Birthday

It is my birthday today. Happy Birthday to me.

I have a leisurely day planned. It started with pancakes and presents for breakfast. This afternoon we are going to a day spa for massages and facials. And then out for dinner tonight. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? If only I could do this every day!

The holiday has started

Work finished at 6:14 pm tonight.

I did remember to turn ON my OUT of office reply.
I did get ALL my "must do" jobs done.
I did make a list, I did check it twice, I did find out work is boring; not nice.

Holiday started at 6:15 tonight. Hooray!

You are what you eat

I seem to go through phases with food. Whether it be soup, salad, weight watchers, or vegan there is always something that I preference eating.

My current food is choice is frozen meals. Thus my freezer looks like this;
I used to just buy them occasionally for when I was home on a Wednesday night and Tom was out playing squash. I lacked the motivation to cook a meal for myself and a lean cuisine is a better choice nutritionally that a Vegemite sandwich or bowl of cereal.

More recently I have been buying these to have in stock for Tom when I travel. I used to cook meals and freeze them before I left, but my motivation to do that is long gone.

This year I have started buying them to eat while Tom is a squash, for Tom to eat while I am away and for us both to eat when I work past 6:30 pm and/or am too tired to cook when I get home from work.

So now, instead or once a week, we seem to eat these a few times a week. I suppose they are better than the fast food choices we would make. Fish & Chips, Pizza, Chinese and Indian all taste great but they are not good for the waistline. I still feel bad though that I am not cooking everything myself. Home cooked meals are nicer but a lot more effort.

Hair care

I have great hair. I know, I know FIGJAM. But seriously, I love my hair. It is fully bodied. It is dark brown. It is wavy without being too curly or hard to manage. It sits well no matter what I do with it. I have no control over what it does, but oddly that doesn't bother me. I am happy with it.

I really like the colour brown that it is so........... I have never dyed it. Yes that is correct cowboys, I am almost 30, a child of the modern world but I have NEVER dyed my hair. Not even a rinse.

I did try once. I had very long hair at the time and went into a hairdresser I had never been to before in the city. I spoke to the hairdresser about dying my hair blonde, really really blonde. We talked about it for a long time and in the end she talked me out of it. She explained the maintenance, the ongoing costs and the toll that it would take on my hair. She didn't paint a pretty picture.

I am not big on hair maintence. I usually have my haircut once every 12 to 18 months. It doesn't need cutting very often. I don't get split ends because I don't use a hair straightener or a blow dryer. I actually don't even own a hair dryer or a straightener. I just towel dry it after I wash it and then let it dry.

So all in all it was probably best that I didn't go blonde. I don't think I would have coped with the upkeep.

I do care about my hair, I am just not big on hair care.

Hay fever Hell

I don't know what the hell is causing it but I have hay fever badly again today.

Despite washing everything in my bedroom (including the pillows) and vacuuming the whole place to within an inch of its life (including the air conditioning unit)....

My nose is this colour

and my eyes are watering

and my head is cloudy

and my thoughts are muddled

and the drugs don't work at all

and I may be feeling ever so slightly sorry for myself.....

My turn to smell like dirt?

The council replaced our water main today and all the water smells like soil. So instead of asking if it was my turn for the shower......

Freedom

I have completed my scholastic obligations for the year. No more study, tutorials, lectures or irritatingly thin, poorly dressed 17 year olds until next year. Hallelujah!

What did I learn this semester?

• One subject is better than two for my sanity.
• A contract may be voidable where the conduct of the party not mistaken amounts to "sharp practice"
• Having a cleaner is good (the new one started last week, bless her).
• Some contracts are divisible and rest are lump sum contracts.
• I have the best husband in the world (actually I knew that already).
• Contracts to murder someone are not illegal to make, only illegal to perform and hard to enforce.
• Contract law is mostly boring.

The most difficult part of studying is finding motivation.

The actual study is not that difficult. It just requires time and effort. Lots and lots of effort. Focus to read the texts and the cases. Attention to listen to the lectures. And energy to take notes and digest the information.

I am wondering where I will find the motivation for next semester. Perhaps my motivation well will be refilled while I am on holidays in a few weeks? Or is there a utility company I should call to organise a top up?

I am glad that there are no summer subjects that I could do right now because I don't think my heart would be in it anyway.

But come next year, I will hopefully be refreshed and ready to start again. Torts and International Legal Perspectives, here I come! or more accurately - I'll be right there, after this short commercial break......

Lightspeed

Time seems to go by very quickly. My life is busy with work, travel, and study.

Most days feel like this..


and really I would prefer this...

Idiosyncratic Glass

We all have our little idiosyncrasies. One of mine is that I worry that one day most people in the world will die and only a few of us will be left - think an scenario like in Stephen King's The Stand.

I worry that if this happens no one will know how to do anything, like grow food, build houses etc because most of the world's population aren't engaged in those sorts of earthy jobs. There seem to be a lot of us who work in offices and make no obvious contribution to the day to day survival of the species.

Today I decided that should everyone else die I would really like to be able to make glass. I like glass and I think I would miss windows if I didn't have any. So I googled "glass making" and now understand the theory behind how to make glass.

My glass making knowledge will also be helpful if I ever get transported back to 16th centenary England and have to win over the royal family by helping them refurbish their castle.

You might call it odd. I prefer the term idiosyncratic.

Beauty where you find it

Here are a couple of photos I have taken in my work travels.

The first is a photo of a church in Melbourne. I took this photo on my phone from my hotel room.


I love staying in Melbourne. It is a lovely city. The shopping is great. The dining is great. And people dress nicely. And I get to wear coats (something that doesn't happen often in BrisVegas).

The second is a photo from the window of my hotel in Canberra.
Canberra may have terrible weather but it sure is pretty in the morning.