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I've discovered a new obsession! I'm completely addicted to this store! Totally my type of store ... full of funky stationery and fabulous organisational types of necessities. I love it! Ridiculously addictive, and dangerous ... I spend way too much every time I go into a store. But it's all so cute! And so useful!
Today I bought this fabulous tear-off pad of A4 sized weekly planners. Love it! I can see my week at a glance, complete with a handy to do list and a space for 
shopping needs as well. And to go with it .... a fabulous little To Do List sticky note pad. Brilliant! How handy is that!?
Last visit, I bought this cute hippo/zoo animals tin of writing paper ... partly because of the cute tin, and partly because of the cute paper and envelopes inside. And today, to go with it ... a couple of different styles of zoo animals sticky notes. Some giraffe and monkey square ones, and a set of three little bookmark-type 
ones. So cute!
And just in case I get bored of all the sticky notes I've already bought, I picked up a few others as well! My favourite are these cute red and white animal ones - a set of three bookmark style. I'm leaving the cutest notes at work now!! So many choices!! Love it so much!
I'm about to do something I must have been considering doing for a good seven or eight years. I'm seriously exploring the possibility of purchasing a Mac! Seriously to the point that I have figured out exactly which one I want, where I can get it, and which accessories and extras I'm likely to purchase as well. And I've scheduled in a trip to the Mac store on Wednesday in the hope that I'll be able to purchase it then!
It's terribly exciting! I'm looking at purchasing a 2.4GHz White MacBook. Very simple, lower end of the price scale, but basically exactly what I need. I'm ultimately in need of a laptop ... something portable that I can take with me to prac, classes, meetings, etc. A second machine which I'll use in conjunction with my perfectly suitable desktop PC. My old laptop is no longer reliable, the battery is near death and it's a little on the bulky side. It's approaching five years old, so it's not unrealistic to replace it.
I also want to learn the Mac operating system. So many schools in Queensland use Macs, and I'm ashamed to say I really don't know the operating system. I can find my way around it, but I don't know it to a point that I can use it confidently or fix problems like I can on a PC. I really want to change that. So more recently I've been contemplating my need to learn Mac OS X. A Mac laptop seems like the perfect solution ... effectively meeting both needs.
Plus, they're so pretty. And we all know anything technology/gadget related is all about being pretty. ;) Well, that, and ease of use ... which I'm sure the Mac will have.
I must give a shout out to the sales staff at the Next Byte store in the city - they have been fabulously helpful. Far more so than any of the staff at the larger department stores. I'm so pleased with the deal they're going to do too. I get the MacBook at student price, reduced price on Office for Mac 2008, significantly discounted price on the extended warranty, plus a free iPod Nano and access to free weekly training courses for a year. Sounds like a rather perfect deal really.
So hopefully, with a little luck, by Wednesday night I'll be the proud owner of a pretty new MacBook ... and for the first time, I proud Mac user!
I found a bridesmaid dress! An announcement which should perhaps begin with ... I'm going to be a bridesmaid at my sister's wedding! Which perhaps should have been preceded by ... my sister's getting married! Both of these announcements are perhaps more newsworthy than the one about finding a dress. However, the dress is more recent, and as such more exciting at the moment.
Michelle (my sister) is down from Darwin at the moment, and busy with wedding preparations. Yesterday was Day 3 of looking for her dress, which she found in the morning. And immediately after deciding on hers, we started looking for mine - which we found in the next shop we went to. So convenient!
I love it! It's a Mr K Winter 2008 bridesmaid dress - colour Atlantic. Looks gorgeous on, and I love the colour. So stunning. It looks gorgeous with Michelle's dress too ... which is really the point. Of course, if I can look this good in it in June, I'll be thrilled! And I'll definitely wear it again ... I'm thinking Education Ball in September.
MOO.com have the cutest new StickerBooks. I love them! 90 full colour vinyl square stickers with rounded corners on little tear-out sheets. Made from your own photos. Only US$12.98 including postage anywhere in the world. Do I sound like I'm on the marketing team? Of course, I just put in an order. Hurrah!
I love ordering stuff from MOO.com. Even the email after is entertaining .... "I'm Little MOO - the bit of software that will be managing your order with us. It will shortly be sent to Big MOO, our print machine who will print it for you in the next few days. I'll let you know when it's done and on its way to you. Thanks, Little MOO, Print Robot" - love it!
Meanwhile, I'm procrastinating horribly. I finally feel like the uni workload has calmed down ... which is awfully dangerous, as in actual fact there is still plenty of assessment to do. It's just not so urgent any more, and I'm rather enjoying doing other stuff instead. Like placing MOO.com orders, or shopping for stationery, or preparing for prac.
Ooh, prac! I visited my class on Thursday. I'm so ridiculously excited! My prac teacher is fantastic ... so friendly and enthusiastic and supportive. The students all love her. She's bouncy and excited and loves her job. And I can't wait to get back into that classroom. 54 names to learn as the two classes work together, but they all seem friendly enough. The other teacher is lovely as well. And the DP is great. I'm almost worried that I'm building my expectations up too much. Certainly looking forward to prac though!
Meanwhile, my Teachers DVDs arrived last week! Less than a week after I ordered them, I must point out ... rather impressed. And I'm loving them of course. Just finished Series Two. Two more series to go. Brilliantly funny. Although Simon has left now ... I do miss Simon. As funny as the others are. I love how random animals walk through the school too. Usually donkeys, but there was a zebra in this episode. Completely unexplained and irrelevant ... just wandering through the school yard. Hmm, anyway ... must get on with things.
Free Moo cards! Act quick ... before they run out again! This time, it's with LiveJournal and Vox ... a free sample 10-pack with each. You just add Moo to your friends list or neighbourhood ... then create away!
If you have a free LJ account, you can only create text ones (but they're fun too ... I think I spent more time designing them than the photo ones). Vox you can import photos from Flickr or upload others and then create photo cards.
LJ you get the LJ logo on the cards, but Vox is completely free of advertising. And no charge at all ... not even postage. And they're so cute! I've already purchased two 100-packs through Flickr, on top of the free pack I started out with. They're so much fun!
Thanks to Sandy for sharing her discovery. :)
Life got busy again. It always does. All kinds of stuff happening. Gumnuts started ... a new Guide unit for 5 and 6 year olds. Eleven girls came along for the sign up day! They were all born this century ... how to make a girl feel old! At uni, assignments are all coming due ... I really should be spending more time working on them. Hard to prioritise, although my stress levels at the moment are surprisingly quite low. Not sure how much longer that will lost.
Loads to organise for the outback trip. Accommodation is now sorted for the central Australia part ... very nice five-star deluxe spa hotel rooms at Ayers Rock, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs. I've never stayed anywhere quite so fancy. After three weeks of sleeping in a swag under the stars on the side of the track ... it's going to be the most appreciated accommodation ever! Fancy or not. I've also been shopping over the last couple of days for quick dry, sun protective, moisture transfer, mosquito repellant (no kidding!) travel wear. Gradually nearing being ready I think!
And in amongst all this ... Stella, a friend from London, came to visited over the last couple of days. Such fun. A perfect excuse to push the study aside for 24 hours or so. We spent last night in town exploring what Brisbane has to offer on a Sunday night (more than I expected, I must admit!). It was fun ... a trip up to Mt Coot-tha, dinner at South Bank, a ferry trip down the river, walking through the Queen St Mall then back to South Bank. All was lovely ... until I tripped over the curb. And did something nasty to my foot.
Seriously, can there be a more dull way to injure one's self? I was completely sober, I wasn't even doing anything silly ... I was just checking for traffic and looking where I was going, and the ground underneath me was uneven so I tripped. And now I'm hobbling, and everyone asks what happened. I don't even have an impressive story to tell. I have to admit it was pure clumsiness. So pathetic!
Meanwhile ... we were on the other side of the river, so after it happened I had to walk all the way over the Grey St bridge, through South Bank and back to my car (near the cinema) before I could pull out an instant ice pack from my first aid kit and ice it. Severe pain the entire way, and major swelling almost instantaneously. Really appreciated having the fully stocked first aid kit on board! Too bad the car was so far away though. Ice pack still helped of course, and then we bandaged it so I could drive home ... it's my left foot at least, but I drive manual so it was still far from fun!
The irony of this whole situation ... Stella is a podiatrist! Of all things I could have done while she is in town ... I have to go and injure my foot. Pretty classic, really. It would be like having a mid-life crisis while a psychiatrist friend was visiting, or losing my passport while visiting my Vice Consul friend. Rather convenient though. Stella kindly strapped my foot this morning, and offered all kinds of tips along the way.
Isn't feeling a great deal better though ... today I had a drama workshop at uni, then I took Stella to the museum, then after dropping Stella at the airport I called in to DFO to look for cheap travel wear ... so I've been walking (read: hobbling) almost non-stop all day (and as such in severe pain the entire time). Tried to rest it as much as I could ... but hard when there's so much to do.
Tonight, I finally went to the doctor (first appointment I could get), and tomorrow I have to get an x-ray. The doctor said I might have been walking around on a broken bone all day. The fifth metatarsal, assuming I read the radiology request correctly. Comforting thought. I pointed out that I've been walking all day ... so surely it can't be broken? Apparently it can. More likely a pulled tendon I suspect. I guess I'll know more tomorrow.
Such perfect timing! Hoping such injuries can heal within a couple of weeks. Two weeks tomorrow I fly to Darwin. Hiking in central Australia won't be much fun with an injured foot. Even with lovely new hiking boots.
Yesterday, I shopped absolutely guilt free!! The spending money part wasn't exactly guilt-free, considering how much my credit card is already suffering. But the time spent not studying ... 100% guilt-free! Something that is very hard to achieve mid-semester. I was out all day ... down on the Gold Coast, browsing through Pacific Fair, then walking along the beach ... so much fun! And I didn't have to worry about not being at home studying, since my cousins are the absolute perfect excuse!
Last time Sarah came I was horribly sick with Glandular Fever, so I couldn't do anything! And I haven't spent time with Justine since she was 7 or 8. We're getting along so well! But they're only here for five days. So quite simply, the spending time with them part is non-negotiable. Which means studying just hasn't been a possibility, and not studying is out of my control and therefore guilt-free. So loving it!! I need more of this!
Today, however, I've allocated as a study day. I can't really help it ... I have readings and tute preparation that need to be done for class tomorrow. And assessment is approaching, plus more weekend activities that will detract from future study ability. I've had such a nice few days though ... outlet shopping Thursday, Australia Zoo Friday (how much has it changed!?), and Gold Coast yesterday. And tomorrow after uni I'm meeting them in the city or at Southbank ... so more fun ahead. :) All of which is making studying today far easier.
Although the distractions are apparently still easy to find. Hmmm. Back to work I guess!