4 posts tagged “books”

AJ, Marie, Andrew, Scott and I went to see Labyrinth at the Rooftop Cinema just over a week ago. They took the train, but I went by car via Heidelberg because I had oh-so-cleverly left my learner’s permit at my dog lecture the night before.

I found the right building, went up the stairs … lots of stairs. And then up some more stairs. And then up some more. There were some security guards and I wondered if I was meant to have a ticket first, so I asked whether this was the rooftop cinema and they said it was, and then ignored me. I hung around for about 10 minutes, got freaked out by being alone with all the people, and went all the way down to the bottom again to wait. After a while, no-one came, so I went allll the way back up again. I tried calling people, but my phone was totally out of credit. (I whacked myself severely over the head for that.) But eventually AJ called and I went down a level and found them, stopped behind the security guards. Apparently they had had their IDs checked twice and weren’t allowed up until they got tickets, which we got and went up.

I could’ve got in for free. Hehe …

It was a charming movie, in a mildly pathetic way. I liked the characters which were puppets (ie almost all of them). They were cute. Specially the fox, and his occasionally real dog-steed. “Come back right now Ambrotious! Now!!!” *dog keeps running* “Or I shall never feed you again!” *screeches to a halt and rushes back*.

But EWWWWWW David Bowie’s pants *burries head in sand*. They are the stuff of nightmares.

We caught the train back at 11-something and spectacularly failed to be mauled by hobos. I think we were the ones freaking out other people, with our incredibly loud and slightly insane banter, drug-rehab-looking wristbands and throwing of oat bars. Yay, I’m a juvenile delinquent!

 

On Saturday I went to Jess’s house and watched completely random stuff on TV until Andrew turned up, whereupon we watched him scaring the crap out of the dogs. When AJ came we switched to Blackadder, which was a slight improvement on an ancient Indiana Jones and scared-shitless dogs. When Marie and Caitlin finally arrived, we took the poor little puplets to the park to get parboiled by the disgustingly smug warm weather. We got back and lay around listening to soundtracks for a while, and made nachos. Just like the last time we went to Jess’s house, the sauce seemed impossible to open … but this time, we had a guy in the house. We gave it to him and he opened it. No more struggling for half an hour with bizarre jar opening devices for us. (Remind me to always invite at least one guy to a party if there’s going to be any jars or bottles involved.) When it got dark we went to the park and howled at the full moon, kicked the marvellously crappy lamppost (hopefully waking neighbours and fulfilling my teenage need to be socially unacceptable scum) and then hid 60 eater eggs. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to play while we could still see the blasted things. Especially as some people *coughCaitlincoughAJcough* randomly hurled them into the middle of nowhere. After a long time searching, our final haul was 52 eggs (although 2 of them later proved to be acorns). We lamented a while over the fact that animals would find the missing eggs, eat them, and die horribly because of us. To prove this point, a tiny baby possum poked its head out and started climbing the tree right in front of us. “Jessica! That poor thing is going to die because of you!” And then we all laughed, went home and ate lasagne and chocolate. We decided to play murder in the dark and eventually figured out rules which made it work, after which it was awesome. Particularly when Jess put on some atmospheric music … stalker music. Killing people is fun *evil grin*.

However, waiting in the dark for some unknown murderer to leap out and strike you down is scary. But also in an incredibly fun way. I learnt that Marie is crap at getting away with murder, and that AJ can be terrifyingly good at it. I managed to commit mass murder and get it pinned on one of the victims (possibly only because Andrew looks shifty, but that was still great.) My dad turned up after a while and we played 2 games with him before I had to go home.

 

Because in the morning I had a dog trial. In agility Merry got a pass (woohoo!) and 3^rd place. Go the little dogs! In her two jumping rounds, she ran beautifully and missed out on a pass by some negligible things. I was so proud :P And in pairs, Merry did well but her partner B’Ellanna completely fucked up. It was hilarious. That was a great day ^_^

 

On Monday I did stuff with my family, which was awesome because we’re hardly ever all together with nothing vital to do. We went out walking, but unfortunately it was still disgustingly hot. We went down to a river and were going to have lunch, but the dogs thought the leaves and floating scum looked solid and fell in … at the same time. Fools. HA! They looked very surprised and very bedraggled. We laughed at them for a while, then rescued them and took them up to an oval to run around and dry. Then we had lunch and went back home.

 

On Tuesday after work I got an unexpected call from Jess, asking me to come over to Andrew’s. My parents decided to let me out of going to grandma’s (again – we’ve been eating with her a LOT recently), so I went. I arrived at his house (stumped at first by the lack of a doorbell. People should have doorbells. It’s the LAW. Well, it should be anyway.) and somewhat bemusedly greeted Jess and Andrew. They were playing some random computer game which involved slitting people’s throats and stealing all their stuff. That was mildly fun. Then Jess went home to spend time with a family friend. Andrew and I did a sdskdfj,beirhva,szmjdz bfcz*&$%^$@ bug puzzle-thing (to the sound of Harry Potter arriving at Hogwarts). We won. Eventually. It was missing one piece. Yay. Then we had dinner, which was rather nice tacos, and played a game whose name I have forgotten but which had “gross” in the title. After a little while his brother and sister joined us. It was hilariously good fun, and I beat them all at spinning in circles really fast and not falling over. HaHA! Dad turned up before we had finished, so he had to go away again and come back a few hours later.

 

Which probably annoyed my parents, because they didn’t want to have to pick me up from Josh’s party yesterday, so AJ said I could sleep over at her place.

I drove to the Rollerama. It was PISSING down with rain – the flooding kind. We crept past an accident on the freeway – the emergency services weren’t there yet, so the motorcyclist was lying in the middle of the road with just a blanket over him. Mum gave me crap directions so I pulled into 2 wrong entrances before I got to the right one … and then there was no-one there for about 10 minutes, and then we had to wait another 10 before Josh and the others turned up.

But when they did it was fun. By the end of the hour and a half, I had almost learned to skate (so long as the music had a good beat to it). I fell over soundly on my bum once – but only once - Josh got a blister, Jess didn’t skate and Andrew won a kitkat in some daft game involving a stick. We all headed back to Josh’s place (me in Marie’s car, ignoring mum’s express instructions. Hehe …) and figured out how to play Imaginiff with 14 people … that game is like a tradition now. AJ won. It was good to catch up with people who I haven’t seen for a while, and to meet some new people. Everyone slowly trailed off, Marie and Cameron leaving last at about 11:40, but AJ and I hung around because we couldn’t be bothered moving. We hijacked his msn, which was briefly amusing, and listened to songs and fiddled around with mobile phones until it was eventually nearly 2am and we decided it was probably time to leave. I met the rats that AJ is babysitting. They are gorgeous.

I woke up at 9am, made toast, and watched A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie. I’m glad I’ve been to her house often enough to know where everything is, because otherwise I would have been bored until 11, when she finally woke up. Apparently she read for an hour after we got back. Sick people and 3am should not be mixed, in my opinion, but never mind. We couldn’t find the scrabble board. We played magic cards (which AJ won. Do I even need to say it?) Then I decided to go to Josh’s place again while AJ had a shower. We ate plums and persimmons with a fork (Who uses a fork to eat fruit? … erm.) and watched Neon Genesis. It has a lot of breasts in it. Josh’s sister informed me that that’s because all Asians are perverts. When AJ arrived we played scrabble using only 3 letter words, with no scoring and a mild amount of cheating. Cheating is fun. Then I went to the Glen with Josh and his sister. He told me that his parents think that I’m his girlfriend. Brilliant (lol).

I got home around 4:40pm. And I walked the dogs, had dinner, typed this and watched Life on Mars. Final episode next week. O.M.G.

Well, it would be if I didn’t know all the spoilers.

Damned spoilers -_-

 

My freaking internet is freaking broken at the moment. (I typed this in word and will post it when my internet stops being an ARSE.) (One of my current favourite words at the moment. Arse. It’s a good one.)

I’d better go find a book or some other form of old-fashioned entertainment, but not one so gripping that I read til 3am. Which I seem to do with disgusting regularity. 3am is not a good time to be awake.

OK, so it's Saturday night now. My internet is still an arse and I can't get onto msn, but at least I found some good books. Gripping enough to keep me reading until 12:30 but bland enough to then put down. I still don't have Locke Lamora. Tonight we're going to the neighbour's place for dinner and for Earth Hour. Yay to no electricity! So now I'm going to shut down the computer and turn it off at the wall.

Byeee

PS thanks to Jess for pointing out that this post had been doublepasted. Stupid cut and paste ...

Fixed now, I hope.

I got some new toys on Saturday: "The Algebra of Infinite Justice" and "The God of Small Things". I found a quote which I adore. Would it be too presumptuous to say it reminds me of me? I will say instead then that this is what life should be, and what I want my life to be:

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the sadest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try to understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget." ~ Arundhati Roy

Have had a RA - THUR good weekend. Have done NO WORK even though FINAL EXAMS start in only SIX WEEKS and we haven't even STARTED unit 4 in biology.
Oh well. I am happy, and that is becoming an increasingly rare occurence these days, so it was worth it.
On Saturday Viv and I tagged along on mum's feild trip to Werribee Open Range Zoo. First we made a stop at Readings, and mum told me I could buy books. I asked one of the staff where Arundhati Roy's non-fiction stuff was, and she said in the political section. Mum was like "... er, Political, Steph?" and I raised my eyebrow at her and said "Yeah, her writing *is* political." and I could see mum's mind ticking over <aw crud, our constant cynical attitude towards modern politics has somehow had some kind of effect on my child ... does this mean she's actually *serious* about her opinions? Now she's going to go all obsessive ... Aw crud.> So I bought "The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire", which is a book of speeches, and "The Chequebook & The Cruise Missile", which is interviews with Arundhati Roy.
The bus driver was really nice. Only about half of the students turned up - there were meant to be forty, and 23 were actually there. On the bus I managed to get mum addicted to Arundhati too. I'm good at getting people addicted to things.

IT'S RAINING! YAY!

And at the zoo we went on a bus and the tourguide wasn't particularly engaging or competent, but the animals were prddy. We saw giraffes and scimitar horned oryx and hippos and emus and rhinos and zebras and cape barren geese and various kinds of antelope. And then we walked around and saw the meercats and the lions and sculls and things. And then we got food, except it took a reaaaaally long time and we were getting late so everybody ate on the bus and the people with chips had to put them in bags so that they didn't stink the bus up.
Next stop was an Alpaca farm. Alpacas are awesome because they're like llamas, only cuter. And there were very very cute ones when we went, little young ones with booffy heads and big eyes. Awww! We gave them injections and trimmed their toenails and learned about alpaca farming. One of them really didn't want to have the hair over its eyes trimmed, and it spat up its stomach contents and it stank. And then we just went in and patted them. The little ones were covered in burrs because there's been a drought there for five years so they've had to buy in lots of feed which has burr seeds in and the little ones roll in it. But they're still adorable. Pretty much everyone aproached them head-on, standing straight up, and reached over the top of them then patted down onto their heads. HOW SCARY CAN YOU BE?! They flinched away and got freaked out. So I went in and knelt down and gently stroked down the sides of their necks to calm them down. And then we had biscuits and Viv found that the people had German Shepherds so I went and said hello to them. Sooky babes! Then the alpacas saw the bus driver and gave the alarm call, which sounded like birds. (If I really was christopher I would find a sound clip and stick it in, but I am not so very pedantic.) I felt ill and had to go sit down for a while, but apart from that it was cool.
And some of the students said that it was the best fun they've had since coming to uni.
And I went, oh shit.
I guess because I have been blessed with that most rare and wonderful of gifts - good parents - a trip like that is a somewhat more everyday occurence than it would be to most. And I also know that learning SHOULD be fun, because we learn things so much better that way. When you DO things, you learn how to USE information. But never mind.
Maybe one day I will make the system change, with my wonderful research papers revealing things which any animal trainer worth their salt is fully cognicent about.

A rat trap just went off.
I don't think it caught a rat though.
Um.

Anyway, Jess and Gity and AJ and Marie and (a tad late) Josh came over today. (You know you did, but I am writing for my imaginary audience here, okay?) Aparna didn't come because she was STUDYING. Her brain is going to melt with the stress of constant study, I just know it. And Bharat didn't come either, but he had a reason and so is forgiven. And we watched the end of the Umbilical Brothers, and then we played monopoly while Doctor Who was on in the background. Monopoly takes a Very Long Time to play. Jess and Gity had to leave before we had finished. Josh wouldn't sell me Liverpool St Station or that green property that I have now forgotten the name of. But then he went bankrupt and sold me all his stuff for $20. And then I landed on  Park Lane and I really wished I hadn't sold Mayfair to AJ, and I mortgaged all my properties and soon after went bankrupt, and AJ won. And then we played Uno, and I won. Then I got Mystic to play, but they wouldn't let her win because she couldn't say Uno. I thought that was unfair descrimination, but they wouldn't back down. Meanies. And Marie had to go home, but AJ and Josh and I played Upwords, and one of AJ's words (she won, btw) was Smut, so I showed them Tom Lehrer's Smut song. And then everyone went home. We had a LOT of chips today.
Mmm, junk food ...

I want to put all the books that I like into Vox Books ... but that would take a miniature age which I DO NOT HAVE, although I would like it ... if anyone has any time they would like to give me ...
Oh well.
There's a new Terry Pratchett book coming out! I just found out just then! OMG! SQUEE!
I'm easily pleased ... I was so cruddy and then I find that and everything is better ... blah.

Yes anyway, today in literature we read a poem that's about a lady undressing. Very ... er ... "sensual" (ie gross). In english Mrs Coad asked "Where are Gian and Linden?" and Louise said "They're here, somewhere. Linden promised he would come and read. He lied to me." and so Mrs Coa went storming across the school to find them. We had a class discussion about the flaws and strengths of Ed and Judy as parents to Christopher in TCIOTDITNT, and she came back half an hour later and informed us that Linden was doing his Geography SAC which was due before lunchtime. Aaanyway ... Viv kidnapped me at recess and dragged me around the school, and then I kidnapped her and took her to english. On the way there, we found a cat under a portable. A real, live cat. It was black. We poked its tail to see if it was alive and it turned around and looked at us peacefully. So random ... anyway, I made Viv stay until Mrs Coad came and then I said "Hey Mrs Coad! This is my sister. You'll like her, her name is Viv too ..." and Mrs Coad said "Hi Viv! Pleased to meet you." (she was clearly in a very good mood today. I like her when she's happy :) ) and then Viv said "Steph kidnapped me..." and Mrs Coad said "Yeah, she's like that." (I am? I guess so ... hehehe) And Viv made me write a note because she was going to be late, and I wrote "Hi Mrs Slifirski, I temporarilly kidnapped my sister to take to show-and-tell (not really, I just felt like it) Yours sincerely, Steph And I drew a happy face under it. And then I asked to go outside so I could call Bronwyn (my french tutor) and tell her I didn't feel up to seeing her that night. And the teacher let me, because she was in a good mood and is also very broody and maternal. I don't mind her form of broody-ness. She reminds me of someone, but when I think about it I realise that she reminds me of herself ... ok that would make no sense. Just ignore me, ok?
And then at lunch was Debating photos. I had to go and find Andrew and kick him in the foot and say "you're meant to be downstairs" and he said "Why...?" and I raised my eyebrow and he said "Oh right, that." and went. I love eyebrows. And consequently hate people who shave them off. That's just creepy. And has nothing to do with anything ... anyway, Gity and I followed Marie saying "Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ... We're in a room, Marie. " Taking mug shots of people proved rather more entertaining than one would expect of (hem hem) "mature" year 12 students. I won't go through it because most people reading this were there and it was all visual anyway. I may have to steal the photos off Wendy though ... I think she thinks I was in debating. I did turn up to one speech and occasionally helped with preparing things... Hehe, if I say I am, can I have a badge?
I discovered a new use for my jacket ... it is now to be used strictly for throwing over people. Also, coins are kidneys and must be stolen from AJ.
In maths I felt crap ... mix of headache and guilt at feeling happy. So I said "Mr Ross, can I go lie down somewhere?" Wow, talk about instant reaction ... he went all maternal and broody on me ... TOO MUCH CONCERN! I felt a bit like Christopher, I was like ... okay, please go away, I don't want you to care that much ... I don't have a swiss army knife though. Which is probably a good thing I guess. By the way, in case you haven't noticed, my life has somehow come to revolve around Curious Incident. Everything revolves around it, and I'm not entirely sure why ...
Anyway, I went to the library and found Marie. Sat down for a while, then Phil came and got me to move, and then realised that I was sick and was like, "Oh, sorry ... I meant it as a joke..." and Marie was like "Yeh, NOT funny." and then I went to the private study area except there were so many people I just went back to the library until the bell went. Then I decided that doing a french oral was a somewhat ludicrous proposition. I found AJ and she said that she would just tell Mme Saulais that I had gone home. But I didn't know whether I should go to the nurse or something. I found Bharat and he said I should probably go to the nurse so I did. I told her I wanted to go home because I felt crap (not in those words. I'm disgustingly polite and act all weak and helpless. I hate myself sometimes. Does work though.), and she said I needed to get my teacher to sign a note, and then she would phone my mum to pick me up and take me to the doctors. Which was somewhat dodgy because I HATE having to pull mum out of work to get me, and I have just strategically avoided doctors for the past week and I'm so very nearly better that it would be SO STUPID to go now ... but anyway. I went to french and she was in the other room letting someone listen back to their oral - the orals are 3 or 4 minutes long, and it takes her 15 minutes to go back over it with someone. What. The. Hell. Anyway, EVENTUALLY she came back and I told her "I'm really sick and I want to go home so I need you to sign a note." and she said "It's ok, you to it on monday." (In her ridiculous heavy french accent) Why can she not UNDERSTAND? But this is one time when it was a good thing ... I just lay down in the corner and dozed until the bell went, and so I didn't have to call mum out of work and see doctors. I hate doctors. Not as people, just as a whole institution. Anyway. I went and dozed at the bus stop with Gity. I didn't lie down and go to sleep like I did on Wednesday, but I still felt like a hobo. All I needed was some newspapers and a bottle in a brown paper bag ... hehehe, Hobo ...
When I grow up, I wanna be a hobo or a transgenic sheep-human hybrid ... Either would be good. Social outcast status! Woohoo!

And as I opened the door apon getting home, the phone was ringing and it was mum. She decided that we should go out to dinner. I can read her mind sometimes <Geoff isn't here ... I can't be bothered cooking ... going out would be easy ... I'll tell the kids it's to celebrate Steph's good score in Lit. That'll work ... he he I'm so deviously clever ...> Sure, mum, sure.
And Viv brought back Ms Slifirsky's reply to my note:

Thanks steph, I love the cheeky smile under yourname!

And she had drawn a smiley face too.
And Viv found my lost wallet in the car between the front seat and the door.
And we went to Michelangello's and had chicken and spag bog and pizza and I hope it won't make me depressed, and we had cake and mango juice and mocktails.
And it was a good day even though I didn't want it to be, and I have been on the computer for two whole hours when I should have been tidying up.
And everyone is addicted to Charlie the Unicorn.
Just because the unicorns sound like they're tripping out on LSD.
Hmm, hippy-ish ...
Come to candy mountain, charlie. It's a magical land of sweets and joy ... and joyness ...
Aw they stole my FRIKKIN KIDNEY!