Claire's Blog...Stuff that came into me hed.
Claire is feeling 
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About me: I'm 23 years old, female, and I live in Sydney (yes, in Australia.)
You can see the rest of my page here, but there's not much at the moment.
Write to me at unwittyname@hotmail.com
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Monday, August 26, 2002
Here's one I prepared earlier:
Well, my new shoes are just killing the back of my heels. I have resorted to preventative bandaiding in order to prevent the whole back of my foot being worn away. I still love my shoes, though. Any suggestions on how I can get them to behave?
I'm on hold to talk to a bank person at the moment. Luckily not my bank, just checking some details. They have very nice hold music. Probably a plot to make me feel like I'm sitting in a jazz bar sipping a G&T rather than sitting in an office on hold for ever, to stop me from turning into an irascible evil customer. It's working so far. It's Monday, though! Dang. I hate the way they play lovely hold music and then interrupt it every 30 seconds to thank you for waiting and apologise for the delay. Not only does it disturb your listening pleasure, it also makes you think "oh, oh, my time has finally come, I finally get to talk to someone!!" and then you get the recorded message again. It just raises your hopes and dashes them again.
And now for something completely different...
Further to my rant about being on hold on the telephone, I was amazed when I got through to my mobile phone company with no wait last time I tried to call them. Their previous record is not good: when my phone was stolen earlier this year, and I rang them, they had a recorded message on saying that they were experiencing delays of up to 25 minutes in answering calls. Under other circumstances, I would have hung up then and there and tried later, but since my phone had been stolen, I wanted to lock it so that what ever lowlife scum had taken it couldn't use up all my credit (yee haa for pre paid!), and time was of the essence. Anyway, I rang and sat on hold for nearly half an hour, and then I got the ringing tone. My excitement was replaced with bewilderment when the line went silent. I didn't get a person, I didn't get hold music, and I didn't get an engaged tone, it was just silence. Now, in hindsight I realise that I should have cut my losses at that point and tried again, but bear in mind:
1. By that stage I had already been holding for nearly half an hour,
2. I was at friends' house, and I was embarassed at taking up their phone for such a long time
3. My phone had just been stolen out of my handbag which I had carelessly left sitting on a chair while I did the washing up at church .
4. It was about 11pm on a Sunday
5. By the time I had been holding for 25 minutes, all of the credit on my phone could easily have been used up.
That was a while ago now, it's probably time I got over it.
I've been trying to clean up my room, mainly because I'm sick of being knee deep in junk, but also because my Grandad made me a lovely little set of shelves, and I need to find somewhere to put them. So far, I have only managed to throw some junk in boxes, but this is a start. I look at all the things I own, and I think that I should be able to throw out about ¾ of the stuff I own, but so far I only have half a fruit box of things I want to give away, and a fair amount of crap that I put straight in the bin. It's weird, because I don't think I'm a particularly "things" person. Every article I own is either a "favourite", eg. my favourite little handbag, my favourite jumper(s), etc., or else it's something I keep because it might be useful even if I'm not particularly interested in it, eg. my enormous black backpack, all the t-shirts that I only ever wear under the favourite jumpers, etc. Why can't I just get rid of all the "non-favourite" items? I think the answer is that I'm afraid that if I throw out all those maybe-useful things, I will one day need them, and I will have to go out and buy a similar item, which would be a waste. I come from a family of hoarders. Mum's family all hoard books, and Dad and his father both hoarded tools and various bits and pieces for making things out of. I realise that hoarding cramps your life and actually prevents you taking up opportunities, but I am still pretty heavily ensnared in the hoarding way of life.
8:26 PM
Sunday, August 25, 2002
Ripped off! I was just trying to do the National IQ Test. You have to do the thing in one hit, and it's timer based so that you can't skip on even if you know the answer really quickly. There are 76 questions, and I got to question 41 and the danged thing stalled!!! I have emailed them to ask if I can get back on the train at question 41, because I really can't be bothered doing the whole thing again, and apart from all else, it invalidates the test if you get to do half of it twice (ie. with double the thinking time.)
I went to Bodhi (wow, I think that page is an antique) for lunch with Craig and his mum, Lyn. It was really nice because often Craig and I go by ourselves (and we don't get to try as many dishes, however hard we try). Overall, I think about 6 is the best number to take to yumcha, but that means for the really yummy dishes you have to get two, which can be vexing, and trying to get 6 people to make decision is hell. Maybe 3 is better, since there are often 3 items in a dish. Oh well, however many people you go with, they have to be friends (preferably the kind of friends that don't mind if you split a prized item by biting it in half).
I have been to yum cha a few times lately, but I'm at the point of swearing off any yum cha that is not vegetarian. I went to yum cha with some people from work a couple of weeks back, and all I got to eat was chinese broccoli and noodles, but since the others were having crab and calamari I still paid $17 for it. Non-vegies often don't recognise small amounts of meat in things, and sometimes have the illusion that there is a wide range of veggie food when in reality there is sweet FA. Example: my lovely Craig took me to yum cha and was raving about the lovely yam cakes he had experienced there. He swore blind that these were vegetarian, and I consumed several before realising that they contained sausage...and in fact, I had to consult someone else to confirm that this was the case. Also (and this is becoming a rant, but I am spiralling downwards out of control), the next person who says a dish is vegetarian and then in the same breath or when later questioned admits it contains fish or prawns, will get my chopstick in their eye! I know yum cha restaurants are not alone in thinking that fish is vegetarian [I've encountered a number of pubs and clubs who, in a manner reminiscent of the knee-jerk reflex, suggest "seafood basket" as a vegetarian alternative, and then look at you like you are from another planet when you reply that you do not eat fish] but it is quite another thing to quite brazenly call a dish "vegetarian" (and by this I mean either: naming the dish as vegetarian, responding in the affirmative when asked if it is vegetarian, or listing only the vegetable ingredients when questioned about its contents and it contains fish or meat as well eg: "spring vegetable" dumplings which also contain prawn, "taro puffs" which also contain some miscellaneous type of meat) when it is not.
I think my writing style is becoming less accessible, looking at the above paragraph, and if there was a prize for the greatest number of parenthesised subordinate clauses in a single sentence, that last sentence would win it.
I'd better finish my ranting now, as there were other things I wanted to do before I went to church. Seeya!
5:11 PM
Saturday, August 24, 2002
I forgot to mention yesterday that I bought a gorgeous new pair of shoes. I'm trying to find a picture...proving more difficult than I thought. Oh well, they're Colorado, they're black leather, and they're a mary-jane kinda style called "Auburn". They weigh about 5 kilos each, which I'm hoping will mean that they last for a long time - my last pair of mary janes lasted for only 3 months, but admittedly they were from Target.
To my great surprise yesterday, the woman in the shoe shop was really useful. I'm used to the kind of shoe shop where you go in, find something you like, try to flag down a sales assistant and say "Excuse me, could I try this on in about a 9?" to which the answer very often is no because the shoe you so loved was a remnant and all that's left is a pair of size 5½ and one of size 12 or something. So you can see that I'm used to a classy shopping experience. But this woman, when I asked the aforementioned question, said: "Sure, but would you like me to measure your foot first to make sure that's the correct size?" I haven't had my foot measured since I was a kid, I always defined my foot size by whatever shoe I could jam it into. But get this: my feet are only a size 7 in length, but because they are so wide I have to wear a 9. No kidding. Unless you can find someone who makes about a 7G fitting. Dang. But anyway, the woman went away to get my shoes, and she brought back two pairs which were about the size I was looking for, and another two pairs of a similar style. And while I tried them on, we chatted about how nice Colorado shoes are and that they have some fancy insides which dry out really quickly and don't get pongy. I was by this stage completely in love with the shoes and I decided to buy them, even though they cost me $100AU (which sounds like less if I say it as $54 US, or £35.53, or 55.67 Euros, or 11 galleons, 3 sickles and 12 knuts [link pinched from Heather] but is basically a lot of money to spend on a pair of shoes, at least for me.)
I wrote a whole bunch of other things here, but then something weird happened and I lost it all. Dang. One more observation: for me, my perception of my body changes when I shave my legs. No joke. This morning, I decided to shave my legs, and after I had done that, I went at them with the loofah gloves to make them all smooth. Then I put some lavender smelling moisturiser on them, and while I was doing this, I realised that my feet were pretty dry, so I put some cream on them too. So I went from feeling hairy to feeling smooth and good-smelling. This leads me to think that although I strongly feel that one should not feel bad or unattractive because one does not shave one's legs, to dismiss the whole idea as being sexist or pandering to an unrealistic expectation of beauty would have deprived me of that lovely kinaesthetic experience of having smooth legs. But I don't know where the addiction line is, where you don't feel okay unless you have smooth legs. Hard. Don't want to end up on the slippery slope over this one.
2:53 PM
Friday, August 23, 2002
Tee hee.
You can probably tell that I had a day off today. Yay, I love flex time! This morning, I went to my old stinky bank to close my old stinky accounts which they were charging me $5.00 a month to maintain. Then I went to my new bank and deposited the booty. In between times, I had a frighteningly large amount of money (ok, not that frightening, I'm pretty po) on my person, so it was lucky that the two banks are virtually next door to eachother. Following this, I went to the doctor to ask her to check out my frightening knees - my knees creak very audibly when I go upstairs or bend them while putting weight on them. I was freaked out because I was sure there was something drastically wrong with them that would require amputation or a wheelchair, but apparently it's quite common to have squeaky joints. This is a great relief, as I have been putting off going to the doctor for some time and feeling disproportionately ashamed of my squeaky knees (viz. "I'm so fat I broke my knees!")
The most gorgeous thing happened to me on Wednesday night. Craig, my sweet lovable boyfriend, rang me at about 4.35pm. He said that his computer had crashed, and he was calling me while it rebooted. I was really surprised and touched by this, because he doesn't usually ring me for no reason, and it was lovely to know that he was thinking about me. Imagine my surprise, then, when I got a call from reception half an hour later announcing that he was downstairs! It turned out that he had been nowhere in the vicinity of his computer at the time he rang me, and just wanted to make sure I was still at work (a deception of which I readily forgave him). He gave me some lovely pink tulips and we went out for a drink together. Awwww! It just made my day.
Craig and I have been together for nearly 3 years, which is an unfathomably long time for one such as me, who had no love life to speak of prior to meeting aforementioned sweetheart. It's good to know that it works out sometimes. Of course, now that I've said that, I've jinxed us and we'll have to break up, so *touch wood*.
It was Mum's birthday on Thursday. I gave her a pad of rainbow coloured paper and 2 movie tickets. We had vegetable korma for dinner (prepared by me) and banana cake (cooked by Abby). Mum liked it, even if Grandad wasn't a fan. Grandad gave me a gorgeous little set of shelves, designed to fit in a corner. Apparently, these were my birthday present, but I didn't expect them because my birthday was nearly 3 months ago. I'll have to go and shift some rubble in my room to find some space for them!
3:57 PM
Tuesday, August 20, 2002
The most embarassing thing happened to me today. I have been reading a couple of Harry Potter fan fics by the wonderful Arabella. Several of the people at work found out (must have been the mysterious smile on my face :-)) and asked me to forward them on. Which I did. The next thing I know, I find a print copy of the aforementioned fan fics on my desk, with a post-it from my boss who said "I'm not sure this is such a good idea" (it was probably a hundred pages.) I was called into his office to discuss it... The worst thing by far, though, was the fact that he identified the printout as my property because it was still attached to an email I had sent to my sister last Friday, saying how bored I was and that I was planning to go home early because all our bosses were away! Talk about totally sprung!!!! I have identified the culprit and confiscated her desk minties in retaliation.
10:02 PM
Sunday, August 18, 2002
Yes, it really is half-past-two in the morning. Among my many interesting lives (heh) I am a volunteer telephone counsellor. Right at the moment I am doing an all night shift, from midnight to 7 am. I haven't had a call in about an hour and a half, so I'm feeling pretty cruisy. I have unchallenged access to the computer at the moment, which is nice. I just tried to do an IQ test (I love online tests) which is probably not the most sensible thing to do at 2.30 in the morning (brain probably not functioning at its peak) but I think I'd actually done the test in question before, so maybe it evens out. In any case, the page stuffed up on me and I can't do any more. *Pouty face*
I was watching Rage before, and a couple of guys from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (I don't know if I've heard of them before, maybe I've been hiding under a rock) were programming. I don't know what it is about being on that couch, but the guest programmers give you the distinct feeling of being either bored, shifty or half asleep. They looked a fair bit like how I feel, actually. I got to see what NIN look like, which was interesting. Made me think of when I was 15 and I would only wear black clothes (oh dear, I sound like an oldie now!!!) I wish I'd been a goth. Actually, there were a number of good reasons why I wouldn't have made a very good goth:
1. I like the natural colour of my hair, and it's nothing at all like black (I prefer to refer to it as "butterscotch" cf. "Dream Brother" by Jeff Buckley, just FYI.)
2. My skin is too pink, so I'd have to put something on it to make it look whiter, which is very far above my care factor
3. I smile too much to be convincing as a goth.
4. I could never quite manage the idea of being Christian and a goth. I know now that there are christian goths, but I didn't find out about them until much later (I'm not sure they had the internet when I was 15!) and I don't know how much I would have had in common with those guys, anyway.
So I guess in summary I just liked dressing in black and I was an angry hormonal 15 year old, not a new story.
Watching rage made me think about what songs/clips I'd play if I could. I came up with:
1. No Rain - Blind Melon <- I adore that song and the clip.
2. All I want is you - U2 (Really cool clip which tells a story. I saw this first when I was about 9 and it made me so sad - I didn't remember seeing the guy standing over the grave until I saw it again really recently, and it put a whole new complexion on it. If you haven't seen the clip, this won't make any sense to you, so don't even try.)
3. Yellow Submarine - The Beatles <- or is the animation I'm thinking of from the movie??
4. Something by Ben Lee. I know I've seen some clips from the album "Breathing Tornados" which were kinda cool (A diversion: I liked "Something to Remember Me By" far better than the album that followed it, "Breathing Tornados". In the hype before the release of BT, Ben got into a lot of trouble for claiming that his album was "The Best Ever Australian Album", which got a lot of noses out of joint. I commented to a friend of mine that it couldn't be the best ever Australian album (not that there was much of a risk of that, sorry) because the one before it was better! Neither of us thought that it would be good to tell Ben this. Come to think of it, I was a much bigger fan of Ben Lee before I'd seen him live: he's got a bit of an ego.))
Anyway, that was as far as I'd gotten without adding "Startrekkin" (tee hee), and although I think it was a very cute video, I think it would just spiral downwards after that.
It's nearly 4am and still no calls. I guess it's a quiet night. It's all good.
3:37 AM
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Heather asked me just now if I'd updated my blog lately...it's been nearly a month! Trouble is, when I have time to write, my life is so boring that I have nothing interesting to write about. Not fair.
At the moment I am excited about: Having a day off next friday. I don't have any plans for it so far. Sweet idleness.
My new bank account. Ok, I know that sounds lame, but I finally get to give the finger to the evil Commonwealth bank, and go flog my hippy ideals at Bendigo Bank, who are not evil. And I have a new Visa/Debit card, which is sky blue and has a hologram sticker kind of thing on it. And they gave me a fluoro yellow piggy bank!!!
Sleep. I need more of. Very soon.
10:19 PM
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