Nothing is impossible for God.

Right now there is a boy in China that turns 14 in twenty days. He has no family. If he doesn't get a family before he turns 14, he can never, ever be adopted.

Twenty days.

That's all the time he has left for a forever family to find him. 

It's not impossible for God.

Pray with me?

Filmography 2010

I stole this from Kristy's blog Review Rant Rave. It's flipping amazing. This is the kind of thing I want to do. I get shivers watching this.

18...

So I turn 18 in a little under twelve weeks.

I'm pretty excited. Decided that I'm going here for dinner on the night of my birthday.

Woo thai food :D

Anddddd I have the most awesome birthday party in the making.

Get excited.

ahem, not obsessed or anything...

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I'm struggling not to jump up and down for no reason or hyperventilate or something. I just stumbled across this beauty on the internet. It's one of J.K Rowling's plot spreadsheets for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I got it from here if anyone wants to know.

I'm so excited right now, just looking at the way she planned it all ... I think I need to try planning like this. See, she has columns for all the different subplots so that she can keep track of what happens regarding the particular subplot in each chapter. I also LOVE the little quotes at the top, they're hard to read but while she was planning the spreadsheet she thought of little lines that her characters would say (top left of the page), like "Didn't see that one coming, did she?" and "Then to Azkaban I must go. I trust I'm allowed a toothbrush?" Haha. Loving it. Feeling psyched now about planning my own story. This is just the kind of urge I needed to get planning my own story! Off to write now. Ta ta.

yes, well....

As you can see I'm working on a new background for my blog - only problem is, no matter what I do it doesn't seem to want to fit itself properly to the dimensions on the screen. If you can't see all the characters, you will be able to if you zoom out once or twice ... yeah. Working on getting that fixed. Anyways, the background consists of a few of my favorite characters from tv, film and literature - that is, if you can see them. Hopefully by the end of the day they will be properly visible and I can write a real blog post!

EDIT: Yay, it fits! Hoorah. :)

staring hard at the mess will not make it go away....

First off, a hippity happity birthday to Keira, because I know she'll read this at some point :)

Rah. I have thus far spent the morning cleaning various things and being overwhelmed by other untidy parts of the house, packing my bag for two sleepovers and hopping across the great fluffy carpet in the living room in an attempt to keep the nail polish on my toes unblemished. Also attempted to clean the snake cage but Alastor is (as his namesake) rahter Moody this morning and refuses to let my hand be inside his cage unless he can give it a good nip. Not nice, in my opinion.

I'm so excited for this weekend. Off to Katherine's place to roast s'mores with her and Beth tonight, then heading to Patrick's for his 18th, staying the night there and then coming home after church on Sunday and having two nights in the house with Keira, whilst the family is away camping. Shall be fun.

Hmmm. Felt like blogging but I quite obviously don't have that much interesting to say. Well, in other news I got my hair cut (yes, I did it - the Emma Watson/Mia Wasikowska cut), and I'll put pictures up in my next blog once I have photos.

Tata for now loves.

NaNoWriMo win!

I did it! I wrote 50,000 words in a month!

I wrote a 30,000 word novella which ran out of plot really quickly because it was so simple, so for the second 20,000 I started a second novel, which is nowhere near finished and the first story needs MAJOR editing, but I'm happy that I accomplished my goal of writing that much in so little a time.

Congrats to other NaNo winners! And good luck for the last two days if you're yet to reach the mark :)

seriously tempted...

... to cut my hair like this.

Hmmm. Or grow it out really long. Opinions on which I should do first?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - SPOILER WARNING

Reviewing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. If you have not yet seen the movie, I strongly suggest that you DO NOT read this. If you're not intending to see the movie, or you've already seen it, then by all means, proceed! :)

Firstly. The book is SO much better.

But.

Wow. I'm totally amazed by this Potter film. It's definitely the best by far, I think it was quite faithful to the book and I was so engaged the whole time. Sure, it got a little slow in the middle but the book is like that too. Overall I was satisfied with the film and really enjoyed it.

The openings scenes were brilliant - I always get SO excited when the title rolls up, so it was awesome not to be disappointed by what I saw immediately after it. The scene at the Malfoy manor was great, it really looked exactly like how I had pictured it when reading the book, and the death of Charity Burbage was so terrible. That scene really set up how dark this movie was going to be.

I would really love to add more on what I thought of the cinematography, etc, but I don't actually know what I thought of it! I really need to see the film again to be able to talk about details like that. Perhaps this is an excuse to go back again in a couple weeks....

I must say of the trio - Emma and Rupert stole this film. Sure Daniel is the hero as Harry, but as far as acting goes these two outshone him by far. I appreciated Emma Watson in this film much, much more than in the others - I really think she stepped up in this one and honestly, for the first time, I actually felt like I was completely watching Hermione than Emma. I've always had a bit of trouble watching her and Rupert play Hermione and Ron because they don't look anything like how I picture the characters ... I finally forgot all about that in this film.

I'm gonna talk about a few favorite scenes....

**SPOILER ALERT**

 1. The Seven Potters

First off. This scene. Hee. It was quite well-done, the way the characters changed into Harry. I loved watching their expressions and seeing Fred and George behind Harry's eyes, or Fleur's voice as Harry stripped off his shirt. Plus the lines in this scene were quite true to the book, which I love. Especially Fred and George saying, 'Hey, we're identical!' Also loving the way the girls are standing in Harry's body. Makes me giggle.

 2. Ginny and Harry

This shot is the moment when Ginny and Harry break apart from kissing and notice George standing in the kitchen. Hysterically awkward. Love it. Was disappointed that Ginny only had basically one scene in the whole movie. Ginny's one of my favorite characters, after all. Looking forward to seeing her appear again in part two.

3. The Ministry of Magic

Hehe I loved this whole bit of the movie. The three actors who played Harry, Ron and Hermione in this were so good, especially the guy who did Harry - he had Daniel's walk down-pat! So funny. And Ron's line "my wife's downstairs all alone" was so hilarious. Ron, you don't have a wife.

Also, after this scene, when Ron gets splinched - thought that was quite brilliant too. I loved the way they showed Hermione's protective spells when the Snatchers passed by. Great scene.

4. The Locket

As for this scene ... I have no words. I couldn't find a screenshot of what was in the locket ... but we don't really need to see it again do we? I am scarred for life. Thankfully it meant nothing!

5. Malfoy Manor - Hermione's torture

This scene. Oh my word. I felt like throwing up in the movie theatre, I was so freaked out. For me this was always such a chilling scene in the book - Ron's helpless and heartbreaking reaction was bad enough, but then Hermione actually comes up with a lie while being Cruicioed. She's tough, man. In the movie this scene was far scarier - I didn't even think that was possible. I was not prepared at all for them to show any of the torture because in the book you read it from Harry and Ron's perspective, and all you hear are Hermione's screams. It is so much worse when you actually see it happen.

Helena Bonham Carter plays Bellatrix's motive for torturing Hermione slightly differently than written in the book. She's doing it much more for 'fun' rather than the information. It's so chilling. Quite honestly scary. 

Oh ... and when Hermione awakens and sees the word 'mudblood' carved on her arm ... I wanted to cry.






6. Dobby's Death

So devastating. Not to mention it was right after we had to sit through Hermione screaming in pain for several heart-wrenching minutes. What a way to end the film. I love Dobby, and this scene was so so so sad. But so brilliant. I totally teared up when he said how beautiful the place was, and how happy he was to be with his friends. Dobby, you will always have a special place in my heart. Now I have to go on with the rest of this review before I cry....

7. The last screen shot

Oh, how I shiver with delight when I see this image. It's not over. Be afraid.

Other noteworthy scenes that I must mention - the scene in Bathilda Bagshot's house was the second most scary scene. It was the most frightening in the book, and when Harry and Hermione entered her house, the whole scene from the book came flooding back to me and I flipped out in my seat in the cinema and started watching through my fingers. Thankfully it wasn't quite so frightening as I imagined. Still so, so creepy. Loved it.

Another brilliant scene was The Tale of the Three Brothers, when we find out about the Deathly Hallows. Loved how they did that, and loved that Hermione did the voice-over. It was very cool.

Well, that was probably the darkest, scariest, most brilliant Harry Potter film ever. I give it four stars - although that is pushing it a little, because it's nothing compared to the book. Hoping I can give the last one 4.5. CAN'T WAIT!

3 REASONS!

For you to come to Newtown Festival this Sunday the 14th of November.

A) You will have fun listening to live music, hanging out with friends, eating awesome food and shopping for cool nifty stuff in all the stalls.

B) You can help my youth group, SALT, spread the word about God's amazing grace by handing out these books of Luke's gospel:

C) You can help me hand out these pamphlets that I made for Orphan Awareness (click to enlarge).

Is there anything better you could possibly do this weekend? I think not!

It's almost time!

Gearing up for NaNoWriMo in just a few days! So I thought I'd share with you my writing space, as I did last year - it's changed somewhat! I still have the same space, same desk and chair, but the photos around the wall have spread much wider, and more posters have been acquired ... here's a wide shot of my room:

There's still a bit of space in the top-right corner yet to be filled with photos ... but I'm getting there :D Here's a closeup of the desk: 

Featuring my amazing NEW macbook Artemis, No Plot, No Problem! by Chris Baty, and a wonderful, epic NaNoWriMo calendar made by and awesome NaNo-er. I was going to credit them with it but when I tried to get back onto the thread where I got it from it wouldn't let me! So I will come back and credit them for it later. If you happen to be that NaNo-er ... thanks a million! :) It's awesome. Now, over to the right of the desk....

Is my epic book shelf. The lower shelves are quite obviously in need of arranging as I'm running out of room for books ... but the row of books on top are the most important for NaNo, as they're all the writing/reference/research books and stuff. Here's a close-up if you wanna check out my books ;) if a title catches your eye leave a comment and I'll let you know if the book is worth getting .. some of those are AMAZING and some, well ...

 

So yeah! My space. I'm pretty pumped for NaNo. Let's hope I do better than last year ... if you're participating, leave a comment with your username and I'll add you as a buddy! :)

MIGHTY TO SAVE!

Hi guys,

So I'm here to update on my previous post about Yulia - our prayers have been answered!!! $20,000 were raised for her in less than a week - and now there is a wonderful family who is totally, unconditionally in love with her and they want to bring her home.

YULIA HAS A FAMILY! She is coming home. She will soon know how much she is loved. And hopefully, she will one day know how much Jesus loves her too. I am completely over the moon! How good is this news?!

Nothing is impossible for our amazing, wonderful, loving, mountain-moving God! Praise his name, for he is mighty to save! <3

If you'd like to read a little bit more about Yulia, click here. :)

It's so fluffy...

Hiya. Crazy weekend. Double sleepover. Watched Despicable Me for the second time. Wandered around the park and snapped a million photos of each other. And yeah. I'll post something a little more coherent later but it's early in the morning and I'm off to paint the cry room in the church... I'll leave you with this picture.

PLEASE HELP!

Hey blog readers - there's a little girl in the Ukraine who needs your help badly.

Her name is Yulia. She lives in a orphanage in VERY, VERY poor conditions and she is not cared for properly. She has a rare disease that is wasting away her tiny body and if she is not helped soon, she could die. PLEASE, if you can give any money to help raise a money so that she can possibly be adopted, donate HERE. Spread the word and help find her a family. You can read more about Yulia at the link, too. A Ukraine adoption is about $25,000. That's a lot of money, you might think. But God can do it! He knows your heart, and if all you can afford is 5 dollars, it helps.

Do it! Help rescue Yulia.

Pray.

Today I read several blogs about families adopting young children from China, Ethiopia, and the Ukraine. The Lord has moved me through the words I read about the conditions in which these orphans live … I grieve for them and can only imagine how the Lord aches for them too. This is now my desktop background, so that I won’t forget what I have read today, and so that I will remember to pray every day for each and every child who does not have a family yet. I know that God has a plan for me, and maybe this has had such an impact on me because it’s part of His plan for my future. I don’t know. But I will hope and pray and trust in the Lord, because he has a plan for ALL his children.

It's him!

I'm just absolutely over the moon right now, because some lovely young man on NaNoWriMo offered to draw my character for me! And it's brilliant! So here he is, with his Victorian clothes and his shy stance and his awkward smile, the protagonist of Eloquence, Christian Rheese!

Yay! It's so epic. I'm so happy right now. Thank you, Buster Brown! I can't wait to see the other drawings he does for people....

Boxes of Joy

The boxes I ordered from Operation Christmas Child came today! :)

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Operation Christmas Child is an event run by Samaritan's Purse. Last year OCC sent shoeboxes full of gifts to 8 million children in different countries all over the world who might not have ever received a gift before. 1 million children heard of Jesus through this ministry.

My church is participating this year and we're going to try to fill 10-12 shoeboxes for children with stuffed animals, games, school supplies, hygiene products and other toys, and send them off with Samaritan's Purse, where they will bring a very joyous smile to a little girl or boy's face.

I have a few extra boxes, so if you're interested in going on an early Christmas shopping trip, let me know and I will give you a box. I seriously encourage you to get involved, it's SO much fun, I know you can afford it, and really, why wouldn't you want to be part of this? Watch the video below, it's total worth the 27 seconds you will spend viewing it. 

 

BOOK REVIEW: Water for Elephants

Huzzah! As the title stays, I finally have a review for you, seeing as I haven't done one since 9, The Island and and Julie and Julie. Bad! So, here I am with a beautiful, beautiful book to tell you about - Water for Elephants.

Sara Gruen is the author, and her first draft of the book was completed through NaNoWriMo, extra coolness! This historical novel is meticulously plotted and researched, with a wonderfully rich, old fashioned writing style, providing smooth sailing for the reader through its 300+ pages.

In the middle of The Depression, Ivy League student Jacob Jankowski's life is turned upside down when his parents are killed in an automobile accident. Unable to take over his father's veterinarian practice as he had always intended, Jacob starts running without knowing where he's going, and ends up on a train ... but it's not just any train. It's The Flying Squadron of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

After reading this, I am absolutely in love with the circus. This novel captures you from page one and reaches all five sense; while you're reading it, you're in America in the 1930's, standing on the parched grass as striped canvas tents are hauled into the air, heavy with the smell of popcorn, cotton candy, grease, grain, hay and exotic animals. You'll see the vibrant flashing lights lining the midway, the sequined dresses of the performers; you'll taste the sweet victory of celebrating with alcohol smuggled all the way from Canada in the camels' compartment on the train; hear the deep voice of Uncle Al inviting the crowd to cheer for the elephant, and you'll feel the audience's thunderous response as the Rosie bows towards the stands.

It's a thrilling, romantic story and your heart is sure to be captured by Jacob and the majestic heroine, Rosie the Elephant.

Whoa! Things look different!

Yes, they do!

I decided to freshen my blog style by playing around with the new design stuff. I also REALLY need to get back into doing reviews, because that's sort of why I started this blog in the first place ... so, stay tuned - I have some book reviews coming!

NaNoWriMo!

Hello!

Now, I know I've been away for a long time. And I'm sorry. But I've had zero motivation for decent blog posts lately so all my stuff has been going on Picture Poetry and my tumblr. But I'm back here now, to tell you how excited I am for NaNoWriMo 2010!

I failed miserably last year with only 4,000 words, but I'm hoping I'll do a lot better this year. I already have my story idea, my title AND my book cover, which I made today on Photoshop. Thought I'd show it to you on this public blog seeing as I can claim no copyright to any of the images anyway:

Huzzah! It's about a girl and her siblings setting out on a road trip across Australia to find their long-lost Dad. I think it will be fun to write. I recycled some of the characters from a story I started writing about a year ago, so the character development I already have should give me a jumpstart, seeing as the biggest cause of failure last year was the lack of character development.

So yeah anyway. Hopefully this is the nudge back into proper blogging, so ta ta for now fellow unschoolers (as you're probably the only people who will read this)!

No I won't be the last to love you ♥

Hi.

It's our last night in Maui. My step-aunt and her beautiful, beautiful kiddies came by, so our little ol' house in Haiku was packed with my Grandpa, Grandma Linda, Aunty JJ, Mom, Dad, Justin, Annie, Val, Josie, Jeremy, myself and of course Lily, the crazy dog.

The first thing Jeremy did was give Aunty JJ a blanket because she was leaving on the plane tonight, and you need a blanket on the plane to sleep, he says. What a darling.
It was such a beautiful night. Grandma Linda gave me a pair of beautiful little earrings she has been wanting to pass down to me since I was 8. We took a family photo on the couch. We danced around each other in Grandpa's tiny kitchen, frying eggs and bacon and slapping them on bread for dinner. We laughed about the broken microwave, and Jeremy stirring up the dog, and Josie spitting egg into Annie's lap right when she least suspected it. We talked about a house, two school shirts, a magnifying glass, spilled milk, missing paper towels, the road to Hana, clothes shopping, and a million other things that big families talk about. And it was so perfect, and it felt so right, and I'm going to miss it so much it hurts. I'm scared I won't see them for another five years. I hope it's sooner. Somehow, I think it will be.

See you next week.

Hey little girl, look what you've done - you've gone and stolen my heart.

This is my cousin Jeremy. He's five. He's adorable. And he thinks I'm totally awesome. Love him. I also love his middle name - Kulani. Annie says it means "Stands for Heaven" in Hawaiian. :)

And this is Josie. She's seven. She's gorgeous. She doesn't talk, but she has the cutest laugh ever. Love her.

Chilled on the beach today with my Aunt and cousins. Total bliss. I'm sorry, but I have to say that while I was lying on the beach taking pictures of my cousins, watching them surf, and talking about Hawaiian and stuff with my aunt, I didn't miss you at all.

Back in ten days :)

I can't live with or without you

Finally get the the meaning of those words. Funny how someone can be so wonderful and then so annoying in the space of a minute... so perfect and yet sometimes so unpleasant. But hey, love overcomes any other feeling in the end. :)

"There’s some people in this world who you can just love and love and love no matter what."

I would give anything in the world right now to have the power of teleportation for like, the next 48-72 hours. Like seriously anything.










p.s the quote above is from a book by John Green called An Abundance of Katherines. I have never read it but now I am curious. Can anyone tell me if it's worth investigation?

Runners, until the race in run; dreaming of when the morning comes.

I am very shaken by a dream I had last night. Because I'm so afraid it won't come true.

Ty! ♥

Hello!

This is, officially, my 200th blog post, and I thought I would use that fat round number to welcome my blogger-buddy Keira's brand-new baby brother into the world!

Here he is:

Isn't he wonderful?! I can't wait to meet him. :)

"I am a hoarder of two things: documents and trusted friends."

I love the above quote. It's so me. Kind of missing you all at the moment. Kind of would like to read something written by you right now ... if you have time, feel like writing me a letter (email)? About something. Or nothing. Anything.

Love you. Posting photos from the Ghetty Villa and Santa Monica Pier when I get home.

Even the kids here say it....

Hello again!


Fiji has been a lot of fun. Went wandering today into “Nadi Town”. The country is very beautiful but a lot of the people between the towns are very poor. We walked from our hotel down a long road in the midday heat; there were shacks behind barbed wire among the palms on both side of the street. Some I wouldn’t have even thought had families living in them … but the long, full, colourful clotheslines say differently. The cars speed past a plain with smoke pouring right off the grass without a second glance. It’s strange the way people just burn weed when they feel like it here. The town of Nadi was hot and busy. School had just gotten off when we were reaching town. We crossed a bridge over a river with little Fijian kids weaving in and out between us on their way home. Some stared and some said ‘bula’ to us as we passed; we were the only white people on the street. A few little kids at a bus stop yelled out “Justin Bieber!” just as we were walking by, and unfortunately I don’t think it was coincidental…. Awkward!


We had a look in town and then caught a crowded bus back to our hotel. I loved it; the bus was jam-packed with school kids, mostly teenagers, and the music blared from the speakers above our heads as the bus rumbled along the road. The kids clapped and sang and yelled and laughed the whole trip; a little girl stared at Mum until we got off. So cute! It was good fun. I would’ve kept riding that bus if we could have. Justin said he didn’t like it very much, but I can’t see why! Having dinner at the hotel tonight, and have the full day here tomorrow. Heading to LAX tomorrow night. Photos when we get there. xx

Fiji!

Hello!

It’s day one here in Fiji … well, technically we arrived last night but if we’re counting it as five days this is day one. The flight here was fine; only three and a half hours so not much to report. I listened to my ipod and did the crossword in the back of the magazine that was among the flight safety pamphlets. The most exciting part was probably on descent (and I’m not talking about the moment when I yelled as my ear popped). Each seat had a little screen on the back of the seat in front of them, and the main channel had the flight map, and info on how fast the plane was going, how high up in the air we were, and how cold it was outside. As the plane went down from 39,000 feet to just 90, the temperature dropped from -48 degrees Celsius to 24 degrees! Yes that’s right, highs of 75F as we stepped into Fiji! You can imagine my excitement, considering it was about 7pm at night. Another ‘yes, that’s right’ moment – it was 7pm by the time we arrived. We travelled faster than time itself!!!! Haha.

Got to our hotel via shuttle bus, had a late dinner (nearly 9pm by then), and crashed into bed. Mum thought the island was on fire when she looked out our hotel window but Dad wasn’t phased by the orange light we could see in the distance ... it smelled like bushfire when we woke up this morning and I grabbed my camera to see if damage had been done overnight, but no…. Other than the smell there was no sign of any fire, and the view was just gorgeous. Here’s a picture for you lovely people.

 Beautiful, isn’t it? I’m actually writing this post in a Word document because I currently I don’t have any internet… it’s about 8:30 in the morning and we’re heading to breakfast so I shall pick up where I left off later.

Well, breakfast was awesome… bacon, eggs, hash browns, beans, sausages, pancakes, fruit, yoghurt, croissants, toast, juice, coffee… the list goes on. ‘Twas yummay.

Yeah, the background in my pic is boring cuz I was sitting in front of the hotel wall…. Haha. Went exploring briefly after eating.

We kicked back in our hotel room for a bit (did I mention it’s really hot?!?!? Love it!), and now we’re about to check outta here … heading back to the airport to find out about our next hotel. More soon! Unfortunately we weren’t able to get in contact with Kristy, so we won’t see her today but we’re hoping to find out what church she’ll be attending on Sunday so that we can join the service. Prayers for that working out are more than welcome.

So, after the first hotel adventure we caught a taxi to the Sovitel resort (think I spelled that right…), and as you can see Justin was very excited about our room. We have our own and Mum and Dad have theirs right next to us.

Ate food and chilled by the pool all afternoon, and now I’m sitting in the lobby posting this post! Going for dinner tonight at the resort restaurant called “Salt”, which is where we had the wedges and those veggies that had a funny name….

Ta ta for now loves. Missing you already.

And I have to go before they eat all the cookies.

So, I know I haven't blogged properly in a while, and I'm sorry... but that's because there's been nothing to write about! Or at least, no time to write. I'm hitting the airport tomorrow morning and flying off to Fiji. So, fun things to blog about will happen, and hopefully I'll have time to write!!

Will miss you all. Thank you for the lovely well-wishes. Photos will be up as soon as possible, cross my heart.

I love you, you idiot ♥

I love this photo so flippin much. It's hanging on my wall. Right next to this quote: "It's a curious thought, but it's only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them." I think it's rather fitting, don't you?

six days.

the packing the luggage episode has begun. slow going, but I'm a listy type person so you know me... I've already listed everything I need, down to naming each shirt and singlet and pair of socks I want ;) ok, maybe not the socks but you get the idea!

new headphones!

and now that I'm leaving... what will happen when I'm gone?

I don't know what happened but whatever it was I wish it hadn't. Because things are not the same anymore ... I think we missed a chance.... 

And while you're there...

Because I really miss you.

they say I'm all about the wordplay

Hey there. Sorry I haven't blogged properly in so long. I've been quite sick for the past few days ... done pretty much nothing except plotting a murder and doing this crossword.

Yes, that is a genuine X-Files "I WANT TO BELIEVE" poster in the background. I won it off eBay.

Anyway. The crossword is one of those giant ones (would you believe) from the Daily Telegraph or something. One of the nice ladies from my church, JoJo, as she is known, heard I was too sick to go down and get the newspaper so she ripped that one out and gave it to my mum to bring back to me (Actually that's not true, it just makes a better story. What really happened was that I staggered down to the corner shop and bought THE WRONG newspaper, only discovering the fact that it was the wrong one when I got home. Then I was too sick and too poor to go back again. I'm not sure which story JoJo heard but I kind of hope mum told her the former. The latter is a little idiotic.).

Moving on, I've also been plotting the murder to my Steampunk novel. I don't really call it a mystery novel because the mystery part is only half of the main running plot. I was up til midnight last night planning out the finer details of my villainous plan to murder the King of Collinsmere during a dinner party for the late-night viewing of a Total Eclipse on the palace rooftop. I discovered whilst researching some things that there were no Total Eclipses visible from the United Kingdom from 1724 to 1925. Quite ridiculous and quite a problem for a my novel, so it seemed. Luckily I don't have to go with the real thing half the time as my novel is fantasy so making up an Eclipse is completely possible and believable for the reader. I could make up a whole other moon that circles the planet if I wanted.

So yeah. Big stuff. A giant crossword and an epic murder plan. I was ridiculously excited about both these things ... you might not be, but that's okay. I'm special :)

Today I finally got out of the house for the first time in three days and sat in a park or a reserve or something with Jessie. Wandered about a bit, ate sausages, made conversation with various other friends (Sorry - that doesn't mean I don't love you as much as Jessie, I just can't be bothered mentioning all you kiddies by name; writing this ever-growing-longer sentence in parenthesis is much simpler, or it would be if it saved any time, but by the time I get to the full stop I may as well have just listed you all. Oh there it is. I love you. The end.), used up a lot of tissues and shooed birds away from the salad. Yes, this is turning out to be a very pointless paragraph because by the time I've gotten to the tissues and the birds you've completely forgotten what I was talking about before there. Nevermind. My brain is still a little fuzzy from the cold, quite obviously. I'm just going to shut up and go on to the next topic of interest.

After the park/reserve/wildlife thingy me and the family ducked of to the Macquarie center and went shopping. It started out a little stressful with yelling and grumbling and crying (mostly all from me) but by the end of it we'd all had milkshakes and smoothies and marched into Rebel Sport together laughing at Justin's bagel. But that's another story. Right now I'd like to tell you about my beautiful bag, which I found at Colorado and like very much. It will be my carry-on for the plane. Here's a picture :)

 Hmm. I threw my teddy-bear in as a size reference, but I guess that doesn't really help much since some of you don't know how big my teddy-bear is. Oh well. It's a large shoulder bag, useful for carrying my notebooks, laptop, camera, etc. on the plane. I rather like it. Hey wait! I know how to fix the size reference thing. Two seconds, I'll take a picture of me and the teddy-bear and then you'll know how big the bag is.

Hey hey! His name's Clyde by the way. Of course, you're probably wondering why I didn't just take a picture of the bag and myself in the first place.... I don't know either. Bad planning I guess. This was more fun anyway.

Righty-o, I'm off - dinner is on and so is masterchef. I don't have time to skim back over this post but I trust it made no sense. Oh well! Love you all. :)
Wait wait, two more things!!!! Kristy messaged me from Fiji today and I was like, :D And... and... oh gosh I'd almost forgotten what the second thing was. Short term memory hello! Yeah the second thing is: 9 DAYS TIL I LEAVE!!! I'll misses you ... but I'm super excited. ta ta.

for you ♥

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered.

"Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you."