Rainy day photos around the farm

xZ

Modcloth on a Monday

This post is purely to show off an intensely wicked sick cardigan that arrived in the post today!

While some people are out wearing kitten printed cardis, I have skulls. I freaking love it.

That is all.

xZ

Cardigan can be found here.

A normal weekend... full of purple bras

The organiser and her helpers for the night.

On Friday night I went out to take some social pics of the town's Purple Bra Night at the local district club.
It was quite an amusing occasion as you can see, and followed up on the joy of the Purple Bra Day that had occurred that day, with all participants raising money for Breast Cancer Care WA.

Margs features quite a lot of fundraising events here and there - and it seems like I'm always writing about them: rides for charity, walks for charity, parties for charity... but this was one cause that got the entire town involved.

Janine, our senior journalist, and I visited ten or more businesses throughout that day and saw a café selling special purple cupcakes, a sausage sizzle with all proceeds going to the cause, and even a minature pony dressed in a bra and purple glitter! Sorry I don't have the pic of that for you to see.

It was a fun day, and the Purple Bra Night disco was a good way to top it off, with people dancing and drinking, and either loving my camera in their faces or wishing I was not there to capture them wearing a bra outside their clothes, haha.

The organiser of the night, Bec, did an amazing job at raising money - the night alone drew in $1600 from door sales ($10 each) and raffle money.

I couldn't use the two below pics in our paper, because they have me in them, so I thought I may as well post them here.

These guys were funny - the guy on the right would not let me take a photo of him unless I was in it as well. He pretty much had to dare me to trust someone else with my camera!
"Come on, no-one will know you're the journalist!"

This girl came up to me straight after that, and she insisted we hold the camera up and take a pic of ourselves. Not easy to do, considering it's a chunky Canon EOS!

After I had all my shots (photos, that is... not alcoholic or medicinal shots haha), I made my way to the Tav to check out Adelaide band, Dexter Jones.
Definitely was happy to do a write-up on them earlier that week in support of my fellow Adelaidians - they were good, too! Also, they gave a lot of us dancers free CDs. Champs.

Here's a clip of their song DCF:

xZ

Note: I'm unsure as to whether the people in these pics will mind being on my blog, but in case you are one of those people and are reading this, and you DO mind - just let me know and I will take it down :).

Once upon a time...

...there was a show by the same title that absolutely captivated me.
Actually it's just beginning to air here in Australia, and I've seen enough of five episodes to be hooked.
You should definitely get into it if you haven't seen it already.

Once Upon a Time is based on the plot of fairytale characters who are trapped in a modern world, not realising who they are. They all live in a town called Storybrook, and can't seem to physically leave the town without bad things happening to them.

L-R: Sheriff Graham of Storybrook, the evil queen, Snow White, Prince Charming, Rumplestiltskin, Henry and Emma Swan - who helps him uncover the strange happenings. 

A young boy, Henry, finds a story book that details the characters and their lives in the true fairytale world - and he goes about figuring out who is who in reality and what they need to believe in.

Rumplestiltskin. In the real world, he has been sold the baby of struggling 19-year-old laundrymaid Ashleigh (Cinderella), and is quite scarily determined to get it even after she changes her mind about the deal she made.

Emma Swan - who is actually Henry's real mother but gave him up as a baby, and the Mayor/Henry's foster-mother having a threatening argument.  

The evil queen - (Mayor/Henry's foster-mother) - in the fairytale world.

It's really well done, with scenes that you can hardly bear to watch yet can't look away, characters that you either love or hate in both worlds, things that you desperately want to happen - like Mary Margaret (aka. Snow White) falling in love with a recovered coma patient (aka. Prince Charming) - and things you don't - like Henry's beliefs being crushed by his selfish and strict foster-mother who also happens to be the town mayor with a lot of evil power going on.

 Hunky Prince Charming, anyone?

 The confident runaway Snow White who lives in the forest and thieves to survive after the evil queen wants her dead (I haven't worked out why yet).

Despite Prince Charming about to get married to some fussy royal blonde in the fairytale world, he crosses paths with Snow White and they're headed towards romance.

I definitely adore Snow White and Prince Charming - in both their worlds. She's sassy, he is obviously very cute, and they just have the best story figuring out who they are meant to be.

Mary Margaret of Storybrook is less sassy than her fairytale alter-ego at this point, but I still find her just  gorgeous with her cute cardigans and haircut and desire for true love. The actress Ginnifer Goodwin suits the role really well, like all the characters.

It's like losing yourself in books the way you did as a kid, but with more allusions to sex and violence, attractive characters to check out, and evil people that just make you scowl when they appear on the screen.

Note: Follow this link for all the episodes for free online at Yahoo:
http://au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/once-upon-a-time/

Can't deny that Sheriff Graham's pretty damn attractive too!

xZ

Yoga, or Yogo? What would you choose?

Gwen leading the 1 hour class tonight

Yogo - as in a lifetime of sitting on the couch, comfortably eating chocolate Yogo snacks... 

is what I've probably done well until now.

But tonight I went to my first yoga class - and a fast "flow" one at that.

AHHHHH.

I felt so much hatred for the actions, yet they were so rewarding when I just sucked up and got on with it.

Let me draw up the scene for you...

A class of about 11 people, with one instructor, and interesting tribal kind of music. 

The instructor - Gwen, in this case - takes you through 'poses', with names like "plank", "up dog" "down dog" and "warrior".

Warrior was my instant fave; it just made me feel badass, like I wasn't just some girl in trackies staring at my sweaty self in a mirror in a crowd of other sweaty people, but a true warrior stretching before some kind of forest war. Yeah. 

Then we'd switch poses and I'd rub my arm along the mat and be shocked at the amount of sweat it left there. Haha. Oh I haven't mentioned yet - it was a "Hot Yoga" session. As in, there are four heaters set up around the square of people, and closed doors and windows. Gwen said she ideally likes the temperature to be set on 35 degrees, but that's hard to achieve in winter.

At one point, in the first few minutes of starting, Gwen asked people to inhale with a weird high-pitched noise, and exhale with a "HAAAAA" sound. People actually did this, and I could barely keep a straight face.

Overall, I think I'd do it again, but probably not for $20 a session. I liked the idea of "releasing toxins and stress" most of all, and to actually sweat in winter was nice. 

Wondering if the slower, traditional style of yoga is much different.

xZ

The shirt and jumper combo

So this is my favourite go-to outfit of late - a basic shirt, under a cute jumper. The above is what I wore  to plant trees by the beach on Saturday; the below is what I wore to work today.

What's your favourite outfit at the moment?
Or something you'd like to try?

xZ

How to win friends and influence people

Well the main point is, be a journalist.

I'm really glad I ended up going out to see The Floors. First of all, it was nice to check out a band that I had interviewed (more specifically, the first band I ever interviewed). Secondly, thirdly and fourthly -
Karen and I had a wicked time, the band was skilled and 'danceable', and we actually got invited back to their accommodation to hang out!

How? This is where the journalist bit comes into it.
After the show, I first bought a (ridiculously good looking) tee and then asked the lead singer, Luke, whether he'd selected a name for one of his new songs.
"Is it Fighting Machine, or Art of War?" I said.
And he had a puzzled look - howwww did you know that?
So I explained I was the journo that interviewed him over the phone a few weeks ago, and just found him and his crew hell easy to chat to from there.

Back at the band's place we drank cups of tea and watched a Neil Young dvd while one of the boys fell asleep. Oh the life of a rock star, hey? Haha. They're cool guys, from Perth. Mean bass skills, and Luke has a killer scream. We praised the drummer for his constant head-banging haha.
Check out the vid below if you haven't heard of them.









xZ

Tonight Tonight

Not my photo. That isn't me. But it is similar to the men in their speedos I saw tonight. Gross.

Tonight I played underwater hockey with the boy's group. Gahhhhhh. It was so brutal!!
Six players on each team meant that there were a lot of legs everywhere, and these boys/men move so quickly that you can get a sharp knock to your head if you're not lucky.
When I first got in the water and this started happening, I felt scared. Then I kept getting my face way too close to people's, ahem, packages - because many wore speedos - and I felt angry! How rude are they!? How little they care about being polite!
And then I realised, hey yeah, who cares! And I got fierce too.

Now I'm home and sitting in a pretty dress and stockings with my cuddly dressing gown over the top. I'm headed out to see a band - The Floors - with a friend YES A REAL FRIEND - I've actually been making lots lately! I've been having a good life. :)
My parents have just left me to fend for myself, however, and I'm not really sure what/how to cook dinner because there isn't a whole heap of food in the cupboards. I've stuck some cubes of pumpkin in boiling water. That will cook into something, right?

Anyway this is pretty much a rant. I didn't have time for photos.
Hope you're all well!

xx

Ye Olde Soup Kitchen

So in Margs, it's possible to feed your family dinner for just five dollars a head.

You wouldn't think so, with the sometimes ridiculously overpriced prices that go on in such a 'touristy' town. But this place is pretty special.

It's called The Soup Kitchen, and the first thing you will notice about it is that it doesn't sell soup.

The second thing is that it is full of friendly people - some who give their five dollars and more to eat there, and others who don't have anything to give besides a smile, and that's perfectly acceptable.

If you're homeless or in a tight situation, it's the volunteers at The Soup Kitchen that will make your Monday and Wednesday nights worthwhile.

They cook up a MEAN meal, seriously.

Lentils, curries, wholemeal rice, traditional salad, with a special asian style salad (packed with chillies!) to go on top. 

Amazing stuff that I'd pay as much as seventeen dollars for at a proper restaurant. 

My uncle Nev, with friends Paula, Olivier, my aunty Kerrie, and Kane.

We've spoken to someone who lost their entire house in the recent Margaret River bushfire, with no insurance to cover.... 

Other people, I'm not sure of their stories, but I'm sure there are hardships on their backs.

Despite this though, everybody is 100% cheery.

I definitely feel good when I put in my spare change at the door as well.

xZ

By the way

I just got rid of Facebook, which feels liberating.
I know, I know, I will probably end up back on it one day, but for now, it's a good change.

I think that being able to check up on certain people's lives, and having them check up on mine, is not healthy. There's no chance to miss someone, and also little chance for genuine catch-ups because everybody already knows what everyone else is doing! So they never ask or discuss it beyond status and picture updates.
Sometimes I think technology has gone too far. It's great that we can do these things, but it's also nice to sit back from sites like Facebook for a while and go back to the quality of life we had before.

Funny that I'm writing all this on my blog.... where I share things all the time. But I can be very select on here, and I don't update it every few hours. :) And only people who care about me check this, OR people I don't know, so hey. No harm.


xZ

Obsession with what's over.

Photo from 75Central

I haven't wanted to write posts lately, because I've been swinging in and out of depressed moods following my break-up.

But no need to feel sad on my behalf, because I think I'm getting through it okay.

I guess everybody has to have that moment where they realise, quite simply, that "I was naïve enough to think love was eternal." 

And then somehow they have to pick up the pieces of their heart and swallow the sick feeling that has come from losing such a security as well as the person they (still, sadly) care about, and just get on with life.

Crushing, but it's reality. And wow can people just turn around and change their minds. It's scary not even to be missed.

Edit: I've tried really hard to keep this bottled up, especially online and in front of Tom, because I've been thinking I can win love back if I appear happy and therefore attractive, but it feels good to admit that actually, I'm not okay with it. And anyway, letting all the pain and bitterness out and then building my way back up is the way to go. Done. 

Anyway, in coping I've just thrown myself into my job - or rather it's pulled me in: journalism is so hectic! Today I visited the vet and reported on a story to do with dogs dying from rat poison put out by their owners. Horrible, hey? But it will be good to get the story out to warn other pet owners not to use the bait.

I talked to the vet, and met a sick doggy...  not sick from poison; he had a immune system problem. The poor thing was bleeding from the mouth, and had sores all over his legs. He had some border-collie in him, so I basically adored him as soon as I saw him, and felt miserable that he might die.

I took a photo of a healthy dog, Suzie, and the vet, to use with my article. I preferred this over a dying dog because that would just be upsetting.

I got a contact off the vet - a lady who sadly lost her shihtzu-staffy cross to rat poison earlier this week.

SO sad. I called her and she was happy to give me details of the incident and her sorrow. She hopes her dog will not have died in vain if we can save others from making the same mistake.

And yeah!

Other than that, I just interviewed another band for my entertainment section, and fixed up a few stories.

Think I like my job. It's pretty fascinating most of the time. 

How about you guys? Do you like what you do? I hope so!

Ps. I don't feel ready to move on yet, but mannn if I was, it would be with Daniel Johns. Okay so he was my Year 12 crush, but that still stands. I will no doubt spend my night in looking at music clips, instead of doing my uni assignment. Heh heh.

xZ