I bought new bathers recently. The official excuse was that it was in preparation for summer. The truth is, I lost my last pair (I honestly have no idea where they are).

They're cute.

I wore them in the water for the first time on Sunday and discovered a fatal flaw in the cuteness of the bottom part. The fold of fabric that makes them cute would flip up around my stomach when I got in the water. It's attached to the actual bikini only at the two seams on either hip.

So, I spent this morning stitching it down. I only stabbed myself in the thumb once, at the end, after I'd also managed to already bend the needle out of shape. Should I tell you all that I don't sew very much at all? :P

Tonight I'm going swimming again. I guess that will be the true test of my sewing skills ... heh.

*makes like a shark*

I went swimming last night. I was in the slow lane - assuming that I was slow (because I certainly wasn't medium and didn't want to hold anyone up) - but I kept lapping the morons in my lane who obviously didn't know doggy paddle from butterfly.

I lasted 1/2 an hour - a good 15 minutes less than I'd intended ... but I was mildly frustrated at having to orchestrate passing the slowpoke in front of me without crashing into the two slowpokes headed in the opposite direction. Nyargh.

And, omgwtfbbq, the Aquatic Centre doesn't have for free use/loan/hire any kickboards so I had to go and buy my own! Lol, I must have looked strange, a girl of my age in the slow lane kicking and holding onto a kickboard for dear life. I wonder if people thought I couldn't swim :X

I then checked out the steam room, and lazed about there for a few minutes before it became too crowded.

As a reward for managing to stick it out - and actually get there in the first place (my will is weak, when it comes to making myself exercise) - I went to my favourite Japanese restaurant in Adelaide and had some sushi. I bought a little extra to have for lunch today. Mmmmmmmsushimmmm.

I went swimming on Sunday. It was actually very fun - it's been a while since I went swimming. I should swim more often.

I swamkicked/paddled my way from end to end of a pool for 1.5 km. My legs were hurty and lead afterwards, lol, but I hung out in the steam room for a bit after and then had a drink with my mother before heading home.

We made tortillas for dinner (although, Jorge insisted that they were fajitas - in Spain anyway), and I managed to fit in a long (over an hour) walk with my friend Monica before we flopped in front of the tv and watched the Helen Mirren two-part show on Queen Elizabeth. I was actually quite impressed by parts of it, and can see why she won an award.

In another note ... Jeremy Irons has aged. Badly. I thought it was the guy from House briefly, before I remembered who was billed as playing the Earl of Leicester.

My cat ate half a possum last night. Or maybe the night before. I found the remains this morning and had to clean it up. You'll excuse me, I'm sure, if I admit to nearly vomiting while I had to do so.

In other news, I had dinner out with M and S. It was good as I've not seen either of them for a while. I had a quarter, less even, of S's glass of coke and couldn't sleep last night, lol. Also probably didn't help that from 8-9.30 M and I went on some high-powered, up-hill-down-dale walk. Someone had the bright idea that we could get fit doing that *headdesk* It might have been me. My legs are making me pay today. On a positive note though, I wasn't tired or exhausted and I could run a lot more than I ever would have been able to. Yay!

I went for a run today. I think I nearly died at the quarter-way point. I'm not cut out for running, but I persisted. My salsa classes are temporarily paused while my teacher runs a brief "introduction to salsa" for one of the universities. I need to maintain some sort of fitness.

I also need to nail a crossover turn. (I just got up and did one perfectly, and I can do them fine with a partner ... but normally by myself I get a bit haphazard and end up where I'm not, uh, supposed to be - like the other side of the room, lol). I plan to go for an hour of social dancing on Sunday night. In the meantime? I run. Sigh.

Horribly tempted to eat ice cream. Lots of it.

Well, and hello :)

It's been a little bit of a drought in my journal - I have been so busy lately that I've only had time to read and comment your journals. Posting in my own barely merited thinking about, let alone even actually doing.

I plan to re-size a selection of pictures from my holiday tonight (yayheaven will probably hold me to that ;) so you should expect another post much later this evening from me containing them.

In the meantime, I've been rushed off my feet preparing the house for the arrival of a new exchange students - a Spanish boy, and an Italian girl - and negotiating with my brother to make sure he helps out.

Actually, I said to my brother that I had been quite disappointed and let down by him the last two weeks, to which he said he knew he was shit. This surprised me - but then he had had a severe speaking to from my mother since this (which happened a few more times - er, the disturbances at night, not the "ack your friend saw me naked" thing) which was possibly the most severe talking to he has ever received from her (being that she is a little easy going on The Only Son) but I was quick to tell him that I wasn't saying he was shit, and that the issue was that I knew he was capable of more responsibility, reliability and consideration than he had shown in the last fortnight.

Anyway, the drain of managing the household, cleaning it, managing my parents' mail and accounting, and working fulltime has been exhausting. It's like my life has vampiric leanings ... it's trying to suck all the energy out of me o.0

But I'm back on top again so things are running more or less smoothly at the moment. I have some great news - such as my personal debt already being reduced by almost one fifth, D being up for more "definite" hour/shifts at his workplace, my car having the cd player and iPod adaptor installed today, and my body has finally started to co-operate (but I'll be heading back to the doctor tomorrow morning just for one last check on that) ...

And some funny news - the cat has big bald patches on his neck and head. If you remember this
"[...] it appears the cat has diaorrhea ... I washed him yesterday because there was no other way to deal with it matted all through his tail and bottom fur. He was one angry and skinny-looking cat at the end of it all, lol. But he forgave me pretty quickly." ... Well, the cat's hair matted in some areas even though I kept combing him as his fur dried, and it resulted in my having to cut a number of dreadlocks out. I cut it so neatly and closely (because it was knotted all the way to the skin) that he now has a few bald patches where white kitty skin is showing amongst his otherwise super-fluffy coat. I'll grab D's camera and take a photo to show you (but don't tell Oscar - he'll be mad if he knows we're laughing at him). lol.

And that's largely all I have to say at the moment. Hopefully my weekend is exciting and affords me some interesting things to post about here :P

Luckily for Joella, lol, I was planning to post something today :P (It's ok hun, I know you did it just because you missed me, and I'm not offended ;)

Well, the holiday went as well as it could have. Considering the toilet blocked twice in the first hotel we stayed in, and didn't work from the outset in the first room tried in another hotel. Also, weddings generally seem to be high pressure events, and not only did my father and I have a spat, the groom's father collapsed and had to be rushed to hospital. More on that another time. Also, photos later when I am less tired and less rushed.

Since getting back, I've been pretty well exhausted. I haven't had the energy to post, or log into an IM programs. Also, to be honest I'm avoiding someone who has been a bit of an irritant lately - if I don't speak to this person every single day, I am met with "OMG YOU EXIST!!!!!" when I next chat to them. What they fail to understand is that my life does not revolve around entertaining them, or even saying hello to them, and the minute it becomes "have to" I don't want to or don't enjoy their company. In fact, I don't want to speak to them.

I have also been both sick, and emotionally drained. I am at what I might refer to as "rock bottom" for the kind of person I am now - which is to say, generally (I think/hope) quite happy. Or at least compared to when I was finishing high school. I have avoided a lot of things - work, people who drain me through our friendship, and just people in general (because I need to focus my energy on myself for the time being). I'm not worried about getting over this - I'm just focusing to do it, and being exhausted is all that has made it crop up or a little more difficult to close the door on.

So, I'm exhausted, and have a few things going on with my body (yes, the bleeding is still going, and I now have the nausea and tenderness that the doctor warned me about to boot). The dog is still blind, deaf, and as incontinent as ever (I've cleaned up his messes five times this week), and it appears the cat has diaorrhea ... I washed him yesterday because there was no other way to deal with it matted all through his tail and bottom fur. He was one angry and skinny-looking cat at the end of it all, lol. But he forgave me pretty quickly.

So, back to the exhaustion ... I'm not sleeping well, and when I am, it's disrupted by my brother treating the family home as a youth hostel/night club with his mates, coming and going at all hours of the night and day. Part of that is related to Australia's progress in the World Cup (hooray!) but relative to the fact that other household members are not on holidays ... one would think a bit of respect would be given then.

Apparently not. Example: last night was the lead up to the Australia-Croatia match at 4.30am. At 1.30am my brother comes home from wherever he's been and bangs around in the kitchen and living room and settles in to watch whoever is currently facing off. I stick my head out of the room - having been distrubed from sleep (I went to bed at 9.30pm in a state of exhaustion) - and ask him to make less noise as I am trying to sleep. He unwillingly complies.

At 3.30am, his phone rings and vibrates through the entire house (wood carries sound and motion so well ...) which takes a while to wake him up and when he does wake follows with much loud discussion with the person on the other end. He then crashes around apparently getting dressed to go out (although it sounded more like re-arranging his furniture) to watch the Australia-Croatia game with his mates. He goes downstairs for a minute then returns upstairs. After 15 minutes of noise, I am now fully awake. I get up, open the door to my room and say to him (his room is above mine) "J, I am trying to sleep. You may not have anything else to do today and can sleep after the game, but I have to work! Can you please make less noise, like I asked earlier!" I wait for a response (he eventually grumbles some kind of acknowledgement) and as I do so, I realise one of his friends is sitting on the couch outside my bedroom, face flaming, and desperately looking in the other direction.

In my sleep-induced stupor (actually, I was trying to retain a level of zombie-ness so that going back to bed would not be difficult) .. I have jumped out of bed, and stood stark naked in front of his friend while scolding my brother about the amount of noise he is making.

Fortunately, this friend of my brother was very polite and the minute he realised I wasn't dressed, looked elsewhere. He has not mentioned it, and I don't believe will mention it to my brother or myself. That's fine. I'd like to pretend such an event did not just occur, too :x I think we're both happy with that.

And that brings me to today. I am at work. I'm not functioning anywhere near 100% (or even 40%) ... but I'm here. Thank all that's holy that it's the weekend after this :D

Day Three of taking my new pill. I am experiencing some nausea. I wonder if that's to do with my cold though, or if it's actually definitely the pill?

I had a dream last night. I was in the back seat of a car sandwiched between my mother and my father, being driven somewhere by their accountant when my dad hit me very hard on my arm. It was so shocking that I whimpered and pressed myself against my mother's side. I woke up shortly after, as though the hit had jolted me out of sleep.

So, last week was super busy. My week looked something like this:

Monday: work, salsa class, Italian class
Tuesday: work, flamenco class, the OC
Wednesday: work, seeing D perform in the orchestra for Iolanthe
Thursday: work, a friend's fundraiser quiz night
Friday: work, a friend's performance of Kiss Me Kate and coffee after
Saturday: salsa workshops, followed by social dancing
Sunday: sleep, salsa social dancing

... I was OMGBUSY. Over the weekend, I did 14 hours of salsa all together.

I paid for it, getting to bed every night at 11.30pm earliest ... I got a cold this week. My body had been fighting it well enough, and it hadn't progressed beyond sneezing and sniffles. But, this week my body said "girl, I can fight illness but only if you got my back!" which of course, I didn't. So, my body then said: "take that!", and I did. I got a cold. I've missed a day of work this week, and today I shouldn't even really be here.

This weekend should be good though. Even though I'm unwell, I'm going dancing tonight. I'm also checking out some henna designs on the weekend at the Indian store - we are going to get our hands hennaed for the wedding, I will take pictures! And Sunday is the combined birthday for two family friends. Whew ...

And then next week - I won't be around for a week starting Thursday because I'll be flying out to Malaysia that day and not coming back until the Thursday morning a week later. I'll also take pictures of this, lol.

Anyway ... lol, I should go - work's over for the day! :) Catch you all again soon - next week most likely. *snugs* Love and bye!

Well, Easter was eventful. The majority of it is stuff that I don't need to revisit. The main other eventful occurrence was when I managed to end up in the ER/After Hours clinic at the local (small) hospital. The short story goes like this: "Knife meet finger." "Finger meet knife." "Ok. Hospital?" ( A little bloody, so maybe skip this if you're not good with that kind of stuff. )

So other than that, I spent most of the weekend with D and his family in the end. Very enjoyable. I even presented myself at the church (whew!) to make his grandmother smile (she was quite sad as it was her first Easter without the grandfather). I get the feeling that no one is really able to hug her - I don't think her sons do that (well, properly, that is) and I'm not sure she has the huggy-style relationship with her sisters. So I hug her. And she holds tight and cries ... because no one else lets her do that.

I've promised to leave my Scrabble set at her house and play with her some time - which will be interesting with my limited Lithuanian and her limited English.

My plans for fitness are stalled somewhat. Pole dancing will depend on finances and spaces in the classes. Salsa - I'm waiting for the instructors to call me to work something out. Flamenco - again, Rosh is waiting for the venue to be ready, and then will let me know. And finally, the belly dancing - Daniela wants to come with me so we are waiting for her to return from her visit to Italy in June before we go. But you know, other than that one class of each a week should really help.

Anyway, I know I haven't posted here lately, but I'm not overly motivated - or don't have anything interesting to say (and now typing is more difficult). I'm actively reading everyone's LJs though. I hope you all had a safer and less eventful Easter than I did!

Here's my weekend ... in a nutshell.

On Friday night I was going to go to the beach with D to catch up with some friends (same friends that I went away for the weekend with recently), and then his car (the turbo one) just died less than half way down the street after being perfectly fine all day. Needless to say, the beach did not happen that night. We had to push the darned thing home, and then it took us an hour to work out what the problem was. It was not so bad - nothing in the engine itself, nothing electrical. Exactly as I was hoping, and saying to the sky and the car or anything that might be listening, "please let it be something simple and not engine related for once!" Well, something was listening - it was the fuel pump. Simple, and different ... but costly. A new pump has set him back $220. And that was after the guy discounted it from $300.

Saturday was spent trying to be a little active while holed up in my room watching dvds (so I was doing stupid things like jogging on the spot, and doing squats and stuff while watching a film - or more specifically, three films, and half a season of Charmed). In the evening, I went around to D's house and watched some tv with him, and enjoyed a dinner cooked by him - chicken marinated in soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and honey, with rice and vegetables. Mmm! We had a rose wine that I particularly like as well - not because it was the best complement to the chicken (it wasn't, but it also wasn't bad though), but because I liked it and had purchased it prior to dinner being prepared. Mmmm, so tasty dinner - I would love to eat it again!

Sunday was also spent trying not to be inactive, and making up for a whole week of hiding in my room watch dvds when I wasn't at work. I went to a public swimming pool with Valentina and spent a couple of hours there. I did laps and spent some time in the sauna. I didn't stay long in the spa as some guy pinched my ass while I was in there (I got out pretty quick smart, and did not go back). After we finished at the swimming pool, we went to my favourite sushi restaurante and had sushi for dinner. Tasty! And shortly after that we went back to D's place because Valentina needed to take photos for her art project.

Valentina is doing a study on hands. so she's taking a lot of photos of people's hands doing various things. Old hands, young hands, hands on pregnant stomachs, hands holding mechanical bits and pieces, hands playing the piano and violin, and hands on body bits. More specifically, D's hands on my back. She asked me to sit naked on a stool with my back to the camera. Then she made him sit in front of me and more or less "hug" or hold me so that his hands were visible on my back to the camera. Then she took lots of pictures. I'm excited to have another photographer to go a bit crazy with. D was also full of great ideas when Valentina first told us she was out of inspiration.

After this, I scrambled back home to change and go out to see a friend. Tom's going to China and Thailand for a month and I haven't seen him in a good while, so I wanted to make an effort to catch up before he went. I met him at The Wave, a small one room club in the foyer area of the Hyatt Regency hotel. It was great, because even though Tom knows a lot of the people there (he's a regular, and has been dancing for a while so he knows all the teachers, professionals, and other advanced students) he'd come to spend his time with me - and I got to monopolise his skill as a dancer until I went home! lol. I had a lot of fun - I know the basics, but Tom has a strong lead and quite often just guides me into doing something fabulous and new that I have never done before without my even realising it. It's the best fun, and I always leave with a smile on my face. I only lost the beat once, and only bumped into him once, and only added one or two extra things that I wasn't supposed to do, lmao (like extra turns, etc). So. Much. Fun! I forgot how much I enjoy Latino dances - I will be going back again soon (as soon as Tom get's back from overseas, as I don't know anyone else at the club).

Lately, I've been talking about wanting to get a horse again ... but then the money would all go there, and I wouldn't have time to do dance classes. In fact, I don't have enough money to do all the dance classes that I want to either - belly dancing, salsa, flamenco ... SIGH! I have to work out my priorities, lol!