I have a new car! I’ve been wanting to say that for years. The old thing I’ve been driving around for the past 5 years was a disaster waiting to happen and it would have cost more to register and repair it than buy a new one… sooo I have a new one! It’s a much newer model, sleek, sexy and absolutely reeking of new car smell

James and I were talking about how exciting the new car feeling is but yet, in 6 months the joy will fade. I likened it to new relationships, specifically ours considering it’s less than a year and we seem to be permanently locked in new relationship mode. It’s all exciting and spontaneous and wild at first then you start to become comfortable with its smell and its feel and you start to move past the flutter you get when you open its door and pass into an area where you start to notice the little annoyances and faults. There’s this rattle in the back that won’t stop, or the steering starts to feel a little awkward, you’re sick of the colour and you yearn for the new car smell, which has been awkwardly replaced with something you can’t quite distinguish. It’s a mix of wet dog and old carpet.

Hey I’m not saying relationships move into a “Wet Dog” period but you know, the comfort thing. James just stared at me in disbelief and told me we won’t ever get to Wet Dog stage, that he’d always be my new car excitement.

I am aware that I have been absent from writing for a wee bit. We are super busy at the moment. James is leaving on the 1st March and we need to get serious about these visa preparations (there is a heap of them) With my JST and full time work seeking, study and organising signing of papers and medical checks and police checks and on it goes.. I just run out of time at the end of the day!

I’ll have more intelligent things to say shortly.
MUST… find…. job :dead:

Valentine’s Eve, James and I went to dinner at a very nice restaurant in the area. We had a four course meal listened to live entertainment, received complimentary champagne, chocolates and roses for me and had an absolutely beautiful night. The meals were delicious and the dessert was a sinful Pecan Pie smothered in a rich Caramel and Butterscotch syrup, which I’m still getting over.

After dinner we headed down to the river to take a stroll under the moon light. We sat together on an old wooden bench, bathed in the dusky yellow lights that lined the overhead bridge. Above us, an old twisted tree, which seemed to bower over us. The street lights on the distant side danced on the river, fire lit torches vividly wavering under a strong current. It was a beautiful atmosphere and as the light mist of rain started to fall, I didn’t think it could get much better.

James was on one knee in front of me, ever the romantic. He held my hand and said he wanted more than anything for me to marry him. I cried like a baby and tried to get out the word yes among all the tears. I can’t imagine I’ll ever forget this night! I’m overjoyed and overwhelmed and blissfully happy. James said his jaws are starting to ache from all the smiling.You can see a piccie of the ring he gave me here. It’s a yellow gold cluster ring, center brilliant diamond with 7 smaller around it, seperated with white gold, so it almost looks like the petals of a flower.

I know this sounds so fairytale and I’m sorry if I just made half of you sick with my tales of romance hehe. I just know I never thought I’d ever get the romance, the rare guy out there that believes chivalry is far from dead. James is a real gentleman, he cares and loves me with every ounce of his soul and I can’t imagine what I’ve done to deserve it, but I know I feel exactly the same. I’ve just learned that sometimes, the fairytale does happen, and the fireworks are there and sometimes, you stumble across that person when you’re not looking and sometimes dreams do come true.

We haven’t set a solid date yet. We are still all in the “Mum, Dad, we’re engaged!” part but we know it will probably be early 2007. The problem lies of course in where to have a wedding. The US or Australia.. or do we say the hell with it and have two. I don’t know! I’m trying not to think too much right now. We are both just swimming in the happiness

Holy hell, I upgraded to Wordpress 2.01 and didn’t break anything. Well not yet anyway, but I don’t want to tempt the wordpress gods by being a smartass. I wasn’t going to upgrade but yes the pressure got to me too.. it’s a conspiracy. Only one of the plugins didn’t work and I will surely find a new one to replace it in due time.

We FINALLY watched Serenity today. Actually we watched it last night but It was so late and I was getting tired, my eyes kept closing on me. Not wanting to disrespect Joss, I went to bed and watched the rest of it this morning. Wow, instant love. It’s such a pity the series wasn’t continued either. It was strange though because I read on the case that it was 188 minutes long, which granted, three hours was a surprise but it must have said 108 minutes. I was expecting more when the credits rolled. There’s just nothing this man cannot do.

Also got to see Must Love Dogs, which was a nice refreshing film. Nice dialogue and humour in it although there wasn’t enough story line, everything was linear. Good watch regardless.

Sometimes I think there might be someone “up there” randomly pushing buttons, like a toddler with a toy keyboard. I now have a cold, well I think it’s a cold. It came on rather suddenly. I went upstairs to check emails and started up in a sneezing fit. It carried on for the day, on and off, and I passed it off as some sort of allergy. However, it’s been going on for three days now.. and I’ve sadly had to come to terms with the fact that this may be a cold.. bleh.

I’ve created a barrier of tissues around myself and my eyes are watering more than when Buffy Season 7 ended. (Why Spike.. why) At least the worst is over. I was starting to wonder whether the neighbours figured we’d adopted a sea lion with all the coughing going on here. Stupid mortality.

I finished up my assesments for Psych and Communication last night.. Oh and I took back the DVDs that were almost a week overdue, which was a rather brilliant accomplishment for me. I’m a video bandit you see. When you go into a video store and you see a poster saying “Have you seen this woman?” And there’s a picture of me underneath, don’t be surprised. There is a wonderful ease and excitement in borrowing movies. Taking them back however.. is when things get difficult. You’ve watched it, your part is over. Come get the damn movie if you want it back.

No, I’m not that bad.. yet.

An email I just recieved

Things aren’t going well of late. I wish I could take a more positive perspective on the situation but it’s just reached the point of no return.

Yesterday I had the job interview that I was pinning everything on. See I thought it was something entirely different to what I was presented with. I’d set myself up to thinking I was the only one and yet I was one of 12 and the interviews still aren’t over. I feel defeated and tired. The morning started off with the discovery that my car had been broken into, or the attempt had been made either way. The lock had been wedged off the door and I can’t lock or unlock it now. Nothing seems to be taken but I can’t really remember what I had in my car at this stage.

When I tried to fix it I pulled my thumb nail right back and pulled the corner of it off the nail bed. So there I am, all dressed up, thinking this is the day and wincing in pain because my finger feels like its about to spontaneously combust.

I drive to the interview, get every red light, get caught up in the new M7 trying to find my way back on to the main road. When I finally got there, I spent the larger part of the interview being looked at as if I were an entirely new species. I answered all their questions to the best of my ability while being stared down by the young asian girl who for some reason couldn’t move her face. Jokes were met with cold contemplation. Smiles were immolated with her icy glare. The guy reminded me of Jimmy from the O.C and for a moment while he spoke about the duties the job required, I imagined him living in an expensive house, meeting with mafia type characters after work, trying to come up with excuses as to why he didn’t have the money this time. It was all a bit strange.

I don’t know whether I have a chance or not. It’s only three days I week, I was initially under the impression it was full time. My heart’s just not in it anymore. You can only go through so much rejection before you start to consider just letting them win. I know that’s not the right way to see it, but right now, it’s how I do see it.

My car is falling apart, it’s not even worth registering. It’s old and becoming unreliable. The place I live in is not the best area. It’s hot as hell upstairs if the temperatures even go over 28. I have two assessements due in and I can’t find a movie that has a good representation of Interpersonal communication. I need new things.

You know when you get to the point where you run out of all your staple foods in the cupboard and you know you’re going to have to do a big grocery shop to get everything restocked. Or where things in your house start falling apart at once and you know you have to go out and replace or repair it all to get everything back in order. That’s kind of like my life right now. Everything seems to be going wrong and I just need some sort of hope, or something nice to happen, one good thing to be able to see clearly again.

Last night we had to drag the mattress downstairs and sleep in the loungeroom. When we went to bed, at around 11:30pm, it was 30C (86F). You walk upstairs stand still for 5 seconds and you start dripping with sweat. It was horrible and it’s still horrible. We ran the air conditioner all night plus had the fan going trying to direct more of it on us. It was so hot, that if you moved out of the line of the air, you started sweating again. I can’t remember it ever having been that bad. I don’t know what’s going on. Our computer’s CPU and HD were running at 65C + (149F). James actually had to leave the case off his computer to stop it from overheating.

In better news, this will be my fourth day in row of gym going. I really needed to push myself yesterday but I got there. I’m trying to make that habit form I just wish it wasn’t such a long process. Considering going back to classes too, Combat, balance etc. I really enjoyed them. I think I just need a little more time to get re-adjusted into a higher fitness level again before I take on the hour long classes. God, I used to do two classes back to back.

What’s getting me there at the moment is the fact that it’s really cold at the gym. That’s a good enough excuse for me to get out of this breadbox

I don’t understand the lure of McDonalds. Everytime we pop into the food court at the Plaza for lunch we have to fight our way through the swarm of people lined up 10 to 20 people back at the McDonalds counter.

If you stand in the middle of the court and look around you notice a common theme. There are a number of yummilicious food places there, including sandwich shops, wraps, Indian and Italian styles. Yet everywhere I look the lines are pouring out of McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut while the sandwich line consists of two or three people.

I don’t get it, really. I’m amazed to see people with Mcdonalds baguettes, cardboardy looking things in a little advertising wrapped jacket yet not two feet from them, is a store that specialises in baguettes that don’t taste like pants. Fresh grain breads, overflowing with salads and freshly cooked chicken or deli meats. Food that leaves you feeling full and satisfied without having consumed half your daily calories in one sitting.

Families that do indulge in the cuisine and opt out of the Mcdonalds line are in it after they purchase their own lunch for the kid’s happy meal. Where I sat for lunch yesterday there were about 15 children. 14 out of 15 had happy meals and the one that didn’t, sat with a pizza hut box infront of them and a face covered in cheese and pizza sauce. Ok so I understand the process of keeping children happy. They get the toy, they are happy, content for a few moments but what about nutrition, what about all the far tastier foods out there?

Now I’m not talking about the Parents that allow their kids to have McDonalds occasionally and indeed are careful otherwise with what they eat, I’m all for that. Denying something from them isn’t the way to go. Besides kids have so much energy, they probably burn it off on the car ride home. But all the time, every day, and that’s all they eat? Slap a happy meal infront of them and be done with it. They won’t know the difference and you’ll feel like a good parent. Keep telling yourself that.

Sometimes I feel like going around tables and educating people on the nutrition value of that Quarter Pounder they just woofed down because I seriously think some people are just blissfully ignorant. It probably wouldn’t make much difference anyway. Our society seems to be run by these marketing giants.

Do you know each year, more money is spent on french fries than on higher education, personal computers, or new cars? McDonalds now has a healthy choice range. Yeah. Healthier than what though? Than their Big Mac? Of course it is. There are around 1,166 calories in a Quarter Pounder meal and 51g of fat. A KFC two piece meal has 1,232 calories and around 57g of fat. Considering we should be eating around 1900 to 2700 calories a day and around 35 to 40g of fat, something doesn’t seem right about that.

I can’t see the attraction. McDonalds and KFC is horrible food, why does everyone keep eating it?