My afternoon of glory

I'm feeling much better this week. After I handed in two big assignments on Monday and held a presentation, I decided I deserved a treat, so I took the afternoon off. First of all, I bought myself a coffee and just sat down for a while reading the paper. I've been hating people for doing that lately. I admit it's pathetic to hate people for doing something as innocent as having a coffee and reading the paper. But I had such little time for myself lately that I would be rushing past people sitting in a cafe thinking "you bastards". Yeah, it's bad, but on Monday I was finally one of those bastards again myself, which made me feel a lot better.

Then I went to do my grocery shopping. Not exactely a treat, I hear you say. Actually, for me it kind of is. It doesn't take much to make me happy- I love grocery shopping. When I walked past the bookshop, I decided to spoil myself and buy a book. I spent about 45 minutes browsing the glory that is a book store before I finally decided on Anne Tyler's new novel and thought I'd throw in a "home grown Blues and Roots" CD. And just to top it off, I decided I might as well also buy that beautiful big Picasso book. An absolute bargain at $34! I was definitely in one of those "What the hell" moods. The ones where you try to decide whether to buy a top and end up doing the "what the hell, I'll buy all three" thing. They can be expensive, these moods, but by god, they are good for the soul.

When I rode home on my scooter with all my treasures, I sang "Leaving on an airplane" really loud. I know that's supposed to be a sad song, but for some reason it's a really good song to sing on a scooter. I got home and had an hour before work to make myself a smoked salmon sandwich, listen to my new CD and flick through the Picasso book. Isn't life grand.

I need help

You would have heard me talk about procrastination before. But this time it's serious. I mean it. I think I might need to see a doctor. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I just can't concentrate to save my life at the moment. I've got so much stuff to do and I'm a work quite often too, but whenever I'm at uni and have got a couple of hours to actually work on an assignment or project, I act as if I'm trying to break some record of being the most inefficient person in the history of the universe. What's going on? I'm worried. I might have to go outside and have a coffee and a cigarette and think about this for a while. And then I might surf the internet for a bit. Hopefully after that, I'll feel better.

In the morning, before things become real

Self-portrait at 9am in the morning


Thought of the day

"The soul is dyed the colour of its thoughts. Think only those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become." Heraclitus

What a wise man he was, Heraclitus. Isn't it interesting how this was written some 2500 years ago, yet I feel like it is so relevant to me and my life now? I guess essentially, things don't change much. We are all children of the universe and somehow, we are all the same. Look after your souls, children, and bring good thoughts into the world.

Yeah, I'm feeling a bit melancholy today, but in a good way. It's really still outside and the air is full of promises. I like it.

Follow the tiger

This year, I decided to celebrate my birthday in two parts. That is, two parts to begin with. Parts number three, four, five and six are set to follow further down the track.

Part number one was last Saturday. It started off with a major clothing crisis. You wouldn't believe it, but I actually had NOTHING TO WEAR. It's interesting how that happens, isn't it? Guys wouldn't understand. As a girl, no matter how many clothes you buy, you regularly end up having "nothing to wear". It's some sick kind of twist that the universe plays on women. Anyway. I ended up racing into my favourite shop ten minutes before I had to go to work on Saturday morning and, thank God, finding this super cool tiger top. I was saved. And subsequently everyone kept on just calling me "the tiger" all night, which was pretty funny. I've got this thing where I sometimes ask people if they'd prefer to be a tiger or a lion and I usually say tiger for myself. I'd like to think it says something about people, but I wouldn't know what. But anyway, I'm getting off the track here.

There was about 25 of us having drinks at our place before we went out and I can tell you what, the place looked well trashed the next morning. I think someone must have poured a couple of litres of liquid over the whole floor and then let a few piglets roll around in it all over the place, before strategically distributing about 150 empty and half-empty bottles everywhere. I brought down five big bags full of garbage the next day. But hell, I had a great time! I remember looking around the room at one stage (and I mentioned this in a soppy emotional e-mail to my friends a couple of days later) and saying to someone who happy I was that everyone was there and how much peace I felt... I know. It's cheesy. But it felt good.

It was just a short stroll from our place to the nightclub, but it was still hard trying not to loose any of the crazy kids. Patricia kept on yelling "Follow the tiger!" to keep everyone together. The rest of the night was equally as funny and it was early morning by the time I got to bed. I remember lots of dancing at the night club, a few group hugs, tequila shots spilled over Mana's top and Dan saying a few times "we are all very fortunate to have met this lady". I think he might have been referring to the tiger.

On Tuesday, my actual birthday, we decided to tone it down a bit. We went out for dinner at the Indian place, which was insanely good. We ate so much that some of us were in pain afterwards- I know I was. We finished off the night with some drinks at the bar next door until they gently removed the last few of us from the premises after we didn't get their "we'd like to close now" hints. Another good night.

I'd like to thank everyone who was there for their beautiful friendship- and also everyone who wasn't. And anytime you see the tiger, you're more than welcome to follow it. But be careful, you might be in for a big night.