I know, ironic. Here I spill my guts to the blog but won't say a thing to a person, but it's different. I'm not expecting a reply from the blog. I just need to listen, I don't want any input.
And then there are those times when I have some fairly awesome news but I can't be assed telling anyone. Like the summer job. I've told some people and neglected to tell most others. It's not that I want to keep it a secret, I just like to wait till either it comes up in conversation naturally, or there's a lull. The lull is a very dangerous thing, I often find myself revealing quite a lot during these lulls.
Secrets are another thing altogether. Generally I've been bad at keeping secrets. I'm not a gossip, I don't go around telling everyone. But if I can tell one or two people (once again because of that damn lull) I find it's much easier to keep it to myself afterwards. Maybe it's because I find out how uninteresting the secret is from the person's reaction, or maybe I just like to be the centre of attention every once in a while. Either way, I can be trusted real good with secrets. Like the one about that one time with the thing. I'm taking that one with me to the grave.
So yes, I do have a bit of an exciting secret. Exciting for me, and mostly me alone. I've only told a couple people about it (damn lull), them being Jimmy and Zac. I kind of want to keep it to myself and then pretty much surprise everyone at once, but at the same time I want to scream it from the roof tops. Whatever option I choose, I'm sure it'll all work itself out.
On a totally and completely unrelated matter, I was a little taken aback to find out a Sunday or two ago that Melbourne's most eligible bachelor is now off the market. And no, I am not talking about myself. He's been a real good friend for forever and I hope she realises how lucky she is. Because if she don't, then vengeance will be sought.
Labels: rant
Written by banh at 9:55 PM | Comments (0)
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Let's play a game called Things I'd Like. But before we begin, let's clarify a few things: a) we are talking material objects here, none of this fancy pancy "I want to find a love" crap, b) I'll try to stay with stuff I can actually afford and c) yes, this is a blatant wish list for birthday/Christmas presents.
Recently, I've been doing with the idea of buying an iPod. It's not that buying one would go against everything I believe in, it's just that I don't like to follow the crowd. And really who does? However you cannot deny how good they are. I'm looking at the new nano, 8gb with video for about $180 seems a really good price to me. When you compare it to my first (and only) mp3 player which was 128mb and $195, it's a wonder I haven't already bought the damn thing.
The next thing on the list of crap I'd like but don't actually need is a compression top. This one I'm actually on my way to buying myself, however for it to happen I need paypal and brandsexclusive to smile kindly upon me. I need first for the transfer from my bank account to paypal to clear and then I need for the tops not to be sold out. This is most likely my only opportunity to get one so cheap, about 60% off this is.
Continuing the sports theme, there are a number of tops I'd like to have. In the best order I could think of from most wanted to still really wanted but not as much as those at the top of the list:
- Kings Punjab XI shirt with either Shaun Marsh's, Brett Lee's or Yuvi Singh's name and number
- Victorian Bushrangers shirt with name and number of either Bravo, Nannes, White, Hodge or Hussey
- Kolkata Knight Riders shirt with Hodge or Hussey on it
- Blackburn Rovers shirt with Samba, Savage, Grella or Dunn
- Bayern shirt with Ribery
That about sums up all of the sporting tops I'd like. I think the one I'd like most is Marsh's Punjab shirt, followed by Bravo's Bushrangers top. However I don't even think those are available.
Moving onto the less manly things: homeware! In some magical world, I'd get a real proper KitchenAid or Kenwood stand-mixer. Oh my goodness that would be unbelieveable. But other things would be like muffin tins, a big tart or flan tin, and even individual ones, a grill pan and a fry pan which can go into the oven. Nothing else comes to mind right now, but I know that if I ever do go shopping I'll be thinking nothing except "Oooh it'd be cool to have that".
And all of this is being made possible by finally having a source of income of the summer. Although it's not great dosh when you look at the amount of work I'll be doing, it is something and beggars can't be chosers. I don't want to spend all this money but I for once in my life I'll have money to spend and I'm not one to hold back.
I'm looking forward to Boxing Day shopping this year, I might go a little nuts.
Written by banh at 9:32 PM | Comments (0)
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I love sports. I really do. I have since I was about 10, and I hope I will till the day I die. There's just so much to love about it. First there's the actual running around bit, I love being able to go out there and bust a gut for some greater purpose. Then there's so many different types of sports you can play, and they all tend to use the same skills.
I generally believe that you don't really get to know me until you play a sport with me. It's just something about running around in some sort of competitive environment that loosens and opens me up. Apart from that though, it is almost primal competing physically with each other. Even with all this technology and gadgetry, nothing is comparible with trying to determine who is the fastest or strongest. But at the most basic level, it is just plain fun. Take away the competitive nature and I'll still be out there having a ball. I like to think that once you get good at a sport, you have levels of performance. You look at what's on the line, who you're against and why you're playing and your level of effort is adjusted accordingly. For instance, I love playing cricket and have been doing it for many years. However nowadays, all the action I get is in a friendly hit and giggle scenario, so mostly I stuff around as much as possible. When it's my turn at the bat, I often bring out the reverse sweep first ball, and follow it up with the dink over the keeper's head. Of course those shots never come off, so the next thing I do is swing myself off my feet with my head in the clouds trying to clout the ball into orbit. After that it's just hitting the ball into gaps and trying the occassional textbook cover drive. But in a competitive match, I bat nothing like that. It's all straight bat, safety first and guard my wicket with my life. Suddenly I'm not playing for me, it's for the team. Yes, fun is still part of it but winning is more important than fun.
However when I play soccer, I kind of only have one level I operate at. But that's also the beauty of sport, different sports require different skills but at the same time are reliant on the same basics. Coordination and speed/strength, if you have those then you can perform well in pretty much any sport, even those you've never played before. Yesterday I played American Football for the first time in my life. I had no idea of the rules (kind of still don't), all I knew is that you want to get the ball in their area to score a touch down. We were playing 5 a side on the beach so it was impossible to run quickly or anything, that didn't stop us though. I spent most of the time as quarter back because I like to be the star, also I didn't want to be one of the wide receivers. I actually did really crap and I put that down to not knowing how to play, definitely not my poor decision making. In truth, I tried to go for the glory throw each time. I eventually learnt and only on the last turn at possession did I finally start hitting some targets. I learnt that even though someone was always coming to close me down, I still had a lot of time to look for a target and hopefully hit it. The feeling of waiting till the very last second, letting go of the ball just as you get sacked and then watching it fall into the hands of a team mate is amazing. And I was that close to having a pass result in a touchdown. I sent a long pass in front of Jin and he had worked himself into a perfect position. He tried to take it on his chest but at the last second fumbled and dropped it. It was heartbreaking to see the ball hit the sand.
Is it enough to make me watch a grid iron game? It may be. However I also get the feeling only a very small percentage of the game is actually the exciting miracle passes and massive plays type thing.
Written by banh at 9:38 PM | Comments (0)
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I have come to decide life is a game of minutes. This isn't something that I've just come up with overnight after a random event. It comes from years and years of running to the station from home trying to make the train.
It was like that almost everyday. I knew I needed 15 minutes to get to the station and I'd always cut it fine in leaving the house. Needing to catch a 7:33 train, I really have learnt to appreciate the difference between leaving the house at 7:18 and 7:19.
I know it seems one minute, 60 measely seconds, cannot make that great of a difference. But it can. Being that one minute behind can mean missing the gap to cross the road, and instead having to wait an extra minute. Or just missing the traffic light and essentially killing all chances of making the train. Or even something as stupid as leaving the house under very gloomy clouds and pouring rain.
So it is with this importance of timing that I reflect on a couple of events in the past couple of days. The first was on Thursday. The day itself began pretty badly because although I knew chemistry lab was just a meeting to discuss the upcoming mock court trial with my group, I failed to read the part of the email which said class began at 10 instead of 9. So there I was an hour early cursing my laziness. Irrelevant to the rest of this post but still a fun story (for me anyway).
It was after lab and I had just called Janne Tan and was walking to the library to find her. I naturally walk fast, mostly not because I'm in a hurry, but instead so I don't have to walk behind [slow] people. I climb the stairs and find her in the reserve section. We meet, we chat, I try to explain whatever question she has about the maths report. Just as I'm about to leave, she asks one more question. Yap yap yap, goodbye see you later and away we go.
As I'm walking through the foyer of the library, not two metres away from the exit, I bump into Felita walking the opposite way, after having been on the computers I'm guessing. Now it's not that I would rather hang myself than hold a brief, two minute conversation with her, it's just that sometimes you can't be assed having to talk to someone else. And all throughout our brief, little, awkward encounter I was thinking of all the tiny things that could have stopped me from having this. Like talking a bit longer with Janne Tan, or a bit less. Maybe borrowing a book. And my personal favourite, not walking a giant arc around some girl who was just standing in the middle, instead making a bee-line to the exit. It just seemed like the planets aligned and I was destined to bump into her.
The other story is much more cheery. Today during my psych lecture, I was completely not concentrating and disgusted at the poor quality of my new lecturer. So much so that I felt compelled to walk out. I was toying with the idea for about five minutes, questioning whether I could sit through it till the hour break and then walk out then. But I couldn't, it was too painful. So quickly and quietly I packed up and made my way out. It was in the South Theatre so very bus loop adjacent. As I get to the stop, the bus immediately pulls in and the bus driver says "Quick quick! No time to eat" (the guy behind in front of me was eating), so clearly he was late and in a massive hurry. This suited me because it meant I'd get to Blackburn quicker. And a fun bus drive it was. By Syndal he wasn't even behind anymore, but he was still driving like a maniac. We get to Blackburn and there is one minute before my train comes. My walk soon breaks into a run as I see it pull up from the bus stop and am able to jump on just as the doors start beeping.
I don't know if the planets got a little scrambled overnight and then re-aligned themselves or if they just stayed aligned, either way I made it home in super lightning quick time today. I'm a little sad the conclusion isn't so meaningful.
Written by banh at 7:19 PM | Comments (0)
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The barbecue was a couple days ago and it was fantastic. The weather turned out absolutely marvelous, the food was delicious and cooked to perfection. There were two disappointing things though, one was the turn out was slightly disappointing and the second was the wetness underfoot.
For a more in-depth report on the food, go have a look at Cooking Barn.
The day was fun from start to finish. Lily and I got there first, obviously, and were slightly disappointed to see a couple of families and a whole bunch of kids already there. Luckily no one was using the barbecues (but it took us a while to realise). That was also the first time I managed to hurt myself on the hot plate.
Andrew was the first guest to rock up, super early. Lily then had to go shopping to buy the last minute essentials while Andrew and I stayed at the park. We decided to have a little kick around and that's when drama struck. I had already seen that the grass was still pretty wet and some areas were proper muddy. So Andrew kicked one towards me that stopped a couple metres short, I decided to try and see what kind of lift and curl I could get with my right foot. Then tragedy. As I went to kick the ball, my left foot slipped and flat on my ass I fell in the mud. Brown ass indeed. It was still real early so I decided I'd run home to change, and this was perfect because I was wearing jeans at the time but really wanted to be wearing shorts.
After I got back, people slowly started to arrive. Kylie was the first looking stylish as ever. When Chen arrived in his baby pink shirt, we decided to fire up the hot plate and get some food cooking. I wanted to lay down foil to ease with the cleaning up, however that just got tedius and after a lot complaining by the girls, the foil was removed. It did make cooking much easier, however it was much more messy. Then in the nick of time before the first batch of food was cooked, Victor came with the bread Lily forgot to buy.
Then came the best arrival of the day. The one I really wanted but forgot to actually ask for. Oh yes. The footy came, along with Tommy and Jimmy. I love kicking the footy, by then I had pretty much stopped caring about cooking the food and all I wanted to do was have a kick.
Sooner or later more people came and everyone returned to the hot plate for the second round of cooking, and then the third. Although I didn't eat much (the footy received most of my attention), all the sausages and burgers that got cooked did get eaten and that basically all that I hoped for.
There was one particular moment that I seriously regret. We were cooking the fruit kebabs when the soccer ball (that the AS Penalties idiots decided to try and juggle not 3 metres away) fell on the hot plate and I basically lost it. I swore the ball came from behind me so I turned around and grabbed Sam by the shirt and got in his face. After that, he retreated to reading his book which I felt totally responsible for. Hopefully it wasn't me that did it, but I can't help but feel shitty.
Apart from that though, it was a brilliantly fun day and I want to have another BBQ. Although next time I won't cook anything I cooked this time, so that means sausages, burgers, chicken, potato salad and coleslaw are off the menu. Challenge? More like fun.
Written by banh at 7:23 PM | Comments (0)
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