Only for 2 weeks...!

I'm going back to the family I au paired for for a couple of weeks. The new au pair that they got, R, is heading back to New Zealand. She bought a house. Probably with her boyfriend. R feels awful about leaving the au pair family, but I guess these things just happens sometimes.

So The Mother asked if I could come back, just for 2 weeks. I don't really want to do it, but it's only for two weeks and at least I'll be earning some money, and also I don't have to share a bedroom with anybody else for a couple of weeks. That's my favourite part. It's also going to be nice to be able to hang my clothes up even if it's just for a short time, and having my own bathroom... And not having to pay for accommodation is going to be VERY nice.

I might spend the money I am getting these two weeks to go up to the Withsundays, or down to Adelaide and Perth. I've not quite decided yet. But I will spend it on going somewhere new!

It will also be interesting to see how it goes with my vegetarianism when living with carnivores. I think I'll just make one meal for the kids and another for me, or depending on what I make I'll just make a meat-free version for myself.

The Scottish Meme

Another meme from Sunday Stealing.

1. Where are you from and where do you live now? From Norway, kind of live in Australia.
2. Favourite childhood story/book/film? A Norwegian book about a kind of gnome that lives in barns. It was a Christmas story and I would always get my mum to read it to me because it wasn't written in either of the two written types of Norwegian but in a dialect. As I got older I could read it to myself as well.
3. If you could change gender for a day what would you do? ...Explore...
4. Do you feel your family is complete or would you like more/some children? I don't want kids, but I would like to be in a serious relationship with a nice man.
5. What do you do/Where do you work and do enjoy it? Just travel at the moment, and I both enjoy it and not...
6. Which three words do you think sum you up? Independent, inquisitive, book-worm
7. If you were a fairy what magical powers would you possess? All of them! Haha!
8. If you were invisible, where would you go and what would you do? Why? Go to an expensive chocolate shop and eat all the chocolate. Self-explanatory.
9. What song can't you listen to without crying? I don't think there is any song that I ALWAYS cry when I listen to, but I do sometimes cry when I hear Aerosmith's "Don't wanna miss a thing" (or whatever it's called, the one from Armageddon)
10. Which book changed your life - or at least made you think a lot? I know there has been book that has made me think a lot, probably loads of them, but I can't remember any titles now... Just typical.
11. Why do you blog? Because I want to.
12. What is your top "me-time" tip? Lie/sit down with a good book.
13. What can't you live without? Books
14. Which of all your blog posts are you most proud of and why? I honestly have no idea, and I can't be bothered to look through all my posts right now to try and find one. I am happy as long as someone reads it and when I get a few comments.
15. Have you ever met a famous person? Who and where? I met a few in Oslo. My dad took me with him when he went to film them a couple of times. I met a1 while they were big, like 10 years ago, and Mel C.
16. when did you last have a full night's sleep? A couple of nights ago, I usually sleep quite well as long as I don't have too much to think about.
17. What would you think is harder: Going to work or staying at home with children? Both are really hard in their own way. It just depends on the person.
18. What are you doing for Easter? Nothing I think. Eating loads of chocolate.
19. What is your favourite drink? Water
20. Do you play any sports? Not regularly.
21. What is your most embarrassing moment? As if I'm going to tell you.
22. How clever are you? Clever enough I guess.
23. Name a new favourite TV-show. I haven't really watched any TV lately.
24. Any guilty pleasures? .... There are probably some things I like that others would consider a guilty pleasure, that doesn't mean I feel guilty about it...
25. If you could have chosen your own name, what would it be? Lilly maybe...
26. Who do you most admire in life, and why? I admire people that know what they want and are doing something to get it.
27. What is your most treasured possession? Hmmmm... If I would have to choose ONE thing to grab in a fire... My passport... Although it would be really hard leaving my laptop with all my pictures on it behind, and my phone....
28. Tell me your favourite funny joke... I am rubbish at coming up with jokes when put on the spot. "The police officers wanted to interview the male suspect wearing nothing but lace knickers and high-heels, but the sergeant said they had to wear their uniforms instead."
29. What is your biggest fear in life? Never finding out what I really want to do.
30. What is your favourite flavour of ice cream? What does it remind you of? Mint choc-chip. I don't think it reminds me of anything, but then again I've not had it in a while...

How clean is your house?

I was alone in the hostel dorm on Wednesday afternoon, reading in bed, when one of the girls that work at the hostel walked in and asked me if I wanted a job for Thursday. Since I didn’t have any plans I jumped at the chance of earning some money. The job was to help a lady clean her house, only lasted for 3 hours and paid $50. The lady would pick me up from the hostel and drop me back when I was finished.

On Thursday at 1.30pm (lie in, Yay!) the lady, M, picked me up at the hostel as planned. She was very nice, and very chatty. I could hardly get a word in edgeways. But I guess it’s better than awkward silences, right?

When I got to her house I could tell why she needed help, although how she could let it get in that state in the first place is beyond me. It wasn’t as bad as those cleaning programmes on TV, but bad enough. It’s probably one of the worst places I have seen with my own eyes. Clutter everywhere, dirt everywhere and a mountain of dirty dishes.

M wanted me to start with the dishes. I struggled a bit with the sink at first because the taps were on the opposite sides of what they normally are, so I didn’t think she had any hot water (washing dishes in cold water, eurgh!), but I worked it out in the end. She had no dishwashing brush, sponges or scrubbers so I had to use those thin, flimsy disposable kitchen cloths, and loads of elbow grease.

After I had washed, dried and put away the dishes (very little space by the way and no real system as to where she put things) M wanted me to clean two of her kitchen drawers. I also tidied the things in those because I couldn’t stand the no system thing! (Who are you calling obsessive?!) When I was cleaning the drawers I found a dead cockroach in one of them! Eurgh! At least it wasn’t a big spider though!

Next on the list was the fridge. M hadn’t been shopping in the last few days since she knew she was getting it cleaned, so thankfully there wasn’t much in there that I had to take out before I washed it. It was quite dirty. I can understand how it gets dirty on the inside, unless you have a glass door on your fridge it’s easy to not clean it very often, but on the outside… I’m not kidding; there was mould on the outside of the fridge door! Seriously, it takes 2 seconds to wipe the door with a cloth once in a while, and by that I don’t mean once every 6 months!

Then there was the hob. Oh dear! The hob! I almost wish I had taken a picture just so I could show it to you, but I don’t think M would have liked that. It was covered in dirt! You could hardly see any of the original steel anywhere. Since I started using the hob as a kid my mum has always taught me to wipe it off as soon as I finish cooking so that it always stays relatively clean. No matter what kind of hob you have, it’s one of those surfaces that dirt shows up really easily on and it ruins the look of your whole kitchen if it’s dirty, makes the whole kitchen look dirty. Luckily the dirt came off fairly easily without the use of a chisel or anything.

The last thing M wanted me to do (or at least the last thing she had time to get me to do) was hoovering the two bedrooms upstairs and the stairs. As she had cream carpets I could tell it hadn’t been done in a while. I can understand that one though, because the hoover she had was really quite hard to push on the carpet and I even worked up a bit of a sweat in the 10-15 minutes I was hoovering.

M was chatting to me all the time when I worked, and she really is a nice lady, she made me stop working a couple of times to talk to me or show me something and we had a little break and had a cup of tea and some watermelon. Because of that I probably only actually worked for 2-2.5 hours, not that I’m complaining. I still got my $50 and it was a nice job just for a day.

In a weird way I kind of enjoyed cleaning M’s house, it was nice to see the change I made just by cleaning a little bit, and to know I had helped someone. And of course making some money was nice. In my eyes there was still lots left to do, and I would have “loved” to clean the whole house and arrange a proper system for everything, and see what a change that would make (Just call me Monica! (From Friends for those of you who didn’t get it...)), but I had done everything that M wanted me to do, and it’s not like I was going to start cleaning random things she didn’t want me to. I’d be there a lot longer than 3 hours if I did and I would also want more than just $50!

M had gotten a phone call from a friend while I was cleaning, inviting her to a concert that evening, so she didn’t have time to drop me back into the city. She did drive me to a bus stop in Toowong though which was nice of her. But because it was quite close to the city and the weather was quite nice I decided to walk back along the river.

As I was walking along the river I walked past a restaurant which had gotten damaged during last year’s flood and not fixed back up again. I think that is probably the first proper damage from the flood I’ve seen, everything else has been repaired. It was sad to see how it was all ruined on the inside and had loads of graffiti on the outside, and even more so because it had won an award for best restaurant in 2010, only a year before the floods, or less depending on when they gave the award out…

I must have worked up an appetite doing all that cleaning, because when I got back into the city I went to Subway with C, I bought a foot-long and was going to have half for dinner and save the other half for breakfast the next morning,  but I ended up eating the whole thing there and then. Plus a cookie!

Roxy's Baby

Roxy’s Baby

By: Catherine MacPhail

Outer back cover: Roxy is wild, uncontrollable. She hates life at home – and her goody-two-shoes sister. Her only solace is her equally wild friends. Then there is the night of the party, where she lets that boy kiss her, and more … and Roxy is pregnant. Wilfully, she won’t tell her mother, her family. She runs away to London.

And in London Roxy is found by Mr and Mrs Dyce. They are understanding, sympathetic, and promise her a way out of her troubles. They take her to a comfortable place, along with other girls in the same position, and look after her and her unborn baby. But Roxy eventually works out the dark truth behind the outwardly compassionate Dyces. There is only one way out – and it’s dangerous. But now Roxy has her baby to look after.

Really good book, so exciting it was hard to put down. When I found out that it’s based on true events that just made it even better.

The way it is in today’s society we don’t easily trust people, even when they seem nice, we always think they must have an ulterior motive. The way most people think is that if something seems too good to be true it usually is. But is Roxy right in thinking that, or is she being paranoid? That was one of the things that was so interesting to try and find out.

One thing that kind of bothered me about the book, but I didn’t realise until I had finished it, was that there wasn’t much there about how Roxy felt about being pregnant. I mean, she’s only 14, you would think she was freaking out about it or something. But the book was still really good.

Dancing in red shoes will kill you

Dancing in red shoes will kill you

By: Dorian Cirrone

Outer back cover: Kayla Callaway has prima ballerina grace and something else that most ballerinas don’t have; a full figure. Her heart is set on a future in dance. Unfortunately, her proportions just got her cast as an ugly stepsister in Florida Arts High School’s production of Cinderella. Kayla’s disappointment maker her a prime suspect when the dance troupe receives a string of threatening messages.

Interesting book about a girl that doesn’t fit the mould; a ballerina with a pair of double D’s. Although I am no ballerina, always having had big breasts myself I could understand some of Kayla’s thoughts about her double D’s, many of the thoughts she had, I have had too.

Having been a ballerina herself, I am guessing that Cirrone knows what she is talking about. There is some rivalry in the troupe, not “Black Swan” bad, but suitable for young teens and over. It’s also a good book about how women are supposed to fit into a mould that society creates and how that mould can be different depending on the time and place. Young teens reading this will hopefully understand that they don’t need to fit into what society wants.

Sara's Face

Sara's Face
By: Melvin Burgess

Outer back cover: Times have changed. Young girls dream of operations like this. It's like buying new clothes these days.
Sara Carter wants to be famous. Fame is her obsession. So when legendary rock star Jonathon Heat offers her star training and the cosmetic surgery she thinks she wants, Sara can't believe her dream will come true.
But Jonathon Heat doesn't want Sara's talent. Jonathon Heat want Sara's face.

Weird, slightly confusing, trilling and really good.

Sara is a really strange character. She changes style and personalities like the wind and you never know if what she's telling you is the truth or not, and you never know what it is she really thinks, which makes the book a little confusing, and also very scary in a way. I still liked her character, and I think this book would make a very interesting movie if done correctly and with good actors.

The book is really weird and some things you never really get the answer to, which is a bit annoying, but it's kind of explained why they do it that way, and it's still a good book.

Courgettes Pacifico (and Rosti)

A girl I've met at my current hostel, C, and I cooked together last night. I have not properly cooked something in ages, and not at all since I turned vegetarian. We went to the library and had a look at some vegetarian cookbooks. I am SO looking forward to getting my own place and buying loads of vegetarian cookbooks! Since there is no oven at most hostels we had to take that into consideration. Do you have any idea how hard it is sometimes to find a recipe that doesn't require an oven? And that you actually want to cook? We did find one in the end, for something called Courgettes Pacifico, and to go with it we cooked Rosti, and also bought a nice baguette. The recipe is also Vegan, so if you're looking for a nice Vegetarian or Vegan recipe, here you go!

I love trying new foods. When I go out I will usually just buy what I know I like because I don’t want to risk not liking something and wasting my money, but when I’m just cooking at home I love trying new things, at least I know that if I don’t like it I usually have something else I can eat.

We were a little bit worried because we didn’t have a picture to see what it was supposed to look like when it was finished, but to be honest I might not have wanted to cook it then as I’m not usually big on things with sauce on them. But it turned out really nice actually! We both liked it and ate everything on our plates. I was SO full afterwards.

The Courgettes Pacifico recipe was originally for 4 people, but the one below is for 2 as I halved if while copying it from the book. We did not use any ginger as it seemed silly to buy it just for this one meal as neither of us is normally keen on it. I would also suggest that if you make it you use SMALL courgettes! For us it would have probably been enough with 3 small courgettes or 2 big ones (but then again we didn’t actually weigh them). We also put the Courgette mix into a saucepan before we added the passionfruit, papaya and coconut milk because we didn’t have a lid for the frying pan, but it seemed to work just fine that way.

 

Courgettes Pacifico

15ml (1tbs) olive oil

350g (0.75lb) or 4 courgettes/squash

1 garlic clove, skinned and chopped

1,25cm (1/2 inch) gingerroot grated or shredded

2 ripe (wrinkled) passionfruit, halved

½ ripe pawpaw (papaya) skinned, seeded and sliced

65ml (2fl oz) coconut milk (we used a whole 165ml can, which worked fine)

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Heat the oil in a (big)frying pan until very hot.

Slice lengthways and add, cut face downwards, the courgettes without crowding the pan.

Cook until browned.

Carefully turn over the browned courgettes, add the garlic and ginger and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes (we had to do this in batches as out frying pan was quite small, but it still worked out)

Scoop the pulp and seeds from the passion fruit and add to the pan with the papaya slices in an even layer. Add the coconut milk, cover, reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes, season to taste.

Rosti

450g/1lb potatoes

Small bunch of spring onions

Salt

4tbs oil

Add cold water and potatoes to a pan, bring to a boil and boil for about 5 minutes or until the potatoes are just tender on the outside.

Trim and chop the spring onions then cut into long thin pieces (we just chopped it “normal”)

Drain and cool the potatoes, not completely cool, just cool enough for you to work with. Then peel them using a knife and your fingers.

Grate the potatoes coarsely, season with a little salt (and pepper if you wish) and add the spring onions.

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the potato mixture and use a spatula to press it down to fill the frying pan so it’s a nice circle.

Fry over moderate heat for 7 minutes then turn it over by using a plate (I am rubbish at turning things over, and especially rosti falls apart very easily so be careful).

Cook until the second side is brown and crisp (if your rosti is thick, taste it to make sure it’s cooked all the way through).

Drain it on some kitchen paper and cut into quarters (or halves).

Savvy

Savvy

By: Ingrid Law

Outer back cover: “My Savvy hadn’t come along yet. But I was only two days away from my very own thirteen dripping candles.”

For Mibs Beaumont’s family, the day of their thirteenth birthday could be an adventure or a disaster.

It’s when they get their savvy – an extra-special talent and know-how.

Her brother Rocket is Mr Electric, he can send static shocks from the other side of the room, just for fun…

But on Mibs’s special day, their poppa is in a coma in hospital and she has to reach him.

The only way to get there is on the pink Bible bus, so, adventure or disaster, Mibs is getting on that bus.

And who could guess what might happen then?

A book for young teens, but I really liked it. I used to love hoping and imagining that I would get some sort of magic powers or something as I grew up, and so the book reminded me of that in a very nice and funny way. I would have absolutely loved it and read it over and over again had I been a young teenager! (Okay, I can do that now as well!)

It’s funny to read about how Mibs messes things up a little bit because she doesn’t want to acknowledge her real savvy in a way to begin with, but that’s what starts the whole adventure.  Because she thinks she can help her poppa in a way nobody else can she sneaks on the pink Bible bus which she thinks is going to Salina, where the hospital is. Four other kids also sneak on with her, but when the bus turns left instead of right, north instead of south, that’s when the adventure really starts!

The book was sad, funny and a little bit romantic. I loved reading about Mibs’ family, and I think it would have been interesting to read even more about them. It would have been fun with a whole book series about the Beaumont family! How each family member deal with getting their savvy etc.

The 99'er meme - Final part

The last part of a four part meme from Sunday stealing. To see my answers to the previous parts, look below.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

76. In your opinion, what makes a great relationship? Communication, honesty and trust, and of course love.
77. How did/could someone win your heart? I don't know... It's just something that happens.
78. In your world, what brings on more creativity? Anything. It depends more on my mood than something that I see/hear or something that happens.
79. What is the single best decision you've made in your life so far? Go to England on my own.
80. Why did you break up with your last ex? There just wasn't any feelings there any more.
81. What would you want to be written on your tombstone? Always had an open mind.
82. What is your favourite word? Interesting, it's the word I use the most anyway.
83. Give me the first thing that comes to mind when your hear the word: delusional. Delusional. Seriously. Whenever someone says "give me the first thing that comes to mind..." it's always the word they just said.
84. What is a saying you use a lot? Whatever happens, happens.
85. Are you watching Idol this season? If yes, how do you like it? No.
86. Were you surprised House got cancelled? House got cancelled??!! Yes I'm surprised!
87. What is your current desktop picture? It changes every 10 minutes, just going through all the pictures on my laptop, as I am writing this it is a picture of my best friend and her husband on their wedding day outside the church.
88. If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be? There is only one person I would do that to, but I'm not going to tell you who it is.
89. What would be a question where you'd not tell the truth? This one.
90. One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by WEEPING ANGELS. The weeping angels aren't really doing anything, they're just standing around your bed. What would you do? Of course they're not doing anything! I'm looking at them! As much as I would love to go back in time I wouldn't like to be stuck there, so I would keep my eyes on them and quickly get out of the house and try to somehow reach The Doctor and get him to help me.
91. You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power? Flying
92. You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again? Depends if I can or can't make any changes to the past, but because of the next question I'm going to guess I can't make changes this time, so maybe the last half-hour I spent with my mum before going to Australia, just to see her again.
93. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be? I'm not telling you.
94. You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. (let's say that you are both single and available) Who might it be? Bruno Mars maybe? Or Taio Cruz? They're both quite cute.
95. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go? Didn't I answer this just a few weeks ago? It depends if it's a return ticket. If it is then Norway if not then somewhere else in Australia, maybe Tasmania.
96. Do you have any relatives or friends in jail? Not that I know of.
97. Who's winning the U.S. Republican presidential nomination? Why? Don't care, I'm not American
98. Who's winning the next U.S. Presidential election? See 97.
99. If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say? Stop the wars, there are better things to do with your time!

The earth, my butt & other BIG round things.

The earth, my butt & other BIG round things.

By: Carolyn Mackler

Outer back cover: Virginia thinks the world of everyone but herself.

With a larger-than-average body and a medium-sized inferiority complex, Virginia Shreves lives on the internet, eats junk food and obeys the “Fat Girl Code of Conduct”. Her best friend Shannon has moved to Washington. Froggy Welsh the Fourth (real name!) has succeeded in getting his hand up Virginia’s shirt, but she lives in fear that he’ll look underneath.

Then there are other Shreves: Mom, exercise fiend and adolescent psychologist; Dad, jet-setter and golfer who ogles skinny women on TV; older siblings Anaïs and Byron – slim, brilliant and impossible to live up to. Without Virginia, the Shreves are a picture-perfect family… until a phone call changes everything.

I could not put this book down! I reminded me a lot about being a teenager myself, and also some thoughts that I still have. I guess everybody can recognize themselves in this book in one way or another. The way Virginia is treated and ignored made me almost cry at one point. I probably would have if I wasn’t sitting in the library.

Virginia is just a normal insecure teenager with some body issues. It was interesting to read about what was going through her head about everything that was going on in her life, and it was all very realistic. I felt like I was the one going through it all and like I said I could not put it down! I read it in the time it took to charge my phone at the library.

I would recommend this book to any girl, especially young ones; they might learn something from it. Now I would love to read Vegan Virgin Valentine by Carolyn Mackler, just because of the title... It sounds intriguing… Especially now that I know I like Mackler’s writing style.

Strip

Strip
By: Thomas Perry

Outer back cover: A strip club owner named Manko Kapak has been robbed by a masked gunman while placing his cash receipts in a bank's night-deposit box. Kapak is determined to find the culprit, and make him pay. After a month of investigation Kapak's goons settle on the innocent but tough-as-nails Joe Carver, which is furious that he's been falsely accused. Meanwhile the real culprit and his new girlfriend believe they've found a whole new profession, robbing Kapak of his strip clubs' cash.
As the case explodes into a triple killing, Carver finds himself in the middle of a brewing gang war over Kapak's little empire, ploughing into territory more strange and violent than he could ever have imagined.

I really liked this book. It got more and more exciting the further I got into it, by the end there were so many things happening (one that made me feel a bit queasy), and although I'm slightly confused, I really liked how it ended.

It was interesting to read what Kapak would do to get Carver, and what Carver would do to try and get Kapak off his back. I loved reading about all the interactions between people and I think it seemed quite believable most of the time. My favourite character was probably Spence, Kapak's kind-of-bodyguard, he seemed to be the only "sane" person of all the characters.

I was worried because of the title that Perry would go into too much detail on certain things, but he didn't write more than was "necessary". I don't read much crime, but after this I think I might start, although it isn't the usual "who did it" crime, because you find that out fairly early in the book, it's more of a "how will they find out and what will they do about it" crime. I would recommend this to anybody that likes a good read and doesn't mind reading about some murders.

Love

Love is patient

Love is kind

Love it does not envy

Love it does not boast

Love it is not proud

Love it is not rude

Love it is not self-seeking

Love it is not easily angered

Love keeps no record of wrongs

Love does not delight in evil

Love rejoices in the truth

Love always protects

Love always trusts

Love always hopes

Love always perseveres

Love never fails

-Corinthians 

Valentine's Day

I like Valentine's Day. In a way.

I like that there is a day when you can be a bit more "couple-y". I'll accept a bit more PDA on Valentine's Day.

I like the cute decorations and all the pink and red.

I would love to be in America for Valentine's Day on year, and also the other big days. Everything is so much "bigger" in America. They really go all out for their celebration, it's so nice to see people so into something. I would love to be there just to experience the atmosphere.

What I don't really like about Valentine's Day is all the pressure of giving gifts. I get enough of that on people's birthday's and at Christmas, why do we need more days of stress to find the perfect gift?

I would rather get a gift on any "ordinary" day of the year because someone feels like giving me something, or they just saw something in a shop and thought of me, instead of on V-Day just because they felt like they had to get me something just because it's V-Day.

I know some people that doesn't celebrate V-Day because they think it's too commercialised and just an excuse for the big companies to make more money. Which is okay, fair enough. But then some of them will create their own V-Day. Sometimes just a day before or after the 14th. What's the point of that? They still do all the V-Day things, so they still give the big companies their money and all that. And why? Just because of the date? Just to be different? If you're going to celebrate it anyway you might as well do it on the 14th. Don't pretend like you don't want to do it. If you don't want to celebrate it, don't do it at all. A couple already have an anniversary date, why not celebrate that instead of making up your own V-Day? Don't make up some lame excuse that it's not V-Day you're celebrating, when you know that the only reason you have that extra special day that you made up is only because of V-Day. The date is there, if you want to use it do it! Be proud! You're in a couple and you want to show your love for each other, it's the perfect day for it!

Are you coupled up? Are you doing anything special for Valentine's Day this year?

Is this what they call homesickness??

I had my first "I want to go home" thought yesterday.

I don't think it was anything in particular that brought it on. It was more of a realization that I don't have a proper places to live, I don't have a job, and although I still don't know what I want to study I know I can't do it on the visa I'm currently on.

So I feel a bit lost at the minute, and I know I have to find a job so that I won't have to spend all my savings, but it's going to be hard to get a job because I can only work for a few months. The jobs that will be okay with me just working for a few months are jobs I don't want to do. But I guess it's only for a few short months so I shouldn't worry about it.

I also realized something else when I had my "I want to go home" though. The "home" I thought about was England. Not any particular place in England, but England none the less. Even though my family is in Norway, it is England that feels like home to me. Maybe any other place in the UK would be good too, but since I've only ever lived in England I wouldn't know.

I want to go back, study, get a job, "settle down". That doesn't mean stop travelling by the way, but having a home to come back to. I want to live life the "ordinary" way. The way most people do.

I've never felt this way before. I've wanted to go back to England, but never this strongly. I don't know if it's homesickness or just me wanting to start my life. Because I don't miss any particular people or places (a whole country can't be called a particular place, can it?). Well, I do miss people of course, just not enough to make me want to go back to them.

People think I live such an exciting an fun life and that I can do whatever I want, and yes; it is, and I can, it it is also really stressful and even boring at times. I don't regret doing this at all, it's a great experience and I wouldn't be without it, but maybe it would have been enough with 6 months?

If I had just worked for 3 months, or not worked at all, just travelled, I would still have had time to see all the things I want to see here.

Not meeting anyone to "distract" me would have helped too of course, but where is the fun in that? I have done the whole "I don't want to meet anyone because I'm travelling", and it's not fun. Even though things are the way they are with TP, and it probably won't work out between us, if somebody offered me to go back in time I would do it all again.

I like Australia. I like the people, the weather and I like being here, but I don't want to live here.

I could of course book an early ticket back home, I have enough money for it. But. I still haven't see everything I want to see here, and I would kick myself if I didn't see it, and I have also already booked my ticket to go home in July.

I will enjoy the rest of my stay in Australia, but I am also looking forward to leaving.

The 99'er meme - Part 3

Continuation of the last two weeks of Sunday Stealing.
Part 1
Part 2

51. Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong? Depends what they did, but yes.
52. What is your astrological sign? Scorpio
53. Do you save money for anything? What? Right now I'm spending my saved up money, but I will save it for travels when I'm earning money again.
54. What's the last thing you purchased? I bought a pair of black flats yesterday.
55. Have you ever had a relationship that you realized was lust not love? Yes
56. In a relationship? Kind of.
57. How many relationships have you had? 4
58. What do you want to tell us about your day? Not much has happened yet today, I got up, had breakfast and went to the library... 
59. Where were you yesterday? At the hostel, at The Paramedic's and then at some bars.
60. Is there anything interesting within 10 feet of you? Not now, but there was a gecko there earlier, which was kind of coll since I'm in the library. I wonder what book the gecko was going to borrow...
61. Are you wearing socks right now? It wouldn't look very good with my flip-flops....
62. What's your favourite animal? Cat.
63. What's your secret weapon to get someone to like you? Smile.
64. Where is your best friend? Far away
65. How did you end/your last relationship end? The twat didn't have the balls to do it face-to-face so he did it via msn.
66. What's your heritage? As far as I know I'm 100% Norwegian
67. What were you doing last night at 12am? Dancing my butt off in some random bar.
68. What's new? This post?
69. What is the key to seduction? I honestly have no idea... A nice smile?
70. What was the weirdest thing that happened to you this week? Some random dude sat down next to me last night and when I said I was didn't have a job at the moment he offered to pay me to be his girlfriend!!
71. You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do? Well first of all I have never been late to any job I have ever had, so I doubt I would get a warning like that. But even if I had I would save the dog of course!!
72. You are at the doctor's office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone that you are going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid? a) I think I would probably tell everyone, maybe. I guess that's something I can't really know until it happens (which of course I hope it never will!). b) Go see friends and family, do quick holidays in the countries I haven't been that I really want to see... I think, it's the same as "a" really, you can't know these things for sure until it actually happens. c) Probably.
73. You can only have one of these things: trust or love. Trust.
74. What's a song that always makes you happy when you hear it? It changes all the time, but at the moment I quite like "Don't worry, be happy"
75. Who has your cell phone number (other than family)? Some of my friends.

Melbourne - Day 7 and 8

(Day 1 and 2)

(Day 3 and 4)

(Day 5 and 6)

Day 7 – Eureka Tower

When I booked the tour for Great Ocean Road I booked it as a package with the Eureka tower as well, so today I decided to redeem my voucher, instead of doing it tomorrow before my flight as that would probably stress me out. The voucher included the Eureka Skydeck 88 and “The Edge”, where you go into a glass box which is “pushed” 3 meters outside the building, so you look down on the ground approximately 300meters below.

 The lift up to the Skydeck was really quick, 9meters per second! My ears popped. It was strange seeing the numbers of the floors going so quickly! The Skydeck was really good, you could walk around the whole floor, so you got a 360 view of Melbourne.

 I had really been looking forward to doing “The Edge” experience. Not scared of heights at all, I thought it would be really cool to look straight down to the street below, and know that it was only 4cm of glass under my feet. We weren’t allowed our bags or cameras into the box (they want to earn more money by you buying the picture they take of you in there).

 When it started they played some sound effects while they pushed the box out, I don’t know if it was supposed to be cool or scary, but I wasn't really impressed. The glass walls were white and we couldn't really see through them, then suddenly they made them clear. But I was kind of disappointed because I didn't think they were quite clear enough. There was also some glare so I had to move to be able to see properly through the glass floor, which also had steel bars so the parts you could look through wasn't really very big, but I do understand that it’s probably safer, I just think the glass could have been a lot clearer.

 After a while the girl controlling the box started making some of the walls and the floor and roof white again, alternating so that you could look through one of the walls etc but not the others, then she started doing it quicker and quicker so that you didn’t really have time to look through any of the windows. Again, I have no idea why she did that, it was just annoying and I was not impressed at all, neither was one of the other ladies in the box with me judging by her facial expression. The girl made the glass clear again and took pictures of each group in the box. It was only 7 people in the box, including me; a group of 3, a group of 2 and then the lady and I were the single ones. They took 2 pictures, one normal and then they told us to be silly on the other one. After the pictures they moved the box back into the building and we could go out and buy the photos they had taken if we wanted to. I did buy the one they had taken of me, only to kind of have as a memory. The glass is not very clear on the picture, maybe it was the weather or the glare or the flash of the camera, but you can’t really see properly the view. So I took one of myself in front of the normal window on the Skydeck which I think turned out much better.

 I'm glad I didn’t pay for “The Edge” as I personally didn’t think it was worth it. I did enjoy the view from the Skydeck though and that was enough really. Saying that though I would have probably bought a ticket for “The Edge” just because I would have thought it was better than it was, and for the experience. You don’t know until you've tried, right?

Day 8

As my flight left Melbourne really late, around 10pm, I had an extra day in Melbourne in a way.

While I was waiting for Mai at Federation Square I saw some people dressed up as zombies walking around, it was really cool. I wonder why they were doing it. Anybody know?

 When I met up with Mai we went to St. Patricks Cathedral and had a look inside. Like I’ve said before; I’m not a religious person, but I do think that religious buildings are very nice and I like looking at them. St. Patricks Cathedral was no exception; it was beautiful on the inside and the outside.

 After the Cathedral we had a look at harbour town shopping centre down at the docklands, just window-shopping.

One of the guys we met on Friday night had offered to drive me to the airport, which was really nice of him. I actually told him that my flight left at 8pm, a lie, not nice I know, but that way I didn’t have to keep him up late to drive me, and if something happened so that he couldn’t take me after all I had plenty of time to arrange for some other way of getting there. The airport I was going to was Avalon, a fair way out of the city.

H, the guy that was taking me, showed up on time. It took us about an hour to get to the airport, and then I just had to sit and wait… Very boring. The plane was also an hour late because of some bad weather in Brisbane, but the staff got everybody on quickly when it was time for us to board.

As it’s been really cold in Melbourne the last few days I was happy to feel the heat when I landed in Brisbane! Although I will probably think it’s too hot when the daytime heat hits.

I took a taxi (expensive!!) to my hostel, YHA Brisbane City, which I have only booked for the one night. There was someone waiting for me when I arrived as I had warned them that I would be really late, I checked in and went to bed.

“Holiday” over.

I look forward to seeing The Paramedic again.

Melbourne - Day 5 and 6

(Day 1 and 2)

(Day 3 and 4)

Day 5

This morning Mai and I went to the Queen Victoria Market. It was much bigger than the evening one on Wednesday, but like all markets many of the stalls sold the same things. I found some salt liquorice without gelatine and Mai and I found a card that we are going to send to the girls we looked after in England, other than that neither of us bought anything.

After the markets we got some lunch and then went to the Victoria State Library as they have free internet. When I was going in there with my laptop bag the library attendant asked what was in the bag. I was very tempted to say: What do you think is in there?! But I just opened it for him to see that it was indeed just a laptop.

In the evening we went to the Belgian Beer Café on Bluestone, as The Paramedic had suggested it. It’s a very pretty Place and I even found a cider that I liked! It was Mai who suggested the cider, she said it didn’t taste like cider at all, so of course that was the one I tried. And she was right! It was really yummy.

 We didn’t stay out very late as I had a headache and had to get up early the next day.

Day 6 – The Great Ocean Road!

The one thing I HAD to see while I was in Melbourne was the Great Ocean Road. The bus driver we had for the day was very nice. I also liked how he told everyone the reason he was late was because of two passengers, and he made them apologize to everyone! How else are they supposed to learn? Although I’m not sure it worked because they kept being the last ones on the bus all day. Oh well. Anyway.

We stopped quite a few places. In one of the scenic stops there was a wild koala just at eye-level! 

Can you see the koala?

We also stopped at Kennett River where we saw some more koalas, one was even on the ground! At Kennett River we also got to feed some wild parrots! One sat on my hand and ate some seeds out of my palm, and one landed on my head at one point!

 We stopped for lunch at a place called Apollo Bay. The bus driver had packed two vegetarian alternatives and he told everyone to make sure that they let the actual vegetarians have first pick of those, which was nice. Apollo Bay was a pretty place, but it’s hard to go exploring too much when you know you only have a short amount of time in a place.

 After Apollo Bay we stopped at Maits Rest. That’s a cool tempered rainforest. It didn't take too long to walk in it, which was kind of nice because I've seen so many rainforests now. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice and very informative, but the reason I went on the tour was the Twelve Apostles, not another rainforest.

 The Twelve Apostles was the next stop. It was really cool to see the limestone formations made by the sea. Apparently there is only 8 now, not 12, as they erode.

 We also had two more stops featuring stone formations. The first was Loch Ard Gorge (I thought it was Lockhard Gorge at first), that one had 3 different walks. Two on top of the cliffs and 1 down to the beach. It was very pretty there.

 The last stop before we headed back to Melbourne was London Bridge, or London Arch as it is called now. Up until 1990 you could walk to the end of it because it was connected to the mainland, but then that arch collapsed. No one was hurt as it happened, but 2 people got marooned on the newly formed island for a couple of hours until the helicopter rescued them, I laughed at that, I'm a bit mean, I know. But I wonder what they would have done if it had happened before helicopters were invented?

 It was a really nice tour and I’m glad I did it. It lasted for about 13 hours and I was really tired by the time we got back, but it was worth it. 

To be continued...

Melbourne - Day 3 and 4

(Day 1 and 2. )

Day 3

A boring start to the day: I decided to sit down and charge my phone all the way up. At least it gave me some time to answer my e-mails and post some of my Melbourne pictures to Facebook.

After my phone was fully charged for the first time since Canberra I wandered around town for a few hours. I started with taking the free tourist shuttle to Queen Victoria Market, which was starting to close up when I got there. I bought a couple of plums and then I just started randomly walking down a road. I did ask a police officer that I walked past if I was heading towards the city centre, just to make sure I wouldn’t end up too far away, and I was. Once I knew that and I noticed a street I recognised I knew how to get back to my hostel, but I didn’t want to go there yet so I turned left and right down some random streets. My sense of direction is quite good, so I didn’t get LOST.

Anyway. I came across some alleys with some street art; some was being made as I was watching. It’s amazing how good some people are, and it’s really nice that they’ve got somewhere to do it. It should be like this in all cities, because when it’s done properly it can look really nice!

 My friend Mai had been on a wine tasting tour all day, and when she got back we bought a cake and some wine to celebrate her birthday. We sat in her hostel at first, where we met a couple of guys who, when we had finished our wine, we went out to Melbourne Central with for a couple more drinks. This is one thing I really like about hostels; you meet so many new people and so many nice people. Everybody is a potential friend.

Wine in mugs... We're just SO classy!

Day 4 – Luna, Kevin and Antonio!

Today is the day I’m meeting Luna and her daddies Antonio and Kevin. They are the first people (and dog) who I only know from the blog world that I’m actually meeting face-to-face. I “met” Kevin over a year ago through his blog “52 Characters in Search for a Script”, which he’s sadly not writing on anymore. When I got twitter we followed each other on there and then when he and his partner Antonio started a blog for their dog Luna, “Luna,A Dog’s Life…”, I started reading that. When I decided to come to Melbourne I asked if they would like to meet up, and they did!

As I was meeting them a little bit outside Melbourne I had to get a train ticket. I am so used to using my go-card in Brisbane it’s a bit strange having to get an actual ticket. As I was sitting on the train I realized that Kevin, who was picking me up, doesn’t know what I look like! I figured that I would see him when I got off, but just in case it was busy and I didn’t spot him I sent him a tweet telling him what I was wearing.  I needn’t have worried, I knew him as soon as I saw him.

Kevin took me back to their house, it was really strange to meet someone I’ve only known online, but he’s a nice guy. When we got to his and Antonio’s house I got to meet Antonio and the famous Luna as well. Both very nice! Luna was very friendly and jumping up on me and giving me kisses, I’m glad she isn’t a Doberman or something big and heavy like that! Haha! 

Antonio and Kevin left Luna at home in the back garden and we drove into the city and went to the aquarium. Antonio even paid for my ticket! Thank you again for that! They had penguins at the aquarium, I think they just want to make more money after the Happy Feet movies, but then again they probably got some new things after the Finding Nemo movie as well.  But it was cool to see them anyway, except for the penguins in St Kilda, I have never seen penguins before, not that I can remember anyway.

 There were loads of pretty, funny, weird and some ugly fishes at the aquarium.

Spider crab! Yuck!

 After the aquarium we crossed the river to Crown Casino. Antonio was dying for a coffee! The Crown casino is one of those places you can tell is really expensive as soon as you step inside. They had a decoration for the Chinese New Year that was really nice. The picture doesn't do it justice!

 We had some (non-alcoholic)drinks, again I didn’t have to pay my own way! THANK YOU!  And then Kevin and Antonio walked me to my hostel before they went to one of their friend’s birthday party.

 I really enjoyed my day with Kevin, Antonio and Luna. It was strange in the beginning because we don’t really know each other, but after we got over the initial “awkwardness” or what I should call it, I had a really nice time.

In the evening I met up with Mai and the guys from last night again. We had some of Mai’s left over birthday cake and just sat at her hostel and chatted for a few hours.

To be continued...