THESES!

I somehow managed to hand in my thesis on time, and not be a loser. That is to say, I handed it in on Monday.

What a relief, more than anything. I'm just glad I'm done with it, and I somehow managed to get it down to a respectable word count of 19, 032.

So, a question that I naturally get asked by people is: what are you doing now that you have so much free time.

Well, on the night after handing the aforementioned document in, I went drinking with white people, being my Honours friends. It's not something I do very often, but it's fun in small doses. The funnest part is watching how people behave when they've had a bit to drink.

The not so fun part is having to contend with creepers that are out at 2 a.m. on a Monday night.

Next morning, after having slept about 3 and a half hours, we watched Cool Runnings at my friend Nonie's house (as you do). We then left for Brighton Beach, which was conveniently located a stone's throw away from Nonie's house.

Once there, we tanned, and Anna and I started ruminating about the future, life, the Holocaust, and humanity. (Yeah, Arts kids fo real, man.)

A good night, and an excellent morning. I've grown quite fond of a few of these Honours types, and I hope I keep in touch with them.

Afterwards, on the way home, I rear-ended a car. He ended up with a few scratches, while I was left with a towbar-shaped hole in my front.

I have no idea how it happened. I must've taken my eyes off the road at the vital moment, and he braked suddenly or something. It was pretty much at snail's pace.

Amazingly, he decided he didn't want to claim insurance for it, despite his initial rage. So I guess I'll just live with the towbar-shaped hole in the front of my car.

Oh, during all this time, my mum got sick, and the neighbour managed to run their car through our fence because they forgot to put the handbrake on.

Yesterday, my grandmother got hospitalised, so I've been in and out at couple of times visiting her, and picking up a little bit of the slack that mum leaves when she visits her.

And next week, it's my turn. My knee is undergoing surgery, which puts me out of action for the Coldplay gig and the annual roadtrip with my mates. Both frustrating. Extremely so, in the case of Coldplay. I hope I get a couple of visitors when I'm maimed. 9th of November. Mark it in your diaries, start visiting me from that date onwards. Please.

Today, I got a haircut, went to uni, ran into Meng, and gave my supervisor a bottle of the red wine in gratitude. Not a bad bottle either. For some reason, we always get into this philosophical discussions when we sit down together. Top supervisor, that Natalie Doyle.

So yeah. Despite being all done with uni, I've been fairly flat out doing this and that. Some of it good, some not so much.

Tomorrow, I'm off to buy stuff. Wish me luck.

Word of the Day: Theses

 

An expensive party

Davy's 21st on Friday night was the most expensive party I've attended to date. Mostly owing to the $70 parking fine that I incurred. Stupid double signs. 9am - 6pm: 2P. Above that, it says '6pm - midnight: permit parking'. James didn't read the sign at the top, and I didn't look at all. So pretty much all my fault.

Anyway, the party was quite good. Got to hang with friends who I hadn't seen for quiet a while. About half the people took a plus one with them, which made me feel sort of lonely, but it wasn't too bad, because most of the fellas I was hanging with didn't have one either. Maybe that's why they were hanging with me.

But yeah, once things got underway it was alright. We all had a few glasses of the hard stuff (lemon lime bitters...yeeeeaaah man), and, hey presto, everybody was talking. Vu and I, on the same team, lost twice, once because I sunk the black ball and 8 ball at the same time, and once because he did the same. What are the chances?

Bieber came on a bit later, thanks to the machinations of Imesha, but because of my prompting. I don't know why I do these things. I don't even like the guy in the slightest. Davy made me do the Bieber Dance, and I had to, because a Sicilian can't refuse a request on the day of his daughter's wedding. Or because it was his 21st. Either one.

This occurred during our highly intense game of Mafia. Yes, we played Mafia at a 21st birthday party. I think we should make it the official sport of NQT. And, just in case it's not sad enough, we'll make a team and participate in tournaments. We'll see who's laughing when we bring in the glory and the cash.

Speeches were up next. Although I royally screwed up Yvonne's part by interjecting at completely the wrong time, I saved it so well that it sounded like it was planned. Or it did to me anyway. I was treated like a bit of a celebrity afterwards, so it must've been alright. Hopefully videos up soon.

A good gig. A tad expensive, but not because of the person hosting. Hope you enjoy your present/s, Davy. And Happy 21st again.

Almost directly as a result of this, my good friend started having relationship/parent problems. I'm not going to go into it, because it's too complicated, and I don't want to publicise it everywhere. I just spent two hours with her by the lake on Monday. Half of it involved crying, and another friend being there, and the other half of it involved just me being there, and no crying. Funny how those two things positively correlate. Jeopardised my planned accounting midsem cram session, but hey, it's only 10%, and I probably wouldn't have gotten much done anyway. And my friends are more important than 10%. At least in times of crisis. I've already told her, but I'll reiterate it here again, and for everybody that feels that they are a close friend of mine: you can call me whenever if you just need to talk. I'm more than happy to do it. Talking is therapeutic.

Ironic how I spent two hours trying to alleviate somebody's relationship problems, but I have no clue what I'm doing with my own. Or lack thereof. Irony again. Hate it.

Yeah. Accounting midsem. Unmitigated disaster. Didn't expect to do that well, but that test was highly passable. If I'd actually studied. Procrastinated too much. Will start working now.

Word of the Day: Expensive

Everything's coming up roses

Things are quite good now. I'm in a happy period of my life. But, from experience, things come crashing down pretty quickly. Happiness is quite a fickle friend most of the time. So I'll enjoy it to the fullest while it lasts.

I can see trouble on the horizon already. Valentine's Day, and what I should do. The very thought of it makes me shake with nervousness. So many things could go wrong. Rejection is a big one. I hope not. But you never know. As I've said before, I try to stop from getting too optimistic about things, but I think I'm a natural optimist, and I can't really help it. I try to keep it under control, but it just seeps through the cracks of the mental barriers that I put up against it.

But this is a sort of happy problem to have to worry about in the future. Another one that I can see, and that could potentially do so much more damage to me academically is Financial Accounting. It's also so much less likely to induce any kind of happiness. More like relief upon passing it, at most. I still don't understand why you'd make a unit so hard.

I'll talk about something concrete now, instead of projecting my nothing thoughts into this post.

Last night, I went to Orrin's New Year's BBQ. Apparently that's how they do it in New Zealand. Like, a month after New Year's.

Anyway, nothing much happened, apart from this girl at his shindig having a mental breakdown after drinking too much. According to Meng, it was alcohol-induced paranoia. Quite unnerving at the start, insofar as "What the hell are we supposed to do? Is she alright? Should we call someone?" After that, it just got a bit awkward, because you can't really have a good time while something like that's going on. So you want to keep at it like nothing's happening, but the human in you can't. And that's the end of the story.

Today, I had brunch at about five different places with Linda.

Ok, slight exaggeration. It was two places. Only a slight exaggeration.

She's awesome. And that's the end of that story. Man, I tell good, detailed and in-depth stories.

Word of the Day: Happiness

Don't even try G, you ain't got nothin' on me

I am such a rebel.

On Friday night, I smoked a bit of cigar.

Pretty much tasted like burning tea leaves, with a stronger after-taste. Better than cigarettes, I think, not that I've had them before, but not completely bad tasting. Still, probably would not try it again. Unless it was a $3000 Cuban cigar given to me by one of my lawyer friends in the future.

Oh, by the way, the one's Botros and Simon were smoking were $12 for five from 7-11. Real high-class stuff there.

Meng was getting all into it though. I wouldn't be surprised if he went and got some for himself afterwards.

I should rewind a bit. Just so you know where the hell all this happened.

So it was Orrin's birthday party on Friday night. Me, being the astute and meticulous planner that I am, devised a masterplan. For my transportation to his place, that is.

The plan was that Orrin would arrive at Monash at 11, come to my Accounting lecture with me, perhaps meet some people, then leave the joint at 12 to go to Chaddy and buy some stuff and gossip about...things.

The plan screwed up at the first step. To cut a very, very long and expensive story short, Orrin got there at about quarter past 11, I was late to my lecture, we ended up meeting 0 people. The only part that went right was the going to Chaddy at 12 bit. Oh, and laughing at the New Zeland licturer the whole time.

So there we were at Chaddy. We had lunch, went to Koko Black to buy some ridiculously priced drinks (like, really exorbitant pricing), then went to Coles to buy ginger beer "which nobody would drink". Everyone drank ginger beer that night.

After that, we got back in the car. For some reason, Orrin decided to turn on his windscreen wipers. Maybe where he comes from you turn them on when it's sunny outside. Who knows. In between all of this, we talk about everything from weather to girls to why Kanye is such a tool.

So we kip on down to Southland to find some of the hard stuff. After walking back and forth between K Liquor and Liquorland about a million times, we ended deciding to go back to K Liquor anyway, which is what I suggested in the first place. This was where, according to Orrin, the most exciting part of the day happened.

See, there was this alright-looking girl at the counter. Ok, so she was better than alright. And she had a nice smile. And presumably you know how I have a thing for girls with nice smiles.

ANYWAY. So Orrin decided that we needed many cases of beer. He's like "here, slave, carry these while I select some more," so I go "Screw you, I'll put some on the counter first." This was the platform for me to make my first witty remark of the session.

I put one case on the counter, and Countergirl goes "Is that all for today?" or something along those lines. And I go, "Nah, there's still much more to come." Which, for some inexplicable reason, she found amusing.

So I go back, and help the New Zealander with his alcohol. So we ended up with a total of 24 beers. And then Countergirl goes "Is that all for today?" And here's the "punchline." Me, being hilarious and geniusticious in my humour, says (this deserves a whole line to itself):

"Yeah, I think that'll be enough. 12 for me, and 12 for this guy."

Ok, so it was fairly funny at the time. I wouldn't say it was the funniest thing I've ever said. Not by a long shot, if you know anything about me at all. She found it immensely funny. Actually, I don't very clearly remember what happened, but Orrin informs me that she found it immensely funny. And Orrin found it funny.

So apparently (I don't actually know why I have no recollection of this event) she started chatting me up. According to Orrin. Who is always reliable. So blah, blah, blah, have a great night guys. We get in the car, and Mr. Hindsight says, "Man, you should've asked her to MY party." Why the hell would I ask someone to YOUR party man? Whatever Orrin tells you I said after that is pure conjecture and fabrication, and has no truth in it whatsoever. I did not complain about missed opportunities in the slightest.

So we got to his house, blah blah blah. Key points were me setting up music, me showing Orrin how to fill up his tank (even though I've never driven with my Ps on - go figure), me fetching his girlfriend from the train station, and me doing stuff.

Meng arrived, we talked for about 30 seconds. Other people came, we lit a bonfire, got to know other people. More people arrived, night fell, Botros gave me a cigar to try, Meng puffed at it all night, we played Mafia, everybody except me and Meng sucked, Priscilla and Henrick came later, they danced, I brooded about things, played poker, lost to Botros, played Wii, slept for four hours, woke up, played Wii again. All in all, had a good time, and I have never seen a person blow out candles in such a creative way. The man clapped them out. Well done, you tool. Happy 19th.

I think it's time for me to talk about Westgate (ha, geddit? Kanye West? West-gate? Westgate Bridge? Forget it. I think I'll just stick to Kanye West Interruption.)

I found it hilarious. I mean, sure, he was a bit of a tool, and completely unreasonable for doing what he did, but still. It was funny. To be honest, Taylor Swift annoys the hell out of me. She didn't deserve to get served like that, but she could've at least put up a better show of defending herself.

"Yo Meng, I'm really happy for you, imma letchoo finish, but Andrew has one of the best jokes of all time. Of all time!"

Sorry, just couldn't resist slipping a reference there. No hard feelings Meng.

Word of the Day: Cigar