Monday 23 April 2012

Small Pleasures


So, apparently even though I left my blog out in cyberspace, unwatered and unloved for quite some months now (I don't even want to think about how many), it has not wilted from neglect, carked it, thrown in the towel or withered away into nothingness, as my so-called "hardy" balcony pot-plant threatens to do. It has instead seemingly maintained some infrequent visitors, who probably did not quite find what they were looking for on Google (so far my favourite search words for landing here are "bitchy sex" and "bogan aussie sheila").


Anyhow, in sharing this blog with a dear friend (who has her own fabulous blog, go check it out! She's much funnier than I am) I rediscovered the joy of procrastiblogging and may yet continue to regale you with tales of my life. You may look forward to it, but I wouldn't depend on it, since I'm an extremely unreliable blogger at the best of times...see last year, case in point.  


***



One of the hardest things I've found about living alone this year has been managing my stress levels. I suspect it's because I've lived with other people at any other point in my life which has remotely compared to how crazy-hectic I am right now (and let me tell you, there is no other point in my life at compares to this!) - eg year 12 exams, college, etc - and so I've been able to channel my energy into being social and distracted, and not feed off my own anxiety. 


It's isolating, or can be. It's not that I'm lonely, but the being alone is harder. Sometimes, it would just be nice to have someone to come home to. Someone to be comforting and sympathetic and supportive. Of course my wonderful friends are all that way, but seeing them for one or two snatched hours a week hardly suffices. Self-reliance can be exhausting when you're the only person looking out for you. The result is that I don't really look after myself - although I try to take time out for myself to avoid burning out, I'm not sleeping nearly enough or eating well (LBL might actually be a step up in terms of my nutrition intake! Scary thought...), and uni just continues to pile on...


So I'm thinking that rediscovering my blog might actually be healthy for me; in light of which, tonight I'm celebrating 3BT. 





  1. Food, glorious food. Funny how your appreciation for food increases exponentially the closer you get to doing Live Below the Line. One of my favourite ways to cook is just to pull together a combination of whatever's in my fridge (since I'm horrifically bad at planning out my shopping, which is what makes LBL such a refreshing - if challenging! - change to my useful ad hoc lifestyle. Haha. I tend to hit up the supermarket when I run out something crucial, like toilet paper, milk or chocolate, and then think "oh yeah, some vegies would be good...rice, bread, meat, noodles, sauce, sure, probably wouldn't go astray" and then end up doing an unexpectedly large shop and struggle home, burdened. Yep. Just an Organised Girl, that's what they call me!) - the other night I made a pretty wicked pasta - just packet pasta of sour cream and chives, plus olives, capsicum, mushrooms, broccoli and capers! Yum. Tonight was 2 pork chops out of the freezer with garlic and mushrooms, potato and yes, some rather random capsicum - but it was delicious, and I am trying to finish it off :)
  2. Book club book! Just finished the fabulous Fifty Shades of Grey, which I'll probably discuss (can't promise it'll be soon!) here, and got started on my book club book. Actually love that I am in a book club, you have no idea how cool that makes me feel :) *breaks out the appropriately nerdy glasses* Thankfully, it's fantastic book so far - admittedly I'm only about 50 pages in, but it's a wonderfully easy read (esp for non-fiction!) and reminds me just how much and why I love Helen Garner.
  3. Teaching. Today I took my first "whole class" lesson with the preps, which basically meant I planned all their activities for a lesson on addition (which we started last week) for 1.5 hours. And let me tell you, lesson planning is no mean feat. That shit is tedious. At least in terms of the boring paperwork the uni expects us to do. Lame. BUT the actual lesson is worth it. Got very little sleep last night trying to think of activities for them (we break them into 4 groups according to their levels and differentiate the activities) but it all worked out pretty well (though I tell you it was proper stressful!) Was great to practice running the class though, because tomorrow my teaching fellow is coming in to observe me (ahhhhhh!). My mentor teacher is fabulous though and super supportive. I could go on about teaching all day. It really is its own reward, and proves this each and every day. Top 3 teaching moments so far:

  • 5 year old singing "Dynamite" - yes, by Taio Cruz. 
  • Extremely animated 5 year old impersonation of Ben 10. Classic.
  • Playing "musical statues" with the preps, rocking my cheesiest dance moves, and being told (repeatedly) "you look silly!" To which I say "so do you!" :)

Yep, I think this is definitely the right career path for me - shameless.

x
JAG

Live Below the Line in Memes

Because, you guys - they're funny!




https://www.livebelowtheline.com/au-why-2-a-day  



And also because Live Below the Line is awesome. Do it!

x
JAG