Life According to...

Life according to...

2008-07-03T20:10:00.003+10:00

Dear everyone and everything,

Life according to ... has moved.

The new website is www.accordingtolife.wordpress.com

Why???? I hear you ask, well, three reasons, in this aspect I am a follower. Lu made a discovery of a new blog with pages...which allows a little more creativity. It can be read in Vietnam...blogger is censored in Vietnam and my Dad cannot read blogspot in Vietnam but wordpress is available.
AND finally, I like to keep you on your toes. Don't worry, all my previous post have joined me in this new medium.

Thats it and keep smiling. I hope you enjoy the new blog, it is currently still in the making, so there a few missing links to be added. See you there on the flip side.

Peace
Becky

Morgenmuffel

2008-06-27T01:51:00.001+10:00

Good? morning.

Everything is just hard

2008-06-09T00:24:00.004+10:00

Dear everyone and everything,

I guess today, I have to come clean. I try so hard to put up a happy front but, it is not really there inside. I am criticised for including detailed blog entries but I really feel no other way to express myself. I came across a picture that I thought presented my feelings quite well. I think it's a picture of wallpaper. You may want to click on it to see all the faint and intricate patterns.

Right now it is hard to get through the workload I am carrying with uni studies, work and life in general. I am in a constant battle with a person who demands to be left out of this blog and who also discourages all real entries.

What are the battles about? Well I can say the same old same old, which is not a lie for us, but they are things in the extreme. I have often wondered when this abnormality had become so normal and I started to accept it as how life should be. I am really stuck and made to withstand threats that come from over the Indian Ocean.

This episode of Life According to...is rather vague and encrypted so to say, I realise that. I apologise. It is just how it has to be right now. Currently, I feel like I am waiting for life to start again. I am slowly crawling to the start line. I will get there and I may even jump the gun to get it all started again. However there are a lot of obstacles currently in the way. (My systematic review is a small one: its due Tuesday at 5pm, currently in a completed extremely rough draft. You can only imagine my spelling and grammar).

Peace everyone, I hope you are happy.
Becky

My first wedding invitation

2008-06-07T15:21:00.002+10:00

Dear Everyone and everything,

I think I mentioned I received my first wedding invitation last week. Well I have worked out where it is to be held.

NORMANDY!

Apart from the usual, "how on earth am I to get there challenges", I cannot express how much I want to go! Not for the location. Even if it was held in the middle of Wagga Wagga, I would still go.

Anyone got suggestions?

Peace
Becky

Goodbye hair! Hellooooo sanity!

2008-06-05T22:02:00.006+10:00

Dear everyone and everything,

A picture tells a thousand words. The story is, I was sick of waking up with hair in my mouth and sick of thousands upon thousands of hair strands on the bathroom floor and pulling them out of the drain. BAH!!!!!

Oh and these are my new glasses, it depresses me as how much glasses cost. Oh and I no longer use my right hand to use the mouse. I switched it to my left. Its now more comfortable. Thanks to Lu, I was able to swap the buttons. Oh the joys of being an ambi.

Peace out!
Becky

Ohh the irony hurts my head

2008-06-04T17:17:00.003+10:00

Dear Everyone and everything,

It literally hit me today how ironic it is that my previous university, The University of the Sunshine Coast has an umbrella. AND no it's not a beach umbrella.

It struck me later, literally (the umbrella that is), and perhaps the state of my umbrella is really indicative of where it comes from. It is so battered and bent, it does not know how withstand any thing more than shower. I was beset by one of the supporting rods as I arrived home and discovered I had locked myself out. It has never been the same since the massive storm that hit Sydney months ago while I walked to the post office and nearly lost my thongs aka flip flops in the flash floods down Glebe Point road.

Another announcement to make I received my first wedding invitation!!!! No I am not a bridesmaid, but I would love to go to France for this wedding!!! How awesome is that?I was a little naughtly, I ransacked my old post box and saw a letter entitled Mademoiselle Rebecca James. It's made my day!

PEACE OUT Landlubbers!!!
Becky

Leaving an apartment is a long process in Sydney

2008-05-31T19:49:00.004+10:00

Just as I thought it was all over, today I returned the keys to the apartment. It literally took me all day. My real estate agent for the apartment was is Sylvania. It takes 2hours to get there! I will have the inspection on Monday at 12pm. After then I wait for my bond, and then it will be all over.

Going, going, gooooooone!

2008-05-30T15:53:00.006+10:00

Dear everyone and everything,

I finally moved the final dregs out of my ex-apartment. I cleaned all the nicks and crannys and the carpet is smelling good.

In an climatic crescendo or an act of finality, the clothes basket I was using to transport crockery collapsed.

The noise was amplified by the cement walls and the sound continued as subsequent plates slide and smashed onto the next step.

As a result, there is now an obvious bias in the existing dinner set in the new kitchen cupboard.

But don't worry all I sustained was an even heavier headache and a cut finger. I will be fine. My ears are ringing.

Peace out landlubbers!
Becky

The Flu Lament

2008-05-29T22:19:00.003+10:00

Dear everybody and everything,

A thick head and
Muscles that hurt to tread.

I am sick of tea,
especially more than three
Lying in bed
Immer with a sore head.

Peace out rock hard world.
Becky

Out with the old in with the new.

2008-05-27T13:10:00.009+10:00

Dear Everyone and everything,

So I have officially moved. Yay! As per my previous blog, I was rather happy leaving some certain aspects of my old apartment behind. So I guess I need to update with a look into my new "digs" as some two English ladies in Fulda called it.

So how can I describe the atmosphere of the new place? It is rather like stepping into spread out Blücherstraße. I think the houses are about the same age, they both have poky rooms going in all different directions and well its full of students. My flatmates are a blend of Australian and international, undergrad and postgrad, so its a nice mix.

An entire apartment in one room. Previously my apartment looked sparse, now it looks cluttered and homey. And I must point out...I am no longer sleeping on the floor!

I couldn't avoid stairs and neither could the removalists. They did a BRILLIANT job lifting the matteress over the balcony so I did not have to sleep on the floor. Unfortunately, I woke my flatmate to get to the balcony.

The lounge and Zlatko (the super-beast of a plant) in the foreground.

The kitchen with most of the modcons.

This is what sold me on this share house.

And a garden. The larger area of the garden is dominated with a clothesline, so this was the more interesting picture.

One thing I have to mention is that I, and I am sure many other people do too, hate looking for apartments or shall I say, moving. I have done the calculations and I have moved every six months since I returned from the USA - that is since 2004. I am getting tired of it. One good thing to come out of it is, I don't tend to hoard so much any more, as I go through my stuff every six months. I am lazy and do not want to carry unnecessary things to the next apartment.

SO enjoy the new photos, and I hope to be sending you fantastic news soon, (for example I have finished my systematic review!!!)

Ok peace out and keep smiling. I hope I feel better soon. I was sent home from work today becuase I was sick.

Ciao ciao
Becky

Tonight is the last night

2008-05-24T17:33:00.004+10:00

Dear everyone and everything,

Tonight is the very last night in my current apartment in Camperdown. And I am not sad to see it go.

After this final week of cleaning up, (I have fixed the scratch on the wall - good ol'handy women me!) and the professional floor cleaning next friday, it's all over and I can say "bye bye now - see you later!"

Goodbye flat hard chair for studying!
Goodbye grill flooring and sudden/spontaneous seat- legs piercing through the floor!

Goodbye open closet!
Goodbye anal body coporate!
Goodbye mattress on the floor!

Goodbye ghastly cockroaches! (I now know why the New South Wales state of origin team are nicknamed the cockroaches! They are as abundant as cane toads in Queensland!)
Goodbye zero roommates! (I am happy to be able to say hello to someone)

Annnnd I am spent.

Peace out landlubbers and keep smiling.
Becky

My cluster map reset.

2008-05-20T21:12:00.000+10:00

That's all I wanted to say today.

Its been a long day or should I say week

2008-05-16T18:04:00.005+10:00

Dear Everyone and everything,

This week flew past at the speed of...well definitely not. The length of it is tiring. It culminated with a scientific meeting in a hotel conference room near the Sydney airport and I was devastated that they didn't serve cake at afternoon tea. 2 hours felt like 4!

Well it was all over and done finally albeit it took ages to get there. A lot of work got done in between but that did not make the week go fast.

Oh joy the weekend. But I have to work extremely hard because the week after next I move again! I have moved every 6 months since I came back from the USA.

But its all work for me. More systematic review for me. Pooh pooh pooh.

Peace out and all that jazz. Keep smiling!
Becky

Life after the death of an enemy...

2008-05-10T12:19:00.007+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i dragi moj,

Here's something that people thought I would need, but just to reassure you I don't. I came across this page How to deal with not having Facebook/Myspace . I think its rather self explanatory. Don't worry - I am fine.

This is the advice it gives:

Remember: Just because "everyone else has one" doesn't make it cool. Take pride in being different. Social networking is a dying trend as of 2008.

Tell yourself that those sites are overrated. Really, what is there to do? Sure, you can talk to people, but you can do the same over the phone or email.

Consider the safety issue. Do you really want to risk getting stalked by some sexual predator just so you can meet someone you don't even know or so you can leave a comment on your friend's bachelor party? No matter how "safe" the site says it is, think about all that could go wrong. It may not be worth the risk.

Go out and have fun with your friends. If you all are out at the mall, none of you will be online. You will actually be interacting. Go to games, dances, invite kids over to your house, go to parties, hang out on the street like in the old days.

Be proud you will have a life! It's distracting. It's easy for "five minutes" to turn into an hour and a half, and if you're already a procrastinator, that's not a good thing. Concentrate on things that matter. That term paper that's due Wednesday, perhaps?

If anyone gives you a hard time for not having facebook/myspace, tell them it's overrated. Everyone has one, what's so cool about it?

Have fun being the non-conformist!

Peace out and keep smiling!!
Becky

Sydney Shots

2008-05-09T18:34:00.005+10:00

Thought I'd share.

Peace out!
Becky

Lollypop Pyjamas

2008-05-05T20:15:00.009+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i dragi moj,

Without really going into too much detail, last night I was freezing!!! It was so cold, that it hurt to breathe in and I had to wear a beanie to bed. In another strategy to combat this issue, I also bought a new pair of pyjamas.

So, I was wandering around the shops searching for the best bargain for winter night clothes where I came across a pair that consisted of a singlet, shirt and pants all made from flannelette.

Becky

A wise cabbie and a very fast drive.

2008-05-04T22:44:00.005+10:00

Dear Everyone and everything

This has been playing on my mind for a long while, ever since I returned from Geelong. I had the chance encounter with rather charismatic taxi driver, who not only saved me $5 in wicked break neck driving tactics gave me his spin or whole world, life and everything.

The problem with this entry, is that I cannot give him justice to the things he said. I am unsure of his intentions, and I do not want to make this entry about religion, or feel that I have a weak mindset that is fed by convincing words.

I had once again returned from another hospital visit, and felt rather burnt out, knowing I had to go to work in the office once again in the morning. I stood in the taxi line at the Sydney airport, staring at nothing in particular, as the line shuffled forward and each party was allocated a taxi slot. My line seemed to stagnate and then move forward suddenly. However I never seemed any closer to getting a taxi home.

After being allocated taxi spot number 4, my taxi arrived and the taxi driver opened the back to allow my luggage to be stowed. I fell into the back, and told him my address. I asked him the normal polite chatter "how is your night? Busy?" etc, and after him asking the best direction to my apartment, I gave him the choice as I am unsure which is the best way. Then he asked me what the difference was between the mind and the brain.
Thus ensured a debate on what constitutes a function of the brain and the mind. Questions on whether the movement of the leg, or smell was part of the mind, or like the mind, another function of the brain. We discussed where the separation of the mind, the brain and its functions lay. I was having trouble keeping up because of the abstract nature of the conversation and the zig zagging of the taxi.

I don't know if it was because I looked disgruntled with everything, worn out or whether he just felt like talking. He then changed the subject and asked me if he could tell me his perspective on the world, life and everything. He said do you mind if I tell you my thoughts on everything and how its interconnected and what it all is for?

I said go ahead. Despite feeling unable to make an adequate contribution to any debate.

Ooohhhhhh I love Perth, geez I love Perth.

2008-05-03T14:57:00.006+10:00

Dear Everyone and everything

How is everyone? Ok I have to confess the below photos were from my first and previous trip to Perth, however, that was before I had my Blog back up and running.

I have just recently returned from Perth, a week long work trip that left me exhausted and this morning I wished I could stay snuggled within my dreams forever - I was attending the wedding of a French friend of mine, in a full white bridesmaid dress with sequins, at the Stonehenge that was in the backyard of my mother's new three storey apartment, where I enjoyed sliding on my stomach on the green grass and had to get changed becuase of the grass stains on my chest. I like dreaming.

Anyway...here are some photos of Perth:

The view from my hotel window.

So what can I say about my trip, I am unafraid of getting lost in a rent-a-car, I can always find my way...eventually (hence my main emotion is frustration - a completely different emotion to the recipe to get a ride in a tow truck). I did a bit of off road action with an invisible traffic island...I will not say more except everything and I am fine. Nothing is scarred for life. I would like that the Medina Hotel in Perth would erect more signs for their off road parking and also for directions to their lifts.This was one reason I got lost and stood wandering in the car park looking rather confused. Do not trust whereis.com.au it tends to lead you a little astray even with the correct address.

Finally, on the third night, I went out on the scout for chocolate and wine, but was thwarted by a fire alarm in a gym, that made a shopper panick and hit the security alarm at the back of the Woolworths store (situated in a very convenient location above the gym on fire) and everyone had to drop everything and get out. Needless to say, I had to sacrifice my chocolate booty.

There are no apologies for this blog entry. I know it is not witty and full of my usual antics. It was rather a long week. On the upside though, I did get to investigate "London Court" just at closing time and purchased a lovely tea setting for one; thanks to a lovely sales women who could not suppress her selling instinct and reopened the shop just after closing time just for me. (Everyone was happy - I got a tea set and she made some money.)

After a long week in 3 different hospitals (that should be called Rabbit Warren 1,2 and 3) it was all over...or was it?

I had to park my rental car in a parking place that had been conveniently relocated the previous day and where the signs were reminiscent of Scarecrow's directions to Oz. I waded through the credit card spruckers to the bag drop counter and snaking my way through the security checkpoint I was finally able to sit and relax in the Perth Qantas lounge...for 15 minutes with 100's of other stressed out Friday afternoon businessmen drinking free beer. Then went another packed flight across the desert with "Dan in Real Life," a documentary "7 Ages of Rock & Roll", and a discovery of how refreshing moisturiser is on the aeroplane to distract me from the boredom. After playing with the moisturiser and all exposed pieces of my skin, I fell asleep and woke with a heavy landing.

I hope you are well and everyone in your life is happy.

Peace out landlubbers. I will see you on the flip side!

Becky.

Back in the Qantas Lounge.

2008-04-28T13:50:00.003+10:00

Today there is chocolate cake in the Qantas Lounge! Woo Hoo! Thats all I can say about today, because I got in trouble for my spelling. Well, it had to happen some time. I need to concentrate more.

Can you strain your brain or exhaust it (as in concentrate to long)?

I might eat some more cake.

Peace out! (landlubbers!)

Becky

Goodbye Yellowbrick Road aka Facebook Suicide.

2008-04-25T14:57:00.030+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i dragi moj,

Its official, I have deleted my Facebook account. Here's the email I received from Facebook Support today.

Hi Rebecca,

Re: Delete My Account

We have deleted your profile information and removed your
email addressfrom our login database.  Please let me
know if you have further
questions or concerns.

Thanks,

Emma
User Operations
Facebook
Facebook Support
privacy+nlvvy51@facebook.com

WHY???? I hear you cry out! (I like to think I am addressing a crowd of people when I write on blogger and that they aka you are interacting with me in a rather melodramatic and perhaps narcissistic and self appreciative way)

For starters, I found it rather addictive, I spent way too much time on there and as I put it, I would rather eat, sleep, pop a pimple, eat nutella out of a jar, do an assignment than use it as a procrastination toy. I have often written about the joys of procrastination and blogger. However, I really only joined up because my room mates at Unicentral had (oohhh peer pressure!) and became really active when I accidentally deleted my blog. It was a sad substitution.

In January, I initially deactivated my account; however all the details were still stored and I could reactivate my account at any time. So this was the first time I thought of deleting my account. Initially it was a good thing it could only be deactivated because three or four days later I was back on and facebooking again like the good old days.

I was starting to wonder if this was an addiction. (Hello my name is Rebecca and not only am I a hoarder but a Facebook junkie.)
I was making many excuses to stay on there. A perfect example: I invited all the people I knew on the Morayfield networks to enjoy the fruits of my massive clean up. Basically show-up and buy some CDs (a win-win situation I thought). Ironically the friends who did come were the friends I remain in contact with regularly outside Facebook. The other perhaps chickened and could not disengage from the Facebook mask and were too afraid to realise a true Facebook invitation. Maybe there was a fear to allow Facebook tread into reality. On a side note, it was interesting to see how many people simply ignored the invitation. Many declined with no excuse (however of those that left an excuse and therefore there I have no hard feelings, the main excuse that was made was - I am in London, sorry can't come)

Don't get me wrong; however. I was really glad to see the friends who did turn up. Despite inviting all the people to come, it was rather a personal experience going through my hoarded junk and burning it. These people shared the treasured memories that were hidden amongst the paper and stuff (I am glad I shared the experience with them and not the other - dare I say cretins! NO I AM NOT JADED!)

So back to the topic! I had to ask myself what good was deactivating the account when I could restart it again, exactly where I left off. So I decided (without realising that there had been a huge furore regarding Facebooks's privacy policy in the months when I first deactivated my account) to fully delete my account. I naively thought it was going to be an easy process. Please see the New York Times article by Maria Aspen.

Initially I had trouble. I could only find the deactivation button. I googled "deleting a facebook account" and started to get a little paranoid. I found the above article, and the found a blog dedicated to deleting your Facebook account. I found a lot of links to privacy sites. I read that it was really tricky and thought I would have delete each item myself. But then ironically, How to delete your Facebook Account blog page by Mr Willen led me back to Facebook. He has set up a group that was dedicated to deleting accounts. It worked.

However I am not too sure. I remain uneasy. I have extended this topic even further.

It is very plain to see, I was very thankful to Blogger to retrieve all my account information. I invested a lot of effort to bring it back, once I had accidentally deleted it. Blogger was very kind to retrieve my blog posts back. So in essence my blogger information was not really deleted. But I have to say, I did not delete my profile so maybe this is a different issue.

So, in culmination of this lengthy entry, I am wondering if I can write to Facebook and see if they can retrieve my account? Thus proving that they have not really deleted it. Could I be that paranoid. I am considering it.

In all truth there is nothing like spitefulness to create motivation. My initial motivation came really from a bet I had with Dejan. He did not believe that I could disengage myself from the Facebook neighbourhood. This motivation was then fuelled by the complexity and controversial nature of the task. I like a challenge and I won the bet. I must say, it was not really that painful.

After I had placed the request to delete my Facebook account, I decided to let all my friends on Facebook know I was leaving. Instead of emailing them all, I created an event (if you have a facebook account or had one, you know what I am talking about. The event invitation was what I used to invite the people on facebook to my garage sale). In good old Bec fashion, I like to make an event out of everything. (See my initial aside above.) I created an event on Facebook called "Bec deletes her blog aka Facebook suicide" so I could give them my contact details.

I figured that if people are truly interested in my whereabouts, how I am feeling, what I am doing, photos and so on, I left them my blog address. If people are truly interested in contacting me, I left them my email address, if they did not have it in the first place. They won't find it difficult to find me on Skype or MSN or the telephone if they want to talk to me. (AND I have to add, I can do the same thing as well).

If you are in any way concerned, or want to do the same thing, here are some interesting links:

How to delete your Facebook Account

Privacy International

Finally, in the style of going out with a bang and being melodramatic, I would like to leave you with a song.

Peace out landlubbers! See you on the flip side and on Facebook.
Becky.

Viele Wege Fuehren ins Nirvana

2008-04-20T14:16:00.006+10:00

I think I can now officially say I have moved out of home. I have no more things "stored" at my parents house. I know have everything that is mine with me. What I did not sell, I gave away to charity, what I could not give away to charity I threw away (I mean who wants my old undies? I wouldn't. Haha!

So what burnable, was burnt. This meant assignments from 2001! AND high school year 10 Drama. I am such a hoarder! I repeat such a hoarder.

On the Friday, I walked my brothers to school and saw what my old primary school looked like. It has grown exponentially and changed its colour scheme from aqua and pink to blue maroon and white. There were a few of the white uniforms that I used to wear. The checkered shirt still exists! Bizaar to think I used to be there and that tall!

So that was my weekend. I feel relieved, refreshed and much better. There is really nothing there that is taking up space or not able to be touched because it is all sorted. I have cut the ties so to say, whether it is me to them or them to me. Either way, this stuff will no longer follow me where ever I decide to go! (Watch out Germany - that was one step closer to arriving!)

I also picked up my shoes and my backpack. I now have a whole lot more clothes!

Peace out landlubbers!
Becky

Working through my stuff, literally.

2008-04-18T13:01:00.005+10:00

I have things from before 1994! I came across a wallet covered in mould (like the one on shoes that have been in the wardrobe undisturbed for years... well it has been years), a medallion from 1986, and general junk. And, lots of assignments from USC. I found stuff from Don Myers class Environment Management and didn't even blink as it went on the to burn pile!

But I have to let go. I am keeping photos but no cards, I am not keeping my old written stories, the stories are already in my head. They are literally filling up space and I want it to let go of me. Or I need to let go. I am not sure which it is. What is strange, is that my early years stuff is on paper, and my late teen stuff is on cd. This is when finally I had a computer to work on (other than a commodore 64). So I guess its hard, in that the early stuff is all on paper and I can burn i, the late stuff is on cd and who knows what is in them.

I am no child prodigy or creative writing genius nor photographer. Its just stuff from me, and who is really actually interested in it other than me. Politely, one may say, oh yeah I would like to read it, but in reality, its just curiosity and after a while its boring and a waste of time, effort and concentration. So if I am no longer interested in keeping it, its going. I want to be able to say...I had this, "BUT I BURT IT in a furious rage *cough*." However there is no furious rage, now loud swearing or crying.

So I am going through boxes and boxes of stuff, thrown a whole heap on the bonfire. What else? Shoes, blah! how fashion changes! I have huge platform ankle boots I wore in 2000. They are at the moment covered in mould. I am going to clean them and hopefully give them away.

So that is what I am doing. Its a lot less emotional than I thought going through the stuff. I have a smile and then chuck it. Its more annoying than anything, because I have to get rid of the junky stuff somehow. Sell it/give it away/chuck it!

Finally, I have found 4 superannuation accounts I am enrolled in. And I know that these are not the only ones. Why couldn't there be just a central one and then we get to choose where the money will go after we start thinking about it? I wouldn't mind the money now. Hehehe!

Ok, thats me. Thats it for today. I can"t wait for tonight because the burning begins!!!!

Peace out landlubbers!

Becky

PS I am on my lunch break at the moment.

Well that's me for the week.

2008-04-17T19:44:00.003+10:00

Dear Everyone, everythign,

I have finished for the week. It felt like a super long week, except it was a day shorter than normal. It all began and started with a super early flight to Geelong, 2 days straight monitoring, a noisy air conditioning unit, a smelly gymnasium all coming to a climax at the Qantas lounge in the Sydney Airport.

So what is the Qantas lounge? I can hear that echo against the wok in my bag. (That is a random sentence but I actually have a wok in my bag. It did not even raise an eyebrow at the security gate unlike the set of scales I took through six months ago. ) The Qantas Lounge aka the Qantas Club is where the business men go when they wait for aeroplanes. I was able to score a membership from work. So I can have a shower, eat some food, and drink alcohol and other beverages to my hearts content while I wait for my plane to board.

So after a long day, yes indeed long day at work, I packed my bags like a madman, caught the bus to central, then the train to the domestic airport, then straight to the club.

So why do I like it so much? Its not really because of the free food (its only finger food), nor the free alcohol, the free internet connection is definitely a bonus, however its not that either. Its rather more sentimental. My Opa used to invite us in when he visited us and as an 8 yeara old, the idea of a club that let you eat free food, drink free coke and sit in comfy chairs was as exciting as an early Christmas. hehehe!

So that is the reason why I like being early at the airport. Not too early because it gets boring after a while.

Well that's me for now.

Peace out!
Love
Becky.

PS: I do realise that I am blogging about earth shattering events.

Waiting

2008-04-13T16:56:00.005+10:00

I am currently waiting for my colleague to drop off a wireless internet adapter for work on Monday. In reality I should be doing my biostatistics assignment. No big deal. I am on top of things anyway.

I have been on a self project of transferring old old blogs of the past on different sites. I even cam across the old old one I had while I was in Las Cruces. This was the one the spurred me into the crazy blog antics in the first place. I then switched from blogger to MSN space but I was frustrated by the closed off nature it was and the restrictions it placed (at the time) to the template and how things were presented. In Germany I returned to this site and basically I have maintained it. There was a long period of silence with the accidental deletion, but now all that is fixed.

Anyway, what is interesting, I am still complaining about the same things as I was 4 years ago. When I think about the time in between doing statistics at NMSU and now, I am doing the same thing now as then. Studying working and study and working. I am complaining about statistics, trying to maintain focus and avoid procrastination, complaining about working and only doing that or only studying.

4 years of the same thing. Am I crazy???? At least now I have a job that is not in a cd shop or being a waitress. I am actually doing degree related stuff!

Ok peace out land lubbers! I have to go to Uni now. I have the wireless card now.
Becky.

PS If you are interested in a hisorical blog experience my first blog was Crazybecky at blogger and Crazybecky at MSN space.

Much about nothing.

2008-04-12T22:42:00.006+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i dragi moj,

So what has been happening?? A whole lot of nothing. Well if you don't count the whole large pizza I ate by myself.

There is a nice pizza place called Frank's Pizza around the corner from where I live. I would not go to say that it is the "Best Pizza in the Whole World" because I save that for a place in Smithfield that makes THE Nutella Pizza. But, Frank's Pizza is a good one. Way better than the mainstream ones.

So back to last night. In a mood of total exhaustion, I didn't really want to do much. I watched a very good film from Sweden called "As it is in Heaven" and also "Stranger than Fiction". I liked them both.

Why was I alone? Well a particular person has returned to Germany. Why was I exhausted? Since then, my days have consisted of wake up, talk to a particular person in Germany, work, study, talk to a particular person in Germany, sleep, wake up, talk to a particular person in Germany, go to work, study, talk to a particular person in Germany, sleep etc. Not that I am complaining about that. I think you get my point. I was tired.

So I was wallowing in a sloth like fashion draped over the coach. I drank a glass of red wine and slice by slice I ate the pizza. It was gone before I realised. I then went to bed with a stomach ache.

I did warn you that this was a much about nothing. Oh yeah, I hope you like the new layout. I thought there was a need for a change, as the Life According to... had laid dormant for a long long time. But I did not think it needed any pomp and circumstance to announce its arrival.

Peace out and keep smiling landlubbers!
Becky

Filling in a black hole...

2008-04-07T14:22:00.010+10:00

Dear Everything, everyone i dragi moj,

How is everyone? It has been a long while and a lot has happened in between the day I deleted the my blog and today. (I tried to re-invigorated myself into the writing spirit of my blog, but in reality it was just not the same without its history.) I am writing in reference to the "picking myself up from the floor!" blog in the previous section where I wrote an ode to all the deleted blogs. Kind of a best of, but it really did not fill in the hole or the regret I felt with all the memories I knew I was going to (against my will) forget the details and accuracy of different random stories (eg The Überdicke Fisch ).

Well there is no need to start from scratch and produce another depository of personally written anecdotes. I found a alternative/better solution! I emailed blogger repetitively for about 6 weeks straight and politely asked them to retrieve all my previous posts. Then last weekend, I received an email stating that it had been retrieved from blogger. This was what the noise was all about. I got my blog back. I felt like I was dancing naked in the rain! It had my heart pounding and my face blushing. Something that others find trivial and criticise as irrelevant and possibly in the vicinity of inappropriate self exposure, was raised from the dead.

So, to the readers to understand the difficulty of the whole process of retrieving my blog, try to contact blogger yourself. It is actually very difficult to do on your own. Try, for your own amusement, to find the email page of blogger help. For a while, I felt like I was in an endless loop of linked web pages. I recommend trying to find the pages to email blogger as a mind numbing stress building experience. It is a task that sends you in circles and then back again to where you came from. However I can understand why, how much easier is it to just email a help centre to solve your problem than to go find out how to fix a problem yourself? However, in this scenario, the help groups advise to contact blogger directly. A difficult task. This is where the guy in the previous blog entry comes in. It was him who helped me contact blogger. It was a link on his page that sent me directly to the email blogger page.

To cut all the emails I sent to short one lined sentence; emails ranged from please please please please help me to if you would be so kind ... I finally got the attention of the blogger centre and got this email:

Hi there,

Thanks for writing in. I was able to restore that blog to your account,
so
you should see it the next time you log in. As there is currently
another
blog at its location, I've added a number to the end of your URL so
that
there won't be a conflict of address. Please feel free to change your
blog
address as desired by visiting your Settings | Publishing tab.

Sincerely,
Danish
The Blogger Team

So an overall thank you to Danish, the Blogger Team Help Centre and also Peter Chen.

So just five words of things to come. "THE USUAL ANTICS ARE BACK!"
And to the above mentioned criticising people, pooh to you. I am back and its my blog, I can write what I want!

Peace out and stay calm land lubbers!
Becky.

Watch this SPACE

2008-04-01T23:51:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everthing i Dragi moj,

WATCH THIS SPACE! The Bectrillion Blog is back!

I have to thank:

It was Peter's blog that helped me contact blogger!

So keep a look out over the weekend!

Ode to my Blog

2008-03-09T10:09:00.000+10:00

Oh I wish I wish I had my old blog back.

That's all.

Oh I wish, I wish

2008-03-08T16:10:00.000+10:00

Oh I wish I wish I had my old blog back.
Its sad but true, but I feel like a sack.
When all I can do is keep on asking
The blogger team ignore all the tasking
But nothing I can do seems to get it back.

Maybe a super duper really crap poem will work.

Please Blogger retrieve my blog. I miss it dearly.

Still Disgruntled

2007-10-12T17:14:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

It continues, the unabated disgruntlement against science. What can I say? In reality no one has an idea or clue what is going on in their world of interest, they are too scared to admit they do not know and feel threatened by others finding out that they do not know.

In reading a lot about things people know nothing about, I end up in the same predicament. I am still unsure why I read the article in the first place, it got me nowhere and created more questions.

Woe is me!

Peace out!
Becky

Two weeks down

2007-09-21T18:01:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

This marks the end of week two for me at work and Lucy just finished her first week as a translater. WOW two working women! I think its funny. One in Berlin and one is Sydney. Congratulations on the new digs! (I learnt this word from you Lucy.)

Phew! I am over waking at 7 already. I am hoping eventually I will get used to it. Well I should not complain because I could have to drive through traffic jams and all that jazz through Sydney. Instead I by pass them all on foot. Well, I guess that all I can say is that that is all I have to say. Not much and I am written out due to having 3 assignments due on the same day, all about Colorectal Cancer.

Interesting. Apart from that, I would like to send out a warning to people trying to connect to the Internet here is Australia, its expensive and already, at 15c per MB our house made out landlord a $1000 Internet bill. Well all I can say, is that he underestimated our usage, and requirements, and well, I hope we are not charged because in our contracts it specifies that Internet is included. Ahhhh Internet hassles, reminds me of Fulda. HAHA!!!

Ok thats it, I think.

Peace out land lubbers.

So where am I? The Challenge

2007-06-25T19:32:00.003+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Dragging myself off the floor, the one I had thrown myself down onto because I had missed the bed in a melodramatic display of depression, I am gradually going to piece together the deleted blog site.

So in the next coming days, I will be endeavouring to spivvy up my blog in new and wonderful ways, despite the lack of history or archives! (I am still having bouts of involuntary sobbing and yelling at my stupidity). Thanks to Kelly and Lucy, they cheerily reminded me that the memories are still there in my head, and in other peoples heads as they had also experienced them.

I lost all the great literary accounts of my travels, but who am I kidding? My writing is not Shakespeare or Jane Austen. At best, with all my spelling errors it deserves a chuckle from the curious random person. My loyal readers (heheheh as I like to call you, hehehe you are really my friends I have met and begged you to read my blog, hahahah!)forgive me for the "odd" spelling mistake (of which nearly included Jane Austen - I originally wrote Austin on the account that a colleague of mine is called Judy Austin) and slip of inaccuracy. However throughout the whole history of the Life According to Bectrillion blog there have been some great memories and entries... here is a list off the top of my head that will take us down memory lane:

The recipe for how to get a ride in a tow truck.
A embarrassing rendition of getting my car towed in the style of a recipe. Ingredients include, zero oil, too much oil, a Daewoo, a tow truck, a tow truck driver and Becky. Literally a recipe for disaster.

Beerfest on the roof.
The real Oktoberfest
You are my sunshine song will never be the same again. Nor hickies for that matter, oh nor nikko pens and skin! Hahahah!
The elephant on roller skates upstairs fiasco
I don't need to go into detail with this one.
Kudos to all people I got to meet and had to say goodbye to.
Don't worry since I have lost the records does not mean I have forgotten you. NEVER I say!
The V-Day campaigns.
My account of my trip to London and the great confusing story in the style of old English.
Snake 0, Becky 1 story.
Victory is mine! However the nightmares still continue.
Descriptions of parties, hangovers, fights and gossip.
Random hikes on frosty mornings, against the will of my friends
(Who were the greatest people in the world because I got my thesis done!) I do think I have a debt with Karma for that one. However! I do argue, that despite the wind being incredibly windy (Oh my adjectives are so creative) and the fog being so foggy (there I go again!) and dense, we had a marvelous time, if I do say so myself.
A trip to Underwater World and upside down jelly fish and glow in the dark fish.

Upside Down Jellyfish

Glow in the Dark Fish

Driving around Oma's in the Jeep

The Drunk Aussie

Well that is the list just off the top of my head now. I had so many entries, a lot that went over to oblivion because they were just random bits of word diarrhea coming out of my fingers over the keyboard. But! There were some great memories, and I hope that I can refill the blog and then perhaps randomly delete it again sometime in the future! Here's to another 4 years of good blogging! And hopefully, technology will improve, so that the blog becomes bigger brighterer!!!

Peace out land lubbers!

Keep smiling!

Yours truly Miss Becky!

PS I totally forgot to put in the main point of this blog. Ok here is the challenge to my loyal readers and Bectrillion fans. My above list is totally incomplete and yes there are som eblogs that we will never ever remember. However, there was so many I am sure I have missed a great story. So, here's the challenge.

In the comments section place your favourite or worst hated blog entry from Bectrillion either about an event or such. Basically I just want a run down of all the stories that I missed in my list above. Or how you feel about the loss of Bectrillion senior.

Peace!

I am in Mourning

2007-06-09T21:46:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i dragi moj

I accidentally deleted my blog. How could that happen you say? I tried to delete a stupid one I started to create and well I deleted my master blog instead. I lost all that writing, all my thoughts as I travelled Germany, all the links i had collected, cool things I had created and now I have to start again. I don't know if I want to.

I am actually crying. It's not funny. I can't express how bad I feel.

Becky

Blast from the Past

2007-02-21T19:04:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, Everything i Dragi moj,

So its back to school and into my final semester of the Grad Dip in Education. Yes, yes it is interesting if I choose to engage...sometimes. On this occasion I did and funny enough, it was broaching on the topics of the past.

Let me jog a few memories, perhaps unwillingly. Semiotics and Discourse. A discussion of language and the limitations of languages ensued. I was hanging off my seat, when the lecturer (a lovely lady from Germany - is this a coincidence?) was talking about how there are different words in in different languages that there are no direct translation in another, or the words do not exist for certain concepts.

I was waiting and waiting to hear the word....but it never rose its pointy head. I heard Discourse, signs, semiotics and other like words but no.....RICH POINT!

Along with the torrential, however no hurricane, what a disappointing day.

Peace out!

Becky

Happy V-Day!

2007-02-14T19:54:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Happy V-Day and for those who have kept a close eye on my blg a year ago would know about V-Day and what it stands for. It is not Valentines Day, it is Vagina Day! It is a day to highlight issues surrounding women and to stop the violence against women.

Last year's spotlight was on Comfort Women. Women taken as sexual slaves during war. This year the spot light is:

V- Day Spotlight 2007: Women in Conflict Zones

The aim is to address the fact that war exponentially increases the crimes of violence against women and girls. In equal measure the strength and resilience of women in rebuilding their communities and leading governments to peaceful solutions needs to be celebrated.

For women, not just during war but for decades to come, armed conflict means escalated military, sexual, and domestic violence, lack of security as a displaced person or refugee, and vulnerability to sex traffickers and coerced prostitution even by the peacekeepers themselves. Given the 21st century's escalating armed conflicts, impunity for wartime sexual violence cannot be tolerated. As patterns of wartime rape and sexual violence continue today in places such as Sudan, Congo, and Iraq, it is paramount to expose and condemn these crimes through international media coverage and public outcry and efforts in our communities themselves.

Stop the Violence!

Peace out!
Becky

So. The silence. Let me address that...maybe.

2007-02-12T22:49:00.000+10:00

Dear Everything, Everyone i Dragi moj,

My humblest of apologies for the lack on entries on my part. I have had in reality a form of writers block. I haven't had the erge to write in the past months.

Nothing spectacular has happened that I care to dispense into the world. All the same feelings and lack of movement forward have continued. If you don't count my devastating departure from Germany again. It feels like 10 steps backward. Hence the lack of witty and substantial entries of adventures and mishaps.

Sorry.

Peace Out. Try to keep smiling.

Becky.

Coming soon WEBCAM!!!!!

2007-01-10T02:37:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

This blog is on a more technical side entry but may be useful for fellow mac users. It was much to my dismay that I was unable to find a webcam for my little mac except for a $200 version because the main stream companies it seems do not like to write drivers fo mac. Therefore I was left out of the market of the $39.99 cameras from Media Markt.

Never fear fellow mac users who do not have the new inbuilt isight(Of which is a shame...if I only waited another six months...grrr!!) I have a link for you!

So I was left thinking, is it worth buying such an expensive thing - I forgot the greatest C2oth invention freeware, google and other computer nerds! How I love them.

Info about cameras for Macs!

Drivers for everyday cameras for Macs!

Naturally I have to say, well these are not the manufacturers drivers and such and therefore use is at your own risk. But I just thought to spread the news I am doing Flips 'n Shit because I can use webcam!

Peace out and keep smiling!
Becky

Happy New Year

2007-01-03T22:15:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Happy New Year!!

Hope your wishes come true.

Peace Out!
Becky.

The Bet

2006-12-21T09:24:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Here is the bet. In resonse to some very heated debates about the demographics of the Australian population a bet has emerged.

Here it is:

Is there a country in the world that is not represented by at least one permanant resident in Australia?

There is 10 euros at stake. Dejan thinks he is about to get 10€ richer! I don't think so. I will keep you posted. Any suggestions are always welcome.

Peace out!
Becky

The 5th!

2006-12-05T02:48:00.000+10:00

Dear Eveyone, everything i Dragi moj!

Today is the big heffalump's Birthday!

Happy Birthday - avagoodwon! If she's reading.

Ciao Belle
Peace out
Becky

Of what I know about cars...

2006-11-30T10:10:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Now for those who know me in Australia, I have to confess (and I realise that this is NOT a shock for you) I don't know much about cars, and I am not the best of car owners. We just have to take the example of when my car broke down twice on the same day in Buderim, the amount of time I have called RACQ in a blind panic, and so on...Needless to say I am not unfamiliar with calling the road side assistance man or asking strangers or friends and relatives to somehow work out what I have done to my car due neglect.

So, in the like in the style of how embarressment, of rolling into the petrol station with no petrol, I experienced a similar thing again, but the story continued. Dejan and I were waiting in line at the tankstelle on empy ready to fill. He turns off the car and it proceeds to either a) run out of petrol then and there and we can't restart the car or b) the battery goes flat. Either way we had to push the car 5 meters to the bowser. (Well some random people in the line behind us - who were nice enough to tell me I could wait in the car while they pushed.)

Next, after paying for the petrol, Dejan tried to start the car again, and once again there is repeat of pushing the car (but this time 15 meters out of the way). So now the car could not officially start. There were no ''suprise'' jumper leads in the back.

So to cut a long story short, we found some jumper leads, and little miss dictator here told the Dejan and his cousin how to jump start the car. I mean the amount of times I have seen it done and had it done to my car I should know how to hook up a Mecedes C class with Opel (aka Holden) Astra.

So then yeah the car started ith the jumper leads etc.- Thats the end of this story!!

Peace out land lubbers!!!!
Becky

Ich bin da

2006-11-24T08:40:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everyone i Dragi moj,

I am safe and sound and in Fulda. Überraschung!!!!

Peace out!

Becky

2006-11-15T19:06:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Mrs Bitch is a...

Billigerent
Irritating
Trash
Carrier of
Hatred

Tyrranical
Egghead
Horrible
Resource for Excrement

For those who do not know,
belligerent:

1.	warlike; given to waging war.

2.	of warlike character; aggressively hostile; bellicose: a belligerent tone.

Or so I am according to my students. I am flattered that they took the time to awknowlege that I am a pain in the butt for them, and make them work.

Oh well, thank goodness it is over!

Peace out and keep smiling Sunshiners!!!!
Beck aka "Mrs B"

Today!

2006-11-14T17:46:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Guess what!

Today in the mail my transcript arrived! I have officially completed my undergradate degrees. The requirements have been met!

I will get two certificates - this I did not know! A Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science! (Before I thought it would all be on the one certificate.)

I was walking in Woolies and the feeling of completion finally hit.

WOOO HOOOOOO!!!! Ok I am over it. Graduation ceramony is on the 18th of May in the yet to be built stadium building at USC.

Peace out and love your work!
Becky

Oh what a day!!! Late November back in 0ooohhhh6!

2006-11-13T19:15:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Today was like no other!

There was a brown snake - dead by misadventure and netting; probably provocked by the smell of chickens, (known to be highly venomous with 4mm fangs, the culprit - ok actually a different snake, but still an - Eastern Brown Snake in a venomous attack of a uni student of mine who mistook it as a stick and woke up in a hospital), a pecking chicken (of which will turn yellow if you cook it to eat - because it is a free range chicken), a blazen approach to the statistics lecturer to ask for the likely hood for a possible job in statistics(I have to start planning for the payment for my next trip...), and wait for it.....an incident of running out of petrol, on the way to get petro 50meters down my streetl! (Ok I admit it, I have been running on empty for a couple of days now - its my own fault).

As for the incident of no petrol, well I had to roll into the petrol station. How embarrassment.

4 days to go until the END of my practikum!!! 4 DAYS WOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Peace out!
Becky
XXXOOO

A message from Ms B.

2006-11-10T18:34:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

How are yous all going?

Well today, as Ms B, I took my Biodiversity kids to underwater world. It is not how I remember it, but it was still interesting.

350
Jellyfish

Glowing Fish

Find Nemo?

Sea Urchin

Shark Embryo

Peace out!
Becky

My Praktikum

2006-11-09T16:34:00.001+10:00

Dear Everyone, everthing i Dragi moj,

I have been informed of my name according to half of my class at the school I am doing my prac at. According to my sources, it is because I make them work. Actually, they don't do anything. I hate to be disrespected and this is what I get. They call me this behind my back.

It's Mrs Bitch. (It does not refer to being a slut, basically in this context it means a female who is tough and mean). And there is an anagram for each letter. I have yet to get the anagram. At least the other half likes me. I am not mean.

I don't know if I should be happy, my teacher mentor says I should be proud.

The other issue I have is another prac teacher will not get off her ass and do anything, and then she complains that she gets ignored.

Ok I have had my bitch - since I am not a bitch, I am THE bitch and its Miss Bitch to you! (I am not married kids!) I so don't care I have only one week to go.

Peace out!
BECKY

What accent! I say!

2006-11-06T17:55:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Apparently I have an accent. I was told today, yet again, by my students at my praktikum that, I have an accent...they don't know where I come from. So they asked me what country I was from.

I replied: Do you know Morayfield? If not check it out on Wikipedia.
Morayfield

The Glasshouse Mountain Mt Tibrogargen - Yes this is our "Mountain", it looks like a gorilla. It juts out within the Caboolture Shire.

Of course they laughed. But they remained baffled at my accent. What accent I say! This is also not the first time that this has happened of late. I was asked in my class if i had an accent - and I quote - "What country are you from? Brazil or South Africa?" Then there was there was the lady and man in the Co-op Bookstore. She said, and I quote "you have an accent, and why are you still at uni! Hey Pete, she has an accent, go on speak.."...(I say Hi Pete, how are you? - because I know him, he is a fellow ambassador) ..."see you have one!"

I am remain perplexed as to this "accent" I supposedly have.

Peace out and love your work,
Becky

PS:
The post about where I come from has changed. It originally said something about not much to do and hense the related alcohol problem. Just to let you know, the Caboolture Shire has the second highest birthrate in Australia (the first being south of Brisbane) and I think it has taken for a turn of the worse - and of course utterly true. But don't worry, I got out of there. If you are truely interested, Australia has a negative birthrate, another problem that is plaguing most developed countires except USA, whom just clicked over 300 million people in October.

Morayfield both versions

There is no distance in between, there is distance to go through

2006-11-05T23:11:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

There is no distance in between, there is distance to go through

I need to remember this.

Peace Out!
Becky

A hike from the past...

2006-11-01T18:22:00.001+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Here is a video that wouldn't work earlier and does now. It should remind some people of the crazy "good" ideas I sometimes had.

Enjoy.

Oh and if you aren't on my map, would you be so kind and add yourself? Hehehe, now I am becomin demanding.

Peace out!

Becky

The weather

2006-10-30T23:00:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

On the days where I try to have a polite conversations, without offending anyone, but at the same time, try to be engaging, without divulging personal information or really what is on my mind, like the English I talk about the weather. (it is one of those cultural traits that do cross over to Australian - particularly for Melbournians becuase they have four seasons in one day sort of unpredictable weather - everywhere else is just hot and dry or humid with bouts of draught or monsonal rain causing floods),

The day before yesterda, apparently it hit 30° and well it was deliscious. I sat outside and sucked on a perfectly ripe mango. The Kiwi fruit is delicious and cheap - while bananas scream at $12 a kilo! (Please refer to some website on the internet regarding cyclone Larry and global climate change!)

So I hope you are all well.
Peace out!
Love Becky

Flips 'n Shit

2006-10-24T19:48:00.000+10:00

Dear everyone, everything, i Dragi moj,

Just thought you would like to see the antics of an Unicentra neighbour, when he comes down to annoy us, this guy had his goodbye party last weekend, he thought this was a good idea.

Its a good example of a drunk Aussie, the antics I bare witness to, here in Uncentral...geez theie a noisy bunch!

Peace Out Bec

Its days like these

2006-10-22T12:14:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Meh, I hate assignments.

Peace out!
Becky

Something has started....

2006-10-19T23:50:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything, i Dragi moj,

The below mentioned game about the Cronulla Riots adn Australian pride has been taken down by Angel Fire.

Still this whole issue, at its least, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Peace out!!!
Becky

There was a fire in our Apartment!!!

2006-10-18T21:09:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, Everything, i Dragi moj,

Our apartment caught fire today.

Here's the tales of the adventures as I got home.

I walked into the kitchen to find the fitchen full of buzz and the dinenr table in th ekitchen covered in dough and icing sure. It is Annes Birthday today...good old 22! So Kelly decided to make "German" floxenox of so the name she calls them. She was devesated to find out that they are actually perhaps a hungarian desert, made from dough, fried anf then covered in icing suger. She had made mountains of these, despite being morbidly upset to discover that they were not German - as she had been told by her family all her life.

So the oil caught on fire, and Jesse (Kelly's cousin) our adopted roommate, stood back stared and cried "Everything is ok, everything is under control!" While actually trying to figure out what was taught about oil and fire in 3rd grade. Tea towels came out of every crack and cranny and slapped the half a meter tall fire. Smoke alarm squealing, they somehow brought the blaze under control with out any security reaction.

When I came home, they re-accounted the whole event. There is a massive soot stain above the stove. While they were cleaning I mentioned the resident fire blanket - "Blankey". hehehe!

All in all, it was Annes surprise birthday party. Her bed was covered in balloons and surpise posters stuck on her wall.

There was a lot of food and nice company. My belly hurts.

Peace out!
Becky.

Do I need to comment?

2006-10-17T19:44:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everthing i Dragi moj,

Thinking back to the time I was in Straburg and the events that were unfolding in Australia, Cronulla Riots that were racially motivated. I am truely embarraressed and ashamed of these assholes! The article refers to a board game that was put on the internet that is based on the Monoploy board game and refers to Aussie Pride.

I am so disturbed by these fishified half faced mammots that I have no comment. This sort of game board has surfaced as a joke to the upper and lower class areas of Australia. But this is really disturbing.

I could be realistic and say this sort of racism happens everywhere, and I should not be so upset by such bullshit. But to be real, means to awknowledge that it does exist in Australia and it is both obvious and subtly insiduos. It rears its ugly head often. I hate it!!!!!

PEACE OUT!! People!

Becky

Anxiousness

2006-10-15T14:58:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

THE SEMESTER IS NEAR TO ITS END!°!°!°!°!°!!°!°!°!°!!°!°!°°!°!!°!°!°!° 33 days til it is OVER! No more prac, no more tutes to teach, nothing! I am free! Ok maybe more proof reading fro Prof Schrader. But that is no problem. I like that actually, international food law is fascinating! Hahah! And it is summer time! I can lie on the beach and relax and tan. Look forward to it!

Right not it is a pleasant 25° and at night it gets a bit chilly at about 22°.

Lake Mckenzie, a great lake to visit. it is recommended that you wear no sunscreen nor perfumes etc. This water is rainwater and extremely good quality. You can drink it as it is, and swimming in it is sensational! The pH is 5.5, turbidity 0 and if you wear goggles you can see the turtles lying on the bottom.

Peace out!
Love Becky

Today....

2006-10-14T19:16:00.000+10:00

Dear everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

These people passed out on my couch are Brendan and Jesse, after a big night.

They look how I feel. Except I didn't go out. I just feel that way. And there is nothing I can do about it.

I will look at this picture to feel better.

Peace out and sweet dreams!
Becky

Note to self

2006-10-12T21:59:00.000+10:00

Dear everything, Everyone i Dragi moj,

I should learn to say no. No to more work. I am terrible. Then I procrastinate and then stress out becuase things just fumble out of control.

Ahhhh I am caught by the procrastination bug again.

Peace out
And may all your dreamy come true.

PS
Note to self, at least when I procrastinate I should actually write something blog worthy.

Oh I just remebered, there was an Oktoberfest at USC yesterday, and the Caloundra club sang lots of songs, wore funny clothes and pretty much scared all the Australian students away from the Brasserie. It was actually funny to watch. Perhaps it was the giant accordian, which could be mistaken for a mutant crocodile attacking a mans chest? No just kidding. I am always happy for a free bratwurst and saurkraut and alkoholfrei bier. Hehehe (My uni is a dry campus, no alcohol allowed!) But in reality, the Brasserie, serving great german food, snitzel and potatoe salad seemed to have less people enter it. Well so it seemed. It was great to see some life on campus though. Most of the students that were there were German students from Fulda! Hehehe and I only met a couple before I came. Prof Feldman and Prof Schrader were there. Oh and I got to eat Haribo gummi bears! A treat from the Kassal Uni International Liason officer. hehehe!

The Weekend is Over!

2006-10-08T21:48:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

How are you? Well to put it plainly, I am exhausted. I just finally, got back from the field trip I have been organising full time. As part of the tutorial I work in, we (that is my prof and myself) organised an environmental health field trip to Fraser Island. Sounds pretty hardcore, where we took samples on the natural water lakes on the Kingfisher Bay Resort.

Basically, Friday was getting onto the Island, Saturday was the sampling and "learning day" and sunday was a half day of work and relaxing. I took a half day tour to see Lake MacKenzie.

Saturday night saw all the students fomr my uni and the tag-a-long around for pre dinner drink. By 7.30 there had been two noise compliants. But do not get me wrong, my bunch of students are not that rowdy, but they were out on the balcony, and we were at dinner by 8pm.

Then there was the dingo bar, where my uni, proud to say it wong its third consequative boat race competition! Three years with the same lecturer as part of the team. Then there was a little dancing, an embarrasing pash and dash competition, (outcome had a 5 all draw). Then, as being a witness was taking too much of a toll on me, I caught the second last bus over the hill and went to bed. I have an renewed annoyance to contiki like tours. Blah! Keep your clothes on!

There were a few sore heads in the morning. (Don't worry, I got up as bright as a daisy!) But they were lucky as we didn't not start the lecture on algal toxins until 10.30.

So now I am home....trying to upload photos, as to entice you to what I think is one of the best thigs in Australia - but it will have to wait.

Lots of love
Peace Out
and may your dreams come true!
Becky

When I grow up I wanna be an International Student - Free Food!!!

2006-10-04T22:25:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Well no Becky Cooking Foibles tonight, as it was an abismal failure...nothing to write home about. So what did happen today, well I am currently helping to organise the exciting Fraser Island field trip. Now that I understand the ins and outs of organising such a trip, the coordinators of the Graduate Diploma of Education have decided to offer such a field trip. (I know what they are in for - suckers!) Back to the topic though, I would jump at the chance to go see the island - as I did when I found out my class was going on the compolsery field trip, but my gripe begins here, not with my field trip - of course not but with the Education Organisers.

Which brings my to my only daily groan. Fraser Island is spectacular place, world herotage listed and nowhere else like it on earth, and most people want to see it. So, this field trip that the Ed department is putting on is only for the Canadian students. I am fine with the idea of promoting and organising of such a trip, but why exclude the Austrlian students? Not that there is a problem in this, given certain circumstances. But as international students stick together, actually trying to meet them is difficult in this aspect unless you live with them. And having events where domestic students are excluded does not help. Nor the idea of non-intergration.

And I quote from the student intranet: (The Grad Dip course here has been marketed to Canadian students who want to become teachers and a third of the class is from Canada. International students are like money on trees forn Australian Universities - an interesting fact. People would argue they take places from Australian students, yet another extremely narrow minded view whispered around here. Grrrrr!)

"I have just recieved word that the Fraser Island Trip is approved and will now go ahead on the weekend 14/15 Oct. Yes in a few weeks! I would like to meet with all interested students who have come from Canada. Sorry to those Aussies who would love to go. The first meeting will be this Fri on the grassed area outside lecture theatre 5 at 9:00am If you can't make this time please contact me.ASAP"

Ok, I am not complaining about not being able to go to Fraser Island, I am going this weekend or how international students are not intergrated into the uni, and only stick together and we don't get any chances to meet them blah blah shit. That is a very narrow way of looking at it. I am annoyed because WHAT is the premis for excluding the Australian students? I want to mingle with the international students too! if I wasn't going to Fraser Island this weekend I would be a lot more madder!

This exact thing same thing happened for the outgoing students going abroad to other universities. They were not allowed to attend the international functions. Why not? (The reason I am really complaining, is because I want a free morning tea aswell!) But these already established functions will not be hi-jacked by starving, boisterous Australians. These are great oppertunities to meet people from where you are going or in my case where I have been, and give the current international student a link back to where they were before in both cases.

I argue that it was this meeting of myself and some German students before I left for Fulda that helped me make friends when I arrived and therefore had friends in the summer break before the semester started. I would have never have made friends with Susi had it not been for meeting Arne before I left, or had the oppertunity to go to the Oktoberfest. The same thing happened when I went to the USA. I met Ariel at an international morning tea I crashed, who was a mate while I was in the USA. We got up to a lot of mischeif, and I would never had met her at NMSU had it not been for meeting her here. I would have never had seen the concert in the empty pool. Also, while returning to Sippy Downs, I have been able to talk about my experiences with the few Fuldarians I met in Fulda about missing it. They also had someone they recognised when they arrived. That helps.

I feel bad, becuase it was becoming close friends with the people who lived in the area that I had some of the richest experiences while abroad. I saw behind the scene things of the country, did things that were unimabinable or unattainable in the normal tourist context.

Then I think about what can I offer to the internationals??? Hmmm I went to the Bizoo festival where I forced Inga to work 12 hours, and got a free t-shirt. would she have ever gotten to see Toowoomba??? (Ok i agree maybe not the most exciting place to go, but she did score 2 or 3 free beers aswell) Oh and there is always Stony Creek - the local waterhole, or the Busted Ass in Caboolture (but who wants to go there?) haha!

I realise that it is not the fault of the international students to stick together, they go through the same stuff together, and feel out of place together, and also have that same seperated feeling from responsibility together. But I am annoyed by the institutionalised seperation created by my university!

BUT!!! On the otherhand, if I were to just to turn up to the functions and sit in as one of the internationals I would not be asked to leave...in the avoidence of making a scene and ruining the "Australian" experience for the internationals. If I just sit on the green grass for the Fraser Island trip and say nothing, or hide a little and just pay my money, no one will notice. I may aswell just jump into the morning teas. Hehehe! Perhaps I just miss being an international student.

However, I think I made my point.
Peace Out!
Becky

Another great meal if I do say so myself

2006-10-02T22:24:00.000+10:00

dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

I made this and it tasted nice.

Peace out!

Bec

PS I realise that lack or literary finesse there. heheh!

Stone the Crows!!!!!!

2006-09-26T12:34:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

A friend of mine in Canada is doing a massive challenge to raise funds for the Arthritis Foundation in Canada. He is almost there. So here is his link, and if you are generous, perhaps you know how to help.
He is the link...

Sam's Challenge

I just thoguht I would mention it because raising the $8000 is a lot of money then then climbing Kilamandjaro is a huge challenge. Oh yeah, it's also a good chance to practice your french. Have fun Sunshiners!

Also today I cooked a massive meal, it didn't turn out too bad. But after cooking it and eating it I was totally exhausted I had to lie down. I ate so much, now my tummy hurts."mhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm" It doesn't look too appetising, but it tasted ok, more taste then the wierd stir fry thing I concocted in Fulda anyhow.

Anne got all excited and decided that it needed to be decorated with mini grape tomatoes and dill. I don't really like the taste of dill. It has an omnipotent aroma that reminds me of bad tasting fish dishes.

Anyway I have to go chase 3 crows off our balcony, the sound of their claws on the corragated iron roof is giving me goosebumps. It sounds like a cross between fingers scratching down the chalkboard and a ping pong ball bouncing on on a tabletennis table......iiiiiiiiiiieeeee! Brrrrrr!

Crows are the bane of all residents to the Unicentral/Varsity student accomodation. They like to purch above your window and ark from dawn onwards, and when they are feeling extra sexy, they like to low at you with a "beautiful" slow a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.rr.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r.r! This can go on for hours as they serenade you from above your window.

Peace out
Bec

I am very ....zzzZZZZZzz!

2006-09-25T18:12:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Running is a strenuos past time...takes about an hour out of your time everyday and makes you totally unable to think....plus you get all sweaty.

I like it.

Peace Out!
Becky

Ich habe gekocht

2006-09-24T19:23:00.000+10:00

Dear everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

I made tabouli!!!

Well, I am learning.

Peace out!
Becky

Becky 1 Spider 0

2006-09-21T16:19:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

So it is technically holiday time here in Australia, where the semester takes a break and people go on a holiday to a) Melbourne, b) Ularu (Ayes Rock) c) the Whitsundays and need a ride to the Airport in Brisbane.

So being this special occasion I ran a couple of car loads to the Brisbane airport. On one such trip, I took two Fuldalites, packed the car and proceeded to turn the car on. Instead of hearing hte engine turning I hear an iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE iIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! In a distinct distressed tone. I turn around and see Jana screaming and pointing to a moderatly sized Spider (I will henceforth call Cecil.) I say MODERATE because he was not that large at all, but bigger then the ordinary house spider. But Huntsmens generally are big, long legged and decidedly evil looking, albeit harmless in most situations. This one was about the size of my palm. A dangerous situation to be in is where you are driving on the highway and one crawls along the dashboard and starts to crawl towards you while you are driving and you have nowhere to escape to and you are meant to be oncontrol of the car, while travelling over 100km/hr on a very busy highway - but that is another story....(one that really did happen to me on my way, once again to the airport - there must be something about airports and spiders.)

So after a massive and unelegant awkward scamble out of my two door car, I took my flipflop/pluggers/thongs off and dived into the car to kill the offensive Cecil. But this guy was quick and dived back under the awening to safety before my trusty flexible weapon could kill it. So then we climbed back in the car and drove about 100 mters down the raod when he popped out again. And once again, despite my poor ears there was noch ein banshee wail in my car. This time, the climb out was even more panic stricken and seatbelts became an entangled mess of legs, feet, hands and strapping.

This time, i went in slowly adn then with a slow and deliberate squish, Cecil was nothing more then squashed innerds and spider legs. celcil passed unceromonisously into the garden of the Hibiscus retirement village.

So then we drove to the Brisbane airport, my ears ringing, and without further catastophies.

Peace out and rest in Peace cecel.

Becky

Another Sunday, Another Hike, Plus Injuries

2006-09-18T22:41:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Like the title says, it was another Sunday and another hike. Except this one is a little closer to home. The Buderim Rainforest walk. Proudly brought to you by the Green Corp. Also be forearned it is slippery...well if you go wading in the stream. Do as I say, not as I do, otherwise a refreshing dip in the crisp water leaves you with not only a wet butt and shirt, but also a bruise on the thumb and bum, and a cut on my wrist (so much so I have been forced to wearing my watch on my left hand...) and a massive bruise on my shin (also compounded by the handstands on the couch in a home remedy for headaches - Thanks Anne, the shin pain distracts me from the throb in my head). So when we decide to go on a hike together, expect me to fall over, or injure myself. I always do something.

The "Big Slap"

Under the "Big Slap"

Walking to the "Big Slap"

Read the Signs, well its only a suggestion

Posing on Green Corp Blvd.

This last photo is of the harbour at Morgan's Seafood at Redcliffe. This place sells brilliant, fresh seafood for good prices. One of the best of the fish and chip sorts. I highly recommend the calamari, prawns and barramundi. No chips they are a waste of space in your stomach. I just thought I would share the boats with you.

Other major event for the day was the totally unprecedented and unbelievable call from Lucy and Ragil, who I could hear together at the same time. As some may know another favourite hobby (Like postcards) of mine is to receive overseas calls. So receiving a call from Germany is always a big event!!! Just like receiving postcards. Oh my god!

Peace Out
Becky

The Original Big Slap

2006-09-16T21:18:00.000+10:00

Unesco Heritage National Park Croatia - Plitvice.

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

I finally make a entry about this wonderful photo. It was taken in Croatia, at the Plitvice National Park. It was so beautiful and this is where the debate about what the word Slap originated. It is Croation for Waterfall.

Peace out!
Becky

I live on the Sunshine Coast???

2006-09-13T16:14:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Its raining. Its dumping bucket loads onto the ground and everything here is soaked.

I am supposed to be living on the Sunshine Coast. Particular focus put on the word "Sunshine".

Oh here is the sun, in the space of uploading the picture and writing this the sun has come out.

Grrr!

Peace Out
Becky

PS. I guess I will go back to assignment writing and proof reading for Prof Schrader.

Oh, now the rain is back!

I stumbled across this

2006-09-11T15:55:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

I am not usually a person who finds comfort in quotes. But somehow this one made me feel slightly better due to all that was going on in my head of late.

"Be patient about all that is unsolved in your heart...Try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given to you, becuase you wouldn't be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will gradually without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."
- Rainer Maria Rilke

Peace Out
Becky

A day at Noosa

2006-09-10T16:01:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everrything, i Dragi moj,

How are things going today? Well I thought I would share the place I went to today. Today being Saturday. I took a group of friend to Noosa national Park. It was magnificent, if you count seeing a pod of wild dolphins, a flipping whale and a beautiful day at the beach being magnificent.

The hike starts though a forest, sub tropical in nature then it climbs through a forest of giant grass trees, and then onto a nudist beach. Along the way we ran into a group of surfers on their way stripped naked and almost proceeded to get ready to surf. hehehe! No shame what so ever! So we walked along the beach and climbed up stairs to the lookout. The Dolphins and the Whale.

We also saw a mini great barrier reef in the rock pools. We then walked along the coast, over a rocky beach and found a bay area to swim. After swiimming we snoozed on the sunheated rocks. I forgot my towel so my pants got wet when I put them back on....

The we rock climbed up back onto the track, much to my dismay, I am not really one to stay on the track...I like climbing and exploring rock pools, but I think my companions were not to sure of their abilities to negotiate the slippery rocks.

We walked along the coast along the proper track, and then explore Noosa. Noosa is a posh tourist destination, but nice none the less.

Well that was my day today. Enjoy the photos.

Peace out!!
Becky

Noch ein Australian Idol

2006-09-08T19:45:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everythign i Dragi moj,

Today another Australian Idol died in an accident. This is really weird. He is not as international as Steve Irwin, but just as big and has been know for at least twice as long. He drove Holdens (which is the Opel car in Germany).

This is really a strange week.

I don't like it when someone dies. Ok that is a weird thing to say, but hey I wish we could all live forever.

Peace Out
Becky

SCI 109

2006-09-07T17:31:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

How is everyone?? Well I had the best tutorial class today.

Teaching Environmental Health is difficult in that it involves a lot of group work and the topics can get a little dry. So as part of my frustration - perhaps, I told the groups to present their suggestions a little differently, ie I suggested through role play, a skit etc. A little creative for the science thinkers...but! One group wrote a song and performed it with a guitar. It was fantastic. The were successfully able to present their findings and suggestions in the lyrics and mode of the song! Who would have thought you would see a song created at a university science tutorial. HA!

So the end of the class, despite not getting through everything, we had a good class. I had fun. The song was actually really creative.

Peace Out
Becky
XXXOOO

A Sad Day

2006-09-04T22:11:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Today The Crocodile Hunter died, by a stingray barb into his heart. Aweful.

It's very sad for his family. And the media here is going nuts.

Becky

Ich habe gekocht

2006-09-01T20:33:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Here's a group shot of the weekly tavern run from my apartment. These guys leave at about 9.40 to go to the Buderim Tavern and leave a vacuum of noise.

This is a dinner I made. It was yummy. Unfortunatly, my fingers still smell like garlic.

I read about two pigeons the other day, one was fed regualrly from a shoot and everytime it checked for the grain there was something there. The other pigeon was fed intermittantly, and when it checked for grain it was not always there. It would peck and peck at the shoot until it was fed. When nothing came, it would became frantic and keep pecking and almost die of exhaustion. The other pigeon on the other hand when it wasn't fed it just stopped pecking. It sat down and waited.

Love Becky.
XXXOOO

Bec the Mechanic?

2006-08-31T19:23:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

I discovered today, what appeared to be a mechanic workshop in my boot. My car had decided to not start due to the fact that a friend - (not mentioning any names *cough - Inga .- cough*) had not closed my car's door properly and the battery went flat. So becuase I had nothing and no need to use the car I didn't try to start it. Until today. I open the boot and disovered to my (I really shoudl not be surprised because my family is in a constant "Be prepared/Worry wart" mode to discover a tool box with everything. (Ie WD40 aka the tool box in a can, jumper leads, oil, sunscreen, other things I have no idea for what, and other gadgets that help make the other I have no idea whats function). I now know whats going clunk in the back of my car each time I turn the corner too fast. Its not a problem in my car that I am ignoring...it's just the tool box in the back! Hahah!

So we hooked up the cars and after a few trials, I got her working again. BRILLIANT!!!!

So I got a few photos to mark the even. I realised was even dressed for the part, I had the required baggy/sagging mechanic pants!

Peace out!

Becky
XXXOOO

PS I saw Prof Schrader today, and had a lovely discussion about the options of an academic career. My mind boggles.

Prac day 2... What I am doing at the moment.

2006-08-30T18:51:00.000+10:00

Dear Everybody, everything i Dragi moj,

Today was prac day number 2 at the Montersourri Alcheringa Adolescent School. The focus of Wednesdays are to explore physical and creative expressions. It is a whole day where the students choose to participate in the physical activities and creative activities and rotate in small groups.

I was the "teacher" for firetwirling, ultimate frisbee, walking, and then once again ultimate frisbee. (I tend to avoid the creative industries because scrapbooking, framing and lead lighting really don't interest me when compared to firetwirling, ulitmate frisbee and hiking.)

So it was interesting to try new tricks twirling tennis balls in socks, (in the rain), enjoying a game of frisbee and developing the throwing and catching techniques of myself and the students (who I am finally seeming to remember their names better this time around) and being witness and almost cause (becuase I threw the frisbee) of a horrendous collision of two girls, one coming away with a black eye the other with a swollen cheek bone.

So that was my day... eventful indeed!

Oh and then there was one student who was playing with a knife and saying things about death. (Due to past experiences I didn't really take this too lightly, yet I did not over-react. I think parents are being talked to - thank goodness, as a result. I was not the only one to notice.)

OK I am tired and now I am planning an orientateering competition. Should be fun. The only issue I see is, that I am concerned about how I can take the lessons learned here into the mainstream schooling. The education philosophy is closer to the activities I like to produce in that they are for real life skills, self paced learning, choice and group learning with intergrated lessons of all areas of study, but in the mainstream system the subjects are really seperate. I find this part difficult in my assessment pieces.

Tomorrow I pick up my first exam for marking! Oh my god! I am marking a university level exam! Ok it is first year...and I have done the subject before, but honestly this feels rather strange.

Peace out!
Becky

For no particular reason...

2006-08-29T17:29:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

For no particular reason I am still disconnected from everything here. I can't get into anything, I can't feel passionate or sink my teeth into anything to make me want to stay. I really don't fit in here. It's a weird feeling, I am like a helium balloon just drifting where ever. I am not tied down by anything, and have no direction.

At times I am so out of the loop and have no idea to what people are referring to, that I have to stop and think. Today I was asked where I came from. In the beginning I was asked where my accent came from...South Africa or Brazil. I don't know if this is a good thing or not, because I am looked at as an outsider...a "sweet" foreigner in my own country and even more...my own hometown. Yes, my so called accent in English was referred to as "sweet" so therefore it's not just my Australian accent in German. (hehehe) So that is my Aunty, the people in the bookshop, my flatmate (the Australian one) and collegues in my class.

Maybe I am just over analysing it.

Peace Out
Becky

A Comment on Culture

2006-08-27T15:12:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Do I really need to comment on this. But I must say it is missing the Big Cherry. (Not to be mistaken for the Big Cherries)

The big Cherry is near the big Ned Kelly in Glenrowan, don't ask me why there is one in Maryborough when Ned Kelly was not even in that area of Australia. (He was in Victoria, and Mayborough is in Queensland).

I need to thank Arne for this map and of course Wikapedia which I have used without permission.

Peace out
Becky
XXXOOO

A Huuuuge week

2006-08-25T22:29:00.000+10:00

Dear Everything, everyone i Dragi moj,

How is everyone going? Sorry Ihave been away from the blog scene for a little while, but I have been so busy this last week. It all began and started with me leavign teh god forsaken cd shop where the good workers work like dogs adn get taken advantage of by their superiors...(where they do everyone elses work and they just get told, welll it's your job so quit complaining). The next day as you may remember, despite not being there I was creating mayhem on the golf buggies at the uni and terrorising the kangaroos.

The next day was monday and I had class, ok not such a big day, Tuesday was a whole day at uni 8 til 8 and my ESL class. WednesdayI had my first official practicum (it is actually called a practicum in English!) at the Montesouri High Shcool and it was amazing. I spent my day fire twirling, bike riding around the lakes and then went on a hike in the other direction. I was bugger, needless to say. THursday was another day at uni where I had an assessment then my tutorial, where I get stressed out becuase I always dseem to go in unprepared, despite writing this tutorial for the exam revision with another lecturer (He has the content - I have the class activity). The I spent the lesson with three different professors, who said they were not the ones to support me. Grrr! I don't have enough indepth knowledge to make sure these students pass. I can only help with the structure and what I have learnt. I don't have a Phd in the subject. Then the tutor before me claimed that the activity for the tutorial was hers. I said nothing, I am not too worried, what goes around comes around.I was a little when it happened. A Japanese student then came over to my house and asked for help for the exam. So hopefully I was able to help and she passed with great results. Its hard not to give away answers if you want people to succeed. Then today was the exam for those students and I had my second interview. It went better then last time, in that i had things to say, questions and now understand what is going on with my application. I find out in yet another month. If I were to start (ie get a job offer) I start at the end of January or the beginning of February. I can call myself something other then a student. ahhh I don't know how I went. It really doesn't matter. I am doing stuff I like either way.

I would have to succomb to living in the world of capitalism Aunty Fred WHAT WILL I DO???

The after the interview I had to race back home to get to the tutorial about water quality in the lake system here at Sippy Downs. I walked and walked. All I could think about was my assignment. Which turned out sooo huge that it covered 30 pages!!! I was quite surprised at the size. SO after I dropped that off, I felt like an explosion and I was sooo tired. I just want to go home and go to bed.

I got sun burnt today, on my shoulders. I didn't put enough sunscreen on, and its winter, It was 30°!!! There are bushfires near Brisbane and it was all smokey this morning. So thats my day. I am tired. I need sleep.

Peace out!
Becky

PS:
Ok not really about the kangaroos, I think you need a bomb to a jet plane to backfire ifor the kangaroos here to react and get all jumpy. (heheh Jumpy)

Open Day @ USC

2006-08-20T16:54:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Pheoooor!!! Today I had a huge day, well it started yesterday. I no longer work for the CD store, it was a bit of mistake to go back to work there, but when you are desperate for hours, sometimes you have no choice. I resigned. And the way it went down, I don't think I could go back. I don't want to though. Oh well, what can I do? No problem though

So today was the open day for USC. I GOT TO DRIVE THE GOLF BUGGY ACROSS CAMPUS!!!! These cars are ace! They run on electricity so they displace the fossil fuel emissions to the coal power plants in Queensland somewhere...Out of sight and smell out of mind. Not only do they have no gaseous outputs in the form of CO2 and small particulate matter, they are silent...ok well they have some noise, more in the tune of the Jetson's flying spaceship kind of way. I want one of these when I grow up or for my birthday! The even go off road, and do not bother the kangaroos...(And if I had any doubts in the ways of animal reproduction today, I had them answered.)

So today I spoke to people, took a tour around Varsity, The Village and Unicentral (all student accomodations) and then spoke to some people, and had an impromptu lecture, and avoided a campus tour (my assigned job by jumping into the GO program lecture to tell how travelling overseas the is the best thing ever!

So that was my day. I am off for a run in a second or two.

Peace out!!
Bec
XXXXOOOO

Day 1: Prac Orientation

2006-08-16T16:25:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Today I had my first day for prac as a teacher. Well sort of, it was my prac orientation at the Acheringa Montessouri High School. I will be working with 13 year olds.

It looks to be very interesting where the normal idea of classrooms and learning are thrown out the window.

I also have to do an assignment! Blah!!

Peace out!
Bec

XXXOOO

A question

2006-08-14T16:14:00.000+10:00

Dear Everything, everyone i Dragi moj,

When do you know when something has gone too far or enough is enough?

Apparently I landed on my feet. So ALL actions are justified.

This time last year, on this equivalent Monday, the ISU people left Fulda, and I was left to do my independant study at the FH.

Peace out!!!
Bec

The Big Map!

2006-08-09T20:56:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

I thought it would be cool if we all entered ourselves on this map. It could show where we all are and you are able to give a discription of where you are and what you are doing. I think it would be cool! I am on there already.

A down side is yes, you have to sign up to frappr, but then you are able to make your own map and put that on your web page.

Peace Out!
Becky.

I am very .....grrrr!

2006-08-09T10:10:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

I am STILL not being paid! I am essentially working for free. If I am not paid tomorrow, I can't come to work becuase I literally can not afford to buy petrol to get to work or a bus ticket to use public transport.

It also means no postcards for a while. That's the reality of my dire situation. NO POSTCARDS!!!

Peace out!

Becky

One reflection

2006-08-07T18:23:00.001+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

I had this random thought the other day while I was sitting and waiting for the movie Jinabyne to start.

This is an Australian movie about a serial killer set in the Australian Alps, set in summer, where it isn't actually about the serial killer and survival but about the 4 fisherman or men who discover the body of the indigenious girl's body, tie it to a tree with fishing line so it won't float away and continue fishing rather than returning to report the body.

The thought occurred to me that how weird it was that the seating in the German cinemas is allocated, and people actually sit in the allocated spots despite a nearly empty cinema.

Anyway, this was what I thought was one of the weirdest things I came across in Germany. heheheh!

Peace out, and love your workBecky.

New Blog Languages

2006-08-02T21:01:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

along with Bloggery, and Blog world, I would like to put in a new term for Our Blogdictionary.

Blogvomit

I like it. Nice one Firdavs. It means the result of expressing all your angers and frustrations onto a Blog, either incoherently or coherently. Like a vomit, it makes you feel better, and you can keep on going in life. Better out then in, right?

Peace out in Blogworld
Becky

Oooooooh Toowoomba!

2006-08-01T21:54:00.000+10:00

Dear everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Because I like to think of myself as a helpful sister, not one that causes trouble and all that jazz, I dragged a mate (Inga) to Toowoomba to volunteer at the 5th Bizoo festival.

At this point in time Julie is totally happy becuase she has made my life hell, it is cold and still dark in the morning, and i can think of much better things to do then walk at 5am, fog still everywhere and coldness and more coldness to a inclosed lawn bowls hall to set up for a day long music festival, after 4 hours sleep (because I talk like a 12 year old at a slumber party - not my fault I am like this)

Anti-moshing signs

The "BIG" crowd (big in so many ways)

On the job - selling tickets $25 at the door.

On the job behind the bar, being "if you're drunk I won't take your crap" girls

Toowoomba by night and two glasses of red wine make it shine!

The line up, and unintentioanal drunk test

The long day is really getting to us - we are becoming delirious!

The final and last band - who cares who they are, I can't rember, apparently they were good, but I was too tired and hysterical to listen or care. Sorry bandies but I had thousands of unused chairs to move downstairs....

Ok I hope you enjoyed the visual documentry of my weekend in Toowomba

Inga's back

2006-07-24T19:17:00.000+10:00

DEAR Everyone, everything i Dragi moj,

Exhibit A: Inga's Back (not a random dentist).
Meet Inga's back! Who is Inga, I hear you ask??? Well indeed she is not a dentist like in the Oral B commercials and can't show face in a picture, she has something to show you....

So...I am on a total health kick...my doctor has declared I am healthy and a great specimen of the human race! No just kidding...Inga and I have been running...and in the style of making this declaration public, and not backing out of a statment made, we are going to continue running.

So we ran around the Lakes in Chancellor park and used the "Great" public exercise contraptions. Be forewarned or for my German audience and U2 fans "ACHTUNG BABY!!!!" they leave horrendous bruises. (See exhibit A)

So I am running and things are good.

Love your work and PEACE OURRRT!

Love Becky
XXXOOO

The pains of being technically a post-student

2006-07-20T15:17:00.000+10:00

Dear Everything, everyone and Dragi moj,

I have been to Centrelink today. And this is always an adventure. Its a jungle of wildness, and everytime you go in you meet and get exposed to all different beasts and creatures, inline and behind the counter. Well, really more like stand in line, hand in form, go back with a different form, fill in, stand back in line, hand in that form, then told to get some other form of proof for orignal form and stand back in line. Stand back in line, then get asked to make and appointment to come in another day, then come in another day, and get told that the original form was sufficient or a phone call. RAAAAAAARRR!

Ok this is frustrating, and beauracracy drives me nuts, but I really would like to say, that swearing at the people behind the counter and the others in line will not get you anywhere. Everyone is frustrated by the above rigmarole. You have to treat each person nicly who works behind the counter because basically you are receiving money for study, looking for work or a pension of some sort. Its not a god given right, you apply and then have obligations. A man, after nearly crashing onto me on the road and hurling road rage at me for his aschlochness, stood inline swearing his head of at his girlfriend and infront of his little kid. Then he hurled abuse at the Centrelink lady.

Do you see why people "LOVE" Australia? We are obviously nice people. Come into Centrelink to see the finest Australia has to offer.

Peace out, trying to be calm and nice
Becky

Today....

2006-07-17T18:45:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, everything and Dragi moj,

Today was my first lecture for the semester. And, my first tute. I am going to be able to be a secondary English or Health teacher...can you see me doing that? My plan is to get a TESOL qualification as well (during the summer?)...can you see where this is heading people...yes more travel! I need a way to sustain myself overseas, whereever I go, and with whomever I am with...

So whats happened? I met a nice Canadian girl who I predict is going to help me be an English teacher...she's an English major as opposed to me a Communication and Health major...do you see a difference??? (Technically I perhaps had less reading of Shakespeare and the works...but I did read Hemingway - so what?!!)

So I guess I should say that I am feeling better, now that I am doing something, that is at least a year long. I have postponed the inevitable, what the hell should I do with my life question, for yet another year or so. That just depresses me. I know where I want to be...but not what I want to do or how to get there. I was always thinking about it, and with being back in Australia, missing my friends and Dejan, I just got depressed.

As for the above question, I am worried I will be swept away with life and will have no control on what happens. Or have my road chosen for me, and I will have no choice anymore. Ironically because I didn't decide in the beginning...is this too heavy or what? (Or my next thought was, am I purposivly doing this so that I have somthing else to blame...that I can't blame myself??? hmmm....no I hope this is not the case nor my character flaw.)

I should apologise for my lack of emailing in the last 2 months. But I hope people received their postcards. But now that everyone is on Praktikum, I am unsure if you are receiving them. I guess I should beef up the emailing....I miss you guys. So I send out my best wishes and good lucks to to all the people about to or at the attend their Praktikums across the world. I can't wait to see you guys again.

Firdavs! Where are you adn what are you doing, what's happened to your blog, did you get my postcards, because the first ones I couldn't remember your last name properly, and your blog is down. I hope everything is ok. Thank you for all of your support.

I miss everyone so terribly!
Love you all
Peace out and love your work!
Becky
XXXOOO

Hallo From Yaya

2006-07-14T16:03:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone in Fulda,

I met up with Yaya, we were going to go to the Tavern but I decided not to go. I got all of your hellos and thank you! We met at Orientation. He has a nice apartment in the anal restrcitive Varsity. Haha!

Ok!
Love your work and Peace OUT!
Love Bec

Yesterday...

2006-07-11T19:15:00.000+10:00

Dear Everything, everyone and Dragi moj,

How is it all going? Wher am I you ask, what am I doing? I want to know the same for all of you others there in Blogland.

So I am sitting in my parents house, stealing away a little of their download limit to type this blog while Jack Johnson is playing in the bnackground...btw thats not my cd. hmmmmmm.

So I am back at USC. I am hopefully moving in on Thursday and I start uni on Monday. What am I doing? I am doing a Graduate Diploma of Secondary Education at USC. It runs for 1 year. I am moving on campus to be near students and so I will have things to do.

Ok That's all.
Love Becky
XXXOOO

They say its your ...

2006-07-07T23:47:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone and Everything and Dragi moj,

Thank you for all your birthday wishes!! You mke me feel so wonderful, thankyou.

They say its your birthday dennanananah!
Thay say its your birthday denenanana!

Happy birthday to ya,
Happy birthday to yaaaaaaaa
Happy biiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrthday...

Happy birthday to ya,
Happy birthday to yaaaaaaaa
Happy biiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrthday...

Love you all very much!
Becky

PS: I am 25 today. Oh my god! Haha...watch out world I am meant to be grown up now.

5 Reasons why I hate Melbourne

2006-07-05T23:51:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone and Everything and Dragi moj,

1. Melbourne Trams
2. The weather
3. The trams
4. The weather
5. The trams.

Ok that is really only two but hear me out.

The weather is every season in one day, and windy to boot. And the trams come out of nowhere and your car tyres get stuck in the tram tracks. It is scary.

Today I went to visit Brett, a mate I met in the USA who lives in Box Hill. On the way I hought it would be a great idea to visit Grandma, whom I had not seen for a good 5 years at least due to travelling, being really busy with stuff, and living in a totally different state etc - She is a mighty lot shorter then I remembered and has finally changed her hairstyle. She has no longer grey hair that doubles the size of her head and apparent height and has been the same since the 70's, (I can say that now because it is no longer like that - no one dared to tell her) but now she has a lovely blonde do, that has been straigtened or her orginal hair type...not sure...but it is lovely and makes her look younger. Perhaps this is why I think she has shrunk.

Well I had a flying visit where she interrogated me abut what I was doing and what trips to the post office were like and had to scoot out to go to Bretts for dinner. I was driving out of North Balwyn a place with @#*% trams and tryong to get back onto to the eastern freeway. I got lost, I was totally disorientated . Even with a map! I have totally gone from a total terrific navigator to a crap crazy Driver not knowing where he hell I am. This is the point where the trams come. Not only are you dodging city buses, trying to avoid getting caught between boom gate of rampaging trains, and watching out for road raging cars here, there are the terrifying trams to contend with for road space MAn oh man oh man!

Well I had trouble and I was all flustered when I arrived to Bretts house. So once there, we had a great talk, remince about Las Cruces, compared travel storis and well it was a nice evening. Then I drove home and well made a phone call overseas. SO thats the end of the 5th of July.

Peace out and love your work.
Becky

My obsession with BIG things...

2006-07-02T16:56:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, Eerything adn Dragi moj,

I have finally seen allthe capitals down the east coast of Australia. That means I have been to Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and now finally Canberra.

What can I say, it will be eventually a happening city, once all the constrution settles down and people change their attiude of it being a boring government town. Yes what excited me was hmmm....weellll....mmmm, well it was the company I was with.

I travelled north with my uncle and aunty through Albury (a place similar to Caboolture, only a lot bigger) and Gundagai (a place known for the dog on the tucker box and being in a song I played while in my first marching band days in primary school, Road to Gundagai). We arrived in Canberra to meet a family friend Scott who was on a school trip around Australia. He is on of the 10 children I met while I stayed in the USA. He came to Australia fot the first time in the 70's and travelled around and worked a bit.

So for my Uncle, it was a great trip to see someone again after 30 or so years. It was great to meet Scott again for myself because we first met when I was in the USA and I came and stayed for a little while at his place in Montana.

So after having a dinner a nice Chinese resturant, meeting for breakfast and handing out a 30 year old photo to his students we said goodbye at the Australian War Memorial. If there is any time a person needs to sober up and contemplate sombre stuff go there.It is interesting and chilling all the artifacts of war, and well to find out real life stories of survival.The funny thing was *funny as in parculiar not funny haha* I could read the German artifacts from the first and second world war.

After the War Memorial we drove by Johnny Howard's residence,the embacies (the GErman one being very orderly) and went to the science museum - Questicon. I realised I hate the idea of free fallign, there is a giant slide where you free fall, and well I am ashamed to say I couldn't do it. I get the same fear when I contemplate bungee jumping. I will have to go back and face this fear. I can't believe I let it get to me. I hate the idea that I let the fear control me like that. Also there you can experience what it would be like to be guillotined like in the french revolution. A morbid experience, unfortunatly out of order. So that was canberra....the most exciting is yet to come!!!

On the way back, we went through Glen Rowen ehre I made a discovery! There is a Big Ned Kelly!!! Then...3km down the road was the GIANT CHERRY!! I couldn't believe my luck!

It made my day! For the first time in a while I actually felt happy for the sack of being there. Stupid obsession of mine for oversized tacky fiberglass statues by peoples' last ditch efforts to get tourists to come to an area.

Ok so my photo thing is not working at the moment as html is not appearing when I add a photo.

Ok I will figure it out tomorrow, because I am lazy and need to wash my hair. But the pictures of the Giant Ned and the Bg Cherry are to die for.

Peace out and love your work!

Love Becky
XXXOOO

With the lights out it's less dangerous OR is it just the green suger coated jellies talking?

2006-06-28T13:55:00.000+10:00

Dear Everything, Everyone and Dragi moj,

I don't know how to start this entry, this is my blog and I get to say what I want.If I complain about censorship and not being able to express myself properly I have only myself to blame. I want to have dynamic and well thought through entries, that reflect my own self image of being a thoughtful, intelligent and a motivated person doing and going somewhere. Instead, I tend to repeat mysef and say that things are just good, or wallow in my own self pity and letting past ghosts haunt me.

So what is happening? I am at my Oma's. I am working casually, and searching for work that relates to my degree. I basically search for work in the time I am not at the resturant. I am off to Canberra tomorrow to visit a family friend I got to know while I was in the USA. I have had interviews and a rejection. I joined a German course on the weekends in Melbourne to maintain and give my German structure. Oma bought a car becuase I was going to be here for a little while and my previous intentions were to stay here and find a job.Now I am thinking of returning to Uni. I am, actually, it sounds far more exciting then sitting here. So what am I really doing? Sitting on my ass and complaining. I am not really doing anything and I am frustrating myself at the lack of direction, motivation, and my profound ability to stagnate in the one spot and mull over the past. Hense my decision, pushed by Dejan to go back to Uni.

It isn't just a point of view, where I refuse to look at the positives and make the most of where I am. I remember being at NMSU hating it, being homesick and missing my friends. Desite the ill feelings I had of being there, I did not hide in a room and sleep. Then it all shifted when I finally shifted my attitude, I didn't want to go home. Well actually I did (why would I stay, everyone ele was leaving aswell), I cut the exchange short. I was so happy to be home, but I was disappointed 2 weeks later when I got back. The good thing was I hit the ground running, straight away I got a casual job and started hounding the unversity to get a second job, I went out and people were drawn to my energy, saying invite Bec, yeah cool come etc. I returned to studying. When the momentum slowed down and I remembered and confronted with all the things that were here that propelled me to leave in the first place. So I decided to leave again. And make the most out of when I was in Germany.

As soon as I landed I was happy. I smiled more, I was exstatic and maybe overly happy. I was on a 10 month high (ok there were tough times naturally but situational and out of my contro not an attitude I had). I met crazy people, mean people, sad people, rascist people, motivated people, intelligent people, gentle people, shy people, drunk people, control freaks, angry people, fun people, fantastic people, beautiful people. I can meet them all here in Australia. So why is it there I felt happy and more in control of myself?

My question is, why can't I find that here. That satisfaction I had while I was away. Why am I so frustrated to be here, and too scared to settle down. I would be happy for the next ten years travelling and writing. (Or would I?). Everything is so uncertain, and I am unsure how to handle the situation. I am qualified, I have a degree in humanities and science.

Wow! I should be happy. The emphasis is on "should" by the way. I am not satisfied, I feel like I cheated it and did it all the easiest way possible, wasted my time, money and did not actually gain anything professionally only friends and fun experiences. Why did I learn German? I can not focus on anything and maintain momentum on one track. If I had, I would be a photographer now, or an actress or muscian, (these are all past projects and passions) as soon as they finished or got too hard, did I just quit? Or did another thing grab my attention. The time in Germany was the longest period of time I had stayed in one spot and had not moved. FOr the first time I wanted to stay somewhere. And is that because I couldn't? Or because I met someone? Or was I finally feeling i was getting somewhere with german in the ten months I was there.(Oh who am I kidding I am a terrible German speaker).

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! See how my brain is? It flips and switches within one thought. How can I shake off my own self doubt? KNow that I should be able to stand tall, be confident in my past decisions and not be susceptable to criticisms. There are two sides the confident side, and energetic person and the one hiding behind this person, whispering I am a fake, I am lying and I should be ashamed of bluffing all these people.

I guess I just have to start to move, gain an momentum again and head towards something.

Where? What do I want?

Peace Out and Love your work, not mine
Love Becky.

PS I feel really bad about the car. I repeatedly told Oma I did not want it. And thought it was a bad idea. I sat her down and dicussed my thoughts about returning to Uni and continuing with Honours. Her main thought was, you will be 25, almost 26 by the time you finish, if you continue with a masters or whatever, you will have all these qualifications and no experience and almost 30.(Well I pointed out 28 in reality and I then thought about how my old German flatmate was 28 and hadn't even finished his Dipom and has no direction in mind or can't find one. I don't want to be like him. Don't worry Oma, I won't be.) I will find something, or make something happen. I won't be like this forever.

A Day in the Life of a dankish shard-borne hedge-pig.

2006-06-19T17:58:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone and Everything und Dragi moj,

So I guess life goes on. I have to accept it. It is frustrating. I wish you were all here with me. I am going to learn how to be patient.

So what is new in Melbourne town? Well I have my German class, where not only am I obnoxiously bad at the dativ and akkusative, but I am frustrated at my lack of grammatical structure. Errrgghhhh!

Oh well I guess I will have to do more work to keep up with the roguish unchin-snouted barnacles. But at the same time, I am happy that it is challenging. I am finally matched into my proper level. And I can keep up. I should stop being a rank knotty-patted toad and just study more.

On another level, I am getting more interviews, so I should stop being a warped onion-eyed scullian or should I say a fishified elf-skinned codpiece?

So this errant folly-fallen pigeon-egg friend of yours is busy looking for that dream job and chilling out amongst the hills in Healesville. I work casually as a bar attendant and waitress, and annoy the dutch chef. Its a nice place and well keeps getting busier, as word spreads that Healesville finally has a function room. Well I wish to send you my hellos and hugs from down under the equator. I hope everyone is happy and the summer is treating them great. Isn't Fulda spectacular in Summer? I loved it.

Lots of Love
Peace out
BeckyXXXPPP

A Ghostly Discovery

2006-06-06T16:50:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, Everything, i moj dragi,

Today I was checking out my profile and wanted to see who else was blogging in Healesville. Guess who I discovered??

My Opa as a blogger. Ok he qualifies because he blogged once in June 2004,which was before I started blogging here, and we use the same template. That's three people close to me with the same green blog page.

I think the best thing is his profile description "Of Dutch extraction graduated at Geneva University" and his interests in beefcattle production and rust prevention and removal.

I love my Opa, and this just shows a bit of his quirky nature and love for really radom things.

It was a cool ghostly discovery, where it shows my Opa was way ahead of some of his grandchildren in keeping up with technology tends. Way to go Opa!

You rocked!!
Love Becky

PS I have a job interview for more bar work, and some other stuff. Not what I really want though. Can I afford to picky? Or should I take what comes, the first offer?

PPS I hope everyone is well, and living the crazy life. I have calmed down I think and yesterday was the worst ever since returning. I spoke to Brett, an Aussie I met in the USA who returned to AUstralia about a year ago. He knows what I am going through, and can feel how I am just trying to avoid people. He and Dejan said the same thing, that living in Healesville and hiding is not helping the situation. I am not hiding btw.I am trying to calm down and get a grip on everything. Take a pause, and get back on a track I call my life. I have to remember I went and I knew it was not permenant from the start. So I shouldn't be so melodramtic and take what I learnt and be happy I have some awesome friends in Australia, and across the world My feelings a like waves. If everything fails, I am returning to Uni to study something interesting. Or saving up and coming to Europe and if all that fails I am running away with the circus.

PPPS This keyboard doesn't work really well. I have to press really hard down on the keys because they keep skipping letters.

I am inspired to write postcards to everyone again. Oh and torture is not spellt like torcher. I need a new spelling brain! Thanks Dejan.

Herzlich Wilkommen. Wir sind jetzt in Melbourne!

2006-06-04T22:33:00.000+10:00

Dear Everyone, Everything and Dragi moj,

Thank you for choosing Fly Aussie Airlines. Please don't get off until the tour has come to a complete stop.

Current temperaure is cold, windy and bring your brollies it could rain. That'sright folks, we don't say four seasons in one day for nothing!! Anything is possible in Melbourne. Just watch out for the trams, they'll get you when you least expect it.

Melbourne am Murray (NB: Really the Yarra)(Pronounced MEL-bin and MAA-ree in the local language) Well I think its the Murray River. Authors note: It is really the Yarra river. I have been told. It is pronounced ya (like yak)-raa

View from the Metro (Vi-ooo and ME-trow in the local language)

Melbourne am Yarra, ain't that a beautiful view? (Beee-YOU-ti-full in the local language)

Federation Square off St. Kilda rd(fed-err-ay-shun, SAY-nt KILL-da in the local language) Well the phot o was taken on the bride at the beginning ofSt Kilda rd. Don't know who St. Kilda was, b know its a footy team (AFL footy), and is also a cool part of the Melbourne suburbs.

I hope you enjoyed your tour.

Byebye now, byebye, byebeye!

Well what do you think about that, Mr Doubty Moustafe?

Peace out and love your work!
Love Bec

PS What movie was I imitating?? CLUE: Involves riding a carpet.