Four Pictures and a Padlock

As of yet, I am quite uneducated about where I'm actually heading in India.
However I did buy a padlock this week. And an extra camera battery. I am somewhat prepared.
I did a google search on one of the areas we're going and came across the previous pics.
Quite excited.

A Voyage to Narnia

I was quite impressed by The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Sometimes it all seems downhill from here for movie series, but not so with Narnia.

Have written a few write ups for the film for work over the last few weeks and got to see the film a day early in Brisbane this week. Particularly happy with Eustace. He made me laugh. He played Eustace rather well. Are your eyebrows real, Eustace?

Lots of lovely treasures all the way through, with a few noticeably missing only if you know the book.
Some of the following was included, and I don't wish to read more into it than there is, but it's just quite good.


I just love a good story. And a good set of eyebrows. See the following.

A Brief Visit Next Door

On a scale of 1 to 10 of excitement, I am sitting neatly on 7232. Not only have I recently bought that ticket to India, but today I bought a return to Paris. Paris, France. As in, right next door to Switzerland.
Say hello to chocolate and cheese and a short visit to Switzerland in winter.
All day I've been dreaming of cheese fondue and gluewein and chocolate muesli. And of course, a big hello to my favourite country in the world.

Who wouldn't want to miss their first week back at uni for that, eh?

don't cha love it when...

Before I even went to Switzerland, I made a list of 4 things I was looking forward to about Europe in a completely unrelated list. I had no idea what Switzerland was like, so these were just things I frivolously decided.
(FYI: I was quite enamoured with Mamma Mia at the time....)

4 things I'm really looking forward to about Europe: 1.) seeing the Mamma Mia stage production 2.) seeing the Greek Island where they filmed Mamma Mia 3.) Going on a Sound of Music tour 4.)Visiting the house of Corrie Ten Boom is Holland.

Don't you love it when sometime later you look back and realise sometimes even frivolous dreams come true? I got to do each of those things...one of them even twice! :)

Peace

Done and dusted.
Last exam tonight and I'm finished uni for 3 months. 1 semester down, 7 to go. Eee, don't think about it like that.

I did spend a portion of this exam writing about how suave Daniel Craig was in the last Bond movie. And yes, I did use the word suave. You may wonder how applicable that is to an advertising exam but I used his suaveness as proof that everyone will want to buy an Omega watch. James Bond now wears Omega, in case you were wondering.

Rolex is out. Omega is in.

Best part of the day? Walking out of the exam and coming across the QLD transport guy giving out travel cards worth $10 each.
He was pretty excited by my excitement and gave me an extra one when he found out I took the bus.
Train? Yep, another card.
Ferry? Well, no. The closest ferry is in Brisbane, but I told him I wish I could take the Ferry. Voila! An extra extra extra card. Grand Total $40.

He asked what I was up to in my spare 3 months. I said India. He was surprisingly quite excited and animated because he's really into a specific Yoga practiced in Southern India.
When I was leaving he spoke in another language. My extent is some German and French and English. It wasn't any those. When I asked him, he said that he'd wished me peace. A special yoga peace greeting.
I also wished him peace. It was just peace from another source.
Perfect Peace.

About to book that flight to India. Any day now. Have an appointment with a vaccination doctor this week. I might even get my act together and send my visa application away. Since I've had such good visa luck in the past.

Happy happy holidays.
I wish you perfect peace.

Cinderella: A Grumpy Teenage Stepdaughter.

On the home stretch now. 2 weeks left of uni and then completo! (not a real word)
Unfortunately this last 2 weeks involves self-motivated study. Exams. Not my forte.

I feel like I've found my feet at uni mostly now. Or at least, I've found my feet walking to the cafe for regular coffee consumption. Trying to find a good balance of being involved in happenings around campus. Trying to break out of myself and live with courage.

CALL+RESPONSE went really well. Have I not blogged since then!? Had an amazing response, 10x more people than we hoped for and I'm thinking of ways to continue this good story into the next semester. Would be good to find people who are keen to be involved and join forces.

I'm loving Donald Miller's thoughts in A Million Miles. Don't even have my copy currently, its on loan, but his encouragement to live a good story follows me around. I shared this with a few friends last night and Don, you probably should start giving me a percentage of sales. I can sell this book to anyone.

In particular, I was thinking that in order to live a good story, the character must overcome conflict to reach his goals. In any movie we root for the main guy because we think his cause is worth it. Because something about his goals was attractive to us.

Or as I read in a completely unrelated book today:

A fairy story about two slightly plain sisters and a mildly menopausal stepmother trying to do the right thing toward her grumpy teenage stepdaughter wouldn't have worked. Hence, Cinderella is reduced to good and evil, selfish versus selfless, beauty versus ugliness.

I want to chase things that are worth it. To have goals that are attractive. Part of something bigger.

So I set a new (short-term) cause/goal/adventure. A climax to the current chapter? Plans for India in Jan/Feb. Gotta use that backpack again. Stretch my itchy feet. Help them last another year walking that uni cafe route. (I have secret plans for Europe again in a year. Sssh.)

But first, got to survive exams. I learnt (and promptly forgot) the German word for the 'home stretch' & 'sprint at the end of a race' etc yesterday. I have the memory of a goldfish.
Anyway, I'd like to use that word now to describe the next couple of weeks.
But my goldfish ate it. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Blue Like Jazz: Raised From the Dead.

Shamelessly plugging my favourite book.
2-3 weeks ago, the producers put the hope of turning it into a movie, a project they've been working on for 4 years, out, because they didn't have the funding...
Since then, in 10 DAYS! fans have donated $130 THOUSAND dollars for them to go ahead and make the film.
I can't wait and I'm so excited.

Now...if only we'd put this sort of fanatic energy into saving people...
which this is...in a round about way....BLJ kind of saved me...but still...

In reflecting on the image art, if you haven't read the book, that poster is rather strange...

Happy Tuesday

Happy Factors About Today.

Mum & Dad. My Mum and Dad have been married 25 years today. Yay for them!

Lizards. I took my books to the beach for a little while this morning on my way to uni. The sunshiney beach won the contest against the uni library. I was surrounded my lizards. Big ones. Big ones that kept running past me on their hind legs. hil-ar-eeeeous! (I may just have been feeling happy about the sunshine...lizards don't normally make me laugh...)

Hills. This kid was playing with his dad whilst I was studying at the beach today. Lesson learnt: once you run the kid's scooter once up the hill for him....he'll want it again. and again. and again. hil-ar-eeeeous! (again, the sunshine probably played a part in the happiness factor....)

Advertising Lectures. There are some very clever advertisers out there! Toyota Country Ad.

Bus drivers. I had to run for the bus today (well, walk rather quickly). Which brought back some out-of-breath memories. But tonight on the way home I had to laugh when our bus driver was surprised to see a friend as he was driving by and then had a bit of a swerve. Awkward.

George Clooney. I had a presentation at uni today...about (my love for) Nespresso. I included pictures of George Clooney to prove my case. Thank you, George. You helped me get a HD :)

New friends. Glad to join SCUF today and make some new friends at uni :)

CALL+RESPONSE. Did I mention I was organising a screening? Well, yep, I am. Had some helpful tips for running it today from a university staff member today. Deep gratitude.

BOOS and CHEERS (for the week that was)

BOOS and CHEERS (for the week that was)

CHEER - It's great living with Seniors, meals ordered with a Senior's discount are SO much cheaper! I can't wait to become a senior citizen! Plus, the "disabled" parking is SO close to the door!

BOO - I get excited when I see 5cents on the ground. In Switzerland, the 50cent looks the same as our Aussie 5center. Sometimes I funded whole trips in Switzerland just off the 50cent coins I'd find in the bottom of my handbag. No such luck with our 5cent pieces. I just kick it along the ground, secretly hating it for being an Australian 5cent piece.

CHEER - Am organising a screening of CALL+RESPONSE at uni. Some AWESOME people agreed to run a FREE BBQ before the film! Yessssss.

BOO - Am organising a screening of CALL+RESPONSE at uni. I have no idea what I'm doing.

CHEER - I found French Nougat at Woolies. I'm going to email my old friend the French Skipper and tell him the good news. We couldn't communicate so well...but we shared a special moment over French Nougat.

BOO - So many uni work & assignments due in the next 2 weeks. I suddenly discover a love for blogging and cleaning my room when I should be studying. Oh dear.

CHEER - GLEE! I am in love. So much love. I will die happy now. I will never find time to study again.



"Lend your voices only to sounds of freedom.
No longer lend you strength to that which you wish to be free from.
Fill your lives with love and bravery,
And you shall lead a life uncommon." - Jewel

An Ode to My Email Inbox

No one told my email address that I'm not living OS anymore.
I'm forever getting tempting offers for Europe and beyond that I can't take up. Yes, yes, I could unsubscribe, but on some level I do feel loved by the senders, even if it's just Trip Adviser.

Today I was offered:
City breaks in Madrid, Budapest and London. Cheap hotels for Chicago. Countless bargain Broadway tickets. Massive price markdowns on my much [un]needed snow gear. 8 Euro flights in Europe (RyanAir, please stop making me cry). French Wine. Swiss flights to Rome. A travel advisory update for Switzerland.
As I'm writing this, I'm watching Jamie Oliver cook up some crazy things in Europe. Some of which I've actually eaten.

Have sadly come to the end of the holidays. Uni on Monday. Apparently all the assignments I didn't begin before the holidays didn't start themselves. Who knew?

...Michael Finnegan (begin again)

Apparently blogs don't write themselves.
I've left mine for three months now and still nothing. So I thought it was time to get back on the blogging wagon. Nothing quite as exciting as Switzerland to write home about. (Because I am home) But we can pretend.

I left Switzerland more than 3 months ago! I set sail for a new home and found myself in a Sunshiny place at uni. So far, so good. I've even made (shock!) some new friends.
I'm studying for a Bachelor of Business and a Bachelor of Arts and trying to structure an exchange or two.

Welcome. To the blog that doesn't write itself.