Back from Vietnam.. Boy was it different. For starters.. Pho is eaten for breakfast!! Breakfast!!!
The whole country runs on motorbikes. And the afore said motorbikes can be found anywhere from on the street to in stores. They'can also be used for sleeping and as a seat for sitting, especially if that little corner restaurant on the road is a bit too crowded.
The photo is of a horde of wooden water puppets that you can buy outside a temple.

It's good to be back in Sydney.. But why must the weather be 35 000 degrees?!

Here's everything i've accumulated in 2 years. The sad thing is that 3 boxes are just books and files.

Packing is hard. Especially when you're a horder like me. But then you kinda logic your way through sorting things.. and then you try picking up the boxes which are filled with .. stuff .. So you end up throwing things away. Which you regret later when you can't find anything anymore!
I swear i had a dooby-majig .. but i think that went in the great devastation of 2005... Lets bow our heads and take 1 minute of silence..

2 days drive later, and i'm back in sydney. Already I'm hooked on a TV show- some pilot from America called Prison Break.

A friend got me thinking... into why people settle for things, circumstances, people when they want something else..? Because things are easier, more convenient, simpler? But does choosing the easy option make life happier? Conversely, by choosing not to settle do people just pile up regrets, on opportunities not taken?

So, this is the end of second year.
2 years done, 2 years to go.
2 years away fron Sydney and all my friends.. who have i kept in contact with?
Who has kept in contact with me?
Who are the new people i have met?
How many will still call if i'm living in another city? I wonder? hmmmm?
p.s. i hate packing. It's times like these when i wish i wasn't such a horder of junk.

This is the top of the world.
Maybe i should think small, because i miss small things from my view up here.

(This photo is an ode to gamblor...=p)

---
----
-----I'm feeling rather stretched. As Bilbo Baggins said, kinda spread out thin like a bit of butter on too much bread. I'm tired of studying. I'm wanting to get out and have fun. I'm wanting to get on with my life and start working. I feel like i'm doing things in reverse. Move out of home when i'm still studying. Worrying about bills and groceries and cooking, when most people i know are worried about which top to wear to casual friday at work this week. Trying to make out that i'm smart, but not too smart lest people take what i say to heart. Trying to make our lives more interesting when really, everyone is moving their own black and white paint in circles attempting to make a colour- any colour. Trying to act nice when I just want to yell shut up you twit. You don't know how tiring it is reining in this desire.How much self control is takes. It wears you down. A guy who did my undergrad degree once said that it's easiest to be yourself and not pretend. He was right. He is right. But if that were the case, this world would be littered with sulky loud-mouthed nut bags. Yes, there is a place for self restraint, and you use online diaries to vent.
Thank you for reading this, if you did read this. If you didn't then this isn't relevant.

I met a girl from Japan- she is teaching me the art of patience and calmness.

I met a guy from Norway- he taught me that Australian's are not as friendly as we would like to think (fancy being in Australia for 2 years, and only meeting 4 Australians? versus 50 international people studying in Adelaide?)

I met a guy from Adelaide- He reminds me of a friend who is living in China. He is a musician, doing neuroscience, lives in wine country, and has a big goofy smile....

I wonder what happens to all these people you meet in an instant? I wonder if i'll ever see them again?

It's my birthday!
And for the first time ever my beautiful housemates decided to throw me a surprise party!
And with every surprise party there is just one person who lets the cat out of the bag...
Mine happened like this:

[The scene: In our house seated around the kitchen table at 5pm are 3 people- A, JP, and me]
A: "So julia, what have you done for your birthday?"
Me: "Hmmm... not much so far, but JP and Lorraine are taking me out to dinner somewhere.."
A (to JP):"So, are you going out to tea after all the people come over??"
Me: "What?!?! What people? When? What's happening?"
[Cue uncomfortable silence]
JP: "Ummm..... It's ...nice weather today isn't it...?"

Dear Dr Phil,
I have this crush on this guy which is all well and good, cept that he's attached already.
(And he's the son of my daughter's husband's pet goldfish)
What shall I do?
Yours sincerely.

Dear Oprah,
A friend of mine wants to get with this guy who i've heard many dubious stories about.
(I've already advised antibiotic prophylaxis)
What shall I do now?
Yours Sincerely.

Dear Mystic Meg,
The Melbourne cup is coming- it's actually on the day of my birthday.
(I am a scorpio, my favourite colour is green, and my element is water)
What horse should i tip?
Yours sincerely.

I was so excited- a whole 2 comments for my last entry- but no, they were just random spam. Grrr!

Sometimes i wonder who visits here?

So,
The weather has been strange.. alternate periods of super hot dry suffercating heat where you're brain doesn't quite melt- it kind of evaporates.. with rainy grey soggy-ness.

Unrelated news: I just stayed up till 3 reading the newest Harry Potter book on my laptop. My eyes are now 1 degree worse than 24 hours ago, and when i look at a page of text on screen, the letters warp inwards and i start feeling nauseous..
Suddenly i'm reminded about my IT computering days. And how we stayed up till god forsaken hours programming and spinning bs for our user guidelines. Ahhh the memories...

Of all the kewl things i've done... This is proof that i have sat in the co-pilot seat of a Royal Flying Doctors Airplane. We (the flight nurse, pilot and i) flew to Kingston and back to Adelaide. We then flew to Port Augusta. Mostly just transfers. But one dude had a terrible car accident which required attention- he was an underage driver too.

And... (more excitement) I've taken my first blood from a real person yesterday! woohoo!

It's a frog cake. It's a South Australian thing.

more powerful than a locomotive?

I stumbled across this upon reading over my lecture notes...

I think David would be proud! You know where to contact me when you need an artist for Knee Pockets 3!

>> apologies for the depressing post. You have been forewarned. But maybe the pic will make up for the words..!

Okay,
I've got insomnia.
I can't get to bed- and it's 3am in the morning!

Well, it's been a week of excitement, considering that it's only a week out from exams.. Because you would usually think we would be in social isolation right about now.

Anyway, What shall i say, except that i'm sick of losing.
Losing to the world. in general. that is. sick of being the one that's always there, being the person everyone leans on and who smiles and is known as the nice girl. the one that people forget about. forget about when they have moved on and don't need someone to listen to their problems. i've always been in the background and i thought that i had changed that. but it doesn't seem that way now. i guess i was wrong. you can't change who you are. what you do. how you behave. perhaps i'll always be that person. that nice person. i think i need to vent. where's Emily when you need her??

i don't know. sometimes i feel really down and isolated here. in adelaide. like there's nothing here for me.
at the beginning of this year, i promised myself that i would be an optimist. give it a change. see if it would bring me closer to something. you know- positive attitude and all that bullshit. you can't change who you are and pessimism is just me.
perhaps it's just that i hide myself well.
perhaps. perhaps it's just.

sigh. sometimes people suck.

>>Edit: This is exactly part of what i'm raving on about... part of..

Oh dear!
Today, after class, I thought that it would be great if i finally get my act together to buy some groceries for the week. But as soon as i got to the car, the back left tyre was completely and utterly FLAT!
And that's when i thought, "Good grief!*- Not for the THIRD time!"
Am i the unluckiest person in the world or what?!

Damnnit.. ..
At least i really know how to change a tyre.

Random thoughts running through my head:
Sin City- thought the look of the movie was better than the story. But made me want to try to make a movie like it just coz it looked so damn cool.
I have dry hands, must moisturise before bed.
I should get my roommate something for putting up with my car debarcle. He has been accomplanying me to get the tyre's patched.
Exams in 2 weeks. 14 days. stress. stress. stress.
Next time i go shopping, i need cheese, and glad wrap.
There's a photo competition running at our uni. I should get my act together and send in a picture. Which one shall i choose? Something good, coz the prize is uhh... they actually don't say.. But i've never won any sort of competition before.
I wonder how Naruto is going atm. Have they got Sasuke back yet? Or more importantly, are *any* of the female characters good yet? (Aside from the sand giant fan girl..she's pretty good.)
What do you cook with corn and leek? I've got a pretty old leek left over from lamb soup, and some corn left over from a salad. I guess you can just eat the corn by itself, but what do you do with leek? You can't really eat that raw..
Why am I so unfocused?

Gragh.
Things are happening at uni, and it's all not very good.
For one, People are somehow reverting back to their teenage angst years. (Oh no, not a second round)
For another, Exams are coming up in 3 weeks.

Oh, and things are happening outside uni as well...
My tyres for the car have had to be patched twice in 2 months! That's more than unlucky- I think I have a stalker.

Hmm.. in other news, sucked in Jude Law! and Sienna Miller! Is that too irrevrent? Perhaps.
But i'm not in the best mood.

Today is just one of those days...
Woke up, made coffee- but the coffee plunger broke, arrived to school late because of the coffee debarcle, found out that a canadian girl was leaving us(which is good news for her, because she got into a canadian med school), my apple had a wormy maggoty thing in it AND my banana was squashed at the bottom of my bag, was snubbed by many at uni or maybe it was because i am in a shit mood? Back at home, the lights in the hallway blew, and the kettle leaks. SOMEONE still hasnt washed their soup ladle and glass- it's been there for 8 days now...

the good news is that today is really tomorrow, and it is a new day...

So it's official.. I'm going to the Riverland next year.. Which is the origin of all Berri Juices!

I'm taking orders... so get in quick, as i am only allowed 30kgs luggage space.

My theory:
Men care about their facial hair. They artistically fashion their hair into all manner of styles- beards, moustaches, side burns, that silly looking triangle below the bottom lip... Girls hate any sort of face hair (face rash etc)
So why do men go to great lengths to style their facial hair like topiary? (Since only males understand and notice facial hair?)
To impress other guys.

Girls care about the way they dress. They take endless hours ensuring that their clothes are aligned and coordinated, that their handbag matches their shoes and that their jewelry compliments the outfit. Guys really don't care all that much- just as long as they look good. Not fashion magazine worthy, but decent-looking.
Why do girls bother? (Since only other girls notice the effort taken to coordinate an outfit?)
To impress other girls.

Not so different after all...

I've got this song in my head..

Oh my love it's you that I dream of
Oh my love, since that day
Somewhere in my heart I'm always dancing with you in the summer rain
Doesn't matter what I do now
Doesn't matter what I say
Somewhere in my heart I'm always dancing with you in the summer rain

I'm officially cursed with bad music.

Oh, and has anyone come across this site? http://www.bookcrossing.com/
It's seems like a great idea- and i actually tried to find a few books that were supposedly around my area, but alas, my search was fruitless.

And this: http://www.sydmob.com/mob_twenty.html
If only i were in Sydney! how random.

Don't you just hate it when you see something in the shops and are so undecisive that you leave it.. Only to have that item plague you in your sleep, so that eventually that's all you can think about. And then, to put yourself out of misery, you go back to that shop some time later only to realise that you are a few months too late, and that item is no longer being sold anywhere- in the universe- aside from Guatamala... or Tasmania.

Yep-

They say you agonise over the most menial decisions, whilst the quickest decisions you make are in emergency situations.

It's the last day of school before our week long break- Kind of an anticlimax because there's no exams to celebrate completing.

It's raining though, which is great news! I love the smell of the damp rain, and the sound it makes when it patters on the roof. Very reminiscent of Sydney during winter. It is times like these when i would be curled up in bed with a book.

The last day of May! Already!

This is the inside of the tent of Cirque du Soleil.

The green label on the microscope says,"This device does not store or record the date and is not affected by the Year 2000.

Ahhh... the year 2000- The year that machines were supposed to take over the world, the year that was spent trying to arrive at a new word to describe the 00's.. (No conclusion was reached.. yet), the year that Britney was still declaring herself untouched (And look at her now).
The memories.

And whoooooooooooooooo!!!! I can Blog from home at last! No more month long periods between posting.

Btw, move over Big Banana... Here comes Larry the Large Lobster... hehehe...

Poppers. My roommate misheard me, she thought I had said Boppers. I explained what I meant. "Oh", she said, "You mean a 'Juice Box'" No, I mean a popper.

Which lead me to a revealation- Sydney-ians are the only people who call poppers poppers! People from Adelaide, Melbourne, Canada and America call them juice boxes!!!!!

Weird..

Real weird...

Cliched I know.. but it can't be helped

Backblogging.. because somehow i can't at my place.

Grrrrrraaaaa! You know those links to the right.. well...Half of them dun work anymore!

But how romantic is the afternoon light peeping through bright green leaves?

And what's with the weather? FINALLY it's cold enough to really leave summer behind! I love winter and it's chilly biting wind. It's a good excuse to be wearing overcoats and scarves and beanies! =)

Last night I bought these frozen won tons for dinner- wat a disappointment! the meat was mush and it was too salty.. And for $5 for 20, it was at a premium price too!

Does anyone know a good way to glue feathers to bobby pins? I tried this morning, and gave up because i was mostly gluing my fingers together, whilst also inhaling toxic super glue fumes. Of course i was using super glue. Without gloves. With the windows closed.

smoke. sydney. grey. people. push. shove. busy. murky. open. neon lighting. energy. buzz. open 24/7. fast cars. speed. buzzing. people. lost. dormant acquaintances. laughter. memories. flash flooding. pouring. dribbling. early haze. sunrise over cement. red. yawn. coffee. faces. awash. click clack. routines. generosity. moments. snap shots. gone.

Prescript: I'm not sure if i should post this...
But here is it anyway... (the following is- like anything on this thing- just a thought, meaningless, insincere & fleeting)

It's funnie that having a baby is the exactly the same as having a parasitic infection.

The baby lives only because the mother is supplying it with the necessary nutrients in order for it to grow and develop.
The same is said for any parasite that infects the body- it lives because the host is supplying it, however inadvertently, with nutrients.

Parasites have developed all sorts of ways to defend itself from the sometimes hostile environments in the body. The same could be said for the fetus. It has a whole protected sac which separates it from the mother- so that the mother's immune system doesn't interfere with development and destroy it.
In the later stages of pregnancy, the mother puts herself in a state of starvation, so that the fetus has enough nutrients to spur it's incredible growth. (The "giving mother" is right..)

The fetus is allowed to live for 9 months before the mother can finally get rid of it.
9 months of eating for 2, metabolising for 2, giving the fetus the best of what is ingested*.

So, men, if you want to know what it feels like to be pregnant, ingest a parasite**, and let it sit there in your body for 9 months before getting rid of it.

* Glucose, the body's primary fuel, can cross the placenta to the baby. Ketones, the body's back up system in times of starvation cannot. Ketones are acidic, hence excessive use of ketones leads to a metabolic acidosis which causes hyperventilation. Acidosis also depresses the brain and, if severe enough, can lead to diabetic coma and death.
So the mother gets the ketones, and the fetus gets the glucose.

** Perhaps a tape worm? They can grow to all sorts of lengths.

I wonder if infectious disease specialists and obstetricians ever fight about this?

I keep on meaning to take pics of the things that can go wrong in your body... but im a bit disorganised. Instead, here's an example of the randomness of life- In the front yard of an abandoned corner shop, there were rows of hay wrapped in green plastic. Hiding in the middle of them, was a car...
How did it get there?
Why was it there?
How long had it been there for?

Oooo hello!

It's March 16th. I've been back at uni for a whole 6 weeks, and we've got exams in 2 weeks... AGAIN!

It seems as though I was going through the stressful process of exams just a week ago. It's funnie how things dun change.

Other news- I've just initiated my first Lay-By. It was for a pair of pants. And i didn't know they charge an administration fee. Crap. So instead of being 79.95, they're 81.95.
Also Happy birthday to Andrew. Too bad I spent my money on clothes instead of a plane ticket hey?

Today I received a random email.. T'was a nice surprise- I often wonder about those people who were once in my life.. But now are not.. And I wonder how they are going.. And if they remember me..

Of all the surreal things to see- An abandoned car right smack bang in the middle of green plastic wrapped bundles of hay in Rapid Bay, SA....
That weekend (the 26th Feb) a group of med students went down south and it was there I learnt to surf! Not that i was any good.. in 2 hours, i managed to stand up 4 or 5 times.. I have absolutely NO upper body strength.

That weekend Adam caught the biggest squid i've seen. It had electric green eyes, and squirted black ink like noone's business.
Here squidy squidy...

Happy valentine's day!

It's an unbearable 38 Degrees.

Free hugs!!!

I recently dissected a cadavar during anatomy. It isn't as easy as I'd thought. The body is so stiff and unyielding... and there's so much fat around! The hardest bit was getting over the fear of cutting too deep and ruining the structures underneath. Why am i talking about dissection?

Oooo.. and today we had smoke infiltrate into the school .. kinda smelt like burnt rubber. T'was very gross.

So here I am back at uni..And it's just like I left it last year. Almost like I didn't have holidays! The people are the same, the same scramble for knowledge.. Only I'm in second year now- and there's new 1st years around the place looking lost and ever so keen.

It hit me yesterday when one of my new roommates chucked a hissy-fit, that i really really miss having my friends around me.

Oh well, I guess it's very soon till easter.

Well.. Happy new year!

I was readying myself for spending New Year Eve listening with bored interest to my relatives gossip about family skeletons and such, when i received an sms from Win. Just in the nick of time too! So instead, it was the mad crowd at the harbour that i would be struggling with, stead of the cresendo and cresendo of family talk.
It turned out to be a pretty good evening, with the low-light being the fire work display. (Understandably so.. With that TAT-SOO-MEE on every newsreaders lips.)
One of the many strange spectacles of the evening was the line outside of the Circular Quay Maccas.(pictured) Probably their biggest trading day to date!

Can't say that 2004 has been boring.. In fact, it has been a year of regenerating those brain cells i had thought already decomposed during my IT era. A year of getting over my phobia toward alcohol, and (somewhat ironically), getting newly acquainted with my intense dislike of alcoholics.

Achievements?
Well, living a year away from friends and family has got to top the list. Making new friends whilst vainly trying to keep in touch with the old. Learning about EVERYTHING at once- just to pass those exams. Moving, Packing, Building..

Here's hoping that 2005 is bigger, brighter, and less stressful than the last.