Pretty much the best day I've had in my life to date

You may remember in my last dotpoints I told you about maybe finishing uni early? This is what happened over the last month or so:

• Enny has three units to complete (presuming she passes the two she just sat exams for) - ISO, PP & BS
  
• Enny enrolls in two units (ISO and PP) for Semester 2, 2008
• Enny emails the ISO lecturer/tutor (who she had for previous unit) to see if there'll be a tute on another day (so she doesn't have to drive into uni three days a week)
• ISO tutor says 'no BUT you don't need to do the unit anyway because you seem qualified already'
• ISO tutor says 'you can probably get credit for BS too'
• ISO tutor suggests calling course convener (CC)
  
• Enny calls CC
• CC says ISO tutor is probably right
  
• CC says to get ISO tutor to email her
• Enny calls ISO tutor to ask him to email CC
• ISO tutor emails CC
• Enny calls CC two days later to check on progress
• CC says will get to it the next day
• Enny calls CC another two days later
• CC says she is marking and will get to it at the end of the week
• Enny receives email telling her she has three units left to complete degree - ISO, PP and BS
• Enny emails CC to confirm that she will not get any credit as initially suggested
• Enny emails CC after no response for five days to confirm that she will not get any credit as initially suggested
• CC emails Enny to say that she can get credit for ISO and BS
• Enny emails CC to confirm she has credit for ISO and BS and needs only do PP next semester to graduate at the end of the year
• CC says 'Yes'.

WOAH!! That's all pretty awesome, right?

So then I emailed the ISO tutor to say thanks:

• Enny emails ISO to say thanks
• ISO says 'no worries'
• ISO says 'would you like to speak to my students next semester about working in the real world'
• ISO says 'if you ever want to tutor, come talk to me'

See? That's the only way my other exciting uni news could be topped!

And after all that, I left work at 4pm to go to the post office to pick up my book - the post office guy was curious about the box and asked what it was (a book) and if I didn't mind him asking, what type of book? 'It's a book to raise money for charity where people submitted stories and mine is in there!' which made him call out 'Wow! Congratulations, published author, congratulations, congratulations!' (without me prompting him) AND I lost 2.2 kg this week!

A Very Nice Day

Today I have a Very Nice Day. One of those ordinary days where not a lot happens, but it's all just lovely.

We woke up at about 10:30 and I got up just before 2pm. I had some sliced bread that The Hun had bought to go with his dinner last night, then we walked to the shops to buy steak for his tea, then we drove across town to his work to pick up a disc that he needed. We watched some Harry's Practice, he cooked some chips for the both of us while I ate reheated stirfry and he cooked his steak sandwich. We're watching the rugby/Cats and Dogs, each with a drink in hand, and just chilling.

On our walk to the shops he remarked "I'm really enjoying our day together.".

We're both enjoying just living in the now. There is some amount of future talk, but not a whole lot. There is (yet another) understanding about what and when will happen. I am getting a new sense of perspective from realising that a lot of what I perceived as 'issues' is due to my own insecurities.

I am grateful for what I am lucky enough to have.
I am grateful for those things open to me in the future.
I am grateful for having A Very Nice Day.

Dreams...

"It's quite amazing," she explained "you simply sit the Golden Retrievers up in the bathtubs and pour in warm cheese sauce. They may look like a bizarre pasta dish, but it puts them into suspended animation.

"As I realised they weren't breathing, it just made sense for me to stack them underwater like this. Isn't this pyramid the most beautiful and amazing thing you've ever seen?"

"No! I'm sorry! It's terrible and it's the cruelest and most horrible thing I've ever seen."

I don't know why I felt the need to keep apologising to her for her creation, but the sight of the motionless dogs, cheesy yellow hair shifting in the water just broke my heart.

Whoa baby

I'm getting better with this whole baby holding thing - I've held three babies this year alone! Three!
Excluding when I was younger (I presume I would have held each of the bro's at least once), my efforts this year have tripled those of the past 25 years of my life.
I'm like 300% productive or something of the sort!

So - Baby Pros and Cons:

Size
Portable.
Breakable and losable.

Smell
Lovely baby smell (talc and rainbows).
The OTHER baby small (rot and misery).

Noise
Adorable cooing and laughing and mewing.
Strangling choking rage, worsens as lungs develop.

Attitude
Easily amused, love to be tickled and play stupid games like putting a bib over their face.
Can be cranky for no reason at all.

Output
Again, hooray for chuckles and giggles.
Well, I think EVERYONE knows how gross they can be.

I think I'll stick to just holding the occassional baby - my popcorn for dinner woke me up on and off for two hours this morning with nausea, and I can't say I enjoyed that all.

Jellybean catchup

It was going to be a coffee catchup, but I don't drink it... and I AM eating jellybeans....

So, what's being going on in the marvellous world of the Enny-Pen?

• Thanks for the feedback on the last post, team - don't be afraid to keep it up!

• I'm stoked about being in the blog book, but I STILL haven't received my copy in the mail - has anyone got theirs yet? I ordered it as soon as I saw the post about it and I got notification it had been shipped on June 13, but that's been it so far. I really Really REALLY want to see it!

• Exams went okay too, I think. Results are out on Friday July 4 and I am eagerly awaiting the date with the usual dose of trepidation. The HR exam was pretty smooth - I was stressed I didn't know enough detail about the topics we were told to study, but I think my understanding was good enough. I wrote for 2 hours and 50 minutes, and didn't get time to go back and clean up all of my handwriting, but it should be legible enough (I hope!) - someone walked out after 40 minutes... I'm guessing they didn't write four essays like they were supposed to. The IS exam did not go as awesome, but it's to be expected in a unit I didn't really like or understand - rereading the lecture notes and textbook highlighted what a terrible unit it was. I wrote for 1 hour and 50 minutes then got stumped on the last part of the question - I wrote an introductory paragraph to make it look like I might have some idea and then sat and rubbed my hand for 10 minutes. You see, my plan is to make it look like I ran out of time.... I'll let you know if it worked or not.

• The other exciting news is that while begging asking one of my tutors next semester if there'd be a Monday tute, he pointed out that I should be able to credit for one or two of the units I have left to do. Best case scenario = I'll be doing one unit next semester and graduating at the end of the year; Average case scenario = I'll be doing two units next semester and graduating at the end of the year; Worst case scenario = I'll be doing two units next semester and one at the start of next year, graduating July 2009. Even the worst case scenario isn't that bad - when I first started this degree my end date was meant to be mid 2011, then the end of 2009, so I'm pretty awesome no matter what.
  

• Work has been same-old same-old. There was talk of my role changing but that's gone quiet - I guess all I can do is wait it out (there's a lot of chatter in the PS after the government change, so there is a lot of waiting game being played around Canberra).

• Home life is good too - we're house saving, but it's not totally drowning me and I'm getting a thrill out of looking at the numbers. It's been a while since I've acted the part of wannabe-bridezilla and I think a lot of it has to do with how we've been communicating a bit better. I never got up to doing those quizzes, so I'm saving them for a rainy day at this stage.

• Martial arts is plodding along nicely - we have a grading coming up in two weeks, so we've spent a fair bit of time training four of our students to grade. It's going to be a great day, but we've still got work to do and are running out of time to do it.

• Travel is looking good for the next six months or so - I should be going to Brisbane three times, Sydney twice, (edit: Melbourne twice) and Adelaide, Hobart and Perth once each. How awesome is that!

Right-o, dinner time!

What a ride

It's been interesting going back and really reading everything on here. Sadly, it's been bad interesting more than it's been good interesting - BUT I can see the way my style has changed over time, and in turn, how the comments have changed over time.

Things are quieter in these parts. So I have a few questions to ask to see if we can't make this all a bit more enjoyable for all involved.

You're more than welcome to be anonymous too:

• What do you like about this blog?
• What do you dislike about this blog?
• What would you like more of?
• What would you like less of?
• Anything else you want to add?

Thanks team!

Edits - round two

Am currently trawling the archives and making some edits - this is for a few reasons (TSSH, anyone?!) but mainly to do with the book.

Some people might click through here because of what I wrote, and I want to perhaps show a few RL people what I wrote. Meaning I should really look at what I've written in the past 3 and a bit years and questions whether I'd be comfortable with those words coming out of my face.

Am resisting the urge to delete all the rubbish (ie, 75% of what I wrote) and simply censor some of the total BS I have spewed forth in the past. What a trip down memory lane...!

Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow - Canberra

Last night The Hun, his parents and I attended the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow - we'd never been before, and I think The Hun's mother only heard about it by chance. They don't tell you who the comedians are going to be, which is a bit odd. On the one hand, it's a good way of not having any preconceptions of what you are going to see, or decide that you don't want to go because you don't know who you are, but it just seems odd to me (and has made it hard to try to remember/find out who we actually saw!).

The host for the night was really funny - I can't recall his name (Dave Williams? Maybe?) and I can't find it online! He turned 22 on the night of the show (so, born 14/06/1986), but I doubt that would help me find out where I can see him again. He told The Huns favourite joke of the night, retelling the story of his decision to scare his 4 year old sister when he was younger. A fantastic MC and not a bad looker to boot!

The first act for the night was (again, I think) Harley Breen. He was good with his 'visitor to Canberra' stories and gave a pretty accurate retelling of what some of our bus drivers are like. He told a few bogan jokes and a few Queannbeyan jokes (he has family there) and he was quite the cack.

The second act for the night was Hannah Gadsby - I have no trouble remembering her name, as my favourite joke of the night was one of hers, a story of how all the members of her family have palindronic names. If I start calling you 'Poohoop', then you can totally just blame her. She told stories of her time in Tasmania hanging out with the elderly neighbours, and a lot about her experience of coming out and pointing to her pubes. I thought she was fantastic (although I thought she was seriously tanking at the start - seems it's just part of the persona).

After the intermission, the third act came on - Mickey D. He was also pretty funny, but a lot of his humour was self-depreciating in a bit of a sad way. He talked about depression, talked about drinking, talked about accidentally making fun of war veterans, the blind and parasailing wheelchaired people. But again, he was pretty funny!

When the MC came on and announced the third act would be a musical trio, I sat forward in my seat. Could it be Tripod?! That would be the best show ever! Unfortunately not, but they were still their own kind of celebrity - GUD! Paul McDermott is all kinds of cute and dynamic, but I've stopped watching him on TV - I'd found it was almost like all his success with the original GNW had gone to his head, and he was always trying to recapture it. I don't know what it is, but he was just unwatchable for me. But. Live? Super-duper! He is so energetic and knows how to work the stage and the crowd and his group and his voice and his moves. The keyboardist was also pretty good, though there was a part where he was wondering around and stretching and we're just not sure if he was stoned or was actually trying to conceal laughter as we saw later. An interesting highlight was when they asked the crowd if there were any vegans there - so of course I had to give a little 'wooh!' for vegan pride, along with a few others in the audience. After voicing their disbelief that 'we' even had the energy to do that, they wanted us to settle something for them that they'd been arguing over dinner. It was at this point I shrunk back in my seat, I KNEW it wasn't going to be totally PG (luckilly we were in like row 'P' so there was no issue): "Can vegans swallow cum? Because, technically it's an animal product...". How delightful, sitting there with The Huns parents for that! I should also point out they were very good with the comebacks after a heckler called out some nonsense - he's very quick off the mark.

Overall, it was a surprisingly entertaining night! We weren't expecting a whole lot and were feeling a bit frazzled on the way there because we'd rushed to get dinner, but I laughed the whole time and I would definitely go again next year.

Grand Designs

The Hun and I are planning to buy a house in November (de ja vu, much?) and I can't wait.

While he has unrealistic dreams of designing and building his own ("one day, one day") I would be happy to have a house with a toilet that doesn't open off the loungeroom so that I can go to the toilet without worrying that The Hun's friend can hear (anxious performer, some might say).

Plenty of pressure to get back to searching AllHomes...

Exam week!

One down*, one to go**....

ALTOGETHER NOW!

F*CK!!!
UNI!!!

*I think I did okay in.
** One I am SERIOUSLY underprepped for.

F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!! F*CK UNI!!!

*Sigh*

Erica's vegan banana loaf

What to do when you're studying and dieting? Slightly bastardize the recipe of a friend and ask permission to blog it.

I present to you: Erica's Vegan Banana Loaf!

Ingredients:
1 cup (115g) walnuts (or pecans), toasted and coarsely chopped
2 cups plain white flour (or 1 cup plain white, 1 cup plain wholemeal)
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup raw sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 large, ripe bananas (approx 450g or 1 1/2 cups), mashed
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tbsp vinegar (apple cider vinegar is best, but white also works)
1 tsp vanilla (extract or essence)
3/4 cup water (or apple juice)

FYI: I used the 2 cups of white flour, the walnuts, the apple cider vinegar, normal sugar and the water. I also added a chopped 100g block of Sweet Williams chocolate, stored near the Naytura section of your local Woolies. I imagined it was listed when I first read the recipe, so it was a sign that it HAD to be added).

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 180oC, grease & flour 23 x 13 x 8cm loaf tin (I used a square tin - I don't know the size... I'm a hack of a cook!)

• Combine dry ingredients (including chocolate and walnuts) and set aside.

• Combine banana, oil, vinegar, vanilla and water/juice (I used one of the 100 bananas I have stored in my freezer - I just sat the in cold water in the sink until they thawed).
  

• With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon light fold wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Do not over mix! (I was naughty and used a wooden spoon - works just as well)
  

• Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 55 - 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (mine took just over 45 minutes - I have a dodgy oven so it was set to 200 which is probably close to 180. Also - don't worry if it makes a 'schloop' noise when you pull it out - as long as it is clean (as long as you don't hit chocolate on the way through!)!).
  

• Cool on a wire rack then remove bread from the pan (Mine shook straight from the pan onto the rack because I was TOO KEEN TO EAT IT).
  

• Serve at room tempearature (OR - cut yourself a slice and butter it while it's hot, then eat four pieces. FANTASTIC).

Why yes - I am totally a pro food-photographer ... can't you tell?!

A clear bench space is of the utmost importance...

The only thing better than warm banana-walnut-chocolate loaf? Warm banana-walnut-chocolate loaf smothered with vegan margarine!

I found the inside a little crumbly when it was warm (I presume this will settle once it has cooled) and the crust was a lovely chewy texture that tasted similar to gingerbread (note: has been a LONG time since I've eaten gingerbread!). I have been advised the crust will turn softer and that it lasts well.

ENJOY!

You're not the only one. Really, this time.

Some of you may remember this, a post advising you about a book that was being put together. The idea was to have bloggers from around the world contribute a story about something they have been through from any aspect of their life that they wished to share, then a number of these stories would be published in a book, with the proceeds going to War Child - a collection of organisations dedicated to helping children who have been affected by war.

Peach has kept us up to date with the progress of the book - while it has taken longer than initially expected, it is finally ready for sale.

There were over 400 contributions and 106 entries were selected for the book. When people sent in their contributions, they agreed to buy a copy of the book - whether or not they made the cut. If every contributer buys a copy, over 2000 pounds will be donated to the charity. If contributers can get more people to buy copies, then we can raise any more.

So, I urge you to consider buying this book - it's for a great cause, and may be the only time (or the first time!) that Jen, Sarah, Peach, Steph, Distracted Spunk, Alex and myself(!)(the contributors that I currently stalk) are ever published authors!

Go get yourself a copy and enjoy what I'm sure will be an amazing read.

Galadarling

I read this on Galadarling.com and just had to share:

“You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure about you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.” — Marianne Williamson

Isn't it beautiful (I tend to skip the God references when I read it in my head).

If you don't visit that site already, I strongly recommend you do (or subscribe!) - Galadarling is an amazing woman and I would love to be her when I grow up.

Where's me gold? (updated)

Does it feel like this here is losing it's sparkle?

It's harder maintaining two lines of thought that I thought it would be.

So do us a favor and head over/subscribe to Erica & Enny Weigh In (www.w-e-e-igh.blogspot.com) and if it makes you chuckle or think or even look twice, leave us a comment to let us know you're around?

Update: Yes, I am the tool that whinges about subscribing, then posts to the wrong blog, then reposts to the right blog, then deletes from the wrong blog, even though both blogs are referencing each other. Sorry feeder readers!

(Next week is exam week, so you can expect a bit more action around these parts.)

It's so easy being vegan

Sunday was my two year veganniversary - and I forgot!

One of the first things I thought just before I made the decision to become vegan, was that it was going to be a real challenge to find things to eat. Similarly, a lot of people like to exclaim "What on earth do you eat?!" when they hear that I'm vegan.

Well.

Have you eaten Oreos? Sherbies? Red Licorice? Skittles? Allens Jelly Beans? Jam Fancies? Fairy Floss? Movie popcorn? Those fizzy lollipops that are like yellow, purple and pink?

Do you eat good bread? Bakers Delight Loaves? Turkish bread? English muffins?

Did you have Weetbix for breakfast? Mueslie? Vegemite on toast? Grilled mushroom and tomato? Hashbrowns?

Have you cooked a veggie stirfry with crispy noodles? Boiled up some pasta or gnocchi with diced tomato and basil? Refried beans, lettuce, carrot and salsa in burritos Rubbed garlic and olive oil into white bread and grilled it? Mashed up potatoes with salt and some nuttelex? Topped a pizza base with tomato paste and that fantastic deli antipasto? Reheated falaffels and samosas from the frozen section?

Perhaps you've tried some mock meats? Have you cooked yourself a Sanitarium mock roast? Fry's vegetarian patties? Marinated tofu? Vegetable dumplings or spring rolls? Vegetarian sausages or patties?

Have you had an Ali Baba falafel kebab with hommus and tahini? Have you eaten their chips? Have you had wedges with sweet chili sauce? Have you ordered a vegetarian pizza from dominoes and held the cheese? Seaweed, avocado, mushroom, sweet chili tofu or vegetable roll sushi? Vegetable curry? Dahl? Subway salad roll? McDonalds chips?

Heck - any time you've snacked on piece of fruit or crunched into a veggie.... you've eaten vegan (and that's only the tip of the iceberg)!

Any questions?

Lexington Winter Warehouse Festival - Canberra 2008

Who made it to WWF on Saturday at the AIS?

RiotACT already has pretty good discussion on it, but here's my rundown on the day:

We rocked up at about 2pm (doors opened at 1pm) to a pretty empty carpark - a bit of a shock to us! Myself, The Hun and one of my friends rocked up to the entry gates, were I was promptly told that there was to be no food, no drinks, no gum, no lollipops, no lipgloss and no deoderant to be brought in to the venue. I told her 'But I'm vegan! What will I eat!' in an attempt to get to keep my falafel sandwiches I'd painstakingly made an hour before (in my effort to keep healthy!) but she didn't care, and told me there was amenities inside. So in went two sandwiches (one for The Hun!), a packet of gum, half a bag of jellybeans (tsk tsk!) and a bottle of water. At least, I thought I chucked out my bottle of water, but when I turned back to the guard lady she barked "no water!" and then I realised it was still in my hand. I chucked it out and returned to her, when she decided that it was now a good time to tell me that if that bottle had not been opened then I could have taken it in. Nice.

The Hun and my friend were a fair bit ahead, but I still had to line up to get my bag searched (I only brought it to hold my sandwhiches!) and then line up to get metal detected. Super strict security for a Canberra show - why can't we have gum?! They paid extra attention to scanning The Hun's pants - my boy must be packing some junk in his trunk because there wasn't anything in his pockets!

We got in there and it was pretty dead, but the music was sounding fantastic - so we headed to the bar line. $9.50 for a Smirnoff! $10.50 for a Smirnoff Black! So doubles it was. There was a sign indicating that the prices were largely due to the RTD tax, but it also made sure to point out that they had generously absorbed as much of the price increase as they could. Oh. How generous.

We caught up with the bro's and their friends a boogaloo'd to Aston Shuffle for a bit, before I got a call from some more of my friends whose tickets I had in my bag. This is where crazy security stayed crazy - there were no pass-outs, so I had to find my way outside to a perimeter fence near the portaloo's and pass the tickets over. I felt totally dodgy but was on my second double, so I thought I was playing it pretty cool (if any of you are Facebookians, you might have seen my 'funny face' photo - taken at that time).

On the whole, we spent a lot of time dancing and having a ball! The music was pretty consistently good - Kid Kenobi and MC Sureshock were faboo (His abs!!! Breathtaking!!! Glistening!!) and I wouldn't mind seeing them again. Mixmaster Mike is hard to classify- he played some amazing stuff, but also some terrible stuff - he was hard to dance to a lot of the time, and I described him as being the shittest and the best simultaneously. You can't deny he has some skills though.

My highlight was definitely Bonde Do Role. I'd only heard of them when The Hun would blast them through the TV while he was cooking in the other room, and I knew they were pretty catchy. Well. NOTHING prepared me for how awesome it was! I admit the atmosphere, anticipation and alcohol probably had a lot to do with it, but more than once during their 45 minute set I thought to myself 'This is one of the happiest moments of my life!' 'I may never be this happy again!' and 'I have to remember this feeling!'. I basically jumped up and down and squealed for close to an hour. FANTASTIC. Go listen to their MySpace now!!

After that I got a bit tired and a bit hungry - as predicted, the only food available was sausage rolls, cold pizzas and chips cooked in beef tallow. NOICE. I felt a little less like the alcohol was burning a whole through my stomach after a packet of Salty Kettles chips, but felt more dehydrated. If they run the event again, they need to get more 'festival' food in - like the Hare Krishna's and the Turkish Gozleme women!

We sat down for about an hour while I rested my feet and tried to decide whether to stay or go. My friend was the dessy and not so keen to stay, but The Hun had 7 drinks under his belt (six of them doubles!) and was ready to tear the damn floor up! As soon as I was back on the floor (8:15) I didn't want to leave - but unfortunately, we'd promised the dessy we'd leave at 8:45 (middle bro later told me he'd told me he had spare seats so we could have stayed! Damn!).

I thought the $55 early bird ticket was well worth it. Hopefully it's back next year with more food options, cheaper drinks and nicer security.