Fun Things To Do In An Exam!!

Ok, I know we have all finished our schooling and will probably never have to take class exams ever again, but I was cleaning out my cupboard the other day and came across some 'useful exam strategies' my Biology teacher gave to us just before our HSC exams! They may provide some entertainment for you!

• Run into the exam room looking about frantically. Breathe a sigh of relief. Go to the instructor, say 'They've found me, I have to leave the country' and run off.
• 15 minutes into the exam, stand up, rip up all the papers into very small pieces, throw them into the air and yell 'Merry Christmas'. If you're really daring, ask for another copy of the exam. Say you lost the first one. Repeat this process every 15 minutes.
• As soon as the instructor hands you the exam, eat it.
• Every 5 minutes, stand up, collect all your things, move to another seat, and continue with the exam.
• Come into the exam wearing a black cloak. After about 30 minutes, put on a white mask and start yelling, 'I'm here, the phantom of the opera' until they drag you away.
• Try to get people in the room to do the Mexican Wave.
• During the exam, take apart everything around you. Desks, chairs, anything you can reach.
• Do the entire exam in another language. If you don't know one, make one up.
• Bring a black marker. Return the exam with all questions and answers completely blacked out.
• If it is a maths/science exam, answer in essay form. If it is long answer/essay form, answer with numbers and symbols. Be creative.
• Bring balloons; blow them up, start throwing them around like they do before concerts start.
• Bring cheat sheets for ANOTHER class (make sure this is obvious - like history notes for a maths exam) and staple them to the exam, with the comment 'Please use the attached notes for references as you see fit'.
• Complete the exam with everything you write being backwards at a 90 degree angle.
• Stand up after about 15 minutes, and say loadly, 'Okay, let's double-check our answers! Number one, A. Number two, C. Number three, E...'

To all you kids out there, this is not to be taken seriously! Although it would be fun to see someone ELSE do it one day! ;op

Some of these were very tempting to try during the HSC!

Just thought I'd help you waste about 5 minutes of your time!! ;op

FuN gOoDiEs!!!! :)

Last saturday, Naomi and Peter graciously hosted a party in honour of my return to PARKES!! :p

Well, it was more just an excuse to have a party, eat junkfood and play games, but that's as good a reason as any!

Naomi has already posted about the random night, but as I need another post, I will ramble on about it too!

I got a huge bag full of various delicious goodies such as salt & vinegar chips, Cadbury Snack block, a bag of fun sized Pinics and a huge bag of Maltesers!

All my favourites! Apparently, Liv was supposed to get Jaffas and M&M's Mix-ups, but she let the team down and forgot them! Not that they were needed anyway! There's always wayyy too much food at these things but I'm sure Naomi, Pete and the kids don't mind left-overs! :)

Our attention span on the night was quite short, and we managed to play Emperor - scum and Trivial Pursuit without actually finishing them! Trivial Pursuit is my game, and while I love trivia and useless facts, my version is a little too brain-draining to play and you have to be really lucky with the cards to get questions that you know the answers to.

One game we did manage to finish was Cranium (the picture on the left appears to be the Danish version or something!).

This would highlight how cool and awesome the game actually is.

I love it cause it's got all sorts of different categories, etc, so you can't really get bored in it. If there's a category you don't like or aren't good at, there's bound to be another one that you can do. It pretty much seems to have rolled about 5 games into one!

Plus, it comes with groovy purple play dough :)

There were also some interesting internet ramblings involved too!

Technology compounded with tiredness, sugar and hyperactivity makes for some very interesting reading the next day!

These experimentations with internet codes, etc, were, for some reason, hilarious at 2 o'clock in the morning! If you want a glimpse of what was going on, take a peek at my Cbox (Nomes, you're a classic!)

It might be a case of 'you-just-had-to-be-there' to fully understand the hilarity though... :)

I would put pictures of the event on here if I could, but I didn't manage to take any photos. Plus, my computer or internet or whatever doesn't seem to let me post photos. It does, however, let me post pictures of stuff I have found on the web, hence the very enlightening photos you have before you.

The next picture I am about to upload is an old ad I found for Maltesers. I hope you find it full of wealth and encouragement, just as I did. Girls, it's a good sign for us all.....Too-rah!

Bored blog

Am blogging at the moment because I have commented on everybody else's and have nothing else to do now!

Weekend with Liv was good. We went to the Jenolen Caves on saturday because neither of us had been before. It's pretty there but we probably picked the wrong day to go because it was so hot! It's also annoying because it's so expensive. You have to pay $4.50 for parking and then to get in a cave for an hour, it costs $22. And that was the cheapest and easiest cave!

It was nice underground though. Looking at natural wonders always makes me wonder how people out there don't believe in God. All you have to do is look around and there's your proof!
I panicked a bit before we went in though coz it was a narrow cave and I wasn't sure if I was gonna get too claustrophobic, but it all turned out all right once I was in and looking at the cool structures.

After we came back we caught up with my friend Tanya, and had dinner at La Porchetta before coming back here to watch some movies. Sunday was just spent hanging around my place after a bit of shopping. All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend.

Today, I have had two lots of people come through to inspect the flat, which means I spent yesturday and today furiously trying to get the house tidy (not that the seemed to look anyway!). I was a bit spun out after the last couple left though, coz it turns out the guy was a childhood friend of mine that I haven't seeing for at least 7 years! I didn't recognise him, but he walked in and said, 'Which one are you, Olivia or Karin'? I just stared at him coz I had no idea who he was! He looked so different since the last time I saw him (guess I haven't changed much!) but once he said who he was, I was like 'Oh yeah, hey, how are ya'?! Bit strange but I love moments like that in life!

Tomorrow I'm going round to a friend's house to visit her and her new baby boy. Ahh, I love holidays!

Hey y'all!

Time for another post I suppose!

It's been storming here all afternoon, which inspired me to post about last weekend's storms, but sadly I can't seem to get the photos up for some reason, so you'll have to use your imaginations!!

We had a deluge of rain last weekend and Bathurst pratically flooded! There were rivers of running water every where! It was so cool to see. Liv and I weren't actually in Bathurst when the storms started but we saw the result coz when we cruised into town, it looked like it had snowed! It was amazing (have photos, but alas, can't get them on here?!). The hail was so fine, but thick, and it covered the paddocks on the outskirts of town. There were 'drifts' banked up against houses everywhere and 'snow' on the rooftops! There was about 2cms on the ground so we had a mini ice fight! I'd never seen hail that looked so much like snow before - it was exciting (I'm easily amused)!!

I had some old school friends up last weekend and it was good to catch up with them and see where their busy lives are taking them. Much eating of junk food and watching bad movies, what a way to spend a weekend! Mostly things ended up with us just chatting though, as is usually the way when a bunch of girls get together!

I am currently kitten-sitting a gorgeous little ginger thing for a friend while she is away. I had the job of going to collect the kitty from her home as she is a present for another friend. Needless to say, Kitty wasn't very happy yesturday and spend the afternoon hiding and wailing miserably. I hate being the first one to take them away from their mum! But she settled down eventually and is currently snuggled up beside me while I write this. I love how she has morphed into 2 modes now - sleep and play! That's it! I can't believe how long I can entertain her with a piece of ribbon! Much longer than I can be entertained anyway!

Liv is coming up again this afternoon, as it will be the last time she'll be able to do it (with all my furniture anyway!). We have a weekend planned of doing very little! Plus a little bit of junk food...!

Well, that's it for now. I will continue with my photo-uploading endeveour!! :)

Praise point!

I've been meaning to blog all week but I've managed to run out of time until now!

Tomorrow is the last day of my post-grad. It will be kind of bitter sweet in a way, because this last placement at district nursing has been really interesting and all of the girls there have been so good with helping me and giving me information, etc. But I will still be glad when tomorrow afternoon comes!!

Anyway, there was a purpose to this blog! Last weekend, my sister and mum came up to keep me company and we had organised to catch a show in orange. I dragged a couple of friends along too and we had a fantastic night. Laughed way to much and had a major belly ache from it at the end!!
Anywho, we had taken Liv's car to Orange while I left mine parked on the road here for the day (coz I let Liv have the garage coz here car is better than mine!). We didn't get back here till about 12am that night and as Liv went to go down the driveway I happened to glance over at my car and saw that someone had broken into it!! What a way to end a great night!!

While this might not particulary sound like a praise point, things could have been a lot worse. For instance, if I had've taken my car, it would have been Liv's car that got busted, and she only just got the front fixed! There was also very minimal damage done to my car too. 3 doors were unlocked and the front passanger one slightly open, and both the front windows were down, but besides the front passanger door lock being wrecked, there was no harm done to the car. Thank God too, because I had just gotten the windscreen replaced. Things had been shifted around in the car but nothing was stolen (nothing worth stealing in there anyway!).

So I consider myself very blessed that my car was not stolen or damaged too much. God was definatly looking out for me that night! :)

50 Questions Thing!

1. NAME: Karin Wagner
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? I don't think so. It was the only name mum and da could come up with that they both liked! Pretty sure it was dad's idea seeing as it's the European spelling
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? At my cousin's funeral
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? No! It's horrible scrawl that I can't seem to fix
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? BBQ chicken or left over roast lamb
6. KIDS? Not at the moment!
7. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE A KID? When I was four, a tennis player! Then a vet or a cartoonist for Disney (even though I can't draw!)

8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? No. Tried to keep one for a while at school, but they never lasted long
9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? I think I do, even though I probably shouldn't
10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes, but I wish they would take them out!
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No way! I'm not hurling myself off a brigde with a piece of string attached to me for anything!
12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? I eat Apricot Weet-bix Bites things, but, like everyone else, I would prefer Coco-pops! Or Froot Loops!
13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Mostly I don't bother to untie the laces (No wonder I need new shoes all the time!)
14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY? Neither! That's a hard one for me to judge myself on....
15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Choc mint or boysenberry. Gelato is better than ice cream though

16. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Whether they attempt to be friendly or not. In physical appearences, their smile (or lack of)
17.RED OR PINK? Neither! But if I have to pick, maybe a fushia type pink (Pink like Zarna's bridesmaid's dresses)
18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My lack of fitness and skin
19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Whoever is not with me at the time that I want them to be
20. FAVOURITE ACTOR AND ACTRESS? At the moment (my tastes change from month to month, depending on good movies!), Johnny Depp and Julia Roberts (only coz I can't think of anyone else at the moment!)
21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? Dark blue, rustic jeans and no shoes
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Purple of course
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Rain, Clean sheets, Chanel No 5 (coz mum wore it when I was little) and roast lamb!
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Mum, coz I was on a break this morning and was bored, so I annoyed her before church. Liv was too busy getting ready to talk to me!
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?Nobody sent it to me, I stole it! But I like all the people who have it one their blog that I stole it from!
26.FAVORITE DRINK? Golden Circle Tropical Punch soft drink, Coke and Cherry Cheer

27. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Gymnastics, Ice skating and NRL
28. HAIR AND EYE COLOR? Red/auburn?! and bluish/grey (blech!)
29. FAVOURITE CHILDHOOD TV SHOW? So many: Snorks, Art Attack, Sesame Street, SuperTed, Freakazoid, Animaniacs, and almost any cartoon (I will also quietly add A Country Practice and MacGyver too! But I was little!)

30. MUSIC CONCERT OR THEATRE? Both, but concerts have more audience participation!
31. FAVORITE FOOD? Mum's baked dinner, pizza, nachos and lamb korma
32. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy endings
33. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Dodgeball at last night's open air cinema down by the river, here in Bathurst
34. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Pale blue
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer (when it's in the mid 20's degree range!)
36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Trifle and chocolate sponge pudding with custard
38. ARE YOU TICKLISH? Anybody who know's me will know the answer to that!

39. WHAT SUPER POWER WOULD YOU WISH FOR? To be able to move things with my mind 40. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? I very rearly only read one book at a time. At the moment, I'm slowly ploughing my way through 'U2 by U2' and 'San Sombrero' (If you haven't heard of it, it's a hilarious book that rips off travel guides. The pictures and captions are very funny!)
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? I'm mouse pad-less
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST ON TV LAST NIGHT? I watched a DVD - Blackadder II
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Summer bugs, birds (whip- and bell-birds especially), rain on a sleep-in morning, the clicking sound my clock makes when I disable the alarm!
44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Adelaide (how depressing!)
46. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I don't think I do...unless you count being late for EVERYTHING (even if the event is in the afternoon) and being the last one to leave as some sort of talent?! (Probably more annoying actually....)
47. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? 11th December 1984, in the Maternity unit at Orange Base Hospital.
48. TRAVEL THE WORLD? I'd like to (just gotta get over my irrational fear or aeroplanes)
49. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? You know, the usual: Earn lots of money without having to work too hard, be able to buy lots of nice things, get married, kids, etc, etc. Have enough money stashed away to be able to retire early and go caravaning for the rest of my days!
50. HOW DO YOU FALL ASLEEP AT NIGHT? Listening to soft music and the fan, trying to push all the thoughts out of my head that are keeping me awake, and I usually only end up falling asleep once I've laid on my side and back numerous times, before I give up and just sleep on my stomach!

Monster Name Decoder!

My friend sent me an email the other day. It had an attachment to a website where your name is decoded according to your initials and the type of picture you choose to go along with it. Anyway, I was mucking around with the monster name decoder and this it what my name stands for:


!!!!! I was so amused by that! I guess Liv could vouch for the redhead-injuring part! Anyway, that was the only reason I decided to post this. It's pretty accurate (I love Kitties and would abduct them all if I could!). Chucked about my name meaning for WAY too long (think I'm over-tired!)

If you want to give it a go, here's the site - http://monster.namedecoder.com/

Enjoy!

This is for Naomi!

I don't really have anything interesting to post, but to keep Naomi occupied, I will write something!!! ;)

Work has been going ok, but it's been killing me coz it's been so hot!! Most of the client's don't have air conditioning in their homes, and the only refuge I get is in the office, so I don't actually mind hanging around there at the moment!!

I caught up with my friend, Tanya, today. Didn't do much - just went to the movies and then had dinner down by the river, which was nice (but hot!)

We saw 'The Holiday' at the movies. It was pretty cool - one of those romantic comedy things. Liv would've love it!! ;p Again, it was nice to be in air conditioning for a couple of hours!
If you haven't heard of the movie, it's basically about 2 women (one in L.A, one in London) who are unlucky in love. One has just broken up with her boyfriend and the other is in love with someone who doesn't love her. Anyway, long story shot, they end up meeting on the net and swap houses for the holidays. As it's a romantic kind of movie, you can pretty much guess the ending. Not real exciting, but good enough to spend a couple of hours watching. The fact that Jude Law was in it also helped (don't like him in real life, but he is a good actor and oozes charisma!).

Anyway, that's about it for me (it'ds past my bedtime now - stupid morning shifts!). Thought I'd keep you up to date with my oh-so-exciting life!!

2006 survey

Ok, so I'm a little late with the quiz, but here it is anyway, just to fill in time and combat boredom!! I seem to have lost a question too somewhere along the line in my copying and pasting - if you find it, let me know!! ;)

1) Where did you begin 2006? Hanging at Amy C's place with liv, Amy G and Katie.

2) What was your status by Valentine's Day? *sigh* single

3) Were you in school (anytime this year)? Nope, glad that's all over!

4) How did you earn your money? Working in different places during my post grad - St. Vincent's hospital, Macquarie Care Centre, and St Cathrine's Aged Care Facility in Bathurst.

5) Did you have to go to the hospital? Everyday! :) Only once as an inpatiant though - sedation is fun! I acted so drunk after it. Mum said I kept saying 'I don't remember putting my shoes on' and then laughing histerically!!

6) Did you have any encounters with the police? I got breath tested once, but that was routine!

7) Where did you go on holiday? Sydney and Canberra a couple of times. I can't remember going anywhere else!

8) What did you purchase that was over $1000? My furniture package from Fantastic Furniture. It may have been just under actually.

9) Did you know anybody who got married? Seth and Claire. I think that was the only wedding I went to!

10) Did you know anybody who passed away? Yes, my cousin's husband just before Christmas.

11) Have you run into anybody you left high school/primary school with? Yep, often in the most bizaar places!

12) Did you move anywhere? Only partly to Bathurst!

13) What sporting events did you go to? I don't think I went to any.

14) What concerts/shows did you go to? Lee Kernagan (Or however you spell it. In my defence, I was guilted into going by a friend. On the upside, I got a free roadtrip!), and, more importantly, U2! They were awesome! Also went and saw 'Pirates of Penzence' at the Canberra theatre.

15) Are you registered to vote? I am in Parkes, but lately Bathurst has been trying to get me to enrol in their electorate!!

16) Who did you want to win Big Brother? Didn't watch it.

17) Where do you live now? Bathurst, NSW (mostly!). Not for long though!

18) Describe your birthday. Had to work - was my first day with district nursing. Liv and mum came up that afternoon and stayed the night. Went out for dinner and spent the arvo playing with our new digital cameras! Was pretty good. Went ut for dinner (again!) later on in the week with friends.

19) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2006? Probably everything! It was a tough year for me but I made it!

20.) What's something you learned about yourself? I can actually get up at 5:30 in the morning and cope well enough to not need a nanna nap in the arvo! Not bad for a night owl!

21.) Any new additions to your family? Nope

22.) What was your best month? December - birthday, Christmas, and everyone is in the holiday mood!

23.) What music will you remember 2006 by? Scissor Sisters - I don't feel like dancing and anything from U2, coz I saw them in that year!

24.) Who has been your best drinking buddy? Don't really have one. Probably Liv coz it tends to be at home.

25.) Made new friends? Not really. Everyone at work is in the 'older' adult bracket!

26.) Best new friend? Don't have a best friend - I like spending my time with all my friends.

27.) Favorite Night out/in? I'll take games nights with the crew over anything, everytime!

28.) Any regrets? Nope

29.) Did you get ur nails painted? Not professionally, no. I paint my nails every week though - only with nail hardener coz my nails are so darn soft, they break at work all the time!!

Ok, that's it! Hope this year brings better surprises!

Hooray for games nights!

There is nothing better than stuffing you face full of delectable goodies and beating friends at random games all night!!

On monday night, Deborah organised a games night at Nick's place (thanks Deb!). Well, actually it was supposed to be a movie night to check out Nick's awesome plasma TV, but we all felt in the gaming mood instead! It was also a 'bring a dessert to share' night as well which ment there was lots of yummy chocolates, ice cream, sticky date pudding and wafer sticks!! Talk about over indulgence! But what are games nights for?! I was gonna put a photo on here of all the cool food we got to eat, but Amy didn't want me to put it on coz she's in it! It's a cool photo though!

We got to play 'Cranium', which was cool for me coz I hadn't been able to play it since Liv got it for Christmas. It's an awesome game! For someone with my attention span (or lack of it!), it's the perfect game coz you've gotta have general knowledge, use english and puzzle skills, use your creative side and you get to act stuff out and hum tunes!! Needless to say, it makes for some very entertaining scenes during the night!

It was also cool for me coz I got to catch up with Katie, which I hadn't really been able to do while she was at home over Christmas. Our team for Cranium consisted of me, Liv, Amy and Katie. We did very well for ourselves during the night - we managed to bet Naomi, Deborah and Nick twice!

After Cranium, we moved onto 'Absolute Balderdash'. While I can't say I'm a huge fan of the game (it involves too much creativity and thinking for me!), there are always memorable moments created by playing it (For those of you playing at home, remember the hilarity created by such initals that turned into 'Peas And Corn', and the meanings created for the word 'natterjack'!). I'm always amazed at how bizaar some of the answers can be (it is illegal in texas to drop candy on the ground?!).

Ok, so when is the next movie/games night?! :) Make it a night that I can get to - I've missed too many fun nights this year!!!

I need your comments!!

Ok, I know that sounds needy, but I have been fiddling with my blog settings (as you can see by my much cooler colour change!) and now when I look back at all my older comments, they all say they are from 'anonymous'!

I don't know what I've done and I'm not sure how to fix it, but if somebody comments now at least I'll be able to tell if it just applies to my older comments or whether I'm gonna have to delve deeper into the technology world to try and fix it for future comments!!

Cheers!

Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

G'day all! I know this is late, but I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year!!

I had a great Christmas - Santa was very good to me!! The whole weekend before Christmas
was great as I had if off and got to catch up with friends who had returned from uni, etc. The Christmas Eve service at church was also very nice, as it is every year. Just a great time to relax, enjoy the meaning of the season and catch up with old friends. We got to have candles in this year's service too - that was exciting!! I didn't get to Christmas lighting this year after the service though coz I spent too long afterwards chatting to people!! Oh well, I had seen most of the lights the night before (even though it was pouring rain!) and talking and lazing around is always better!!

Woke up later than I usually do on Christmas this year, probably coz Liv slept in too (She seems to be my alarm clock when it comes to things like birthdays and Christmas)! It was a great day, even though it went far too quickly as I knew I had to head back to Bathurst that night to go to work on Boxing day. None of our family live around our area so we did our usual Christmas thing and caught up with family friends for a huge, traditional Chrissy lunch. It is really the only day of the year I turn into a complete carnivore - turkey, chicken, ham, lamb, pork.....Mmmmm, I love it! Plus all the yummy roasted veggies!! And lets not forget that extra pocket your stomach grows just for dessert! There's nothing better than trifle and ice cream christmas pudding!! The rest of the day was just spent milling around, reading my new books and watching my new dvds!!
I managed to convince (guilt?!) Liv into coming back with me to Bathurst so I had some company in the car, so the trip back was prety good too, except I probably left Parkes a little to late to get sufficient sleep for a 7am start! We didn't get back to Bathurst til midnight, but I was able to struggle through the next day alright!
For those of you who may not know, I have now started my district nursing component of my post grad - my final rotation! I've only got a little over a month left to go, and then I get holidays, yeay! Anyway, I turned up to work on boxing day and the girls asked me how my Chrissy was. I said it was good except for arriving back at midnight, and they said I should've taken the day off as I was only an extra anyway! How annoying! If they had told me before I turned up, that would have been helpful! Anyway, we ended up having a good day as most of the patients were away and we managed to finish at 1:30, which ment I could hang around with liv for a bit before dad came up to take her back. So while it wasn't my normal boxing day, it was still pretty good.

New years eve was a bit of a bust for me too this year as I had to work new years day. It was also annoying because I actually had plans this year. So I missed out on the party at Zarna and Justin's (Sorry Zarna) and from reports from Liv, it was a fun party too! :(
But, I managed to entertain myself. My friend, Tanya, was having a BBQ get-together at her place for new years eve, so I tagged along. My intention was to basically just go for dinner and be home by 10, but of course that didn't happen! After an evening of milling around, talking and watching the fireworks, I managed to see the new year in with little side effects present for the next day at work!

Work has been going ok. Today was my first day unbuddied, so I had to try and remember all the little things I needed to do by myself, but it went ok. I thought I was going to be running very late but I manage to finsh on time, surprisingly! I wonder who I missed....!

Anyway, that's about it for me. Catch ya later!

PS I know I said in the last blog I'd write about the rest of my 2 week holidays but I never got around to it! We went to Canberra the second weekend to take mum to the theatre for her birthday. We saw 'Pirates of Penzence'. Very daggy operaetta type thing but very funny and purposefully over-the-top. Was even funnier that the main pirate dude was ripping off Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribean! Good for a giggle. Also did a large bulk of my Christmas shopping while we were there! The Canberra Centre is huge - took us two days to get through the whole complex! To the shop-a-holics out there, it's worth the trip!

Sydney, U2 and the whole crazy holiday thing!!!!

I have just had one of the most exciting weeks of my life! Ok, well that may be an exaggeration, but it was pretty awesome!!

It all started on the 10th November because that was when I offically started my 2 weeks holidays (that afternoon after you get home from work is just the best feeling)! Not having to get up for work at 5:30 the next morning was absolute heaven!! My mum also came up to visit me that night, so it was nice not to have rush off to bed at 9:30 either!

The next day was great too coz I had the pleasure of a visit from Deborah! She was on her way home and it was great to catch up with her for a while as she passed through Bathurst. I love having visitors there! The rest of the day was spent tidying up and packing for my trip to sydney that weekend. Sounds like I missed out on a pretty good games night at home though, but that always happens - serveral things always happens at once!

The trip to Sydney on saturday was long and boring though! I was meeting Liv in Sydney as she was already up there because she had done a study block and a few exams the week before, so I had no travel buddy. But in these times, the CD player in the car makes a wonderful substitute! It doesn't judge you when you sing at the top of your voice, ever so slightly out of tune!!
After a lovely drive, I dropped my car off at a friends house in Richmond and awaited the arrival of my taxi to take me to the train station (No way was I going to battle Sydney traffic! I can get as far as Blacktown, but that's it! From then on, it's public transport all the way!!). Evidentally, getting a taxi in the city is a lot harder then getting one in the country. I had to wait out in the blistering heat for almost an hour while I waited for a taxi to get to me from Freeman's Reach, which I didn't think was that far away! But anyway, after a few hit and misses, I got to the station and on a (air conditioned!) train. Meanwhile, Liv was getting bored being by herself in Sydney and kept messaging me, 'where are you?', 'are you close yet?'! She'd walked down to central already and I still had 2 hours travel to go! I thought driving my car half way up would make the trip shorter but apparently it doesn't help much! Train trip was also a little annoying as my mp3 player decided to stop working the night before, so I had none of my tunes to groove to!

When finally got to Central it was 4:30pm, but Liv had settled by then and took me to the hotel, which was only 2 blocks from central (nice when you have to drag your stuff around). After I dumped my stuff off we went for a walk around Darling Harbour. It's so nice there with the sea breeze and everything. We even got to see the little bridge there swing open to let larger vessels into the harbour. I didn't know it did that! We also had a walk around Queen Victoria Building - I love old buildings and they had this huge Christmas tree sat up that went all the way up to the top floor, and it was covered with Swarovski crystals, it was sooo pretty!!!

The next day was just spent browsing around the many shopping areas in Sydney and catching the monorail (such a novelty!). We also headed out to Circular Quay to try and see if we could see Kristy and Shane do the bridgeclimb (Kristy used to work with liv and got us the tickets to the concert) but everyone looks like ants up there so I think we were just waving to random people. We also wandered around the Rocks for a bit, which I always love (again with the old buildings). Liv had some drunken Irish dude come over and try to hug her, which was a bit amusing (if it was at night it would have been terrifying)! I managed to untangle her and we weaved our way into the markets so we lost him. City living's a bit tough for a country girl like me! We headed back into the city at about 5:30 and had dinner by the water in Darling Harbour. (this is going to be a very long blog!)

Monday was the day the whole weekend was planned around - the final concert from U2 in Sydney! While I wasn't what you would call an 'over the top' fan, I liked most of their music, owed a few of their CDs and I knew people who were going so I thought I'd tag along. Good thing I did too because it was AWESOME!!!!! We were in the standing area so in order to get a good spot we had to line up all day! It wasn't too bad though, we got there at 11am and the line was fairly short, so that was good. Unfortunatly, the weather decided to be unkind and it stormed for about 40 minutes, so we all got nicely drenched. I had also mistakenly worn jeans :(
I consoled myself with the fact that at least it wasn't hot, but it was still annoying. If it was a nice day, it would have all been very relaxing, but after the rain the ground was quite wet so it made it a little difficult to sit down comfortably. The gates didn't open till 5:30 but everyone started to get excited and edgy at around 4 so we all had to stand up and be smushed up against the gates - not real fun! When they did open the gates, everyone made a rush in (even though we were told numerous times not to run!) and crammed into the elipse area ('mosh pit?!'). Luckily Kristy and Shane made it first and Liv and I managed to crawl our way in to them. I was feeling a little uneasy being crammed into that small area with that many people, but as soon as the concert started, I didn't care! We were second from the front, centre stage! You could actually see their faces (as opposed to just random people in sunnies!). It was a long wait though because U2 didn't come on to stage until 9 (the opening act started at 7, but then we still had to wait an hour after it finished). But when the music started and everything, all the hunger, sunburn, wet jeans and sore feet were forgotten!
As I said before, I wasn't what you'd call an obsessive fan, but when you actually see them perform live and know the songs, and the atmosphere, it was just fantastic. They annoy me sometimes with their political stuff and some of the lyrics irritate me as a christian, but mostly it's ok and I just enjoy the music. They are very good performers though and know how to put on a good show! I will definatly be going again if they happen to head back here before they're too old to rock! Bono definalty isn't camera shy though, so I managed to score quite a few good photos! It was cool coz even though the stadium was packed, Bono and the lads managed to make the whole show very personal and are probably one of a few bands that actually sound better when they sing live! I love the song 'Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own' even more after I've seen done live. It's kind of a sad song but uplifting at the same time. Have a look at the lyrics one day. It's a beautiful song and the emotion in it when Bono did it live was just astounding. I don't know what is was about it, but it just got to me - the whole stubborn father and son thing. Needless to say (like you can't tell already!), I've become slightly more of a fan now. Some songs still irritate me though!

Anyway, I was buzzing for the rest of the night and the next day! Tuesday I travelled back home to Parkes to do some more holidaying and to get ready to head to Canberra the next weekend! But I think I might have a rest and cover that in another blog entry! I've been busy having fun!!

Good times and bad...

I just had the coolest weekend, which is in very stark contrast to the week so far at work, but you get that!!

I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of my hometown friend, Claire, to Seth. I haven't been to many weddings but their's was the kind of wedding I want one day (right up to the purple and silver theme - why do so many people like purple?! It's MY Colour!! ;op )

The church was done up beautifully and it was a bonus in that I knew most of the people who attened the reception (Yes, there was a lot of catching up to do with everybody!). It was great because I got to hang out Katie, Zarna, and Deborah - all of which I haven't seen for quite a while and all of which make a fun time even better! The weather was gorgeous and it was just a great celabratory time (not sure if that's a word, but I'l use it anyway!). It was great to get to know Seth a bit better too, as well as meet his sisters. The hens/bucks night was great too - gotta love those games nights!!

The only downer about the whole thing is realising that I probably won't see Claire for an awful long time, as she is moving to the USA. Still, we will always be connected with them somehow and there's always the world of blogging to keep us informed!! But I'll miss ya Claire - games nights just aren't the same!

Saturday was a big day for our family, because then we proceded to drive all the way to Dubbo after the wedding to go to a farewell party for Liv's OPSM boss, Kristy. It was cool to meet up with Kristy's family (we are her 'other family' -She was taking my place in Parkes While I wasn't there!), but it got a little awkard at times as I'm a shy kinda person in big groups of people I don't know, and I was too tired to try and converse! I wanted to go to bed at 9:30! We were ment to stay over the night but I needed sleep coz I have to work at rediculous times now (gotta get up at 5:30am!) and the boys were watching movies on surround sound, and I'm a light sleeper, so sleep wasn't an option! Mum and liv we're slepping either so we all packed the car at 4 in the morning and drove all the way back home so we could have a few hours sleep! Would've been alright if i didn't have to drive to Bathurst in the afternoon!

Sunday afternoon was another one of those small delights as all of the visiting friends from the party got to catch up again for yet more games! I love our games get-togethers beyond all reasons! It's a great way to relax and enjoy each other's company. I miss all my out of town friends already though!

Having such fun over the weekend probably made coming back to Bathurst on sunday evening so difficult. I don't mind Bathurst but I hate being alone. I need company in the car and coming back to an empty place isn't much fun. I knew this week would be a hard week too, work wise, so I wasn't real thrilled at the prospect of facing it, but I've made it through 2 days, so only 3 to go before a day off. I can't tell you how much of a struggle work has been lately - changing to yet another facility wears you out mentally. You have to remember where you are when you answer the phone!! Anyway, it'll get better. I'm still learning little things a long the way, even if I thinnk I'm not. It's a struggle, but I'll get through it with a little determination and lotsa prayers!

Still, there's always the small pleasures in life!

Another thing I stole off Zarna!

I never trawl the internet enough to find cool things like these, so I just steal them off somebody else! Anyway, here are my various names for various occupations!

1. YOUR PORN STAR NAME:(first pet and first street name)
Brutus Reid

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mums side, your favorite candy)
Olga Picnic

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two of your middle name)
K-Wa (I don't have a middle name so my last name will have to do!!)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Purple Eagle

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
(Again, has to be my first name coz I don't have a middle name!) Karin Orange

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 2 letters of mom's maiden name and first 3 letters of the town you grew up in.)
Wagka Cupak

7. Terrorist Name: (middle name spelled backwards, your mom's maiden name spelled backwards) Nirak YrruC

8.SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, favorite drink)
The purple cherry cheer

Ah, the simple things in life...!

How cool are hometown shows?! It's been a few weeks since Parkes had it's annual show but I was so excited that I mangaed to get time off work to be able to go! Isn't that sad?!

I haven't been to the show for three years, and it's always awesome to go coz I always meet up with people I haven't seen for years and we all have a good catch-up wandering around the grounds with fairy floss and all sorts of goodies in hand! I'm not a ride person but I always have fun, and this year was even better coz I haven't been for so long. The fireworks are always good, but the thing I go for is the demolition derby!

As the title says, the simple things in life are always the coolest! Wandering around, beautiful weather, catching up with friends and just relaxing...yes, I could do with more of that! ;op
Can't we all?!

Phone tag!!

Ok, so technically this isn't phone tag in any way, shape or form, but I thought it was a good name anyway! Let the games continue!

'Please leave your name after the beep and I'll get back to ya.....'

1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll challenge you to try something.
3. I'll pick a color that I associate with you.
4. I'll tell you something I like about you.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest/funniest memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours (If you haven't already done it).

BEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Yay - I get to stay up!!

I'm up waaay too late tonight but I'm taking advantage of the fact that I have an evening shift tomorrow, so I CAN actually stay up coz I can sleep in tomorrow! I have to go to bed soon though - I still have a few things to do tomorrow before I gotta work!! I'm naturally a night owl though, so this 'going-to-bed-at-9:30-and-getting-up-at-6' thing is getting a bit old!

Hmm, what's been going on with me lately? Not much (Which would explain the lack of blogging - dispite the fact that I actually have the internet!!). I have rotated work places within my post-grad program again. This time I'm at an aged care facility. While most people would think, 'oh yeah, that has to be a bit easier', I'm actually having the most trouble with this one. I DREAD going to work. It's been very hard for me as I'm not an extremely confident person, nor do I think of myself as a leader, and while I am aware that a nurse needs these skills and attributes, I believe they have to be aquired over time, and this is what I perssumed My post grad year would try to achieve. But At this facility I feel like I'm getting all the dodgy jobs just coz I'm only there for 10 weeks and 'all experience is good for you'.

It's harder than being in a hospital, because all of a sudden, I'm the ONLY RN on in the entire building, which means I'm in charge and responsible for every one. People also leave me jobs because they think it's 'good practice for me'. My roster is also a bit of a surprise - IE: in a couple of weeks' time I have 5 nights night duty, 2 days off (including sleep day), then I have to work 7 days straight!!! They think coz I'm younger I'm the Energizer Bunny or something! It may not be as bad as all that but thats how it feels to me at the moment. Some of the staff aren't that supposrtive either. They know I can only go so fast yet the keep throwing more things at me. I know that this is 'real life' but the point of this year is to have support. They say I've always got someone to call but that doesn't help if someone is having a 'funny turn ' and I've got to organise everybody. I will be all by myself (with 2 nurses of course) on night duty next weekand I thought I would be ok, except we have a bit of a moment this evening when one of the residents got chest pain. If I was there by myself, I would have panicked and have know idea what to do (besides the obvious - you know what I mean). I panic too much. I've only had about 30 weeks nursing experience!!!!!!!

Rage, rage, rant rant! As you can tell, I'm having a bit of a hard time of it at the moment. At least now I know I'll never work in aged care. Only problem is, my next rotation is in another aged care facility!!! :(

Ahhgh, all I do is whinge! In any case, please pray for peace for me. I can feel my blood pressure rise and my stress levels shoot through the roof whenever I think about this place!!

Ah well, Spose I should head to bed now. Should get the sleep while I can - night shift in a couple of days!!!

Thanks for letting me rant! Love ya's!


PS If you want a bit of a giggle, excitement and fun, watch 'Pirates of the Caribean 2' - it's awesome......if you like that kind of thing! Jack Sparrow rocks! (totally irrelevent, but I thought I'd throw that in for free!!!) ;p

I have the internet!

I now have the internet - whoo hoo! This now means hours of wasting time instead of doing things I should - what's new?!

Hmm, what is new? Well, I have a new laptop, which means I can chat to people while watching the tv! Unfortunately, I'm still on dial-up so it's extremely slow!!

Work has been hard for me lately. I have just started my mini-rotation of scouting and it's been hard. I'm not quick enough and now matter how many times I say that, they still think I should be better at it, even though I've never done it before. Had a few tears last week. Hopefully this week will be better... :) I guess it's only going to get harder though because then I have to scrub, which is probably one of the most important and challanging nursing duties one has to do. We'll see how that goes! The thing that gets me is that I'm supposed to be buddied, but I always get left to fend for myself at the most critical times, so then I'm running around in a panic, and they're like, 'Come on, you've gota be quicker than that'....How can I be, there's thousands of insrtuments with complicated names and mountains of paperwork to learn!!!! Anyway, that's enough about that. Just pray for peace and calmness for me this week!!

What else have I been up to? Not much! I've bought all my household appliances so now I'm actually saving money (only to spend on useless things....like DVDs)!! 10 hour days don't leave me a lot of time for socialising, but I manage my share! I made myself go to church here in Bathurst this morning. It's not that I didn't want to go, it's just that I'm painfully shy and hate going to places for the first time without some sort of support! But I made myself and I'm glad I did, because it was really good. I still love my one back home and will be annoying them as much as possible (!), but it's nice to know I can go here too when I can't make it back home. I've already got an invitation for dinner! It's nice to be made welcome. The only downside is that there doesn't seem to be anyone there my age, but still that's not a real big problem.

Anyway, that's about it. Have a good week guys (or month...depending on when I get on here next!!).

*SNEEZE*

I'm currently sitting at home, dying of the flu. Well, at least I'm not going out quietly!!

It's all been very convienient, getting the flu now, as I am only just going into the 3rd week of being in theatres and I think I'm going to have to take tomorrow off. I'm sure the patient's don't really want me sneezing all over them in recovery. I still feel guilty though - :S

Anyway, work has been ok thus far. Having to get up at 6am everyday is taking it out of me though! I used to be a night person but now I'm lucky if I can make it to 9:30pm! I think the mental stress of working with picky doctors is also taking it out of me. On the upside, when it has been quiet in pre-op (which is where I was first), I've been able to sneek in and see some surgery. I still can't get myself to go in and watch hip and knee replacements though - the saw freaks me out!!

I am due to start a mini rotation in recovery tomorrow, but, as I said, I don't think I'll make it. That should be interesting too, once I get there - seeing the strange things people do when coming out of anaesthetic!!

Oh yeah, another, slightly major thing that happened to me last week was that I finally graduated!! YEAH!! I was pretty proud of myself! And yes, we did have to wear those stupid capes and hats! But it was fun looking so silly! So yeah, now I have that oh-so-important piece of paper saying that I have indeed spent 3 years of my life at uni (and you'd think for that they'd make it a little more exciting, but it's pretty plain actually). It was a little bittersweet though, as mine was in the middle of the week, so I couldn't catch up with old uni mates properly as I had to work the next day (and I was getting the start of this blasted cold). But all-in-all, it's a nice feeling just to be able to say that I am a uni graduate!

Anyway, I think that's about it for now. Work is taking up most of my time, and while I've decided I probably don't want to be a theatre nurse now, I can say it's definatly going to be an interesting experience. I'm actually quite surprised at how I'm handling everything at the moment, as I never really thought I'd actually get this far (I always thought of myself as a bit of a quitter, even though I don't think I've actually quit anything in my life...except ballet!). I guess it all comes down to Phillipians 4:13!!