Hairspray

It's done! Work is finished.

I am now spending some time musing what I will buy with all my new cash. That's right NEW cash!...perhaps I emphasised the wrong word there, new CASH! CASH MONEEEY!

Well, an i-pod is definatelly on the list. I mean, it's just one of those seemingle necessary items I just don't have and never have had and I can't be the only person in the world without one, amiright? I am. It's going to be some wonderful bright colour.

I am also most of my way through a delicious giant block of white whittakers chocolate. Do you want to know why that's exciting? It's exciting my little darlings (my many many darling readers...I can't pretend like I don't know you exist anymore!) because I thought that they had DISCONTINUED making this gem of a chocolate.

So we all know that Whittakers makes Cadbury and Nestle and all the other brands it's little bitches because it's made in New Zealand and it's so gorgeous and ethical and tasty.

And let's be honest, white chocolate has been on a massive decline since Cadbury etc started fucking with the original ingredients - it started tasting pretty bland, flakey and weird.

Whittakers saves the day though! Woo! Delicious, tasty, sweet real tasting white chocolate! Get on it.

So what else? I made my triumphant return to the gym today, which was successful in the sense that I actually went and was non successful if you look at how much good working out I did.

I'm starting to gear up for the end of semester now. I'm just putting the finishing touches on my last 2 assignments and when they're done and dusted i'll start exam revision! Wooo!

Out of my 5 subjects, I've already sat the exam for one which was laughable. (It was counselling, like that was going to be hard.) I just need to hand in my journal which has been annoying to write. It goes something like this:

'Today I decided to just speak up and say what I think in class instead of worrying that the other people there will judge me. I had to remind myself that all the other students in this class are Naturopaths, and why the hell would I care about what they think. It's not like they know anything anyway.'

True story.

I'm expecting my period any minute and I want to try and have a handle on all my assignments before then, because during my last 2 bleeds i've been completely loopy. It's because i'm Xue Xu (which means Blood Deficient, for all you non chinese med readers...which is all of you.)and when I lose blood my brain stops working. Yep!

Now i'm off to do an assignment for musculoskeletal traumatology, i'm doing the knee (thanks Chloe for the hands on knee experience!) and the neck (thanks migraine inducing neck of mine!)

Love to the hundreds of you,

Nani x

P.S It has been brought to my attention that though I thought I'd fixed the comments issue on my blog it infact wasn't working!

Gah! So I've fixed it now (I think) and you should be able to comment now if you want even if you have no google account. You can comment annonymously telling me I have a big butt and i'll never know it was you. (Though I will know it was you Fabian.)

<3

Push

I've done it again, I know.

I'm sorry. I'm so neglectful!

So a quick update, I'm working like crazy and have been trying to juggle lots of things at the same time. Sadly, i'm a bad clown and these are the balls that have been dropped:

-My room looks like a bomb site, complete with an empty nutella jar and my entire wardrobe on the floor

-I haven't been to the gym in weeks! Like 2! And you're kidding yourselves if you think I haven't been eating sweets. (see above: nutella jar)

-Hair, again, is going unwashed, for AGES.

-Photos! I've well fucked it. The whole photo a day thing that is.

And probably a good thing too, it's not like i'm a very good or creative photographer anyway! If I had been, the passed few weeks would be filled with photos of me sleeping or working, or many photos of my or my sisters dogs. Riveting.

However, today is the last day I will be working and then it's time for school work. I bet you just can't wait for the juicy tales of how my exam preparation is going! Hells yeah!

I have actually managed to do a little of some stuff since I last wrote, like the new aquaponics set Fab and I are working on is pretty kickass. I've also been watching somesweet DVD's and I'm working on something really cool in pottery at the moment.

My coil pot came out beautifully and I'm working on a present for Fabian for his graduation WHICH, by the way is soon. Not the ceremony but he's seriously only weeks away from finishing his degree and starting honours. I'm very proud. In case you can't tell.

Okay, now it's back to work or this will actually extend to tomorrow and i'm determined it be done today!

<3 N x

C'est La Vie

How strange life is!

I've had a bit of a turbulent weekend with some sad news (someone I used to have a very complex relationship with died). Luckily my family and Fabian are incredible and were very there for me and kept me active/busy but also were there to talk shit out with me.

Fabian and I painted the inside of a rainwater tank with waterproofing pond sealer in anticipation for using it in a new aquaponics setup, now my right flank is unbelievably sore - like I did some crazy workout at the gym! I think i've found a way to rid myself of muffintops - hooray!

We also did a bit of Harry Potter watching and cooking.

Yesterday the first layer of paint in the tank was done and we went out the front of Fabian's house to pick some olives. He has a beautiful big olive tree that produces mass amounts of olives, though the supply is usually depleted whenever his friends come around. (They get thrown at each others cars and testicles. Of course.)

This year though it was just overwhelming! So many olives. We've talked about pickling them before because we both love olives but never seem to get around to it when they are perfect for picking.

We picked a massive bucket full of olives (in the rain! On ladders!) and they're on their way to being pickled! Very exciting. I will be posting photos when I get around to it.

School was just beginning to be a little stressful in the passed few days (I have an oral assessment today and another one on Friday) but the news I got on the weekend has put things in perspective, as death often does.

It's just no big deal, it's just uni work. Of course i'll just do it, and it will be done and then it'll be finished. Nothing to get so worked up over, to stress about. I know my tune will change again, but for now i'm very apathetic about it.

Don't get me wrong, I have actually had a really beautiful weekend. The weather was spectacular and Fabian took the time off from doing any school work to just spend time with me and it was something I really needed. I get waves of feeling very sad etc but I think i'm dealing very well.

Sorry to Chloe and Libby who I unceremoniously kicked out of my house after I got the phone call! We will finish our game of scrabble another night.

Love N xx

Lost and Found

I found it! Hurrah! I knew I would! I told you. It showed up just 2 days after the new one arrived. Of course.

I believe that my lipsticks are actually soul mates, and they were going to huge lengths/taking massive risks in order to be reunited.

I love them so much I've been taking vain photos of myself in the mirror. On that note: Why is it that vain photos were SO MUCH easier when I was 16? Was I just way better looking? I find 1 in like 10 photos that are acceptable as a myspace shot.

Ha, yeah, myspace. So 2005.

Anyway, here is my gorgeous lipstick AND MY GORGEOUS FACE.



Well, actually, that's only part of my face. In the real photo for some reason my left eye is like, twice the length of the other eye. I'm just going to hope that it was some weird anomaly and not my face slowly melting.

Today I had pottery and I was learning to throw. In case you don't know what that is, it's when you use the pottery wheel and make pots out of really wet clay.

This is what throwing is:



When Fab and I were in Vietnam we visited a Pottery Village where they don't have electronic wheels but rather there is a dude kicking the wheel while this old lady makes pots. In the photo up there is Fabian having a go at the wheel with the old ladies help.

I'm hesitant to put a photo of myself having a go because I took the photo above, and because Fabian's hands were covered in clay, when it was my turn our taxi driver took the photos of me.

The village is a while away and you only stay for about 10 minutes to see the pots and then the villagers like you to go, so our taxi driver offered to stay to take us back to Hoi An. We were pleasantly surprised when he went to the village with us and joined in on the pot tour etc.

Now, when you're going to villages in Vietnam it's recommended that you dress modestly. I was told no dresses, shorts are fine and to cover up my arms with a shirt. I did this, and got approved by the women at our hotel before leaving.

However, the taxi driver managed to take many near pornographic photos of me making the pots.


I SWEAR that I was dressed appropriately, but that angle...it just kills me! You can imagine the hilarity/shock when we perused through the photos later that night.

Anyway, it's taken me almost a year to try and learn how to throw pots in my pottery class and today went really well! Jenny (my teacher) said it was surprisingly good. Throwing is famously difficult and there is some crazy saying about how it's 7 years on average before you can feel confident in sitting down at the wheel and creating a good pot.

So having created 1 tiny pot successfully today is my achievement for the week! (I attempted at least 10 and they all died a floppy, wet death.)

<3 N x

Orchid

I got some beautiful orchids for my birthday from one of my mum's friends. This is they:



Now, i'm well aware that you aren't supposed to leave the cellophane birthday decoration around the pot but it just fuckin' pop's doesn't it? I absolutely love that fluro green with the purple and i'm a little worried that people who come into my house simply think i'm reallllly lazy.

Oh well, fuck the bitches.

Yes, today is a swearing day.

Last night the lovely Chloe and her bung knee came over. It was pretty bad, she was using a crutch the poor thing! She let me needle her, took some herbs and she's coming back over tonight. See, with acute injury it's pretty good to needle it daily.

Anyway, I totally forgot to take photos of it last night which is a shame cause even if I take them now - it totally ruins any before and after shots!

I'm pretty excited that i'm getting to the stage of my study/knowledge where if someone tells me their health complaints, I have some sort of idea of what could be the cause/problem and what i'd like to do about it. It's pretty exciting.

What's also exciting but a little terrifying is that this semester is almost over! Yip! It's exciting cause, hell yeah it's another 6 months off of my degree! Terrifying because that means exams and for some unknown reason i'm not stressing out of my mind.

You may say 'that's great though! It means you're confident and have a good understanding of the content'. But you'd be wrong, if you were saying that, very wrong indeed.

What it usually means is that i've succeeded so well in convincing myself that 'everything is fine' (usually said in a shrill internal voice, that as the semester goes on becomes external) that I am not prepared in anyway for the end of this semester.

I suppose I have handed in some assignments already, and gotten an oral presentation over with - so perhaps i'll surprise myself!

N x

Weak

The effort i've put into my blog the passed week has been pretty weak. See what I did there?

I have been flat out super busy. You think that's a petty excuse? I haven't washed my hair for over a week and at one stage I realised I hadn't showered in 2 days. Now, that is busy if I do say so myself.

What have I been doing this week that has made me abandon my throng of dedicated readers? Well...I played a very quick game of Scrabble with Aleks, I decorated a cake Nova baked for Libby's 21st (and wrote a speech!).



I agreed to help my sister out with some work she needs done urgently (this has been number 1 time user) AND I went to 2 parties last night.

One of them had so much t+a everywhere that I felt like tits and ass would be all i'd ever see again. Like one of those fctory workers that looks at bottles all day long on a moving thing, and then they crash their car cause they can't see the road, only bottles.

Well, that was me only with boobs. Where was this magical land? It was my friend Victors birthday party. He seems to only be friends with girls who have painfully good bodies, and so it makes sense that the theme for his birthday was 'things Victor loves' and it was suggested girls go in uniform of some sort.

I felt proud to be the odd one out. Only in the sense that I wasn't dressed like a mega ho. I would probably trade a few teeth to have a body like one of those girls.

What else happened this week? I watched Masterchef. Wonderful masterchef. I went to uni of course. I worked at the clinic, of course.

Oh! Novak Djokovic is absolutely smashing the shit out of the tennis scene at the moment, infact, he has been doing so all year, so there is a lot of patriotic pride happening in my house.

It has been brought to my attention that I look exactly like Nole (as we call him lovingly in our home.) when my hair is cut short.



Yep. Pretty sure we're related.

That's probably it for the passed week. In a dirty haired nutshell.

I realised today that I have become completely addicted to Spudbar. I found myself thinking about how good it will be to eat at spudbar tomorrow. If you don't know Spudbar, get to know it. It's a place that serves Potato Spuds. With anything on top you may want. This is my order:

- Spuds
- butter
- corn
- sweet chilli sause
- jalepinos
- sour cream
- chives

Best.

I'm still waiting on either lipstick 1 or 2 to show up. I don't mind which. However, at least one has to soon.

My friend Chloe has hurt her knee and i'm going to try and fix her up as best I can either tomorrow night or Tuesday, poor thing. I may take photos if she'll let and then you can all see a little bit of acupuncture.

I'm just waiting on some fish and chips to be brought to my by my loving boyfriend and then i'm going to watch Merlin and Masterchef. It will be excellent.

<3 Nani.

P.s I am sorry for neglecting you my little blog. I will try and not do it again x

The Little Prince

Happy Mothers day!

I am just relaxing in the lazy boy as my mother prepares me dinner. That's what's meant to happen on mothers day right? Your mother tries her hardest to be a kick ass mother. Well, mine is pretty kick ass most days.

Yesterday she tried to convince me and a handful of other people that a statue of a horse was real. "It's true, sometimes they can stand still, just like that, for hours"

Never mind that it was made of brass and mounted on a giant slab.

She was trying to convince us of this yesterday, as we all spent the day at the races for Luke's 35th birthday. It was great, we were totally the best dressed people there. If you ignore the fact that the other people were deadbeat gamblers (there was even a guy with no feet, reckon he gambled them away? HO! BADJOKE!) then the fact we were the best dressed is something to be proud of!

We won some fat stacks and ate some lovely food!

My new glasses have been a hit, I got them on Tuesday and since then i've had 2 people say 'Oh! You got glasses!' when I point out that i've actually worn glasses since the day they met me and that these are just new frames one of them actually argued with me about it insisting she'd never before seen me in glasses.

Today I saw a totally kickass note book I want.

Here is a photo!


The Little Prince is one of my all time favourite books. This is one of those moleskin journals, but with Le Petit Prince and an image from the book etched into the front!Oh! Don't worry! I'm not a bitch like that- I wouldn't hide this treasure from you!

If you too love The Little Prince you can buy this very notebook here:

The Little Prince Notebook!

And yes, that is my cute little foot in an orange sneaker in the corner of the picture...yes I have orange sneakers...YES I HAVE TOO MANY SHOES GET OFF MY BACK ABOUT IT.

Nani x

STD

'There are so many STD around, it's not very happy to get one.'

Is what my dermatology teacher just said, how gorgeous! Not very happy indeed!

Nani x

Inspiration/Motivation

Not only have I been lacking motivation over the passed few weeks now, but I've also just realised I've no inspiration either. Who is stealing my stuff? I feel robbed.

As you all know, I am potter extraordinaire. I am a fountain of beautiful ceramic artworks, they flow from me as easily as...water out of a tap.

Until now. Yes. Tragedy, horror etc. I start back at pottery tomorrow, and while at first I was excited - I am now kind of sad. I have no inspiration. It's run dry. No idea what i'm going to do tomorrow.

On the other note: motivation. I feel perhaps i'm being a little harsh on myself. I have been going to the gym loads and that takes a huge amount of motivation if you're me. Also it's only really been missing since I got sick at Easter and, as you all know because I won't stop whining about it, i'm still fluctuating between sick and fine.

Today was another rubbish day. I don't feel like my rooms (I'm lucky and though I live with my mama I have the entire upstairs to myself as my territory) are homely enough. Today I needed comfort and I just felt like everything was cold and messy and blergh. I need to put some work into that I think. You see, I live in a really beautiful house that mama designed herself. It was tailored specifically for me. And I don't appreciate it ANYWHERE near enough.

Yeah, I felt some slight nibbles of motivation and inspiration just then.

Oh, and while we're on that note. Sorry if my photos of the day have been totally shit house. I never claimed to be a photographer. I set the challenge to see if it could:

a) motivate* me to do more awesome stuff every day
b) make me realise that I already do plenty of awesome stuff and that I needn't feel i'm wasting my life on computer games
c)push me in a creative manner

*There is that word again!


Thus far it has worked in all of those areas marginally. It hasn't actually made me do anything awesome just so I could take a photo - and i'm glad because that would be lame.

Taking the photos does make me feel like I do some pretty cool shit sometimes though, you know; Karkarook Park, Conference, Jam making etc.

But on some days it's just rubbed it in that I did nothing all day, absolutely nothing worth taking a photo of and that I do sometimes spend too much time playing heroes.

Speaking of which...


13. Aleks's Fish Brigade

Remember how I said I had that massive talk/love with my best friend Aleks yesterday? Well, she has this amazing fishtank which her boyfriend got her for their anniversary and it has over 20 gorgeous little fish in it. She was telling me Jason has picked up on her fish fascination and has his own tank now, but that his one has like 60 fish that are a rainbow of colours. How freaking gorgeous does that sound?

And on the topic of animals, today I was working at my sisters which means I got to hang with Natasha and Sonia (her dogs that are loosely named after us. They're sisters too.)


15. Simba

That's my friend Luke and Natasha. She likes it when you hold her high in the air and sing the song from The Lion King. She pretends she's Simba. She also likes it when you hold her in the air just like this but sing songs from dirty dancing and she pretends she's Baby.

And i'd just like to point out that I am for once, up to date with photos! Victory! Number 15 was taken just a few hours ago!

Goodnight,

N x

Cous Cous

Man, pre-flavoured packets of cous-cous are totally gross. I just ate a 'moroccan' flavoured one and ended up feeding it to the dogs and eating a Bueno instead. I HAVE GYM-ED already today, so I'm totally allowed.

I know i'll get in trouble for admitting this, but when I say I fed the rest to the dogs I mean, I fed it to them while we all sat on the couch. Freida got to eat hers straight off the fork as I fed her while Billie slobbered all over my bowl. I feel it necessary to state I had at this stage entirely given up on eating the stuff.

Yes yes, dog bacteria, human cutlery blah blah. It's in the hot dishwasher now so chill out.

I am having one of those days where I have no idea where my head is. I don't mean like when I was little and mama was teaching me parts of the body and she asked ' where is your head?" and I looked thoroughly between my legs for it. I mean more like, I have no direction today.

I guess it could be because I got my period, but that's bad news because that means i've got days of this to look forward to. You know when you're alone and there is no one to hold you accountable for things? And you end up doing stuff like sharing your icecream with the dogs lick for lick? (obviously that wasn't today's dessert. Are you MENTAL it's fucking cold today...that was on another day)

Well, I woke up and there was no one in my house, and I haven't spoken to anyone on the phone and I could've gotten away with creating a tent out of my doona and lying under it all morning making up funny voices. Something made me get up, go to the gym, come home and shower then go to the chiro. I've been so alone feeling today (not in a lonely way) that when I was at the gym, I felt like I could openly stare at the women doing zoomba and that no one would see me doing it.

Then I sang to myself in the shower and watched how the little dance I was doing made the water splash on the floor of the shower. And then when I was on the way to the Chiro - i've been going for a year and a half now, I totally went in the wrong direction and found myself half way to Fabian's uni because I was thinking of him and like a compass I seemed to follow where he actually was.

By the time I got to the chiro I bounded in there talking a little too loudly and my intonation when I said sentances was a little off.

'Hello, there Phil! How are you doing, today.'

I think the weather it starting to go a little colder than I want it to and if you combine that with feeling totally not motivated for school you get a bit of a sad and bored Nani. Which is a bad combination, because when I'm like that I tend to pick fights with people who don't deserve it.

Can I just add, what the fuck is it with almost all pads now being 'odour neutralizing'? Firstly, why the fuck are all the Australian brands spelling things with z's instead of s'? Secondly, if I have my period it's meant to smell like fucking blood not like lavander. I could find ONE brand that was just normal pads. Ugh.

Okay, that was a little bit out burstish - hopefully this period won't be one where i'm completely vague and out of it interspersed with short outburts of annoyance.

Stop talking about periods now.

Nani x

Internet Snail

Gah. Today was a total fail of a day. So to make this post more bearable to write (and probably in turn to read) I will interrupt it occasionally with some photos.

My day started off with my realising my internet was running as slow as a snail. Have you ever SEEN a snail try and run? It's pretty pathetic.



11. Dogs

Did you know I had such magnificent hounds? Well I do! What a lucky woman I am. And some days, only when it's reeeeaaallly perfect, do I offer to walk them. Like on day 11. Which was also coincidentally jam making day.

I went to the GP to not receive anti-biotics which is both a relief and an annoyance. It's $68 for about 4 minutes of the dude's time where he stuck a really cold ear looky thing inside my ear, however, no antibiotics is good news.

To be honest, I'm not sure why I bother with GP's anymore. Last time I got prescribed antibiotics I didn't take them and took herbs instead...which is pretty much what I should be doing as a Chinese doctor anyway BUT sometimes antibiotics are totes necessary.

Then I went to my bestfriend's house and had this MASSIVE chat about everything that had been going on in the passed year that involved tears and hugs and laughing and everything being okay in the end. So, that was actually totally great BUT who likes crying and feeling sad/crap? Not me!

12. Squirrel

And who knew I had such magnificent friends? This gorgeous hair tie was from Lewis sister the eldest.

I then continued to feel sick and crap and mopey until Master Chef came on, which made me feel happy and excited in a way that only Master Chef can. Tomorrow I am working for my sissy and I dare say I will greatly enjoy myself! Yes!

Before I go on, I have a confession to make. I can't live with the guilt any longer. I fucked up my Sweet/Gym again. Today I ate some more chocolate bunny. (Damn you bunny! Foiled again!) BUT it was different this time! Not only did I not eat loads, I didn't really want to eat loads AND what I really did wanted to do was go to the gym (something I wasn't allowed to do because sick.)

Interesting, am I right? Could this be my mentality changing?

13. Town Hall



I've never looked at the ceiling at the Melbourne Town Hall before! I have no idea if that's strange or completely normal, but the ceiling was pretty damn kickass. This is where Jan Gehl have his talk that impressed me so much.



I am going to go tomorrow in the morning before I go to Sof's to work and in order to be able to do so I am going to get a nice long sleep. See how motivated and diligent I am? And in order to punish me for eating bunnies so long after easter/breaking my rule with myself the universe has put a mozzie which is currently hiding somewhere in my room.



Ah, time to sleep an anxious mosquito fearing sleep.





Nani x

Lost/Found

So, I have mentioned earlier in this blog that I got some kick ass gloves from my friend for my birthday. WELL I was coming home from said friends house the other night, and I had been wearing said gloves. I took them off to drive and had them in my lap.

Seeing as she lives in Coburg I had totally forgotten the gloves were in my lap by the time I got home. I got out of the car and whilst doing so lost one of the gloves. I was really sad about this and to make things worse I lost the birthday lipstick i'd bought myself.

Bad year for losing stuff, great.

I had a think about it and decided that I loved both lipstick and gloves enough to buy both AGAIN, so I hopped online, re-odered my painfully expensive lipstick and told myself i'd ask Libby where she got my gloves, and then i'd simply have 3 gloves and would always have a spare.

I got home, got out of the car and stepped on something kind of squishy...VOILA! GLOVE! Albeit wet glove, but HUZZAH!

I then realised that this means I will no-doubt find my lipstick now that i've already paid for the new one. This however does not make a sad Nani, this rather makes me very happy because I will now have TWO excellent lipsticks.

As promised some photos...Firstly, Fabian's helmet. I spent that entire day with my Sweet Bear doing kick ass fun things in the sun. Like eating overly salted chips and playing in the garden.

7. Sweet Bear

Then dinner with Libby, glove buyer extraordinnaire :

8.Mr Wolf

Day 9 was spent doing not much but going to Bunnings to buy new stuff for the aquaponics set up and playing heroes. What a marvellous day! That was not sarcastic by the way.
9.Aquaponics


Now time for bed/recovery for my throat.

Nani x

Swollen

I am sorry!

Lots of reasons! Sorry I haven't written in daysI know how much the constant updates of my life enrich your own. I am also sorry that I broke the sweet/gym deal. Yes! It's true!

Yesterday, I ate the ears off of a chocolate easter bunny and I DID NOT go to the gym. However, it has been brought to my attention that, apparently, only breaking it once is in fact an achievement. So...Hoorah! Go me!

Lots of cool stuff has been happening. Like, i'm still sick. Yipee! Massively swollen/sore throat. Okay, cut the sarcasm - that was horribly 14 year old of me. Of COURSE being sick is not cool. But what is cool is that the reason I skipped the gym yesterday is because I went to a really cool talk in the city about the human dimensions of urban planning. Why was I there? Who knows! But it was really great.

The speaker was Jan Gehl and he was so so funny and inspiring. It's people like him that give me hope for the future of mankind. While I admit that may have sounded ridiculously dramatic it's also completely true. I get this weird kind of depression occasionally that I like to term 'global depression'. It's when I find myself feeling entirely helpless and depressed at the state of the globe. Which is why I find men like Jan Gehl to be amazing.

I also had a lovely dinner at the Lewis household. It's such a delight to have met some really great new people, I find it to be a hard task in Melbourne for some reason.

I started back at work today and i'll be helping my sister out with some work over the next few days which is always good. I like being able to help her out - she works really hard and she's awesome and pays me though she could probably make me do it for free.

I KNOW I've been bad with photos, BUT, I have been taking them. It's just a matter of getting them all onto my laptop from my camera and my mobile and...I know that doesn't sound hard but it is.

Oh, I also made jam with Nova the other day. Fabian's house has a Feijoa tree that was absolutely laden with fruit - so we jammed the shit out of it.

Oh, about the sweet/gym thing. It's going really well. I feel great and a lot healthier, I'm definatelly going to try and stick to it.

Love Nani xx