two days from freedom

... but I will not complain, I will not whinge. I will stick it out and then I will rejoice and relax.


Spent last Thursday at the Half Moon Bay... a clear blue day with a beach that started off empty but filled slowly as people fled school, work to end up in the water or on the sand.


Perfection. Utter bliss.



Here's the view from my towel. If you look closely, you can see the wreck of the submarine straight ahead... the Cerberis. If you're a much better swimmer than me you can make it out there easily. Give it till summer and the wreck will be swarming with teenaged boys proving their manhood by launching themselves off it into the blue.


Andrew's a little dot out there in the water somewhere.

This is a few minutes before I went into the freezing Antarctic waves... got stung by a jellyfish... and was so distracted by the welt I neglected to reapply. Ended up having to keep my legs completely straight and soaking in aloe for three days coz it's too painful to bend the burnt backs of my knees.

It's gone down now (thank god). I don't usually burn so have forgotten - or never knew- how painful it was... combined with three days worth of cold showers :( I still haven't worked my way back up to full temperature yet. Too risky. Maybe tonight.

So a brilliantly painful day. It's my basic plan for the summer - leaving out the sting and the burn of course.

glutton for punishment

It's official - I've let myself in for three more years of libraries, bibliographies, deadlines... and of course, 90 000 words.

That's right people - a letter from uni in the mail today confirmed my acceptance into the PhD program at Melbourne Uni, starting March next year. You know, it seemed like a really good idea until I realised I actually had to WRITE a PhD...

No - seriously. Am rapt. Ecstatic. Overjoyed. Petrified. Excited. All that jazz. Just give me three years - I'll be Dr. Deep in Thought. Seriously scary stuff.

Does it detract from my serious academic appearance that I spend an hour of potentially constructive time every day watching Jessica Fletcher trying to solve a murder? This morning, it was a Grandpa who murdered a Mexican drug-dealer because said drug dealer was indirectly responsible for the death of his grandson two years earlier in a high-speed police chase. Riveting.

Every episode, a friend or close personal acquaintance of Jessica's dies. Every episode, someone takes Jessica into a dark room, where a suspicious man in a dark suit warns her that she is becoming a nuisance, and [for her own safety] she should keep her nose out of other people's business. Every episode I think 'Oh, well he's the bad guy. He's behind all of these dastardly deeds and deceptions and double-double crossing'. And every episode the man in the dark suit is actually a CIA agent... or an undercover New York detective...or a British spy. He's a good guy, doing his best to muddle though all the misunderstandings and find the killer. And every episode I think 'Oh. Yeah. Why didn't I see that small white powdery mark on the mahogany dining table that proves Person X was really a jealous homicidal maniac?'

Love Jessica Fletcher. She's on the list of potential heroes.

sun-day

So I've been meaning to start this for a while - but have been inspired by three cosmically-aligned happenings: i'm procrastinating from actual constructive study... one-eyed-man has translated words to action in brilliant fashion... and I'm anticipating future summer boredom. So.

I think it should be illegal to make people study on Sunday afternoons. Especially bright, cheerful ones.

I've spent the last few days playing with a brand new iBook, and am [not at all] ashamed to admit that I'm in love. I've decidedly jumped on the mac bandwagon, and I'm not looking back. Is it shameful and materialistic to be this excited over a laptop - so much so that I'm writing about it instead of more 'important' things? Hope not, can't help it.

Have just gotten pics from the races last weekend - usual mess of eyes closed, odd facial expressions and the like. This one's not too bad.



Had great fun - checking out not only the horses but the inappropriate outfits, badly applied fake tan and hair extensions galore. I love the way Melbourne goes a little nuts during Spring Carnival, so obsessed with something most of us don't think about once for the rest of the year. Kept an eye out for Stevie Nicks... but she was off in the corporate marquees, not slumming it in the carparks. Lost my money of course - but if you've got to bet big to win big, I wasn't even in the running.

There's a production of Kafka's Metamorphosis on at the Malthouse till the 20th. It's a modern interpretation - suburbia, range rovers and the rat race apparently. Going with Cait and Gus on Tuesday night so will report back.

Gigs coming up: Lior, Big Day Out to catch Franz Ferdinand, Magic Numbers. Wanted to see The Shins (missed them last time cause I was still in Europe) but it sold out in 24 hours. Shame