Does this mean I'm meant to be grown up now?

Milestones of life have never been something that I've been particularly motivated by. I've never had the ten year plan, I have absolutely no idea about how to go about the few career aspirations that I occasionally ponder, and I'm not concerned about babies and husbands.

Yet somehow, I've just made my first mortgage payment. Almost a decade of faffing about in cafes and periodically pretending to have a 'proper' job, living in cheap, crappy houses and refusing to move out of my parent's house has enabled me to save enough money to buy an apartment on Hay Street. Go looky!

I have city central apartment. I also have a mortgage. These words will be repeated many many times, until they become ingrained, because at the moment, Amy and mortgages aren't two things I ever thought I'd see put together for a very long time.

Look at me, all growing up now.

These things make me happy

I like waking up at 6am on a Monday morning, and knowing that I still have another hour to snuggle down and sleep some more.

I like even more hearing the sound of rain on a corrugated iron roof, pleased that it has been saved for a school day, and not for my weekend that was filled with beautiful sun-shiney autumn weather instead.





This photo is from a PICA exhibiton that I dropped into while meandering around Northbridge in August.

Why have I not heard of The Postal Service before?

Half a bottle of red wine down, and the interesting prospect of spending the entire weekend in Ono, due to this afternoon's purchase of a scooter and subsequent budget blow-out, I'm spending the night in.

All is not lost, however. I have just discovered the fabulousness of The Postal Service. I don't care how you get your hands on their music - borrow, steal or I'd even suggest buying it if there is no other option - but you really really have to listen to these guys. Upbeat, pace-y and tight, perfect for dragging yourself out of a downward slide into red wine melancholia.

If I were clever, well, not completely computer inept anyway, I'd post a link to their website. I'm not clever. Cut and paste: http://www.postalservicemusic.net/

A kindred spirit

I'm mired in the depths of post-exam hell at the moment. Several hundred exams to mark, all of which I've left until the last day - checking my emails for the gazillionth time somehow seems a little less frustrating.

But I've just come across this complete pearl in an essay about how to relax while studying.

'I suggest to you that you eat a chocolate bar. If you eat one, your brains will cheer up.'

If only she'd had the foresight to staple said choclate to the paper, and there would have been a perfect score straight up, grammar be damned.

Potty training

Today, on top of being Friday and almost the weekend, holds promise of being a fantastic day. I've made a new and important discovery, although it does make me feel slightly...um...dumb.

It's a discovery that I made early on when I was first in Japan, as I was exploring my school, but it seemed to disappear, never to be found again. I did look again, and again, I searched every floor of the school, but eventually put it down to either imagining it, dreaming about it or making it up after reading about secret rooms and things that disappear ala Harry Potter.

The new fabulous thing in my life? I have found the school's only western toilet.

This makes life just that little bit more pleasant. No more worries about peeing on the bottom of my trousers, no more holding it in because I just don't want to use a squatty, no more coldness on my exposed nether regions in winter.

Simple pleasures, my friends, simple pleasures. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to catch up on...