update

Mase & I have moved into a new apartment and we don't have the internet yet, hence the lack of blog entries. Everything's going well, although we don't have a couch or a bed frame yet! AND we don't have BLINDS on any of our floor to ceiling windows...eek! The owners aren't providing them until January or February...bastards!! So if anyone's in our area, wave as you drive past, we'll see ya!

We've also been keeping busy with Christmas shopping lately. It's so handy to live close to a shopping centre!

We have so many presents and so much food for the Big Day tomorrow, I can't wait!! I'll blog more once we get connected.

GRAND!

My mum sent me this picture of a glass cantilevered walkway over the Grand Canyon due to open in early 2006.

Read some specs here, verified by snopes.com here.

Let's hope they had someone more qualified than a graduate structural engineer to design it!

my rising star

This is also about Saturday night's party, but it was so great I have to give it its own entry. As we were walking into Sea World, I saw a shooting star!! It was blazing a trail across the night sky and was so bright I thought it was fireworks being shot into the sky, except that it was going in the wrong direction! It wasn't till it started to fade that I realised what it was.

The last time I saw a shooting star was in college. I feel like it's pretty rare these days, and I felt so happy to see it!! Did anyone else see the shooting star in the Gold Coast night sky around 7:10 pm last night?

I surely made a wish on that falling star.

arrrr we having fun yet?!

Saturday was Mason's 2nd work party, this time for the project. It was a pirate themed party held at Sea World, so we spent a frantic Saturday searching for costumes! We were both totally bummed cos our planned costumes fell through - Mase was waiting on a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball uniform that never arrived, and I had my heart set on being a mermaid, but Brisbane costume stores had other ideas! I could not believe the CRAP quality of costumes in the 5 or 6 stores we went to. It looked like someone's mum had whipped them up in 1980 - they were stretched, stained, see-through where the sequins had fallen off... DISappointing. One costume I tried on looked like a mermaid from outer space, with big angular silver sleeves!

It all turned out alrighty in the end, cos we had fun as matching pirates. I was definitely more comfortable than I would have been as a mermaid!

On to the venue ~ we saw a few dolphins swimming around in their pen, but it was too late for the polar bears, who were already tucked away in bed for the night. We could go on 2 rides: the Corkscrew and the Flume Ride. The Corkscrew is Sea World's biggest ride, but since their specialty is sea life and not rides, it was fairly time. One loop-di-loop, a corkscrew, and it was over! The Flume Ride was a very tame version of Disneyland's Splash Mountain.

Mase & I had posed for a nice photo but people just kept jumping in or standing in the way! Mase looks crazy and if you look hard enough, I look slightly annoyed! It's all good though.

Mase & I got matching spray-on tattoos at South Bank to get in the spirit of things. They should last about a week, so I got mine somewhere a little inconspicuous - don't want to have to explain myself over and over at work!

Deep in thought (nah, just wanted to show off his tat!) 

(Just wanted to show off my braids.) 

Thar be a parrot on yer shoulder. Yarr. 

sufferin' for suffrage

I got an anonymous comment in regard to women being called Mrs *husband's name*, which started me on an internet search for Lady Musgrave and anti-suffrage. It turns out that back in the day, there were women against women's rights! I feel like I could write a thesis on this, so I'll keep it simple (stupid!). Suffrage is the civil right to vote. Anti-women's suffrage groups were formed by women in the early 20th century. I wasn't able to find the sources of a lot of information I read, so I can't vouch for its credibility, but here is a quote by Lady Musgrave outlining the argument of anti-suffragettes (depending on what website you look at, this is either Lady Musgrave's original quote, or her re-quoting of another anti-suffragette, Lady Jersey):

"Put not this additional burden upon us," she pleaded, as "women were not equal to men in endurance or nervous energy, and (she thought she might say on the whole) in intellect."

Two informative, yet conflicting, sites are here and here.

My search also led me to a list at Wikipedia* of countries without women's suffrage:

"Some countries do not extend suffrage to women, or extend it differently from that extended to men (this list does not include countries where neither men nor women have suffrage):

Bhutan -- One vote per family in village-level elections
Brunei
Lebanon -- Proof of education required for women, not required for men. Voting compulsory for men, optional for women.
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait -- But voted in 2005 to introduce suffrage for women older than 21 (to take effect in the 2007 national elections)."

* I intended for this link to go here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_suffrage, but it automatically diverts to the generic 'Women' definition.

Anti-suffrage poster vs. Pro-suffrage poster

Interesting that the anti-suffrage poster depicts women as childish, helpless and girly, while the pro-suffrage poster shows a stronger, more determined-looking woman (though still with the sense to dress in her Sunday best for the poster, bless her!).

fare evader

Today I nearly forgot to buy a ticket before I got on the train to go home, and when I did remember I then discovered I had no money. So I just got on the train without a ticket. I was also on the wrong platform and had to run up the stairs, over the track, down the stairs. I was thinking up good stories in case there were ticket inspectors when I got off (I decided the best option would be to feign surprise. Oh my, where's my ticket gone?) but as usual there were none.

That's it. That's my story.

therapy

Today a wonderful thing happened at work. Our company has been given a corporate discount card to use at a nearby cosmetics wholesaler, so we went shopping! I didn't spend as much as some of the other girls from work (some spent up to $500!) but I did enjoy spending a further hour after lunch browsing through a shop!

It all happened out of the blue, too, which made it an extra special treat. I was sitting in the lunch room, contemplating going back to my desk, when some excited co-workers came up and told me to get on over to the store!!