Happenings (and present picspam!)

Soo, it’s been quite an eventful week I think. I had lots of thoughts in my head earlier, but now they are gone of course. I’ll see if they come back but let me start with a summary of what’s been happening.

Monday was my big motorbike exam, which surprisingly I passed, though by a narrow margin. It was all stress I’m tellin’ ya! (seriously tho, too much to remember) The examiner also did say I was too rushed (and asked if I was a delivery van driver *lol*), and, well… yeah. I should learn to chill out. Ha! But anyway, all over now and perhaps some day I’ll buy a bigger bike to replace my Spike.

Next event on the timeline was that I’d invited another Couchsurfer to stay Tuesday to Friday, 25 years old from Sydney, and she was looooooovely!!! I actually did stuff with her since I had Wednesday off and stuff, and I really really enjoyed her company, though she also made me slightly envious with her youth and her idealism and all the options she still has open to her… yes, I need to figure my life out.

I did get two phonecalls from two agencies about two part time jobs, which is the oddest timing (again) since it was about a week or ten days before I’d officially start looking again anyway. We’ll see what comes of them, neither is a dream job but both pay better than my current one and hey, part time is kinda what I wanted, though I’d resigned myself to going back to full time. Also, I love when stuff happens without me having to do anything. *lolol*

Oh yeah, Thursday I went to give blood (first time ever). They took it, too! Now I have a big bruise. 😀 Friday I went stargazing at Black Down with Vega and her Paul. Black Down is supposedly the darkest spot in Sussex and a known stargazing spot. Took us a while to find it and it was moderately scary cuz weird nature sounds etc. (Paul was scaredest, hehe), plus we also didn’t go as far as we should’ve done so we probably didn’t have the best view. We did see the Milky Way (well, I did once Vega pointed it out to me, it was pretty faint) and all in all I thought it was a pretty cool experience. I wish we had vantage points like that closer by (this is a good hour’s drive… if you know where you’re going, haha. Which I guess I do now.).

And that brings us neatly to the weekend, which delightfully was sunny until about 40 minutes ago (it is now a quarter to four on Sunday), so was spent mostly on the beach. Well, about three hours each day. Had a last paddle in the sea (five actually) and got a final suntan. Was reminded of my winter greyness complaints from last week, which no doubt will resume momentarily. But yay sunshine!!!

Next week is pretty busy… Monday volunteering meeting then work then counselling, Tuesday work then ex-colleague coming for coffee and catch up, Wednesday apparently “test day” at one of those new jobs, then Vega and Paul will come and fix my PC (ahem), Thursday work and then off to Helsinkiiiii to see the most marvellously divine Placebo, oooh yeah!!!! I’ve also booked my flight to go see my Mon and her Lille Ulv for his welcoming party in October. I’ll also get to meet Jimmy’s mum! 😀

And finally, tomorrow is my birthday and I’ve remembered what else I was going to write about… I’m going to gleefully post pictures of the presents I have received / will receive / bought for myself, cuz yay presents!!! 😀

Viscose Jersey in rainbow colours, 6x1m [from here]. This is from my mum. Originally I wanted 3m each, but then I thought I’d try 1m first to see the colours. Not sure what I’ll do with it yet, tho I think one thing will be a nicer, wider rainbow skirt. 😀

Also from my mum, 24 colour fat quarter bundle [from Etsy]. One can never have enough rainbow, as you know, and this will allow me to make projects such as this pillowcase. I asked the seller if she could replace one blue (boring – sorry Katja!) with a green and she said yes! 😀

From Katja and Tobias. A 1-1000g scale. It’s dinky! Sounds boring I know, but it will enable me to weigh letters and figure out postage without having to go to the post office. This is exciting for lazy people who hate queueing!

Also from Katja and Tobias, Abstract City by the amazing Christoph Niemann (tho mine is hardback). You may know him from “I LEGO N.Y.” (which is also in here). He’s soooo amazing!!! =P~

Again from Katja and Tobias, the latest album from Die Ärzte. Die beste Band der Welt. 😀

From the lovely Vega: Laleh – Sjung. For those of you who’ve escaped my Laleh obsession so far: Vårens Första Dag. The album hasn’t been released here (yet?) so I asked Vega to bring me it from Sweden and she turned it into a birthday present! 😀

My present to myself – American Prospects by Joel Sternfeld. Saw some of these in Vienna, fell in love, decide to treat myself. It’s sooooo great!! =P~ (also fucking huge, hehe)

And finally, mystery present… Paris in Color! I know it’s gone from my Amazon Wishlist (I didn’t mean to spy, but I was showing my Couchsurfer something. Honest!), but haven’t received it yet, so don’t know who it’s from :)) (there are two likely candidates I think). Anyway, I’m very excited! 😀