I'm sick. Why? WHY? I ask you. Mmmn, there's nothing quite like green snot to really brighten your day. I went to work yesterday and realised about half an hour after getting there that I should have stayed in bed feeling sorry for myself.

My boss came over in the morning and was all bright and "how are you this morning Ellie", to which I replied "I'm not really feeling that great", at which she leaned in toward me, a picture of concern for my wellbeing and asked, "but you'll make it to the end of your shift right?" Oh, but I do love the place. The plus side, is that hopefully what I've got is contagious...muwahahahahahahahahhhaha...

The roasted chickpeas I made didn't taste as good as I'd hope. But, they were a lot harder on the tooth than I expected.



Lush got her dress for the Swans dinner..


Donkey contemplated a move to a warmer climate while Roger and Moogle, angry yet devestated at the thought of him deserting the family look on in anguish, all the while pretending not to care.

I had the stitches taken out of my neck today. Finally. They were only there for a week but really starting to drive me crazy, but now I have to have that papery tape stuff over the places where they were so that I don't rip the scars open by accident when I'm just moving around doing normal stuff. Ouch!
The funny thing is, well actually it's probably only funny to me, but when I hear myself say "I got my stitches out today", it makes me feel like a puppy. I mean, isn't that something you say about pets? Maybe I've been conditioned to think that because of my experiences with Mel-dog having knee surgery and lots of nasty stitches, poor chum.

Also went to the Rocks and Circular Quay today which was..pretty crap really: rainy, windy and freezing; Helen and Ben having a bitch fight about an art exhibit outside Copenhagen icecream. But on the plus side, met some other people going to Sweden as well at the start of next year and hung out with some other exchange students. Afterwards EJ (my Taiwanese exchange buddy) and I went to Bondi Junction and Randwick for a little shopping adventure and I bought a giant purple foam foot for the bathroom. So now that I think about it, hmmn, a little bit of an offbeat day all round.
Anyway, I leave you with some photos of the Quay from a much nicer day :)

Ha! A vegetable called a swede.
Are there any other such nationalistic vegetables?
'Orange' perhaps.. or perhaps an Italian city somewhere: Zucchini?

My encounter with a possum in the garden the other night reminded me about the long running saga in our household: possums living in our bathroom. Those of you who know me may've heard about this particular story, but for those who don't I'll summarise the story (you need to realise that when I tell it in person it takes a lot longer and many many facial expressions to really get it across).

The story starts in February 2005 when I first moved into Mulwarree. On the first day my brother and I arrived to an empty apartment...OR SO WE THOUGHT...
As we looked around, opening and closing cuboards, as you do in a new place, we heard some banging noises coming from somewhere in the house, and I have to admit, we did think it was just an antisocial Asian exchange student who was too shy to come out of their room. Stranger things have, after all, happened. But no, as my brother explored the cupboard in the bathroom I heard a gasp, and on going in to find out what was going on, saw that there was a small but plump possum quite happily curled around the hot water pipes.

Now, I don't really have an issue with possums, but they can be noisy, grumpy, and smelly, so I called the Housing Office to see if they could get rid of the possum. Answer: no, but call the pest control place. I have to add here that things really went pear-shaped communications wise because my phone was in the middle of porting from one provider to another and something had gone wrong, so I could make calls but no one could call me and I didn't realise, so that made things a bit..difficult.
Anyway, I call the pest control place and have the following conversation:
ME: Hi, we have a possum in our bathroom cupboard, I was just wondering if you could send someone out to catch it?
PEST LADY: Can you describe the possum to me?
ME: (a little surprised at the question) well..um..it's a possum. It's quite small, and..furry..with little beady eyes and a big bushy tail.
PEST LADY: Hmmn, ok dear, are you sure it isn't a rat.
ME: (pause) Yes. It's about as big as a cat.

So anyway, after we'd established that I do in fact know what a possum looks like she tells me that they can't actually come and catch the possum because if they did, it would just come back. Bizare.

I relay this to the Housing Officer, and so he sends some of the UNSW maintenence people to come and 'fix' the problem. Oh yes did they fix it: they locked the cupboard, so basically the possum was still free to come and go, we just couldn't open the cupboard to show him off to our friends. I do remember also that during one of my conversations with the Housing Officer when I said to him "Graham, there's a possum in our cupboard", he replied "you know you're not allowed to have pets right?" Sigh.

So there is the orginal story. Over the next 12 months we developed quite an affection for Percy, he stayed in the cupboard and played in the trees outside and got really unhappy when we turned the cold taps on. It was a happy family really.

So now we come to the present. Our shower has been leaking into the apartment belows ours, which in itself has been a big adventure as they try to fix it and take tiles out and stick tape over things and disconnect pipes. The usual really.
But the first time the plumber came, he opened up the pipe cupboard and got a bit of a shock to see not just one possum happily ensconsed, but three. Snigger.

So surely you are asking by now, what is the promised conclusion to the story? Well, they did come and catch the possum family, but it was a bit like that creature from Greek mythology where you cut off one head and two more grow back. Those possums just seemed to multiply everytime they took one away. Anyway, below are pictures that Robert took during the removal of the last possum, which actually ended up being two because it had a baby in its pouch. Oh, the drama just never ends.

I tried to add an album link so that I could just have one link to all my photos, but my technical skill doesn't extend that far.

The three wise monkeys. The only comment needed here I think.

It wasn't until I was at a good friend's 21st birthday last week when I saw some old friends who I haven't seen in a couple of years that I realised that while there aren't many, a few people actually read these messages from time to time. I was quite surprised really (and before I go on, can I just say let's disregard my earlier post because I think I might've fixed whatever I broke).
The sad thing about this realisation, is that I really don't have much of anything to say but I'll have a jab; let's work from the present back:

• Tonight I got bitten by a possum. Hmmn, yes it looks just as ridiculous written down as spoken out loud. Well I guess it was more of an inquisitive nip than a bite and it was my own fault. I'd been down to the shop to buy the paper and a crunchie to get me through the evening when, coming back through the garden, I saw a possum at the base of one of the trees that goes up to our balcony. Let me just say now, that I knew I should keep walking, but it was just so damn cute, I had to stop for a chat. And as I chatted it came over to say hello, and because it was so damn cute I decided that I would put my hand out and see if it would let me pat him (though I knew it would probably end badly). I also would point out that I thought about giving it some of my crunchie, but had a few qualms about doing so, namely I didn't want to feed a possum my crunchie and don't want to feel responsible for getting the poor chap addicted to refined sugar. Anyway, long story short, he sort of sniffed my fingers..and then he bit me and ran away just as Francis from upstairs called out "be careful, they bite". Just for the record, I'm pretty sure I was the one who told him originally that they bite.
• I met a person from Denmark today. It wasn't a coincidence, more of a planned encounter but sounds less impressive when you put it like that.
• I spoke to Helen on the phone. Which doesn't sound impressive no matter which way you put it.
• I got my results, two credits and two distinctions..not bad, especially since I had a fair idea that there was going to be at least one fail there and I really didn't do as much work as I should have.
• I got four stitches in my neck, which are itchy and sore and I want to take them out. Oh, and when people ask me what they're from, my response is going to be "oh you know, terrible freak piercing accident, yah yah, terrible".
• I'm going to Sweden. Yay.
  

Yup, decided that because I haven't posted for a very long time that it was time for a change, and that I would get myself a new template. But in the process, deleted all the customised bits of my blog which had been slowly accumulating and now I can't work out how to put them back. Oh what a bugger.