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A couple of weeks ago, I met a guy online. I know, I’ve been there before and got my heart broken, then stomped on by size 13, 12-hole Docs. But since I don’t go out drinking and picking people up, and there seems to be nowhere else to meet people, online is the easiest option.
But this just feels different to before, and I really believe this could work. He’s sweet, lovely to look at with enormous brown eyes, and he evokes this stupid grin that no matter what I do I can’t seem to wipe off my face. We spend a lot of time laughing, chatting and finding similar tastes with so many things that I have to believe that this could turn out to be something serious. I’ve got no choice, it feels almost fated. Honestly.
We met in person for the first time last weekend, and needless to say I was nervous as all hell. But we immediately hit it off. No uncomfortable silences, no awkward moments at all. The waitress had to come back twice to take our order because we were chatting too much to conentrate on the menu. A 12:30 lunch date was still going at 19:30, and finally finished about 2am. Then continued on Sunday when we lazed about mine watching and bagging out the olympics closing ceremony, and then went to see Hellboy 2 (really cool film, btw, Guillermo del Toro is a fantastical genius). On Monday we had a wonderful day walking around London chatting and giggling like idiots. I really like this guy. I mean, I really like this guy. And even better, he seems to feel the same way! :)))
You know how it is when you just click with someone? When everything seems easy and confortable? When there’s enormous respect, huge attraction, and you feel that giddiness in your chest? That’s how I’ve been all week. I haven’t been able to wipe the smile off my face or stop the butterflies in my chest. I seem to spend a ridiculous amout of time thinking about him. And it’s been so long since I felt like this that I have to admit to being a little terrified. There are moments (usually when he hasn’t been next to me) when I’ve felt utter panic and ‘what the hell am I doing?’. It all seems ridiculously fast, like being on the proverbial roller-coaster. But something about it just feels right, and good, and all those wonderful things. Honestly, it’s just like a 50’s romantic movie! All of which makes me a little more suspicious – like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.
But we’re seeing each other again tonight, and I truthfully can’t wait. I want to see where this goes. I want to give it every chance – cause I haven’t been this happy in so long that I bloody well deserve it!
So, just for a bit until I figure out what this is, don’t lob questions at me, don’t tell me to slow the hell down. Just let me enjoy my secret guy for a bit longer… And I really am enjoying myself, and whatever the hell this is.
It’s fantastic and wonderful and I’m immensely happy. Hope you are too.
xx
In 1770, Capt James Cook parked his boat in Kurnell, Botany Bay, Australia and met some local people – as you do. These locals, as a gift of friendship after noticing Cook didn’t have any, gave him a boomerang and a couple of clubs so he could hunt. These items, a significant part of Australian history, are for sale in Christies in London and are expected to fetch more than £60,000 – reports the Brisbane Times.
Now, this is terrible for a number of reasons. Firstly, that these items are such an incredibly significant part of modern Australian history – almost surely the first items from Australia ever exported. Also, incredibly culturally significant to the Aboriginal people – how often to they actually get to view something their ancestors made, hold it in their hands. To Australian historians this must represent the oldest piece of wood found from Australia, ever.. not to mention the archaeological value of such items in learning about Aboriginal culture and crafting techniques, of which so little remain. And to the Australian people this is almost, when you really think about it, the item representing the birth of Australia as a country recognised to the world.
Image: Christies, London
To the rest of the world, it may just be a curved stick. To Australians, it’s so much more.
There’s been a cry for the Aussie govt to get the UK govt to buy it and gift it back to us, where it can be displayed in Botany Bay for all to see. I think Australia’s rich should band together and buy this, as a gift to the country that has provided then so much. Why don’t we just form a conglomerate, every family inthe country donates a dollar, and we’ll be sorted! It belongs back home in Australia, where it will get the respect it deserves, not rotting away in a cupboard somewhere in a private collection or buried in the bowels of the Natural History Museum in London.
Please, Aussie, make a noise about this. This one’s important. And not just to the descendants of the giver. If I had the cash, I’d buy it and gift it myself. If a conglomerate forms, let me know the details…
I’ve been watching the olympics. Like most of the rest of the planet, I assume. And I’ve noticed, too, that Britain are doing rather well..
Which brings up strange feelings in me. I’m aussie to the core and will be til I die, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t feel a sense of pride in my resident country, does it?
See Britain are notoriously crappy at olympics, usually to be found around position 10-15 on the medal table. But since London’d got the next olympics, the govt has been spending money on sport (SHOCKER!). I think they’re mainly doing it so that they won’t be embarrassed by the general crap-ness of their team. Whatever the reason, it’s working and they’re starting to see significant results.
And I am proud of the Brits. They’ve been so crap for so long, that the jubilation and excitement about winning, hell – even placing!, is somewhat infectious. For example, on Saturday Louis Smith, a 19yo UK gymnast, got a bronze medal in the pommel horse – which is Britain’s first medal in artistic gymnastics for 80 years! Well done Louis! I don’t care who you are, that’s quite an achievement! It’s even more of an achievement when you think that gymnastics has been dominated by the Chinese, Americans and Russians for as long as anyone can remember. Damn well done! (And almost certainly secures him an OBE / MBE / Knighthood! Honestly, sometimes I think the Queen puts honours in Xmas crackers! They seem to be handed out for everything.. Not to diminish Louis’ achievement, but he’s only 19 and has plenty of good sporting years yet. How about you wait til he retires from sport??)
So I find myself with mixed feelings – I want Australia to do well, of course I do. I want the Aussies to wipe the floor with the rest of the world and prove once again what a fantastically sporting nation we are. But I also want Britain to do well.
I find myself watching a race like the rowing, where Aussie and GB are neck & neck and have a nasty moment of not knowing who to scream for! Its never happened before. Weird.
Go Aussie Go! Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi! Oi! OI! (but come on Team GB too!)
Anyone who’s been out of touch with the world for the last few days, I have news. The Olympics have started.
Yep, that ritual athletic testing that started in an ancient foreign land as a way of challenging soldiers has returned once again. (Which, by the way, means that I’ve been away over 8 years. I arrived in the UK before Sydney 2000. Egads!) The best of the world have gathered in Bejing for two weeks of testing before their peers and the world.
Talk about your stage-fright – estimated 4 billion people watching the opening ceremony? Bloody Hell! But from what I could see there was only one stuff up – and I imagine some poor little Chinese guy getting a slap around the ear for letting the torch-bearing air-runner guy catch up with the unravelling scroll.
All the athletes look lean & hungry. That’s how they’re supposed to look, right? Lean & hungry? Are we not feeding these people regularly? They all look ready to defend their country and themselves from repeated embarrassment of failing dismally. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt over my 30something years on the earth, there’s always someone better than you. Sorry.. Maybe I’m feeling a little too reflective today.
But along with the lean & hungry come the joys of a fiercely patriotic crowd, and billions of televiewers everywhere, screaming and shouting, clapping, laughing, crying along with their team. The Olympics is the only time people can be most vehemently patriotic with no fear of recrimination, verbal abuse or attack. It is expected at the Olympics, encouraged. Over two hundred countries coming together to wage mini battles with each other.
Question: Have the Olympics become our pseudo world war? Instead of taking out your emeny with bullets and bombs, you take them out with skill and expertise, with a fine throw or blistering speed. You take them out honestly and directly, with no cheating or sly actions, no backstabbing or sabotage. You do it directly in front of them, to their face, and you wait for the words ‘bad sport’ to start fizzing about between their ears, at which point they’ll come and congratulate you on a good match/race/battle.
And I even understand why it’s being held in China, despite their air quality and human rights record, despite their environmental and foreign policy. It’s being held there because the IOC reached a point where it had to say yes for to be seen as being influenced by politics. See, China is the most populated country in earth, they send ridiculous amounts of althletes to each and every games, they do very well in each and every games, and they haven’t hosted in over 100 years. The IOC proclaims itself a non-political animal, and under that guise had reached a point where they could no longer refuse China’s application to host. They had no choice. To do otherwise was to rebuke China, which no-one seems willing to do. I mean, geez, Moscow hosted in the middle of the cold war. Germany hosted, Hitler opened their games. The IOC had to do it to stay apolitical. I’ll stop there, I don’t want this post to be an anti-China rant.
I realise from the above that it may seem I sneer at the Olympics. But I don’t. Honestly. I’ve got nothing but admiration for the athletes who can devote themselves so completely to their sport. I don’t think I could do it. And I’ve nothing but admiration for the medalists themselves. To be the acknowledged best in the world at anything must be a fantastic feeing and worth every second of that seemingly endless training.
And, of course, there’s the fact that I’m Australian and we love and respect sportsmen and women. We’re a sporting nation. Comes with the sunshine and being able to go outside. The Australian press are whipping up a patriotic frenzy, I find myself trying to program my tele-watching to times when there’ll be coverage of Aussies (and I understand totally that the UK coverage is all about the UK team, I just wish they’d interview a winner every now and again! Oh, but they did interview that Zimbabwe swimmer with the american accent, thought I’m not sure why..)
I find myself digging my wee aussie flag out of the box and drapiing it proudly around the house. I find myself suddenly shouting “Go Aussie!” at the screen, freaking out cat and flatmate. But I can’t help it. And gorram it, I shouldn’t have to!
So GO AUSSIE! Go, you good things! Enjoy yourselves and bring us back some neckwear, huh?
Oh, and.. ahem.. good luck to everyone else too. :)
xx
Heard on the news this morning that Lloyds TSB, one of the UK’s biggest banks, has had a 70% drop in profit this quarter. I started cheering, thinking perhaps this can be a score for the little guy, to prove that everyone’s feeling the pinch, not just those of us on lower incomes.
However, the news went on:
Profit before tax was 70% lower at £599m ($1.18bn), compared with a profit of £1.99bn in first half of 2007.
Oh right. So they only made £600M as opposed to almost £2billion last year. Poor, poor bastards. That’s some serious belt-tightening! How will they ever cope!
And just in case you didn’t catch the sarcasm, I’ll take my point further.. With the price of oil and gas going up so much this year, many people in the UK won’t be able to afford to keep themselves warm this winter.
The government estimates 2.5 million households are in fuel poverty – defined as when more than 10% of household income is spent on fuel bills – but watchdog Energywatch says the figure is more than four million.
You know what the Head of UK’s biggest domestic energy supplier said? “maybe it’s two jumpers instead of one”.
Oh the compassion! He should be up for a humantiarian award! Warms your heart don’t it, big business showing such understanding and mercy for their fellow man.
So what’s the world’s most ineffectual Prime Minster to do? Luckily for us, Gordon Brown’s on his summer holidays at the moment – giving us a brief respite from his smarmy face constantly on the tele trying to justify himself and his party. The time has come for an election Gordon. You screwed up. Big time. Fall back into obscurity like a good boy and let someone else have a turn now…
Rant ends.
xx
I cam across this poem when I was living in Edinburgh in the early 2000’s. I always liked it. Hope you do too…
O Tell Me The Truth About Love
Some say love’s a little boy,
And some say it’s a bird,
Some say it makes the world go around,
Some say that’s absurd,
And when I asked the man next-door,
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife got very cross indeed,
And said it wouldn’t do.
Does it look like a pair of pyjamas,
Or the ham in a temperance hotel?
Does its odour remind one of llamas,
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is,
Or soft as eiderdown fluff?
Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?
O tell me the truth about love.
Our history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes,
It’s quite a common topic on
The Transatlantic boats;
I’ve found the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides,
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of railway guides.
Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian,
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a first-rate imitation
On a saw or a Steinway Grand?
Is its singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like Classical stuff?
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love.
I looked inside the summer-house;
It wasn’t over there;
I tried the Thames at Maidenhead,
And Brighton’s bracing air.
I don’t know what the blackbird sang,
Or what the tulip said;
But it wasn’t in the chicken-run,
Or underneath the bed.
Can it pull extraordinary faces?
Is it usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races,
or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of its own about money?
Does it think Patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love.
When it comes, will it come without warning
Just as I’m picking my nose?
Will it knock on my door in the morning,
Or tread in the bus on my toes?
Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love.
I know it’s been another month gone by since I updated me blogge, but truly, there’s not been much to get excited about in my own little world. Ok, there’s been exciting stuff happening, but around me, not directly involving me.
I keep applying for jobs, getting interviews with agencies, and that’s where it stops. I’m not quite sure why. Apparently I’ve been with boss too long and am getting tarred with a ’she can only do science/medical’ brush. That and I’ve got too much experience for what these people want. But to date, after almost 2 months on the jobhunt, I’ve been for exactly 5 interviews with actual companies, and a even dozen with agencies. I’ve not got 3 of the 5, and the other 2 were from the same company which I’m still waiting to hear from. (Fingers crossed for me, I’d love that job!) But I seem to get to the agency interview, they register me and put me on their books, and that’s where it stops.
But I have another acutal company interview tomorrow, as well as an agency interview, so keep sending me your good vibes, huh?
Remember how someone at work was killed on the road outside my village? Yesterday morning at 3:30am, a badly burnt body of a woman was found at the layby on the same road, approx 50meters fron the front gate of work!! A truck driver found her. Since the road is close to a couple of major motorways, the truckies pull off into the laybys to snooze. Anyway, the cops and forensic teams have been out in force for the last two days, copper choppers have been buzzing the institute non stop, and this afternoon they’re bringing in the sniffer dogs and doing fingertip searches. They still can’t identify her and the information coming through is sketchy… But our institute security tell us that the road will be closed for another 2 days at least. Very freaky. That’s two dead in about 3 months.
What else has happened… Oh, I came into work one Monday morning to find that Top Gear were going to be filming a bit at my local pub! Apparently they were testing Alfa Romeos at Duxford Imprial War Museum and needed somewhere to do their ‘wrap up’ discussion type bit. However, their locations person must have got a sharp slap about the head as my local is a bit of abuilding site at the moment, and hardly the vision of an attractive country pub! They rocked up, took a look at the place and at the 50 or so people that had come out to watch, then got back in their cars and split. So I didn’t get to hand Clarkson my CV – but I saw Clarkson and Hammond! And Top Gear were in my village!! :)
I went and saw the new Indy flick for my birthday. Enjoyable, and laughed a few times, but I found it a bit less believeable than the other 3. Christine asked me why the Ark and the Holy Grail are any more believeable than that, and I couldn’t quite answer. Something skeptical in me I guess.
Oh, and boss published a big important paper – that proves that there’s no correlation between the size of your brain and how smart you are – published in Nature Neuroscience. Big paper, lots of press coverage, radio interviews etc. Been a busy week. And I even got a mention in the ‘Acknowledgements’ :)
I’ve also discovered my local library and have been averaging 5 books a week. I’m a reading fiend at the moment. Well, there’s naught else to do on the hour commute to London to all these sodding interviews. But I am enjoying the library.
My shoe fetish has also evolved. I’m really enjoying beautiful shoes now. Who would’ve thunk I’d turn into such a girl at 35yo?! ;)
And my blogge visitor count has broken 15,000!! Thanks for visiting, and I hope I’m vaguely interesting. And Mum, if you’d stop logging in thrice daily I could maybe get an accurate figure.. ;) Nah – bless you all, really. I do appreciate it. And if you lot weren’t there I wouldn’t have this fab vent-outlet-thingy in the first place. Bless your cotton socks. :)
Other than that – car is good, cat-face is good, work is humming along. I’m just getting impatient now for the British summer to actually bloody start! Still hasn’t been over 22 deg and we’re almost on summer solstice! Also bloody impatient to find a new job. Keep your fingers crossed for me, yeah?
xx
