...Time has passed, not much has happened! My life continues to be basically boring, and I still fail at meeting new people or doing anything productive with my time.

And then when I do something actually worth a lunchtable "Hey, I'm doing something this weekend! I'm a proper person!" conversation, it's actually too embarassing to even mention. I get as far as "I'm going to Sydney", but then make up some bullshit about it being "just because... touristy stuff..." rather than "HELL YES I AM GOING TO SEE A BAND, IF YOU'VE EVEN HEARD OF THEM YOU PROBABLY THINK THEY'RE LAME!"

One day I will start owning my loserness (it's even kind of one of my New Years Resolutions!). But just... not today.

(Maybe when I make some friends I can be a geek with in Real Life? As if that will ever happen.)

But anyway, Sydney! I don't even know what I'm going to spend the rest of my weekend there doing. I've been recommended to go eat pancakes by one of my workmates, but aside from that my list consists of: see touristy stuff. maybe go to Kinokuniya. ride public transport (ah, I miss trains!).

Secretly a little part of me wants to stay home and finish catching up on Homestuck. Advance bookings, always interfering with new fandom love!

Is it ridiculous that I'm thinking of going to Sydney to see MCR in January? Even though I'm not in bandom anymore (does it even still exist?), too old, and have no-one to go with?

Well, it's that or pay an excessive ticket price to go to the Big Day Out and be sun-roasted and squashed, and either alone or with people who want to see different acts. Either way I only have to ask for one day off work. At least this way I get a weekend in Sydney? (Long weekend, even - just realised the following Monday is Auckland Anniversary Day!)

I just really still love those boys <3

(OMG, I'll write an actual entry on here one day soon. Maybe once I get the photos off my boss of my fully-clothed swim in Lake Taupo this morning XD )

Since I last wrote here, I've managed to get a new job! And because I've been procrastinating on everything, it's already my last day living in Hamilton. Tomorrow I'm moving down to Taupo, and on Monday I'll start at my new place. I'm half scared and half excited... I only know one person down there, and her only vaguely. But I was getting fairly bored at my current job, which I've been doing for 5 years. It was definitely time to move on.

I've just finished up my packing now, and I'm off to drinks with my workmates tonight. Last night was dinner and karaoke with my friends from Monday night quiz at the Cook, and today at work hardly any actual work was done, thanks to shared morning tea, lunch at Furnace, and having a last chat with lots of people in the afternoon :)

I don't know what I'd do without the internet: it's nice that even though I'm leaving all my RL friends behind, we can still keep up with each other via Facebook - and of course, that my LJ/DW friends will still be the same as always XD

I feel like I've been busy recently, but now that I come to write about it I really haven't done much. I think I just feel like I haven't had enough free time because I've had things to do on the weekends and stuff to work on at nights.

So, things! My uncle got married last weekend! The wedding was really small, just 14 guests, and was held in a restaurant in Devonport. It was actually nice having just a simple ceremony with family and a couple of close friends there rather than the full production. I was the driver for the bridal vehicle (my sister's car), and we arrived the requisite 20 minutes late due to the bouquet having been forgotten XD The ceremony was short and sweet (though the celebrant got on my nerves a little bit), and the lunch afterwards was delicious. The bride's Mum had made a booklet entitled "A modern love story" with photos and the story of how the couple met (online!) which she read out. The weather co-operated, and we were able to take some nice photos outside as well, which I'm looking forward to getting copies of.

In less happy news, last Tuesday night some asshole cut all four tyres on my car while it was parked on the road outside my house, so I got to spend a day's time and a week's pay getting new tyres organised (while having a cold as well!). I just don't understand why someone would do that - even though it costs me money, it's not like they're getting any of it. Surely it can't be that much fun :/

This coming Saturday is my work's Midwinter Party, and this year it's cartoon characters and superheroes themed so I'm busy getting my costume ready. Sewing is harder than I thought it would be....

And tonight I'm going to see Harry Potter!! Just filling in time until midnight now - lucky I have so much sewing to work on :)

Tonight I attended a workshop held by the Wai Taiko drumming group. It was incredibly fun! And quite rewarding too, first being amazed as the group members played a difficult-looking song and then by the end of the class being able to play it ourselves (of course, they weren't actually hard songs at all, just looked that way to us beginners...) Anyway, I really wish that it was a club that could just be joined, because I'd love to do it on a regular basis, but it looks like all I can do is attend all their public workshops. So that's what I'll do :)


Also, a meme I stole about a week ago and have finally got around to answering: Comment with "Ludwig the Unicorn". I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better. Update your journal with the answers to the questions. Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions. My questions were from crsg

1. What was your most cherished possession when you were a child?
My stuffed rabbit, Bah (I don't even know where that name came from...) Well, he's still pretty cherished now, too :)

2. If you could go back in time and change any one thing you said/did/didn't say/didn't do, what would that be and why?
I regret a lot of things, mostly of the 'didn't do' variety. But if I had to pick one... I wish I'd gone on a student exchange to Japan in high school, rather than deciding that the 2 week trip with my class was enough. I tried to remedy this with my semester at Kansai Gaidai in 2009, but it just wasn't really the same, since I was surrounded by other english-speaking exchange students. I think my path after high school would have been a lot clearer if I'd done this.

3. Do you believe in the supernatural (i.e. ghosts, spirits, fortune telling, etc.)?
I kind of want to believe, but I can't make myself.

4. Very generally speaking, are you okay with who you are as a person right now?
I think I'm usually okay with who I am, though there are a lot of things I'd change if I could. I'm probably more dissatisfied with the circumstances of my life and what I'm doing, rather than with myself as a person. Though I do wish I could be a little less shy and more decisive.

5. What/who do you look to when you're seeking inspiration for something?
It depends what I'm looking for inspiration for, but usually I'd head towards something natural and beautiful. For instance, whenever I have something important to write (job application, scholarship essay etc) I go sit in the Hamilton Gardens' Japanese garden and feel the peaceful atmosphere while I write (well, until a family with screaming kids or a busload of tourists comes by...)


Anyway, tomorrow I'm off to Auckland with my sister to see some comedy shows, since she's hugely into these things. So if you ask for questions for this meme it'll be a few days before I can give you any, sorry!

And with that, I'd better go pack and get some sleep so I can drive safely tomorrow :)

A few times recently I've felt like writing in here again, but I've never had anything worth an "I'm back! This is so important it's worth bothering you all for!" post. But damn it, nothing all that interesting ever happens to me so if I feel like posting about the boring stuff, I will!

...of course, I can't remember most of the things I had wanted to say anymore.

Anyway, I graduated from my Japanese Diploma last Thursday. About this long after my last graduation I was already thinking about going back to Uni, but this time I'm going to last more than half a year of full-time work. No more studying just for the sake of studying! No, now I just have to somehow find a job that uses Biology and Japanese (or just one of the two) or at least something a bit more interesting and rewarding than my current place. Just... I hate looking for jobs! So difficult and depressing. And the current place, though stingy and unrelated to my qualifications, is so comfy and friendly that it'd be hard to leave.

Well, we'll see what happens. I'm not really putting any effort into the search at the moment but I know in a few months I'll get really sick of work and start looking properly.

In other news, a delicious donburi place opened up in Hamilton. I happened to see it on the way back to my parents' place for dinner after graduation, and went and tried it the next day. So good! And actually run by Japanese people, unlike most of the Japanese restaurants here, though when I tried to order in Japanese today I got answered in English and was a bit disappointed. The guy on the counter was probably sick of people thinking they know a few words of Japanese and decided to cut me off straight away. Well, I'll try again next time anyway.

I just discovered the existence of Keyhole TV. There goes my free time! (Well, if only I can get it to show videos properly unlike the frozen mosaic I've got now XD )

But wow! Great listening practice :D

So, looks like my sister has coeliac disease. The diet in my house is about to change a lot, though she's currently still at the stage of saying "I want to eat the normal stuff and just put up with the stomach cancer" :/

I don't suppose anyone has any really delicious gluten-free recipes I could make for her? I'm going to go check out Bin Inn before work tomorrow and see what kinds of ingredients they sell there so I can see which of the recipes that I've found are do-able (somehow while Mum's doing the really hard stuff of altering dinner recipes to cut out gluten, I've taken charge of providing delicious cakes and biscuits).

Today, on the way home from Uni:

A bus stops for about 5 minutes for a driver change, with no announcement of any sort, leaving the passengers asking each other what's going on, some getting off for a smoke etc.

Finally the new driver arrives, but because we're now behind schedule he drives extra-fast, and doesn't stop to take on passengers at all, only to let those already riding off. If people happen to be waiting at a stop where someone's getting off, they get told another bus will come soon and the doors are closed in their face.

And they wonder why few people use public transport?! If one of my early experiences trying to take the bus had involved a clearly not full bus completely bypassing the stop where I was waiting (probably with somewhere I had to be and some time when I had to be there...) then I definitely would think twice before trying it again too.