random

Update!

Good evening all! 🙂

I’m sorry I haven’t posted much this week; things have been hectic and today was pretty lousy. We’ve had severe storms in Adelaide today which disrupted our rail network and my garage is flooded! (Luckily nothing of value has been damaged.) 😦

Due to the severe weather I’m also having to miss Japanese class… 😦 I enjoy attending class and find it helps keep me motivated during my home study sessions. Does anyone else study a language? 🙂 I did French throughout high school and still understand it reasonably well, but my spoken French is not good these days!

Currently I’m finding this book really helpful with my study – it helps you learn a few hundred of the basic Kanji via creative stories! (Kanji are the characters borrowed from Chinese script.) You can get it cheaply via bookdepository.com :

image: amazon.co.uk

*

On a beauty related topic, check this video out! It’s from the series “My Strange Addiction”… This lady is addicted to makeup!

This girl is addicted to tanning (tanning beds 😦 – don’t try this at home!!!):

Hope you all are having a great week and I plan to post again on the weekend. 🙂

PS. I’m also working on a new version of the site, which will be hosted privately so that I have more freedom with it and can customise it further. This has been a lot of work! *wipes sweat from brow* I hope that you will all like the new site… It will open with another worldwide giveaway comp! 😀

fundraising from a galaxy far far away…

Hi everyone how has your week been so far? I’ve been quite busy at work so looking forward to knock off (finishing) time tomorrow! 🙂

I forgot to mention this earlier – those of you in Australia will probably already be familiar with this awesome fundraising story, but others may not. Anyway, this guy was in Adelaide on the super hot day we had earlier this week and so I wanted to talk about him, his creative fundraising efforts, and the great charity he is supporting (please note I have no connection to the fundraiser or the charity concerned and am not receiving any form of compensation for this post). I think he is a truly inspirational person!

In 2011 Jacob French created a unique fundraising idea. He decided to do a “Trooper Trek” – to WALK from Perth to Sydney (which is a huge distance across a whole lot of desert!) – to raise funds for children’s charity the Starlight Children’s Foundation. To give you an ever better idea of how big a challenge this is, it is expected to take him 8 MONTHS. What was even more amazing about the challenge he set for himself was that he decided that he would do the walk in a Storm Trooper (Star Wars) outfit!

He has recently reached the (roughly) half way point (which was Adelaide) and continued with his walk across parts of the Tour Down Under race (which I mentioned earlier) so that he can veer towards Sydney.

Here is a video about Jacob and his efforts as well as a link to his fundraising page. So far he has almost raised $50 000 AUD.

All the best for successful completion of your Trek, Jacob! 🙂

***

Who are people you find inspirational, and why?

*Road Safety Alert* – the Tour Down Under is starting soon!

image: http://chitanda.poznews.net

Happy Thursday everyone! 🙂

Now, I do intend to post about sleep today but – after hearing so much advertising on the radio on my way home from work – I felt the need to post about this first!

My home town, Adelaide, is in the midst of preparations for a massive international competitive cycling event – the Tour Down Under (click here to view the official site and learn more, if interested!). It officially starts on Sunday and takes riders through varied terrain around Adelaide and surrounds including the Adelaide Hills (very pretty area) and down by the ocean.

I’m all for exercise and healthy activities such as cycling, and the event is great for local tourism. However, I’m not a fan of the unexpected by-product this event produces reliably every year it is on – chaos on suburban roads…

What do I mean by this? I’m not talking about the race itself, as that is well organised and roads are blocked off to ensure the public’s vehicles don’t interfere. I’m talking about the phenomenon by which almost everyone who owns a bicycle in Adelaide, regardless of how long it’s been since they’ve been on it, decides to hop on, in their lycra, and clog main arterial roads riding to and from work in peak hour traffic, and on most weekends, during this event!

Unfortunately Adelaide drivers have a reputation in Australia as being the worst in Australia. Add tons of Adelaidian cyclists to the mix = chaos! People suddenly decide it’s okay to ride 3 or 4 abreast, outside of the designated bike lanes, and break other road rules, which can lead to dangerous situations with cars.

I drive my car to and from work on the days I work in the ‘burbs (2 days/week), and consider myself a responsible driver. I keep my eyes out for cyclists when I’m on the road and am careful. But it gets very frustrating when cyclists don’t obey road rules and cause or almost cause serious accidents.

Anyhow, I’ll end my rant here. The key message I want to send out is enjoy the Tour and getting back into bike riding but please do it safely and observe basic road rules!

With luv,
Sarah

PS. On another note, Adelaide’s annual German festival Schutzenfest is on tomorrow and Saturday – anyone going? It’s the largest German festival in the Southern Hemisphere, complete with all kinds of beer! (More info here.)

eurrh! (can’t quite type this as it sounds) home improvements…

Evening all! 🙂

I’ve decided to devote a post to this as it is something that will be taking up heaps of my time over the Xmas and new year period, and probably most of January. This may mean I won’t be blogging as much, so by writing this you will understand why!

The time and effort I will spend will be worth it… I’m renovating my kitchen! I live in a property which is very 1970s and so some major work is required. There is a lot of brown which has got to go!

And, well, I have enlisted the help of my trusty Dad. He’s a tradie (and has been for >30 years) but carpentry and plumbing are not the areas he’s formally qualified in. He’s renovated his own house so he does know what he’s doing to a degree, but things don’t always quite turn out as planned. I’m going to save a lot of money doing it this way (as for materials alone I’ve spent ~$3000 AUD – hence I haven’t been going out a lot lately! 😦 – just imagine how much more it would cost including labour!) BUT there is the risk that something will look quirky in the end as dad has a tendency to freestyle with designs and layouts! (*crossing fingers all will be well* I have been heavily involved in the design process!)

I’ve always thought of Dad and his DIY stuff as a bit like “Tim the Toolman” from the American 90s sitcom “Home Improvement”. However the big difference between my Dad and Tim is that things don’t blow up (thank goodness!)!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the series, here’s a clip of the theme song (with the infamous “eurrh!” sound Tim used to always make):

Anyone else planning to do some home renovations over the Xmas/new year period?! Feel free to share photos! (I’ll be uploading some before and afters once it’s all complete… hopefully I won’t have lost my mind by then LOL!)

bonnie bonnie bonnie BONNIE! <3

Hey! How’s everyone’s week been so far?

I’ve gotten home a bit earlier than usual as I haven’t been very well. I have had a bad cold all week, which I hope will be better by Saturday! (On Saturday I’m catching up with some other Beauty Bloggers based in Adelaide, most of whom I haven’t met in person before – should be fun! :)) So my plan for this afternoon is to take it easy.

I thought readers and visitors might be interested in meeting my dog (who is still technically a puppy – her first birthday will be on 17/1/12!) Bonnie. She’s a Maltese x Shihtzu which means that she has a great personality but needs regular brushing and trips to the groomers. She needs daily and thorough brushing when her fur is like it is now:

(Don’t worry, she’s going to the dog groomer’s this weekend so won’t have to be wearing a heavy fur coat over summer. :))

I had never had a dog like Bonnie before. When I was growing up, my parents always had big dogs like Rottweilers! They currently have a Labrador and also, funnily enough, a small dog too – a Mini Fox Terrier! Both dogs have very different personalities to Bonnie.

Bonnie is quite intelligent and has a calm personality, but she can also be very cheeky at times! One of her favourite things to do is seek out and destroy shoes as well as stockings! 😦 (Hence all of my shoes are now stored in a shoe rack beyond her reach…) She also loves to pose for the camera and will typically stay still for photos, unlike my parents’ dogs!

I was worried that she might bark a lot, but she doesn’t! She only barks when there is something wrong or there is a stranger at the door, or sometimes when playing a game. She was also easy to toilet train and I’ve had a “dog flap” (just like a cat flap but bigger) installed so she just goes outside when she needs to.

I’d love to hear about other people’s pets – feel free to comment and link to photos of your dog/cat/fish! 🙂

PS. Don’t forget to enter my Xmas giveaway comp! It’s open to all readers worldwide and there are some nice things up for grabs. Entries close midnight Jan 4th 2012, Adelaide time (GMT +09:30). 🙂

PPS. Why the “bonnie” 4x? For some reason Bonnie makes both me and my boyfriend think of the Kaiser Chef’s song “Ruby” (which has that catchy “ruby ruby ruby RUBY!” tag line in it ;)). If you haven’t heard the song before, here it is courtesy of good ol YouTube!

music… bliss!

birthinbliss.com

Hope everyone’s having a good weekend! 🙂

I had the opportunity today to catch up with 2 friends whom I hadn’t seen in a while. It was great to catch up and one of my friends happened to give me several gigs (GB) of music…. I love music so this was = awesomeness!!

Tonight me and my boyfriend are just relaxing, surfing the net while listening to some awesome tunes (currently listening to the Thievery Corporation = bliss! :)).

I like almost all music, so my taste in music is very diverse! I wonder what my readers and visitors like???

you know you’re in for a weird day…

…when you confuse this for a USB stick! LOL!

At least it gave my colleague a laugh!
Happy Friday all 🙂

emo – ting!

Just thought I’d share this with you guys.

Yes, I have a sense of humour (thank goodness! ;)) and so I like to bring this part of my personality into the workplace. I recently bought this product and am enjoying having it on my desk; my colleagues think it’s pretty funny too!

People can see if you’re feeling…

and if things are

you’re having a wonderful day!

One might want to stay away if I’m feeling

(Luckily that’s not too often, LOL! ;))

There are over 40 different “moods” included in the flip book and on the back of each are relevant definitions and other interesting stuff. Yes, I am easily amused! 😛

Have a great weekend all! 🙂 I’m looking forward to the warm weather we have got forecast for down here in Adelaide… I might go to the beach! (For a walk, not a swim… I can swim but don’t usually enjoy it much at the beach.)

quake!!!

How has everyone’s day been?

Mine has been pretty busy. I went to work, then a night class, and I also have several new review posts in the works! So I’m feeling tired this evening.

My tiredness levels were not helped by the fact I got woken up around 2:30am by what I thought was a loud truck rumbling down the street. Guess what? It turned out there had been an earthquake! 3.3 on the Richter Scale, so fortunately very minor. This has been at least the second small (thank goodnesss!) earthquake we have had here in Adelaide this year… I wonder if the plates are still shifting around a bit after the dreadful quakes that affected Japan and other parts of Asia earlier this year?

Anyway I came across this picture online today, amongst friends discussing the earthquake (I’m not sure where they got it from). It gave me a laugh so I hope it makes you smile too. 🙂

If you would like to read more about the quake, a recent article on it is below.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/10/19/3343012.htm

For those who are interested, Adelaide’s last BIG quake (at least 5 on the Richter Scale) was in 1954… I hope we don’t get any more of them any time soon.

Any quake stories to share?

x-factor…

Just wondering if anyone else has been keeping up with the latest Australian series of the X Factor? 🙂

Go Andrew! (I’ve thought he was great from the beginning!)

Who are others voting for???