A Fruity Obsession

I just woke up one day and wanted some fruit…

Lately I’ve been buying quite a bit of fruit every time I do my grocery shopping. And it keeps getting worse (or better, either way you like it). Earlier this year I attempted to become healthier by buying less chocolate, chips, and so on, but I soon went back to buying it (in larger quantities), mainly because I didn’t buy any substitutes to nibble on every time I felt peckish. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I went completely overboard and bought so much chocolate I won’t say just how much it was, and subsequently ate it all over a period of 4 days. So I felt bad about it. And started buying fruit instead. Now I have a constant supply of apples, pears, mandarins, oranges, bananas; last week I even came home with two eggplants (squash), an onion, a lemon, capsicum, salad – to use in cooking/lunches. I mean, come on – onions?! Since when did I start eating onions? I’ve hated them all my life! But I used it in a meal, and it tasted delicious.

I also keep making epic (and healthy) lunches:

This looked so good it was almost a shame to eat it, but I couldn’t not eat it, because it looked so good. And it was.

It’s been a very rainy day here today, and I feel all moist, but in a good way. I think it’s finally easing now, and it’s supposedly going to be sunny and warm for the next week or so.

Also, a quick newsflash: I don’t know how much the rest of the world is actually hearing about the Hobbit and PJ vs. actors drama currently unfolding here in NZ, but down here it’s on the front page basically every day now (today’s headline reads: ‘Nats [Nationals, ed.] take up arms for [Peter] Jackson’). A fantastic blog entry by up-and-coming Wellington film maker Chaz Harris sums up the main points of the dispute so far, and thankfully he shares my exact view on the situation, so please have a read of it if you like. PJ is not the villain in this scenario.

That is all. (For now.)

Well that went just like clockwork!

I won! My Alex DeLarge outfit won first prize in my film class’ dress-up do today. It was so cool wearing it to uni, I felt pretty awesome. Several people told me it was a cool costume as we waited outside the lecture theatre, and I actually started singing ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ in the foyer… Not in a shy mood today, in other words. Or maybe I actually adopted Alex’ buoyant behaviour as well as his clothes.

The people who had dressed up had to go up on stage and introduce themselves one by one, and when it was my turn I held up my glass milk bottle and said, after I’d said I was Alex from A Clockwork Orange, that ‘I’ve even got my milk!’. One of the tutors then repeated our “names”, and whoever got the loudest applause would win. Guess who was very pleasantly surprised when the tutor said my name and the whole room erupted with applause and cheers, after very polite applause for the people before me. There were a few other people whom I thought might beat me, but according to the tutor, after everyone had had their round of applause, it was pretty clear to him who the winner was: Alex from A Clockwork Orange! What a great feeling it was to hear those words. I made a few bows and spectacular movements, in line with Alex’s strange behaviour.

First prize was two movie passes, so now I have to choose what to do with the second one – be selfish and go to the movies twice, by myself, or go with someone and treat them to a free screening? The second one is more tempting, but then the question remains; who shall I share it with?

See any resemblance? (The lecturer and the tutors took heaps of photos in the lecture today, so if/when they post them online I will post them on my blog, so you can see what other costumes I was up against.)

I spent the rest of the afternoon running around town getting my grocery shopping done, battling the ferocious wind all the time. When I finally got home it was almost tea-time, and after some time trying to decide what to make (I bought lots of yummy foods today) I finally decided on burgers. (Mmmm burgers.) I haven’t had a burger that didn’t come from McDonald’s or Burger King in at least a year (or maybe like 10 months).

They were sooo darn good. (I was starving when making dinner, hence the large number of burgers. I was close to vomiting when I forced down the last bite.)

Now I’m about to have a shower, a glass of gin and tonic, and then set out for town to see what it’s like. Friday night, wooo!

Dress-ups and presentations

Today I finally completed my Mdia102 response paper, which included a 700-800-word essay and leading a group discussion in this week’s tutorial, about the readings and the essay topic. Funnily enough, I wasn’t a bit nervous before the tutorial, and I think it went pretty well. I’m hoping it did, anyway.

After uni I went to town (for the first time in about a week, it was great!) – the sun was shining, and I was wearing a dress because it was so nice and warm. I got several compliments for it, from strangers as well as from people I know, which made me smile even wider at everyone I met. (Just for the record, here’s a picture of me wearing the same dress in January this year:)

The reason I was going to town was that I was looking for stuff I need for this dress-up thing we’re doing in my film class tomorrow, where we are supposed to dress up as our favourite celebrity, movie character or something like that. So I’ve decided to dress up as Alexander DeLarge (Alex) from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, because I find that character so fascinating. Plus I really love his outfit, and have been wanting to dress up like him for some time, but didn’t really have a reason to do so until now. There will be prizes – I really want to win!

Pretty cool, huh?

I went to several shops around town; the $2 shop, various second-hand shops and other cheap places, but everything was either not quite right or too expensive for something I’d probably only wear once, so I went to a costume place our lecturer had told us about, and they fitted me with the costume seen above (my shoes) for only $35 – I would very much like to keep the hat! I even bought fake eyelashes to wear on one eye… That’s what I call dedication!

Malcolm McDowell’s Alexander DeLarge is like Heath Ledger’s The Joker of the 1970’s – frightening; charismatic and crazy; but we still love the characters.

I also went to the supermarket, where I happened to come across a ONE News cameraman and a TV presenter hard at work in one of the aisles, and I just had to walk past them while they were filming, so somewhere in the NZ news world I will be shown on a screen, most likely tonight (I’ve been trying to locate the clip online, but so far I’ve been unsuccessful). I swear those cameras are following me…

Btw does anyone else notice how much better I’ve become at posing in front of a camera? Just thought I’d randomly throw that out there.

Crash and Burn

My least favourite way to spend a Sunday: Hungover and trying to write 1,000 words and thus finish my very important film essay. Yet that is what I have subjected myself to today. The half-finished essay can only be blamed on considerable amounts of time spent procrastinating, and the hangover can be blamed on a very foolish decision made last night, concerning a bottle of wine and some gin & tonic.

Waking up this morning was not in any way pleasant; although now, several hours later, when the hangover has subsided a little bit, I can see the humour in it. My flatmates woke me up with their usual noise, and trying not to think about how late it was bound to be, I checked the time, only to discover that it was 8:30am. Great. I’d had about 5 hours of sleep. So I got out of bed, dressed myself and stumbled out to the kitchen. There, I proceeded to make an epic breakfast, which consisted of a huge omelette, lots of toast and numerous glasses of juice. I brought the omelette back to bed with me, checked facebook, ate about 3/4 of the omelette, and went back to sleep. The next time I woke up it was 11:45am. Much better.

Since then, I’ve been drinking everything I could think of that could make me feel better; suffered a severe attack of chocolate craving; peeled an orange for the first time in years and remembered why I stopped doing that (about half the orange is now strewn all over my room); sat on my bed, back against the wall, staring at the opposite wall trying to make it stop spinning; taken deep, meditative breaths to try to control my body’s desire to vomit; and repeatedly told myself how stupid I was for drinking at all last night, when I knew that I had to finish my essay today.

I think about 95% of my brain is temporarily out of service, and I’m finding it extremely hard to write even a simple sentence. Certain words, images, even sounds, make me feel all queasy, so I’ve had a real struggle all day trying to find music that I can listen to without getting that gagging feeling. I had to unfollow someone on Twitter because he used the word ‘lol’ (blah, there it happened again) in all his tweets, which are numerous – and I can’t handle that word today.

About an hour ago I was finally beginning to feel better (at least the world wasn’t spinning as badly anymore), and then I went to the fridge and ate three crumpets. Now I feel sick again. What to do? I’ve tried like everything that has ever worked for me in the past against hangovers, but it’s just not working today. And I still have to write 1,000 words on my essay before I can go to bed tonight. Jolly good.

I swear I’m never drinking again (at least not when I know I have a really important essay due on the Monday after).

Silly, silly bugger.

Perhaps I’ve been reading too much Plato

First of all: Yes, I’m still alive. I survived the (whatever-it-was) infection and, even more impressive, the antibiotics treatment. I swear I’m still feeling groggy and a little nauseous from taking those pills. Other than that, I’m fine.

Now to what I want to discuss in this blog entry – I have some pretty far out notions about the way things happen in life, and let me just warn you now, that if you have a restricted imagination, you might as well stop reading here.

For those of you who are as open-minded as me, I would like to invite you on a short journey through my beliefs, paying particular attention to fate. I strongly believe that things happen for a reason, and that some things are simply inevitable. They are just meant to happen. Such was the case with me ending up in New Zealand. There was definitely a force beyond my control that led me to this marvellous country. Despite all the things I thought about prior to leaving, about how scary it would be; how difficult to be financially independent in another country, on a different continent, on the other side of the world; how I would miss people and the familiarity of Norway, and so on - there was nothing that could hold me back. And you know, it was only ever NZ I had my mind set on. Nowhere else. After my first stay in NZ my life had changed for good, there is no denying that. I had turned onto a new path, one that would see me return to Aotearoa 18 months later, and after I’ve been here for another 8 months I have not regretted coming back once.

What made me think about fate today was a funny episode that took place when I went to the supermarket this afternoon. For the first time in about a month I went to Pak’n’Save, which lies in a suburb of Wellington called Kilbirnie. To get there I have to catch the bus, which takes almost half an hour; that’s why I don’t go there very often (only when I have lots to buy, because it’s the cheapest place).

So I’m at Pak’n’Save, just strolling down between the aisles, when all of a sudden this guy I’m walking towards looks up from his trolley and catches my eye - so I smile at him, and he smiles back at me, and then he says ‘Oh, hi! How are you!’ Completely taken by surprise by this friendliness, I manage to say ‘I’m good, thanks, how are you..?’ He then realises that I actually don’t know who he is, and lets me know that we met last Saturday when we were both out on town, and I remember (after all, I was completely sober that night, whereas he was, as he told me today, ‘absolutely trolleyed’). He was really nice, though, and gave me his number and all. When I met him at the supermarket he apologised for the way he behaved last weekend, but really he was one of the few decent (drunk) guys I’ve talked to out on town on a Saturday night. So we chatted for a bit, and then we kept walking in different directions (although when I turned into the next aisle he was walking down it in the opposite direction, so we had to pass each other again. Awkward.).

Anyway, the point is that I have this (undesirable?) ability to read way too much into these sorts of incidents. Chance meetings, you know. Why do they happen? Has fate got something more in store for us? I realised just the other week that I believe that if something is meant to happen between two people who (may or may not) like each other, then fate will make sure that they meet, to make them realise what they want. The funny thing is that I was kind and gave this guy my number last Saturday as well, because he suggested having a coffee one day, and I (almost) never pass up on an offer of coffee, but nearly a week later I still hadn’t heard from him. And then I just randomly run into him at a supermarket I almost never go to, and he remembers me.

What made this whole event that much more intriguing is the fact that it’s the second time something like this (a chance meeting) has happened to me in two weeks. A fortnight ago I was out on town to watch a rugby match and a football game, and hoping to meet someone (not anyone, someone as in a specific person) afterwards. That person kind of got stuck somewhere on the way, so after a lot of waiting I joined a group of people at a pub, and decided to go with them when they went to another place. Guess who I just happened to run into on the way, in the middle of a crowded sidewalk? You got it, the person I’d been waiting for all night. You need to be able to imagine the overpopulated streets of Wellington on a Saturday night, especially after two wins by NZ sports teams on the very same night, to be able to fully appreciate the awesomeness of running into the one person you wanted to see, but had given up on. It’s true what they say; as soon as you stop looking for what you want, it finds you.

So if I had any participating readers, I guess this is where I would ask for your advice and comments and thoughts, but seeing as I don’t, I’ll restrain myself from doing that. Instead, I will apologise for the lack of introducing other beliefs I hold about how and why things happen, as it’s getting really late and I haven’t actually thought about anything else to write about than fate, so I’ll leave that for another time and place.

Maybe I’ll read a bit more of Plato’s ‘Timaeus’ (that’s where the original account of the legend of Atlantis comes from, for those uneducated souls out there who didn’t already know that) before I go to sleep (that’s bound to put me to sleep straight away). Actually, I quite enjoy it. It’s ironic, isn’t it, how I despise my philosophy course but read Plato for fun.

 

“Let us stay up all night and watch the stars fall down around us;

as the world breaks we shall dance in the golden showers, invincible.”

Home hospitalisation…

 

If you ever want to know what Hell feels like, you should try putting yourself in my current situation (not that I understand why anyone would want to know what Hell feels like) – I’d be happy to trade with you.

I won’t give out all the details, but the gist of it is that I suspect I have a kidney infection. What does that mean? you might wonder. Well, google it. The point is, it’s not pleasant, and it all began last night. When I realised that all was not well, I took two panadols (painkillers) and went to bed to read something for my media course. After a little while, what always happens when I’ve taken painkillers, happened: I fell asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up with my course reader cutting into my throat, realised the lights were still on in my room, and felt an excruciating abdominal pain and an intense need to, uh, pee. Fast forward to me returning to bed and wrapping myself up in my duvet and blanket and trying to ignore the pain, which also emanates from my back and sides, arms, and neck, and experiencing chills racing through my body, and a dull pain in my stomach. Then imagine me lying there for ages, writhing in agony, trying to get comfortable enough to go back to sleep, and thinking about taking more painkillers, but deciding not to do so because moving even the tiniest bit hurts so much. That pretty much sums up my night. After a while I did go back to sleep (or passed out, who knows), and when I woke up this morning I did actually feel better, but I’d decided to see the people at the Student Health Service, and I stuck to that plan.

I only have one lecture on Wednesdays, and that’s a Media Studies lecture at noon, which lasts for two hours. Seeing as my personal attendance record is perfect, I was not intending to miss or skip that lecture, so I went over to campus earlier than usual to see a nurse at the Health Service building. They got me in really quickly, and the nurse set up an appointment with a doctor after I’d seen her, because of the back pain I’m experiencing. If it wasn’t for that, she would have said that it was just a urinary tract infection and given me some antibiotics for that and sent me home. So 5 minutes later I saw the doctor, who prodded me and asked me questions, and then decided to give me some antibiotics. He didn’t specifically say what he thought it was that’s wrong with me, so at first I just assumed that it was nothing more than a UTI. However, I soon became suspicious that it was something a little more serious than that.

First of all, I can’t just write off this pain in my back as a random co-incidence, because I cannot begin to describe just how terribly painful it is. I’ve never felt anything like it. Secondly, and this is what really made me suspicious, is that when I went to the lecture afterwards, my condition definitely deteriorated. I felt sick, weak, fatigued, I got a mean headache, and throughout the two hours I spent in the lecture theatre, I had chills come over me and I sat there shivering, feeling more or less like a sack of potatoes someone had tried to teach to sit up straight and look presentable. I felt awful. Thirdly, when I got back home, I discovered that two of the main symptoms I’ve experienced are the two main symptoms of kidney infection. Fourthly, the antibiotics most commonly prescribed for UTI does not match the antibiotics I got from the doctor, so my guess is that he thinks I have kidney infection but didn’t want to say anything to me? I know it’s a little far-fetched, but even if he was being honest with me, I still think that what I’ve got is a little more serious than a UTI.

After I’d been to the lecture I decided that I was in no shape to be spending the rest of the afternoon in the library to write the rest of my philosophy essay; which meant that I had to ask for an extension. So I went looking for a form to fill out and was told that there was none – I had to talk to the course coordinator in person, or e-mail her. The receptionist I talked to also urged me to get a medical certificate from the Student Health Service, because that would definitely help. So I went back there, and talked to the most incompetent woman I’ve ever met, and left not having a clue what came out of it (if anything at all), almost in tears because I felt so sick and tired, and a little stressed out.

Then I went home, where I did everything I could to make myself comfortable, and I had a large cup of coffee, before I read on the Internet that I should avoid caffeine when I’m on antibiotics. Gosh. That means one week without coffee. If the kidney infection doesn’t kill me, the lack of caffeine surely will. At the moment I’m lying in bed wearing my pyjamas, with a hot-water bottle on my stomach, in freshly laundered sheets, listening to music and trying to ignore the thudding headache I’ve got. As much as I’d like to work on my essay, I just feel too sick to be able to concentrate. And fuck, do I want chocolate.

Right, I think it’s time for a nap now. I’m so tired and sore all over, and sleep always helps.

Same old story, reloaded

 

Ah, the break is over. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

On the one hand, it’s great to get back into the daily grind, because I love being busy, but on the other hand lies the problem that I didn’t do enough work over the break, so now I’m going to be overwhelmed by it for the rest of the trimester. I don’t like the sound (or thought) of that, especially considering how I’ve got other things I’d rather do in my spare time than read my course texts and write essays… I’m going to give out my CV to several cafès in Wellington as soon as possible as well, so if I get a job that means less spare time and less study time. Eeek.

But hey! Let’s (always) look on the bright side of life. Maybe I worry too much? Today, the first thing that met me at uni was an A for the first project we did in Film101. Now that’s good news. But instead of celebrating, I spent the entire afternoon preparing the essay that’s due in on Friday, ‘cause apparently you can’t just write a philosophy essay like you can with most other essays. You have to understand the problem and actually state your own opinion, so instead of writing a draft today (which was the initial plan), I spent several hours just reading about public art and its purpose… When I felt like I was actually ready to write something, I realised that philosophy essays are written in a completely different style than what I’m used to, so I had to look up the guidelines online and read through them, which cut back another hour of my precious time. In the end I left the library without having written a single word for the essay itself, but I think I got all the basic preparation out of the way.

And did I mention that we had like 17 degrees outside today? It was pretty awesome.

I made my fabulous chicken and corn soup (with rice) tonight, it was better than ever, and it’s the first time in ages I actually cooked a proper meal that included meat. I’m so full at the moment. I’m feeling way too content and relaxed…

All shook up!

 

That was quite some news I woke up to this morning. The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was the sunlight shining on my window, which was a pleasant surprise after the horrible weather that arrived last night, with thunder and lightning, even hail! But you know what they say: After rain comes sun…

But the stark contrast between the sunny weather in Wellington and what actually goes on out there was pointed out to me the second I went on facebook and noticed several mentionings of an earthquake by my friends in the South Island. So I went to Stuff.co.nz to see what it was all about. I instantly found that there had been a major earthquake at 4.35 am right outside of Christchurch, magnitude 7.1 (initial reports said 7.4, but it was later downgraded). Several buildings were destroyed, and roads, power lines, sewage systems, water pipes etc suffered severe damage in many parts of the region. Luckily no deaths had been reported. The quake was strong enough to be felt over most parts of the South Island, and reports also claim that it was felt by some as far north as Wellington and Palmerston North. Personally, I don’t think I felt anything, although I did have a very uneasy sleep and woke up several times during the night. One of those times it may have been due to the earthquake, but I don’t know. If you’re interested in seeing photos of the destruction, this is a good site: Quake photos – they are constantly updated, as well.

 

I was supposed to spend as much time as possible today writing a philosophy essay which is due in next Friday, so that I can go out tonight feeling that I’ve done something productive, but I’ve just wasted away 4 hours keeping up to date with what’s happening down in the South Island, instead. The fact that it’s a beautiful day in Wellington doesn’t make it any easier to stay inside, either. I actually turned my desk away from the window so I won’t have to look at the perfect, blue sky while I’m trying to study… Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

I’m craving lollies/chips/chocolate. And I don’t have any. Aaaaah.

Flowers in Spring, Surprises in the Mail and Nothing in the Fridge

 

Today is the third day of spring. Yes, I do know that I’m a little behind (what’s so special about it being the third day? I should have done this on the first day of spring), but I have a tendency to refuse to go with the flow, so when “everyone” was going on about the arrival of spring a few days ago, I chose to ignore it. That’s just what I do.

 

Wellington was almost as good as it gets today. At least up until now. A southerly change is expected this afternoon, and judging by the thick clouds that have suddenly appeared, we can expect some nasty weather real soon. This morning (while the sun was still shining from a spotless sky) I went to Exodus, a gym in the city, to work out (I was given a 7-day trial a couple of days ago), but I didn’t feel too great, so after I’d walked all the way to the gym I decided to give it a miss. Instead, I went for a stroll in the city; I even ventured into the supermarket, which is a very dangerous place for me at the moment, considering I’ve got less than no money for another week. The prospect of being penniless for that long does not appeal to me (I miss having a steady income!), and I could see it happening already last Monday, so on Wednesday I went down to the headquarters of Mojo to inquire about barista training and potentially a job, and was told by the friendly staff to give them my CV, and they would get back to me. If I get a job with them, they provide the training for free.

When I got back from the city I checked our mailbox, and it’s usually quite boring unless I’m expecting something, and at the moment I’m not, so it was a lovely surprise when I opened the mailbox only to find a very interesting-looking envelope, which had my name on it! Upon closer inspection I found that it was from Sony Music NZ, one of my Twitter friends. A couple of weeks ago they gave me two tickets to the preview of Going the Distance – you know what I’m talking about. Excited as a 4-year old on Christmas Eve I ran up to my flat, and opened the envelope. It contained a CD – the Going the Distance soundtrack, in fact. Free stuff = a happy student.

I then proceeded to make lunch. And I was scared by how everything I’ve got in the fridge disappears at a much faster rate than I can afford. I reckon that by Sunday night I’ll be out of ham, cheese, salad, cucumber and eggs, and I can’t buy more of it until next Thursday. Le sigh. Plain toast and coffee it is, then.