1146

I love having money to spend.

Mum and I went up to Warrawong on Friday, because I wanted to go shopping to pick up a few things. I was able to buy precisely what I wanted (and more):

• Supernatural S2 on DVD ($38.72 – it was $64.44)
• Black three-quarter pants (mostly so I have something reasonably cool to wear to the Easter Show on Saturday – $19.99)
• New bag ($10)
• New sandals ($20)
• New hat ($14.88)
• New watch ($49.98)

All up I spent $153.55, out of the $330 I had once I took the rest of my money from my bank account. I have $168 left, and if I don’t end up spending it all before I get paid tomorrow it’s going in my Easter Show fund. That’ll give me a nice bit of money to blow on my showbags and any jewellery I happen to buy.

And before anyone accuses me of forgetting what Friday marked (my Internet’s been on the fritz, and there aren’t any other wireless networks in my street I can hook into, which is why I didn’t post this on the actual day), aside from being Pi Day and the beginning of the 2008 footy season (speaking of the latter, the Roosters beat the snot out of the Bunnies as usual – final score was 34-20) – happy 25th to Taylor Hanson There was a note made of it in the Mercury, of all the newspapers to be in – the only celebrity birthday in the paper, actually. Heh. I was reading through the paper and saw it on the Opinion page. Bit of a shitty picture, but meh.

That actually does scare me a little bit. Mostly because in two and a half months I’ll be 24. Now that is scary.

1144

It took me a fucking age, but chapter 2 of Defying Gravity is done. Leave some love.

1143

This is bullshit.

I can no longer make voice posts. I was planning on making a couple next Saturday, before and after the Easter Show. But because I don’t know if I can ring international numbers or not (I know I can’t text them), it’s not going to happen because LIVEJOURNAL DELETED THE FUCKING AUSTRALIAN NUMBER! Seems that only American, Canadian, Japanese and British LJ users are privileged enough to be able to call numbers in their own fucking countries.

NOT. HAPPY. JAN!

1142

Going for a walk every afternoon is really starting to do me some good.

This is basically the route I take around my street and the neighbouring one every afternoon:

I start at my driveway (which, in the picture, is situated around the middle of ‘Noble’), walk down to #8 (point A/D), cross the road to #41, walk up to the end of Digby Close (point B), down and around to #73 (point C), then back to my driveway. It’s about 0.7 kilometres according to Google Maps, but I think I’m going to need to buy a pedometer to find out exactly how far I walk in one circuit. In half an hour I can make 4 circuits of my route, so all up that’s around 2.8km a day. In a week, if I don’t miss any days, I walk 19.6km. Admittedly, it isn’t much, considering that when I was 10 I walked from Fitzroy Falls Conference Centre to Morton National Park and back in the one afternoon, and that’s a 9.4km round trip, but it’s pretty good when you take into account that I’ve done barely any exercise in the past six years.

But anyway. I don’t own a set of bathroom scales (though I’m rather tempted to fork out for a set – I’ll be buying some for my new house anyway), so I have no idea how much I weigh, but I think I’m already starting to lose a few kilos. I’m starting to look thinner, and I keep having to yank my favourite jeans up where they’re supposed to be because they keep falling down. Watching what I eat helps a lot too.

I think that if I keep this up, I’ll be somewhat thinner than I am now by my birthday. That’ll be a nice birthday pressie for myself.

And Simple Plan are currently on So You Think You Can Dance! I had no idea they were even in Australia…

1141

It is pissing down and storming outside – which means that I didn’t get to go for my walk today. Yesterday I didn’t go because I was busy with uni stuff. Hopefully it won’t be raining tomorrow, because I don’t have a raincoat and I don’t particularly want to get wet.

I did go shopping, though. I wanted to buy a new pair of sandals and some singlet tops – didn’t manage either. I’m probably going to go to Warrawong sometime next week, though – I’m going to have a squiz around Big W while I’m there. And while I didn’t buy what I’d planned on, I did pick up a few other things:

• Futurama: Bender’s Big Score on DVD
• Pictures Of You by The Last Goodnight
• Dreaming Out Loud by OneRepublic

Plus I picked up a few things at Woolies on the way home (including a tub of yummy mango sorbet). Providing I spend my remaining couple hundred dollars wisely, and I withdraw the $130 I have left in my bank account in a bit more than a week, I’ll have a decent amount of spending money for the Easter Show. I already have $205 squirrelled away, and Mum reckons it’s more than enough, but I never know what I’m going to buy while I’m there. My showbags are going to cost me over $100 as it is…

1140

I think I’ve finally figured out what my main problem with my novel is. And it has nothing to do with the fact that I’ve been working on it for five years.

I never worked out an outline for it.

While I know what happens, because I’ve written so many drafts and off-shoots since 2003 that it’s easy to slot scenes into the general story, I’ve rewritten and reworked my novel so many times that I no longer have a concrete idea of the chapter in which each event takes place. It’s especially problematic because I have more or less written the last three chapters, but I don’t know their chapter numbers. I only know that the main plot concludes in December 2006 (it’s coming full circle, so to speak), with the epilogue to be taking place in March 2007.

So that’s what I’m doing now (and yes, I know I should be sleeping). I’m going through November Rain, October Grey, Angel and Never To Leave Me, figuring out where each event slots into the new storyline, and working up my outline. Hopefully, once I’m done at the end of this year, I’ll be able to write a workable synopsis. Emphasis on ‘hopefully’ – I’ve never been very good at synopses. It remains to be seen if I actually manage it…

Moving Post #1

So I’m finally starting to make a list of things I know I’m going to need for my new place. Moving out is more than 2 and a half years away – basically, I want to have found a place by the middle of December 2010 – but it’s best to get my act together early. I really don’t want to be in the position my brother and his fiancee were in when they moved in together – when they got their own place, they had nothing to begin with. If I start getting bits and pieces together now, I’ll likely have absolutely everything I could need by the time I up stumps.

I’ve also made a list of where I’d ideally like to live. I have my heart set on the Shoalhaven – it’s wonderful down there. My family used to go down there on holiday every summer up until a few years ago. Though that’s not the only reason I want to live there. The other, more practical reason is that there is a lot of work down there. Part of my agreement with Centrelink is that I look for ten jobs a fortnight, and I’ve seen many job ads for work down that way. It’s not viable for me to be working down there right now, as public transport past Kiama is very patchy. I’m going to need a car and my licence to be able to get a job down that way. I plan to be on my P-plates by Christmas this year – if I get moving on it, I can be off my L’s by October.

Following are various lists – why I want to leave home (although I’ve previously posted why), places I’d like to live, things I know I need to buy, things I already have, and things I’d like but aren’t absolutely essential.