That’s What Your Mum Said

The delectable Liz tagged me to do this meme, and as it is my first I am would be honoured! To be honest, I have been racking my brain and I have had trouble; I am not a very interesting person. Ha, these should be fascinating…

one. I only have two true talents.

I can make my tongue into a three-leaf clover, and I can bend my thumb at a 90 degree angle behind my hand. It freaks people out, and for that I am thankful.

two. I get inappropriate crushes quite often.

My first ever was Anthony Hopkins. I saw him in ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and that was it – wrong love. Peter Singer is the most recent, being all smart and the like. I am going to a conference in March that he is speaking at, and needless to say I will be wearing a new dress, heels and some red lippy.

three. Besides the partner, my one true love is books.

I have been obsessed ever since I could pick them up. Testament to this fact is the reading awards I received every year from kindergarten onward (I dug them out of my special box only a week ago) and also the many, many books we have in our home. I plan on making a library the first room I design when we purchase our own space on this earth.

four. I have four siblings.

This is quite an old photograph, but it shows me (fourth out of five), my oldest sister, my second oldest sister, the third sibling my brother, and the youngest sibling my sister. Don’t be fooled by the cross; we aren’t church-going folk, but it was a very important event that happened to be held in a church. For a large family with large gaps (ages 41, 39, 36, 26 & 24) we are insanely close. I know I could count on any of them at any time, and this is some wonderful knowledge. They are champs.

five. I attended a new-age christian church when I was a teenager and smitten with a young man who was a staunch believer.

I don’t want to go into this too much except that to say I was naive and it was  a very educational experience. To be honest, I have never experienced hypocrisy and judgment in such high doses. It sent me on the beginning of the trip to atheism and taught me to question everyone and everything they say.

six. I don’t want children and I don’t envisage this changing. Ever.

I imagine this one is a little controversial, but hey, that is what the internet is for, isn’t it? Let me explain myself before you get upset and tell me it is my duty as a woman to have a child, or that I would be a really good mother so I have to have them (heard it all before noobs). I am fully aware of the fact that parenting is THE hardest job in the world, and frankly, I don’t want it. I have been proclaiming ever since I was aware of my female bits and their uses (around 11 or 12) that I don’t want children, and this has never wavered. It has actually led to the ending of some relationships due to the partner attempting to convince me that I was totally wrong, or being unable to accept my choice. The current (and hopefully forever-long) partner feels the same as me which is refreshing and wonderful. We are very open to whatever the future may hold, and I have also made it clear to everyone involved that if my little sister couldn’t conceive I would carry for her, but other than that I am just not that way inclined. Don’t hate me.

seven. I am a dyed-in-the-wool atheist.

I love this world, it is fracking awesome and fascinating and mysterious and fantabulous. I just don’t believe in a guy in the sky; I believe in science and the universe. Humans are an arrogant and ignorant race and if only we could open up our minds to the fact that we are small and inconsequential. We don’t need a deity looking over us to have meaning in our lives. Religion has a tendency to be very, very dangerous and damaging despite the ideals of being kind to thy neighbour and such. I would rather live by Bill and Tedism; …”Be excellent to each other… party on dudes”. Simple but effective.

I would like to tag Sarah Hannah, Elizabeth, Em, Miss Katie, Amalie, Chickie Little and Kez to partake in the randomness.

Yesterday I attended the Sydney Big Day Out, and being there rammed two things home in a very strong manner:

1. Australia has a fracking harsh climate. We don’t do things in halves here, and the 43 degrees Celsius weather was testament to this fact.

2. Nothing makes me feel better than live music (well maybe one or two things, but that is not for the outside world to know)!

I went with the partner and my little sister and we met with random friends throughout the day. The event started with my sister having a panic/heat stress attack before we had even entered the gates, so she had to lay down for 10 minutes and drink all of our water supplies. Once we got in, we went to the big arena and I had a heat stress attack – I just could not cool down no matter how much water I drank and how much I fanned myself. The partner came up with the genius idea of heading to the water sprays which were at the entrance to the arena. Basically, I stood under them for 5 minutes and allowed my clothing to become soaked, which really helped a lot.

After two false starts, we actually got to see some bands! The stand out act was Muse. I have already seen them live twice (once at Big Day Out 3 or so years ago, and once at an indoor concert the night before said BDO) but they continue to blow my socks off with their precision and their epic sound. Matt Bellamy and his musical ability is as close as I will ever come to a religious experience – talk about sex on legs! If only he was a little taller We had the make the terrible decision between Muse and Peaches as they were on at the same time, but justified our choice by arguing that Peaches tours Australia regularly and she is cheaper to see at an individual show than Muse. I have seen her live before and she is spectacularly talented. I bought one of her shirts to show my solidarity and ongoing love for her crazy brand of music.

Other awesome acts were Girl Talk (so much fun), Kasabian, Groove Armada and Ladyhawke (for all you non-Aussie/Kiwis, check out our home-grown talent). Lily Allen was also in the mix, for curiosity reasons more than anything else. Her music is catchy but it isn’t something I would listen too at home for fun. She has a great voice live though, and she is super cute. We caught the end of Dizzee Rascal and Powderfinger which were both great. We also caught the start of Mars Volta which was amazing, and Midnight Juggernaughts which left a little to be desired. Overall though, the musical standard was awesome and we had a kick ass time!

At around 3pm a southerly change came through and brought pouring rain that cooled the dastardly weather down – it was delightful to say the least! We left around 11.30pm and got back home around 1.30am this morning, so I am a little vulnerable right now, but should be fine tomorrow. There weren’t too many incidents of dickheads asking me to kiss the flag or throwing beer cans at people of anything but Anglo-Saxon descent (a lot of Sydney BDO revelers have a reputation of being racist, bigoted asshats)  so overall I would give this years BDO a big thumbs up! Oh, and how on earth could I forget to mention Cheese On A Stick? This gourmet treat is possibly my most favourite food in existence. Cheese, on a stick, deep fried in batter. Fuck yes. I am salivating thinking about it.

To learn of my past Big Day Out experiences and feelings towards them, read this post. It has pictures of Cheese On A Stick!

Fleur over at Diary of a Vintage Girl is giving us all the chance to win some absolutely lovely lingerie from Kiss Me Deadly.

Head on over to her post and leave a comment to be in the running; it would be a wonderful start to the year to score some new knickers!

As posted in that crazy year that was 2009, I had plans to cut all of my hair off and morph into Natalie Portman in the process. I didn’t quite make it to Natalie status, but I certainly said goodbye to the lameness that was dank, over-coloured hair and hello to minimal fuss and bother.

Jesus, what a shitastic photo. I apologise to you all for having your eyes burned. One day soon I will get a decent one that has light and colour and a true depiction of the new hair. It was a slightly scary experience; there were a lot of stages when my hairdresser was cutting that things looked bad. Very bad. But she had warned me at the start to just ignore everything until she was totally finished and I have to admit that I am pretty darned happy with the end result. She cut it exactly how I wanted and my face doesn’t look too much like a kicked in biscuit tin. Yay for that!

The idea is to get rid of all the coloured hair (which she couldn’t totally do this time otherwise she would have essentially shaved it) and then grow it long again. Long and healthy and shiny. Kinda like this.

Bahahaha, gratuitous almost nude shot! Hot damn she is pretty though! We have been watching ‘Pushing Daisies’ and it is fairly wonderful so far.

Enough of the vanity. I have Wii Fit to attend to.

Elizabeth at Scarlet Words has a delightful puppy named Harry. I am pretty sure I have already offered to look after him when Elizabeth and her partner are at work; that offer is still open. I would move to Melbourne to spend time with this cutie.

Sarah Von at Yes and Yes has a lovely (if slightly disgruntled looking) kitty Rasputin, or Putin for short. Check out his fighter jet. That is one intrepid adventurer. Do want.

Charlotte at Another Brick in the Narwhal has a colourful and playful Rainbow Lorikeet called Boje Bajinky. As far as I am concerned, he would make an awesome friend for my Obi and as a result, Charlotte should just give him to me. Simple as that.

And the menagerie grows ever larger….