(no subject)
Snaps to me! So far I've been keeping up with LJ. I'm amazed because for about six months I've been saying this, and yet it hadn't happened. It's a start, my tulips - it's a start!
My computer's power supply exploded on me yesterday meaning that until I can go and get the part tomorrow, I don't have a computer. It's going to be an interesting experience, because I'm going to have a go at fixing it myself. In the past, any time something's gone wrong with my computer my dad just fixes it for me - he built my computer from scratch (for "fun", ugh) and I've been really lucky that I've always had 24-hour on-site service, heh. Unfortunately, since moving I don't have that luxury anymore; however, he told me how to take my computer apart, and he'll talk me through it over the phone. I feel like Izzie Stevens after the ferry accident, when she had to drill into that guy's brain whilst the Chief was instructing her over the phone. I mean, my computer is just as precious as a guy's brain, right? ;)
Today was the one-year anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires, one of Australia's worst national disasters ever. (My post was here, although my image links are broken, d'oh.) Lots of remembrance on TV; one of my friends works for the Channel 9 news and went to Kinglake (one of the worst affected towns) and said the memorial service was really touching. I was at a night market the other day and one of the stalls had photos from all around the country, taken in the 1930's and 40's, and the ones of Marysville saddened me. That town was completely wiped out. I just can't believe it's been a year already.
And it's really quite ironic that it rained 450mm in 24 hours here. IT IS SO GREEN AND LUSH HERE. I haven't seen grass flooded with water for... so, so long. I just wish some of the rain would go down south. I don't think the Victorian in me will easily shake the mentality of drought ("SPRINKLERS! OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THEM!"). The Boy's parents just got back from Melbourne and everything is still so dry and yellow there, sigh.
On the work front, we had our very first dance class with the preschoolers this week. I couldn't sleep the night before, I was so anxious, but it went really well. Eleven girls, no tears except for one (she was fine after a while) and my curriculum seemed to go down well. So relieved that first hurdle is over! We have four more trial classes with three other classes a great possibility, so we're getting that ball rolling!
Because I've been meaning to write this down for a while (more for myself than anything), I present:
Twelve Random Thoughts About Moving, The Gold Coast, Melbourne And The Differences Between
Disclaimer: I'm not attacking any place here. If you're from a place I mention, please don't take it badly. I'm just writing out the random points as I think of them.
1. The taste of Queensland water took me a while to get used to. It's not bad, but Melbourne water tastes like filtered water. This water tastes of... stuff. Not as bad as Hong Kong water, though, which tastes of chlorine. :P
2. Humidity is my enemy. I prefer the dryer heat of the south. But Queensland has lovely tropical rain to make up for it!
3. Speaking of, the rain here is glorious. It thunders down heavily and I love it. Melbourne has weak-arse rain. Also, Melbourne really does have four seasons in a day. The Gold Coast is consistently 30°C every day! I don't have to check the weather forecast when I wake up in the morning!
4. The people are so laidback here. My standard of dress is dropping, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I used to be so anal about always straightening my hair, wearing a decent outfit... but here I feel like I can throw on any old t-shirt and it's totally acceptable. Beach culture, yay!
5. The beach is constantly within arm's reach. The ones close by me in Melbourne weren't worth going to, so we had to drive further to get to the good ones and frankly, I couldn't be bothered. Here, there's one on my doorstep.
6. However, I do miss the city. Coming from Melbourne with almost 4 million people, and Hong Kong with 7 million, to a beach city (though still called a 'town') with 500,000 has made me long for walking down Swanston St, weaving through crowds and seeing anything and everything. That's another thing: the Gold Coast is the most Anglo city I've ever been to. Back home, every second person is Asian, Indian, Middle-Eastern, you name it. I don't mind one or the other, it's just different. But I know Brisbane is only an hour away, so I have a city on hand for when lunchtime-crowd weaving desires strike! (I'm really missing the theatre though; I so want to go to Cats and Mamma Mia and Mary Poppins and it's killing me that I can't.)
7. People say "youse" a lot here (as in, "see youse later!"). It kind of drives me mental.
8. I do love living fifteen minutes away from Dreamworld, Wet 'n' Wild and Movie World though.
9. I really need to get my boat license so I can learn how to jetski.
10. I suddenly have Foxtel at my disposal (I never wanted it in Melbourne; imagine how much time I would have wasted otherwise!) and am enjoying reruns of Blue Heelers and random shows on E! and the Lifestyle channel. ("There's a whole channel that just tells you what's on the other channels!" IS SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS SUPPOSED TO BE TERRIFYING?) I've never watched TV for the sake of watching (i.e. random flicking 'cause I'm bored - I'd rather rewatch episodes of shows) but now I'm finding that I am. Damn it!
11. The public transport infrastructure the government are investing here is going to be good. I feel like they've looked at Sydney and Melbourne and just gone, "Ha, we won't make those mistakes!" I do believe that in ten years or so, Brisbane is going to be a very cool city.
12. THERE NEEDS TO BE DAYLIGHT SAVING HERE, OMG. Having the sun set at 6:30pm in summer is ridiculous.
...I swear I had more but I can't think of them now. Sorry non-Melburnians/Brisbanites, this was probably really quite boring.
Caught the Amy Poehler episode of "Best of SNL" last night and had great fun talking along with Tina Feylin and reciting the Palin rap. No, I haven't watched those clips repeatedly. Of course not. I have also converted The Boy into a watcher of Desperate Housewives and Packed to the Rafters. Only Grey's to go! Mwahaha.
Also, for the first time ever, 30 Rock depressed me this week. I still laughed, but there was an underlying sadness in it that I've never had before. Liz Lemon, I do love you more than life itself, but telling Jenna that - c'mon, she's your mum, forgive everything she's done to you! - is not remotely helpful or sympathetic. Sometimes what parents do is unforgiveable and no matter what they do or say later doesn't ever erase that. Kids carry that for the rest of their lives and that never stops hurting. Trust me, LL. Standing you up for Christmas to go to Arizona is nothing. (Sidenote: LIZ TOTALLY WANTS JACK'S BABIES. THE END.)
Chinese New Year falls on Valentine's this year. As a ignorer of the latter, and a vague observer of the former (usually only for the money!) we're going to a Chinese restaurant that night. Last year it fell on Australia Day. Next year I'm expecting it to fall on Good Friday BECAUSE IT LIKES TO STEAL OTHER PUBLIC HOLIDAYS' THUNDER.
Okay, this is long enough. Cec out!
My computer's power supply exploded on me yesterday meaning that until I can go and get the part tomorrow, I don't have a computer. It's going to be an interesting experience, because I'm going to have a go at fixing it myself. In the past, any time something's gone wrong with my computer my dad just fixes it for me - he built my computer from scratch (for "fun", ugh) and I've been really lucky that I've always had 24-hour on-site service, heh. Unfortunately, since moving I don't have that luxury anymore; however, he told me how to take my computer apart, and he'll talk me through it over the phone. I feel like Izzie Stevens after the ferry accident, when she had to drill into that guy's brain whilst the Chief was instructing her over the phone. I mean, my computer is just as precious as a guy's brain, right? ;)
Today was the one-year anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires, one of Australia's worst national disasters ever. (My post was here, although my image links are broken, d'oh.) Lots of remembrance on TV; one of my friends works for the Channel 9 news and went to Kinglake (one of the worst affected towns) and said the memorial service was really touching. I was at a night market the other day and one of the stalls had photos from all around the country, taken in the 1930's and 40's, and the ones of Marysville saddened me. That town was completely wiped out. I just can't believe it's been a year already.
And it's really quite ironic that it rained 450mm in 24 hours here. IT IS SO GREEN AND LUSH HERE. I haven't seen grass flooded with water for... so, so long. I just wish some of the rain would go down south. I don't think the Victorian in me will easily shake the mentality of drought ("SPRINKLERS! OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THEM!"). The Boy's parents just got back from Melbourne and everything is still so dry and yellow there, sigh.
On the work front, we had our very first dance class with the preschoolers this week. I couldn't sleep the night before, I was so anxious, but it went really well. Eleven girls, no tears except for one (she was fine after a while) and my curriculum seemed to go down well. So relieved that first hurdle is over! We have four more trial classes with three other classes a great possibility, so we're getting that ball rolling!
Because I've been meaning to write this down for a while (more for myself than anything), I present:
Twelve Random Thoughts About Moving, The Gold Coast, Melbourne And The Differences Between
Disclaimer: I'm not attacking any place here. If you're from a place I mention, please don't take it badly. I'm just writing out the random points as I think of them.
1. The taste of Queensland water took me a while to get used to. It's not bad, but Melbourne water tastes like filtered water. This water tastes of... stuff. Not as bad as Hong Kong water, though, which tastes of chlorine. :P
2. Humidity is my enemy. I prefer the dryer heat of the south. But Queensland has lovely tropical rain to make up for it!
3. Speaking of, the rain here is glorious. It thunders down heavily and I love it. Melbourne has weak-arse rain. Also, Melbourne really does have four seasons in a day. The Gold Coast is consistently 30°C every day! I don't have to check the weather forecast when I wake up in the morning!
4. The people are so laidback here. My standard of dress is dropping, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I used to be so anal about always straightening my hair, wearing a decent outfit... but here I feel like I can throw on any old t-shirt and it's totally acceptable. Beach culture, yay!
5. The beach is constantly within arm's reach. The ones close by me in Melbourne weren't worth going to, so we had to drive further to get to the good ones and frankly, I couldn't be bothered. Here, there's one on my doorstep.
6. However, I do miss the city. Coming from Melbourne with almost 4 million people, and Hong Kong with 7 million, to a beach city (though still called a 'town') with 500,000 has made me long for walking down Swanston St, weaving through crowds and seeing anything and everything. That's another thing: the Gold Coast is the most Anglo city I've ever been to. Back home, every second person is Asian, Indian, Middle-Eastern, you name it. I don't mind one or the other, it's just different. But I know Brisbane is only an hour away, so I have a city on hand for when lunchtime-crowd weaving desires strike! (I'm really missing the theatre though; I so want to go to Cats and Mamma Mia and Mary Poppins and it's killing me that I can't.)
7. People say "youse" a lot here (as in, "see youse later!"). It kind of drives me mental.
8. I do love living fifteen minutes away from Dreamworld, Wet 'n' Wild and Movie World though.
9. I really need to get my boat license so I can learn how to jetski.
10. I suddenly have Foxtel at my disposal (I never wanted it in Melbourne; imagine how much time I would have wasted otherwise!) and am enjoying reruns of Blue Heelers and random shows on E! and the Lifestyle channel. ("There's a whole channel that just tells you what's on the other channels!" IS SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS SUPPOSED TO BE TERRIFYING?) I've never watched TV for the sake of watching (i.e. random flicking 'cause I'm bored - I'd rather rewatch episodes of shows) but now I'm finding that I am. Damn it!
11. The public transport infrastructure the government are investing here is going to be good. I feel like they've looked at Sydney and Melbourne and just gone, "Ha, we won't make those mistakes!" I do believe that in ten years or so, Brisbane is going to be a very cool city.
12. THERE NEEDS TO BE DAYLIGHT SAVING HERE, OMG. Having the sun set at 6:30pm in summer is ridiculous.
...I swear I had more but I can't think of them now. Sorry non-Melburnians/Brisbanites, this was probably really quite boring.
Caught the Amy Poehler episode of "Best of SNL" last night and had great fun talking along with Tina Feylin and reciting the Palin rap. No, I haven't watched those clips repeatedly. Of course not. I have also converted The Boy into a watcher of Desperate Housewives and Packed to the Rafters. Only Grey's to go! Mwahaha.
Also, for the first time ever, 30 Rock depressed me this week. I still laughed, but there was an underlying sadness in it that I've never had before. Liz Lemon, I do love you more than life itself, but telling Jenna that - c'mon, she's your mum, forgive everything she's done to you! - is not remotely helpful or sympathetic. Sometimes what parents do is unforgiveable and no matter what they do or say later doesn't ever erase that. Kids carry that for the rest of their lives and that never stops hurting. Trust me, LL. Standing you up for Christmas to go to Arizona is nothing. (Sidenote: LIZ TOTALLY WANTS JACK'S BABIES. THE END.)
Chinese New Year falls on Valentine's this year. As a ignorer of the latter, and a vague observer of the former (usually only for the money!) we're going to a Chinese restaurant that night. Last year it fell on Australia Day. Next year I'm expecting it to fall on Good Friday BECAUSE IT LIKES TO STEAL OTHER PUBLIC HOLIDAYS' THUNDER.
Okay, this is long enough. Cec out!