More sweet memories...

Me at Tarna's 21st-birthday party... The green punch still hasn't started to show yet...
Michael/Czheck Boy, P and Tarna at Ric's... The beginning of a long night:)
Tarna hours later at RG's... Water is like gold!

Zac (part 1 of the twins) at their house after BBQ on a less than sunny Sunday... Art by a twin? I don't know, but it does look funky...And it wasn't a bad night.
Meagan in Kelvin Grove for Tarna's birthday... Still early and punch-free:)
Caleb (part 2 of the twins) in Kelvin Grove - doing the Pepe le Pieu-thing pretty good...lol
P is salvaging the green goon-punch that was pretty good... And it's about ten at night, midwinter, yet we're still not wearing jackets or anything outside...I believe the word for that is 'awesome'...
Ruhi, Tarna and Kat's Indian(?) babe-friend...Working as a real estate-agent and known to be hilarious in anyone's company - many a coffee's been enjoyed in her company!
Kat's been dressed up with the witch's cone while it's still early...lol I had to snag it from the friendly construction workers while the car was at a red light... At least she looks good:)

Sweet memories

Artist-Anthony, Tarna, me and Kat at Rick's for no appearant reason... Good times:)
The infamous zebra-shoes - there's a lot of history behind them and that night...
Meagan and Ben (my fav Aussie-couple) and Tarna smiling for the camera - always fun to be around and to go out with:)
Truly adorable, aren't they? One of the reasons I love them so much...
Adrian and Kaya... Our waiter-friend with as many girl-issues as we have boy-issues - always good for a laugh and a great story!

5 year anniversary

How weird is it that to the date it has now been five years since the twin towers of the World Trade Center? It doesn't seem that long ago that we were told to call our parents to say everything was fine and the school would fly us home should it get more...antsy, I guess. (The irony of that statement hasn't ocurred to me at all...)

It's sad that unbridled fanatascism and hatred of people who are different from yourself can lead to such atrocious acts, not to mention the persecutions of people who don't have anything to do with it in the first place... Because how do you fight it? No matter how much you spread tolerance and acceptance, someone else is going to spread the opposite. A bit cynical now I guess, but I'm just in a pondering, blue kind of mood.

I guess it's all down to one at a time...Hopefully, it'll all work out in the end.

In loving memory of Steve Irwin (1962-2006)

It's now been a week and a day since Steve was tragically killed after a stingray-spike punctured his chest and killed him instantly during the filming of a new documentary on the ocean's deadliest animals. He left behind his wife, Terri, and two children, Bindi (8), and Bob (2).

As animal enthusiasts everywhere mourn the loss of this enthusiastic and driven animal conservationist, it's hard to understand how devastating this blow has been for those near and dear to Steve. His friends, family and colleagues wov to do everything in their power to keep Australia Zoo and the conservationist organisation Wildlife Warriors (the Irwins founded it) running and continuing its great work.

Steve was buried on their property in Australia Zoo in Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast outside of Brisbane, in a private service with family, friends and close co-workers only in the zoo. A memorial service will be held in the Suncorp Stadium in the coming week.

He was a great protector of the wild, and he will be sorely missed. Rest in peace Steve Irwin!

An era ends...

And now the era of Oz is over for this time around... I left Brisbane as planned on the 25th of August after having arranged a bridging visa since my student one apparently expired the 31st of July - meaning I was a non-lawful citizen before I figured it out and got my ass down to the Immigration Department and the Compliance Office. I was then informed that if I exceeded the 28 day-limit, they could/should put me away in a detention centre! Fancy that... Coz sending me home would just be plain crazy, obviously...

The time since I last blogged at all has been spent arranging a lot of things like my severely screwed up economy, the apartment I'm currently writing from in Volda and the whole cycle there always is to arrange when you 'belong' to two different unis... In addition comes making sure all the bills are paid and that I can actually get everything home, all the while viewings of our apartment are going on and I'm having semi-nervous breakdowns almost on a daily basis. Fun, huh? But, luckily, in between all that there was some serious shopping executed, a lot of nice evenings spent with my marvelous friends who I'm already missing to death, and even a few things learned in lectures from subjects I never enrolled in...lol I got to go to the races for the first time, all dressed up and drunk on champagne and bourbon & cola (I apologise again for my behavior at the afterparty and when I came home, P - thanx forever for taking such good care of me!), and even place bets! It was a great day - I actually got sunburnt for the first time since like March.

Tarna's birthday was also duly celebrated with green punch and of course, a trip to the Valley cut short when she got sick (my shoe still hasn't recovered).. But then it was back on after a brief custome-change..that girl is insane! But I do love her... Many a coffee was needed to help fully recover from that Saturday night's atrocities. They then decided I had to have a going away-party and they were gonna host it - how sweet. We got way too much alcohol and stayed the entire night in Kelvin Grove a whole bunch of us just talking and drinking - it was great! The dragging of a wasted Peter into the cab at 3.30 in the morning was less fun, especially since he didn't feel well. But most of all, the day after was less fun - I never thought you could feel so hungover...luckily it didn't last for more than a couple of hours! Or else I seriously think I would have stuffed my head down the toilet and flushed, to put it like that...

After that I had a mini-week left in Brissie, and the miniature-breakdowns became more frequent. (Again, thanx to everyone, especially P, for understanding.) It's a horribly conflicting sensation to be over excited to go home and see both family, friends and co-workers again, but be devastated to leave all the ones you've been lucky enough to gain, behind... At times it felt like I was going completely insane! Was just so terribly torn...And I kind of still am. Coz, yes, it's great to see everyone again here in Volda and getting back into doing a degree that I actually really want to do, but at the same time it's like a piece of me is missing due to not seeing my new friends anymore. Literally every day I saw most of them - how is that not a transition? And MSN isn't really that good a replacement, I mean come on! Oh, and there's the time difference...bless its little heart.

The leaving of Oz went well, the only SHITTY part was that the flight was several hours delayed and I didn't find that out until after I'd gone through customs, and by then I couldn't go back to spend some more time with my 'peeps' - but them standing on the floor above me and yelling 'bye' and 'we love you and miss you' was really special, particularly since they did it so loud everyone else in the terminal had to look at us...Oh, the faces! And the trickling tears... I miss you guys! I promise to come back and say hi...