Environmental tip of the week

Aussie word of the day: feral = wild, unruly person, sometimes used to describe children, "Look at the little ferals playing."

Hello everyone! Just enjoying a little cold spell here in Perth at the moment before the springtime settles in over the next few weeks bringing lots of hot weather with it.

As Australia is a VERY environmentally conscious country and America is becoming more so each year, I thought it would be relevant to heed the advice of those who know what it's all about. My new Australian environmental contributor is bringing us a most useful green tip this week.

1. Buy a box of the glad zip lock bags

2. When you buy meat from the supermarket it nearly always needs to be repackaged for freezing so split the meat into appropriate zip lock bags and freeze.

3. When you want to have the meat for dinner remove the meat from the bag and place in fridge on a plate.

4. Promptly put the bag straight back into the freezer. This bag can then be used over and over again.

I have been using the same bunch of zip lock bags for over a year and all is good. Saves you money and the environment…

How's that guys? Four simple steps and you are off to a greener planet! Cheers!

Malvern Star

Aussie word of the day: mince = ground beef, a la the mince meat pie, which are very popular to eat in Oz.

I have attached a picture of the original Malvern Star bicycle circa 1970's. This photo was found on eBay as these original Malvern Star bikes are now vintage collector's items. This is the same brand as the bike I now own. The following is a little bit about this Australian invented bicycle brought to you courtesy of my Australian contributor, The Prock.

In 1902 Tom Finnigan began Malvern Star in Glenferrie Road, Malvern, a leafy inner east suburb of Melbourne, Australia. From it's early beginnings Malvern Star set about delivering a range of bicycles built to the highest standards. Malvern Star has created its' own history with the first ever Australian to ride the Tour de France, Sir Hubert Opperman, doing so aboard a Malvern Star, and later going on to win the famous Paris-Brest-Paris race in France and in doing so setting a new record time for the event. Many years later at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics the Australian Team Pursuit aboard what were considered standard track bicycles beat the much favoured USA Team riding the latest in bicycle technology, carbon fibre.

In addition to the Malvern Star, some of Australia's better known inventions include such things as the Hills Hoist, a square rotating clothesline with a crank for "hoisting" the laundry up; boxed wine, technically referred to as a wine cask; latex gloves and the notepad.

Such is Life

Aussie word of the day: push bike or pushy = bicycle, "I rode my pushy to work."

The title of this blog, Such is Life, was originally coined by notorious Australian outlaw, Ned Kelly right before he was hung. He was the Australian Jesse James.

FINALLY! a moment to write, but only a stolen moment. As a few of my dedicated readers pointed out to me, I haven't posted a blog in a while, so I am taking some time out of my very full week to let you all know that I am still alive, but just. My brain is overwhelmed and overworked with reading textbooks and handouts and preparing assignments and writing academic blogs. I like being back at school, but no one said the fun would last forever. The nitty gritty part of school life has commenced.

My big achievement in the last week, however, was not school related. I bought a bike last weekend (see photo). The task of shopping for a used bike I quickly learned to loathe, but was finally blessed in finding one with gears that didn't slip and handle bars that didn't melt to your hand as you gripped them. After I bought my girly purple bike I celebrated by going to the beach with my friends. That's me (above) at Cottesloe beach. People flocked to the beach Saturday for a chance to get some sun and enjoy the "unusually" warm weather.. 80 degrees, unusual for this time of year. Sunday the weather was back to shit again, but I braved the rains and ventured to the Subiaco markets for some cheap, but delicious fresh produce and buttery croissants. Despite the rainy weather, half of Perth decided to go to the markets that day as well. It was nearly impossible to squeeze through the throngs of market-goers, all vying for the best and cheapest produce around.

After my bike purchase, I decided I should forgo my weekly pub/ club visit as my money is quickly dwindling. The purse strings get a little tighter as each week passes without a job under my belt. Getting a job will be my next major achievement, although I've heard and witnessed it is not hard to get one. There's currently an employee shortage in Perth due to the mining boom in the northern part of the state. I found out this morning at my aqua aerobics class that they pay $45 per hour for aerobics instructors! I'm considering getting certified for aqua aerobics as well as lifeguard certification.. lifeguards make $25 an hour. What kind of job do you think I should get? Something casual like a waitress or sales associate at a clothing store? Or should I look for something more suited to my career, like entry level or clerical for a newspaper/ magazine?

Yum-O!

Aussie word of the day: Chook = chicken, "I bought a large chook at the shop." Not used as "I had a chook sandwich."

Mmm..mmm. Tonight was the perfect ending to a pretty good weekend. My roommates and I cooked up a damn good meal of dishes spanning the globe (see photos). From sauteed Chinese broccoli to African mushrooms and super spicy vegetarian Curry, we were six very stuffed and happy people when all was finished.

My weekend got started with a trip to the opera last night to see Rigoletto. My friend had scored two tickets to the dress rehearsal show, and since I've never been to the opera, I went out of curiosity. I was happy to see that they had the lyrics in English on screens on either side of the stage and the setting was very modern, not the old fashioned type of opera with the big flouncy victorian dresses and wigs. The stage rotated to each scene revealing elaborate two-story sets and there was a song in the opera that everyone knows, but obviously I can't sing it for you in writing. After finishing at the opera, we went for drinks at a few nearby bars and before I knew it the night turned into morning and I rolled into my apartment at nearly 6am.

Needless to say, I didn't get up until noon today and did the usual Sunday stuff, mostly laundry, cleaning (inspection tomorrow) and cooking for tonights meal. Life is good...

One of those days

Aussie word for the day: Poofter = homosexual male, "He's cute, but he's a poofter."

We've all had 'em, bad days.. this is the first week when things are starting to not seem so good. I even cried a little. I looked for bikes on Monday and came up with nothing. Three bikes and none of them were good... frustration! It was so easy to buy a used TV, but a used bike, noooo! Monday night was good! I let off a little frustration by partying with my roommates for my roommate Frankie's birthday. We had 20 or so people over to our unit for drinks and nibbly's (snacks). Alcohol, food, and friends makes it all better.

Today, however, is another story. I couldn't get into the bathroom this morning because one of my roommates was in there every time I went to use it, I missed my fitness workshop at the gym, which I had to make an appointment for, because I forgot to turn my alarm clock on, then sat in an empty classroom for 20 minutes for my class to start and realized when I looked at my watch that my alarm clock had been reset an hour ahead of time, so I was an hour early for my class and could've made it to the fitness workshop afterall. I left the classroom and came back an hour later at the correct time only to find out that I shouldn't be enrolled in that class at all because it is a thesis prep course that only 2nd semester students should be taking. Aaaargh!!! So I spent the next 2 hours sorting out which class to add in it's place and then withdrawing from the thesis course.

After my day, I was in desperate need of a drink, instead I just ate some really fattening food. Everyone here says they've gained weight when they've travelled here before. I think that's the way it is anywhere you go, so look forward to some really fat photos of me to come. Just joking, I'm really hoping the gym will prevent that from happening.

Here comes the Sun!!!

Aussie word of the day: Trackies or tracky dacks = track pants, sweatpants, "I'm going to wear my trackies to the gym." (that one's for you, B)

You all know that song in the blog title, right? It's an oldie. That was my motto yesterday because we actually had a full day of sun! For those of you at home in the States who are enjoying the thrill of long sunny summer days may not understand the joy I felt having a warm sunny day. Although, it's kind of like coming into spring after a long hard winter. So what else would you do but go to the beach! Even if the water is still too cold to swim in you can walk around by the beach, enjoy a nice healthy lunch with an ocean view while the sun warms you and the breeze blows in your hair, which is exactly what I did. This is what I love about Australia. Day's like yesterday and today, which is also turning out quite nicely, cloudless and perfect. So I just asked myself, "Why the hell am I still inside, not even out of my pajamas?"

It's been a lazy start to my Saturday. I got out of bed around 11am, fixed myself some coffee and Sultana Bran and started reading my emails, which always turns into hours of reading and responding. I do love hearing from everyone, so keep them coming! It's been keeping me from getting too homesick. Then I got caught up on a month's worth of my favorite Glamour blogs, Storked! (this one is especially good for my prego friends, Katie, Teg or new mums, Maria) and Alyssacentric (this one is actually written by a hot guy in Cali about dating). I highly recommend them to all who like a light, fun read. They give me inspiration for blogging. I also updated my iTunes so I can download the latest episodes of Grey's Anatomy in the fall. Although they have Grey's here, American TV shows are a season behind.

So back to life in Oz.. I spent the day watching the brave surfers at Scarborough Beach, anticipating my own surfing ambition. Hopefully, when it's warmer I won't have to wear the silly wet suit that makes you look like a Sea Lion to the sharks that swarm the vast waters of the Indian Ocean. I'm so sorry I didn't get a beach pic, but there will be many more beach photo ops to come! Then I took a trip by train with some of the other ECU international students to Fremantle (Freo), a port an hour south of Perth, where we walked around the markets, ate a yummy pizza dinner (oh, the smell was divine!) and journeyed to the Fremantle Prison for a late-night tour (see photo). The tour is a bit haunted-house-esque. They provide you with tiny torches/ torchlights (flashlights) and guide you through darkened hallways, chambers, and prison yards, while giving you the history of the infamous prison and it's devilish inmates.. some stories funny, some a bit eerie, and a bit of haunting lore mixed in for fun. My favorite part of the tour was the gallows, where 40 men and one woman had been hung from a heavy beam for severe crimes, the last one hung in 1964. The prison officers were nice enough to give those sentenced to the gallows some brandy 30 minutes before hanging to sooth their nerves.

Tonight I am going "south of the river" to a cocktail party in St. James. Everyone have a great weekend, bottoms up!

Minneapolis mayhem

I heard the news this morning in my Radio Journalism class about the Minneapolis bridge collapsing. I'm so out of touch with the US news right now, it's like I'm living in a bubble. I have to start watching and reading more news as a requirement for many of my journalism classes, but it's pretty bad when an Australian knows about a devastating event in my home country before I do. So I got online tonight and watched the segments on MSNBC and became pretty emotional about the whole thing. They kept mentioning the kids on the school buses and it really broke my heart. I hope there are very few fatalities. It was strange being so moved by this event b/c I think if I heard about this in the states I would have taken it more lightly, sad to say. I think being so far removed from the states changes the way you perceive a major event/ catastrophe in your homeland such as this.. even though it wasn't my city/ town, it might as well have been and it could have been my brother, cousin, parent coming home from work or a shopping trip.

Blog, blog, blog

Aussie word of the day: Mark = grade, "I hope to get good marks this semester at uni (short for university.)"

Hi guys! Gonna keep it semi-short and sweet tonight as I still have to write a blog as a part of my class assignment for Media Law and it is due by midnight tonight. I'm going to be the blogging queen, since we have to blog about our text readings every week for the whole semester.

Obviously, classes have commenced this week and I am surprised at how busy I have been. At first I thought my course load was pretty light.. class only 3 days a week with Mondays and Fridays off, but I am finding out quickly that those classes take up a great amount of time, not only in class but on assignments as well. Also, I have some classes with exams and some without, but as you may have guessed the ones without exams involve A LOT of homework.

So I couldn't post a blog without the fun stuff, right? As you can tell by the cute and cuddly picture of me and the kangaroo, I have been experiencing some of the wildlife here in Oz and some of the "wild life" as well, refer to the first picture of me and some friends at the Mustang on the weekend. We visited Caversham Wildlife Park last Saturday where we got to pet the koala's and kangaroos. Then Saturday night a bunch of ECU students got together to hang out at my friend Grethe's penthouse apartment in one of the nicer suburbs in Perth, followed by a nice, looong walk to Northbridge where we stood in line for 30 minutes to get into the Mustang. I had a better time at the beginning of the night than towards the end, but all in all, a good bit of fun!

In closing, does anyone have any good ideas for a graduate thesis topic? If so, please advise asap! Ciao!