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!

Where do I end?

First off a big thank you to everyone for their advice re the Wii Fit, I am a member of a group on the Ravelry and last year they started a fitness thread and we were all motivating each other on. And people were really excited about their Wii Fit or really excited because they were going to be getting one.
However, I never actually found out what the Wii Fit did, or if it was worth it's purchase price. I even Googled it and had no luck. Having asked, you've all answered and I found a recent informative blog post so I am now more aware.

Secondly I am very excited about this recipe I found on a blog, I was going down a rabbit hole like Alice, following link to link and ended at this recipe for Taco Pasta. Mmmm looks good, I think I could do that and it's just the weather at the moment for a pasta bake.

And on for my weekly Healthy For You challenge, this must be end of week 3 now. I discovered I liked Pilates, I was never sure I would. I am a mad keen yoga buff but I often looked at Pilates and dismissed it thinking it would be too samey. Then I finally got one, a Stott I think. And I hated it with a passion.
Fast forward, I have one of Mari Winsor's, she of the infomercial fame although having said that I haven't seen one for her in ages. Oh how I now like Pilates! Thank you Mari.

Many, many, many years ago in a galaxy far away...around the same time I really got into yoga, I was also intrigued with belly dance. Only back then it was well I may be ignorant and making sweeping statements it was very "Middle Eastern". And in that I mean it all seemed to draw from an Arabic/Egyptian kind of background. This was pre-internet, pre-culture explosion as well.
Now you can surf the net to see what people are doing on the other side of the world, you can get books on everything and everyplace now. There's no lack of knowledge available now, but then the world was a lot bigger and places and other cultures were much farther away and far more mysterious and unknown.

I bought a video on belly dance, it had horrible chinky clinky music that irritated me to no end and the instructor was wearing a unitard, it was red, and when she came to use her veil it was also red. Most of the time I had no idea what she was exactly trying to demonstrate and this was way back in the dark ages, pre-internet, pre-YouTube, pre-Paypal and ease of shopping from overseas even finding this one video locally was about it at the time.
I gave up belly dance as a bit of a bad joke.

Then some how, I forget what I saw where but I was looking at it again, thinking about it. Belly dance now is kind of like ice-cream there's a flavour to suit everybody! While I was browsing the many flavours that I found out about Rachel Brice.

Rachel Brice is a incredibly wonderful thing to know about. I am hugely enamored of her, in part because she's so bendy but I am also fascinated by Tribal Fusion style (or flavour!) of belly dance she practices. I got her first DVD, and was then hugely intimidated because she is so lean and bendy and found my self scurrying for safer ground with the equally wonderful Sharon Kihara (think Angela from Bones meets Abby from NCIS).
Anyway back to Rachel, she's about to release another DVD, which will include details on one of the things she is famous for in her routines - very cool looking back bends!
I realise these are not unique to Rachel or Tribal Fusion they pop up else where across belly dance, but I just find them here to be particularly awe inspiring.

When I took on the HFYC, it was partly as a way to keep my motivation going, make me perhaps slightly more accountable in my effort to clean my life up. There was a certain quality of life I was aspiring to for some time and this seemed an opportunity to keep at it.
But now, now my new goal for HFYC? I want to be bendy like Rachel Brice, I want to do one of those cool looking back bends among other things.

Up until here I liked belly dancing, but here after I saw this is where I fell in love with it!

Where I find a new soapbox...

HFY End Week One - Well nothing earth shattering to report on this front yet. I have been working my way through the links on the blog roll on HFY and so far it's been 50/50 live and dead links. The check in links on Scalejunkie.com is all live so there's been some successful reading there.

I find myself nodding in agreement as I read these blog posts as I find I can really empathise with what there women are writing about.
There isn't exactly a new story to found here, women with weight loss goals have been around forever. We clearly like weight loss stories; as a society we seem to have a passion for thinness.
As Lord Vetinari said to William de Worde in Terry Pratchett's novel The Truth, people don't want new news they want old news. They want to read about dog biting man, not man biting dog!

Magazines love to write glowing stories about how some celeb got their pre-baby body back and write of the epic tragedy that has caused celebs weight to balloon out and generally give them a good hiding with the proverbial stick. However, when they lose it you'll hear all about in glowing terms whatever exercise and diet regime they have been following to bounce back so quick and how you too can benefit from this.

But Celebrity Fitness is a huge industry, Elle, Cindy Crawford, Rachel Hunter and Jerry Hall have all made workout’s, fast forward and now we have workout’s from Jordan aka Katie Price, The Girls Next Door (those infamous Playboy girls), the Pussycat Dolls (not actually featuring the Pussycat Dolls mind you) and a whole plethora under the Biggest Loser banner. Which has certainly given Jillian Michaels a platform to launch off a number of titles under her own name separate from Biggest Loser, people rave about her 30 Day Shred. Personally I don’t like Jillian Michaels; the lasting impression is that of an over-aerbocised megalomaniac, but that might just be me.

How about the Wii Fitness boom? And all it's associated paraphnalia? I see Biggest Loser is in on the action there as well. How do I feel about the Wii Fitness? I must admit I am both intrigued and suspicious of it. It is after all a game, a computer game and quite honestly I'd put more stock in the Girl's Next Door workout than I would in any computer game.
People rave over it and I have no doubt it does do something for you but so does walking round the block twice every day. No matter how interesting a neighbourhood you live in, that will eventually get old and kind of useless.
Aside from the benefit of trying something new to avoid boredom at some point you need to change up what your doing to stop your body from cruising through on auto-pilot and not getting the maximum benefit from your workout.
I know this is true, because I've been there, done it and seen the results.

In closing today I'm putting the question out to you in cyber land, you all get to be my opinion poll - What's the verdict on the Wii Fit? Am I simply being all dark ages biased about this particular piece of technology? If have one does it live up to all it's hype??? Come on dish it all, this inquiring mind wants to know!

Cooking, Eating and Reviewing on the Darkside

Over the last two days I have been slow cooking from Sally Wise's book Slow Cooking. I've made Satay Chicken always delicious and I love satay! And yesterday I made Meatballs in Spicy Barbecue Sauce which is delicious as well but it's more of a glaze than an actual sauce on the meatballs.

Sally Wise has just released a new book Out of the Bottle, preserving and recipes using your preserves. I might have to compare it with her first book A Year in a Bottle (which was the best selling book for the year according to one of my local book stores) to see if there is much repetition, but there are no slow cooking recipes in it.
What recipes there are a fairly good I'm loathe to say basic, but there not fancy and nothing to weird or obscure to find is needed and in most instances even if you haven't preserved anything your self you can buy a commercial product equivalent not quite in the same spirit but preserving very much hinges on what's available. If you want raspberry jam, you best be making it in raspberry season!

I'll test some of the recipes and maybe try and squeeze in some preserving if I can find a suitable recipe for the time of year here and see how we go, then write up a more accurate review here.

Miss Stash and I have been watching on DVD the TV show All American Girl, oh my how it takes me back. Not only does it remind me of when I saw it the first time around but I so remember those 90's fashions!

I'm sure most people will have heard about John Cleese's 3,300 British pounds taxi ride across Europe by now. I have been following with amused interest on Twitter Bill Bailey's trip home from Spain. He's made it into France now, but hasn't yet bought an old car with which he hopes to drive back to England in.
My limited overseas travel while exciting never become adventures like this. I guess with the internet I can live vicariously through other people's adventures.

They come in 3's!

Lots of things come in threes, but having written my last blog post the three most interesting things to write about all fall into my new workout plan time allotment. There was other stuff but that's mere boring drudgery and makes these 3's look awesome.

1. I discovered the Healthy You Challenge - it was exactly what I was looking for! I wanted something to keep me inspired but without sucking up too much of time and this challenge is perfect for it.

2. At school I saw on a noticeboard a poster for a Zumba Fitness Party, someone is running one locally on Monday nights, at $10 a session. Since I don't sleep well and roam about at night and by night I actually mean very very early hours of morning when it is still dark so it can be classed as night still, sometimes I find myself watching infomercials.
All the fitness machines amuse me to no end, I like how they all fold away for easy storage. My ironing board folds away for easy storage but I suspect comes out for more use than some of these machines. I also love the beauty treatment one where they drive around in a caravan and surprise "ordinary" woman with beauty treatments.
And I have totally gotten off point, I can't vouch for how many of you out there in blog land also peruse infomercials at odd hours but one that seems to get a lot of airing is the Zumba one.

Now the infomercial would have you buy a very, very, very expensive set of DVD's which come with Toning Sticks - which to me seem to be a set of plasticy looking dumbells that apparently rattle when you shake them as your dancing to the Latin beat.
While I'm quite happy to pass on the DVD"s, I am kind of intrigued about the class. It does look like it'd be fun and it is only pay for the session you attend. A thought I shall keep to think about later.

3. The school gym, I heard from them at last year's orientation and they were then touting themselves as the cheapest membership in town. Which is true if your student, it is a very cheap membership and they offer up services comparable to other gyms around town.
I think I'd need a an actual look around before parting with any cash and see how it looks, but they had just refitted it last year so everything was brand new.
Should be quite modernised then. Another thought to think about later.

But first I need to work out my plan, I feel if I actually organise something and write it down I'm probably more likely to do it. Or at least I hope I will be more likely to get off my backside and do it.

Things I Need To Do....

- Homework...If I do it at school does it become school work????
- Housework...Why does it never end?
- Fix the second Punky Rose Wristlet, discovered when I went to start thumb I had been knitting the right wristlet again. No problem, managed to work it so I could get thumb in normal, all good. But no, I now need to be working back and forth and it's not in the right place. Needs more thought.
- Possibly temporarily desert PRW and work on second sock I found half finished?
- Find the other 9mm needle, I can work on finishing the scrunch scarf then.
- Take time to work out what, when and where of a new exercise plan. Must be user friendly, not boring, not too hard or worse too easy!

And if I have time left after all that possibly I could turn my mind to creating peace in the Middle East, you know just for R&R....
No, more likely at the end of the week I'll sit down and watch Margaret Cho. Very, very, very, very funny but a bit rude for some people I fear. I do love Margaret's Mommy stories!

To do now? Cup of tea and then into bed with a book, I am not yet sure if it will be a good one or a bad one.

Happy Hijacked Ancient Pagan Festival!

Or as Bill Bailey would call it Happy Implausible Resurrection Day.

Reading the newspaper leading into Easter, there will be a two page spread advertising chocolate eggs and bunnies followed by a two page spread about the Christian spirituality of the occasion.

There were also quick quotes from people they'd stopped on the street and asked about if they would eat fish on Good Friday? If they'd asked me I would have said no, I tend to like making my dinner decisions on the day.
Get up and think what do I fancy for dinner tonight? And work from there. Granted 9 times out of 10 it'll be green Thai curry, but sometimes there are other things I fancy. Usually something else suitably spicy, I have been having the most immense cravings for hot spicy food lately.

To me the not eating of meat on Good Friday belongs to the Christian religion, it's like people of Jewish and Islamic faith who both have the no pork dietary rule among others. I’m not an expert on either of those religions so won’t attempt to profess what others fall under their dietary rules.

It's like vegetarians there falls many choices of what you will and won't have before moving onto fully fledged vegan. Or even more hardcore again I feel are the fruitarians, I'm never sure if I believe this or not. A fruitarian is someone who only eats produce that has fallen from the plant. Or perhaps has been picked but allows the plant to continue on living??? They'll eat an apple because the tree can live on, but they won't eat a carrot because it has ceased to continue on growing.
However a quick Google brings up this site so maybe over time its definition has changed - Fruitarian Site.

None of those options necessarily stem from a religious faith, maybe if you’re Buddhist that would encourage vegetarianism. Religion is a weird animal; if you have it does that make you better than someone who doesn’t?
I don't believe in God with a G, I don't identify myself from any branch of the Christian faith. And I must confess quite ambivalent about anyone who does have faith in any religion. Live and let live! Yet what surprise me is Christians I know who are very anti-Muslim. How dare they be allowed to build mosques! How dare they practice their non-Christian religion in our Christian country!

Last time I checked we were secular and our constitution gave us all the right to freedom of religion, we can believe or not believe as we choose. Something for which I am immensely thankful for, I can believe in the Easter Bunny!

But in closing for some light relief, how about those Republicans, the American political party and their trip to the nightclub with live faux lesbian bondage acts??? I thought they were all morally opposed to lesbians and gays.

Vacuming the cat

I'm meant to be finsihsing an assignment but currently I am wresrling with my conclusion, I need to finish it and stay within the word limit as there are penalties for going over.
However I have just over 70 words left, the rest of my conlusion needs to be short or I need to cull something from somewhere else in the essay.....hmmmmm....haaaaaawww...heeeemmmm.....

I've located the details of what one of my tests tomorrow will be about, narrows down what I have to revise tonight for that one and the other one I have tomorrow I already know what it will be on.
Today I did a presentation, I thought it was awful, there was Basil Fawlty style escapedes with the lap top and projector to start with. It seemed an omen of things to come, but official verdict is the presentation went "very well". I'm inteperating that to mean a good mark.

But back to the assignment, I have this problem of I always find them hard to start but once I get started I have to struggle to rein it in under the word limit and have to start looking for lesser bits of infomration to cull to make it all fit.

A few of my favourite things

My mum bought the latest Australian Women's Weekly and for any non-Aussies reading this magazine actually comes out monthly. I flipped to the food section, the only section I tend to actually read in the AWW.
And one of the food features was on High Tea as a means to promote the new AWW High Tea book.
The blurb about the book makes it sound irresistible, I love doing the whole fancy afternoon tea and getting the good china out.

"High Tea is every girl’s dream book, as delightful to look at as it is to cook from. Think finger sandwiches, scones, pastries, cakes, biscuits and slices. Think linen tablecloths and fine china, proper tea made in a teapot, your best friends gathered round, and lots of gossip. Here’s your chance to spoil yourself with cucumber sandwiches, chocolate éclairs and raspberry cream sponge. Teatime will never be the same again."

Oh yum I have to keep my eye out for this one!

It's not being released till October so a bit of a wait but there is a vampire knitting book in the works. I've seen some of the projects to be featured and really looking forward to the finished product. Even if it fails to offer up too much in what I'd actually knit I just know it's going to fit in with my other knitting books - most of which are a bit quirky to start with.

Bill Bailey. The trouser presses, tea and coffee making facilities, spider singing, eagles, sheds and tiny pixies. It never stops being funny, any of it. And the boy playing the setar in Tinselworm is delicious!

Yeah for me!

Breaking my own embargo...but I got 5/10 on my Accounting quiz this afternoon. For reference top mark was 6/10. And since we all had to mark each others, took me back to primary school(!), I feel even better about my 5 since the poor soul who I marked got 0 right. (I don't know who it belongs to were all identified by student numbers which our tutor uses to identify the papers and then hand back to owners.)

But when the answers were being written up there was lots of collective moaning (and not in a good way like When Harry Met Sally) and muttering of "Oh no I'll have so many answers wrong!".
Yet there was also some discussion pre-tute, not everyone had done their Independent Study Tasks. Might've helped!

No more painting the cat's nails...

Twice in the last week on Twitter people I follow have found cash in old bags. What did I find in mine an unfinished knitting project. I'd like to look through all my old bags on the off chance but it will have to wait.

Knitting, blogging, tweeting, searching bags and painting the cats nails will all have to go on the back burner. Put the nail polish down and step away from the cat!

I was filling in my calender so I have at-a-glance-monthly list of what is due when and when tests are, except Corp Reg we just have to turn up to every tute as their not telling us which tutes the tests wil be in. Very sneaky but probably very effective for attendance, learning and final pass rates.

But back to my calender, over the next 2 weeks (17th March to to the 31st March), I have in total 5 tests, 5 assignments and a oral presentation to do. Talk about baptisim of fire!
After this insanity, the following two months sees me with huge gaps between assesments loads of time to do far less work???
Admittedly census falls in the middle of this insane period so I guess either you do the work or you quit before you officially start racking up fees and/or academic penalties.

But guess who so far has been busy doing all their required reading and doing hopmework for tutes??? Guess who thought at start of smester they had plenty of time till first assessment and got stuck in on their reading (it's hard to catch up if your behind!)??? Guess who upon filling out their calender this morning had a Macauly Caulkin in Home Alone moment???

But maybe there is still time for one final Lolcat???

Would you believe???

I was cleaning out one of my larger handbags so as to use it for school and I found a long forgotten UFO.
It was a finished sock and a half finished sock, everything is there but the pattern but they are an all knit sock so I just need to check other patterns regards heels and possibly the toe finishing. And no I'm not really fussed if they match exactly or not!

I've spent this afternoon preparing for tomorrow's school, printing off lecture notes and making sure my reading is up to date. There is lots of reading, there will have to be some more tonight and then some again tomorrow night.
If I were a Lolcat, I'd be a tiny kitten surrounded by huge tomes with lots of teeny tiny print with the caption reading "Why i haz so much readingz?".

Last year I came into Uni a bit apprehensive I knew it would be epic regards the workload compared to any other study I'd previously done but I got through. This year I've started back knowing full well how it all works and yet I have come back and been outraged at how much work they actually expect me to do. I think really the audacity of them!

However in the fun department, for one of my law units our head of department suggests looking to movies, TV shows and novels about law with the idea of course of using these to make comparisons to real life to fictional interpretations about it.
In the "Light Entertainment" department this week the suggestions were Legally Blonde, The Hurricane and The Castle. I'm going to concede LB and TC as light entertainment. But I feel The Hurricane is made from a much more serious stand point.

However I am joyful about Boston Legal being an acceptable topic for homework, I've been putting off and putting off buying more seasons of BL as they tend to be a bit pricey but I saw a catalog with some of the seasons on sale. Guess I have no reason to put it off any longer, it will after all help me with my school work right? ;)

As for the knitting front, well the good fight, has slowed down there. These last couple of weeks I have been too busy to sit and really work on anything but I have been able to squeeze a few rounds in here and there on the second Punky Rose Wristlet during breaks at school.

Tonight is Sunday night and that means Castle night here in Australia, if you haven't already seen Castle I can not reccomend it enough. It is very funny and certianly has some clever twists with a suitable sprinkling of quirky characters that sort of fit into the story well rather than just being there and quirky for sheer novelty value.