dinner with friends

last night we had dinner with A&B in Parramatta at Punjab House. It is always good catching up with friends and last night was no exception.

We had great food,
......the banquet was ordered, which is a real feast consisting of an entree and all you can eat curries; so B was happy he got his butter chicken, I got my lamb sagwaal (lamb and spinach) and by general consensus we also ended up with Rogan Josh, naan, naan and more pappadums.

wine,
......A&B brought really nice wine, which I feel terrible about as we forgot to thank them for it. I am making a mental note to remember to bring the wine next time.

and conversation.
......there was much to discuss, including A & B's recent trip to fiji, and my favourite catching up with the goings on of B's (not my B's) family (are you following this?). B has a really interesting family, so much is always going on.

Well, we ate, drank and conversed till 3 of us (those with the regular hours) started to get the yawns, B (not my B) being the only one not yawning.

rhubarb, rhubarb

rhubarb

our rhubarb has been growing out of control, so having just harvested a huge handfull we shall be having rhubarb for dessert. Yummo!

It was a glorious day today, somewhat wasted on me though as I spent today getting familiar with statistics.

gingham rose quilt

it was an early start this morning, accompanying B into work to help him with his uni practical research, before going to the Willoughby Arts Centre Fair where we managed to catch up (only very briefly) with mum and dad. Followed by a trip out to Patch in Penrith where I commenced the gingham rose quilt that I purchased in kit form from Ballarat Patchwork. This was my first quilting class and the other women seem like they always have a lot of fun. I am going to enjoy going although it is going to be interesting balancing my uni studies with this extra activity.


gingham rose quilt fabric

In todays class, I learnt what a 1/4 inch foot is, amongst other things, and cut out the 120 x 5inch squares for the quilt top and even managed to get a few of them sewn together (I had to run up the road during class to purchase the 1/4 inch foot for my machine to commence this task).

when all is examined and done

....you go shopping and spend lots of money.

B made sure I did my exam, well at least got to my exam safely, and on time. He also hung about till I was finished. Very supportive of him. I am not that confident with my performance, but have been reassured by the feedback from the online discussion board for this subject that I am not alone in thinking the multiple choice was definitely harder, there was some interesting use of double and triple negatives, and what does ceteris paribus mean anyway? (Answer: other things the same). This latin phrase was used about 3 times, which was really annoying because I don't recall it, other than the plain english, being used ever before in the course.

Anyway, with the exam out of the way we had half a day to relieve the stress, so visted mum and had coffee with her at Northbridge Plaza, after a quick look in a few of the shops, then after dropping her back at home headed for Westfield's Parramatta where we did some serious damage, well more so I did some serious damage to the credit card, although B is implicated as after all he carried the bags. Results for the day - new shoes, a couple of new outfits, a Martha Stewart magazine, and products purchased as a result of the facial I also managed to fit in.

Now its back to work, and the start of semester 3 'Decision Support Tools'. What fun.

Like a lamb off to the slaughter house

My economics exam is tomorrow morning and the last minute review is causing me a great deal of angst. Yesterday I played the recorded teletutorials, looking for some added hints on what to expect from the exam. The number of graphs, calculations and concepts the lecturer suggested needed memorising has really depressing. 10 pages of study notes have been made today alone, the only trouble is with the exam approximately 17 hours away and 7 of that sleeping time, there isn't going to be much time left to review said study notes.

I kind of wish I had listened to the teletutorials a bit sooner so that I could have targetted my study before yesterday. A little less time visting my favourite Blogs and discovering new ones might also have helped. When this exam is over I plan to update the favourite Blog links, I also have an idea or two for our webpages. Stay tuned, and

Wish me luck!

were you the 1000th visitor??

Were you the 1000th visitor?

If so, go and sign the guest book now, and wait for your prize!!!!!

Other than that, EVERYBODY should go and sign the guest book, that's why it is there, so what are you all waiting for, SIGN IT ALREADY!!

what is it that makes you want to buy more things?

I have just had a phone call from mum and we were discussing the situation she is in, having to cull down on the posessions contained within the family home. After getting off the phone with her, my favourite radio station was tackling the topic of our propensity to spend our money on gadgets and glittering things.

Some of the key points about myself that I gained from the discussion were that I am keeping current, like to feel on the pulse, and am keeping my own place (identity) in the world. I like this better than the main thing I learned from my discussion with mum; that I am going to have one heluva headache when I get to my senior years.

its cup day!

B's picks for the Melbourne Cup are Elvstroem, Mummify, and Pacific Dancer.

My picks are Hugs Dancer and Mammol. Before placing our bets half an hour ago - I had changed my mind which horses I would back from the following: Disinction, Strasbourg, Media Puzzle, and Razkalla.

Needless to say with all the deliberations not much study has been done.

Good Luck and Fingers crossed.

online shopping addiction

I have my economics exam in a week, and the closer it gets, the more frantic my online shopping addiction becomes. Not satisfied with the 2 parcels that arrived on Friday care of Ebay, I continue to spend countless hours of my time seeking out new treasures. I am not limiting myself to Ebay either, although I do find it a bit irritating to come across a great site, credit card ready, only to find that they don't ship to Australia.

We had a visit last night from a fellow Ebay addict who wishes to remain annoymous, and did a show and tell of our latest Ebay purchases. B sat on the lounge with us shaking his head and commenting on the amount of money that must have been spent between us. There is one downfall to Ebay, in that B can easily see what has been purchased that week and for how much. You don't have quite the same opportunity as when you buy something at the shops and being able to slip it into the wardrobe (we all know once it comes out of the wardrobe it is no longer new). Actually, B isn't bad at all just very interested, but as my addiction gets worse he might come to his husbandly senses and start to give me the 'money doesn't grow on trees ' lecture other husbands are rumoured to give their wives.

I think next time I am in the market for shares I am going to investigate shares in Ebay, that way I will be offsetting my outgoings.

We also had a visit on Friday from M who earlier that week got back from 5 weeks in the UK. M is a fellow Survivor fanatic and we have been taping the episodes for her whilst she was away. We watched the first episode again with her after dinner.

Today is a beautiful day and after some gardening we went to the nursery where we bought a Bugandy Lace Ajuga for the front garden, a Black Tomato plant, and some herbs (Rocket, Water Cress, Curry Plan, and Basil).

B has gone for a swim as his back is causing him a lot of grief, and I am going to open my text books....in a minute....after I check my watchlist!

uni highs and lows

These last couple of weeks, the admin side of uni has really caused me some grief. Last week I discovered that the 'Computer Modelled Assessment' (the assignment I was required to complete via the internet)was lost in cyberspace. I thought I had completed it successfully at my end, however it did not get received at USQ's end. I discovered this only by checking into the course discussion board and finding quite a few people discussing their answers. This prompted me to ring the university to enquire about my results, and being told that they hadn't received my assignment. I wasn't the only one apparently, they had experienced technical problems the weekend before it was due, so I was able to resubmit it. Thank goodness I had kept an almost final copy of my answers, so this was not too big a deal. I was able to email this directly to the markers for processing, and although this seems simple, the 2 attempts I made generated an automated response which also suggested I was not successful. In the end B took over and my assignment finally reached its destination. Well, today I got my results (90%) which put me on a high, and gave me the incentive to sort out my subject for Semester 3. I needed to swap the subject I was currently enrolled in for S3 with another, again this is required to be done online. I managed to drop the enrolled in subject, no problems, but picking up the replacement subject, no way. I have put in a request for help from my Regional Liason Officer but it does not look hopeful. Because I was focused on the assigment debacle, I missed the deadline (didn't think there was one, considering S3 hasn't actually started) for changing subjects. Looks like I will be enjoying summer with everyone else, which won't be so bad.