am I there yet?

The blinking cursor...

Both a help and a hindrance I say. It blinks, mocking me that I can't think of what to write. But it's blinking puts me into a trance and I go into the recesses of my brain and BOOM I think of something amazing and I quickly type it out, not caring about spelling mistakes or grammar - just get it onto the screen and press CTRL+S.

There are 273 until my draft thesis is due.

There are 294 days until my thesis is due for submission.

There are 315 days until I defend said thesis.

There are three-hundred and fifteen days until I become a qualified field epidemiologist (God willing).

I'm not worried about it. Sure, you might be thinking I'm making it worse for myself by counting down, but actually knowing what I face is allowing for a sense of understanding and clarity in what I have to get done.

What I'm really worried about is the sheer volume of paperwork and reports and shit I've got to write in professional language, no "you spread the poo on the plate" or "yeah, something like that and then stuff happens" and no use of slang or jargon.... no, it needs to be clear and concise but not truncated, descriptive but not superfluous, and eventually these will all be criticised and edited and re-criticised and re-edited not only by my three supervisors, but the multitude of people I am lucky enough to be collaborating with.

Right now I'm working on a paper about Barmah Forest virus, and whilst I know what I want to say, I don't know how to put it into the professional manner required. So I continue to stare at the blinking cursor and type to you all about it, because I need to get this off my chest. 

Midnight Dark

One of the things I love about travelling is food, especially confectionery. I'm not a huge sweet tooth, but I do like a chocolate bar every now and again. 

So naturally I brought back almost 10kg worth of food from my trip to New York, Pittsburgh, London and Varese. Slowly I'll make my way through the stash and let you know what I think of them. 

The first one I've tried is the Milky Way Midnight Dark.

Frankly, it's weird. It's more like a Mars Bar than a Milky Way with the caramel, the dark chocolate taste yuck and the white fluffy stuff is tasteless. 

So overall I wouldn't buy it again and much prefer the Australian Milky Way. 

yet another list

There's no denying it, I love to make lists.

And as per tradition, each year I make a list of things to do before my next birthday. It started when I was 17, so I could say I'd done things before I was legal, and then so I could say what I'd done as a teenager, and then before I turned 21, and it just kept going and going.

Some years I am more successful than others. Some years I am lazy and put things on there that I know are inevitable (like last year I put "finish one Masters degree). Some times I put things on their that are just plain stupid (going to a nudist beach?) and other times things that are not (save over $2,500).

However, as this year is already booked with three major dates, and the big 3-0 looming ever closer, I have decided to amalgamate the next two years into one giant list - things to do before I'm thirty.

Can you believe this little girl will be 28 in two weeks?!

The idea came up last night over dinner with friends when discussing the fact that you can't get working holiday visas after the age of 30 and so it'd be stupid for me not to take the opportunity next year to take some time off after graduating and work overseas for fun (Argentina, France, Chile, Germany... there's so many options)

My three major dates

I've already had some input, but am looking for more ideas. I'll have the list up as a separate page on this blog, and then whenever I achieve something I'll update you about it.

FYI, my birthday is in 16 days.

and so it begins

I am a firm believer of how you spend New Years Eve determines how you spend the rest of the year.

Call it superstitious or stupid or whatever, but it makes me happy and that's all that matters. Let's look back at the last few years and see how it plays out...

2011

I faced spending NYE as the third wheel to my friend and her boyfriend in Berlin and thereby being awkwardly alone under the Brandenburger Tor in snow with broken wellies, frozen feet and generally feeling miserable. Instead I ditched them and went back to London to spend a great night singing Barbara Streisand, making emu hands and generally having a good time. 

In London welcoming in 2011

2011 subsequently was spent making my own decisions despite what other people felt or may have wanted, moving back to Melbourne and then on to Perth, starting my first Masters degree and generally having a good time. 

2012
I spent a lovely, quiet evening with people [who are now rather good friends], eating, drinking and blowing up things. 

We won $40 with this lottery ticket

2012 was then spent getting to know these people more, making great new friends, getting myself into a great relationship, working hard on my first Masters and generally figuring out who I was and where I was going. 

2013
I spent in Melbourne with my then boyfriend and rather disappointingly we couldn't really see the fireworks, we didn't kiss at midnight and overall it was a shoddy night. 

[I don't have any photos of this night because either a) we didn't take any or b) I deleted them all when we broke up]

It's no surprise then that in 2013 we broke up, I had a really tough year doing two Masters degrees (I brought that upon myself really), I wondered who I am, whether I actually was listening to what God has planned for my life, where mistakes were made, and whilst there were some amazing times, overall 2013 was a shoddy year and I'm glad it's over. 

SO... going in to 2014, how did I see in the New Year? 

In a bar in the West Village of New York City with my amazing little brother and a whole bunch of other Aussie travelers we met at our hostel, drinking and kissing randoms and laughing so much and I don't really remember much after midnight other than the next morning I was disasterously sick, but in hindsight whilst I had a hangover I also had the flu (yes, the FLU, not some stupid cold, the actual flu. No, it's not laboratory confirmed, but trust me, it was the flu) which meant I spent the first day of the year relaxing in bed. 

Gotta love the cheesy hats!

Good to see I still have the hat on!

Here's to a fantastic 2014 - to making new friends, to working my ass off finishing my second Masters degree, to getting at least three articles published, to kissing, to drinking and to being merry. 

One more day

We we're supposed to go to Pittsburgh to go hang with my favourite Kara but alas there's a snow storm a comin' and so our bus got cancelled and so we have to stay in NYC one more night. Which whilst is sad cause I wanna go see the 'Burgh, it's good cause we (my brother and I) can do another touristy thing tomorrow, like see Central Park or Harlem or something.

It's been great so far - totally have not done half of what I wanted to but what I have seen/done has been fantastic. Random food purchases, amazing shopping, great people - New York City has treated me well.

So here's praying that the snow storm calms down and I'll be on a bus tomorrow at 5pm!