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07/29/2003 Entry: "Jo Giddens"

Hey everyone.. I'm finally blogging from HOME. Yep, I'm sitting in my kitchen right now and blogging. I know its nothing much for you to be excited about, but THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER BLOGGED FROM THE COMFORT OF MY OWN HOME IN NEW ZEALAND!!! So, yeah, I'm excited. I have no idea how much it's costing me at the moment but I doubt it's much because it's a prepaid thing and I had 49 cents on my card as I was connecting (Boy gave me the use of his powerbook so I thought, why not try connect?) and I've been online for exactly 9:01 minutes... and basically now I'm wasting time on the connection not doing anything but typing furiously because I want to calculate how much it costs to use the internet.

Whaddya know, soon as I typed that it disconnected. 5 cents a minute - not too bad I suppose, small price to pay for surfing at home. Which means I'm now typing this offline.. how exciting eh, to read about me going online and offline (/sarcasm)

So I am now going to tell you something more exciting. Wait, before I do that I'm gonna go to the servo and buy a phone card so I can hit 'publish' as soon as I've squeezed the last bit of juicy gossip out of my fingertips onto the informationsuperhighway..

I wonder if it's safe to leave a $7K laptop in the kitchen while I go out. Hmm. Someone might read this..

I'm back. Now I'm in my room.. today has been pretty busy. I woke up about 10am, fiddled around and went to the labs at 11am, just in time to catch Jo finishing up her Basic Design class and we went for lunch (Jo's treat, how nice of her!) at the Big Orange (probably the only semi-cool outdoor cafe in Wanganui) We spoke about alot of things, and she's just been so great. I think I mentioned the class trip the Graphics for Fashion class are going to make to Wellington this Thursday. I'm pretty upset I can't make it because I'm leaving Wangas on Thursday.. Jo's lined up some very cool magazine publishers etc and there's a new fashion magazine launching tonight in Wellington called Staple and she's gonna go down to see them (and ask them for me if they're looking for new staff!)

I've got a job offer from a packaging company in Wellington but honestly I'm not too keen on the job. My ideal job would be to work for a fashion magazine and after speaking to my tutors and advisors about it, I think I'm gonna go ahead and go for the job I want.. even if it means being unemployed for the next few months and lower pay. In the meantime however, I'm working on a self-driven personal project, which might or might not lead to anything, but even if it doesn't succeed I'll still end up with a portfolio piece that will be pretty cool.

I so love working with Jo. We were supposed to go out for a drink on Saturday night before I leave, but as it turned out I had my movie marathon thing and completely forgot about it and Jo's son Liam had his tenth birthday and they ended up having drinks at their place.. so I gave Jo two bottles of Lindauer Fraise today (one for our missed Saturday night drinks and another one for the road.. trip!) I told Jo today that if she ever starts her own magazine, I'd quit whatever job I have to work for her. She's that good.

Seriously though, I have alot to thank her for, her and the rest of my tutors have been nothing short of amazing since I came here. I'd never have come this far or done this well without their support.

Gee, I'm actually gonna miss Wangas like mad!

It's so nice of Boy to loan me his laptop (I haven't told you about Boy have I? He's the boy who lives in the room next to mine. His real name's Ahardy but everyone calls him Boy because he looks like a little boy! I think he's adorable. My other housemates are Amir, Max, Izumi, Cherrian and Karo) Yes, Cherrian decided to move into my house now.. if you're not familiar with the name Cherrian it's because Lai Min has decided to reinvent herself. Same person. Think I might have mentioned this before.. but that's another story..

.. I have time for stories. Lai Min moved in on Friday with her new boyfriend Karo. I assume it's her boyfriend because they are sharing a room with a double bed. Not even Lai Min is so easy as to sleep with random guys.. but I question her reasons for moving in here. It's a good thing I'm leaving soon because I don't think I like her around. There's such thing as seeing too much of someone.

Anyway, back to Boy and his laptop. I'm totally digging this typing-madly-away-on-my-bed thing.. and I have so much to blog about and now that I have all the time in the world, this is probably gonna end up as the longest post I've written in ages. Having nothing much to do does help, too. I've been filling my days with DVDs and going to tech to see Jo and Rick, hanging out with my housemates, Greg and doing last minute bits of shopping. This time I'm determined to travel light. I'm looking at it as a holiday to Malaysia for a couple of months, seeing as I'm leaving alot of stuff here, so that helps.

I went to see my gynae yesterday, too. It was just a follow-up to discuss the test results (all normal, thank God!) and to pay my bills (NZ$233! I'm so broke!) and I also went to my clinic to take my medical records.. no point leaving them lying around here.

The other thing I've been doing is lots of reading. I've been chewing through all my books and I'm starting the third book out of the three I took out at the library yesterday under Greg's name. That's another thing I'll be doing later today, reading Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses.

I lead a rather exciting life, don't I?

Who's sniggering at the back there?

Hhmph.

After I post this I'm gonna go surfing for a laptop. It's about bloody time I got one because there is absolutely NO WAY I'm gonna be lugging my DESKTOP around with me. Barrie mentioned something about Alienware laptops which I'm gonna take a look at later.. all I remember about Alienware is that they used to make mean gaming machines etc a couple of years back. Yeah, I'm still undecided on the PC vs. Mac thing.. I mean here I am using a mean Mac machine but I know for the price I'm gonna be paying I can get an even meaner PC.. I think it's all down to the specs. We'll see. Jo thinks I should get a Mac "after all, it looks great, and admit it, you'd rather be seen with one of those than the black ugly machines everyone else is using.." and honestly (insert sheepish giggle here) I can't disagree with her.

Has any one of you, after studying abroad and living on your own, felt it would be strange to go back and live with your parents again? I do. Not that it's that bad living with my parents, in fact, my parents are great.. but I'm too used to the freedom I have here at the moment and although I do get quite abit of that with my parents, it's just not the same. I miss them though.. but I want to get a place of my own.. hopefully sometime in the next couple of years!

I think I should get started on that laptop search now. I've got a shitload of packing to do later (my room is a complete state of mess right now) and later tonight my housemates Max and Izumi have decided that we should have a potluck dinner before I leave so I'm supplying the booze (one carton of Tui should do the trick!) and I've asked some of my classmates to come as well. Too bad it's so cold at night otherwise we could have a barbeque by the pool. We could still have one I suppose, but there's also a problem of lighting (spotlight's blown at the back)

Think I'll make some mediterranean meatballs. I've made them twice last week, so it's safe to assume they'll come out really good. I've noticed adding some egg (beaten) and cornflour to the mince before cooking it makes it really firm but tender. Whatever.

OK. Better hit post now.