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When it comes to the little things not much has changed.

I was flicking through old posts and I came across this one from 2008, 100 things in the world I love.

Really not much has changed since I made that post on Nov 24, 2008. Speaking of the number 8, this little corner of the Internet that I call my own turns 8 in March! Wow!

Here is the list from 2008, I’ve changed one or two

1. Dew drops
2. Jacarandas
3. Botanical gardens
4. Hot chocolate
5. Live music
6. Christmas ornaments
7. Honeygold Mangoes
8. Kitchenware stores
9. Salad
10. Gum trees
11. Oxfam
12. Lavender
13. The markets
14. Liberty prints
15. Thunderstorms
16. Ginger beer
17. Soft hair (I’m guessing I meant freshly washed hair)
18. Photography
19. The sound of cicadas
20. Folk
21. Msn Ahh the days of MSN Messenger and ICQ before that. Nowadays it is Skype, sweet sweet Skype.
22. The Mountain Goats
23. Ginger nuts
24. Patterns
25. Postcards
26. Christmas
27. Mowing the lawn
28. The smell of the rain
29. Polished floors
30. Going bush
31. The dairy section
32. Dresses
33. Window seats
34. Handkerchiefs
35. Pesto
36. Pain au Chocolat
37. Cherries
38. Colour
39. Falling snow
40. Reading
41. Cloves
42. Country roads
43. Rocking chairs
44. DIY
45. My family
46. Fresh flowers
47. The Farm
48. Roast chicken
49. Book shops
50. Pot plants
51. Sea kayaking
52. Soup
53. Lush
54. Melbourne
55. Pink (colour)
56. ABC Fora. Now rebadged as ABC Big Ideas -> I still love it.
57. Recycling
58. Girraween
59. Bed linen
60. SES
61. My camera
62. Morocco
63. The beach
64. 4zzzfm
65. Cooking
66. Marigolds
67. Bollywood
68. Cake
69. Central Asia
70. Tupperware
71. The library
72. Free range eggs
73. Kitchen aid
74. Iceland
75. Weddings
76. Ice cream
77. Fairy lights
78. Rosemary
79. Milk
80. Internet banking
81. Ikea
82. Henna
83. Lip balm
84. Brisbane
85. Green grass
86. Water
87. Tetris I used to play a lot of Tetris. I’ll insert Figgjo Flint Lotte in on this line I think.
88. Pasta
89. Laughter
90. Jam jars
91. Wattle
92. Friends
93. Sunshine
94. Woodford
95. Quotes
96. Nectarines
97. Pretty things
98. Smiles
99. Fireworks
100. Life

Only one really big change, the other two are just changes to bring them up to 2013. There are a couple of other entries that I could have changed but it was a hard call.

H

 

 

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Graduated

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks and the next couple of weeks are going to be just as crazy. I had a post typed up the other week when uni results were released but my phone ate. Suffice to say I did exceptionally well on the exam that I was sure I had bombed out on. Exceptionally well in the sense of jumping round the house like a Maasai at 6:30 in the morning excited.

 

Graduated!

Last Thursday night, I tripped the light fantastic across the stage of the Concert Hall at QPAC. Level of overall excitement that night? Oh, about 300%. This graduation ceremony meant 500 times more to me than my undergraduate ceremony Looking back at that post now makes me realise just how much I’ve changed in the last six years! To start with I now own more pairs of heels than I do flats! I also graduated with a full mouth of teeth (the fake tooth that I had back in 2006 broke the day before the ceremony). Just like my undergrad there was only a small number of people graduating with my degree (13 grads and 5 of us at the ceremony). Unlike my undergrad though, I knew just about everyone graduating with my degree (Graduate Diploma in Business – Professional Accounting) and those who graduated with the Masters as we’ve all done at least 75% of our subjects together. This of course meant that before the ceremony, during the ceremony and afterwards there was lots and lots of excited chatter, hugs, drinks and celebrations.

 

My dearest friend sent me flowers at work which of course made a bit of an emotional mess as it had been a roller coaster day at work. I also got some more flowers, cards, a graduation bear and a bottle of bubbles which made me feel very loved. I’ve had a lot of support from those I work with the last 2.5yrs since I returned from uni and as one of the ladies said “it feels like we are all graduating with you”, so true.

Graduation Flowers

The Accountancy school lucked out and got the evening graduation ceremony. Mum had arrived the night before and was ever so kind to drop me at work in the morning with all my accoutrements. I got ready at work, with a flat iron plugged in beside the ECG machine and a revolving stream of work mothers taking photos, rearranging my dress and what not else. Then it was onto QPAC for the real deal to begin. I met up with T who I started with two years ago and we went off to get robed and played a game of Cinderella trying to find mortarboard that were exactly the right size. Once we were robed it was time for a celebratory glass of bubbles.

 

Graduated!

 

There was then more bubbles and hot chips to give us fuel for the next few hours before we lined up for photos, photos and photos.  Before we knew it it was time for us to head back stage again for our final briefing. We thoroughly enjoyed walking the hallways of backstage at QPAC. It was quite something.  Seats were found on stage and then it was a briefing and then we watched our family start to stream in.  After a bit of waving and pointing Mum found me on stage.

I was the 182nd person to graduate on Thursday night. That was a lot of names to read out before me! QUT was live streaming the grad ceremonies but unfortunately only two people I know were able to watch the stream. For the rest of my family and friends the website kept crashing. 🙁 🙁 🙁

When the ceremony was finally over after much, it was time for lots more hugs, excited chatter and what not with another round of celebratory bubbles. Smiled so much all night. Then we had to return our gowns and head back to reality. Reality for me is just under seven weeks left at my current work before I head off into the big accounting world. Going to be a bit of a change!

Graduated!Graduated!

and that is how I graduated last Thursday night.

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The sweet smell of November rain

The house is filled with the sweet smell of November rain mingled with the perfume of the Mock Orange.

The street is filled with the soft patter of rain drops, the Four Tops from next door and the sound of whistles and yelling carrying up the hill from the netball.

The makings of Christmas presents cover the living room floor and the kitchen table.

There is  big container of dried fruit soaking in rum and spices in the pantry.

There is only a few days left till the calendar reads December.

 

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Bubbles and more bubbles means Uni is finished.

So I’m getting not so subtle hints from various people that since Uni is now finished I need to update my little place on the internet more often.

Yep.

Uni is finished.

I’m currently not so patiently waiting for my results. As I’ve mentioned previously, the two subjects I did this past semester were hard.  QUT also ever so kindly scheduled my final exam for 5:30 on a Friday night. It also earns the title of hardest exam I’ve ever done, both in my undergrad and postgrad lives. It was the exam where we all walked out at the very end of the time and looked at each other and just went “mmm, well that was fun”. Still it was the last exam and we celebrated like the good postgrad students we are with cheap bubbly and plastic cups.

 

We then celebrated again with a long lunch and more expensive bubbly  the following week after T had her last exam.  It was a lovely lunch, there was eight of us who started together two years ago and now we were all finished.  We’ve all gone or are going into very different aspects of the accounting/finance world but we’ve all toiled together over the past semesters.

 

Since then I’ve enjoyed doing a lot of sweet nothing. It’s been fantastic to no longer be reading text books on the bus to and from work or falling asleep on the aforementioned books. Coming home from work and just kicking back on the patio with a drink and watching the world go by. In saying all that I’ve also done a whole lot of everything else as well. There’s been road trips, cleaning, early family Christmas, shopping, gardening and hanging out with those dear friends who let me go radio silent during the semester. Now the count down is on to graduation and Christmas.

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happythankyoumoreplease

watched Happythankyoumoreplease the other week whilst on sick leave and whilst parts were weird, parts were sad and parts were darn funny. There was this one scene that just about summed up a part of me oh so very well. More so than I think I’ve ever summed it up myself.

Annie: So, what got you into photography?

Sam #2: Oh, I wouldn’t call it photography.

Annie: What would you call it?

Sam #2: I love taking pictures, I guess.

Annie: Okay. Well, why do you take pictures?

Sam #2: Umm.. I don’t know. When I see something I like looking at, I get to keeping looking at it.

That last line, right there. Yep. “When I see something I like looking at, I get to keep looking at it”. That’s why I take pictures. I like how something looks, or the way the light falls on an item. I take a picture and then I get to keep looking at it.

These are three such pictures.

Daffodils, driedBreadcrumbsWattle

H.