..one of those things I think you should know

very nearly didn't post this.. but here goes!

Ok, so this is to do with relationship breakups. Just thought I should let people know (and I'm sure most of you wouldn't do this, but you'd be suprised how much it happens) that when someone has broken up with someone else, you don't immediately jump in with telling them not to worry because 'there's a special person out there waiting just for you - they just haven't turned up yet'. When you've just broken up with someone your world may be in pieces and amongst all the bits of hopes and dreams and impossibly tangled feelings you're grieving this person that, due to whatever circumstances, has been ripped out of your life.

I know people mean well, but it's not about 'finding that one perfect person for you'. It's about knowing and caring for this particular person and who they are.. You don't just go 'oh well they weren't the right one so I'll start looking for someone new'.. maybe they weren't, and in time maybe you will join paths with someone else, but what I'm saying is, that's not the place you're in now.

Yes, I'm speaking from experience here (mine and close friends of mine who've had similar experiences with well-meaning others), and maybe not everyone feels the same way we do, but I think when people say things like the above, it feels like there's no understanding of what it meant.. And that you're freed up and 'on the hunt' again or something. ew.

Oh and I'm definitely not angry with anyone, just so you know! Only thought, maybe I could warn against making this one little mistake.

Cheers,

Flood II - The Aftermath

Oh slender mosquito
I must admit
I feel no guilt
in crushing you -
not one whit!

holiday reading

Books books books (the ones I've read already these hols are bolded)

Harry Potter 5, 6 & 7 (yes, I've been suffering withdrawals since last year's HP 9-day-7-book Challenge)
River Town (fascinating book about a guy's couple of years in a backwater chinese town, I should write a whole post just on it)
Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
In Patagonia - Bruce Chatwin
Fire & Hemlock - Diana Wynne Jones
The Book of Lights - Chaim Potok
El Leon, la Bruja y el Ropero - CS Lewis
The Silmarilion - JRR Tolkien
.....and finish War & Peace!

Any recommendations?

Flood Fun

I went walking across the swampy oval this morning:



It's funny how exciting it's been, staying in a partially flooded town. Since last friday up until a day or two ago, we had water nearly up to our back fence, and the road at the bottom of the block was totally under water! The river had turned into a lake covering soccer fields, carparks, everything nearby..

For those 5 days or so, I estimated that we had upwards of 1000 cars driving past our place everyday! (at least one per minute, morning-evening) We liked to call them 'flood tourists', dropping by to check the levels - though I'm sure at least some of them were just people frustrated by the road blocks all over town!

I was thinking, it's funny just how fascinating we find stuff like this. Funny cos normally we like to have everything under control, know what's happening and when and how.. have the day run according to plan, etc.

And then something like this happens, and the normal routines get thrown a bit haywire, and everything just looks so weird and different. And it might be a bit annoying (and really sad for all those farmers whose crops are stuffed :( ) but we love it all the same. Maybe we don't actually like everything to be quite so predictable after all..

Here are some flood-nearly-gone pics. Can't find the fully flooded ones at present, sorry!

Course Verdicts

Child Law: excellent, interesting, useful
Lecturer: Mrs passionate & organised

Phil: not bad, often mind-stretching
Lecturer: alert, twitchy dwarf :)

Aboriginal Studies: tolerable - I did actually learn some stuff! a little bit
Lecturer: hardened cynic.. but not without reason

SWRK: blerg (more than less)


Goodbye 2nd yr of uni!!

Tales from Outer Suburbia - Shaun Tan

the nameless holiday

the nameless holiday happens once a year, usually around late August, sometimes October. It is always anticipated by children and adults alike with mixed emotion: It's not exactly festive, but still a celebration of sorts, the origin of which has been long forgotten.

All that is known are the familiar rituals: the laying out of one's most prized possessions on the bedroom floor; then choosing one special object - exactly the right one - and carrying it carefully up a ladder to the roof and leaving it under the TV aerial (already decorated with small shiny things such as chocolate wrappers, old CDs, and the tops off tubs of yogurt, licked clean and threaded with string, tied with special slipknots).

Then there is the traditional midnight picnic in the backyard, front lawn, or any place with a good view of one's own roof - across the street if necessary, which is why families sometimes gather by the roadside on blankets. Here are born fond memories of freshly baked gingerbread crows, hot pomegranate juice as tart as a knife, and small plastic whistles, inaudible to the ears of both humans and dogs. Not to mention all that excited chatter and giggling, all that polite shushing, everyone struggling to observe the convention of silence.

Those who stay awake long enough are rewarded by a momentary sound that never fails to draw a sharp intake of breath - the delicate tapping of hoofs descending on roof tiles. It is always so startling, so hard to believe at first, like a waking dream made solid. But sure enough, there he is, the reindeer with no name: enormous, blind as a bat, sniffing under the TV aerial with infinite patience. He always knows exactly which objects are so loved that their loss will be felt like the snapping of a cord to the heart, and it's only these that he nudges gently until they become hooked onto his great antlers. The rest he leaves alone, leaping gracefully back up into the cool darkness.

What a remarkable, unnameable feeling it is, right at the moment of his leaping: something like sadness and regret, of suddenly wanting your gift back and held tight to your chest, knowing that you will certainly never see it again. And then there is the letting go as your muscles release, your lungs exhale, and the backwash of longing leaves behind this one image on the shore of memory: a huge reindeer on your roof, bowing down.


copyright Shaun Tan, 2008

Harry Potter MLIA

Harry Potter madness hit the Canary household a couple of days ago with all the force of a flock of stampeding hippogriffs. Grand plans for a Christmas party were made, involving dreams of copious amounts of butterbeer, pumpkin juice, pies of all descriptions, every-flavour beans, quidditch-playing, and assigning of dress-up characters to those present (and every other friend that entered our heads)!

Then in the thickest of procrastinatory moods, my own personal HP fever combined with OCDish trawling of MLIA (mylifeisaverage.com*) to bring you this selection:
Enjoy!

'Today I was doing some research and typed into Google, "Where is Hogwarts..." and the suggestion was "Where is Hogwarts located in real life?" I'm glad to know that Google knows that Hogwarts is real. MLIA'

One night my boyfriend was driving me home from his house. When we pulled into my driveway we both saw an owl sitting on our fencepost. He instantly slammed on his brakes, looked at me with wide eyes, and shouted, "Your Hogwarts letter came!" I knew I loved him.MLIA

Today, I realized that everytime I take my cough syrup (it's not the greatest tasting medicine), I pretend it's some sort of Harry Potter potion. It makes it a lot easier to take. MLIA

Today, I was trying to explain to my son why we couldn't give him everything he wanted. Finally, I said that if we did he'd end up like Dudley Dursley. He shut up immediately. MLIA

Today I changed my name in my mother's cell phone to Ron Weasely. About an hour later I texted her. She came into my room screaming excitedly. I feel too bad to tell her she has been conversing with me for the entire day. I don't want to break her heart. MLIA

My aunt is from Mexico. So today when I went to brush my teeth, I found toothpaste. It had Harry Potter on it saying "¡Yo combate las caries con la magia!" Which in English, means "I fight cavities with magic!" Needless to say I know what I want for Christmas. MLIA

Today was celebrity day for the spirit week so naturally i dressed up as Hermione Granger. I was walking through school and losing heart because of the some 1000 odd Justin Beibers, Lady Gagas, and Nicki Minajs i couldn't find another Harry Potter character. Then later during lunch i was sitting, kind of sad, when Harry, Ron, Draco, and Cho ran up to my table screaming "There you are Hermione!! We all have potions homework due next class and we need your help!" We all took a picture together. Easily made my life. :) MLIA

Today, in my spanish class a girl jokingly called her friend a muggle during free time. My teacher responded my promptly jumping out of his chair and yelling, "Don't use that foul language in my classroom!" She has a two-hour long detention now. MLIA

One night quite sometime ago, i had fallen asleep watching "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and left it on repeat, well i woke up in the middle of the night and went to turn on my other side (away from the tv) when voldermort exclaims "Don't turn your back away from me, i want to see the lights go out in your eyes when i kill you!" I seriously screamed and ran out of my room. MLIA

Today, I changed all of my contacts in my phone to Harry Potter characters. For some people, I couldn't figure out who to put them as, so I texted them, asking them who they want to be. The usual was Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, Sirius, etc. But one friend said "either Fluffy or The Basilisk." New best friend? I think so. MLIA.

Today a guy came to my work dressed up like Spiderman. A little boy ran up to him and told him that he could never beat Harry Potter, then cast a spell on Spiderman, and ran off. I hope my kid will be that cool.MLIA.

Last night the power went out at my apartment complex. I texted my girlfriend, asking her to keep me company, and she told me to light a candle and pretend that I was in the forbidden section of the library at Hogwarts. She's a keeper. MLIA.

Today i was talking to my mom and told her we needed to get some Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans (i was meaning Jelly Belly Jelly Beans) She just nodded and wrote it down. Im glad she understands my mind always relates to Harry Potter. MLIA


*MLIA is a site where you can post 'average' experiences and thoughts from your average life.. however somehow it has become a pooling of often hilarious (allegedly true) episodes brimming with pop culture (well, pretty much harry pothead, pirates & ninjas, with some gratuitous twilight-bashing thrown in) and fairytale endings..