friend, art, spuds, books, sex shop and chocolate!

The year is 1998. It's June. The height of grade 5- that's right, the plans of how we'd be cruel in yr 6 were being thought up. But then BANG! In less than a month, i'm told i'm moving house, school, subarb...basically to a whole new world! From the famous dover st clayton nth, i moved to the quaint world of Essendon. From Amsleigh ParkP.S. to...Essendon P.S. From being with my best friend Bianca everyday at school....to be stuck with people dressed in red and black...weridos!!!

So today, after having not seen her in about 6 months we met up~ As usual, there was a mix up when we tried to find each other at Flinders St station...( let's not get into that) :) Big hugs when we finally reunited! B was in a pink mood today, all the same, like always, her look was cool her, theres no bianca but bianca!

Our first stop was to the NGA, DUTCH MASTERS~ Seriously recommend to all!! I'm not an arts student myself ( that's B's speciality) but wow...it was incredible! Come on...the clouds and trees are spectaculor! Well they were my favourite aspects of most of the paintings!! But yes, the likes of Rembrant and Vermeers are there.

After polishing off lunch ( SPUDSSS!!! ) we went to the fed square. OMG! There's a 2nd hand book sale on every saturday's...i so did not know that! After much search and thought, i bought Trainspotting for $6~ Then at Dymocks i bought a Penguin company 70th yr celebratory book- Jamie Oliver weekend recipes'. A cool well spent $3.95!

Back at Melbourne Central...yes went to the sex shop! LOL. It's not exactly a sex shop...its called..."condom kingdom...gifts with a twist". Hence, i consider it a dirty giftshop. Dirty it may be, but a gift shop it still remains!! Next we walked around and bought some chocolate and then made our way for departure at the train station. Her on the Pakenham line, and i, on the Sydenham.

So the point i'm trying to make is that today, after a hellish few weeks at school, i had a really good day. I get to see Bianca only once or twice the year. The years apart have meant we've had to make new friends and we have different things going on. All the same, when we catch up, as rare as it is, it's like nothings changed! The one thing in my life that hasn't changed, despite the changes that have seperated us!

So here's to friendships that rok!

aftermath..

Okay so yes, i will be writing this post about Harry Potter. Seeing as though i finished reading it, barely 10 minutes ago. I sit here writing this in a start of shock, horror and pain. It was as friends told me at school, "devastating". So very devastating. But then it was also so brilliantly inscripted into the plot, you have to salute J.K. But then, dammit, i'm hurting~ Yes yes, hurting over a fictional charactet whom over the past 5 years, i've come to love. YES LOVE! HE/SHE/IT was the greatest!! Who didn't love he/she/it??? EVERYONE DID! EVERYONE HAD TO!?!?!?

Oh how i craved to read the new book after i hastily read the 5th book. But now i'm in a state of depression i think. Oh, but then i am also so very looking forward to the next and last installment of Potter. Gives me the shivers to realize that there's only going to be one more book left before J.K. stops creating the magic that fills the pages and eventualyl binds to become a book.

*sighs*...WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

Why is it the best and worst things to happen, happen together?

HARRY'S HERE!

JULY 16TH 2005...THE SINGLE MOST GREATEST DAY SO FAR~~!!!!!!! 5.30am , the alarm wakes me. Eyes still drenched with sleep. It's cold, oh so very cold. And then it hits me...JULY 16TH...HARRY POTTER ARRIVES TODAY!!! Rushing, i get ready ( i try and wear as much as Green possible...go slytherine! ) and then at 6.30am my brother and i leave for Anna's house....

Anna's house isn't in sight for long as Anna immediatly gets out and from there Highpoint is like a 10 minutes drive. At Highpoint, its sorta eerie. It's quiet. There's no one there!! We're the first to get to Dymocks! And it was only 7.20am. Slowly as the time passes, the masses of people come. AND I MEAN MASSES! There were a lot of people.

At 8,50am, the doors opened and the queue got orderly. ANNA AND I WERE FIRST IN LINE!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

BY 9.02am, we were outside, our souls satisfied. 2 years and 25 days of waiting had come to an end.

If only everthing in life went smoothy. My brother is reading now, i read tomrrow because i had to do h.w. Darn you h.w!!! But still...SINGLE MOST BEST DAY EVER!!!

unintended antic..

The room was hot. It was hot. Hell, it was summer. Melbourne summer is HOT! Beyond the average temperature, the day was between 30- 35 degrees. And i'm more of a winter's person. It's nice and cold...hot chocolate ( no guilt)...hugs.. yes winter is fun! But yes back to summer...

It was hot! And psychology, last peroid on a thursday, does get a bit long and dreary. As usual, my usual accomplises were on my table and we were taking learning about the topic of sleep literally...we were trying so hard not to do it literally. Yes, it was that hot! And humid. And icky. And sticky. And the room did not have any air conditioning system.

Finally, the teacher realized we were frying our brains off and literally gave up on the class. What else does " go ahead and catch up on work" mean? I don't recall how it came about but somehow my friend ( of the male kind) started talkin about what he would do if we were a female. A classic convo- mixed gender roles! As you can imagine, what he would do if he were a girl...well what wouldn't any guy do if they had the "goodies" hey?

But he went astray a little and surprised me with his reponses. May be it was the heat. May be it was the boredom. Because see, i never act irrartionally. Never. Well never, but this day was an exception. Out of nowhere i suddenly go " mate, if you were a girl, this is what you'd be doing all day"- and i demonstrate that he'd spend his days sitting ( the way guys sit..odd) and would just get the collar of his top, bring it forward and spend aeons just looking down his top and at his chest. Don't ask but yes i demonstated this. And then, just then, i looked up and saw through the class door. Stareing right back at me was a group of primary school boys on a school tour. Standing behind them...their parents!! Standing near them....the school vice principal !!!

Horrified! Mortified! Freaked out! What could i do?...

I did what any normal once would. I acted as though nothing happened as my accomplises laughed at yet another of my unintended antics...

another embarrassing moment...

Yr 10, a year of many things. Top lockers. Last year in stirling part of school. The year before VCE starts. First year of no maths. And of course, the year i got to be a peer support leader to the lil yr 7's. Let's ignore the fact they were at least a foot taller than me...what is it with tall people?

Okay what i'm about to share with you all was quite possibly the most flattering and disturbing event of yr 10...*sighs*..why me?

It started after i started talking to him at Essendon tram stop as there was some weirdo there, and him being in my team, i felt it my duty to look after him. Hence i started talking to him. And then he started catching the same train as me to and fro from school. Caught the tram back home with me. SPoke with me at school. Spoke with all my friends. I didn't think anything of it, you know how yr 7's are. I was like, ' oh yea, i have a yr 7 buddy, no big deal".

But then by some weird twist of fate, he had other things in mind. :/ I remember the day ...don't ask why, i remember weird events. We were waiting for the 8.07 Broady train at Essendon and were having our usual conversation about weird things. And then he goes " hey so what you doing on the day off tomorrow?" And me being the 15 year old i was, replied the only logical thing. " Shopping i think, not sure". And then he goes " if you decide you're doing nothing...um..GO TO PUCKLE ST" and im like " err why?" and then at the speed of light he goes " OH-YOU-KNOW-ILL-BUY-U-COFFEE-OR-OR-ANYTHINGTHATYOUWANT-IDONTREALLYCARE-WE'LLJUSTDOSOMETHING-" And then the train came...

It wasn't until peroid 2 that it hit me...a year 7 had asked me out. Just to be sure i consulted with a friend." Hey sarah, if a 12 yr old asks you to go somewhere to have caffeine/coffee...did i just get asked out by a yr 7"...which got replies of "OMG FARIAL GOT ASKED OUT BY A YR 7"...and it just continued..

*sighs* on the brink of turning 16 and my bubble was burst. For heavens-sake isnt what he did illegal or something? He was a sweet boy...that's right boy!! But i never did anything to give him the wrong impressions and yeah needless to say, we didn't talk as much after that.

I do believe things went down the drain after he asked for my mobile number and i told him i didnt have one. 5 minutes later corrina msg's me for some reason. And then to make up for my blunder i told him outright " it wouldnt be appropriate" to give him my number. To which he replied.." appropriate?? who uses the word appropriate"...:/

ONE WEEK!

It being a Saturday, i had to wake up at an ungodly hour and rush to get to alek's house for Jap tutor on time. Surprise, surprise, i got there at 10.10am like always. Why do i worry so? More importantly, why do i ask myself rhetorical questions online? Okay STOP!.....Where were we??...Ahh yes, Jap tutor. Well it wasn't that interesting, we did work. I learnt about the drunk Japanese businessman. Now that i think about it, every single saturday, somehow, the topic of alcohol always creeps up. Am i missing something? It doesn't matter, the anecdotes shared are quite funny, so it's all good.

After it was over, i was dropped off at highpoint to catch the bus home but as fate would have it, i missed it by 5 minutes and hence had to wait an hour for the next one...AN HOUR! Now for those of you whom now me....well you'd know my sense of direction as well. It was just me and my common sense battling it out in highpoint. *sighs*.....guess what?? It wasn't that bad!! I spent a few minutes getting my head together at the fact i was there by myself and then i was fine.

Obviously time was spent at Dymocks in preparation for next week's Potter release. Flipping through books and imaging myself there next week with the latest Potter book in my hands and....okay i should stop, i'm scarying myself. But it shall be a grand event next week readers, exactly 2 yrs and like 25 days after the last book i shall get the next book! :) :)

So the point of this blog? Nothing too important as you can see but i can confirm that....

1) HARRY POTTER IS OH SO SO SO SO VERY NEAR!! and for someone whose had it pre-ordered from the 21st of jan this year...it's been a longg wait~

2) i spent one hour at highpoint without getting lost. Which must mean my sense of direction is slightly improving. :)

take care xoxo

the first casualty of war is the truth...

Here we again huh? Another year, another terrorist attack. First 9/11, Bali, Madrid and now London. Geez, the human heart just seems so consumed with love hey? Am i missing something? What's with the hate around these days. I found an article about the bombings..

Statement claiming London attacks
The BBC has located an Islamist website that has published a 200-word statement issued by an organisation saying it carried out the London bombings.
The organisation calls itself the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda [literally the base] of Jihad Organisation in Europe.

The group not previously been heard of. The website has previously carried statements purporting to be from al-Qaeda. It is not possible to verify such claims published on the web.
This is the full text of the statement.

In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, may peace be upon the cheerful one and undaunted fighter, Prophet Muhammad, God's peace be upon him.

Nation of Islam and Arab nation: Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist Crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.
We have repeatedly warned the British Government and people. We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.

We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the Crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused.
God says: "You who believe: If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly."

I'm so sick and tired of the mujahadeen freedom fighters. Bloody hell the mujahadeen was created by the US to get rid of the soviets from Afghanastan. Not to fight a bloody jihad. So whats going to happen? Now britian will retaliate and this whole circle of killing will continue. Great! So all's fair in love and war? History repeats itself? Or do we just not know any better?

all eyes on you..

If you've been in on the latest issue around town, its been the G8 Summit. And with the Live 8 concerts, the exposure has escalted beyond means imagined. For good reason too, poverty, climate change...these things are happening right now and we're in the dark about it.

However like any cynic, i have my doubts about it. The plan is to give Africa a $50 billion aid package. And hey, that's great. Good amount. But what about the fact that Africa is mostly run by warlords. And the fact that the Africa's resources are exploited by countries in the G8 like Japan. Their fish stocks, cocoa, diamonds...ring a bell?? Mr.Blair, Bob Geldof, Bono, i applaude you for your efforts to vanquish poverty in Africa. I spent the first 7 years of my life there, so in a way its always going to be home to me as well...so summit leaders, pull your heads in, do something.

They're going to be discussing climate change and yet India and China are not in the "inner circle" of the summit. One day the G8 has to escalte to the G10. China and India must join. China with a rapid economic growth of 8% for the past decade. China and India have both been industrializing to the max...hence i ask again, why are they not in the inner circle of the summit??

Climate change is an issue that has divided opinions.Some believe in it, some don't. For the ones who don't believe in it. I implore you to go to the Pacific Islands ( Tuvalu, Marshall island, Kiribati) and ask the islanders if they've been noticing anything unusual in their neck of the woods. You know, freak weather conditions and such things.

President Bush has recently admitted that " yes may be the climate is changing" but he still doesn't believe in signing the Kyoto Protocol. Oh no, he has other ideas. You know, financing for the development of other energy efficient energy. Like how John Howard has given $500 million for the development of Geosequestration. Something that cant be proven for at least a few decades. But if we don't reduce emissions in 50 years, we're sorta done for.

America's power is evident. They reduced the Kyoto Protocol which was aimed at being the door opener for emission reduction to being nothing but a joke. It aimed to reduce emissions by 80% by 2010..but it was negotiated to a 8% reduction. Well done uncle sam, well done. Once again, you're captalists belief's have "saved the world" from evil.

The G8 summit brings the world's powers together in an effort to help those countries who are so impoverished, there's souls vanquishing every 3 seconds. It's an effort to reduce our man-made destruction of earth.

In two days, 8 men sitting around a table, at a 5 star hotel on a luxury golf course will decide on the future.

The world will be watching.