry type pie ahead of cake.



D. Day of choice ? Friday. I know I'm still at work on a Friday but its the promise of the weekend that makes Friday so good. Once you get to Saturday night, there is only one more day and your back to the daily grind - on a Friday you have the whole weekend ahead of you!



E. Essential item ? Tough question. I'm going to go with a pair of well fitted jeans. You could get away without moisturiser or shampoo or toothpaste - eating the right foods will keep you gorgeous and glowing - but a good pair of jeans ? No woman can go without an item of clothing that lifts her butt, slims her thighs and creates nice long legs. Not even debatable.



F. Favourite colour ? This one has changed over the years. I'm quite partial to red right about now...



G. Gummy bears or worms ? Gummy bears all the way. There was a time in my youth where no trip to the movies was complete without a packet of gummi bears. Worms are good, but gummi bears hold a place in my heart.



H. Hometown ? Dubbo, NSW, Australia. Also referred to as Dubs or DubVegas. We have a zoo. That is all.



I. ( favourite ) Indulgence ? Some kind of beauty treatment. I'm very girlie, but i'm kind of " no frills " girlie - that is, i dont have the money to spend on expensive treatments. But after a massage at a mud bath in Vietnam, and having had a one hour relaxation massage this past weekend, i'm thinking i'm going to have indulge in a full body massage a little more often...



J. January or July ? January, no doubt at all. First of all, its my birthday in January happy burfday to me! ) plus its summer, which beats the cold winter of July hands down. January all the way baby!



K.Kids ? None of my own yet ( they're coming eventually, be sure of it ), but i love kids. I mean, i spent a year volunteering to look after other peoples children, and thats no easy task, so you really have to love kids to do it. I spent this past Saturday night not at a pub, but with a snuffly, sick, 5 month old baby asleep on my lap after having walked him, and danced him, and rocked him around the house. It might kind of lame or desperate to say, but i liked it.



L.Life isnt complete without ? Family, friends, good jeans, cute heels, mascara, and hoop earrings. ....



M. Marriage date ? Seriously, who knows ? Sometimes i despair that its never going to happen. I'm 24 now - it'd be nice if i were married before i wer 28. When i was 18 i wanted to be married before i was 24, but that hasnt happened so who knows?



N. Number of brothers and sisters ? Two younger brothers and one younger sister. Like Paula , i always say i have two brothers, even though one of them died at a young age. Christmas Eve 1989 my youngest brother died of meningitis - he'd be 21 on his next birthday if he'd lived. It always makes me think, if he had lived, would my sister exist ? Best not ponder these things too hard...



O. Oranges or apples ? Mangoes.



P. Phobias ? Well aside from having suffered from acute social anxiety in the past ( so i guess i was kind of afraid of people... ) i dont really have any huge phobias. I dont like spiders, or snakes, or mice inside my house, but thats about it.



Q. Quotes? " It wont rain all the time " - Eric Draven, " The Crow " . Thats about all i have - there are probably hundreds of lines of movie dialogue or song lyrics that i love, i just dont have the ability to recall them off the top of my head. Except that one.

R. Reasons to smile? My neice referring to me as " beautiful girl "; finding the perfect pair of cute heels in my size; buying an album and loving every song on it; sunshine on a rainy day; listening to my mum rave on about something she doesnt quite understand, and then hearing her say something silly; reading a good blog post. You know, simple things amuse simple minds :)

S. Season of choice ? Spring. Once upon a time i would have said summer, but as i've got older and Australia has gotten hotter and drier, i've realised spring is where its at. Its got beautiful sunny warmth, the promise of growth and change, plus it means the end of winter. Yep, spring is my favourite.

T. Tag five people ?I'm going to tage five of you, but dont feel obligated to do this meme: Sheena, Laurie, Andy, Steph and Gene. Your up people!

U. Unknown fact about me ? Umm.... i find it a lot easier to fall asleep if i'm holding something. Seeing as i dont have a many, this means i am either holding my pillow or i'm curled up so tight i'm practically hugging my myself. Not exactly a world shattering secret, but there you have it.

V. Vegetable ? Pumpkin. Now, i commented on Laurie's blog that one of the weirdest things about living in the USA was that they only have pumpkin in season, and the rest of the time, its canned. Canned pumpkin. That shit is weird. I love me some good baked or roasted pumpkin with a traditional roast dinner, or pumpkin soup or pumpkin mash. Hell, i even like pumpkin pie and thats a big thing for a non-American.

W. Worst habit ? :Lately, since i've been growing my hair out ( so, for about the last year... ) i've developed this habit of running my hands through my hair and pulling out all the loose strands. I'm shedding hair like a dog man! Seriously, my mum mentioned the other day that she is beginning to tire of finding my hair on the lounge, or in the bathroom sink or on the kitchen floor. Sick.

X. X-ray or ultrasound ? X-ray. Ultrasounds are more uncomfortable. Like, if your having an abdominal ultrasound, you have to drink a litre of water before your appointment and then you have try your hardest not to pee while the operator runs the little camera-thingy over your overfull bladder. Who wants that ?

Y. Your favourite food ? I have no answer for this question - i just like food. I, from this moment on, refuse to choose a favourite food. I inevitably end up choosing chicken, when we all know i like chocolate just as much. Its just not fair to the other foods, okay ?

Z. Zodiac sign ? I'm Aquarian by birth and Aquarian by nature. Seriously, you make out a list of typical Aquarian traits and i exhibit probably 95% of them. And you, my friends, are living in the Age of Aquarius, so enjoy!

First impressions

So, as kind of, sort of, alluded to into the last post I've come up with a list of " firsts " to complete the " lasts " from the last entry. It was inevitable really, wasnt it? I've found the answers to the firsts to be a little more telling, more embarrassing than the lasts - so many firsts happen when you're a kid, and who has impeccable taste and judgement when they're in the 1st grade? Certainly not me, although i probably thought so at the time. And so:



First movie I ever loved enough to watch over and over:

" Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya, Tomorrow! You're only a day awaaaaaaaaaaay! ". Yep, for me, it was " Annie ". God, how i loved that movie. In fact, i still have an old VHS with the film taped off the tv and its still watchable. Anyhoo, there was just something about a all-singing, all-dancing, all-grinning, all-wisecracking red-headed orphan that I just fell in love with. Hell, i wanted to chuck in my parents and move to the girls home with Miss Hannigan, just so i could hang out with Annie and sing while i scrubbed floors. I think at one point in my young life, i probably knew every word to every song in that movie. " Its a hard knock life for us, its a hard knock life - for us..... "



First pet I owned:
His name was Gus, and he was a beagle. I named him after a snail from an Australian childrens TV show ( you remember, Gus, from Mr Squiggle, for all the Aussie readers... ) and he was cute and iloved him. At least thats how i remember it, seeing as i was around 3 or 4 a the time. I also remember going out shopping with my mum one day and when we got back, Gus was gone. I, naturally, was devastated. My memory, however doesnt exactly ring true ? 15 years later my dad finally revelas to me that with another baby on the way my parents decided not to keep Gus and they sold him. Whoever they sold him to came to get him while i was out so that way it wouldnt like they were the bad guys. Bad guys! My parents are the WORST guys! Who gives away a little girls dog and then lies about it - for 15 years ? Those jerks.

First day of school:
I'm not sure on the date, but i started kindergarten in January of 1989 at North Dubbo Primary School. I could possibly have been wearing pigtails ( aww.... Little Amy is so cute! ) We had a Year 6 student as our " buddy " and my buddie's name was Melanie. Thats about all i remember clearly - just being at an assembly with the bigger kids first thing in the morning. Apparently, according to an old teacher of mine, i was a precocious young child. Me? Precocious? Who woulda thunk that ?

First album i bought:
Alright, everybody get ready to cringe - the first album i ever bought with my own money was " Walthamstow " by East 17. Yep, East 17. For anybody who doesnt know or doesnt remember, East 17 were a British boy band who made techno/house-y kind of pop. If you listen to it now, its incredibly lame but, in my defence, i was 8 years old when i bought it and East 17 were the cutest thing around at that time. They were house hats! And massive baggy pants! And they had a cool dog! Seriously, they had to have rocked - right ?

First kiss:
Ooh la la - kissy, kissy, kissy! I had my first kiss when i was in Year 4 and it was a boy named Kenny. Kenny was cool, we held hands at lunch time and walked home from schoo together and it was decided that we should probably kiss. I believe this decision was made more by general playground consensus than by us. As far as kisses go, it was quick smooch, a close-mouthed peck as you would expect for a pair of 9 year olds. Ah, young love. So romantic, kissing behind the school toilets with about 10 other kids watching...

First crush:
Not counting Kissing Kenny up there, my schoolgirl crush was on a boy named Brad when i was in Year 6. Brad was like totally the hottest boy in school, and for a while there he liked me too. However, after asking me to the Year 6 Farewell ( kind of like a prom in the sixth grade ), which i said " yes! " to, a week or two later he decided that i was flirting with other people ( when i was 11 ?Come on! ) and went with my friend Lisa. No biggie - I went with Kissing Kenny.
As far as my first adult crush goes, it was while i was in living New Jersey. Roberto was a Chilean guy who worked at the local deli ( Towne Deli in Summit, NJ - go there for the chicken salad on a Portuguese roll ). He was a bigger guy, slightly chubby i guess, with a long dark ponytail. He was really charming and always chatted with me when i came into get a sandwich. I think he just came off as an all round sweet natured guy, which is why i liked him. He mock-invited me to a picnic once, for the benefit of amusing my three year old charge - funny thing was, i totally wanted to go....

First job:
I was what is colloquially known as a " checkout chick ". When i turned 14 i went and got an after school job at the local Woolworths working as a cashier. It was incredibly boring and i didnt really make friends with anyone i worked with, but it gave me a little extra pocket money to buy cds and clothes and McDonalds with. As first jobs go, it wasnt so bad really.

First car:
This wont mean anything to any of you who live outside of Australia but my first car was a Mazda 121. Alot of people called them " the jelly bean car " because of its general design - just like me, nice and curvy! - but i still think it was cool. Of course, it was red ( because as we all know, red goes faster ) and aside from one of the back door locks getting stuck all the time, the Mazda totally rocked! I sold it before i went to the USA for a year and, oddly enough, i still see it driving around town. Some blonde girl who lives a few streets over from my brother owns it. Kind of makes me sad really. But hey, i have a little red Holden Barina now, so i'm not doing too badly...


So there we go - the " firsts " and " lasts " of one Miss Amy Wells. Its actually been kind of fun reminiscing on all this stuff - taking a walk down memory lane and all that. Hope you peoples enjoyed it as much as i have. If you didnt, well, sorry much to you. Not much i can do about it now, is there ?

At last....

Firstly, my apologies to everyone for my depressive rant in the last post. For anyone who doesnt know - and who hasnt figured it out yet - I actually do have depression ( its not just a little joke when i mention it... ) for which i take medication. However, sometimes the black dog rears its ugly head and i have a really bad depressive episode. This past weekend could be counted as said episode, and i barely feel in control during these moments, so ordinairly i would think twice about posting such a rant. So apologies for dumping it all on here, but many thanks to those of you who left kind and supportive comments. I could totally feel your bloggy-love...And now onto something way less intense. You know i love a good list, and you also know i love a good meme - so i'm creating both in one! Someone asked me yesterday what the last movie i saw was, which got me thinking about " lasts ". Last movie, last book, last purchase - all that good stuff. So i thought maybe i should make a record of some cool " lasts " thus sharing some more of myself with the rest of you. Brilliant idea you say? Yes, i know, its what i do. So:

Last three albums I bought:
" Pretty Odd " - Panic at the Disco
" The Odd Couple " - Gnarls Barkley
" Oracular Spectacular " - MGMT

Last three films I've watched:
" Hellboy 2: The Golden Army "- directed by Guillermo Del Toro
" Transformers " - directed by Michael Bay
" Baby Mama " - directed by Michael McCullers

Last three books I've read:
" On Chesil Beach" - Ian McEwan
" Long Way Down " - Nick Hornby
" Soul" - Tobsha Learner

Last day of high school :
I dont remember the exact date but it was some time during September of 2001. What i do remember is that i could not wait to get the hell out of there. We had a graduation ceremony - no hats, no robes, just full school uniform and the presentation of graduation certificates, and speeches by our school captains, school principal and year advisor. Kind of a snoozefest really. Even though i knew there was going to be a morning tea held afterward for the graduating students and their parents ( if they indeed attended ), as soon as that assembly was over I left. I could not stand to be in that institution one second longer than i technically had to be. Not that i hated school - I loved getting to hang out with my friends, and i didnt even mind the classes so much - i just didnt like the whole concept, the institution of " school " as it were, not by the end of it.

Last good home-cooked meal:
It was poached salmon with a yoghurt dill sauce on a bed of potatoes and cherry tomatoes, cooked by my father last Tuesday night. One word - delicious! And i know you're thinking that sounds pretty damned fancy for a home cooked meal but, frankly, my dad is quite the culinary whiz. He's not a trained chef or anything but he's just one of these people who can take a recipe, pull together the ingredients, and the meal will turn out exactly the way it looks in the cookbook. Almost always tastes pretty good too. I'll say this, my dad is a much better cook than my mum - i love her, bless her cotton socks, but she aint much of a cook unless its something fairly simple.

Last birthday you helped celebrate:
My dad's 47th, on April 25th. Seeing as my dad isnt real big on my making a fuss over himself, his birthdays are usually simple affairs. Put it this way - he says if any of us try and organise a suprise party for his 50th in a few years time he'll walk in, let us all yell " Suprise!!! " and then promptly take himself off to bed. And yes, he would totally do that, I have no doubt. Thats just the way he is ( and part of the reason i love him ). Anyhoo, so we just had the immediate family around for dinner, which my dad cooked ( yes, so very sad i know.... ) . I cant remember what he made for dinner but I was responsible for dessert -apricot cheesecake with macadamia crust. Don't salivate too hard . It might sound fancy but its pretty simple if you're the dessert Queen that i am. Any celebration or special occasion we have, i get called upon to make the sweets because, hey, its just what i do. Fathers Day this year ? My own cherry ripe concotion - chocolate mousse with blackcherries and coconut.

Last good vacation I went on:
Southeast Asia , last November. I spent three weeks tripping through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand - completely awesome! If you search your way back through some of my old posts you can probably read a little of my adventures, but suffice to say I had some great fun touring around with 13 other people, all like minded, almost all fantastic ( i say almost all because we were saddled with two late 50-ish Brits who did nothing but complain). I got to experience some awesome culture , see some gorgeous sights, and eat some fantastic food! Seriously, you want some good, healthy, flavoursome food, hit up South East Asia. There is no better place to get Thai mussaman curry than in Thailand. Oh, and lookee here - thats me at Angkor Wat in Cambodia!!



Last " big " purchase:
So, for me, anything over about $200 is a big purchase. So, that being said, my last purchase over above this is my cute little HP Mini notebook. I've had it for a couple of months now and its serving me very well. Its nice and light and little ( just like i'd like to be... ), although the battery power doesnt last quite as long as i'd like. But no matter, its much better than my frightfully old school desktop that i was using ( and by old school, i mean its probably about 5 years old... ).

Last gift I bought:
My sisters birthday present. I was going to tell you what it is, but it has just occurred to me that she could possibly read this entry and find out. I'm about 99% sure she doesnt read my blog - firstly because she's always giving me crap about being on the computer so much, and secondly because she doesnt read, well, anything really - but even still, i hate for her to stumble upon it in the address bar drop down box and ruin the suprise. I will say that because its her 18th birthday its a special present. 18 is the legal drinking age here in Australia, so you're 18th is like a " coming of age " birthday. We're all going out for dinner and then my best friend and I are taking her to a few of the local pubs for the first time. I cannot wait to get her screaming drunk and hang over the next morning.... its going to be so sweet!

Last time I was lost for words:
I only have three words to answer this one - The Mary Incident.

And thats all, ladies and gents. I'm not going to tag anybody to do this meme ( although if I did, I'd tag Andy, Steph, Paula and Sheena :) ), so if you want to steal my idea and make your own" lasts " post then please feel free. I hope this has been much more enjoyable than my last entry - perhaps look forward to a " firsts " post in the future!

A Few Pieces of the Puzzle

So i stole this one from Miss Em over at Can You Point Me To The Bar ? Yes, technically its a meme that she didnt tag anyone for, but the idea was cute that i thought i'd " borrow " it.
Now the challenge was to peruse the funniness at http://www.someecards.com/ and find a few cards that depict a little bit of who you are and what you're about. Trust me, it may take you a while - you'll be checking out the pages for ages! But here's what i came up with:




Yes, i am kind of a movie snob. I watch all these fancy, foreign, arthouse films and i actually like them. I encourage my friends to watch them, raving about how good they are and you know what ? Most of my friends are so NOT critically acclaimed movie people - they're blockbuster people or, much to my chagrin, sometimes they're immature spoof movie people. Dont get me wrong, i love a bit of " Billy Madison " or action moves where a lot of stuff blows up, but i need a bit of intelliegence sometimes. Apologies about that.

Oh yea, i'm all about the naps. Cat naps, nanna naps, catch up naps, the litte naps you sneak in the back seat of the car on a long trip. Forget seeing Machu Pichu or eating lunch at a Buddhist monastery, i'm going to be in my last throwes and reminiscing about that lazy Sunday afternoon where i fell asleep on the lounge watching a re-run of M*A*S*H.

THis is for my friends. Pretty much, thats how i want to be thinking about you if i consider you as part of my inner circle. I'm super loyal, and you better be too. Like P, my best friend - she's totally invited to my funeral! I hope she makes cheesecake for everybody, in my memory of course....

Which is not to say i'm an unashamed horny biatch ( although we could be headed in that direction... ), just they i havent been getting out much. Its hard to meet people, to even have the opportunity for skanky one night shag, when you've been spending the majority of your weekend nights watching DVD's from the comfort of your loungeroom....


Aww, families, we all have one. I really like mine, as depicted above. Okay, maybe not all the wacky bastards - extended families can get seriously freaky! - but my immediate family ? I lubs them big lots. Thats us playing Trivial Pursuit by the way. My dad is cheating. Thats such a dad thing to do.

And thats it my lovelies. Go check out http://www.someecards.com/ if you need a Friday Feelgood and if you decide to follow in my footsteps and steal this blog idea, please let me know!

I think Eight Is Enough ....

Alright, so its meme time again. I think its only fair that i do this one because the wonderful Miss Gates of If These Walls Could Talk has tagged me to do it - because i tagged her for one last week. It's a tag-a-thon! So apparently i'm supposed to make a list of eight personal things that you reader type person's dont already know..... crap. Here's what i came up with:

1. I eat the same thing for breakfast every morning - peanut butter on toasted grain bread. If i eat something different, say if i'm holidays or i've run out of peanut butter, i geta little narky and the day just isnt the same.
2. My hair falls out. Everyday when i wake up i run my hands through my hair and starnds of it will come away, or end clumped in my comb. Don't get me wrong, i'm not going bald or anything, its just that i have a LOT of hair and it apparently replenishes itself quite frequently. However, i found just a little gross that i shed hair like some kind of exotic cat...
3. My brother and i got into a physical fight once, when we were younger. He chocked me so hard he made my nose bleed. I cried and everything but, secretly, it was exhilarating. Fight Club anyone?
4. Because i dont drink milk, my nails are really brittle and constantly crack, break or peel. Gross.
5. Though i am completely anal about keeping DVD's and CD's in perfect, alphabetical and chronological order, this sense of order does not extend to my bedroom. If you stood at my bedroom door you would see my bed floating in a sea of clothes. They arent dirty mind, you just clean clothes that i dump on the floor, thinking i'll fold them and put them away later. I havent yet.
6. My first kiss was with a guy named Kenny, behind the girls toilets at my primary school. I think we were in fifth grade so it was one of those " shut your eyes, lean in, and pucker up " type kisses. From memory, i think their were about 15 other kids watching to see if we actually did it or not.
7. I did not vomit after a drinking session until i was 20 and half. Thats about 4 years of drinking experience without chucking up. I considered myself a legend until that fateful night.... its been all downhill from there.
8. I secretly want to try, just once, a nudist beach. Just to see if i had the guts. I'd say balls, but if it were a nudist beach it wouldnt only prove that i dont... hee hee hee.

Oh, wait, there was a second part to this meme.

• Tell me how wonderful I am before you tag 8 other bloggers

Well, SheenaBee, here goes - you are the most wonderful, gorgeous, witty, outrageous, compassionate, fabulous Saffa blogger in the blogosphere. You simultaneously make me feel jealous, appreciative, sad, happy, in love and murderous with rage. You are many things to many people but to me, you are a friend.

How'd i do ?

Now, can i name eight other bloggers who wont kill me for tagging them ?

1. Paula
2. Miss Em
3. CoffeeCup
4. Globus
5. Ruby
6. Lord Snuffy
7. SonnyVsDan ( although Sheena already tagged him... )
8. Anyone else who'd like to

And there you be - meme done!

Tag, I'm it!

So, i was tagged in a meme by Paula and, seeing as i have a very little else i'd like to blog about, i decided to take part. Read on:

Eight Things I Am Passionate About

1. Movies - yep i'm a huge film buff. I will also admit to being a film snob at times but that generally means i dont watse time watching Eddie Murphy or Martin Lawrence movies. The good films though are a form of escapism to me. I like to watch, ponder on and then disect films. I try to keep a current list of top 10 favourites and could list for you my favourite director, actor and actress. I wont though.
2. Fitness - these has become a passion just of late. I used to be " heavier " during high school, and even though i was relatively good at sport i wasnt all that much into it. Fell in love with going to the gym during my spare time in the USA and have just in the last three or four months gotten back into it. I try to go at least four times a week, five if i have the chance. I'm almost back to gym junkie status!
3. Blood donation - okay, i know this one sounds a little odd, but bare with me. I've blogged about it a few times before but i think donating blood is the easiest way to contribute to your community. I donate every 12 weeks on the dot and have also started donating plasma, and get a real high from knowing i'm helping to keep people alive. Unless you have some kind of illness or condition that prevents you from donating, you have no excuse not to...
4. Dressing for your body shape - just call me Trinny. Or Susannah if you prefer. I love clothes - its such a girly obsession - but rather than being all fashionista, i much more passionate about wearing what suits you best. I dont care whats in the pages of Vogue or Vanity Fair, i just want every woman on earth to dress to flatter herself, regardless of weather she is wearing last seasons jeans.
5.Relationships - be it friends, family, or lovers, i find it very hard to trust people. Thats why when i DO find people that i can trust, that i'm comfortable with, that i really like, i invest almost all of myself into that relationship. I'm extremely loyal, but if that loyalty or trust is questioned or broken, its very hard for me to trust again. This could be a bad thing, but mostly it works in my favour. It means the people in my life are the ones i love the most, and anybody else is dragging me down. Nobody needs a toxic friend!
6. Yoga - this kind of falls into the " fitness " category, but yoga is on a whole other level for me. I cant imagine my life without it in some capacity, and i am currently saving money so that i can train as a yoga instructor.
7.Travel - if only i had the money to do it more! My short term life goal is to visit at least one country on every continent before i turn 30. I'm half way there, but there is so much more i want to see, and experience, and learn. Anyone want to let me crash on their couch?
8. Music - this is probably on everyone's list, but like a good movie music is an escape for me. I'm still undecided as to whether i'm more of a melody or a lyrics person, but a brilliant combination of both will get me everytime.

Eight Things I Want To Do Before I Die

1. Learn how to make authentic bolognaise sauce - in Italy
2. Have children - dont care how many, but three would be nice
3. Grow my half way down my back, like i had when i was a child
4. Learn another language and at least be semi-fluent
5. Bought a house, but made it a home
6. Raised a dog from puppy to old age
7. Seen every Cirque Du Soleil production
8.Owned at least one piece of expensive designer clothing - there's the vanity coming out

Eight Things I Say Often

1. Bro - imagine it in a Kiwi accent ( i'm not Kiwi, its just how i say it ) as in " see ya later, bro "
2. Good Lord Claude! - picked this one up off my boss. Used most often when i'm exasperated with customers, management or computers.
3. Cack you later - shorten Aussie slang for " catch you later ".
4. What a mole! - thats my favourite light-hearted insult at the moment. Also quite often shortened to just " mole ", as in : " Did you hear what that guy just said? Mole! "
5. Jerk! - see entry above for mole, because its pretty much the same thing.
6. Freakin' boo-Jesus - variably either a term of frusturation or suprise. You jump out of a closet, you get a " Freakin' boo-Jesus, you scared the shit out of me! ". My computer freezes up, you get " Freakin' boo-Jesus, stupid computer! "
7. What a crock - of shit, that is.
8. Fella - used in many contexts, but its my favourite word instead of boy/man.

Eight Books I've Read Recently

1. Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
2. Soul- Tobsha Learner
3. The Memory Keepers Daughter - Kim Edwards
4. The Motorcyle Diaries - Che Guevara
5. Atonement - Ian McEwan
6. White Oleander - Janet Fitch
7. The Life of Pi - Yann Martel
8. I Know This Much Is True - Wally Lamb

Eight Movies I've Seen Eight Times

1. The Princess Bride
2. The Crow
3. Dazed and Confused
4. Rent
5. Empire Records
6. V for Vendetta
7. The Breakfast Club
8. The Lion King

Eight People Who Should Do This Meme

( crud, can i even think of eight ? )

1. Sheena
2. SonnyVsDan
3. Lord Snuffy
4. Miss Em
5. Coffecup
6. Ruby

..... thats all i got. Feel free to not to do it, but just imagine me giving you a disappointed, puppy-dog eyed, face....