What have I created?

My mum is off and running with her knitting in the round on circulars, however I have to transfer the stitches to double points and finish the decrease as she hasn't mastered that yet.

I seem to have contracted a cold from one of my fellow germy students. That's the only trouble when your moving around a campus and touching chairs and desks and shared computers with a number of other people, alhtough I try to take full advantage of the antiseptic gel stuff for your hands which are available scattered around campus. Probably should have supplemented it with one of those tiny bottles I could have stashed in my bag.

I have fallen in love with a German band by the name of Corvus Corax, there quite a popular choice with bellydancers who do some of my personal favourite styling of fusion. Punk rock meets Medieval is how I have heard it described.



It's a future must to go on my iPod, along with a band I found on You Tube in the related video side bar while looking at Corvus Corvax, called Apocalyptica a Finnish Hard Rock Cello band. Yes, that's right a hard rock cello band.
I must say I wasn't all surprised to discover they were European, I must say they produce some very interesting rock/metal bands in Europe. However H.I.M., which I will admit has a fantastic look, very European goth always done well, I have yet to hear any of there music that I actually like. I am disappointed.
With Eurovision been and gone again, springs to mind the band Lordi? I must see if I can track them down on You Tube I have never heard anything from them. Hmmmmm.....

I need to do some more work on my Knit for Tibet hat, speaking of Tibet I was reading about an Australian climber who has just done his third trip up Everest. He was talking about the bodies he had passed on the way up and apparetnly also a couple of climbers from other groups who died on the descent and how they could do nothing for them.
Apparetnly on the Nepal side of Everest, Sherpas are endevouring to recover the bodies of those who have died on the mountain.

There was a series on tv about the Himalayan Rescue Association and the about medical staff working at Everest treating climbers and Sherpas during the season. Very interesting, and amazing just how many people were climbing Everest!

What I will be doing on my holidays...

I've finished my last piece of continuous assesment yesterday at school, so now I have a couple of final classes where we will basically do revision and then I just have to study, study, study for my impending exams.

Then after my exams are done I will be on break, what will I do for my holidays? Well, some time ago I pre-ordered a DVD and impaiently awaited it's release. Mind you I didn't place my pre-order as soon as it become possible, something I was glad for when the release date got pushed back twice.
It seems to have stuck this last time and today was release day, and my copy has shipped! It's coming from America so I don't expect it for at least 3-4 weeks. It should by that timing arrive after I haver finished my exams.

And since June is so not conducieve to outdoor activites in my part of the world, far too cold, it will be a perfect in my living room activity.


However I do fear a slight complication, the only hair styling implement I own apart from brushes and combs is a hair straightner. Hmmmmm....I think world's are going to collide and I'm not going to be happy, I've been trying to get my not naturally straight hair straight for years. However I must confess to many, many, many, many years ago when I was much, much, much younger and probably only slightly less foolish than I still am, actually attempting to iron my hair.
Nothing, nada, zip, didn't make the slightest impression on it at all.

There'll also be more time to knit, I have temporarily put all my projects on hold as I have started a hat for Knit for Tibet through the Ravelry. They are trying to get as much warm knitwear over before the cold spell really hits in August (-10C!) so I'm on hat and cowl duty, two things I know I can knit up relatively quickly and not need to sew up.
I have a lot of empathy for anyone who has to endure sub zero tempetures. Having spent a fair bit of time at bus stops early morning in winter at temps that ranged from 0C down to about -4C, that was cold enough for me and I was well wrapped up with hat, scarf, coat and mittens and still cold!

I taught my Mum how to knit in the round and she almost knit an enitire hat in one night she had to stop as she needed to transfer from the circular needles to double points which I need to look out for her as she dosen't have any, to finish the final decrease.
After all these years of telling me she can't knit in the round, it's too tricky, she could never do that. I wanted so badly to say to her what she always says to me, see what you can do when you put your mind to it!

I am so annoyed, I have to do a presentation for one of my subjects next week. Well we had a sign up sheet in class to fill in our preferred time. Then they did a new sheet with more times, as they decided to extend how long on that day they would do presentations.

Turns out I'm the only person for Monday afternoon, everyone else who chose Monday picked a morning slot. Our assessor Monday is coming up from the Hobart campus, so I've been asked if possible if I would take a morning slot instead since it's just me in the afternoon and late afternoon at that.
Because I picked a late time, as my only class on Monday is late afternoon so I picked one about an hour before my lecture, presentations 5 minutes I well and truly expected to be done and over with.

I'm cross, because I thought they offered those times and they were obviously prepared for our assessor to be here all day. It's not really convenient for me, it's just too much hassle to come in, go home and then come back which means depending on what times are left I could be here all day trying to fill in time.
Now I normally have a day like this anyway, but I can pass the time doing my tute work ready for the rest of the week or working on assignments. But there's none of that to be done next week. Those subjects still having a tutes are simply going to be revision and exam prep, where we turn up and they tell us what to expect on the exam and what we should prepare for.
Mind you one of mys ubjects is not having a lecture or tute next week - that's the one I have the inconveniently timed presentation for.

Another thing I am annoyed about, you know winter's hit when all the boots come out. All the young things are striding around campus in boots, not a ballet flat in sight. Every year boots come in to fashion for winter, I love boots, out I go in search of a pair. Every year they have all got pointy toes! And every year I can't buy any boots because my feet don't fit into pointy toed shoes or boots, not unless I buy too big and have a clown shoe thing going on. Not practical at all.

But an exciting thing, I remembered I am going to Knitting in the Pub tonight, I had forgotten that. When I remembered it was highly exciting. I shall be endevouring to finish the Autumn Dash mittens I am working on, then hopefully my hands won't freeze off and I can get more knitting done.
I am attempting to be really cheap this winter, after last winter where I was a bit extravgent ran the heater a lot at a very high temp, I am going so far with putting more layers on this year. Then if I'm still cold I can put the heater on but low only. So far so good.

Another exciting thing I haven't talked about yet, or at least I don't think I have is, I'm going to see Bill Bailey!!!
Only now I have to be good inbetween now and when he arrives (July!) because if Miss Stash decideds I have been too naughty she'll not let me have my ticket. We booked online with her credit card so they mailed the tickets out to Miss Stash who has them stashed away, I am not allowed to have mine In Case I Lose It, Or I Am Too Naughty To Be Allowed To Go.

Right I have to go practice being Good, probably means something like not wearing tea cosies on my head in public or something.

All roads lead to pole dance (Or my belated HFY Challenge post for the week)

Well they at least do in my life. People tend to laugh when I talk about pole dancing, but I learned alot from those girls way back yonder.

I found plethora of ideas and some very sound advice on fitness while investigating pole dance in cyber land something which I've tried to follow up in the real world by reading books and magazines devoted to fitness.

Thanks to pole dancers I discovered that there were things known as Kettlebells, it gave me reason to give Pilates some serious thought and it prompted me to go back and relook over belly dance. For which I am hugely grateful for I love Mari Winsor's pilates and belly dance seemed to have undergone a revolution and it now had styles like Tribal Fusion, Dark Fusion and Gothic.

These women did so much more than just pole dance, they were all involved in other fitness activitys, various dance forms, different martial arts, hooping, burlesque and all kinds of fitness classes. This was even where I first really heard about parkour!

Jamilla one of my favourite Australian pole dancers also does aerial tissu (aerial silks) and another Suzy Q does the circle.
When I was little I loved the circus, I loved the girl in the sparkly costume up there on the circle or the trapeeze, or riding round the ring on the back of a pony doing handstands!

Probably had I done gymnastics or ballet when I was growing up I'd probably be less preoccupied with dance, leaping, twisting and twirling now. But I loved dress-up as a child, my nanna had the best box of clothes for dress-ups, somewhere I have a picture of me wearing a cotton embroided blouse and a jaunty purple beret over my normal outfit.
And, well, I still love dress-up now...only now it involves false eyelashes that have long feathery ends and green lipstick. Maybe I'd still be obsessed with twirling and twisting?

In my living room I am a legend, no I mightn't actually be any good at anything I like to jump in and try but since it's just me it dosen't really matter. The latest addition to my repertoire has been Samba - think Rio carnivale style not Dancing with Stars.
It has a completly different feel to it than my prefered syles of belly dance, however I have seen a belly dance fusion with Indian dance influence that has me going hmmmmm...

With all this creative passion, I love dance, cooking and my knitting and they all have to some element of fun to them as well. However I have left music well alone, I am not one of life's muscians by any stretch of the imagination. Although it hasn't stopped me from looking at a class for a women's drumming class for health and harmony and wondering what if????

Tonight I am making Nigella's Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake, to be eagerly devoured while I watch Notorius C.H.O - I saw this years ago on tv and it was my first introduction to Margaret Cho and where I first fell in love with her.
I also have the latest Family Circle to visually devour crammed full of chocolate and knitting, just what you need on a cold, dark night to inspire you.

Make my day punk!

I'm not feeling a particular lot of good will to fellow mankind at the moment. I am sick of people who think they are the centre of the universe. There are a number of them in one of my subjects who I could cheerfully strangle.
In their world I am sure they are witty/smart/insightful, to the rest of the people in the lecture they are just smart arses/time wasters on their own personal tangent. If you have a valid point make it, if not shut up and stop wasting everyone else's time.

Other people who aren't feeling a lot of good will to fellow mankind this week? The headlines splashed all over the papers about a month ago was about a man who had been pimping out a 12-year-old girl. He's since been sentanced to 8 years imprisonment. This was done in conjunction with the girl's mother and the story in the papers at the time was it was so her mother would have money to buy drugs.

There's since been a lot of controvery as a Facebook group has been set up and people have been voicing their opinions on the matter, so much so it's gotten a lot of news coverage in it's own right. Are people actually surprised about this?

This week is the girl's mother's sentancing, she's pleaded guilty and her lawyer is saying that his client was worried about having money to pay off her mortgage and that she has just recently come back from testyfying at a trail interstate as she herself was a victim of sexual abuse as a child. And his client needs to be seperated from the rest of the prison population as they are "hostile" towards his client.

No matter how hard up for money you are or how horrible a life you've had, there is never any excuse for deciding to send your 12-year-old out to work as a prostitute. Never. However my first thought when this story initally broke was if this woman was so desperate and she thought prostitution was the quickest financial solution she should have gone herself.

I live in a state where prostitution is legal, but brothels are illegal. Brothels used to be legal but the laws changed and every so often the Scarlet Alliance come down and there's a lot of talk about changing the laws, there's a bit of news coverage but that's about it.

To further complicate this story the girl was a ward of state even though she was living with her mother at the time so now there's huge uproar and investigations into the state welfare. Who was supposed to be looking out for this girl? Clearly her mother wasn't. Which brings me to another pet peeve, dodgy parents.

Children are not cash cows, slaves or the means to making you a whole person as Jillian Michaels famously said recently about adopting children, by rescuing a child your rescuing a part of yourself. Oh dear Jillian, not the right answer.
Dear Jillian, perhaps you should just go back to bullying the obese while avoiding your own fat phobia issues.

Tracy Anderson, trainer to the stars, you know Gwenyth Paltrow and Madonna. Tracy went on Oprah with Gwyneth and told everyone women shouldn't lift weights heavier than 3 pounds (about 1.5kgs?) because otherwise you'll bulk up. B******t!
And in an article I read just recently about Tracy Anderson she was talking about her workout program and how "you can eat anything" but "you shouldn't eat bread four days before a photo shoot" and you shouldn't eat fast food. What happend to "you can eat anything if you follow my program"????

Where do these people come from? Or more importantly who's certifying them?

What I did on my weekend...

What have I done with myself this weekend? Not any homework that's for sure, have to do it tomorrow. V. naughty I know but I've got the worst case of the blahs at the moment.

I think it's a combination of the weather change and just general exhaustion, all this thinking takes a toll on a girl. Yesterday I made Fried Rice, I haven't made it in years. And it was so good! I can't say I'm a huge fan of bought fried rice as it often feels a bit greasy, tasty but greasy.
Really tiny of amount of oil went into mine, which is why I think it managed to stay super tasty but still quite light feeling.
Tonight I made Nigella's Chocohotopots, absolutely delicious. They are so going on to the make again list along with the fried rice. I took some pictures of the Choc-pots, I will get them off the camera and post to show you all their gloriousness. If that's even a word!

Watched Doctor Who I'm not really quite convinced with the current incarnation, he dosen't quite have the passion to face off the Daleks. For that reason I'm crediting tonight's episode as a bit of a fail.
Tonight is also Castle night, oh how I love Castle. And they've announced a third season! Yes! Although another thing I am super excited about is I think we're close in episodes to America, shortly after all the tweeting about the red lipstick named Mistress we actually had the episode.

During tonight's Castle I am going to attempt to get some knitting done, Miss Stash started a Dashing for herself, knitted the first one and hated it. Now I never would have picked the pattern or the colour she choose for myself. But I totally fell in love it. All I need to do is knit the second mitt and then they will be all mine! Yeah new mitts!
Going to come in very handy at the moment, I wore my neck warmer to school the other day, yes that chilly and way easier to keep on than loose scarf ends.
Which given that we all had to evacuate the buildings due to a fire alarm was quite handy. However I couldn't help but notice after I had to down my pen mid home work that while I was standing under cover (it was raining) with everyone else while I was standing round doing my best Lone Wolf, all the young people seem to travel in packs. Hmmm, it was before class so I didn't even have any classmates to converse with while I waited. A lecture would be even better loads of class mates to congregate and converse with then.

But I think I see a way into to infiltrating the packs, it needs a cunning plan! Oh and a disguise, and the disguise goes something like this.

1. A super slouchy beret (Knitter, knit thy self a super slouchy beret!)
2. A ginormous hand bag, the bigger the better here.
3. A pair of ballet flats.

Cunningly disguised as one of "Them", I can then infiltrate their packs as they roam the campus ingratiting myself in with them and earning their trust and finding out what if any rebellious or subversive things they are up to. Which from snippets of conversation I overhear is apparently nothing.
And maybe no on the ballet flats. Me in ballet flats? I rock hats and hand bags but I just don't have the personality to carry off ballet flats. I'm more of a chunky boot girl.

Wii are not amused or are Wii?

I just signed up to Spark People, once again the same group on the Ravelry who were so excited about the Wii Fit also are uber excited and talk lots about this Spark People so I joined.

And while trawling through the fitness articles I found one on Wii Fit, it's either a feast or a famine! In their article they also linked to this You Tube vid making fun of the Wii. Snarf!