calmness

its sooo quiet outside!!! i got up at 12:30 (didn't go to bed until after 2am and i NEEDED a good long sleep, haven't slept that late in a while). everything is quiet. a few random cars in the distance but nothing but birds chirping. everyone is either glued to the tv, in a pub (also glued to the tv as well as enjoying pre-game drinks), at the mcg or enjoying bbqs (obviously not with in a few blocks of our house cuz i can't smell or hear anything). its only about an hour until the biggest game of the year begins. melbourne isn't in it though (or any team from a melbourne suburb-- or all of victoria for that matter). i'll probably only watch the last half or so (its too nice a day to spend inside and i'd care about the game more if melbourne was in it-- i know if i do turn on the tv though i'll end up not being able to pull myself away and watch the whole game). i'm gonna go enjoy the unusual quietness of saturday afternoon. i should go for a bike ride and ride up sydney road without fear of being doored or cut off (i hate riding up there saturday afternoon but i seem to do it almost every week!!)-- its probably like cyclovia was up there (except for there's probably enough traffic that you wouldn't want to let your small child with training wheels on their bike go down the road).

poor kid

we had a couple injuries with kids at work yesterday (and a group of girls who kept faking injuries so they could put masking tape on as band aids-- we eventually hid the tape). there was one injury we were still talking about today. after lunch one of the boys went inside to put away his lunchbox and then took a running start from inside to come back out to play. unfortunately he didn't see the large pole about a metre away from the door (the building design is horrible-- why would you put the pole dead centre of the doorway just a metre away?!). he ran straight into it (at running speed) and bounced back onto his butt on the pavement!!! (i was walking towards the door at the time and saw it happen from only a couple metres away). the poor kid. he's one of the really tough ones so you know if he's crying its gotta be bad. he just started screaming for his mummy and i ran to get the ice pack while my co-worker sat with him. my the time i got the pack 10 seconds later there was a HUGE purple bump on his forhead and he was shaking and crying. he also bit his tounge in the accident so there was a bit of blood on the side of his mouth. he calmed down a few minutes later and the initial swelling started to go. we called his mum just to let her know so they weren't shocked when they came to pick him up. she laughed (while my co-worker was calling his mom i was talking to him about watching where he was going and he told me about a couple other times he's run into things--like an inverted corner of a wall at his nannas). he's one of those kids that's just known for stupid accidents. his dad says hes the same way. his bump looked a bit better today and i think he's pretty much forgotten the incident.

hoof-less goats

 
last week we were watching a ricky gervais dvd (one of his stand up ones) and he did a joke about the fact that montana mountain goats sometimes butt heads so hard that their hooves fall off. this sounds a bit ridiculous. i finally remembered to look it up on the web. the only sites that came up were ones listing useless facts or sites where people are questioning that fact. if this is actually possible i'd like to see some footage of this(or a hoof without a goat attached). 

ivanhoe cycles

i finally got to get my bike fixed yesterday!!! its had issues for 2 or 3 weeks now and it was due for one of its free tune ups back at ivanhoe cycles. getting it out there is a bit of a hassle though cuz the best way to get out there is by bike but if i'm dropping my bike off for a day that means i have to catch the train back and then walk 25 min (or if i'm lucky i might get one of the rare buses and only have to walk 5 min). the issues my bike was having turned into a major problem, making my bike pretty unridable (i still used it to get to work but that was it). the soonest i could take it in was yesterday afternoon after work. fortuantely i got out of work an hour early and then rode to the train station (my bike wasn't roadworthy enough to ride the 7km to ivanhoe). they asked when i wanted to pick it up and i just said anytime the next day but the sooner the better. he said they'd aim for lunchtime today and give me a call. just after 5pm (3 hrs after i dropped it off) i got a call saying my bike was all fixed up and i could come get it. i got out there as fast as i could cuz they close at 6pm (my shins are KILLING today from the speedwalking i did to get there in time). they even threw in a free bell (on top of the complementry tune-up/repairs) cuz i've broken 2 bells in the past 3 months (this one i can't break the same way the last 2 broke). i've heard other people raving about ivanhoe cycles but i've always had just average service dealing with them until yesterday. i was very happy to have my bike back so soon and be able to ride it all day today (my day off) without feeling like i'm gonna face injury or death cuz of my bikes unroadworthiness.

high vibes festival

fortunately at this point in the day we were still at home-- watching hail go sideways across the yard (a friend said he got a pic of him and another guy standing in the middle of the road with the rain coming down like that and NOBODY else around. he's sending it to darwin where he just arrived back from to show everyone up there melbourne's beautiful weather). it did clear up a bit for a while and was warm-ish (i had 4 layers on). the streets got fairly packed at one point while the sun was out but a lot of the usual stalls were missing from the street party (i'm sure they were blown away with the gale force winds in the morning). the bands were still good and most of them in pubs where it was warm and dry (and most of them smoke free)so we spent most of the afternoon/evening wandering around from pub to pub listening to bands (what the festival is kinda about anyway). it was the quietest street party i've been to. after the sun went down it was FREEZING (not just me but 2 other canadians we were hanging out with and zac too). when we got home at 10pm the temp was 7C (3C with the windchill) and it went down to 4C overnite (i'm sure it probably felt colder with the wind too). crazy to think less than a week ago it was in the low 30s and wasn't getting below 15 at nite!! that would be melbourne though. here's a shot of the hail storm from our yard (note the angle its going at and how much is on the ground-- the storm started about 30 sec before this shot)

vegan feast

last nite some friends invited us over for dinner. several months ago kara had told me she wanted to cook us a vegetarian/vegan dinner. the other day we were out for lunch with her husband he she called and said she wanted to do it this weekend and she was going to attempt to make it completely vegan so zac could eat everything. she did an AMAZING job (even the baked tofu which she really didn't like was good). there were baked potatoes, couscous, pasta with fresh tomatoes, baked mixed vegies (one of my favourites but we never make it at home), baked tofu with asparagus, falafel balls and guacamole. it was sooooooo good! and she didn't call zac even once to confirm what's vegan and what's not (she said we'd probably receive a lot of calls about stuff like that). the meal was amazing though. definately a nice change from our "everything goes in one bowl" meals that we generally make.
on a different note: rodney, that stockphoto site is great (thats where this pic, and the last post pic came from). much better then possibly dealing with copywright infringement by just using photos from yahoo or google image searches when i don't have my own photo to use.

good for a cold

zac gave me his horrible cold (after blaming me for giving it to him for a whole week-- obviously i didn't or i wouldn't have it now. i don't even think what i had before was a cold, it was a cough and phlem from a sterilizer i used on my brew kit). it hit me yesterday at work (while doing a 10hr shift) and by the time i got home i felt horrible. i wasn't going to make it to our band practice (for the second week in a row) but fortunately everyone else (but zac) piked too so it was ok. i decided i wanted soup for second dinner (first dinner was just veggie dogs cuz zac thought we had to leave quick for practice). not just any soup though. i wanted vegan cream of tomato soup. i'd never actually attemped making tomato soup from scratch before and i wasn't sure how to do it but i found a good recipie in how it all vegan for not just any vegan tomato soup but one that's probably great for colds cuz it had LOTS of garlic (6 cloves) and cayenne pepper plus drinking lots of fluids is probably good too. it was really simple to make and we had all the ingredients so i made that. just onion, garlic, salt, dill, cayenne pepper, olive oil (to cook the onion and garlic in), can of crush tomatoes or diced up fresh ones, vege stock or water, sweetener, soy milk and diced fresh tomatoes for garnish. i think i'll make anther batch tomorrow to try to knock the cold right out of both of us.

a taste of summer

today we enjoyed a nice summery day of 30C. the best part was that i was working in the morning so i was done by 2pm and i had the whole afternoon to enjoy the beautiful day. i came home and whipped out my tank top, flip flops and skirt, sat in the yard, did laudry at 4pm and it was dry by 7 (mostly from the wind, not the sun) and i made zac a special dinner to eat outside with AMAZING vegan ice cream for dessert. i can't remember the brand and i have a cat on my lap so i can't get up to check but the flavour was something like chocolate brownie almond and it had brownie chunks in it-- soooooo good.
of course as is the melbourne way, its now VERY gusty, cold and raining (we need the rain though). it was a nice taste of summer while it lasted. it won't be long before these kind of days (without the rain at nite) will be the norm again and we'll be longing for more rain.

bowling with jamie oliver

ok, well we didn't bowl with him but we were in the room with him. we went bowling with some people from the canada club yesterday afternoon and he was at the bowling alley with all the kids from his new show (a couple of which zac knows through his work). the cameras weren't there so it was just a social activity with the youth. he looked like he was having fun hanging out with them though.
we did kind of an "entertainment crawl" yesterday. we started off at a resturant on brunswick street for lunch with some friends as a goodbye party for a friend who's moving up to queensland sooner than we thought to be with her fiance (me and zac just stopped in for a drink and appitizers). then we headed into the city for bowling with the canada club and drinks with them after (only 9 people showed up so it was kinda cool cuz we could actually talk to everyone there-- the next event with them is thanksgiving which is a pretty big event i think). then we headed back to brunswick street to meet up with some other friends (also canadians but they didn't make it to bowling with us). the cousin of one of them was in a band that was playing so we stopped by to hear them and have a drink with our friends. by that time we decided it was too late to go cook dinner when we got home but it was late enough for bimbos $4 pizza deal (7-11pm sun-thurs nites) so we headed to the other end of brunswick street and got gormet bimbos pizzas before heading home and crashing on the couch.

3 years!

i've been so busy the past few days that i forgot until last nite that friday was my 3 year anniversary of arriving in australia. its weird to think its only been 3 years cuz i've done so much in that time. i remember walking out of the airport on the morning we arrived and the first words i said was "it's freezing! it feels like winter!". it was only 15 days into spring but it was a MUCH colder spring then we're having now and at 9am it was probably only 7 or 8C (i had also just come from summer in canada and 9 days in southern california on our way to oz). i think i've pretty much adjusted to the aussie way of life (i had trouble even remembering how to order coffee the way i wanted it when i arrived). even though i want to go back and visit canada lots and maybe even live there for a year or so, i definately am happy with life in oz.

officially adopted

i think ray has officially adopted us as her second family. she's spent 4 of the last 5 nites sleeping on our bed (she gets 1/2, we get 1/2). the first of the 5 nites she cried at the door when it started raining not long after we went to bed. we let her in and she curled up on the bed for the nite. last nite she came in for a while and slept on zac's side of the bed. when i moved her to my side when he came home she got upset and went outside. 3am she was back at the door crying and as soon as i let her in she went straight for the bedroom and jumped up on the bed. i thought she'd figured her routine out-- sleep on the nice comfy bed for the nite, get breakfast with us in the morning (we even bought a bag of vegan cat food for her cuz we ran out of sample packets and when she spends the nite i think she misses out on breakfast at her other home), then outside (and half the time she cries to come back in after an hour or so). this morning though after i gave her breakfast (which she went straight for the kitchen for) i went to follow her to the front door and let her out. she didn't go to the front door though, she turned and went into the bedroom and hopped back up on the bed. i must have gotten up to early for her. the photo is her getting comfy on the bed (the lump behind her is zac). usually she doesn't really care to be in bed with just zac but i guess she's started to realize he's ok.

finally a decent picture

our camera doesn't do macro shots too well (and now my tax return money that i was gonna buy a nice slr camera with is going towards our wedding) so i've had to play around a bit but i've managed to get a decent shot of my ring for everyone that has been asking me what it looks like. so here it is (zac did a good job).

saints and demons

last nite we stayed home to watch the melbourne/st kilda game on tv (my idea, not zac's). the demons were down most of the game but i kept telling zac they'd win. he didn't believe me. in the last quarter they finally got ahead and beat the saints 90-72. melbourne seems to have a habit of doing that-- looking like they're gonna lose until the last quarter or so and then getting their game together and winning. it was such a different game last nite cuz its the first game i've seen since the beginning of the season where it rained a lot (started pouring right before the game started). the field was soaked and everyone was sliding everywhere and having trouble with catching and bouncing the ball. next week they'll be off to perth or adelaide.... keep your eye on the red and the blue.8)

1 step closer

i received the papers approving my final step of my australian residency in the mail today. so i am now officially a full aussie permanent resident and in december i'll be able to take the final step and apply for my citizenship. i was kinda surprised at how quick this step was. we just had to fill out a ton more forms and hand in proof of our relationship (photos, joint mail etc) and stat dec.s from family and friends stating that they believe our relationship is genuine. it did take a couple weeks to get all that info together but i mailed off the stuff on monday and today we received everything back with a letter stating that i have been granted permanent residency.

personality

i found pulseware the other day. personality tests always intrigue me (probably cuz it has to do with psychology and i like that kinda stuff-- wouldn't have got a degree in it if i didn't like it). this one seems fairly accurate(as accurate as it can be using multiple choice questions to analyse people). i got zac to do it too. we can even line up our results and compare them together with a summary paragraph comparing our personalities. these are my results:

My Personality

Neuroticism	71
Extraversion	43
Openness To Experience	21
Agreeableness	50
Conscientiousness	61

Test Yourself MySpace Surveys, MySpace Codes and hi5 by Pulseware Survey Software

better day than i expected

today (actually yesterday cuz its almost 1 am) was amazing! we got up to a beautiful sunny, warm last day of winter. i got dressed and just wore a t shirt ALL day. the kids were pretty mellow at work and it was nice and warm all day. the best part happened after i got home though. zac and i got engaged!!!!! when i pulled up to the house on my bike i was a bit annoyed that zac's bike was locked infront of the gate to the back so i couldn't put my bike away but then i remembered we had a "jam session" for our new band we've got going so i needed it later anyway. i was trying to get my keys out and zac opened the door and handed me a cup of beer (usually he's in the kitchen cooking dinner when i get home). i came in and tried to start telling him about the neighbours cat that i'd just seen and tried to coax her over. he wasn't listening and he just pushed me in the spare room and said i had to listen to his song (every once in a while he has me listen to stuff he's recorded on his 8track). funny cuz the blinds were shut all the way and there were candles lit everywhere but i didn't think anything of it. the song started and i realized it was the one he's been writing for me for months. so i'm sitting there with the headphones on listening to the song when it gets to a line "... so will you marry me?" i turned around and zac walked back in the room and got down on one knee and held out a ring!! of course i said yes 8) and then we spent the next hour calling his family and trying to eat the bbqed veggie sausages zac made (it was a great nite for a bbq and we were able to eat out back just in tshirts!) and then we had to go do the band thing. it was funny cuz i was on messanger this morning and both my brother and a friend back home asked me when we were getting married. i said we wouldn't be engaged for probably 6 months or so.... little did i know zac was picking up the ring today (he had one custom made-- he did good) 8)