Japan!

Just a quick post while The Hun is showering and his friend is out getting rid of a car (he knows I blog and will proddly find it on his computer, so if you're reading this S*, jus lemme know?!).

I really wish I had been able to update more, but didn't realise how hectic we'd be and how affected we'd be by the time difference over three countries - sure, it's only small, but flying for 5 hours from midnight and arriving 8 hours later in another country is one of those things that seems to much me about.

Japan has been quite relaxing so far - we stayed in a guest room at the dorm's where S* also lives - it was a beautiful room. And contrary to my prior beliefs, heated toilet seats ARE the greatest invention in the world - they're warmer than 'just used' so that makes all the difference. I believe of the two countries, Thailand is better for holidays and Japan would be better for living (Lulu, I can see how you ended up here!) however they have seemed much less pleased with the tourists - I got punched by a bus driver in Nikko today and he yelled 'Show me ticket' and it also came over the microphone to the whole bus - how was I supposed to know?! However, I've been practicing "SE-KU-HA" (sexual harassment) (saying it, not doing it) as I didn't really like the whole being punched thing.

We're catching a bus at 10:53 (easy time for Canberrans to remember) to Kyoto and arrive at 6:30 tmr mrng - can't say I'm a big fan of overnight travel but will have to lump it I guess.

I hope all is well in blogland and I've been checking comments as they arrive in my inbox (Susanne is alive!!) and do promise to get back to each and every one.

Best go shower!

Still Alive!

Posting from Bangkok in Thai Blogger - it's a bit sad that I don't need the English to work out what I should be doing.

Thailand is hot.

Phuket town looked a lil scungy, Phi Phi was very touristy but with a fantastic view and a long boat trip, Kuraburi (Phang Nga) was beautiful and I overcame my water/height fears and went snorkelling, Patong Beach was just like the Gold Coast but with even more obnoxious Aussies (and Coyote girls! ick!) and Bangkok is frightening and busy (but we're feeling a bit better about it after a nap and a bite to eat).

Obviously I'm not updating as much as hoped - may be one or two more before we return, else stay tuned for the 8th when we're back down under.

Two Year Anniversary - My! How Time Flies...

(You actually got this a lil early as I'm meant to be leaving Canberra in six hours and I'm yet to pack and can't be fuffed with trying to work out how to automatically publish posts....!)

Oh yeah baby - the next installment of this (and quit hogging the celebratory cake!) - What a year! Feel free to comment on any of them coz I have that thing setup where I get emailed your comments (so I PROMISE to reply) and thanks for the good times, peeps :o)

17/04 - The previous wrapup post
19/04 - Shake of fist at birthday gift delay
20/04 - 'Shake of fist' worked!
21/04 - Fired temp says: Attention Wastrels
23/04 - Testing after blog dissapeared
23/04 - Adro and AJ - Biggest Loser mishap
25/04 - BB David is Gay
26/04 - Leaving for Martial Arts camp
02/05 - Martial Arts camp roundup
04/05 - Boring Uni wrapup
06/05 - Sophie Delizio = Movie plot?
07/05 - Middle bro declares his love for the Enny Pen
07/05 - More BB David drooling
09/05 - Pr0n (RL Ppl Free Zone KTHX)
11/05 - Uni whinge
11/05 - More Pr0n
13/05 - When do baby chickens come from?
13/05 - Ross Noble
14/05 - Blogging Comics (still funny!)
16/05 - Dot Points: BB, T'wo, ORLY, Martial Arts Open Day and Work Plants
18/05 - Uni wrapup
18/05 - Dot Points: Eating Disorders in BB, Amused/Bemused and Pr0n
19/05 - HAWT Italian Soccer Team and rules
21/05 - T'wo wrapup
23/05 - Going to Da Vinci Code
25/05 - Went and saw Da Vinci Code
26/05 - Uni group work is a waste of time
27/05 - BB David and Michael Hookup
27/05 - More on 'The (work) Bet'
28/05 - Boys are pikers
29/05 - Pictures of planets in persepctive
01/06 - Boring Uni wrapup
01/06 - I'm vegan!
03/05 - Dotpoints: weightloss, photos and albums, chocolate, margheritas and googlesearch
04/06 - "May contain traces of" dilemma
05/06 - Word verification humour
07/06 - Kids love me!
10/06 - Dadsy's graduation
10/06 - World Cup rules for women
12/06 - Going crazy studing economics
13/06 - Defacto/Defecto
14/06 - Interviewing myself
15/06 - Meme: 15 things to 15 ppl
17/06 - Fringe/mole head!
19/06 - Happy roadside roo
20/06 - Tiffany is a mole
21/06 - TTFN Tiff (proddly my favourite post!)
23/06 - Dolphin corruption
24/06 -Meme: Alphabet soup
27/06 - Dolphin corruption answers!
28/06 - World Cup Scandal?
29/06 - Meme: nicknames
29/06 - Vegan redeye
30/06 - Funeral day
02/07 - Pleasant blast from the past
04/07 - Vegan Subway questions
07/07 - Couples and "I love you"
09/07 - End of semester feelings rollercoaster
12/07 - More on "I love you"
14/07 - SUPRISE! DOOCED!
15/07 - Ranting over being dooced
16/07 - Dotpoints: Not quitting the blog, Newspaper eye, Magf engaged, Mrs Batman preggers
18/07 - Back at uni
19/07 - Hits since dooced
19/07 - Meme: Five things
20/07 - Fallout after being dooced
20/07 - Big fat whinge (shuffle down the emo)
21/07 - 250 posts and unforgettable story!
25/07 - Boring uni wrapup
25/07 - Old car/new car and Google idol
28/07 - Wearing my hair out
29/07 - Cleaning out the archives
30/07 - Gettin' old...
01/08 - Uni wrapup - Adam's Equity theory
03/08 - Meme: One word
03/08 - Clipart filmclip
05/08 - Movie Review: Confetti!
06/08 - Meme: One sentence per blogger
13/08 - Dot points: Qld conference, overtime, share house meal, Maid of Honour, RENT etc
13/08 - Hypothetical: Deal Breakers
15/08 - Open letter to ex best friend (because of a dream)
17/08 - Meme: Books
20/08 - Meme: Have you ever
20/08 - Meant to be studying, shopping and nerdy boyfs
22/08 - First kiss, worst kiss, best kiss
27/08 - Meerkat Manour
27/08 - Melbourne wrapup: comedy revue and erica!
28/08 - Canberra blogreader trawling archives
30/08 - Magf and mine friendship
31/08 - Welcome to the Enny-Point/gym experience
01/09 - Gardasil and the circle of life
03/09 - More Meerkat Manour
04/09 - Becoming a real girl
07/09 - Kickboxing cartoon
09/09 - Hormonal
09/09 - Maid of Honour update
10/09 - Switching to Beta
13/09 - Dot points: Big Blogger, weighty TV, selling car, Holly Throsby, TJ, Floriade, Phones
15/09 - Forgiving the ex-bestie from my dream
17/09 - Holly Throsby!
17/09 - Procrastinating uni work
18/09 - Hens day outfit decision vote
23/09 - Freaking out about what to do in next two months
28/09 - Dot points: tofu Lulu, D'jen earrings, Hens Day shoes
02/10 - Taking after my parents and growing up
03/10 - Fluffy tofu arrives!
05/10 - New shinpads
10/10 - Hens day at the races
18/10 - Angsty
20/10 - Martial Arts week wrapup
21/10 - Looking for perspective on an argument
22/10 - Sold my car!
23/10 - Talking about the new car
25/10 - Getting drunk with my boss
26/10 - Post 299 filler
28/10 - Interviewing The Hun for post 300
29/10 - Wolfmother at the ARIAs - yay!
29/10 -Emily Williams at the ARIAs - boo!
02/11 - Reflections on studying
04/11 - Summer planning
07/11 - Gardasil and Pap tests
08/11 - Planning a Qld blogger meetup
11/11 - More Qld blogger meetup planning
11/11 - Meme: iTunes story
13/11 - Hypotheticals: Not the only love
17/11 - Meme: 50 questions
19/11 - Dot points: wedding, haircut, dress, shoes, Nutrimetics, Futurama, Talkman etc
23/11 - 30yo acting like 3yo
24/11 - Uni marks are in
25/11 - Cleaning for a house inspection (with pics)
27/11 - Guess handbag and puzzle
01/12 - Roadtrip planning
03/12 - Roadtrip wrapup
05/12 - Morning After Pill ethics
10/12 - Christmas shopping
12/12 - First try of baked beans (haven't had them since!)
13/12 - Nonsensical Kanye video rant
14/12 - Planning my Qld trip
17/12 - Qld blogmeet wrapup
20/12 - Qld blogmeet photo
23/12 - Weighty issue - middle bro, cuz and me
26/12 - Christmas wrapup
29/12 - Liver damage info
01/01 - Food poisoning NYE!
03/01 - Eating healthy (again?!) and Weeds
06/01 - Mini detox and vegan market shopping
09/01- LG15!
10/01 - Magical Mystery Pube
12/01 - Totally Not Vegan - first comic appearance
13/01 - Delurking week!
18/01 - Bridesmaid fitting and living in sin
21/01 - Convertable bra comic
21/01 - Fame from my living in sin post!
23/01 - Big Day Out preparation
27/01 - Big Day Out wrapup
29/01 - Hottest 100
31/01 - Obligation Baby Shower
02/02 - Meme: five ten useless things about me (and the funniest forward in existence)
07/02 - Martial Arts camp and birthday freakout
11/02 - Martial Arts camp wrapup and Buddhist quote
14/02 - Valentines Day and CD mailout
16/02 - Gomez "How we operate" lyrics and vid
18/02 - Dotpoins: CDS, Holiday, Fyshwick, meeting Desci and Bob and foot warts
20/02 - Wart removal wrapup
22/02 - Wart pictures (perhaps should be "Warty to the Enny-Pen?!")
25/02 - Getting ready for Thailand - passports, safety and two types of baggage
27/02 - Work Allergy?
28/02 - Another ho is engaged - meet the Meatrix!
03/03 - Augie March - Cold Acre... solved!
04/03 - Magf's Hens night wrapup
05/03 - Emovisible (mad at dad)
10/03 - Dopoints: Haircut, Passport, Ross Noble, Curdled Soy, Handbag, Holiday
12/03 - Meeting Canberra bloggers
13/03 - Hot Cross Bunny
13/03 - Wasting time at home, work. the bank, Myer, Uni and DMB
17/03 - Relationship extraction difficulties
20/03 - Toothpaste for dinner says "update your blog"
21/03 - Fun veggie pics
23/03 - Rory McLeod - SQUEE!!!
24/03 - Totally Not Vegan - second comic appearance
26/03 - Almost my birthday (25 years and my life is still...)
28/03 - Birthday wrapup
01/04 - Magf's wedding
01/04 - Toothpase for dinner says "you're vegan"
03/04 - Bra talk
04/04 - Promotion
06/04 - Holiday details
08/04 - Bloggers in an Age article
09/04 - Easter and sick again!
11/04 - SMH Chicken farming article
14/04 - STOP - Hammer Time!
15/04 - "The Landlord" vid

Hooray!!!

The Landlord

Will Ferrell shall be my husband one day. One day.



(found first via Sarah, from here).

STOP!

Essay Time!

*ugh*

I'm the habit of posting SMH articles...

... and this one (and it's comments) are worth a read:

Chicken farming - urban myths and awful truths

I hate to burst the Easter bubble, but you know those fluffy yellow chicks we see images of at this time of the year? It turns out that around 13 million of them are killed annually in commercial hatcheries in one of two approved methods. One is by gassing - the other by maceration, which means they're chopped up at very high speed. While they're still alive.

The problem is that they are male chicks and therefore useless to the egg industry. They're no good for chicken meat growers either because the breed of chicken that makes a good layer isn't great for meat. So while the Easter egg industry is busy serving up cute images of baby chicks, the hatcheries supplying the real egg industry are snuffing out millions of real newborn chicks every year - either via CO2 in what's called a 'euthanasia chamber' or by grinding them up. It's not that I don't understand the problem - just what do you do with 13 million unwanted roosters- to-be? But in an age of technological marvels when we can catapult millionaires into space and bring them back again, couldn't someone figure out a less wasteful, kinder solution?

In fairness to the industry, there have been attempts to find a way of determining the sex of the embryonic chick in the egg before it hatches into a living bird, but the hatchery spokesman I rang this week says that so far these have been unsuccessful.

For me, this issue of disposing of baby chicks arose when a reader posted a comment on an earlier blog on eggs The hen or your hip pocket? claiming that male chicks were macerated. At the time I thought it must be an urban myth in the same league as 'eggs are full of hormones'. But while the egg industry, according to the Australian Egg Corporation, has never given hormones to chickens, the mass destruction of male chicks is no myth.

This is information many of us - me included - would rather not know. Especially when you learn that regardless of the label on your egg - cage, organic, free-range or barn-laid - the hen that laid it still came from a hatchery that disposes of male chicks. But if we're going to keep on eating our poached eggs and frittatas, maybe it's dishonest not to face up to what egg production involves.

Another Public Holiday Weekend

Another night spent hugging the toilet.

Well almost - this time I was clever enough to carry the bucket with me so when it did decide to make a rapid exit (first vom since 2000!) I was able to save the bathroom mat.

I don't know what I've done to deserve this twice in 4 months but I hope to gawd it doesn't happen O/S - the sweats, the deafening ringing, that gawdawful feeling in mouth.... blagh.

On the 'plus' side, I think I've cured my salty chip addiction (packet, not hot).

Words cannot describe the feeling

...of looking thru the news late at night and recognising half the people in an article (Jabberwocky I didn't already know)!

An overseas jaunt

I'm not going to lie - this post is proddly more for my benefit than yours, but I'm going to share it with y'all anyways!

We depart Tuesday after next we just aren't organised... plus I've been out of bed for five hours* and have done nothing but browse while I have two major assignments to do before I leave!

So, here's our plan.

Day One:
Mumsy is going to drive The Hun and I to Sydney early for our 10am flight, and we arrive in Bangkok just before 4:30pm. I've been told that alchohol is free on international flights which is AWESOME news to hear, and I've been told that all flights have been notified of my veganism - which will be good times, good times for all. We hang out at the airport for two hours (of which almost all will be me complaining about the heat and my stank) and then land in Phuket at 7:40pm. Our first night will be spent here:

Nothing too special, but I'm sure we'll be totally out of sorts and it won't really matter. The Hun works with a lovely girl from the south of Thailand (TG) who has assisted him in organising a LOT of this trip and she has arranged a driver to pick us up from the airport and take us straight to the hotel - I have a bit of fear about being harassed by lots of people to use their services... TG has also arranged the accomodation at a non-westerner price, which our wallets appreciate muchly.

Days Two and Three:
A ferry trip on day two will take us to Phi Phi island for general holiday laziness, walks by water, complaints about the heat, tropical fruit and alcohol. I'm very excited to be staying here:
As it's the place I had my heart set on before we visited the travel agent and found out they couldn't book us in there. The best part is that their low season starts earlier than most others so we sill be staying in one of the nicer rooms - hooray!

Days Four and Five:
We catch the ferry back to Phuket on the morning of day four where TG has arranged a driver to take us to our next destination - Kuraburi!
They also have karaoke... uh oh! I think we're popping out to the Surin Islands while we're here - TG's mum doesn't swim either, and I've been advised that they let the non swimmers hang onto the side of the boat and feed the fish while the swimmers go out and snorkel - sounds good enough to me!

Days Six and Seven:
A driver will take us back to Phuket on day six and we'll be heading out that night to see the Fantasea show - apparantly a must see:
e'll be staying here:
Apparantly TG has got the rooms down from 8000Baht to 2500Baht, so it sounds like it might be a good room too:

Days Eight, Nine, Ten and Eleven:
We fly out of Phuket on day eight and arrive in Bangkok just before lunch. As recomended by a guy at work, we'll be staying here:
During this time we have been given the phone number of my big boss' niece who will take us out for a day to the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and the Emerald Buddha; we'd like to take a day trip out to Ayutthaya and of course shop, Shop, SHOP! Shoes, handbags, jewellery, food...

Days Twelve,Thirteen and Fourteen:
We fly out of Bangkok just after midnight on day twelve and arrive in Tokyo aroung 8:30 in the morning. From there we hafta bus to Tsukuba (about an hour out of Tokyo) and meet up with The Huns friend who lives there - he's arranged three nights for us next to where he lives, but as he is not one for planning/details, I don't know where it is.

Day fourteen is a day trip to Nikko! Again, don't know much about this, but here's a picture:
Ooh!

Days Fifteen and Sixteen:
Day Fifteen we plan to catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto and hang out around there - again, The Huns friend is looking after this part, so here is a picture of Kyoto:
Aah!

Days Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen and Twenty:
Day seventeen we plan to Shinkansen to Tokyo for a five day stay! The Huns friend will be popping in to see us during the day here, but haven't really decided what we'd like to do! Accomodation in Tokyo is ridiculous, hence we'll be staying here:
I would like to see the Hirojuku girls, walk around in bewilderment and of course, go to:
This will be a topic of contention after our last theme park experience...

Days Twenty One and Twenty Two:
We fly out of Tokyo sometime on day Twenty (best check that) and arrive in Sydney at 6:30 on day Twenty One - jetlagged, messy and broke - for mumsy to pick us up for the drive back (three cheers for mumsy!).

Hooray!

*(Seven hours at time time of publish - that took waaaay longer than planned...!)

... PS ...

Got the promotion!

Well, technically it's a cut in pay as I was acting on a higher increment than I'm now placed, but at least my base classification is higher (although there's only $2000 difference between the two base salaries as well!)... though I get to put Senior in front of my position title.

Putting the bounce in/taking the bounce out of my step

(This was more exciting when it happened, but I was too busy at the time)

(Oh yeah, and it's about boobs, so may not be for everyone)

(and not in a pervy way either, perves).

I got fitted for a bra the other week - I've wanted one of those U bras (below) since I saw them on the news and figured bridesmaiding was as good an excuse as any to invest in one

(not me)

"What size would you like?" asked the perky assistant.

"Well, I figured I should probably get fitted..." I replied.

Fitting has long been something I've been wary of, picturing having to flop my boobs out for a judgemental young thing, or a prissy older lady - what if it was cold in there, how would I explain that?

But luckily, to your relief I'm sure, it's all conducted over the top of the clothing.

"What size do you normally wear?" she asked.

"Um, a 14C or a 16D." I replied, again.

You see, I was a 10A for quite some time. And when my metabolism finally slowed and I got into vodka and $2 chips at the uni bar, I needed to upgrade a bit - moving through a 12B to a 14C - figuring that it was the natural progression (+1 size, +1 cup). When the 14C gave me too much double boob, I upgraded to a 16D and found myself in the sad position of wearing the same size bra as my mother (no, I didn't ask her - I saw the labels).

Post WeightWatchers, I was glad to be back in the 14C's (the upper limit of the cute bras you can get on sale at Target and Kmart) and using the 16D's for sensible under work wear.

"Hrm" mused the assistant "don't you find your bras dropping down at the back? As soon as you said 16 I figured that wasn't right - you're actually a size 12."

"Hey wow! That's great!" was my reply - such a relief to know what I may never have technically been a size 14 or 16 around the ribs - the skinniest part of my middle.

"And you're a DD to an E cup actually."

"Really?! That's fantastic!".

You see - I just have big boobs, not fat boobs! And DD to E?! Off a size 12?! Awesome!

Sure, there's a downside - I had to pay $70 just for a convertible bra and a sports bra... the convertible bra looks heavy duty... the entire sports bra range were mesh cupped (just because they're big doesn't mean they're going to sweat so profusely that they can't be covered in normal material!)... I've had to ease myself into wearing the new bra as it started to constrict my breathing... my boobs seem to be strapped to me rather than sitting proudly out front...

BUT! You would not believe how great I feel about it! I don't know what it is, but I have spent a LOT of time in the mirror with my hardcore binding on, grinning proudly at myself - a glint of "look what I did!" in my eye, like I accomplished something... bizarre or normal?

Sometimes I think youngest bro writes 'Toothpase for dinner":

toothpastefordinner.com

(Check out the wedding post below, too!)

Magf's Wedding

Done and done.

*phew!*

I tells ya, today is the first time I've stopped in a few days - Wed and Thurs were a flurry of trying to put together a report for uni based on the LOOSEST and UNCLEAREST guidelines in existence. And preparing for a job interview. And the actual interview. And writing the bridesmaids speech. And a migraine - wahoo!

Fri morning I was awoken by two phonecalls - Magf on the mobile to see what time I'd be at her place and eldest bro checking in on how the interview went (which was really thoughtful!). A bit of phone juggling later and I was off with Magf picking up a hoop (which was in transit in the shop owners car that the husband had borrowed (and that costs $140 to hire!!!)), placing an ad in the paper (did you know they're normally placed by one group of the parents?), getting my nails raped as acrylics were put on (they have an astounding customer turnaround in that place), having an oily noodle box for lunch, checking out the room she'd be staying in for two nights, checking out the reception area and speaking to the lovely planner man, watching her try on dresses for the other bridesmaids upcoming wedding, picking up the other bridesmaids dress (it had to be taken in), getting the shakes and searching for a vegan mueslie bar in the health food shop (I think I might be hypoglycemic?!), rehearsal at the church, dinner and drink at the hotel... before I knew it it was almost 12 hours later and I had to drop some wine at the grooms house and pick up The Huns birthday present from mumsy and dadsy:

Red robot cufflinks! So cutes (AND they move)!

I went straight to bed feeling squinty and achey and woke up at 2am thinking the right side of my head had caved in - typically something I'd try to sleep through, but being the start of the actual wedding day I hit the cupboard and doped myself up on Nurofen migraine that I dredged up from behind the potato bin - it was fading by the time my head hit the pillow.

I woke up just after 7 and was trying to be stealthy quiet... until my alarm went off and I could;t turn it off as quick as I should have... then I burnt my toast and set off the fire alarm... then I showered (which was apparantly noisier than I was aware of) and then I realised I needed The Hun to drop me off at the hairdresser anyways!

On the way to the hairdresser at 9am on Saturday morning and received a text from Magf indicating she'd be a bit late as she had to 'deal with something' - turns out there was a bit of an issue with an interstate rellie getting a bit too drunk and harassing people staying at Magf's mothers house until after 1:30 in the morning - so they were understandably shaken and puffy eyed when they arrived.

Some Brown Brothers champagne and orange juice (and a croissant and donut for Magf) calmed things down a bit as we got our hair done and ($70 later) shipped back to the hotel for the (another $70) makeup and then started to get ready.

Now let me tell you - I have no idea how Magf kept it all together! There were two flowergirls (aged 3 and 11), a pageboy (aged 5) and a ringbearer (aged 8) running around, nagging, causing havoc, messing around with the flowers and shoes and bags and dresses and Magfs mum - Magfs father passed away some time ago, and it seems Magf has long taken the role of the parent - so rather than being the one to look after the children and calm everything down, she was adding to mayhem...

From there, it all seemed to just rush past - before we knew it we were at the church and the music was playing before we were even set up at the doors, so the kids starting rushing down the aisle straight away - judging by the pics The Hun took, there's going to be a lot of photos with my ass in the background as I'm bending over in the doorway trying to set up the skirts! The ceremony was lovely and there was no crying (though the 3yo flowergirl is a spoilt brat and would not sit still or quietly the entire time) and it was over in a flash - So much work for such a short amount of time!

We did the photos for two hours (I was on photo-skirt duty as the other bridesmaid was in charge of toilet-skirt duty), spread out over Reconciliation place (there were three other weddings there while we were there (though we were the prettiest, of course!)), the National Museum (there was another wedding there too) and a few outside the winery where the reception was held. The weather on Friday at the practice was terrible - clear and blue but freezing and windy, and while the Saturday had been warmer it was still cooling down in the dark - unfortunately Magf's mother and rellies had not yet arrived, so were standing out in the dar, chattering teeth and huddled in the mens jackets for quite a bit of time before we could finally get inside.

Again - the reception seemed to move soooo quickly! The food was absolutely fantastic (judging by my special meal and the guests feedback) and they were also lovely to let me bring my own wine to the winery! The speech went well, the dancing wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (there is a priceless photo that looks like it's come from that Cheaters TV show - I have this 'sprung' look on my face as I'm dancing with the best man! (I've emailed it to you d'jen!)), youngest bro threw up copious amounts of red wine and it all went in the toilet, I got the bouquet thrown at me, The Hun got the garter shoved into his pocket (he gave it away maintaining that it was more of Magf than he wanted to have in his pocket) and all of a sudden it was 11:30 and they were out the door!

I got home a lil chilly and exhausted, but it was a beautiful day:

Magf and I

Magf, Mr Magf and Magfs new step son (also the ringbearer)

The happy couple!