Reasons I like living in Heidelberg

Near to my house, there is a tiny cemetery. It consists of one small house block on a regular street. It's probably about 15 mins walk from my house. I was driving my mum's car back home this afternoon and noticed that there were two rabbits in there. I decided to drop in and take a few photos. The rabbits were obviously someone's pets. I hope they don't get run over, one of them hopped into the road as I was leaving. Enjoy!

Lessons learned from thesis writing

Here's something I've learned today about thesis writing. No-one gives a crap about your thesis figures. They don't care how long you've spent on them, they really don't appreciate the works of art that they are. Fuckers.

My life is now dominated by thesis, thesis and preparing to move house. Thesis, preparing to move house, and contemplating going to Canberrang (swing festival in Canberra). Thesis, preparing to move house, contemplating Canberrang and getting married. Thesis, preparing to move house, contemplating Canberrang, getting married and moving to Sweden. But mostly thesis, yeah right!

Ah deary me! I am looking forward to being settled in the new house. I'm hoping it brings a lot of writing goodness and I hope that it all falls into place after that.

In other news, I've started watching Dexter on TV. I like it. I get where my friends raving about it last year were coming from. That and Grand Designs have to be my favourite TV shows at the moment.

To tie this up. Lesson learned: no-one else gives a fuck about my thesis, except me, and maybe my supervisor. But we are keen on it for different reasons, and the same ones too I guess. Getting me the hell out of the PhD student land and into gainful employment. Must get back to it. A chapter is almost ready for supes to read.

Changes

In recent news, the boy has decided that he's 'the man' in our relationship now. This means he makes the important decisions in the relationship. This means, he decides (apparently) which football team we support, Western Bulldogs. I've tried to explain that that isn't how things work with football team support. But he is adamant that he is the Man and that his word is final. I think I'll just let him believe that if it makes him happy.

In other news, we have a house to live in together, yay! It's in Heidelberg, it's 3 bedrooms and it's a 3 month lease. That means we have three months to get my thesis finished, get married and get sorted to move to Sweden. Wish us luck, I think we'll need it.
We're moving in next weekend, so this week will be packing and preparing.
The other news of the last week has been that I have been suffering from what I'm pretty sure, was the flu. I had been feeling pretty poorly since last weekend and on Thursday I was exceptionally unwell. I took my mum to have her foot operated on and then spent the next 6 hours asleep at her house. I also stayed the night and slept most of Friday as well. Fortunately, today I'm finally feeling human and I think that by the time comes to get moving I should be feeling back to normal.

Living in Armadale

So, I went for a run/walk thing this morning. Just walked down to the local park, ran around a bit, came home. On the way home I decided to play my favourite Toorak/Armadale/South Yarra game, how many 4 wheel drives. They are ever so prevalent here. To make the point more clear, I counted 104 4 wheel drives on my way home. It took me about 25 mins to walk back from the park. That's a lot of 4wd cars. I excluded all the ones that were obviously work trucks for those many many builders and handymen working on houses around the place. And if the car had dirt on it, and looked as though it had actually been used for off road driving, it was also excluded. 104! Gotta love people with more money than sense, or hate them? I wonder. Anywho, in my travels I also saw three labradors and two friendly cats. The cats were ever so keen to be patted. One tabby and one ginger. That is all, time to work on a project proposal for the Swedish Research Council and do some washing.

Homecoming

I've been back in Melbourne now for 24 hours. Did I mention I was coming back? Yeah, I decided that writing my thesis would be more efficient with my boy near me. The boy is now my fiance, that's the new change as well. We decided to get married soon after my birthday and plans are afoot. We're going to make use of the registry office and have a small, tiny, hard to see wedding.

So what else is news? I'm in Melbourne - tick. I'm getting married - tick. I'm moving to Sweden -tick. I'm writing my thesis -tick. I've been doing very little exercise -tick. I'm feeling a little displaced -tick. But I'm good. Give me a week and we'll be firing on all cylinders.

I'm going to look at an apartment this afternoon in Alphington, wish me luck that it's fabulous and they take us. We need somewhere new to live.

End vague and useless post.

Speakeasy Blues Performance

Something else, vaguely interesting

I posted a photo of a mug of Max Brenner's hot chocolate quite some time ago. Turns out that it's a popular photo when getting people to check out this blog. I've been wasting some time checking out via sitemeter where people are coming from when finding their way here. This photo is apparently a big reason:

You dirty bunch of bastards. Trust the thing that brings most people here is a picture that could possibly look like minge. Deary deary me. But what else was the internerd invented for but for pictures of minge. I know, boobs and arses too. And probably cock. Can you tell I'm tired? And procrastinating?

Notes I write myself late at night

This was to remind me to dissect the prostate glands from some developing pupae. It's sad that I have to write these things to myself, but necessary. This was written at about 11pm. So, due to the approximately 5 hours sleep I had last night, I'm off home for a snooze to come back later to do some kick arse microscopy of some different fly prostates from developing pupae. My life is ever the interesting.

Reasons I am turning into my grandma and nanna

So I've realised in the last couple of weeks, I'm turning into my grandma, and her mum, my nanna. I present the following evidence:
Nanna used to like drinking just hot water rather than tea or coffee. She also drank a glass of water with lemon juice in it most mornings. I have taken to drinking hot water with lemon juice in it. Yum!
Grandma was the kind of woman who would read something in a newspaper article or magazine and go with the idea. This usually related to food. She read once that walnuts were good for reducing your blood pressure. So she stopped taking her blood pressure medication and just ate walnuts instead. She loved a food fad. My act of finding something in a magazine/newspaper wasn't a food thing though. I read somewhere that washing your hair only with conditioner was great for it, especially for those people like me with dry skin. Your hair apparently goes through a phase of being desperately greasy and then it rights itself. Today I'm wearing a headscarf to cover over the greasy hair. It's slowly getting there, I'm about a week and half in. If it doesn't improve soon, I think I'll give it a miss. But to be honest, it hasn't been that bad.

Just thought I'd share that. And the following: yesterday I went and saw tap dogs at parliament house and then went to see Kevin Rudd's office. Wheeee!

immortal log update

I'm trying to kill the immortal log in our toilet. It really is living up to the name. There are a couple of bottles of creme developer that live next to the vanity unit in our bathroom. They contain peroxide. I've put some in the bowl and I'm going to leave it there for a while. I'm hoping it'll dissolve whatever it is that has taken up residence in our toilet.

This sort of thing makes me wonder about what my housemate must be eating. I can't imagine it's healthy stuff.

Newspapers

I quite regularly check out the Age website. I like seeing what's making news in my hometown of Melbourne. I like to have a look at the most viewed articles section at the bottom of the page. But there aren't just the most viewed articles from the age, there are also the most viewed articles from the brisbane times and also the sydney morning herald. I've noticed a trend. The articles most viewed in the bris times are inevitably of the more sensational variety. I wonder if that says something about people in Brisbane, or whether it says something about my prejudices. Probably a bit of both. But I do wonder about that. Why do those up north more reguarly click on the articles with the least intellectual content? Like the stuff about Lara Bingle getting engaged, or the latest Britney Spears scandal (like we give a toss).

The thesis work obviously continues apace. Back to it.

Lazy Kate and scooter riding

I always think of things to blog about when I'm riding my scooter into the lab or on the way home. But by the time I get to work or home, I'm too lazy to get organised to post anything. So this'll be a start at trying to get back on track with the blogging.

Today is a rainy day, I keep on checking the www.bom.gov.au website to look at the radar pictures, waiting for a clear patch to head into the lab. There won't be one for hours. So I'm stuck in the house with the crazy dogs, waiting for a clear patch. This isn't so bad, I do have a PhD thesis to write, so I guess that's something to keep myself occupied. But it's also kinda hard to get going with that. But I will have something done by the end of today, something productive towards the thesis. I have already made a few thesis figures, so I guess that is a good start. Photoshop is ruining my brain though. That program is evil.

What other things are new in the land of Kate you ask? Or you would if you were reading this and gave a crap. The wedding I went to in Perth the other weekend was delightful, though we almost didn't make it in time. I blame cabs in Perth. Sneaky bastards never turning up. We made it in the end though so that was good. It was in Kings Park with the reception at the Old Swan Brewery. Both bride and groom were gorgeous and I'm so pleased they are married now. It's about time though, they've been together for more than 10 years now.

I'm heading back to Perth in a few weeks for some more dancing extravagance. It should also be a delight. I'm making a dress to wear to the ball and I need to sort out a mask. The dress will be pink and navy blue from a 1947 pattern. I need to adjust it a fair bit though, my lack of waist means that it's a bit snug around the middle. According to the measurements on the packet, my bust is a size 12, my hips are also a size 12, my waist is the right size for a size 16. There is something wrong with that. So I've adjusted the pattern accordingly and on the weekend I made up a mock top half of the dress with some fabric I've had sitting around for the best part of a decade. It was never going to be anything that I'd actually wear and now it's made itself useful.

On the easter weekend I did a few things. I performed at the national folk festival, hurting my back in the process. I drank a ridiculous amount of alcohol on Good Friday. I spent all Saturday recovering from that. But I didn't spew and am proud of myself for that. I've evidently learned some restraint in my 27 and a bit years.

Other than these fun things I've been working on my thesis, trying to get some final experiments to work and looking around to find a job to do once I'm finished the PhD. Fingers crossed something good will turn up and I can do some exciting work and get paid again.

More to come, when I'm next procrastinating expect another post. Maybe with photos, but don't hold your breath.

Final note: for those that remember the immortal log blog, it's back and refusing to die. It's definitely not mine this time. Ew!

What I did last night

I did a few things last night, all of which I am proud. I taught two dancing classes at our new venue, Macgregor Hall. Chris and I hit our teaching groove and were really working well together. We got our students dancing like fabulous dancey things and I am hopeful that they all enjoyed themselves. I was moderately smutty, but not too much. Just enough to make it amusing, or so I think anyway.

I picked up my housemate from the airport. I managed to score a free pie from the caltex next to the airport. I think if you turn up later in the evening (around 9pm) they are pretty happy to get rid of the remainders. My stomach is still okay, so I've assumed that there weren't any nasties in the pie.

I taught two friends of mine some basics of tap dancing. I haven't tapped for quite a number of years. I think about 5. But it was definitely all coming back last night. I have organised with the boys to get them to feed me in exchange for lessons. Feed the poor student is the name of the game. It was heaps of fun too.

The final thing I did last night was probably the funniest though. JJF is moving house this weekend and came over to drop off some of my stuff that I'd left in his cupboards. He turned up with the stuff at around midnight. He also brought with him a can of Mr Sheen and a big cloth. There is a park with some play equipment in it, just down the road from my house. Within the equipment is a metal slide. We've used the park for smashed by Kate for the last few weeks and noticed last week that the slide wasn't very slippery. JJF had the solution, Mr Sheen.
So we wandered down there with the Mr Sheen and the big cloth, soon after midnight. He sprayed the slide, and I was the first tester. I sat on the cloth and slid down, spreading out all the Mr Sheen. It was really fast, really, really fast. JJF slid down next and almost hit his head, he was going so fast he came off at an astounding rate and nearly fell onto his noggin. I laughed so hard. I kept thinking of all the kids who will use the slide in the future and will fly off. I think they'll get some pretty good air time. We played around with the slide for a few minutes after that. Then it was pretty much time to go home and get some sleep.

I had a pretty exciting evening last night. Topped off with some fabulous giggles with my best mate. Who, by the way, did pass the fitness test for the AFP and has only the interview left to pass before he can go to police college. The boy now wants him to change his surname, at least on facebook, to Gutenberg. And we have to watch a police academy marathon.

When you are out and about sometimes you see things that make you laugh

This is one of the things that made me laugh recently while out and about. I'd just been to Questacon with friends. We had dropped off JJF's girlfriend at her house and were heading home, stopping on the way in Manuka to get dusted jelly babies. We passed a cafe and we saw the following:



I was amused. That is all. I'd write more about how touched I was about the sorry speech Kevin Rudd made today, but I have flies that desperately need my attention downstairs.

Smashed by Kate

For the last little while I've been running what we've termed 'Smashed By Kate'. It's a boot camp/personal training effort. It's rather fun. I get to be quite a nasty bitch and tell people what to do. After one session last week, I sent a text message to a friend, asking if he was in pain at all. His response was a one word text message: Bitch. I think he may have been suffering somewhat. Hehehehehehe. That does amuse me.
I have to admit, I was in a fair amount of pain too. Last week had 7 participants including myself. We did, amongst other things, walking lunges in a line from the park down the road, most of the way home. It also included lots of push ups, lots of sit ups and the beep test. Next week JJF is going to do the physical entrance test to the AFP again. He's been working pretty hard, so I anticipate that he'll get in this time.
I gave him a good copper haircut last night. About a number 2 or 3 all over. He obliged me also, by cutting my hair. It needed a bit of going over later, to make some adjustments to stop it kicking out all over the shop. But it was my favourite kind of haircut, free!
Oh yeah, so back to the SBK. This week will be a bit of a test run for the AFP entrance test. We'll all see if we can get into the police, well at least physically. I'm not sure we'd all past the psych test. Fingers crossed we'll also see Princess Kate (PK) there this time. It'll help the gender balance, and help with the Kate quotient.

Dogs!

Well this weekend saw the whole household, including dogs and my housemate's boyfriend traveling to Captain's Flat to have a look at Huskies. My housemate LJS had decided that when E moves out, her dog Tikka will need a companion. So it was off to look at dogs who might fit into our happy little home.
The drive down saw the BF and LJS and Tikka in one car and E, myself and Toren in the other. Toren was rather excited at the trip and licked my ear on numerous occasions from his position in the backseat. It was very affectionate, but at the same time kinda gross as I know what he does with that tongue and it's not pleasant.
We arrived to have a look at three different dogs, all in need of a home. A male dog, Beau, who was white, very friendly, but a lot bigger than we were looking for. Teaka, a 3 year old white husky, with different coloured eyes. The last dog was Coco, a dog who while only a year old had already had a litter of pups. She was brown/red, probably a cross with another breed and very sweet. In the end, the different coloured eyes of Teaka won the day. But having a name like Teaka, so close to Tikka, LJS changed her name to Ava.
So now at home there are three dogs. Two kelpie/husky crosses and a purebred Husky. She has already shown that she will be an interesting dog to live with. She's escaped once, more on that later, and she and Tikka are sorting out the pecking order. It'll be a little while before we know who the new boss of the dogs is, but my bet is on Ava. She's very sweet though, and submissive to humans and loves a belly rub, so she'll no doubt fit in well in the long term.

Stories for me to tell you tomorrow: Smashed by Kate, my new boot camp thing that I'm running with some friends on Sundays and dinner at the day to day supervisor's house, who is no longer my day to day supervisor, she has a job in the public service so we have to eat dinner to talk science. But it's rather nice having a sciencey meeting with wine, we should have done that earlier! But now I'm off to get ready to teach the first of the ANU dancing classes for this year. And the penultimate class at the ANU refectory.

Two things

My scooter got to 20,000kms today. I have booked it in for a service tomorrow. Fingers crossed it won't be too expensive.

I noticed about ten minutes after arriving today that I should have worn a belt. I have evidently lost weight since last summer and these shorts are on the roomy side. Question is: go home and get belt, tough it out, or buy a new belt at lunchtime?

update

I saw the movie Atonement on Saturday afternoon. It was going to be a solitary 'get out of the heat' event. It turned into quite the social occasion. I'm teaching a jazz routine next week (do a youtube search for hotpockets and jojo to find it) and have been practicing the teaching of it with Princess Kate (PK), as she won't be able to make the actual class. We were having a go Saturday morning and then sitting around chatting afterwards. My housemate and her boy were thinking of what to do for the day and I said I had plans to go see a movie to get out of the heat. They decided to come with and PK thought that perhaps she and her boy M would also join us.
So, cut to later in the day and housemate, boy and myself were at the mall ready to go to the film. PK and M had phoned to say they were on their way. Housemate's parents were coincidentally going to the same session, we run into friends of housemate's boy. In the end there were 9 of us seeing the same film in the same session. Crazy.
I absolutely adored the movie. It was sad, it was funny, it was shot exceptionally well. My only gripe is that James McAvoy didn't have his shirt off enough. Other than that, I give it two thumbs up. The costuming in particular was great.
What else is news you ask? Tomorrow night we are hosting a dancing birthday party at my house. We have bought 10m of lino (dark grey marble) and we are having any number of people come over to dance and play sing star. I predict it will be the party that we'll all talk about in the weeks to come. Until such time as there is another one like it. It's a genius idea. Lino + talcum powder = an excellent dance space. We tested it out on Sunday afternoon and found it to be great. Can't wait to try it out for real with a whole party of people. I'll be DJing half of the event. Wish me luck.

Two things

Kevin Rudd is PM, yay! We have a deputy PM (who is currently acting PM) who is a woman. Woo woo! That is all. Please return to your usual daily activities. I will update when I am not sick and not running around doing endless experiments and waiting for science to treat me better.

back home again

I'm back in Canberra. After 7 weeks away, I'm back. It's much warmer and sunnier here than it was back in August. The lab is much the same. My house is much the same, though currently covered in dirt and dust. Everything is pretty much the way I left it. My brain, however, is not. It is fuzzled and useless. I hate jet lag. So because my brain is addled and I couldn't possibly update you on all that has been going on. I present, some of my favourite pictures of my trip. The ones with the funny names and the one with me drinking an exceptionally large beer.

This is from Gothenburg. It's a chinese restaurant.



Spunk wine gums in Copenhagen.



The call button for a lift in Copenhagen.



Chocolate in Sweden.



Beer drinking Kate