Revisiting Europe

I'm finally getting my butt into gear and getting some of my (and Mark's) photos printed from Europe. It's only taken me 8 months to get around to it, whoops.. once I have them printed, framed, and hung on my walls I'll show you the results!

This is.. how I spend my weekend, and my 100th post!

Well I'm back, a few days late, to contribute my 'This is' for the week. I've been waiting anxiously for my new laptop to arrive and today it finally landed on my doorstep. I had to wait until after work, after the dentist (so so bad) and then after uni (and after driving back to uni upon realising I'd left my notebook on a ledge in the 8th floor bathrooms, whoops), before I could play with it! My bro has been setting it up for me all day and trying to get it all working but at the moment I'm just trying to get all my bookmarks back and trying to figure out what my passwords to all these websites are (mozilla saves my passwords and I very quickly forget them)!

I'm also in the process of transferring all my photos and music from my old laptop to this one, which is taking a very very long time, especially seeing as I have over 6,000 photos, whoops. So because of that I don't really have any pictures to back up my 'This is', but hopefully you can visualise it!

So to give you an idea of my average weekend I will start with Friday, which should be the best day of the week. For my Friday's are quite possible the worst day of the week, in stiff competition with Saturday. I begin Friday by getting up and heading off to cleaning for the second time that week. Fridays are better than Mondays as I don't have to cook anything and (thankgod) I don't have to clean up after the kids because they're only there on the weekend. I generally clean up the kitchen, unpack and repack the dishwasher, wipe all the surfaces, dust the loungeroom, rearrange the furniture/cushions/magazines/remote controls to make it all look neater, vacuum downstairs, sort the laundry, take the laundry upstairs, put away laundry, clean up his walk-in-robe and re-fold stuff he's mucked up, remake his bed, throw any loose clothes/towels down the laundry chute, dust the bedroom, clean the bathroom, and sometimes vacuum upstairs as well if I think it needs it. All of this usually only takes me an hour and a half or two hours if I dawdle a bit. After this I take his business shirts to the dry cleaners to pick up on Tuesday.

Then I go home, shower, get changed into my Ikea clothes, muck around for a bit and head off to work at about 4pm to beat the traffic. I don't start until 5:30pm so I walk around a lil, get something to eat, have a coffee and head upstairs. I work until 9:30pm on Friday's, so by the time I get home it's about 10pm. After this I watch a bit of tv and go on the net for a bit, then head to bed because I have to start again at Ikea at 10am. On Saturday I get up at 8am so I have time to have a shower, dry my hair, and eat breakfast. I try to head to work at about 9am. I only live about 10 minutes from Vic Gardens but I hate being rushed and like to have time for coffee. So I grab a coffee and head upstairs. Saturdays I work 10-6:30pm at Ikea so it's a long day of standing up and dealing with cranky customers who don't understand that you aren't meant to put big heavy boxes on the conveyor belt and give me a hard time about not being able to take trolleys to the carpark (I know it's a crap system, I really do, but I can't do anything about it). I get two half hour breaks, one I spend in the staff restaurant where we get reasonably good food for only $3 (free on peak days), the second break I usually go downstairs to the food court and get something from Baker's Delight and a bottle of Nutrient Water (so good when you're feeling dehydrated from talking all day). I finish at 6:30pm, get home by around 7pm, collaspe on the couch, haul myself back up to get changed and re-straighten my hair then head out either to dinner with one of my friends or out to local bar or friend's 21st.

I'm generally pretty buggered and cranky on Saturday nights but it seems to be the only night of the week that everyone I know actually wants to do something so I find myself dragging myself away from my beautiful couch and tv to spend more money on food and beer. I guess it's good to get out of the house though and not be a total recluse, despite how much more comfortable that might be. I also just remind myself that I have all Sunday to be a total slob and quite possibly not get out of my pj's or shower until past 2pm. However, Sunday is also my catch-up-coffee-day, so it's quite possible that I'll be woken up by someone calling to remind me that we are in fact having coffee/lunch at 12pm and that I really should be out of bed by now, sad.

Sunday nights are usually (I say usually, but we haven't done it for a few months due to exams and overseas trips) spent with my friend who comes over to watch Greys Anatomy/SYTYCD/Private Practice/Big Brother with me while we order the best take-away gnocchi ever from Sara's Bistro on Glenferrie Road. This is the best way to spend Sunday nights and it gets me prepared for the frantic week ahead. So that's pretty much my weekend, I bet it gives you a thrilling insight into my life *rolls eyes*

Free Hugs

Hugs to everyone for their lovely comments. I know I've said it at the start of every post I've made this week but you guys are seriously what makes me keep opening up my blog and writing a little something, even though it feels like nothing it still feels like enough to connect with you all. A big thanks to Tara who is the bomb, and I actually teared up when I read your comment Tara because I know you went to hell and back at the start of this year and I can only hope I have even a smidge of the courage and spirit that you had to pull yourself up out of that.

I'd been kicking myself for not taking a photo of this little piece of graffiti in Lyon for 9 months now. After just downloading a new photo editing program (Picasa, it's amazingly fast and really fun) I discovered that my dear ex had in fact taken a photo of it! Why hadn't I realised this earlier? Anyway, I think it has a bit of a bansky vibe going on there. A quick google of the french reply (to make sure it didn't say anything naughty before I posted it here!) led me to this site. A very basic google translater tells me that it says "A smile, is free". Or something along those lines, either way I like it, and I'd like to use it as an expression of my appreciation for all the wonderful people out there in blogland who have been thinking of me and trying to convince me that my blog has a purpose ;)

Keeping up is hard to do

Thanks so much for the supporting comments, it's really helping me to dig myself out of my glumness. I've been in my own little world and haven't really been checking up on anyone's blogs or visiting Frankie forum for weeks now, I discovered how far behind I was when I nervously signed into my Bloglines account. Seems I have a LOT of catching up to do, 396 posts to be exact. Eep. Too bad I bought my uni textbooks today and already have some serious reading to do. But I'll get around to it, I promise, then maybe I'll know what I've missed out on these few weeks.

Also on a side note, am I the only person who tears up at the Coles Olympics ads with the Mum's helping their sporty lil kids? I don't know if it's just the song that plays, but it gets me everytime. I'm such a sucker. This is the video clip for the song, it has lots and lots of Polaroids, yay!



Remind me to post pictures of the Ben Lee concert I went to last week, he is so small in real life, but really funny and sweet. And a few days ago I bought tickets to Josh Pyke, I'm so excited about it, he's by far my favorite singer.

Update

I know I've been absent and I thought I might just point out that all the dramas from last month have finally caught up with me and I'm feeling a bit down in the dumps and out of it. Hopefully August will be a better month, but for the moment I'm just trying to cope with going back to uni and getting myself organised so I don't end up a total train-wreck like last semester. I've been a bit slack with the "This is" memes, but I guess that's because they don't really apply to me very much at the moment considering my blog isn't really about me having any particular skill or trade. In fact sometimes I wonder why I actually have a blog, and I think it's because I just like to be part of this big blogging community and even if my blog is completely lame it at least gives me a way to interact with you all. I'll also be trying to continue with the "Just a minute" meme. Thanks everyone for your thoughts during the last month.