Thursday, January 25, 2007

I found my glasses!

Yay! This morning I was reading a journal paper and it was a real struggle (not the paper, it was very well written, just the print). So, after whingeing to my housemate about it, I went and had one more thorough look in a place I thought they would be. I remembered bringing them home from work on my last day before Christmas holidays, and then not using them during the hols. So I figured that despite having already looked amongst my work stuff my glasses must be there and I must have missed them previously. After a thorough scout I discovered them hiding under some of my boyrfriend's stuff that was in the same area as all my work things.

Life is so much easier with your reading glasses!

PS, I promise there are more serious posts on the way, I am working on a couple but the inspiration hasn't been flowing of late and my energy is consumed with house-hunting. But don't worry, I'll be back with a vengeance soon!

Labels:

2 comments

Posted by Ellie at 10:30 AM

Monday, January 22, 2007

They say that everyone has a double...


... Well I think I've found mine. She doesn't look exactly like me, her face is wider, and unfortunately (for me) she has muscles and tone where I have none. She's also a little taller (5cm / 2in), or so I am led to believe. And she's younger - about 5 years younger, althoug you probably wouldn't pick it (or maybe I'm just delusional).
There's a big fuss in the Australian media at the moment about doubles, because there's some Melbourne girl who is Kate Hudson's official body double (man, would I like to be her!). There's actually an ad on TV at the moment for an upcoming current affairs show about celebrity doubles. Though I must say the girl on the ad who is touted as Scarlett Johansen's double doesn't look much like her to me.
Anyway, back to my double - who looks considerably more like me than the aforementioned Scarlett Johansen lookalike does to Scarlett, I might add. No, I didn't meet her in the street, I saw her on TV also - you could say she's a celebrity. Although she's not really. Well, rather a friend of mine saw her on TV, and she told me about her. So I kept and eye out and spotted her the following day. My initial reaction was "she doesn't look like me", followed (about 5 seconds later) by "oh... i suppose..." and then "actually, that's quite scary, she looks a lot like me". Since then I have become mesmerised. It's very strange seeing someone who looks just like you on TV. Someone who isn't you, and is doing things you don't do, but who you would possible mistake for you, if you weren't infact you.
I told one of my sisters about her. She didn't think the likeness was close enough to be scary, although she has only seen still photos, which show up the differences more than the similarities. She actually thought she looked more like I did when I was little, because I had a wider face then.
My double is a professional tennis player - Lucie Safarova. Personally I can't play tennis (I have a lot of difficulty extending my tenuous hand-eye coordination down the length of the racquet), so I find it quite interesting to see what I would look like if I could play it, and rather well at that. She's currently playing in the Australian Open in Melbourne, so I'm considering testing the depth of the likeness by throwing on some sporty attire and a nike cap, and heading down to near Rod Laver Arena to see if anyone asks for an autograph. And she just beat 2nd seeded Amelie Mauresmo, so I'm very excited to see how she progresses through the tournament - I can tell you who I'll be cheering for!

Labels: , , ,

2 comments

Posted by Ellie at 10:48 AM

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Trauma is tiring and not nearly as much fun as new beginnings.

I had a very exciting night last night. I went to a barbeque with friends by the Yarra River in the city of Melbourne. That in itself was quite uneventful, but the toilets wera a way off, so my boyfriend and a friend decided to cycle to them rather than walking. Sensible idea perhaps. But they did take rather a long time and we got to wondering where they were. Then our friend called, demanding that I walk down to where they were. So, muttering about boys and their games, I strolled in that direction.

It was on dusk, and I got about halfway to them before I saw the ambulance and my boy lying on the bike track. Then I started to run. He was lying in a pool of his own blood looking dazed and confused and moaning about how sore his shoulder was. The ambulance guys cut his shirt off him, which he later called one of them a "bitch" for doing (it was a lovely CK linen shirt that he got at a seconds sale a while ago), and bundled him onto a spne board and then a gurney. They first checked his feeling in his limbs (a proxy for checking for spinal injury I guess), which were fortunately fine.

The ambulance ride to hospital was uneventful (no sirens :( sadly), but I was quite concerned by the fact my boy kept repeating the same questions and comments, had no idea what day or even month it was (although he knew he had "just" turned 27), or where he lived. He was doing a great job of letting us know what was wrong with him though. "My left shoulder is really sore" he would say periodically, which would prompt the ambo to ask if he wanted something for the pain, to which he'd reply "Nah, I'm right mate". He hadn't had a helmet on, and I was more than a little worried about the effects of the head injury.

Arriving at the hosiptal I was dispensed to the waiting room and the boy wheeled away into the trauma ward on the gurney. An anxious wait for me ensued, I tried to take an ernest interest in a 1997 National Geographic article on the debate about Quebec seceding from Canada (perhaps Laura can fill me in on more recent developments), and then a photo essay on ants with antlers, but it was an effort to keep my mind occupied.

It was about 10:45 at night, an hour after we arrived, when I was allowed to see him. I was greatly relieved to note that he was a lot more coherent, although when I saw him again today he didn't remember much from that time. He'd been CT scanned and xrayed, and it seemed that while his collarbone was badly fractured, there were only a few other grazes to worry about and his head was ok. Greatly relieved, I talked to him for a while before a friend from the barbie picked me up from the hospital.

The rest of our friends and fellw barbequers had retired to a pub near our house to wait on news, and I can tell you that by the time I got there I was sorely in need of a stiff drink (not something I usually partake of these days because of the CFS), and I downed at cointreau lime soda (cointreau being the stiffest drink I could think of that I liked) at quite a rate. Then I went home to sleep. Man was I tired! It was probably around midnight by that stage and I certainly wouldn't have stayed out that late had it not been for the accident.

I got up around 9 and rang my supervisor to let him know I wouldn't be at uni today, then I packed somethings for my darling and went to see him. Turns out they'd operated last night to clean up his wound - when his collarbone broke it pierced the skin, so there were concerns about the risk of infection, and particularly bone infection. Apart from being very sore and sorry he's ok. It was quite strange being the one who asked to do things, fetch things, help out and generally compensate for his difficulties. While I'm sure his mind is on other things, it must be a shock for him to be reliant on others, and particularly me for a change.

Anyway, I'm just glad he's going to be ok, although I won't get him back for a couple of days yet because the hospital want to keep him there to make sure he doesn't get an infection, and then to do another operation to set the collarbone. So much for a nice quiet barbie by the river with friends!

Labels: , , , , ,

2 comments

Posted by Ellie at 9:11 PM

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Have you seen my glasses?

I seems to have lost them. :(

I am not very reliant on my glasses - my prescription is fairly minor - but they do make computer work a bit easier. I've been on holidays for 3 weeks now and I didn't bother with them then. Now that I'm back to work I'm finding it rather a struggle without my specs.

Last night I had a big hunt for them, but search as I might I could not find them. Todays my eyes are tiring again and I think tonight I will have to have another hunt, although I can't think of anywhere I didn't look last night. Anyway, hopefully this hunt will be more successful than last night's search effort.

Labels: , ,

0 comments

Posted by Ellie at 12:59 PM

New beginnings are fun but tiring

Oh I am tired. This is not an unusual state of affairs, but for the last three weeks, if I am tired I have been able to just sleep in, or even stay in bed if it took my fancy. But not this morning, oh no. This morning is the second day of my return to uni, and the second day of my PhD. Yesterday was a big day!

I arrived at uni around 9am, hoping to make a good first impression, but my supervisor didn't turn up until 10, so that was a little pointless. In between getting lost (which I did twice in the first hour), I did manage to sort out my enrollment, or rather the fact that I am not presently enrolled. I am sure I also gained some understanding of the layout of the campus, although I don't think it has helped too much just yet. I also managed to find (accidentally, while getting lost) the engineering library (useful to an engineer like me) and also the main library.

Once my supervisor arrived I found my desk, a computer and various other necessities. At morning tea I met about a billion people (at least 7 anyway). I think I did more walking yesterday than I had done in total in the 2 weeks prior - Melbourne Uni campus is a little larger than Adelaide Uni, and it probably didn't help that I kept getting lost and traipsing uneccesarily through parts of the uni I didn't need to go to.

What with all the meeting and walking it quite wore me out. But it was quite exciting and a lot of fun, and I am very pleased I have taken the plunge. Here's to new beginnings!

Labels: , , , , ,

4 comments

Posted by Ellie at 10:07 AM

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

I'm back! Sorry for leaving without saying goodbye...


I realised as I was halfway between Melbourne and Narooma, that I hadn't put up a "Happy Christmas I'm buggering off for a couple of weeks" post. Well, I had no internet access anywhere on my trip except for 10 minutes at my Nan's place (yes, she's 81 and she loves the net...), so I never go to put that post up.

But now I am back from my gallivanting around the countryside, and I promise a ripper post as soon as my inspiration returns. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and all my best wishes for the new year. :)

Labels: , ,

0 comments

Posted by Ellie at 2:05 PM