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No means a comedy

One more exam over and it wasn’t as hard as I thought but I am still only aiming for 28/50 which will give me a credit for the course, now I just have the last one on Monday morning which is going to be a tough one as whilst I enjoy learning about contemporary Chinese politics I am not the best at remembering the names and dates. I did these two layouts when I came home from the exam as a wee break from the books. Who has been scrapping long enough to remember that Kangaroo and Joey paper on the first layout? I bought that sheet of paper back in early 2003 and I know it was released a while before then.

this is what I Love! Wollemi Pine

After dropping Matthew at a friend’s house this evening I pulled into the video store on the way home and picked up a couple of movies to watch with Mum as she can’t sit in the seats at the cinema yet and there was nothing on TV. The movie we watched tonight was a French movie called Me and My Sister (Les Soeurs Fâchées), the reviews on the back said it was “Delicious, an enjoyable bitchy comedy”, whilst it certainly had its bitchy factor it was by no means a comedy, so that was bit of a let down. It was an interesting movie but going into it thinking it was going to be a comedy meant that our expectations were let down a bit.

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Studying, Not Studying and Studying

“In the final analysis, human security is a child who did not die, a disease that did not spread, a job that was not cut, an ethnic tension that did not explode in violence, a dissident who was not silenced. Human security is not a concern with weapons-it is a concern with human life and dignity.”
UN Human Development Report 1994, p229.

Powerful words which I found in an equally powerful reading by Steve Smith (Smith, S. (2004). Singing Our World into Existence: International Relations Theory and September 11: Presidential Address to the International Studies Association, February 27, 2003, Portland. International Studies Quarterly, 48 (3) pp. 499-515(17)), if you happen to come across it or have access to any of the various academic databases it is well worth a read even if you are not an International Relations person and is quite an easy read too.

The last couple of days I have spent doing exams, studying, not studying and studying (probably more of the middle one than I should have done but I have kept up with my study all semester so it is all in there somewhere I just need to pull it out at the right time). I have one exam tomorrow worth 50% and then I have my last one on Monday morning.

Mum saw the lower limb specialist the other night and was told that she has a Tibial Plateau Fracture and is booked in for a CAT scan on Monday morning to decide if she will need surgery or not, it seems that this type of brake can be quite iffy in terms of management. At the moment she looks like having 6 weeks in plaster and than another 6 weeks at home getting back on her legs.

I had started to write a bit on my love of the grocery store but I don’t really know if it had any point so it can wait for another time.

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plaster from toes to mid thigh

Well Mum is not going anywhere fast. She has a leg in plaster and Matthew and I are rapidly adding to the list of reasons why the household needs a laptop. The following is the email that she dictated to Pabbi (hence it does not talk about Matthew and I) that she sent to friends and family. Saves me typing it out.

On Sunday I broke my leg. Paul is typing this for me while I lie in Helen’s bed with my right leg on a pillow. Paul has been fist class at looking after me and helping me etc over this episode

I have plaster from my toes to mid thigh.

I am pain free.

Now for the details:
The following is my own fault, I know I have a tendency to be a bit gung ho and normally I keep that well under control, but on Sunday I didn’t

On Sunday I was leading a small group on a walk from Lemon tree flat to Sentinel point and Mt Huntly (South of Cunningham’s gap) We went up a cliff break on a rope but I decided to come down without the rope. I was almost down when I slipped a bit and where my foot landed gave away, and my foot went in a hole almost to my knee, and I kept going. Before I got myself disentangled from that, I immediately I knew I had done something bad to my knee. I sat still for a while and put some more clothes on, the general consensus was that I had done a ligament bandaged my knee and walked out with the help of two walking poles and someone carried my pack. it was a slow walk. As long as I did not try a twisting movement of my knee and I walked slowly it was quite ok. We had to walk about an hour and a half before we got to the end of the 4 wheel drive road. One of the men had gone ahead and he got back there with his 4wheel drive the same time as we did. Went back to camp and had a sleep while I waited for Kay, my traveling companion to come back from her walk.

Kay packed us up and drove my car to Brisbane. Because I thought I had done a ligament I did not go to the hospital that night but hired crutches on the way home.

On Monday Paul took me to the 24 hour medical centre at Kedron and I had xrays of my knee. The GP there thinks I have fractured the top of my Tibia (shinbone) I was put in plaster (Paul did a great job of assisting the nurse as this sort of plaster is a 2 person job)

I was given a referral to a lower limb specialist but he was not open for business today, I shall call him tomorrow morning.

More news when I know more.

Meanwhile I am drowning in marking and reports. Fortunately a recently retired teacher from my school is taking my classes, by pot luck she also teaches Maths A, B and C

What she doesn’t say is that the GP said that best case scenario she is back at school in a couple of weeks, worst case scenario she may never go back to teaching. It seems that this sort of break can have all sorts of complications. We are all adapting our life to our new found situation. Once she has finished her marking, she plans to break out the embroidery etc that needs to be finished off as unfortunately unless we get a new sewing machine table there is no way she will be quilting.

I had my first exam today which I am pretty sure I did alright in, I knew which questions would be on the exam so I was able to prepare my essays beforehand. I have another exam tomorrow which is for my Ethics and International Relations subject, even more fun.

We have evolved from having a Nintendo 64 which Matthew and I were given for Christmas many moons ago to having a Nintendo GameCube that Matthew bought off eBay for cheap as people sell in preparation for getting a Nintendo Wii. I can’t wait to get Burnout for it as that is one game that I rocked at when I used to play at it my ex-boyfriend’s house. Matthew is planning on attempting to get Mum hooked into playing the games with him; however I do not see that as a likely event.

I picked up this pretty cool book in the 75% bin at Borders today – All My Life For Sale, it is the catalogue of a man selling almost all of his worldly possessions on the internet and the history and future of the items, pretty darn cool 🙂

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O Fairy, Where Art Thou?

O Fairy, Where Art Thou?
I was not studying the other night and came across this photo as I was sorting through some files and the idea that a fairy should be there came into my mind. Then as I thought more I thought of O Brother, Where Art Thou? I haven’t actually seen the movie but have heard the soundtrack a couple of times. This was taken back in March when we had a couple days of rain, not though it fell where our dams are. The dams that feed the Brisbane area have just fallen to 30% capacity, this means that we move into level 3 water restrictions. Level 3 restrictions means that we have to now use a bucket or watering can for watering or washing of cars. Brisbane is in a serious drought and the rain is rarely falling in the catchment areas for the dams 🙁 Want to read more? Water Forever – SEQ Water Saving Initiative. Back to the layout though, maybe I should have called O Rain, Where Art Thou? instead 🙂
The last couple of days I have:
  • Gone to the Lifeline Bookfest today, picked up two books and three magazines for $2
  • Listened to an interesting talk by Francis Fukuyama of The End of History fame on why he is moving away from the US government and the neo-cons, he drew attention done to some work done in comparing the Christian Reformation with the events in the Islamic world today, all really interesting stuff. The talk was given at the Philadelphia Free Library and you can go here to listen to it – Background Briefing
  • Studied some and then bludged some, need to do more of the study – First exam is on Tuesday
  • I have baked two times in the last three days – more on that to come later
  • Scrapbooked the above layout
  • Worked on Saturday as usual and head off to work at 5am in the morning like usual

This weekend is a long weekend for the Queen’s Birthday so Mum went away walking for the weekend, so we were not expecting a call this evening saying that she would be coming home early. She has had quite a serious accident, she did the proverbial broken leg in a rabbit hole, though she hasn’t broken her leg just stuffed up her knee something horrid and it wasn’t a rabbit hole either, just a hole. On our way back from picking her up from the house of the lady who drove her back to Brisbane we picked up a pair of crutches! No one in our house has ever needed crutches before! She has two weeks left of school left before the winter holidays and she has already called her boss to tell her what has happened. She also won’t be going walking anytime in the next couple of months so luckily we had decided not to the Mackay Highlands Great Walk in the holidays or that she had decided a couple of months ago to postpone her next walking trip to California to do part of the Sierra High Route from this July to next July because there is no way that would be going ahead now.
I just got this quote in my ThinkExist daily email and I quite like it 🙂

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending” – Maria Robinson

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Cinnamon Muffins

I was checking my RSS feeds yesterday when I stumbled across a recipe on Bakingsheet for Cinnamon Muffins, next thing I knew I was in the kitchen making them. 🙂 They are oh so yummy.

Cinnamon Muffins

Cinnamon Muffins
Recipe from Baking Sheet (bracketed comments are things I changed from the original recipe)
2 cups all purpose flour (1 cup plain flour & 1 cup wholemeal plain flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon (I went for a bit more than this, more like 2 tsp)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
3 tbsp vegetable oil (I used light olive because that is what we had)
1 tsp vanilla extract (I always just go for a splash)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Line 11 muffin cups with paper liners (or grease really well).
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugars and the egg until smooth. Beat in vegetable oil and vanilla. Working in 2 or 3 additions, alternate adding the flour and the buttermilk to the sugar mixture, stiring until just combined.
In a small bowl, stir together remaining brown sugar and cinnamon.
Fill each muffin cup about 1/2 full. Sprinkle with a scant 1/2 tsp of the brown sugar mixture into each cup. Evenly divide remaining batter on top and sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture. (I only did the first sprinkle of the sugar/cinnamon mixture)
Bake at 400F (200C) for 15-18 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before eating.

Makes 11 muffins.
Oh – there is one more thing to note about this recipe. I only made 11 muffins and not 12. There are two reasons for this. First of all, if you add 1/2-1 cup of nuts, chocolate chips, chopped banana pieces, etc, you will need that extra cup to use the extra batter. Second, the muffins will be puffier, with prettier tops if you make only 11.

As these were cooking, the cinnamon wafted through the house, it smelt gorgeous. 🙂 Best eaten after a short spin in the microwave to warm them up. Even better if after warming them up, you cut it in half and spread with a little bit of butter. MMMMM

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dance better at parties mixtape

I don’t know about you but I love making mixtapes (ok cds), picking a theme, choosing the songs, deciding on the order and then designing the case.

This was one I made last week for the birthday of a friend. I had a few different ideas for the mix but then it morphed into this idea of 22 songs that will help you dance better at parties, if you can dance to the 22 different songs listed you will be the life of the party, although you probably are already but that is not the point.

dance better at parties


The front cover is made from advertising material and some Making Memories wordfetti stickers. As can be seen from the back cover the entire thing is in a vellum slip case but I can’t show you the front because that would give away the secret of who is receiving it :). The back cover is made from flattened out cocktail umbrellas (I bought a box of 100 a while ago because they are so cool :D). The note on the bottom says that this CD is designed to be played one song at a time. Pick your mood and learn how to dance. 🙂
Song list is as follows

  1. Repeat it (Eric Prydz vs Retarded Phunk – Callin’)
  2. Have Some Praise (B(If)teck – We Think You’re Dishy)
  3. Sing it (Ute Lemper – Don’t Tell Mama)
  4. Shake it (unknown artist – typcial belly dancing song)
  5. Grab the Hairbrush (The Beu Sisters – You Make Me Feel Like A Star)
  6. Swing it (Acker Bilk – White Cliffs of Dover)
  7. Skank it (Reel Big Fish – Sell Out)
  8. Croon it (Rúnar Freyr Gíslason og Selma Björnsdóttir – Sumarnótt)
  9. Whip it (Devo – Whip It)
  10. Articulate it (Luciano Pavarotti – Le Donna E. Mobile)
  11. Bend it (Panjabi MC – Mudian to Bach Ke)
  12. Remember it (The Mountain Goats – Dance Music)
  13. Stamp it (James Last – Hava Nagila)
  14. Drag Queen (ABBA – Dancing Queen)
  15. Beat it, Break it (The Herd – I Was Only 19)
  16. Funk it (Michael Franti and Spearhead – Rock the Nation)
  17. Trance it (Air – Sexy Boy)
  18. Line it (Ike and Tina Turner – Nutbush City Limits)
  19. Get Down (Black Eyed Peas – Dirty Dancing)
  20. Chill it (Bernard Fanning – Wish You Well)
  21. Hunt it (Karen Kamon – Manhunt)
  22. Love it (Beyonce – Crazy in Love)

That is it.
I am feeling so much better today :D, less coughs, less snot and less phlegm. Yeah!