27 april 2008

what a day! lovely, animal themed fun and one of the best times i’ve had in my entire life, ev-er.

first, an alpaca fiesta (ole!) where we got to pet an alpaca and watch a baby being fed - and learnt that alpaca wool is tubular rather than… something else, like sheep. (that bit was less interesting).

then we went to guildford (not the one in surrey, england…) and to a posh cafe for the most delicious meal. i had chicken and a stack of red peppers (or capsicum as aussies insist on saying) and pumpkin with lightly sauteed spinach and puy lentils. it was faaaaaaaaabulous. while eating, i look at a map i picked up earlier. i see the most wonderful sight: a place called swan valley cuddly animal farm. squee!

my stepmum gem looks at the map, understands how to get there, and it is agreed: we must go! while my dad, um… sits in the car, gem and i spend the happiest two hours of our lives bonding with lambs, baby goats, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs, chicks and best of all, two little piglets who are mad on gem’s shoes and my bag (le sportsac from new york city, thank you very much), which they attack with their noses.

my bag ends up upside down, contents spilling out as the pigs grunt excitedly and run around squealing in a frenzy and gem and i laugh until we hurt. to my dad’s delight (< < sarcasm alert) we talk pigs, lambs, rabbits, goats and sheep the whole way home.

29 april 2008

off to the salvos (salvation army charity shop, always called “salvos” here) this afternoon, where i pick up a couple of cheap books (paul reiser and meg cabot) and a fluffy pink scarf (for when i get home; it’s hot and sunny today). then we go to gloria jean’s, west australia’s aswer to starbucks (they don’t have starbucks here!) followed by a chain bookshop, angus and robertson, where i get the new marian keyes in paperback and a bar of “chockie” - cadbury’s, of course… made in tasmania. then to a book exchange (why don’t we have these back home?) where you can bring the books back for credit to spend on more - genius. i buy a book about an australian “journo” who moved to new york. next up: woolworths, the same company as in the UK, but they only do supermarkets here. discover sheets and towels are called “manchester” and wonder why.

it doesn’t sound like much, but a day off, gorming around and looking at books? plus sunshine? this counts as one of my very best days in oz.

it might be an oddly threatening letter from five years ago.

too funny!

for most features writers, the glossies - those monthly women’s mags printed on paper as shiny as their nickname implies - are a holy grail. we all want to write for them, for the cash and the employment but most of all for that lovely feeling you get from seeing your name in something with such a huge circulation that you actually read.

while i have been lucky enough in the past to snag an eighth of a page in essentials, and a half page in company, i hadn’t really “cracked” the glossies. i’d never got a page of my own.

until i left the country.

ironically, the month my first full-page feature appears in a monthly women’s mag… i’m on the other side of the world. if you are not, i encourage you to pick up a copy of this month’s easy living (the one with marriella frostrup on). anyone else who is interested, can read this lovely scan (thanks, mum!) instead: get to grips with your iPod. (click with your mouse to bring up a magnifying glass icon, which will let you enlarge it).

next month: i make my prima debut - and won’t be around to see that, either…

this week i wrote a post for popgadget which i’m a bit proud of: celebrating women in tech. and cali lewis is following me on twitter as a result! i feel under pressure to be interesting now… (oh - no-one tell her about the stalkerish homage i wrote, will you?)

it’s been a technoriffic few days:

my piece for the telegraph about the internet’s role in the resurgence of traditional crafts is out today, in the paper and also online. yay!

i’ve also been writing about all manner of things at popgadget, from feline false teeth to twitter proposals (aww) to subverting the patriarchy (yeah, the product’s PR loooooooved that one).

and i’m in woman’s weekly talking wifi (until wednesday).  

* i like the way that sounds like “tick tock”, which is apt, as it’s clocks forward this weekend!

i’ve just realised that three weeks from now, i’ll be spending the weekend in asia.

ASIA!

even better, i’ll see my dad for the first time in three years.

THREE YEARS!

i am very, very excited and happy about this.

but sitting here in my dressing gown after a long day of work and period pain, looking at the piles of clothes i have yet to wash/pack/try on and send back to online retailers, it all seems a little hard to believe.

EEK!

i got in to uni!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i’m not sure i can express how much this means to me but those exclamation marks should give you a bit of a clue.

after almost a decade of illness-induced misery and pain, i feel like i’ve been given another chance at life over the last year or so - and this cements all of that and proves i haven’t been kidding myself about what i can achieve. (now might be the time to credit gemma for such a rocking recommendation).

so, naturally, i can’t stop crying. it’s either the emotion of the day, or the thought of all those essays… 

i had some trouble with my desktop PC.

my alphasmart portable word-processing device decided to stop transferring files to my PC.

i started craving the convenience and flexibility of a laptop.

i earned some money.

i found out laptops were tax deductible.

i saw some special offers on laptops.

i started reading martha beck’s 4-day win (thanks for the tip, keris - it’s great!) and bought into her concept of small and large rewards.

i set myself a goal: to do an awareness meditation for 5 minutes every day, for 4 days straight.

i successfully completed my goal.

can you guess what i bought last night?

if you can’t, you must be even more dazed and confused than i feel after working almost all weekend… when i can think in paragraphs again i’ll fill you in on my university interview: hopefully soon.

my techie alter ego is still going strong: i’m currently working on two tech features for a national newspaper, answering basic tech questions in woman’s weekly every two weeks and…

this week i was offered a blogging job at a wonderful american site about women, lifestyle and tech. woot!

i haven’t started posting yet (i’ll keep you, er, posted, and remove the veil of mystery then) but i’m very excited about this! it’s such a great site, and very well-respected.

want to know how i got the job? 

i just emailed to ask if they wanted another writer.

it was a powerful reminder to me of the value of asking for what you want - you never know where you might end up!

update: i’m so excited, i got offered another fabby blogging job (and of course accepted), again just by asking - more details soon!