Pictures from Oz

So, despite giving any kind of description of the great holiday we had in Sydney - I've finally transfered the pictures from my digital camera to my laptop, so I've decided to stick a few up here for your entertainment. I have chosen some more everyday pictures, rather than the traditional opera house/harbour bridge/random architecture shots I also took. It's also a great excuse for not having to write an actual blog entry.



Lately, I haven't had much time on my hands due to the impending deadline for my thesis (Nov. 9). That partnered with the fact that I am a terrible procrastinator and as a result am finiding it extremely difficult to make any kind of progress with my writing, means that I'm currently under an awful lot of pressure, so I really do have to get my ass in gear. At least one reassuring thing is that I've sorted out a 6 month contract with my current supervisor to work for his translation company, and for a very decent wage (yay! money!). I'm due to start working on it a bit while I'm adding the finishing touches to my thesis, so more than likely I won't be doing any work for them until late October, early November. Although, with my last grant stipend coming in next month, and my savings running quite low after the trip to Oz the sooner I start working, the better! I can't live off peanut butter and playing cards for long, no matter how appetizing it may sound to some of you.

One of the "meals" we were given on the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpar flight




Kuala Lumpar Airport




So happy to be at my conference




Eating some banana bread



A nice "artistic" shot of the Opera House from the Harbour



Some friends we met on our trip (we won them in the crappy Lunar Park fairground



Lions at the Taronga Zoo

Mel's Apology

taken from Proceed at your own risk.

We Arrived...Finally!

After 3 planes, and 30 hours traveling we finally arrived in Sydney! The weather itself was pretty shitty and overcast yesterday, but its clearing up nicely today. Got picked up at the airport by Alan's friend and her girlfriend, went and grabbed some breakfast and then after much meandering through the city, eventually found our hotel. The hotel itself is nice - nothing too fancy, but the bed is unbelievably comfortable. Went for a nap when we arrived - not 100% by choice as the fact that I O.D'd on the tapazepam my granny (you heard it right!) slipped me before I left and failed to sleep in off on the flight from Kuala Lumpar. Got up about 6 p.m., showered, dressed and headed into Newtown for a bite to eat. Met up with people for drinks in a little dingy but cool drag bar and then onto a really tacky (and kinda shitty) nightclub in the basement of some sex shop on the main strip. So far, the impression is good. We're going to see more of the city today including a visit to the Opera House. Tonight I have to attend a pre-conference cocktail and mingling thing but I'm going to try and slip out after putting in an appearance as we're planning on heading out again. Will keep you posted.

Off to See the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard Of...

I must say I had a fantastic weekend - between getting to see Dave (thanks muchly for the bday present - I now have a plush version of the queen Alien chest-burster --so cute-- adorning my gogglebox) and then the amateur strip show by the Dublin Devils FC in the G on Fri night. Got to meet up with people from college that I hadn't seen in a while, have a few drinks, leer at the hot (and not so hot) nakedness and full frontal on stage (the place was packed) and dance to some decent music, before finishing off the night in style with a Chicken Royale...man hadn't had one of those in ages - cheers to Dave for putting the lust for Burger King in my loins.



More than likely I won't be blogging for the next two weeks, as I'm off to Sydney with Alan on Thursday! There's a conference over there for the first week, that'll I do my best to avoid as well as some ghosts from my past who have recently got in touch with me out of the blue. I really wish I hadn't heard from him at all - it stresses me out so much even thinking about it, it even has me second-guessing myself. But I'm sticking to my guns - I've decided that I've absolutely nothing to gain from meeting up with him, other than to exchange pleasantries, and so I'm not
going to.



The journey to Oz is gonna be the furthest I've ever had to travel. We fly through Amsterdam and then onto Kuala Lumpar before arriving in Sydney early Saturday morning. So far the weather reports aren't too good, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it clears up for most of the days. If I can, I'll try and blog somewhere along the way, and maybe include a few photos.



PS: In case people are wondering, after getting one or two not-so-nice comments and subsequently realising I forgot my password to edit said comments, I've removed the old comments and have switched to using Blogger's facility.

Pride is Upon Us

In the spirit of the season, that is gay Pride, I came across this article from the Onion 2001, and thought it was too hilarious not to share.



I'm off to Oslo this Sunday to attend a conference there for 3 days. Not too sure if I'm really looking forward to it or not, especially after my last bad experience at one of these things, but still, haven't been to Norway before. Apparently at this time of year the sun doesn't set till 11p.m. which gives me an excuse to stay up all night. One of the main things that bothers me about these conferences is the fact I have to pay for everything in advance and it usually takes up to a month before I get reimbursed for anything, so between this and my trip to Sydney in July, my credit card is seriously at breaking point, and I cannot stand being in debt as it is. There's just something about the whole debt situation that always makes me uncomfortable - probably because I'm so careful about my money. I guess I'm a bit anal that way.

Crappy Update

So I eventually finished designing the Dublin Pride website, and although it doesn't look quite as polished as I wanted it to, I still think its a pretty good effort, although the people over at QueerID start bitching about it before it was even launched. It ties in really well with the official programme - using the same colours and much the same layout. It serves its purpose. It was launched on the 30th May, where I had to get up on stage and talk about the website to a crowd who didn't seem that particularly interested. We even had to go to the club earlier that evening to set up a DVD slideshow for the whole Pride launch - which we did a decent enough job of on our own, even though we didn't have much of a clue of what we were supposed to be doing. After all was said and done, nobody even came up to us as we were sipping on our free wine/distilled vinegar at the launch night to comment on the whole thing. Talk about a thankless task. Well, I just hope that people will get some use out of the website. I half thought that this could be the start of a side-career in web-design, which is actually something that I've thought about doing for a bit. It might mean that my PhD won't go completely to waste.



My boyfriend also moved in to my apartment this weekend gone and Dee moved out. We've decided to keep Dee's old bedroom as a spare room for anyone who needs a place to crash and maybe stick a desk in it and call it an 'office'. It will take a good while to get used to not living with Dee, but I suppose change is inevitable. The place just seems so quiet now. My one main fear is that we end up cutting ourselves off even more from our seperate friends, but hopefully the fact that we're now living together will mean I'll actually have more free time to see my friends. It is big leap to make - my first real adult decision, but I still have a good feeling about the hold thing, so fingers crossed.

Good.

So Im celebrating turning 25 this weekend. God that's fucking scary - 25 already, and what have I done?



Well I'm out (very good), I'm now living away from home (which is good), I'm in a steady fantastic relationship(very good), I'm about to move in with my boyfried (good yet scary), I haven't gotten drunk in over 2 weeks (not very good), I've gotten my degree and am almost finished my PhD (very very good), I haven't a clue what I'm doing when I finish college (not so good), I'm designing the website for Dublin Pride this year (very good), I'm living just above the breadline (not good), I've still got a great bunch of friends (very good)...who I don't see as often as I should (not good).



So all in all I've done good so far. I just hope it's not all downhill from here.



One thing I have to look forward to is my party on Saturday - and to those of you who got invited, I hope you've checked out the website. Looking forward to getting drunk and catching up with everyone, especially after the stressful few weeks I've had (and still have yet to come).

Oh My George!!

After much heart-attack inducing panic I managed to snag myself some tickets to see George Michael at the Point, Dublin this December. I seriously never thought I would ever get to see him play so I am absolutely elated, especially seeing as I am a mega-fan! I cannot wait!

Rip 'em Out

Oh my God I am in so much pain! I swear to God if I ever have children and I see them sticking anything that contains any type of sugar in their mouths I will smack them so hard I'll knock all their teeth out myself.



I've just come back from the orthodontist, where Im undergoing treatment to get my teeth straightened. I've been wearing a "rapid palatal expander" for the last 3 months and today I had it removed. Well as he was taking it out, the screw snapped then the brackets broke and the pain was excruciating. There was not even a warning. My teeth had been under so much pressure that when it was relieved it just felt like they were going to fall out. He then took to moulds of my already sore teeth (which were covered in blood when he took them out) and turns out I have to go back tomorrow and get a retainer fitted - wear that for three weeks, then get another expander fitted, this time with a longer screw, and so it continues. I regret starting this crap. This whole experience only strengthen's my argument further for the complete removal of all teeth at infancy and the use of false replacements. If they cause this much hassle why not just rip them out altogether at the earliest opportunity - it would save so much pain and trouble.

Housewarming

Housewarming this Friday at 8pm. Hope to see you all there :)