Yaeli's Blog

A comedy of errors!

2007-08-10T10:04:00.000+11:00

If I wasn't laughing so hard I'd be crying right now.

Mum came home from hospital on Wednesday and is definitely on the improve. If she can nag me then she must be getting better. The hospital visit itself was a bit of a balls-up, from the emergency room doctor canulating and taking blood without wearing gloves (who wants to share their blood borne diseases with him?), to the nurse wanting to remove my mother's catheter (only 1 hitch: SHE DIDN'T HAVE ONE!), to the doctor who wrote up another patient's medications on my Mum's medication chart (can anyone say lawsuit?). I think we were both pleased that she was outta there!

I spent much of Wednesday looking forward to my brother coming down from Queensland to help look after Mum. When he turned up on the doorstep on Wednesday he took me aside and asked for some medical advice. Turns out a friend staying with him this week has discovered that he has shingles and then my brother showed me some spots that had come out on his chest and face. He had chicken pox!!!! Totally unrelated to his friend getting shingles though!

So in the house I had my immunocomprimised mother who is recovering from a secondary viral infection with kidney involvement, and a 22 year old with chicken pox!!! NIGHTMARE!

Does the nursing ever stop?

So glad I'll be going back home to Vanners tomorrow!

No news is good news...

2007-08-03T12:47:00.000+11:00

Once again it's been ages since I've posted.

Work has been crazy busy (nothing new there) and last weekend Mum flew over to visit us. Mum's visit unfortunately has not gone as planned. Within 24 hours she got really sick and wasn't able to leave the hotel room for 3 days. Yesterday I flew back to Sydney with her to get her admitted to hospital and get things sorted out. We would have done it in Vanuatu but the expats there have a motto, "if you're in pain, get on the plane". It's preferable to recieving health care in an under resouced hospital in a developing nation. So right now I'm back in Sydney and will be here for about a week until Mum's a bit better.

In other news, everything with me and Ben is going well and Choco is getting bigger everyday. I had to take him to the vet in the middle of June because he got sick and was throwing up. The vet gave him a vaccination against parvovirus and said that he had gastro and weighed him and he weighed 5 kilos. Last week (six weeks later) I took him back to the vet for a booster vaccination and the vet weighed him again. He weighed 10.5 kilos. In six weekis my baby has more than doubled his weight!!! I think he's gonna be a big boy. He's also started losing his teeth and getting his "big boy teeth".

I have also managed to work out this Facebook business... I'm a little bit addicted really. It's amazing who you can find on that thing!

Not much else is news at this point in time.

Once again I promise i'll try to lift my game and post more often.

Meh...

2007-06-29T12:02:00.000+11:00

I have had a few e-mails from people who have been worried that I haven't updated my blog, and that I may have dropped off the face of the earth.

Please be assured that I am alive, if not all that well.

I have been working 10 - 14 hour days for the last 12 days straight trying to get things sorted for our major projects that take off today. It has been totally crazy and I have been left feeling very run down and tired. As a result of being run down I have also managed to pick up a tummy bug and I have a boil on my back, so the party in paradise is not so much fun at the moment.

I'm so looking forward to having the weekend to crash out and try to forget about work.

Will write more next week and post some new photos of my "fur baby" (he's getting so big!!!).

What a week!

2007-05-25T11:46:00.000+11:00

I'm a bit too lazy to write much about my week, which included the arrival of one of our board members from Australia to check out the organisation, a huge stuff up by the airline that was supposed to be flying Benson back from Epi, another huge stuff up on Benson's part, wasted money and time, the dog learning to "sit", and a hell of a lot more waiting around for Ben to come back from the island (which still hasn't happened).

So instead I'm going to post a joke and some photos...

Sleepy Dwarf and Grumpy Dwarf take Dopey to see the Pope.
They arrive at the Vatican and are shown into the Pope's private quarters where they are graciously welcomed.
"Pope," says Sleepy, "We were hoping that you might be able to shed some light on an issue for us... Can you tell me, do nuns wear black and white?"
"Yes", says the Pope. "Nuns certainly do dress in black and white habits."
Dopey looks triumphant and grins cheerfully at the other two.
Then Grumpy asks "But Pope... Do nuns have webbed feet and beaks?"
The Pope looks a bit confused and Dopey starts to look sheepish.
"No boys", says the Pope. "Nuns most certainly do not have webbed feet and beaks."
Sleepy and Grumpy look triumphantly at Dopey and sing "Dopey fucked a penguin! Dopey fucked a penguin!"

Benson and some of the kids from across the road on the fron steps of the office.

The "rego rainbow". This bus is still displaying its road tax stickers from the past decade! And what a lovely rainbow they make! (Yes, I have no life. I'm taking photos of road tax stickers... what did you expect?)

My chocolate dog...

2007-05-18T13:53:00.000+11:00

It's been a rather stressful couple of weeks here in Vanuatu what with work going haywire and all. The major problem is too much work and not enough hands... Stressful and frustrating.

Benson has also been away for the last week and a half, on Epi Island for a family wedding which I could not attend due to work. To make matters worse, the first night that Benson was gone someone tried to break into my house where I was sleeping all on my lonesome. I didn't realise anything until the next morning when I went outside through the back door and turned to come back in and noticed a whole heap of scratches on the door near the handle where it looks like someone has tried to use a chisel to break in. The idiots didn't even try to do it properly though! Who tries to break in using a chisel on the door itself? You jemmie the door frame! Fools!

Anywho, I reported it to the owner of the house who tried to tell me that it was "wok blong puskat" (A cat did it), and I laughed in his face and asked him "what kind of cat? a tiger?" Honestly, I'm sure the man thought I was stupid or something. I told him it must have been one of the big two legged "puskats" that I've seen roaming around in the dark.

I made him put sliding bolts on the inside of both the doors and since then have had one of Ben's "sisters" sleeping in the house at night too. She's a whole other story though. It's all I can do to stop myself ripping her arms off and beating her about the head with them. Then again I suppose it comes down to the lesser of two evils... have the sister in law stay over? or potentially get raped and cut up into little pieces? Part of me wants to take my chances with the two legged puskats.

One of the only lights in my nasty fortnight has been this little green eyed guy.

This is Choco (short for chocolate dog), my puppy that Benson got me from his brothers house before he went away. He's cute and full of puppy unco-ordinatedness (and naughtyness too) and has made me smile, even on the worst days this week.

Don't you love him?

Ding dong! Vanuatu calling!!

2007-05-04T13:39:00.000+11:00

Well my first month here has ended and I’m into my second and I’m still alive, which is quite a big thing really considering the stress of the last month with 80% of our staff leaving, a visit from the big boss from Australia (which didn’t help us much I don’t think), and the huge amount of work that my colleague Joel and I are facing until the new Program Director arrives and our new staff begin. I am fast learning that working here is like trying to nail jelly to the wall… It would be a lot easier with support in the right places to stop bits falling down. However, as frustrating as it can be, the people that I get to work with make it all worthwhile!

In my work I am privileged to be able to work on a regularly irregular basis with Irene Malachi, an amazing lady who is one of only a handful of Ni-Vanuatu people who have been diagnosed and are living with HIV/AIDS. Irene now lectures about AIDS awareness for Youth Challenge at our Youth Skills Summits on outer islands and does a lot of other work for other organisations that are trying to raise awareness of AIDS.

My colleague Joel is another fine reason to keep turning up to work everyday. He’s a lovely guy from Erakor Island (the island opposite Le Lagon, for those in the know), and is always full of smiles, jokes and stories to get us through the day. He is a pleasure to work with and I can’t think what this last week (which has been pretty full on) would have been like without him.

In other news, Benson’s sister-in-law gave birth on Saturday to a beautiful little girl! We went around to her house on Tuesday, which was a public holiday, and met Fredalynn, who is absolutely beautiful. Fredalynn is the second of my friend’s babies to be borth this month. The day after I arrived here, my friend gave birth to her little girl, Lovelyn, nearly a month prematurely. Lovelyn weighed 1.7 kilos at birth and was kept in the premmie baby ward at the hospital until she reached 2 kilos. Apparently nearly 250 babies were born at Port Vila Central hospital in the month of April! They have been so busy that they haven’t been able to keep mum’s for more than 24 hours after birth unless there’s been a problem.

Fredalynn with her big brother and sister.

Last week we attended the Anzac Day Dawn service here in Vila followed by a tasty hot breakfast put on at the local yachting club (there's no RSL and the Anchor Inn had to suffice). I had a hard time trying to explain Anzac Day to Benson and justifying getting up at 5am to get to the service on time, but I think he got it in the end.

Sunset from our verandah.

The last month has been spent visiting friends and “family”, meeting other volunteers around town, working in our “garden”, and working full stop. Each Sunday Benson and I head out to Teouma to see his brothers who are all living there since the Blacksands riots, and to plant new things in our “garden”, which is more like a small farm really. So far we have planted more than 150 island cabbage plants, a heap of corn and spring onions, 40 taro plants (not my choice as I hate taro), and 70 chinese cabbage plants. This weekend we’re going to try and plant some garlic and some watermelon to add to the variety. Once everything is growing properly the garden is going to make things a bit cheaper for us as we won’t have to keep buying certain things at the market.

The weather here is still hot as anything although we have had a few evenings where Benson and others have worn their cold shirts (i.e. sweaters, jackets and jumpers). Mind you, these nights have been few and far between, and most nights I am still jacking up our electricity bill by running the fan full blast.

I haven’t been too home sick, I’m sure you’re pleased to hear. Mostly I wish you all were here rather than me being back in Sydney. However, I am missing the Thai restaurant in Lindfield. At this moment I would give my right arm for a chicken pad thai, some tofu and veggies in oyster sauce and some prawn crackers.

Hope you are all safe and well! Looking forward to hearing how things are going back in Oz!

Wish you were here!

Poor little Wigo, as mentioned in the last post.

I'm alive and well... with a mobile phone and a library card!!!!

2007-04-17T16:35:00.000+11:00

Hi y'all!
I made it here safe and sound and have been flat out with work for the last couple of weeks. Our internet at the office isn't working so I'm in an internet cafe burning up my meagre volunteers allowance to check my e-mails and pop up a post, so instead of writing a real post I'm just going to post this e-mail that I managed to send home. I promise I'll put up a real post soon!

Hello from Vanuatu!

ADDIT: I’ve been trying to send this e-mail for the last couple of days but our internet here has been more temperamental than usual after the IT guy took our server away to upgrade it overnight, didn’t upgrade it and then returned it. While our net connection has PMS at the best of times, this is worse than usual and has delayed a lot of work and e-mails, this one included. But, fingers crossed, this attempt to send will work!

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here only a week and a half! It feels like I’ve been here much longer now that I’ve settled into my new home and work.

My new place is a 1 bedroom “apartment” in a rent house in the suburb of Freswota. It has a verandah, a small kitchen area complete with bench and cupboard space, a relatively large bedroom also with cupboard space, and… (to cap it all off) a bathroom with a flushing toilet and cold shower (and here comes the best bit)… INSIDE!!!!! Those of you who have heard about the Blacksands house and my exploits pulling buckets of water from the well in order to cook, shower, and even flush the toilet, will somewhat understand and appreciate the significance of this!

Benson went to a lot of trouble to clean up and set up the house for me and has made it very comfortable and homey. Jin, I know you laughed at me when I brought over an inflatable mattress at Christmas time, but I’m so glad I did now! Soooo comfortable!!!! The only problem with the house is that the bedroom is right in the middle of the house and has no window access to outside which makes it very hot. As a result of a couple of hot and restless nights (following many hot and restless days) I trotted into town on my lunch break yesterday and bought an electric pedestal fan for AU$45 and then carted it back up the hill to the office before taking it home and setting it up. It was a great relief last night to lie down in relative coolness.

The weather here has been hitting 30 degrees regularly throughout the last week and a half (in fact it has been hotter now than it was over Christmas) and the humidity has been sitting at what surely must be 300%!!! Mum, you’d hate it right now! My routine has become get up in the morning, shower, eat breakfast, think about sneaking in another shower, get dressed and go to work, spend much of my day reminiscing about how pleasant my cold shower was that morning (even though at the time the shock of the cold water was anything but pleasant) and wishing I was back in the shower, going home, getting in the shower, cooking and eating dinner, thinking about having another shower before bed, and then trying to get to sleep in the oppressive heat. A lot of the expats around town haven’t been feeling too well thanks to the heat and I suspect dehydration has something to do with it so I’ve been taking advantage of the fridge at work and drinking litres and litres of cold water each day. At home we haven’t got a fridge (chilling the water somehow manages to temporarily eliminate the chlorine taste) so the little store nextdoor has been getting a heap of my money on my second daily runs to buy cordial, which masks the chlorine-y taste.

Work is great! Everyone in the office is lovely and very helpful. As expected the job description has once again changed and for the short term (i.e. the next 4 – 6 weeks) I’m helping with the recruitment of some new staff, co-ordinating and writing our 6 monthly report to Ausaid (who give us money), looking out for new office space for us as the current office is too small, and doing a few “bitser” jobs around the place that need doing. In the long term I’ll be working with our new Youth Program Manager (who we are in the process of recruiting) to plan, manage and implement our Ni-Vanuatu youth programs which include the current volunteer and training program as well as establishing a new internship program for Ni-Vanuatu youth who have completed the volunteer program. I still haven’t got a desk of my own yet (not enough space in the office) so I’m spending much of my office time either working on the couch or sneaking into other peoples desks when they’re out of the office.

It’s a very exciting, but also stressful, time for the organisation with a lot of change happening in the next 3 or 4 months. There is going to be quite a turnover of staff with Cheryl (another Australian volunteer) leaving our organisation in June, Jamie (a Canadian volunteer) leaving us mid-May, some Ni-Vanuatu staff leaving and some new ones joining the ranks, and my boss Negaya just announcing her resignation yesterday. She will finish up at the
end of April and we’re not too sure when her replacement will be found and arrive. As previously mentioned we are also looking for new office space to accommodate all us staff and to facilitate a small drop in area for volunteers and past challengers to come and use the computers. I’m going to head out this afternoon with Negaya to check out a house in Freswota that we may move the office to when our funding comes through from Oxfam.

In other news, I went down to Blacksands the other day to see Benson’s brother’s house which got burnt down. Not much house to see really, just a small patch of concrete and a lot of burnt timber. The beautiful avocado tree that grew over their roof has been totally blackened too. It was really quite sad. While there I found Benson’s nephew’s puppy, Wigo, still alive and scavenging in the neighbour’s yards for food. One of her hind legs had been broken by someone who had stoned her. Poor little thing. So I took her home, fed her some leftovers from the night before, and then Ben and I took her out to his brother at Teouma where they will use “kastom” medicine on her leg and nurse her back to health.

All in all it’s been a pretty eventful first week in town and I was stoked to have the Easter long weekend to settle in properly. I will try to send some photo’s when I get a chance. The internet here in the office is temperamental at the best of times. Hopefully though we’ll be getting broadband in the next couple of weeks and our server will be upgraded.

To all the nursing kids who graduated yesterday, I hope everything went well and you all had a great day! I hope you clapped loudly for me when my name was read out as graduating in absentia! I was thinking of you all on that special day… once again, we made it!

Hope everyone is well and that you all had a lovely Easter long weekend! Looking forward to hearing about what’s going on back in Oz!

Sorry about the mammoth e-mail. So much to say and so little time!

If you ever make it to this neck of the woods for a holiday let me know!

Thinking of you all!

Yaeli xoxo

P.S. If anyone is interested in being on our mailing list for our regularly irregular newsletter (it can't work out if it's going out every month or every second month) to see what Youth Challenge Vanuatu is up to let me know and I'll get you added to the mailing list.

I really need to work uot how to post to my blog from my e-mail address...

36 hours baby... yeah!!!!

2007-04-01T00:30:00.000+11:00

In 36 hours I will be sitting on a plane with 90% of my worldly belongings, heading off to start my new life in Vanuatu! How exciting!!! And somewhat freaky!!!

I've moved house before but this is something pretty huge... in fact it's huge on a scale that I've never known before! On one hand I really just want to hurry up and go, but on the other hand I'm worried that I'm going to forget stuff that I need. Not that I can't get replacement stuff over there but it's different when it's your stuff... the only symbol of continuity between the life you've just left and the life you're now entering!

I'm also having serious issues getting my baggage below 40kgs... My airline approved extra baggage takes me up to 30kgs but it still ain't enough. I have been spared having to make a decision on whether or not to take my pair of "crocs" with me, as after 9 months of faithful service they have decided that 36 hours before I get on a plane would be a great time to develop holes in their soles! I practically live in these shoes! I'm kinda distraught that they aren't going to make the trip with me... but glad that it's one less thing to worry about fitting in my bag. I might try to get a new pair at the last minute at the airport though... just might.

You want me to pay how much???!!!

2007-03-29T23:27:00.000+11:00

In preparation for my big move to Vanuatu on Monday, I had to make an emergency trip to the dermatologist to get something checked out. She decided that the best thing to do was to take a 6 month course of fluconazole (an anti-fungal, for those not in the know) and wrote me a script and a letter authorising me to carry so much medication with me overseas. She warned me that the pills would be expensive and quoted me approximately AUD$60 for a box of 28. As other treatments haven't fixed me up (damn my chronic condition) this seems to be my last chance to be "cured", rather than (possibly) having to live with it forever, so I decided the price was worth it and I could claim it back through my private health fund.

So off I trotted to the chemist and handed over my script. The pharmacist asked "do you know how much this is going to cost you?" so I told her what the doctor told me about the price and again settled back to wait for my prescription to be filled. The chemist then gave me what was either a coronary or a minor stroke by looking up the price of the meds and informing me that the dermatologist had led me up the garden path with the price she quoted me. I felt my blood pressure rise with apprehension as I asked what the real price was, and then I felt it go through the roof as she told me that the real price was AUD$170 per box of 28 pills!!!!!!! I didn't know whether to be sick or pass out from the shock!!

Mind you, the pills are so expensive thanks to the Australian Government and our Pharmaceuticals Benefits Scheme. If I had an immune disorder, rather than just this persistent, chronic, uncomfortable and inconvenient condition, the pills would be about AUD$20 per box. But NOOOOO!!!! Obviously I need to be a cancer patient and be severely immuno-suppressed to get my last ditch treatment for a reasonable price!!!! So stupid!!!!

Thank god my Dad came to my rescue and offered to pay the AUD$1000+ for my 6 months worth of pills. He will get some of it back from the private health fund (hopefully most of it) but without his help I would be up for an extremely uncomfortable life in Vanners. For 1000 bucks this stuff had better bloody work!!!

On the plus side... 4 sleeps to go!!!! Yay!!!!

P.S. What the heck is going on with my blogger formatting today? Blogger keeps removing the spaces between my paragraphs! Bloody Blogger.

Not long now!

2007-03-24T10:22:00.000+11:00

Today is Saturday, 24th March. I leave to go back to Vanuatu on Monday, 2nd April. So close! So much to do, so little time!

I can't wait to get back to...

My supermarket.

My family.

My man.

But I'm still not sure where I'll live because, thanks to the riots earlier this month, it's not really safe enough for us to go back to our little green house at Blacksands.

I miss Vanuatu.

Self inflicted misery...

2007-03-17T19:19:00.000+11:00

Kids, I'm officially recovering from the world's worst hangover!

I've spent much of the day in bed feeling like I was about to die (and kinda wishing that I had) and actually had to take anti-nausea medication (I love being a nurse) to settle my stomach long enough to drink water! Ewwwwww.

Note to self: making a decision to go out and get drunk whilst already half drunk at home IS NOT a good idea!

Meanwhile...

I was going through some more of my favourite photos from my last trip to Vanners and came across these great ones! (Apologies to any vegetarians!)

These were taken the day that Ben's family decided to throw what I was told was a big dinner in our honour. I later found out that they had neglected to tell me that it was an official "blocking" ceremony, which is their version of an engagement. For the occasion the family killed a cow and butchered it and then cooked up enough stew to feed the 150 or so people that came for the dinner from neighbouring (and some not so neighbouring) villages! What a wild experience!

The sight I was greeted by when I got out of bed that morning... The boys playing butchers.

Joely and the cows head.

Mmmmm... Steak?

People hanging out waiting for the feast to start.

Feasting island style... No washing up!!!!

Finally!!!!

2007-03-16T13:47:00.000+11:00

Blogger has finally managed to upload my photos! Yay!!!

Because I'm too lazy to think of anything important to write, today I'm sharing with you some of my favourite photos of "my kids" in Vanuatu. See how gorgeous they are?!

The kids on a break from church.

My little sea cucumbers.

(So named for their tendency to lie in the water, floating around like the black sea cucumbers that live on the reef.)

Robin having a "bath".

Massil.

Sarah crying.

Too lazy to write...

2007-03-16T10:13:00.000+11:00

But blogger isn't letting me post photos for some reason. Bastards!

I keep going to upload my pics that I want to show you guys and it says that they've been uploaded and then they don't appear! And this isn't the first time it's happened either!

Poo to blogger and their shitty service.

Any tips?

A post for Foxy!!!

2007-03-13T20:43:00.000+11:00

Out of the blue Foxy has found me! And how lovely it is to see her name regularly on my screen again!

The beautiful Foxy and I go way back to my Rotary days, when we used to have great fun making clothes out of garbage bags for RYLA parties, dancing ceroc, and sharing rooms at RYLA camps. There may have also been one or two boozy nights thrown in there as well but neither one of us will admit to it (although a night on the central coast with too many drinks and a verandah pole still won't erase itself from my memory). And at risk of further incriminating myself and Foxy, I will stop writing now...

Foxy, it's so great to hear from you! You rock!!!
:o)

Insecure ambivalent attachment...

2007-03-11T15:35:00.000+11:00

It's time to draw a line in the sand...

My not-so-kind anonymous commenter pointed out the other day that I have "complete and utter control" of this blog. I am now going to exercise that complete control, starting by posting an "open letter" to Anonymous from the gorgeous Neats (Just in case you missed it in the comments section Anon).

BTW Neats has given her permission for this to be posted.

Dear Anonymous,

Firstly, as you seem to be new to the cyber and blogging thing, the idea of the comments section is that they are all published. If you did not intend your words to be read by all, I suggest in future you let the recipient know that. In light of Yael's attitude towards sharing her experiences so openly, perhaps it did not surprise you that she posted your comment.I felt your frustration in how badly Yael took your message, when obviously your only intention was to wish her well for her birthday and wish her a fantastic marriage and a wonderful life in Vanuatu. How could Yael have taken your message the wrong way...

Your message pointed out, very clearly, that Yael was:
In need of being centred
Had made hurtful mistakes
Had hurt you

Had hurt many others as well
Had things she perhaps should feel regret about
Has demons
Is tortured
and needs forgiveness

Gee, and she took that the wrong way? Go figure.

If you really knew Yael, you would know that she does not have regrets or guilt about her life. And that is part of her charm and passion for life.

In all honesty writing "how wonderful you are (and you may be- to them- but they know shit) but you are still the same", "fuck you", "Its not like you never hurt anyone" "Humpme Dumpme", I am not convinced that you have forgiven Yael. In fact I think the real reason that you wrote to Yael was because deep down you cant stand the fact that despite all the things that believe Yael to have done in the past (to you and others) that don't live up to YOUR expectations of what makes a "good, centred and secure person" Yael still has many people in her life (both cyber and non-cyber) that care about her and offer her support, love and friendship. That must really suck for you huh? Perhaps the reason that you do not have such friendships is because, despite your best intentions, you still come off sounding Bitter, Superior, Patronising and unable to work out your internal conflict about how you really feel and how you have been lead to believe a "good" person should act towards others.

So congratulations to you on not re-entering Yael's life (in future you will find it easier to not re-enter if you simply stay away and keep your kind thoughts to yourself) and I dont think that you are really so important that Yael can not have a wonderful life without your blessing.Finally, "may your marriage be a happy and secure one" - who the fuck says "secure one?" really think twice about your double meanings before writing such dribble and on that note, stop with the Anonymous crap and tell Yael who you are. If you can be man enough to tell Yael how you truely feel about her (after all this time) then grow a real back bone and put a name to your comments. Take a note out of Yael's book, "Bitch and proud"!!

Yours in truth and healing :-) Neats

Anon, you may think that in this way I am making myself the center of attention (once again, on my own blog... How tedious!). But in fact I am finally giving you the attention that you are so clearly craving.

As for drawing that line in the sand... If you choose to post one of your delightful coments again on my blog it will be deleted. I have greater things to worry about than dealing with you and your passive-aggressive games. If you have something to say to me (and we all know that you don't want to air dirty laundry in public) then contact me PRIVATELY via e-mail (novel idea, I know). You obviously know how to use myspace to track me down, therefore it stands to reason that you'll know how to use the myspace mail feature. Of course by following this course you will no longer be able to remain anonymous and you'll have to put your name to your comments. The decision is yours.

To everyone else... What do you think of Anonymous's behaviour? (see previous posts for a bit of background as to what's been going on and to read Anon's comments) The nature of blogging is that one talks about one's life and things that one is interested in. Is blogging only for extroverts who want to be the center of attention? Discuss.

Kind thoughts needed please...

2007-03-08T17:36:00.000+11:00

You may or may not have heard about the riots of the last week in Port Vila between the people from Tanna and Ambrym.

Unfortunately these riots have had a disasterous impact on my partner Benson and his family. Benson's brother's house at Blacksands was burnt down on Sunday night and our home at Blacksands was broken into and all of Ben's clothes were taken (strangely enough my things were left untouched).

Ben and his family are now hiding in the bush, sleeping on banana leaves with only the clothes on their backs and no protection from malaria or rain. They are scared to get on buses into town because there are apparently men from Tanna riding on the buses with knives and they are scared that they are going to be attacked.

Ben's brother, James, has 3 children who cannot go to school as the school is in the area where fighting has been occuring and their uniforms and books were burnt in the fire. It now looks like the family will have to send the kids to the island for their safety and until James can rebuild their home.

The mens carvings were all burnt as were their chisels and other tools that they use to create the carvings that provide them with money to live off. The family also lost a large amount of money that they had been putting aside for a sisters wedding next month.

I am looking at freighting over some emergency items this weekend and will send at least one more "care package" via freight before I go over to start my new job on the 26th March.

Please keep Ben and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Ohhh crap...........

2007-03-03T09:39:00.000+11:00

It's moving day... Once again the day has come that reminds me just how much crap I own and just how dirty my place is despite many, many cleanings. I feel like such a dirty pig!!!!

As an added bonus I also have the buyers of my furniture coming to pick up the bits and bobs that they have so wisely purchased on Ebay...

Please share your sympathy with me!!!

Some kids will eat anything...

2007-02-28T10:58:00.000+11:00

... And Ben's nephew is one of those kids, as evidenced by this photo!

Dan... Get over it!

2007-02-23T21:53:00.000+11:00

It seems like February is the month when long lost weirdos come out of the wood work.

Earlier this month I was reminded that it was also international asshole apology month thanks to Mr Complicated ( Thanks to the new blogger I can't put links to my old posts but some of you may remember the total shit who dated me, dumped me, fooled around with me, screwed around with me and fucked with my head for 18 months - if you're wanting more background browse my archives from 2004 and 2005.).

Mr Complicated sent me the following e-mail out of the blue and after 12 months of no contact:

Yael,

This message will come out of the blue, but I compelled to write it. Recently I was cleaning up some of possessions when I came across some e-mails and messages I had sent you. I found this address, and felt I must write you.
I re-read what I had sent and I felt deeply embarrassed by my actions towards you. I felt I must write you to state the following words:

I am deeply sorry for my actions in the past. The nasty things I said and wrote to you were not true. I retract it and I wish I could erase such things from existence.

I am not asking for forgiveness, nor is this done as me seeking pardon for my actions. I do not expect, nor want a reply from you. I simply wanted to write to you, to say I am sorry for what I did as it was an act of bastardry.

You deserve better than anything I ever said or promised you, I hope that you have all the happiness you truly deserve.

I have to say the words mean a lot less when you consider that I received a similar e-mail at about the same time last year. I'd completely forgotten that it was time for his annual apology.

Needless to say I didn't respond to this... What's there to say? "gee... ummm... thanks for pointing out once again what a cock you were?" Not worth my time really.

Those of you that have read the comments on my last post will notice that some kind anonymous person who doesn't like airing dirty laundry in public has decided to...well... air dirty laundry in public! And while I'm sorry for any hurt that I may have caused this person in the past I don't particularly appreciate them tracking me down via myspace, posting anonymous comments on my blog claiming that I'm "tortured" by past demons, and then surveilling my blog waiting for a reply to their whiny "look at me, I'm a victim" comments.

Am I a bitch? Hell yes I am!! Deal with it D. Shit happens. This post is dedicated to you.

Happy Birthday to me.... I'm one hundred and three!!!

2007-02-22T00:01:00.000+11:00

It's officially my birthday!!! Yay for me!!! Is it a problem if I still haven't worked out what I want to be when I grow up?

In other news I've been having a fire sale of my furniture and bits and pieces on e-bay. It's been hard letting go of my stuff but kind of exhilarating and liberating as well (plus the extra cash is much needed). It's exciting to think that I'm starting a new life and part of that new life is to make a home with my partner and things that belong to the both of us!

It makes me feel so grown up!!

So much to do... So little time!

2007-02-16T18:43:00.000+11:00

I have been working my arse off all week in my "new grad" position at my local hospital and I have to say that I am absolutely stuffed!!! I'm working on an orthopedic ward and every shift has been absolutely hectic. Today was shift 5 of 6 consecutive days, and it consisted of much chasing down of doctors to write / correct medicine orders, trying to get my non english speaking Armenian patient to do what needed to be done, and doing an emergency catheterisation on a poor lady who had nearly a litre of urine retained in her bladder. I'm very much looking forward to my three days off starting on Sunday!

So far I'm still alive and so are all my patients, which is probably a good sign, but for a psych nurse orthopedics at a hospital which is a major trauma centre is a massive crash course in the world of medical / surgical nursing. I have spent much time this week feeling overwhelmed and daunted by my position. This has made my resignation from the job (in light of my new employment in Vanuatu) somewhat easier, not because the ward has traumatised me in any way, but because it has highlighted for my where my skills and, more importantly, my passions lie. My final shift will be Friday 2nd March, so only 2 more weeks to go.

It is now beginning to hit home that the huge task of selling off all my furniture and packing everything up cannot be put off any longer. And while I know it is all only "stuff" I still can't help getting a bit sentimental about my grandparents chairs and my super comfy bed.

Has anyone else ever been in this situation? And is there any advice you can give me that might help me to part with all my useless rubbish?

It's the time you've all been waiting for...

2007-02-11T00:26:00.000+11:00

I mentioned last week that I had news that I could not reveal as it had not yet been confirmed. In the last 48 hours I have received confimation, so I am pleased to announce... (drum roll please)...

As of the end of March I will be blogging from Port Vila, Vanuatu, as I have been offered an 18 month contract working for a NGO (or non-government organisation for those of you that are wondering), and I have decided to accept! While I will initially be starting out doing a combination of financial management and project programming, the position is a fluid and flexible role that will change over the 18 months in order to meet the changing needs of the organisation. It is a very exciting time to be getting involved with this organisation as it's a time of big change and development within the organisation.

The added bonus of this job is that I get to go and live in my crazy little house at Blacksands with my honey. (For a description of our house click on the link to a previous post. Photos of our two little rooms are below.)

Our bedroom...

Our living room / kitchen... (the bench with our gas camping stove is on the right out of the shot).

To those of you who were convinced that I'm pregnant, sorry to disappoint. I know sprogs don't necessarily follow plans, but we won't be expecting any "little guests" until 2010 if all goes to plan.

I will leave you for today with one of my more artistic photos from my trip. We lit a big bonfire on the beach the night before New Years Eve and I was playing with my digital camera, which I bought just before I went away. I turned off my flash, pointed and shot and this is the finished result...

Vanua-tutu

2007-02-09T21:45:00.000+11:00

Here are some great photos of my "monkey man", who decided it would be a great idea to climb a tree on the copra plantation for some "nafele" (a kind of nut).

He thought he was being so clever and cool and decided to show off half-way up the tree...

In the process he gave me a complete heart attack and I was sure that he would fall... (Look how high up he is!!!!!!! AND he went even higher!!!!!!)

Needless to say, he lived to see another day (although I nearly killed him for scaring me half to death) and he promptly sat down with his cousin and his cousin's wife to enjoy his nuts. He's nuts.

Whatever happened to freedom of choice?

2007-02-07T17:55:00.000+11:00

Blogger has forced my hand and made my decision for me...

I have been toying with the idea of changing over my blog to the new Blogger system, but after hearing about Dave's issues with Blogger beta and then this new Blogger venture, I'd decided that I didn't want to risk losing everything.

Today I logged on to find that Blogger has removed the decision from my hands and is forcing everyone to change over to their new system. My fingers are crossed that I don't encounter the same problems that Dave has.

This could be a blessing or a curse... Only time will tell.

Vanuatu...

2007-02-04T13:03:00.000+11:00

Unfortunately as I have not yet received confirmation of my big news the big announcement can't yet be made (much to Dave's annoyance I'm sure). As soon as it's 100% official (now it's only 90%) I promise I'll let you all in on the big secret!

Instead this post is dedicated to Vanuatu and I will share a few photos with you from the last 5 weeks!

For those of you who haven't "met" my gorgeous fiance, this is Ben. And before anyone asks the baby isn't ours... She was "borrowed" from the lady who owns the rent house where we live in Port Vila. Our little home is one room with a partition in the middle to separate our bedroom in the back half from our living / kitchen area in the front. We don't yet have electricity and town water hasn't reached our place yet so we get our water from a well in the yard. We have a little room separate from the house where we shower (or "swim" as we call it) and a little outdoor dunny nextdoor to that.

A couple of days after I arrived in Port Vila we managed to find a boat to take us out to Ambrym island so we packed up our things and jumped aboard the Dinh 1 for a journey that was a comedy of errors and was far too long. It took us 48 hours to get to North Ambrym and the highlights of the journey included engine failure that caused us to make nearly the whole journey on 1 engine, a mishap with the compass which took us about 7 hours in the wrong direction, and getting shipwrecked on the coast of Malekula island which meant we had to wait 8 hours for the tide to lift us off the rocks!

As you may have guessed from the photos, the Dinh 1 is a cargo ship that takes passengers but doesn't have appropriate passenger accommodation. The photo above is Ben lying on our "boat bed", a pandanus mat on the floor between the life jacket cabinet and a bench. Not the most comfortable of places to sleep but one makes do with what one has.

The final photo for today is my beautiful man on the boat as we are approaching Ambrym.

I will post more photos tomorrow and throughout the week so don't forget to keep checking back.

Clever Dave...

2007-01-30T21:58:00.000+11:00

Dave, you clever man, yes indeed I am home and I did peek at your blog. I am in the process of sorting my photos and will post properly later this week when things settle down a bit. While wedding bells have not yet chimed, it's safe to say that everything is still on track and later in the week I'll reveal some more exciting news. :o)

House xmas, disaster blasters and two days to go!

2006-12-18T10:18:00.000+11:00

Yesterday myself and my housemates decided to have an early xmas in light of my departure on Wednesday. It was a great afternoon with enough food to feed an army, nice presents (cos it's not christmas without pressies), and (of course) plenty of booze!

I have a lovely new drink recipe for you to try if you like fruity drinks. I call it the Disaster Blaster, but Kath calls it GoGo Juice. At the super market here you can buy 3 litre cans of "party punch" mix, but this can be substituted with a mix of punchy fruit juices such as pineapple, apple or orange. Anywho... To every litre of juice or punch mix add 350 mls of sparkling white wine (the cheaper and trashier the better. For those who know what Passion Pop is, use that), 3 shots of Absolute Peach vodka, 1 shot of Bacardi rum, and a few hundred mls of lemonade to taste. Makes for a very drinkable summery punch.

Of course I recommend that you drink only in moderation (do as I say, not as I do kids), as the only reason that I drank this blend to excess last night was to scientifically assess the hangover causing capacity of this exciting drink (and to get pissed). Surprisingly I'm feeling only a little dehydrated this morning. No headache and no tummy upset.

Only two days to go until I'm back with my man in our tropical paradise. I'm pretty much packed and very ready to go, just sitting here wishing that time would pass faster. Why doesn't time fly when you want it to?

Mohammed is going to the mountain....

2006-12-12T20:29:00.000+11:00

This post is dedicated to the wonderful Dave, aka Utenzi, who actually notices and gives a crap when I disappear and leaves nice little comments asking where I am. Cheers Dave!

Before I share some good news with you I would like to issue a warning to all of you who use clingwrap that comes in boxes with the serrated metal strip attached... These metal strips may appear harmless, but really they are spiteful and dangerous things that wait until you're packing up your dinner leftovers late at night and then they sink their sharp little teeth deep into your wrist and tear a huge chunk of flesh out. Yes, that's right kids... Being the unco-ordinated fool that I am, I managed to damage myself with a pack of Glad Wrap! So please heed this warning and do not leave you friends and loved ones unattended with this evil form of packaging.

As for good news and the Mohammed and the mountain thing... I'm heading back to Vanuatu next week for 5 weeks with my gorgeous man! We'll be going out to the island that he comes from and i'll get to meet his parents for the first time and we'll be spending our anniversary together!!! I'll also be looking for jobs over there, so next year your favourite blogger might be blogging from Vanuatu!!!

I promise to post again before I leave. :o)

Racist or sensible? You decide...

2006-11-09T11:45:00.000+11:00

I called the Australian High Commission in Port Vila today to find out precisely why Ben's visa was refused and to find out if there's any other way that we might be able to get him out here in time for christmas. The results of the conversation were less than pleasing and have left me feeling very disillusioned with the Australian Government's immigration and tourist policies. But rather than getting on a full-on (somewhat biased) rant about the racist nature of Australia's policies I'll provide you guys with the info and you can make up your own minds.

Ben's application was refused on the grounds that he has no incentive to return to his country of origin. When I asked today whether we had been too ambitious by applying for a two month visa I was told that the time limit had no bearing on the decision, rather the fact that he is in a relationship with an Australian citizen means that, according to the government's rules, he is not a "genuine tourist" and therefore would never have been considered for a tourist visa anyway. However, it took them a week of "application processing time" plus a AUS$75 dollar non-refundable processing fee to tell us that due to these rules the application wasn't worth the paper it was written on. Fancy taking an application fee from someone who barely earns that much in a week, in order to process an application that was never going to be granted anyway!!!

In short, Ben has no chance of getting into the country until we are married... and even then there's no guarantee that a spousal visa will be granted. I'm glad all our plans depend on me going there to live. I hate to imagine how he might be treated here.

Hmmm... the post was a little bit rant-y but not too bad considering...

Not such a good start to the week...

2006-11-07T18:00:00.000+11:00

A friend of mine from uni was found dead in her apartment over the weekend. It has become a coroners case and, although we have our suspicions, we do not yet know the cause of death. I'm sorry that her time here was so tortured and painful and I wish there was more we could have done to help her. I wish she had wanted to be helped. I hope that she's pain free and at peace now. Raia, you are sadly missed.

In other not so glorious news, Ben didn't get his visa to come here for family christmas. Yet another trial and tribulation of forging a relationship and being engaged to a Pacific Islander I suppose. They declined his application (but took his money) on the grounds that he had no incentive to return to his country at the end of his visit. Why would he want to leave island paradise to come live in this smog filled shithole anyway?

You know what??

2006-10-30T13:43:00.000+11:00

Stuff the stupid people!

This is MY blog and I'm not going to allow undesirable individuals to disuade me from doing what I do best... Blogging!! (Ok, it's not really what I do best but it's what I do best out of the bedroom!)

So, to the lurkers and the stalkers and the all round idiots who have no lives of their own, all I can say is mind your own goddamn business.

To my supportive friends and everyone else... ROCK ON!!!!!

The bitch is back...

Photo courtesy of www.fuckthiswebsite.com.

No more stories for a while...

2006-09-04T21:50:00.000+11:00

I won't be posting for a while due to certain undesirable people reading my blog and keeping tabs on me when they have surrendered the right to be a part of my life and know anything about me.

There will be no more stories until I work out what I'm going to do about this problem. Leave me a message if you have any suggestions.

P.S. I am aware of the irony of a blogger complaining about people reading about her life. My point is that my life is no longer this person's business anymore.

Happy couple and more happy news...

2006-08-11T19:34:00.000+11:00

To kick off the weekend I thought I'd post another photo of me and my handsome man. This one was taken with my mum as we were seeing her and my stepdad off.

Unbeknown to me, Mum recently found my blog through her cousin (hi Jen!), and may or may not become a regular reader. I'm sure once she works out how to post comments we'll never get her out of here. :o) Hi Mum!!!

Mum had a rather eventful 4 days in Vanuatu. During her time with us she met our family and friends, bonded with Ben, did some hand washing education with the primary school kids at the school where Ben teaches, saw some of the pre-Independence Day celebrations, and still found time to break both her legs!

Yes, that's right kids, my mum fell in a hole on her first day in the country and it wasn't until ten days later, when she was back in Australia, that it was discovered that she fractured her left ankle and her right fibula!

My mum is one tough woman!

Here are some photos from Mum's time in Vanuatu... I'll put more up over the course of the weekend. Mine will go up next week when they're developed.

Mum and Etrien (my little brother) washing their hands.

The kids watching Finding Nemo projected on to the wall of one of the classrooms.

Happy news #1: I am now celebrating 24 hours of being gastro free! Fingers crossed the unpleasant experience is all over.

Happy news # 2: Only 1 week to go until I move into my new home!! Yay!!! So it looks like much of this week will be spent sorting through my stuff, packing and moving. A huge job, but one that is well overdue for attention.

My shitty job...

2006-08-07T03:36:00.000+11:00

I have the shittiest job on earth, both literally and figuratively.

On Saturday I went to work a morning shift at a private hospital up the road from my house. The nurses kindly allocated me 10 patients to assist, including one lady with gastroenteritis, but failed to give a complete handover, meaning that it wasn't until I asked why the patient had aprons and gloves right outside her room that someone told me that she'd had gastro.

The phrase "she'd had" implies that the gastro bout was over does it not. It doesn't indicate a current ongoing affliction.

Unfortunately for me, and for the sweet little lady, she had an "accident" and during the course of cleaning her up I got crapped on. Yes, that's right, some of her runny poo landed on me, and not just on my clothes!

Capping it all off is the fact that gastro is an airborne illness, so gloves and aprons weren't going to save me anyway.

The result of all this is that after 20 minutes spent in the bathroom, a shower and a drive on the porcelain bus, it is now 2:30am and I'm sitting in bed, blogging, because my stomach is doing the hokey pokey somewhere inside me. Hopefully my peppermint tea and some Stemetil will settle my sorry tummy so that I can get some sleep.

Once again I have returned from a holiday only to get sick, and I don't have my gorgeous man to nurse me. Sori long mi. :o( Below is another photo of my "nambawan assistant nurse blong Vanuatu".

My 200th Post!!!

2006-08-04T12:39:00.000+11:00

So when better to reveal some of the biggest news of my life?!!

As mentioned in my previous post, Ben and I have had some big news brewing while I was in Vanuatu, and I think now is the perfect time to share not one, but two exciting developments with you guys.

Exciting development #1:

Should the Australian Immigration Deparment decide to bestow their benevolence upon us, Ben may be coming to live with me in Australia next year while I do my new graduate program.

We will be making visa applications and hopefully Ben will be able to come and live with me and work to earn some money to pay for his school fees when we return to Vanuatu in 2008, and improve his English language skills, which will put him in greater demand as a teacher in Vanuatu.

We are both extremely excited and know that while this path is going to be hard work, and it may be be long and convoluted, if it all comes together it will be worth it. It will also mean that we won't have to spend 12 months apart while I complete my new graduate program here in Sydney next year.

Exciting development #2:

We're engaged!!!

While my mum and stepdad were visiting us in Port Vila Ben took the opportunity to ask for their permission for him to marry me... or to use his exact phrase, to ask them if they'd let him have me. They said yes!

A week later, at the airport as I was preparing to board my flight back home, Ben asked me to marry him and be his wife. Of course I said yes!

So I am now officially off the market, and will be a married woman in the foreseeable future!!!

Nearly 2 weeks and still going strong... sort of.

2006-07-14T10:49:00.000+11:00

Just a quick update:

Despite a cut foot and a trip to the hospital plus some antibiotics for a possible kidney infection everything is still going well over here.

We should have some exciting and unexpected news when I get back but I'm not saying anything until things are more solid. Feel free to guess though!

Mum gets here for her visit in a week so we're both pretty excited and I've just found out that some of my family and friends from the community that I was working in over Christmas are coming into town on the boat next week for independence day celebrations!

Anywho... Back to drinking coconuts by the seafront now.

Just so you know...

2006-07-04T13:06:00.000+11:00

Despite yesterday's plane dramas, I arrived in Port Vila at 7:30 last night and spent a very pleasant night snuggled up in bed with my gorgeous man (to find out just how grogeous he is see the photos in one of my earlier posts below)!
Everything is now right in the world. :o)

Is this an omen???

2006-07-03T15:33:00.000+11:00

My flight has been delayed... twice.
I have been stuck in Brisbane airport since 9 this morning, and I can't get intouch with my boyfriend to tell him that my flight is arriving 5 hours late!!!
Remind me again why I'm travelling without my mobile!

Cross your fingers for me that I get out of here and reach Vila tonight, otherwise I'll be stuck in Brisbane until Wednesday when the next flight leaves.

But hey, what's another 5 hours on top of 3 months of not seeing each other?

The time has come... nearly.

2006-07-03T04:37:00.000+11:00

I can't sleep.
In 10 hours I will be back in Vanuatu and in 1 hour I'm supposed to be leaving for the airport.
It's the middle of the night and I am wide awake!!!
Am I experiencing "the curse of the night shifts"? Or am I just too excited to sleep? Who knows!!
All I know is that today's the day that I get to see my sweet boy again!!!
Yay for me!!!!!

Vanuatu here I come!!!

2006-07-01T13:47:00.000+11:00

Finally, after working a ridiculous number of night shifts, and writing assignments that would have been written earlier had I not been such an expert procrastinator, my return to Vanuatu is here... or will be in one and a half days!!!!!!!

A whole month in the sun with my man by my side... who could ask for more!!!

I promise I'll be a better blogger when I get back. :o)

First the return of the prodigal blogger... Now the return of the prodigal laptop.

2006-06-08T10:40:00.000+11:00

Woohoo!!! Once again I am now able to blog in bed!!!
Would you believe that it took more than 3 months to get my laptop repaired under warranty??!! The stoopid thing crashed back at the end of February and the mother board had to be replaced, and finally my sweet laptop was returned to me this week!

In other news, for anyone else who has been sucked into the world of MySpace, you can find me at http://www.myspace.com/yaelisspace. Add me to your friends list!

Yes, I am a bad, bad blogger!! - Return of the prodigal blogger.

2006-06-03T17:31:00.000+11:00

I am dreadful aren't I??!! Fancy me buggering off and abandoning my blog for nearly 2 months!!!
Apologies to all my faithful readers who have been left without anything to read, and have been reduced to speculating about my whereabouts and begging me to return.

In my defence I have been more than a little caught up with uni work and practical, as well as working ridiculous hours in order to earn money to fund my next trip to Vanuatu in July.

How could I stay away from the gorgeous man below for any longer than that??!!!

These photos were taken on my last trip at Easter time. 10 days was far too short, but it was more than enough time to confirm our feelings for each other and reassure us that what we are doing is right. Ben is now looking to buy a block of land around Port Vila, and we've already agreed on what type of house we're looking to build. Now all we have to do is get through the next 18 months and then we will be able to live in the same country!!!!

The July trip will be for 4 weeks, and it looks like my Mum and her husband will be coming over for a few days to meet Ben and his family which will be fantastic! Hopefully Ben will be coming out here in December for a holiday which we are both super excited about, but we're still in the planning stages of that adventure.

Hopefully you guys will get to hear more from me before I disappear to Vanuatu again in a month as I am now starting holidays and will have a bit more time on my hands in between crazy night shifts and assignments that still need to be submitted for uni.

Anywho... At least now you know that I'm still alive.

I'm going back!

2006-04-11T21:58:00.000+11:00

Yes kids! It's really happening!!! On Saturday I'm heading back to the beautiful land of Vanuatu... and my handsome boyfriend who I have been missing so much!

I'll be free to eat island food from banana leaves (the world's best disposable plates) while sitting on the ground in the company of my friends and "family".

Free to roam the wonderous market place in Port Vila hunting and gathering the epitome of organic fruits and vegetables for my meals.

And free to snuggle up to the most handsome, gentle and loving soul I know. I'm hanging out for that first cuddle at the airport. :o)

But, before you panic, my trip will only last 10 days and then I'll come back to the real world for another two months of study and hard work to try and earn enough money for me to go back again in July. :o)

Gonna have to squash a whole lotta loving into 10 days...

The circle of life...

2006-03-24T20:35:00.000+11:00

Just an update for any interested parties...

I went to the police station today to make a statement about the accident on Saturday night (see previous post).

I found out yesterday that the young man died late yesterday afternoon after having been kept on life support for 5 days so that his brother could come back from Thailand and see him before he died.

I also found out that the young man's father is a colleague of my dad's. It's a small, small world.

I take comfort in the fact that, if nothing else, our actions on Saturday night at least kept the young man "alive" long enough for his brother to reach him to say goodbye. He could very easily have died there on the road.

To all of you who don't cross the road at the traffic lights and who walk around listening to walkman's, discman's and ipods... Please be careful. It only takes a seconds lapse in concentration for tragedy to occur.

Once again I made promises I couldn't keep...

2006-03-19T10:20:00.000+11:00

Sorry I disappeared again guys.
This time it was due to technical problems.

My beautiful laptop started to pack it in the other week after I wrote my last post. After sending it off for an inspection it appears that the motherboard and circuitry is damaged and the damage is "consistent with water damage". Considering that for 3 out of the last 4 months my laptop has been sitting in its computer case in my mum's study and for the fourth month it hasn't been anywhere near water and has been constantly under my supervision, this news comes as a surprise. Thank goodness it's still under warranty!!

Over the past couple of weeks I have booked my return to Vanuatu (woohoo!!! Easter here I come!!!) and started back at uni and am trying desperately to score shifts at work (If anyone has some spare money sitting around please feel free to donate it to me!!!). I am very nearly destitute now.

Last night I saw a young man get hit by a car on an extremely busy road near where I live. My friends and I were first on the scene and attended to him until the ambulance arrived. He was in a critical condition with multiple fractures, severe head injuries and possible spinal injuries and internal bleeding. He was still alive when the ambulance came to get him but I'm still waiting for the police to update me on his condition. Today I am waiting for the crash investigator to contact me to take a full statement.

I promise that I will eventually get the rest of that Vanuatu letter up for you guys to read! (It's only taken me a month to do it!)

Where did I go???

2006-03-03T10:09:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone!!! Sorry I disappeared!!!
The last week has been pretty much a blur due to illness and the fact that I'm a total slack arse. :o)

Thank you everyone for my birthday wishes! I had a lovely, although quiet, day and had lunch with my mum and Misses Aimee and Ali.

In the health stakes... I am finally starting to feel much much better. My IV antibiotics finished last Thursday, but I was taking oral antibiotics until Monday. As the tonsillitis cleared up my body began to react to the high doses of antibiotics and the stress of the big infection and I have ended up being put on home rest until next week because I am now at risk of developing chronic fatigue. Yay!!! On the plus side, I am feeling much much better today and I have more energy than I've had in the last fortnight. It is also 10:30 am and I haven't felt dizzy yet so that's another massive improvement! I'll be back in the swing of things in no time. :o)

Utenzi suspected that I may have returned to Vanuatu, unfortunately that's not the case. :o( However I am on the verge of booking flights so that I can return to see my sweet boy for a short time at Easter. If only uni holidays were longer. It looks like we'll only get about 9 days together depending on flights. I keep reminding myself that Easter is only 6 weeks away, but it feels like a hell of a long time. At least I'll have uni to distract me.

Later tonight or tomorrow I will post another episode of my Vanuatu letter. I have been such a slack arse with it, but hopefully I can get the final episodes posted over the weekend during Michele's Meet and Greet.

Off to watch cable TV and be a lazy arse. :o)

Another update.

2006-02-21T18:50:00.000+11:00

Turns out my nasty little bug is acute follicular tonsillitis, a rather aggressive form of tonsillitis.
The good news is that my treatment is going well and I'm feeling 1000% better than I was yesterday morning.

We will be continuing the IV antibiotics for another couple of days, but all my other meds are oral now. My new IV cannula is in place, no thanks to the doctor who butchered the vein in my wrist before deciding to try again on a vein in the back of my hand, and it appears to be working just fine. Hopefully it will come out on Thursday.

As for my birthday tomorrow, I will be having a nice little Thai picnic on my front lawn with my mum and a few friends and if I'm lucky I might even get some birthday cake!! Yay!!! I think it will be an occasion to bust out the island dress!!!

Addendum - 11pm: Spoke with my beautiful boy in Vanuatu this evening. I feel even better after hearing his voice and knowing that he misses me just as much as I miss him. He's very upset that I'm sick and he can't be here with me but he's very glad that I can still have a conversation with him in fluent Bislama. He was worried that I'd forget the language that I've tried so hard to learn. It feels like it's been weeks and months since we last saw each other, not just one week. I can't wait to go back. I feel so loved up. :o)

Update r.e. my 2am whinge

2006-02-20T17:06:00.000+11:00

Following the crap night that I had, Dad and I decided this morning that the best course of action would be to go to the hospital for treatment. So I have spent my day hospitalised and receiving intravenous therapy to reduce the swelling in my neck and face plus some super beefy painkillers to make me feel a bit more human.

We don't quite have a firm diagnosis yet. The leading favourite was glandular fever (mono for all my American friends) until I told them that I've had glandular before and the monospot test came back negative. The leading favourite now seems to be either a rampant form of tonsilitis or some unspecified viral infection and a bit of cellulitis (inflammation of tissues - which explains why my face was so sore).

In order to treat this I have been admitted into a relatively new program that is offered by the hospital. Because I am mobile and seem well otherwise I am a perfect candidate for the Hospital in the Home program, a program that allows me to recieve my treatment as necessary from doctors and nurses in the comfort of my own home. Until I am better (which will hopefully be 2 or 3 days) I will be visited twice a day by a nurse and a doctor who will administer my IV therapy, and anything else I need, in my lounge room. Awesome program!!!

On the down side...
It's my birthday on Wednesday and I've had to postpone my party that I had planned for Friday night. Looks like I'll be spending my birthday sitting quietly at home with a needle in my arm.

But at least I won't be sick anymore (I hope, fingers crossed!)!!!

Seeking your sympathy again...

2006-02-20T02:34:00.000+11:00

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ME WHINGE TURN BACK NOW!!!

Tuns out my little throat and ear infection is a bit more complicated than we thought. After 3 days on a broad spectrum antibiotic my condition only got worse. So this morning Doctor Dad went and gotme some new, more specific antibiotics. All very well and good except that after 24 hours they too have had not had any effect. The pain in my face is so bad that it hurts to put my face down on the pillow. I can't swallow or talk (Oh my god," the masses cry. "She can't talk!") without getting big pain in my throat and ear, and the right side of my face is sore as all get out. I can't sleep from the pain and haven't slept properly for the last four nights. Pain killers don't do shit, which is why I'm blogging at 2:45am.

It now appears that I may have a form of tonsilitis rather than the simple throat and ear infection that the doctor so sweetly diagnosed on Friday. Oops.

Hopefully, using Doctor Dad's connections, I'll be able to get in to see an ENT tomorrow. I still have my tonsils... maybe it's time to get rid of them.

And to make matters worse I miss my boyfriend. The person who has supported me everytime things got rough over the last 3 months, is in Vanuatu sleeping soundly (I hope) as I share my pain with people in computer land.

It's very lonely when you're sick and sore at 2am and the person that you love is out of reach. :o(

Thank you for reading my whinge. You will be returned to your usual scheduled programming tomorrow.

Chapter 2...

2006-02-18T09:18:00.000+11:00

Before I begin todays serial episode I would like all of your sympathy please. I have been back in the country for 5 days and have just been diagnosed with an ear infection and a throat infection, both on the right side of my head. I can't swallow and it hurts like hell!!! :o(
Sori lo mi.

Now for todays episode:

After leaving our friends on Ambrym our trip to Pentecost took something of a detour. Pull out your maps kids because this detour got quite complicated!
From southwest Ambrym we went across to the east coast of Malekula where we picked up some Rom dancers (a form of traditional dance), who were going to North Ambrym to dance at a festival. From Malekula we went back to West Ambrym to drop off more people, and from there to North Ambrym to drop off the Rom dancers. After that drop off we were finally on our way to our drop off point on Pentecost.

The map doesn't really give one an idea of how large the islands are or of the distance between them. I was led to believe that our trip from Port Vila to Pentecost would be quite quick, maybe 8 - 10 hours. It turns out that our detour added another 6 hours onto what should have been a 16 hour journey. We arrived at Melsisi, on the west coast of Pentecost, at 8pm Wednesday night, amid rough seas, pouring rain, total darkness and an impending electrical storm. Our journey had taken us 22hours on the boat.

It was on our way from Malekula to West Ambrym that Jin (another girl from my group) and I struck up a rather interesting friendship with the Rom dancers. Sitting upstairs in the open, sharing songs and laughter over rough seas, Jin and I were both surprised when one of the men turned to us and said "You know the stories about men from Malekula don't you?"
"No" we replied in perfect unison.
The man's eyes gleamed and his smile grew wider as he said " we eat people." Jin and I looked back at him, our eyes wide with disbelief, and the man's eyes gleamed even brighter and his grin became more mischievious as he hissed "Man taste sweet, like fish." Jin and I looked at one another not knowing whether or not this guy was having a joke at our expense, while all the other Rom dancers collapsed about laughing.
It turns out that the last known incidence of cannibalism in Vanuatu occurred on Malekula about 50 years ago, so it was definitely within living memory of some of the Rom dancers.

To be continued...

Mi bin missem yufala bigwan be mi no bin missem Sydney!!

2006-02-15T07:15:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone!!!
Olsem wanem yufala? (How are you guys?)

I have finally arrived back in the city that I have tried so hard to avoid for the last 11 weeks! I arrived safe and sound just before lunchtime on Monday and I have been trying to regain some equilibrium here in this somewhat fair city. :o)

Sorry I delayed my return for so long, I had some urgent business to attend to in Port Vila regarding some personal space, a boat and a boyfriend... But those stories will come later. I feel much better now after my extra week to chill out and relax and hangout with my friends and "sootsoot".

I know everyone is eager to hear stories of my travels and see the pics and I am keen to answer everyone's questions, so over the next few days, weeks, months, or even years, I will write a couple of posts a week about my experiences and pop up photos. If you have any questions leave me a comment and I'll try to answer them as quickly as possible in a following post.

I would like to say a BIG "tankyu tumas" to Misses Aimee and Becca for keeping people as updated as possible during my journey!

As a jumping off point for my adventure stories today I am going to begin posting a massive letter that I wrote home just before Christmas (17th Dec to be exact). Because the letter is so big (18 pages) I will post it as an old fashioned serial, posting a new section every day or two until it's finished.

To give you some understanding of the Vanuatu postal system you need to know that although the letter was written on the 17th Dec, it didn't get off the island until the 28th Dec, and didn't arrive at my mum's until mid January!!! But at least it arrived, unlike some other people's e-mails!!!

Anywho, on with the letter!!!

Sat 17th Dec 2005

Hi everyone!

I have so much to tell you all and I'm not quite sure where to start so I'll just start from when I sent my e-mail from Port Vila, the day before we left for our projects.

That afternoon I spent a bit of time trotting through the markets in Vila and picking up any last minute stuff that I needed to take to the island with me. The markets in Vila are amazing! They are open 24hrs from Monday to Saturday afternoon and are closed on Sundays for church. In the markets you find table after table of fresh produce, such as mangos, pineapples, papaya, crabs, herbs, island cabbage and coconuts. Each table is run by a different Mama and family who bring their produce to the market and live under their table all week until the market closes. There's also a cooked food section of the market where you can get a freshly cooked hot meal for 200 - 300 vatu ($2.50 - 3.75 AUS). It's all very tasty!!!

The day after I sent the e-mail (Tuesday 6th Dec 2005) each group departed for our various islands. My group, going to Pentecost island, and the Ambrym group were supposed to leave Port Vila at 6 am on the Tuesday, while the Tongoa group were supposed to leave on Tuesday night. However, due to the remarkable phenomenon known as "island time", the Tongoa group ended up leaving to load up their boat long before we did! By the time we finally got down to the dock and loaded the boat with our packs and supplies for both the Pentecost and Ambrym groups (24 packs and 150 boxes of food and supplies), it was 9:30pm and we noticed that, although everyone was on board, the boat to Tongoa hadn't left yet! It was still sitting in the Harbour when we pulled out at 10 pm, much to the Tongoa groups dismay.

Despite the fact we were riding on the fastest boat in the fleet, it still took us 12 hours to reach Ambrym. It was only then that the penny dropped and I realised that we wouldn't be loading people and cargo onto a dock! Instead everything and everyone was loaded into a little dinghy with a motor and was sped ashore to be left on the black beaches of Ambrym.

To be continued...

Hello from Vanuatu!

2005-12-05T13:26:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone!!! I ran away without a farewell post!!! How rude of me!!! I didn't mean to but my interent was down and I couldn't get online to post before I left.
Here is an e-mail that I just sent home to update you all and tide you over until I can next post in 8 or 9 weeks. Please leave lots of happy comments for me to read when I get back! Cheers!!!

Hi everyone!
I have made it safely into Vanuatu and have managed to find my way to the internet café in Port Vila to send you all and e-mail and let you know what’s happening.

It’s been a really interesting first few days and I’m so comfortable here that it’s hard to believe that we’ve only been here 3 days!!! It is super hot and humid but I couldn't tell you exactly what temperatures we've had because I haven't seen a thermometer since before we arrived. We are currently staying in the local scout hall (also known as the “scat hol” – which means poo hole in Bislama) but tomorrow we leave for our projects out on the islands. More about that later.

In the last 3 days I have:
Had cold showers in a tiny, dirty little concrete shower that is at the end of our dining room in the scout hall, with only a mouldy, crusty shower curtain separating my nekkid body from the other 30 people going about their business a foot away. (Mum, just wait til you see the photos of the shower… They’d look great in one of your infection control lectures!)
Slept on my sleeping mat on the concrete floor of the scout hall, in a 3 metre X 3 metre room with 3 other people.
Used a squat toilet. (At least this one had a flush on it.)
Drunk Kava at a nakhamal in someone’s backyard and was brave (or stupid) enough to go back for seconds. :o)
Had a swim in the bay at Port Vila.
And…
Made lots of new friends.

There are 15 Aussies, 2 Canadians and 15 Ni-Vans (Vanuatu natives) participating in the program and everyone is great fun. The Ni-Vans are having a great laugh at my Bislama (the national language here) and a few of them have nicknamed me “fatfat” (fatty) for a laugh. I’ve told them that they’ll have to change that to “punpun” (skinny) when I get back from the core project! :o)

Tomorrow I leave for Pentecost Island. I’m heading to a small village called Enkul to help build a medical aid post and to do some health and hygiene education for the next 8 weeks. There are 10 of us going, including 2 other nurses. I think it’s going to be awesome fun.

I will e-mail again when I return in 8 weeks. In the mean time feel free to e-mail and I will get it when I get back to Efate where Port Vila is.

I hope everyone at home is well and I look forward to showing you all photos when I get back!!!

Love,
Yaeli

Today is not a designated drinking day...

2005-11-29T14:22:00.000+11:00

But yesterday was! :o)

Ali and I went out for a quiet beer last night to celebrate the end of our exams. We just went to the local... played some pool... had a beer or two... and ended up drinking vodkas at Deewhy RSL (a 45 minute drive away from our places) at 4 o'clock this morning. :o) Once again I stumbled through my front door in the bright daylight hours of this morning!

Miss Ali and I have been out drinking every second night since last thursday and she keeps leading me astray!!! :oD
Last night was no exception, with our crazy nurse raging culminating in a rather interesting sleepover at another uni friend's place...
But what happens on tour stays on tour so I shall say nothing more about it...
Except that number 20 is in the bag!

Surprise!!!

2005-11-26T12:30:00.000+11:00

I have recovered from my hangover!!! Woohoo!!! I had my 3rd exam on thursday and it was a complete monster of an exam. It was so bad that Miss Ali and I went to the pub the night before to have a beer and try to calm down. Uni on Thursday morning was panic central. There were tears and tantrums everywhere (some of which came from me). So by Thursday night Ali and I had decided that we had earned the right to go out and get a bit boozed up. We weren't planning on having a blinder, just a few drinks to get us a bit tiddly, but somehow a few drinks became a few more and the next thing I knew I was stumbling in the front door at 6am with a very sexy Costa Rican man on my arm. Ali and I both felt rotten yesterday. We worked out that we had 12-15 drinks each, and decided that it was good training for tonight when I'm having "bye bye" drinks with some friends.

I know I promised everyone that a big surprise would be unveiled on Monday, but because you've all been such good boys and girls I'm going to unveil it today. :o)
Many of you will remember the last haircut I had, with all it's beautiful straightness and pretty colours.

For a curlier view just check out my profile photo to the right. :o)

Yesterday I got a new haircut to see me through my 10 weeks in Vanuatu...

What do you think? Cute, huh? I've never had my hair this short before!!! These photos were taken just after I woke up... even my bed hair looks funky!!!

Less than one week to go now! I leave next Friday! So much to do, so little time...

Meh...

2005-11-25T12:44:00.000+11:00

I am so freaking hungover!!! Crap. Will write more later when I can feel my hands.
Blah!

Two down... two to go.

2005-11-19T10:53:00.000+11:00

Woohoo!!! I have completed two of my four exams and now I'm exam free until Thursday. :oD

Yesterday it was two weeks til I leave for Vanuatu! I'm trying to pretend it isn't happening at the moment so that I can focus on my exams as best as possible, but every so often excitement and panic sneak in and surprise me for a few minutes. I'm loving the excitement and not so loving the panic.

Aginoth, and several other friends of mine, asked whether I will be able to blog from where I'm going. The short answer is No. Because i'll be doing work in remote communities with little to no electricity, so I don't think there'll be many computers available. I may get a chance to pop into a net cafe in Port Vila in the first week that I arrive, but after that i'll be technology free. My mum is panicking because I may not even have access to a phone to call home. It's a pretty cool thought really... Can you imagine the girl who feels lost without her mobile phone, living on an island with very few telecommunications? You've gotta laugh at that!!!

Tomorrow, I'll post about what projects I have been offerred to do and which Islands they are on. :o) That'll be the most information I have about where I'm going until I arrive in Port Vila! It's all happening!!!!

P.S. Don't forget to pop back and check out my surprise on the 28th!!!

:o(

2005-11-16T21:04:00.000+11:00

I miss Clairey.
I'm worried about my stupid exams.
I'm panicking about getting everything ready before I leave in just over 2 weeks.
Stuff that I laid to rest months ago has suddenly been kicked up again (Perfect timing really).
I've just found out that there will be 20 people at our "small" family pre-christmas gathering, including my stepdad's mum and ex-wife.
I'm PMSing.

Where did I leave my cranky pants?

Funny for the day.

2005-11-12T23:27:00.000+11:00

Tonight I had dinner with my fisherman brother (the oldest brother for those that have some idea of my list of brothers) and his wife. We had a great time. Lots of yummy thai food at my favourite thai restaurant and plenty of booze.

When we got home from dinner my sister-in-law was trying to get her messagebank on her mobile phone to work but she couldn't. She came to me in her frustration and said "the system is asking for my 426 number code to access my messages. What's a 426 number code?"

After thinking about it for a minute I realised that the phone company was asking for her four to six number code (like a pin number), not a 426 number code. After explaining this navigating the perils of Telstra became much easier. :o)

3 weeks???!!! Arrrggghhhhhh!!!!!

2005-11-12T10:24:00.000+11:00

Oh my crapping crappity crap crap!!! I realised last night that it's less than 3 weeks until I leave for my big adventure!!!! This time in 3 weeks I'll be in Port Vila, Vanuatu, getting to know the people I will be spending the next 10 weeks with!! Time is flying so fast and I still have so much to do before I go.

Things to do before I leave:

My four uni exams that are coming up over the next fortnight.
Enrol for my uni subjects for next year.
Find someone to play on my blog while I'm away.
Pack up my house so that I can find a new place to live when I get back.
Get my first aid kit together.
Get all my meds sorted.
Find some light long pants to wear in the evening over in Vanuatu.
Pack my bags.
Buy Christmas presents for people's to be given at the family pre-christmas christmas being held before I leave.
Do my last minute shopping for stuff I need to take with me.
Try to make my father realise that my leaving the country for ten weeks is super important to me and that his support would be appreciated.
Catch up with my friends.

And finally...

Get laid.

I'm definitely taking my Smurf skirt, but now I'm wishing I'd picked up a Wombles skirt too. These skirts are made by this gorgeous big gay guy who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. He sells his skirts at the local markets and they are just awesome. Where else can you get skirts with panels of vintage Smurf material?

Anywho... Only 3 weeks to go!!!! Crap!!!!!!!!

Borstal Boy

2005-11-08T20:58:00.000+11:00

I finally got the presentation for my group assignment done today. The presentation was finished at 10:55am and presented at 11:00am. :o) We cut it a little fine but it didn't seem to matter. I think the marker was high on crack or something because for some reason she gave us a high distinction for our crap presentation. That certainly will boost my average grade. :o)

When I got home from uni today I decided to take a little time out for myself and I sat down to watch a movie on Foxtel. The movie that was on was Borstal Boy (2000), based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Irish poet Brendan Behan (published 1958).

Borstal Boy is an outstanding movie about love. Irish Behan is played by American actor Shawn Hatosy, who puts in a brilliant performance as a tough young man in juvenile prison learning about friendships and love, and his Irish accent is excellent. Hatosy also earns bonus points for being rather easy on the eyes. I'm a sucker for a cute guy with an accent.

I'm not usually a movie crier, but I watched this with tears rolling down my cheeks. I think this is going to become a new favourite on my movie list. I'm definitely going to have to get my hands on a copy of the book too.

Anywho, I highly recommend the movie. If you've already seen it, let me know what you thought of it. :o)

Cheers big ears!!!

My mum is so cool!!!

2005-11-06T22:52:00.000+11:00

I got my Christmas presents!!!

Yes, I do know that Christmas is ages away, but seeing as I'm not going to be around for it my mum took pity on me and bought me pressies that I'll be able to use while I am adventuring.

It is without further ado that I present my awesome Christmas presents for 2005.

#1. The Mozzie Dome.

Available from Equip

And #2. The super funky monkey shoes.

Available from Keen

This whole trip business is getting so exciting!!! It was 4 weeks until my departure on Friday. Time is flying, and with all my exams this month and all the stuff that I have to do before I leave (i.e. packing up my house so that I can move when I get back, and getting everything ready to go.), I'm sure time will fly even faster than usual. This year has gone so fast!!!!

It is also 3 weeks until I unveil a special surprise to everyone so mark Monday 28th November in your diaries and be sure to check back then for a big shock!

I love my mum. My mum ROCKS!!!!!!!!!

Toot Toot!!! Honk Honk!!!

2005-11-03T19:46:00.000+11:00

I apologise to all my friends for my tardiness in answering their terrific questions. I have been back at uni this week and trying to cope with getting a big group assignment in on time when my group has not been very co-operative.

Thank you all for your questions! I like it when people do what I ask. :o) Hehehe. I have answered them as best as I can.

Kenju asked:
1. What is mental health prac. for uni?
A: Mental health prac is a 50 hour clinical placement that I do in a mental health facility. "Pracs" (practicals) happen for most of our theoretical subjects and are part of the passing criteria for the subject.
2. How many different places have you lived?
I have lived in Sydney, Sydney and Sydney. Actually, I lie. I lived with a family in a town called Dinan in Bretagne, France, for 2 months at the end of 1999 when I did a student exchange program.

Netchick asked:
1. What was the best thing about a previous relationship you've had?
The sex.
2. What was the worst?
The sex. (Different relationship though.) :o)

Yellowrose asked:
1. Who has been your biggest inspiration in your life?
I think my Nanna and Pa have been my biggest inspiration. They were both such wonderful and caring people, and I still try to do things that they would be proud of.
2. If you had to choose between happiness or a life of luxury which would it be?
I would choose happiness, because I don't think that luxuries necessarily bring you happiness... they just make you lazy. :o)

Jennypenny asked:
1. What is your favourite alcoholic beverage?
I'm a big Vodka fan. At the moment me and my friend Ali are very much into "Norwegians" which are a cocktail made with Absolut Kurant, lemonade (Sprite), and lime cordial or fresh lime. Very yummy. :o)
2. What is your favorite photo hanging on you wall?
I have a big poster above my bed. On it is a photo of a very sweet little white seal pup who looks very much like the seal in the picture below. My step brother and sister got it for me for my birthday one year.

Ribbiticus asked:
1. What's your favorite color?
My favourite colour is blue. It's nice and calming.
2. Who do you look up to and why?
I look up to my friend's boyfriend, because he's 6ft 7". Hehehe. Seriously!!!

Mar asked:
1. What kind of music do you listen to?
I listen to all sorts of music, from hard rock to punk rock to rock rock. :o) I Listen to pretty much anything that isn't Britney Spears, an Idol graduate, or country music.
2. Would you share your favorite easy recipe with us?
My favourite recipe is for anything that says "heat and serve" on the side. :o) Last winter I was given a slow cooker by my mum, and I love making casseroles in it. I haven't got a specific recipe but you just throw in a heap of vegetables (whatever takes your fancy) and some meat (Chicken, beef, dog...) and a jar of tomato pasta sauce (I like to use 5 Brothers or Paul Newman's sauce) and then you put the slow cooker on low and cook it for 7 hours or so. Slow cookers are awesome because you can throw everything in and put it on before you leave for work, and then when you get home you have a tasty meal waiting for you. They are fool proof.
BTW: I was kidding about the dog meat. Dog shouldn't be put in a casserole. It should be saved for special dishes like Combination Dalmation, Sweet and Sour Chihuahua, and Satay Sharpei. :o) Hehehehehehehehe.

Handsome Utenzi asked:
1. Is your belly button an innie or an outie?
I have an innie. :o)
2. Of the places you've been to in Australia, what's your favourite?
I actually haven't been to lost of places in Australia. I do like Melbourne because one of my best friends lives there and it has a totally different pace to Sydney, but I'm sure there are a lot of out of the way places that I haven't been that are much more beautiful than any of the cities. The Blue Mountains is very pretty, particularly the Megalong Valley where I was camping the other week.

Easy asked:
How about a picture taken from your front doorway, and a random picture taken from someplace you go this week?
Here is a photo taken from my front door... (For some reason this photo has disappeared from view. How odd!!!)

And here is a photo that I took a couple of months ago, because for some reason I can't load the photo of the puppy in the pet shop that I took during the week.

Dena asked:
1. What's your favorite way to spend a couple of days off?
I get very lazy on my days off. I love to sleep and veg out in front of the telly. I also like to hang out with my friends, which I get to do most days of the week... but it's different when it's a day off.
2. How do the people that really know you describe you?
People describe me as loud, brash, intimidating, entertaining and fun... plus a whole lot of other things that I can't say here. ;o)

Christine asked:
1. Who was your first true love?
Only one guy comes close to ever qualifying as a true love. Unfortunately I don't think I had the same meaning to him. He gave me a total run around.
2. How or why did it end?
It ended (several times) because it just got too complicated, and I wasn't getting what I wanted.

Star asked:
1. If you weren't going into the mental health field, what would you be doing?
I'd probably do paediatrics... which I still might do at a later date. And I want to do post-grad midwifery.
2.What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Chocolate.

Sandy asked:
I adore that photo. What a cute little critter. Is that you holding him?
Nope. That little pic was a picture that was e-mailed to me a while ago. The little critter is a hedgehog apparently. We don't have them here in Oz. Shame really, cos they're very cute!
That response answered Maggie's question too.

Deni asked:
1. If I were to look in your refrigerator right now, what would I see that would shock me?
Are you shocked by old food? I think we have a jar of tomatoes that date back to 1994 in our fridge. I was going to throw them out but then I realised that they are more than 10 years old and therefore they are a piece of history. :o)
2. If you could go anywhere in the whole world for a month, with an endless budget, where would you go?
I think I would like to take my friends to some beautiful island resort for a month of partying and playing. That would be so much fun!!!

Aginoth asked:
1. Can you lick the end of your own nose?
Nope. I'm not that talented. I once went out with a guy who could though. ;o)
2. Do you think you would ever spurn modern society and go live in a hut in the wilderness?
Quite possibly. I feel that that is always a valid lifestyle choice and will reserve that option for a day when I chuck a massive strop and want to run away.
Actually my trip to Vanuatu is a little along that track too.

And finally...

Nicos asked:
What's the meaning of life?
Well Nicos, the meaning of life is...................

P.S. It took me two and a half hours to write this post!!!

That's enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do you think about me?

2005-10-29T10:37:00.000+11:00

I am a total slack arse and cannot think of anything to post about. So I am going to turn to the wonderful people who read my blog, and ask you all for some inspiration.

What I would like y'all to do is to leave a comment asking 2 questions about me, and I will endeavour to answer them in my next post. Please try to ask different questions (I don't want to be asked 23 times what my favourite flavour of ice cream is) and try to keep the smut to a minimum. :o)

I'm looking forward to having a more interesting post for you very soon!

Cheers!!! :o)

Mental health day today.

2005-10-28T11:58:00.000+11:00

Howdy peoples!
I am still alive!

I've been super lax in the blogging world this week because I have been really busy completing my mental health prac for uni.
I got my marks yesterday and I passed with flying colours, so yay and woohoo for me!!!

There hasn't really been much else worth blogging about this week. Everything has been very quiet.

Unfortunately, this afternoon my ability to blog wherever I want will end as I will be going back to my own house instead of house sitting for my mum. :o( No more blogging in bed for me! At least until I get wireless at my place, which isn't very likely. :o(

I have a huge assignment due on Tuesday and it's a group assignment and as far as I know nobody in the group has done any work on it so I now have to chase everyone up and try and organise a group meeting for this weekend. I HATE ASSIGNMENTS!!!!!

Addressing concerns.

2005-10-23T10:10:00.000+11:00

This is a response in regards to a concern that was raised by Fuzzbuck Fuzz in the comments section of my last post, I have an owie.

For those not in the know, in this post I have mentioned three cases that I have seen on my uni mental health placement in the last week, as examples of what I deal with and what I see at work.

Fuzzbuck was concerned about the implications of my discussing patients / clients on my blog.

I would like to thank Fuzzbuck for raising his concerns. He has a very valid point. For the record though, I would like to state my position on the situation just to clarify that I am not a totally immoral cow.

It would be seriously questionable if I posted details which might be used to identify the clients. But as I have only mentioned the cases without providing information that would identify the specific clients or the facility which they are in, according to standards, it is not an unacceptable practice amongst health professionals.

As for whether or not this practice is morally acceptable or not, I suppose that depends upon an individual's personal values and morals. I blog to keep track of things that have happened to me. Working with physically and mentally ill patients is a large part of my life and it is something that I like to share with my friends on the internet. I feel that it is acceptable to mention and discuss interesting cases that I come across as long as I do not:

a) identify the clients by providing specific information about them or the facility they are in,

and

b) I try to remain impartial when describing cases, and I try to refrain from passing judgement upon the client.

I try to live by the "Do unto others" Golden Rule, and I have thought about this long and hard. I would not be opposed to a health professional discussing my case in any open forum (on a blog, in a class, in a university paper, in a conversation, etc.) as long as I personally was not identifiable from the information given. I do not believe that my discussion comprimises my clients privacy.

I can't help but wonder if you would have voiced your concerns had I mentioned patients with purely physical illnesses.

I have an owie.

2005-10-21T09:43:00.000+11:00

Sorry I have disappeared for the last week. I have been doing my uni mental health clinical placement and have spent much of the week in a locked psych ward at one of my local hospitals. It's great fun with heaps of interesting cases, such as:

A woman in her mid 50's who believes she was attacked by aliens who impregnated her. According to her she has been pregnant for 12 months.
A schizoaffective guy with serious anger management issues, who tells me that he's into blondes who have my body type and that if I were a blonde I'd be in serious trouble. he also mentioned that he could always kidnap me and dye my hair blonde. (Before anyone panics, he is the sanest of the lot and is mainly joking around... I hope.)

And... (the piece de resistance)

A guy who is a potential serial killer. He used to pinch children because he likes it when they say ouch, and he once killed a duck because he was interested in finding out what temperature duck fat burns at.

Like I said... INTERESTING.

I really like it and I'm seriously considering majoring in mental health nursing next year.

On the "owie" front, I broke my toe last night when I tripped over a rug at home and got my little toe caught. But I was on my way to work for a night shift and I didn't have time to ice it or rest it. As a result the bruising this morning is pretty spectacular. When I find a digital camera I'll post some photos just so that I can advertise the extent of my injuries. :o)

I got home from work about an hour ago and I'm too jazzed to sleep, despite having only 3 and a half hours sleep in the last 24 hours, so I guess I'm gonna have to pop a DVD on until I settle down.

ADDENDUM - 15:15: I have worked out how to text photos from my phone to my e-mail account. These photos of my toe were taken this morning after my post. Since then more bruising has developed. :o( Poor me.

You can just see the greyish blue bruising in the top of my foot.

The bruising between the two toes has got worse since this morning.

That bruising is a dark grape colour and this morning

the middle of it was red from the bleeding inside my toe.

That is bruising, not shadow.

WOOHOO!!! Photos!!! I rock!!!

My weekend... and other stuff.

2005-10-17T23:00:00.000+11:00

Here's a quick summary of my weekend.

Friday:

Had some mates over for a BBQ, had a few drinks and watched a few movies.
Got an sms from an ex boyfriend who really, really, really needs to just give up and get over it. Loser.

Saturday:

Was woken up by a hung over Mr Craig.
Had a massive bacon, egg and hash brown fry up for breakfast.
Watched a couple of movies with Miss Aimee.
Bathed the dog in the shower.
Watched a couple more movies with Miss Aimee.
Watched as Mr Craig extracted a ring-tailed possum from my down pipe. (See previous post.)
Watched more movies and drank more alcohol with Aimee and Craig.

Sunday:

Cleaned up dog poo off the carpet at 4am. (See previous post.)
Couldn't get back to sleep, so I stayed up blogging.
Fell asleep on the couch at 8:30am. Slept til 10ish when Miss Aimee woke me.
Mr Craig cooked us a yummy brekky of eggs, hash browns and swordfish. (Don't knock it til you've tried it kids.)
Watched movies all day waiting for work to call me with a shift, and when they didn't I watched more movies.
Released Tallulah the possum in my backyard, and stood there waving my arms and talking to him, trying to chivvy him up the tree. (Yes we did give the possibly male possum a chicks name... do you have a problem with that?)

Not the most exciting weekend huh? I might have to get back on the party circuit soon.

The picture below was sent around by a friend of mine as an e-mail joke. The best bit though, is that these knife blocks actually do exist! A designer shop in my local shopping area ( sometimes known as Chatswong) sells them, but they ain't cheap. They cost about $180 (AUS) a pop. Still, when I get back from Vanuatu I'm gonna have to get me one for my new place. It's just too good to pass up!!!

To my dear friend Utenzi:
Over the weekend I noticed that our forbidden love affair is beginning to attract attention from our friends at Michele's. People are starting to talk. :o) I hope your girlfriend doesn't mind. ;o)

Don't tell me crap shoes is coming!

2005-10-16T05:46:00.000+11:00

WARNING!!! DO NOT READ THIS POST WHILST EATING OR SHORTLY AFTER EATING. IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, SKIP TO THE PICTURE OF THE POSSUM.

You may be asking yourselves "Why is Yaeli blogging at 4:45 in the morning?"

The short answer is "Because the dog shit in the house."

This picture is not of a real dog poo. It is a rubber one. So don't complain to me about it!

Before I went to bed last night I asked my house guests (Mr Craig and Miss Aimee and Miss Ali) to please close the hall door so that during the night the dog could not access the rest of the house, in particular the carpeted areas which she has developed a fondness for weeing and pooing on. I then went to bed in an attempt to stave off a brewing migrane, and I promptly fell into a rather deep sleep. So deep that I didn't even hear Mr Craig come to bed several hours later. (For those who raised their eyebrows at the last sentence, Mr Craig and I are only sharing sleeping space, there is no hankypanky going on.)

At about 3:45 this morning I woke with the realisation that I could hear the dogs collar clanking around, and 5 minutes later it dawned on me that I shouldn't be able to hear this at all as the dog was supposed to be confined to the back room. Cursing and swearing away, I threw back the doona and leapt out of bed (Mr Craig did not move) and stormed into the hall way to suss out what the dog was doing. Obviously, Miss Aimee had a similar idea and, upon hearing my stomping and cussing, she popped her head out of the spare and turned on the light.

At that very second I felt something squelch between my toes. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!!!!!!

After spending the next 20 minutes cleaning up dog shit and debating whether or not to wake up Craig, Aimee and I were far too jazzed to go back to bed. So we stomped around the house trying to wake Craig and we made our way out the front with our cigarettes in one hand and big glasses of Coca Cola in the other.

Aimee has decided that she is an all singing, all dancing, one woman show at 4:30 in the morning. She'll be here all week, be sure to try the veal.

Anywhoo, I am still too jazzed to go back to bed so I decided to blog instead.

Take a look at the picture below.

One of the cousins of this little fella (a ring-tailed possum, native to Australia) is the reason why the dog was inside last night. Since Thursday night I could hear something in my downpipe that runs off the guttering out the back. Because the downpipe is so small I very logically concluded that no possum would be able to fit in it and therefore the noisy thing inside must be either a myna bird or a rat (both are pests here hence why I wasn't too concerned with saving it).

By yesterday evening (Saturday) Mr Craig had become curious to find out exactly what was making all the noise in the drain pipe. So he detatched the bottom of the down pipe and managed to extract a reasonably sized, very dehydrated and exhausted ring-tailed possum. The Possum popped out head and arse first so his back got stuck in the small drain pipe, hence an extraction was required.

We put him in the biggest box we could find and gave him food and water and wrapped him up in towels and then left him to sleep it off in the garage. Figuring that the last thing the poor, stressed little thing needed was a nosy labrador around, I kept the dog inside to give Tallulah (not a very non-gender specific name, I know) a bit of rest and time to make a great escape if required.

See what happens when you do good stuff? All you get in return is dog shit!

I am going to spray my house again now because I can still smell the poo. Crap!

Just faffing around.

2005-10-15T18:40:00.000+11:00

I've been playing at Yellojkt's Blog doing some quizes that he posted a couple of weeks ago and a few others I've found, because I'm bored and I have nothing else to do and I can't think of anything of consequence to write about.

Here are some of my results. :o)

The promiscuity test:

I am 72% Promiscuous.

I like sex and have a healthy sex life. I get just enough and know how to use my sexuality. Some people might have a problem, but that is their problem not mine. They just need to get more.

Take the
Promiscuous Test
@ FualiDotCom

The evil test:

Raw evil score: 46.67%

The bitch test:

I am 56% Asshole/Bitch.

I am abrasive, some people really hate me, but there may be a group of other tight knit assholes and bitches that I can hang out with and get me. Everybody else? Fuck ‘em.

Take the
Asshole/Bitch Test
@ FualiDotCom

All done for now I suppose. Off to watch Billy Connolly talk about masturbation.

I'm blogging in bed!!!!

2005-10-13T01:32:00.000+11:00

I love this wireless network business. It's great! I can blog from where ever I want!! I can blog in bed, in the bath, in the backyard, or anywhere else that takes my fancy!!! It's so exciting!!!

I have spent the last two days at a first aid course to complete my Senior First Aid Certificate. I passed the tests with flying colours and I am now the proud holder of a first aid certification! What really gets me though is that I paid $160 (AUS) for a two day course which I had basically paid $2000 (AUS) to do already because the content pretty much covered everything that I have done at uni. Essentially, I paid $160 for a piece of paper. But I really did need to get the certificate so that I can go to Vanuatu, so I guess it's worth it.

Last night Miss Aimee came over and I cooked pumpkin, sweet potato, potato, asparagus and chicken risotto. I have never cooked risotto before, and I must say that for a first attempt its was pretty damn good! A little bit gluggy, but not too bad. And it was VERY tasty!! I might have to have some for lunch today. :o)

The other day I promised a "briefing post" about my trip to Vanuatu. So here it is.

The deal with Vanuatu is that I am going over there as a challenger with a company called Youth Challenge Australia, a branch of Youth Challenge International. I will be participating in a 10 week program from 2nd Dec 2005 to the 6th Feb 2006. Rather than retyping the websites I am providing links to the relevant pages, because the professionals describe the project and its purpose more eloquently and with greater detail than I can.

Links:
What is youth challenge?
About the Vanuatu program.

Those are the major links that should answer many of the questions that my dear friends have.
If you have any other questions then feel free to post them in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them in a subsequent post.

Cheers big ears!

Home in one piece!!!

2005-10-09T23:29:00.000+11:00

I made it home in one piece!!! Although I am a little sore and sorry for myself.

The weekend was great. We camped on a property in the Megalong Valley and the view was similar to the photo below.
When I got there yesterday morning (at 7:45am) everyone was already up and doing stretches in preparation for going on a hike. That was the last time that I could acurately say what time it was because the confiscated my watch, wallet, keys and cigarettes. Apparently we weren't supposed to know what time it was.

Anywho, I arrived just in time to do a 12km hike through the bush with my 15kg pack on. There's nothing like being thrown in the deep end!!! As a result of this I'm feeling a bit sore and sorry for myself today. My quads and calves hurt from the hiking, and my hips and shoulders hurt from taking the weight of my pack.

After a rather dodgy dinner of vegetable curry with crunchy chickpeas and undercooked, burnt rice, cooked on a camping stove in a huge pot, we all gathered around a camp fire and yawned away until it seemed appropriate to go to bed.

It got icy cold overnight and it rained and blew a gale down the valley, but thanks to my schmick sleeping mat and my borrowed down sleeping I was snuggly warm in the tent I was sharing with 3 other girls.

This morning we were woken at about 6 and we were sent to find a guy who had gone "missing" (i.e. the leaders had organised for him to go and lie in a ditch at dawn and pretend he was hurt). So off I went running through paddocks with my new found mates, trying to find our "injured" team mate. We finally found him lying down near the creek and we saved his life and completed the task.

The best part of the whole weekend was meeting four other people who will be coming to Vanuatu with me. 3 guys and 1 other girl. Funnily enough I'm not the only nurse in the group. One of the guys is a second year student nurse from Armidale. It should be a very interesting trip. :o)

Dena and several other people have been asking for more info about my trip and it's purpose, so I'll try to put up a "briefing post" sometime this week.

I can't believe it's only 8 weeks til I go!!! CRAZY!!!!!!

Me? In a tent? You've gotta be kidding!

2005-10-07T19:58:00.000+11:00

Tomorrow I'm off very early in the morning, to the Blue Mountains , or more specifically, the Megalong Valley (where I once fell of a horse and fractured 3 vertebrae... but that's a story for another time). I'm heading up there for a prep weekend for my Vanuatu trip in December. I'll be meeting some of the other people who will be going with me, and doing... I'm not too sure exactly what, but I have been assured by the organisers that it is relevant. I was suppoed to go up this arvo but because of uni prac I couldn't get there in time, so tomorrow morning it is. :o)

This means that I won't be posting until Sunday evening or Monday morning, by which time I'll be at my mum's place dog sitting (despite the fact that I swore I would never look after them again) and taking advantage of her wireless internet connection. Woohoo! I can blog in bed!

Leave me lots of comments while I'm away for a whole 36 hours!!!

You might be a nurse if...

2005-10-05T11:45:00.000+11:00

I received a newsletter from work the other day and in it was this great "You might be a nurse if..." list. I knew I just had to share it, especially when I realised that I do or have encountered everything on the list. :o)You might be a nurse if...

when using a public restroom, you wash your hands with soap for a full minute and then turn off the faucets with your elbows.
your favourite dream is the one where you leave a mess by a patient's bedside and tell a doctor to clean it up.
men assume you must be great in bed because of the nine billion porn movies about nurses.
everyone, including complete strangers, tells you about each and every ache and pain they have.
you want to put your foot through the TV screen every time you see a nurse on a soap opera doing nothing but talking on the phone and flirting with the doctors.
you can almost see the germs on doorknobs and telephones.
you can watch the goriest movie and eat anything afterwards, even spaghetti with lots of tomato sauce.
you use a plastic 30cc medicine cup as a shot glass.

Yep, I'm definitely a nurse.

On another note, prac sucks. Once again (for the 4th clinical term in 2 years) I have been put into aged care rehab. I thought I'd paid my penance after the first 3 clinical terms in aged care and working in a nursing home for 18 months. But obviously not. Someone, somewhere must really hate me. It's not really that I hate the oldies, most of them are very sweet people, it's just that working on rehab doesn't allow for the passing criteria (set out by the uni) to be met. On rehab all you do is wipe bums, shower people, go for walks and make cups of tea. There is no opportunity to run IV fluids or blood transfusions (if the patient needs those things then they shouldn't be in rehab), no opportunity for perfoming dressings on IV lines and sites (all IV cannulas are generally removed before the patient comes to rehab), and no opportunity (on this ward) to care for a patient that requires additional infection control precautions. The only criterion that I am able to fulfil on this ward is bowel management, and I am sick of looking at people's arses!!!

Craig and I are desperately trying to think of games to keep us amused on the ward. So far we have come up with the word of the day game where you have to use a special word with all the patients (yesterday's word was fuckmook), and we have ascertained that if you were wanting to hang yourself from boredom on the ward, latex gloves would not be the most efficient method... It'd be kinda like trying to hang yourself with a bungee cord.

If anyone else has other ideas for "on the ward" entertainment, please let me know.

Only 3 more days of crappy old people to go.

There's no place like home... or is there?

2005-10-04T11:17:00.000+11:00

I'm back home and no longer hiding out at Miss Aimee's house. My house is still no fun though. It's boring being by myself. I went to do some grocery shopping yesterday afternoon and as I walked into Coles I called Aimee to see if she wanted anything from the store, unfortunately I wasnt going back to Aimee's and she laughed at me for being so silly. I'm having a bit of separation anxiety now. :o)

I start my clinical placement this arvo at a hospital that is quite a long way away. Seeing as I don't drive I'm going to have to catch a train and walk, which will make the trip even longer. Stoopid random allocations.

I got my flight itinerary for Vanuatu today!!! I leave on the 2nd of December and I get back on the 6th February. The best bit about the whole thing is that work is paying for my flights!!! WOOHOO!!!

Have to go and find my uni name tag for prac this arvo... I don't know where I left it when I was done with it 3 months ago. Bugger.

Where have all the good men gone, and where are all the gods?

2005-10-02T14:06:00.000+11:00

I would like to officially apologise for misdirecting my drunken man bashing rant the other night. All men of legal drinking age are NOT responsible for the sins of lesser men in this world.

That said... there is still a ridiculous number of complete arseholes out there in the world, and I seem to be an arsehole magnet. I think I need to get myself de-magnetised so all the bastard men slide right off. :o)

"I need a hero.

I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night.

He's gotta be strong,

And he's gotta be fast,

And he's gotta be fresh from the fight.

I need a hero.

I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light.

He's gotta be sure,

And it's gotta be soon,

And he's gotta be larger than life."

(Holding out for a hero, Bonnie Tyler)

I want to wretch and die.

2005-10-01T02:44:00.000+11:00

I am so sick of men and the games they play.

After the whole Mr Complicated debacle, and now with Jimmy from the South yanking my chain and playing juvenile games, I have had a complete gutfull of the entire male population.

They all suck dogs balls.

I'm going to move to some far away island and become a lesbian.

I'm in hiding...

2005-09-29T14:01:00.000+11:00

I have been spending the last few days at Miss Aimee's place hanging out and advising young Lachie on the finer points of personal hygiene. Why do teenage boys let their medical conditions go untreated for weeks and weeks? He has the worst case of tinea (Athlete's Foot, for any mere mortals reading this) that I have ever seen!!! At least it is finally receiving some treatment now (thanks to Nurses Aimee and Yaeli). :o)

I came home again last night to try to get another stoopid assignment done (I's supposed to be on holidays for crap's sake!) but I'm going back to Aimee's for another few days because my house is too cold, it's no fun here on my own, I had a cold shower this morning because something is wrong with my hot water, and following my cold shower I was assaulted in my bathroom by a grasshopper that bit my toe. Hence Aimee's house is better than mine. :o)

Mmmm doctors... yummy, yummy doctors.

2005-09-26T14:39:00.000+11:00

Last night, while I was working my nightshift, I met the doctor that I am going to marry. He's a spunky, chatty and sexy RMO at the hospital where I was working, and he has a funky name.

To those of you who are concerned that I may be limiting myself by choosing my future husband now, don't worry. I still also plan to marry a vet, a chef, an engineer, a supermodel, a sparky, a plumber, and anyone else who can keep me in the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed (not necessarily in that order). :o)

Every woman needs a man who will cook for her, a man who will clean for her, a man who can provide her with the stimulating intellectual conversation she so desires, and a man who will make wild, passionate love to her all night long.
However, the most important thing is that these 4 men never meet. :o)

Cheer cheer the red and the white....

2005-09-25T15:30:00.000+11:00

WOOHOO!!! My football team won the grand final yesterday!!! It's the first time they've played in a grand final in 10 years and the first time that they've won the grand final in 72 years!!! They won by 4 points and by the fourth quarter you could see how desperate they were to win it. It was a great game!!!

The Bloods with the Cup for the first time in 72 years!

Some of the boys just after the final siren.

The boys with the cup! WOOHOO!!!

And to make the day even better, I scored a top feed at Mum's place and I watched it on the big screen!!

After leaving the pirate party early on Friday night (it was a bit of a bust), I proceeded over to Miss Aimee's for drinking games, more booze and some girl on girl action... (I'm actually not kidding about the girl on girl stuff... it was an unfortunate result of have far too much evil alcohol and playing spin the bottle with a significant testosterone / oestrogen imbalance.) I didn't hear Lachie and Craig complaining though. Then yesterday Aimee, Craig, Ali and I puddled over to Mum's for footy and lunch, and then we went to Craig's where he cooked us dinner.

I'm lonely now because my friends and I are all at our own houses, and you get kind of attached to them after spending 36 hours together. :o)

Off to watch Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life.

"Every spem is sacred. Every spem is great. If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate."

One step closer...

2005-09-23T18:47:00.000+11:00

I was lying in bed last night and I realised that I have just over 8 weeks to go before I leave for Vanuatu!!! Totally crazy!!!

I went to the doctor today to get my check up and get my medical clearance to go and I got my typhoid shot (yummy!) and a heap of prescriptions! WOOHOO!!!

This is totally happening! I am so excited!!!

I know I swore earlier this week that I would never drink again... But I am so looking forward to going out tonight!!! I'm stopping by a friend's 21st around the corner (I have to go dressed as a pirate) then I'm heading over to Aimee's for tequila slammers with some uni mates. Lachie (Aimee's honorary little brother) said that he'd rather die than miss out on the opportunity to drink with me... I hope she warned him that I nearly killed myself last weekend. :o)

I have to go finish making my newspaper sword and pirate hat now.

I didn't kick the bucket... yet!

2005-09-21T18:52:00.000+11:00

But thanks to Kevin for offering to send flowers!

I didn't get the chance to post yesterday because I had two massive migranes yesterday evening and I couldn't see properly out of my right eye. FUN!!! At least I think they were migranes... it could've just been a stroke.
Anywho, I'll be making a trip to the doctor on Friday to get it checked out.

I had to finish off an assignment this morning before I went to uni, because I didn't get a chance to finish it last night, and while I was huriedly typing away I had a run in with that stupid little paperclip thing that pops up and tries to stuff up whatever document it is that you are working on.

I curse the person that invented the pop-up paperclip!

I swear my body hates me SOOO much right now.

2005-09-19T09:08:00.000+11:00

I think my hangover has finally kicked in.

I am never going out all night and drinking myself stupid, then sleeping for 6 hours before going and working a 10 hour night shift ever again!!! My body will hate me even more when I get up in another 5 hours to go and work an afternoon shift!

I realised in the wee hours of this morning that on Saturday night I drank somewhere in the vicinity of 16 standard drinks. No wonder my kidneys are ready to pack it in!!

Of course rather than coming home and getting straight into bed (which would be the sensible thing to do), I am posting on my blog! I think my brain is broken.

I'm going to go lie down and die somewhere now.

I could've danced all night... in fact I did.

2005-09-18T15:30:00.000+11:00

I went to an old friend's birthday party last night. It was supposed to be at a pub in the city where his band was playing a gig but at the last minute the gig got cancelled and it turned into a house party instead. I caught up with a heap of people who I haven't seen since I left my forst degree about 3 years ago. I met a few new people (translation: a few really hot guys), including a guy who was totally hot and really nice until midnight when he flipped the switch and went from Jekyll to Hyde in 3.2 seconds flat! I ended up practically having to babysit him in the wee hours of this morning when he wanted to either screw or fight anything that moved, and then he proceeded to throw up (not for the first time that night). But otherwise, it was really good to catch up with the old crowd! :o)

After a lot of drinking and chatting, interspersed with some karaoke, I somehow got roped into kicking on, which seems to be I why I found myself on the dancefloor at Home Nightclub at 2am, busting funkies until the sun came up. After doing a Maccas brekky run to absorb the obscene amount of alcohol that I had consumed (their stoopid thickshake machine was broken - not happy Jan!), and stopping by another pub for a final drink (it was 6:45am at that stage) I finally headed home to bed.

It was a great night! I'm very surprised that I was able to rise to the challenge and go hard all night! I didn't think I was capable of that anymore. :o) Totally crazy.

I had a missed call from a number that I don't recognise at about 1 this morning. I think it might have been from one of my exes. I wish he'd leave me alone! It's been 9 months for goodness sake!!! GET OVER IT!!

My kidneys hurt (probably because I consumed enough alcohol to kill a small horse last night) and I have only had 5 hours sleep and I'm supposed to be working a night shift tonight, so I'd better go and get back into bed soon. Mmmm... bed.

No ordinary boy, no ordinary boy is gonna do. I want a rider that's cool.

2005-09-17T12:48:00.000+11:00

Grease 2 was so good last night!!! Yay and woohoo for me!!! I just wish me DVD player worked so I could watch it at my house instead of having to take it to other people's places to watch!

Have you ever wanted to look like the models in those glossy photos in magazines? You know the ones I'm talking about... the ones where they have perfect hair and a perky arse and flat, rock hard abs. Unfortunately it's never going to happen. Go to this site to find out why.

I'm just going to have a little rant about children these days because I heard something lastnight that absolutely appalled me. I was heading over to Aimee's place and I walked past the 7/11 near the station. Outside, leaning against the wall was this kid with a moblie phone. He couldn't have been more than 12 or 13. Judging by his tiny size he could have been even younger than that. As I was walking towards him he lifted the phone to his ear. Here is the conversation the he had:
Child: "Mum, where the hell are you?"
Insert the unheard short replay of the mother here.
Child: "You're a fucking idiot." And then he hangs up on her!

I was absolutely appalled!! I would never have dreamed of speaking to my mother like that and if I had I would have had the sorest bottom around for weeks!

What would you do if your kids did that to you?

Any child that pulls that crap on it's parents deserve a smack upside the head and to be left outside in the cold! I know that's what mine would get.

Children these days... really.

On a less ranty note, this is my 151st post!!! Yay for me!!! That's 2 blogging milestones this month!

And finally, my AFL team (Australian Football - kind of a bastardisation of Gaelic football with an oval ball, a round pitch and 4 goal posts at each end) has made it through to the Grand Final!!!! for the first time in 9 years or something. If the Swans (aka the Bloods) win the premiership it will be for the first time in 72 years!!! Yay!!! *Yaeli does a crazy happy dance!*

Never again!!!!

2005-09-16T18:32:00.000+11:00

Ok, I keep saying it... but this time I totally, really, truely, 100% mean it.
I AM NEVER GOING TO LEAVE MY ASSIGNMENTS TO THE LAST MINUTE AGAIN!!!

That 2000 word essay on depression that I stayed home from uni to write yesterday didn't get underway until 10am today!!! It was due in at 5pm and by 4:55 (after sitting in the uni library for nearly 8 hours straight) I'd had enough and decided that 5 and a half pages looked long enough even if I was still 400 words short of the mark.
So I chucked a strop at the uni printer, grabbed my assignment and went and handed it in. Stuff it, it's only worth 30% anyway.

Mr Craig and I realised today that for the last 2 years we have both complained time and again about how slack we are doing our assignments at the eleventh hour (and sometimes long past that). We have both chastised and ridiculed our stupid habit of doing our assignments on the day they are due and then getting surprised that we get stressed about it! The funny thing is that we are both maintaining credit averages! Imagine what we could be getting if we actually planned and put some effort into the damn things!!! Crazy!!!

Going to Miss Aimee's tonight to eat thai, drink pink champagne and watch Grease 2. So sophisticated!

I have become a total television whore... and I kinda like it!

2005-09-15T13:04:00.000+11:00

When I heard about Foxtel's "Rockstar:INXS" show that began a few months ago, I swore I would never watch it. As an Australian and a long time INXS fan I honestly believe that the band is selling out by using a reality TV show to try to replace the remarkably talented (and very dead) Michael Hutchence. For 9 whole weeks I managed to avoid the prostitution of one of Australia's (and the world's) greatest bands... That is until last week.

I was stuck at home last Wednesday evening waiting for NCIS to start at 9:30 and I was channel surfing when I stumbled across Marty's performance of his song "Trees" on Rockstar. I now have a bit of a crush on Marty. He's not all that good looking, and he definitely needs a decent feed (he is so skinny!!!!) but his performance totally blew my skirt up and turned me on!!! So much so in fact, (wait for it, my shame rating gets even higher now) that I tuned in at 8:30 last night and watched the whole show... and then I tuned in again for the rerun at 11:30!! *Squeals and hides face in shame!*

As much as Marty turns me on though I would love to see Mig Ayesa (the Aussie boy) front the Aussie band!!

*Stoopid side note: Mig used to play the bad landlord on the kids TV show "The Ferals", a show about a rat, a cat, a rabbit and a really dumb dog who all live in a dump and are looked after by people who live in the house nextdoor.

Go Marty! - 'cos he turns me on.
Go Mig!! - 'cos he's an Aussie!

"Babe it's you and me up in the tree, and the forest will give us the answers.

And it's you and I up in the sky, it's a recipe for disaster."

*Yaeli hangs her head in shame at the realisation that she is a total reality TV whore.*

I have taken today off uni to write a 2000 word essay on depression for my mental health subject. Does anyone want to do it for me? It is now 12:30 (lunchtime!!!) and I still haven't written a word. I am the Queen of procrastination!!!

Not much to say...

2005-09-14T20:21:00.000+11:00

I went to visit Angie's blog (Ficken Chingers) today and found that she had done this snazzy little test. Now I know that I'm a young'un and I most certainly did spend my 80's experience avoiding "boy germs", rather than lusting after very much older men on the telly, but I have always had a little thing for "Uncle Jesse", aka John Stamos!

Your 80s Heartthrob Is

John Stamos

Who's Your 80's Heartthrob?

Stoopid freaking Shitty Rail, grrrr, arghh!

2005-09-12T15:38:00.000+11:00

Please excuse this rant about Sydney's incompetent public transport system.

I worked a night shift last night, 9:30pm - 7:30am. All I can say about it is at least it was quiet. By the time I left the hospital and got to the train station to head home, I had been up for just short of 24 hours. All I wanted was to go home and tuck myself into bed and have a good morning's sleep.

I bought my ticket and walked down to the platform to catch the train and as I did so I checked the indicator board to make sure that the next train stopped at my stop, which it did. Then the station master made an announcement about where the train would be stopping, and again he mentioned my station. I was so happy! I only had to wait 3.5 mins (and 22 nanoseconds) for the train that would speedily convey me to within 2 minutes walk of my cosy bed! Yay!

Anywho... the train pulls in and I check the indicator board for any last minute changes (none) and I jump on board. The train station for the hospital where I was working is 4 stops from my station. We got through the first two stops ok and stopped and picked up and dropped of people. Then as we were entering the station before mine I noticed that the train wasn't slowing down! The train driver had changed the stopping pattern after I got on the train and they hadn't told anyone!!! The train went whooshing past my station as I looked forlornly out the window muttering 4 letter words under my breath. GRRRRRR!

I ended up 2 stops past my station (at least it wasn't 10 stops as it could have been), having to try and get on a train heading back my way in peak hour. Add into the mix the fact that I drank 4 bottles of water over the course of my night shift and was now busting to do a wee, and I wasn't a happy girl. By the time I got home I was ready to cry and throw a massive tantrum.

So I did.

Then I went to bed.

Someone really needs to fix our public transport system!!! It totally sucks dogs balls!!! Rather than getting more competent staff and improving what they had, they released a new timetable a week ago that meant fewer trains taking longer to get people where they need to go! It's times like this that I wouldn't mind living in Japan (except that I'd be a huge white woman in a culture of rather petite people... but that's a story for another time!)!!!

Bright light, bright light.

2005-09-11T13:49:00.000+11:00

Ok, ok Dena! I'm posting!!!

I feel like a mogwai today. Everything is too bright. But at least the poo-fairy didn't visit me last night.

I went out with a few friends last night, and downed many a vodka on the way. But surprisingly when Miss Aimee and I got to the "Crowie Hoey" at midnight, we appeared to be the most sober people in the place!

I wasn't quite like the picture below... but a few more drinks and I could have been. If only there were some decent looking guys!

Keeping true to my bizarre love for crappy 80's movies, I found this Grease 2 Personality test on OKCupid! Grease 2 is total crap but it's absolutely awesome!!! I would watch it right now except that my DVD player is broken. Bugger!!!

*Cool Rider*
You scored 90 Pink Lady, 63 T-Bird, 0 Greaseball, and 12 Teacher!

Be you lady or be you man, you are someone to be worshipped and plied with gifts. You've got the perfect balance of knowledge, cool and pretty dresses and, quite frankly, you're the Don. Bless you and keep you.

If you were a song you'd be Cool Rider. Whatever dark secrets you might have lurking inside, you are the epitome of wonder on the surface. Lesser beings want to love you just for this reason - but hey, don't waste your cool on them unless you ace Shakespeare first. Legend.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 97% on Pink Lady

You scored higher than 92% on T-Bird

You scored higher than 0% on Greaseball

You scored higher than 2% on Teacher

Link: The Grease 2 Personality Test written by phaeton on Ok Cupid

Nobody puts Baby in the corner...

2005-09-09T22:10:00.000+11:00

OMFG!!! Dirty Dancing is on the telly right now!!!! *Screams wildly, like the obsessive prepubescent fan of some generic pop group.*

Long term readers will know of my passion for really trashy 80's movies... in particular Top Gun and Dirty Dancing. I go absolutely wild for both these movies and I know them both by heart. (Sad, I know.) A few years ago when I fractured vertebrae in my back and was bed bound, I watched Dirty Dancing 3 times in 2 days!!! And I still love it!!!

I love it! I love it!! I love it!!!

Yes, I am a total dork sometimes.

As promised, here are a couple of photos of my "noo doo". Now, I'm not much of a photographer (particularly a self photographer), and I'm even less impressive as a model, however these photos aren't too bad really. They don't quite show how bright the colours in my hair are, but I've definitely managed to get decent shots to show off my interesting bob / wonky bowl cut (which is very short in the back), and how straight and tidy my normally curly and unruly hair is.

I saw my grandmother today who told me that she hated the colour and the cut, but she liked the straight hair. So I've decided that the colour and the cut are keepers, and the tidy straight look goes! :o) The straight look is kinda growing on me (well of course it is, it's my hair!!! haha!) but it's too much to maintain for everyday wear unless I get my hair chemically straightened, which I won't do because I'm too fond of my curls at the moment. I'm not too sure how it's going to look when I go back to the curls tomorrow... I may have to post a photo comparison later in the week.

I'm off to go dance in front of the TV now.

I carried a watermelon.

I have new hair!

2005-09-08T23:35:00.000+11:00

I spent three and a half hours (yes, 3.5 hours) at the hairdresser today! It wasn't supposed to take that long but after the first lots of foils when Ange was styling my hair she realised that she should have put more foils on top... so she did. (If you don't know what foils are then please ignore that last statement.) So now I have crimson red and copper blonde stripes (cos they are bigger than streaks) in my hair and I have a cool rock chick kinda short at the back, long at the front cut. And on top of that Ange straightened my hair, so today I have straight hair instead of my usual curls!!! It looks a bit like I'm wearing a wig. Weird, but cool! I'll post a photo when I get one... which will hopefully be tonight.

Today at uni, Jenny-Jenny passed the previously mentioned treasured copy of the Calendar Collection by Australia's own over opinionated, racist, sexist and homophobic son, John Laws. As promised I am posting the poem "The muffins got stuck today" in full.

The muffins got stuck today.

The muffins got stuck today
I never know the difference between muffins and crumpets
But they would have stuck anyway
And I love you.

My watch stopped today
And I didn't have five cents to ring up the man
And he might have been wrong anyway
And I love you.

I ripped my jeans today
Rips give character anyway
And I was busting my pants to see you
And I love you.

My heart stopped thinking today
It stopped at the thought
That you might want to know it that way.
If that is so let it quietly lay
As it cannot amount to anything
Any other way
Without you.
And I love you.

John Laws circa 1976

I would also like to post the bio from the inside of the dust jacket. It is quite obvioulsy penned by Johnny himself back in the 70's, and it is a wonderful example of how self-involved he was (and still is) and how seriously he takes himself. Please read it with a deep voice in a most over-emphatic and over-dramatised manner. I have popped in a bit of a commentary in red.

"The John Laws patter on radio is blunt, opinionated and witty (not to mention racist, sexist and homophobic). He talks with the confidence of a man used to being listened to - and with a deep and sensuous voice that has made him Australia's highest paid radio personality.
John Laws now enjoys all the trappings of success, including an elegant Sydney home, a fleet of cars, and the independence to do things his own way. This hasn't always been so. (Bring in the violins.) More than twenty years ago he found his way into radio through a friend of a friend after having become bored with the life of a jackaroo. With his new found talent he worked his way back to Sydney, got married and with everything apparently going for him, prepared to raise two children. Suddenly he was struck by polio. Then followed seven despairing months in hospital, a divorce, and unemployment. Heavy drinking added to this lonely crisis in his life. Slowly he worked his way back to health and to radio. He remarried and had three more children, then divorced and remarried again (as you do when you're a wanker who is impossible to live with).
His successes include television, theatre, movies (I cannot think of a single movie he has been in) and records. Encouraged (damn those idiots in the 60's) by the reception of songs he had composed, John Laws turned to poetry (the word poetry is being used in it's loosest possible sense) - and this is his fourth book of poems. (Believe it or not some dickhead was dumb enough to publish not just this one, but 3 others as well!)
John Laws likes motorcycles, casual clothes, and to roll his own cigarettes. But he is sensitive. So is his poetry."

I am going to have endless hours of fun with this book!!! It totally cracks me up!! Watch out for more "poems" being posted in the future.

Today's pic is for Mr Best - Don't you wag that finger at me in such a teacherly fashion. I know smoking is a dirty habit!

You found me! You win a beer!

2005-09-06T23:58:00.000+11:00

Today I:

Went to uni and got the first part of my group assignment handed in.
Went shopping and bought my friend's little girl 2 bath books (vinyl or plastic books that can be played with in the bath) for her 1st birthday.
Bought my sleeping mat, sleeping sheet and travel pillow for Vanuatu, and I put my mozzie dome on order. (It's so exciting!!! It's all starting to feel real!!) Thanks again to Mr Tax Man for giving me money!
Sent a HUGE e-mail to Clairey over in Europe, cos I said I'd send one the other day and today I got a cranky sms because I hadn't sent it yet.
Took my slippers for another outing to the Thai restaurant up the road to get dinner.
Lost half a packet of cigarettes on my way to get my Thai dinner. Found them on my way home again.
Watched "Monster" on Showtime.
Walked in on these two "doing it" in the office...

Quite a boring day really! Sleeping time now!

Looks like we'll be going down together... I mean getting off together...

2005-09-06T00:28:00.000+11:00

OMG!!! I just typed an entire post and somewhere between pushing publish and it appearing on my blog it got lost!!! WTF?

Had two very interesting shifts at work in two days!! I spent yesterdays and todays shift doing a "special" (individual patient care) in the Emergency Department at RNSH looking after a young woman who was admitted over the weekend experiencing a psychotic episode. Yesterday she was paranoid and aggressive so they drugged her up. While she spent most of my shift sleeping, I spent most of my shift perving on the ambos bringing in the casualties. I'm a sucker for a man in uniform!

When I went back to my girl today she wasn't drugged up but was resting in bed and seemed quite calm... That was until the electronics tried to get her! In the last 24 hours she has developed an obsession with the thought that there are electronics in the floor and the bed that are dangerous. The bed is toally manual, no eletronics there, and the floor... well, the floor is linoleum. Not very attractive but certainly not dangerous! :o) I had to mop the floor repeatedly after she decided that the way to stop the electronics from getting to her was to pour water on the floor. I also watched as she wiped down the bed frame with a wet cloth to stop the electronics there too. It's a crazy thing to watch! She had also developed a fixation with the sink. She had to have a rubber glove covering the faucet and another in the plug hole and then she had to have the soap dispenser sitting on top of that. Between her and the hot ambos I was kept amused all evening! :o)

In other news, the Tax Man loves me. He has decided that this year I don't need to make my annual HECS (student loan) debt repayment this year! Even better he has directly credited my account with my tax return of approx. $1600 (that's about $700US I think, and bout 3 pounds sterling, hehehe. Damn exchange rate!)!!! Yay for me!!! That's an extra $1600 in my Vanuatu account!

I got a dollar, I got a dollar, I got a dollar hey hey hey hey!

Can you make it after 11? The poolboy is coming to bang my arse off.

2005-09-04T15:01:00.000+11:00

This post is alternatively titled "The Return of Mr Complicated".

I was woken by a text message at 1am today. It was from an ex known as "Mr Complicated", whos number I deleted from my phone nearly two months ago due to the fact that I was sick of the on again / off again casual sex / friendship thing that we had going on.

The Backstory: Mr C and I met about 18 months ago in the bar at my uni when I yelled at him because I thought he was checking out one of my friends. He joined us at our table and bought us beer and a couple of weeks later he asked for my number and called me an asked me out on a date. A week after our first date he told me that he didn't really want a relationship and that all he was looking for was casual sex. This was ok with me at the time and it went on for a couple of months until everything went to shit because I got too involved and he fucked up. Since then we have tried to maintain a fucked up sort of friendship which sometimes strayed into the realm of sex.

A couple of months ago I finally decided that what we had going on wasn't compatible with what I wanted both in life and from a partner, so I deleted his number from my phone and told him so. A couple of weeks after that I got very drunk one night and found a text message in my phone from him which had his phone number attached. I messaged him, and he messaged me and very soon what we wanted from each other was brought up. The next morning I told him that I wouldn't contact him again because it was apparent that we both wanted different things from each other.

Fast forward a month or so to last night (or, to be more accurate, this morning) when out of the blue Mr C messages me. Over several messages Mr C tells me:

that he needed the company of someone he trusted and he first thought of me,
that I was right and that we do "fit well together",
that he is sorry for the way he has treated me,
that he is attracted to me the way I was to him,
that all he wants is somebody who he can feel secure with, and
that he feels stupid because he has a girl (me) who wants him and he keeps pushing me away.

Apparently he was only a little drunk whilst making these declarations. When I saked what he wanted from me (at 2 am) I got no reply so I rolled over and finally went back to sleep.

At 8am this morning I received a message saying that he didn't just want sex from me, but that he didn't want a relationship at the moment either... which is obviously why he woke me at 1 am to declare everything, short of his undying love and affection for me. I told him that I really don't understand him, and he tells me that he really doesn't understand himself either and that he would have liked to have woken up with me next to him this morning, but he's not ready for a relationship. So I told him to go and get his shit together and sort himself out and once he's done that, if he still wants me, and everything that goes with being with me, he can pick up the phone and call me and ask me out on a date and maybe we can start afresh. But in the meantime I'm going to get on with my life. I got no reply to that.

Did I do the right thing? I think I did. There was once (and maybe still is) a lot of affection and caring between us. Mr C is a man with who I am supremely comfortable, and we do fit well together. But I'm not prepared to settle with someone who can't, and won't, give me what I want. Too harsh? Maybe, but it has to be done.

Anywho... long one today. I'd better run and get ready for work 'cos I'm running late!

Hi ho Silver, away!!!

2005-09-03T13:15:00.000+11:00

I am such a goober!!! For the second time in 24 hours I have wandered out of the house and up the road to the shops, only to realise when I get there that I am still wearing my purple terry cloth slippers!!! This morning I was trying to find Draino to fix my shower drain because it isn't draining properly, and I was standing in the supermarket aisle scouring the shelves when I suddenly caught sight of something purple sticking out from under my jeans. This didn't bother me too much until the penny dropped and I realised that I don't own a pair of purple shoes. :o)

I am such a dag! Hehehe.

My blog's birthday!

2005-09-02T12:56:00.000+11:00

I just realised that it's my blog's birthday this month!!! I have been writing random crap and posting it on the internet for a whole year!!! You can't imagine the underwhelming feeling of satisfaction that accompanies such an "accomplishment". Yay for me.

On another note, I have been looking at innovative ways to supplement my meagre students income so that I can afford to buy all my stuff that I'm going to need for my trip to Vanuatu at the end of the year. This is one clever way to make money... and apparently it works because the guy extended his deadline. His original mission was to get $5000 by 30th June, 2005. It appears he received this amount as he has a new mission and a new deadline, to sell 100,000 copies of his book by 6th November, 2006. I say eat the rabbit! There are some crazy people in this world!

Good morning starshine... the earth says hello!

2005-09-02T10:26:00.000+11:00

I'm wagging uni today. I woke up this morning and just couldn't be bothered going to my 9am class... so I didn't. Problem solved!!!

I went to the movies last night to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which just opened yesterday in Oz, we're a little behind the rest of the world). I absolutely loved it! Where would the world be without Johnny Depp!!!

I've just had a brain fart and can't think of anything else to write, so I'll probably post again later today. I am so boring! :o)

Arrrgghhhh!!! Technology!!!!

2005-08-31T23:33:00.000+11:00

As many of you know, I am pretty technologically illiterate. Anything involving technology that I manage to get right is pretty much a fluke and is totally unrepeatable. When I used to work in an office I used to call tech support (and later the guy working in one of the offices downstairs) to get them to tell me how to turn my computer on! I often fight the computer, and more often than not the computer beats me and I end up in tears. :o( Poor me.

That said, I'm sure you will understand my frustraion at the fact that my blogroll has disappeared. Yesterday I decided to be brave and to experiment a little, (yes, I did have my crazy fun hat on at the time) so I went to Blogrolling.com and decided to sign up and give this crazy blogrolling thing a go. (Whoa!!! I can't contain the excitement!!)

After a few stops and starts I finally worked the damn thing out and managed to fit it nicely into my blog and all was peachy keen... until I logged on just now of course. When I came to check my beautiful blog this evening I noticed that my blogroll was missing and I can't get on to the website that supports it! I don't know what's going on!! Crazy technology = Crazy me!!!

Every computer needs one of these to deal with just these situations.

11pm - ADDENDUM - And now it's all back!! I just can't work out this technology business, and this blogroll thing is more on and off than my ex-boyfriend was! Crazy technology!

I put my green card in my right shoe. Something something, right shoe.

2005-08-30T15:25:00.000+11:00

I am constantly being annoyed by that stupid brum brumming frog thing that appears to have become all the rage with mobile users who are either blind and deaf or entirely daft. I can't see how any competent and intelligent person can tolerate such an intensely annoying, ugly and repetitive character. Really, to call it a frog is an insult to all frogs around the world. It's an insult to Freddo and Kermit and the Frog Prince and all their kin.

I sent the picture below out to a few friends the other week, and I still find that it adequately describes my sentiments towards the inane creature. I would pay to see that!

I had a most interesting evening at work last night with a former London cabbie, who was in his late 50's - early 60's, trying to chat me up and filling my evening with some rather obscene (and obvious) sexual innuendo.

For example: Me (handing him the thermometer): "Put this under your tongue." Him (taking the thermometer): Shouldn't I be saying that to you?

Or: Him (checking my hands for any sign of a wedding ring): You can be mine tonight. I'll put you in my room and lock the door and you can stay with me... Because I'll need extra nursing care. (wink wink)

I have no problem with a little sexual innuendo interspersed with witty banter (as anyone who knows me will attest to). However, when it's coming from a guy who is old enough to be my father and who is my patient it's just not quite kosher. I came home feeling dirty, and not in a good way. :o( Stupid icky people. Rasberries to them!!! *Throws in a trumphant HA HA! just for good measure.*

Stupid Arsehole Spammers!!!

2005-08-29T11:22:00.000+11:00

Thanks to arsehole spammers leaving crap comments on my blog I have now turned on the word verification option to stop them.

I got so excitied thinking that 15 people loved me, and then when I checked my comments half of the 15 were crap spam about dumb shit. This must be the new spamming craze. Stoopid fuckers.

All spammers should be shot!

BTW: A big shout out to all those lovely people who have been visiting my blog and leaving legitimate comments... You guys rock!