more photos

Of course one of the main highlights of my trip to Asia was catching up with my friends' children. Click on 'cuties in asia' to see some of their pics.

I've also posted some photos on Facebook of 'Amy and Jonathan's wedding'. I think this should be accessible to non-Facebookers. This was a lovely wedding I attended the night before I headed out to Thailand. It was great being able to celebrate with friends.

land of smiles

i'm back from a lovely time in chiangmai and singapore. apart from the joy of meeting up with friends and the encouragement of getting to know some likeminded people, these were some more amusing highlights:

• officially the worst hotel bathroom i've ever had - a baby gecko who kept me company in the shower, then when someone upstairs took a shower one night it started raining in OUR bathroom, and an invasion of a swarm of flies/tiny insects when their eggs hatched in our shower area. i also had ants in my bed.
• my first up close and personal sighting of a live snake, 'in the wild' (on the path to our hotel room) - since i'm not bindi erwin, i fled!
• this has to be some sort of record. i had 2 days in Chiangmai town during which i made 2 visits to 'Love at First Bite' cafe (quiche on day one and macadamia pie on day two) and 2 visits to 'Dukes' (Chicago style restaurant - i wouldn't go for the garlic chicken pizza again but i'd definitely highly recommend the warm spinach and bacon salad!)
• watching 'hairspray' the movie compliments of singapore airlines
• speaking of singapore airlines, i very much appreciated the magnum ice creams for dessert! i also love the new online check-in system that allows you to show up just 60 minutes before the flight to check your bags in.
• they actually have shoes small enough to fit me in singapore - and i didn't even buy the smallest size!!! amazing!

evil magpies

thanks to Neil who has assured me that there are only THREE evil magpies in Australia! By doing a Flickr search, he found 12,913 results for 'Magpie' then narrowed it down to 855 Australian Magpies and then just 3 evil Australian Magpies!!! Now I can go on my walks in peace especially since second only to Google, Flickr is the source of all knowledge.

Well, two of those three evil aussie magpies were caught in action in this ad:

See, they ARE evil! It's proof...
And the one remaining evil aussie magpie happens to live in my neighbourhood!!

so many things to ask

There are a few things I think I will never understand in my lifetime. Today, I thought of two:
1. How someone could think to feed a cat coffee beans, wait for them to pass through the cat's digestive system, shift through its poo, clean the beans (I hope!), grind them, brew the grind and then DRINK it!
2. Deal or no deal - I just don't get it. Is there really no skill involved at all?

By the way, the title of this post is taken from my friend Dale's song 'So many things to ask' which is one of my favourites.

spring youth concert

Saturday afternoon was rainy and a bit cold for a spring day but we still went ahead with our Spring Youth Concert in the park. I had fun, especially hearing and meeting the other performers. Go here to see photos of me and some of my friends performing.

And yes, after lots of blog comments (by a certain 'anonymous' person) and being blackmailed with embarrassing photos on the 'Get Melinda onto Facebook' group, I've signed up for Facebook. There you go - I give in!

the things you learn at college...

In class yesterday my lecturer said one of the funniest things I've ever heard in a class (in my nearly 8 years of tertiary study - yes, that's right 8 years). He was telling us about the man who wrote the article we were looking at, and he (my lecturer) said that when he first met this writer he had to hold back the giggles cause he looked so much like a garden gnome!!! My lecturer even thought they might have modelled all garden gnomes after his likeness. Too funny.

In the same class we also talked about cow psychology and Rainman.

what to do if you meet a magpie on a lonely walking trail

I've mentioned before how the walks I take are my times of taking in beauty, talking to Father, reflecting on life and getting some exercise. The last few times I've been on my walk, I've been increasingly aware of a looming possible problem. Twice now, I've seen a big magpie on my walking route.

For those of you who don't know, I am TERRIFIED of birds and especially of magpies. This was accentuated by the times I've been swooped on by a magpie a few years ago. They're evil!!!

So yeah, as spring (and magpie swooping season) approaches, I may have to:
a) find an alternative (and free) form of exercise
b) find another walking route that has 100% no risk of running into magpies
c) get a stackhat (trans: bike helmet) and draw eyes in the back of my head

Any suggestions on how to avoid swooping magpies? I'm compiling a list of 'What to do if you meet a magpie on a lonely walking trail'.