Nothing Like Australia.

Did you guys know this is post 86?

So. I had a lot of stuff I wanted to say... but none of it came out right. It was all about my friend and how truly amazing he was. But somehow I feel like it's my job to hold his memories close, and not the blogging world's.

So here we have it.

Most Bloggers I've encountered come from America. And America is VERY different to Australia (one way to really insult an Australian is by calling them either British or American, because we're not either). I can't explain in words how incredibly proud it makes me to be part of this country, and here are some of the reasons.

1. Kangaroos.


Oh come on, you all saw that coming. Kangaroos. They aren't found ANYWHERE else in the world, not even in the zoo. These amazing creatures can jump over six feet and can hop at speeds of about seventy kilometers an hour. They can grow to be seven feet tall. There's the grey kangaroo (the kind that hops through my backyard) or the red kangaroo, that only lives out in the bush.

2. Our money.


We have animals and races on our coins, not the queen... not our prime minister (thank goodness, she's shocking), not famous philosophers. We lay our claim to fame on the Aboriginal man on the two dollar coin, the kangaroo on our one dollar coin, the platypus on our twenty cent coin, the Mallee fowl on the ten cent coin, and an echidna on our five cent coin. NO, AN ECHIDNA IS NOT THE SAME AS A PORCUPINE. Our fifty cent coin varies every year.

3. Our beautiful cities...


...That are so completely and clearly divided from the rest of the country. I mean, where I live, you have to drive at least four hours to get to anywhere worth going to.

4. Our diverse culture...


...Which has survived despite every early European attempt to wipe it out. When the British first came here, they attempted to "breed the black" out of the Aboriginal people by taking their children and forcing them to live with European families. It didn't work, needless to say, but the Aboriginals didn't get their apology until a few years ago. We don't walk out on our own people.

5. Our slang...


It's commonly known as "Strine" in the Northern Hemisphere. I mean seriously, people love us just because we're hicks. That's pretty cool. I found this picture pretty accurate, actually. I say "she'll be right" a lot, call every tourist "mate" and say "fair dinkum" a lot. Less common in the city, though. Mostly found in tiny hick outback towns where everyone knows everyone or at least knows OF everyone. By the way, a kangaroo loose in the top paddock? It's like saying something is missing up there. Haha.

6. The wildlife.


Which includes the Tasmanian Devil (mean little things), the kookaburra, the echidna, the platypus, the kangaroo, the dingo, wallabies, blue-tongued lizards and WOMBATS. Wombats are my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITES. I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks this... BUT THEY'RE SO INCREDIBLY CUTE AND ADORABLE. Until they dig up your sprinklers. That sucks.

7. Melbourne Cup Day.


A day off to watch horses race and place bets. I win almost every year :D Look at those beautiful animals.

But there are other things to be proud of too. We are a country risen from Britain's ashes. We are the descendants of the people they exiled. We built our own world on our own foundations with nothing except wood and mud. We fought for our land when the Japanese invaded our ports AND WE WON. We went to Gallipoli with the British and the people of New Zealand even though it wasn't our war and we fought as hard as we could until the last siren was called.

We are the people that took the Aboriginal people's land away from them - AND THEN GAVE IT BACK. We are the ones that built our cities with the prospect of freedom on the horizon. We are the ones that cultivated the land, worked in the mines and helped America in Afghanistan. We are the ones that lost hundreds in flash flooding in Queensland and still sent relief teams to Japan in their crisis.

We're the ones who live out on the farms and know how to ride a horse before we can walk. We can identify seven kinds of snakes and know how to treat poison. We'd rather walk than take a bus or car, and when the time comes, we can all work together. We have never had a civil war.

When we were settled as a penal colony in the 1800's, none of the British ever saw us becoming such a beautiful country. Now, this is our land, a beautiful country with snow-capped mountains, red-soiled plains and deserts, tropical rainforests, outback farms and huge, glittering cities filled with lights. We have the second longest life expectancy in the world, we have the best medical care system in the world, and our education system is to be reckoned with.

For all those reasons, I will ALWAYS live here. This country is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of places. I've seen New Zealand, America, Rarotonga, parts of Greece. And I have never seen anywhere as beautiful as here. Compared to the rest of the countries in the world, we're very young. When the Americans and British were fighting for dominion of the USA, the Aboriginals were still writing prophecies and living at one with nature. And that's what makes it beautiful. Because we have so far yet to catch up. And I can't wait to see where it gets us.

[I came from the dream time, from the dust red soil plains,
I am the ancient heart - the keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shore, I watched the tall ships come,
For forty thousand years I've been... the first Australian.

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on Earth we come,
We share a dream and sing with one voice
I am, you are, we are Australian.

I came upon the prison ship, bound down by iron chains
I cleared the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains.
I'm a settler, I'm a farmer's wife on a dry and barren run
A convict... then a free man, I became Australian.

I'm the daughter of a digger, who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman, on the long and dusty road
I'm a child of the depression, I saw the good times come
I'm a bushy, I'm a battler, I am Australian.

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on Earth we come,
We share a dream, and sing with one voice
I am, you are, we are Australian.

I'm a teller of stories, I'm a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira, and I paint the ghostly gums
I am Clancy on his horse, I'm Ned Kelly on the run
I'm the one who waltzed Matilda, I am Australian.

I'm the hot winds from the desert, I'm the black soil of the plains
I'm the mountains and the valleys, I'm the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky, the rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land, I am Australian.

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on Earth we come,
We share a dream, and sing with one voice,
I am, you are, we are Australian.]

-A Solitary Blue.

Picture post :)

I have nothing to say, except....

SUMMER'S FINALLY HERE XD

1. Our backyard.


So you can't see the little yellow flowers that almost blanket our backyard. This is the only house I've ever lived in - never moved, only bedrooms that is. My old one is teeny weeny. The new one's not much better. Haha.

2. Tree!


I love this tree. That's Naiyook's little Buzz Lightyear pool underneath it haha. The big green thing shades our pool.

3. Moi.


Hello, people of the world :) I look mass creepy and I'm sure I'll regret taking the photo later but for now NVM! I don't even care at the moment. 'Cause even though school goes back tomorrow it's SUMMER and NOTHING will dampen my mood!

...except maybe a lack of Pepsi.

4. Bed Luv.


Okay, you got me. It's more like a nest than a bed. We have a doona, about 50 different stuffed animals, a Wii Remote, a camera case, the bedside table with 2 books, an alarm clock and an iPod dock, and then candles on the windowsill. I spend most of my winter hibernating here when not in school.

5. Desk?


Part of it anyway. I call it a desk slash storage place slash shrine slash Sanity (DVD and music store). I'm an absolute scifi freak but I also have Supernatural and Harry Potter here as well. And my sims games <3

6. Bookshelf.



Crowded with random crap of course. I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Sorry for the lack of a deep/insightful/amusing post. I couldn't think of anything to say but I want to post at least once a week!!

-a solitary blue

Deb dress :)

Hello my pretties :)

Today, some pictures and then a quiz! (Courtesy of Courtney. I like paper cranes too :P)

So I know I've been talking about my deb a lot. Finally I have something to show for it! I went and got it hemmed today and got the classic facebook photos to show for it!

1) Just a sample picture


2) Bodice


This is the body of the dress and the left side, where the beading starts. It's not a very good photo but the angle was really awkward lol.

3) Flower


You can see the detail much better now XD I love this dress. It was 670 dollars Australian (I don't know how much that is American).

Because I'm lazy I'm going to do the quiz later.

the milk bottle. (:

Fillers make me sad :(

So I have nothing to say. Again. So, I thought I'd just do like a filler post... of things I love ^^

1: Ayla loves cute things.


Do I really have to explain this??? I love sheep too. Sheep are just... I have never understood the purpose of sheep in this world. Or a lot of things for that matter. But I do love sheep. I like black sheep more. They stick out, like me :D I got the two sheep today and the hedgehog ages ago lol.

2: Ayla loves those little things you just can't live without.


Meaning chocolate milk, phone, and... rubber ducks. Oh come on, who never had a rubber duck when they were a kid?! This one flashes. Oh yeah, that frog in the background? Don't diss him, he's just slightly verging on awesome.

3: Ayla loves her memories.


A word to the wise: WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS HOW LONG THIS TOOK OR HOW FRUSTRATING IT WAS. That's like half my wall and it extends almost to the floor (my room may as well be a cupboard so I couldn't get the entire thing in lol :P).

(Short interlude here.

Dear blogger,

HURRY THE HELL UP! IT'S NOT LIKE I DON'T HAVE A LIFE OUTSIDE BLOGGER! HEY I'M BLOGGER, OMNOMNOM YOUR GRADES! DEAR BLOGGER, TONIGHT WOULD BE NICE, OR EVEN SOMETIME BEFORE CHRISTMAS, WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE THESE PICTURES UPLOADED! THIS IS NOT EVEN MOIST!

Love,

Your calcium deficient friend,

the milk bottle.)

Ah, that felt good. Take that, you stupid lazy decrease-download-upload-speed-to-only-30-gigs-an-hour-after-eight piece of crap. >;] FYI folks, listening to Evanescene while extremely frustrated? It's not good for anybody's health D:

4: Ayla love light.


I love these little fairy lights :) the baubles are chinese lanterns (or wannabes anyway) from cotton on. The little flowers around my dressing table I got from the internet. Ah, internet, I love you :)

(Dear Blogger,

I see you have ignored my pleas to hurry up. FINE. DON'T BLAME ME WHEN YOU SUDDENLY CONTRACT A MASSIVE VIRUS!!! D: You know what? I'm not even gonna blog about going to the cinema tomorrow.

And you shall have no pictures.

And I may do homework.

Dear Blogger, don't drive me to this point. DON'T MAKE ME DO IT. 'Cause I will. And it won't be pretty.

Love,

Your calcium deficient friend,

the milk bottle.)

5: Ayla loves her comfort things.


Including and not limited to teddy bears XD Weatherby is at the back, Nook is the raccoon, and the little dragon doesn't actually have a name lolz. My grandma made the blanket they're sitting on before I was born.

I did have another picture, but I'm tired and I have to get up early. I have a hair tip for anyone who's remotely interested, and this will sound insane, and you'll be going "who does that kind of shiz?" - next time you wash your hair, dry it upside down.

I'm serious.

Love,

Your calcium deficient friend,

the milk bottle. (:

p.s yes, those little interludes DID require the use of bold red writing.

Riz's birthday part 2

Okeydokey. I'm back with part 2! I'd post more photos, but I kind of took like 300 and figured that you guys didn't need to see them all (especially the ones that have a maid's outfit in them). So, onward!

1. It was a dark and spooky night.


Backstory: I am being deadly serious with the title. It was about nine at night and we were all hyper from the copious amounts of sugar we'd ingested. From left to right are Kelsey, Karisma and Ashlyn. We all got around the campfire... and then Jamie busts out the ghost stories, Enyar and Grace tremble with fear and I take delight in sneaking up behind them and scaring the panties off them. :D

2. And then there were two.


Backstory: Me and smashin' Ashlyn! Everyone makes fun of us because Ashlyn is a gentle giant and I'm kind of, well, short. And I can be VERY aggressive and outspoken when you rile me up. Anyway, we were the only two at the party daring enough to eat an unidentified black shape at the bottom of one of the bowls. I don't know what it was but it tasted great!

3.The Littlest Woolworths employee.


Backstory: That red thing Jamie's holding is this weird chuzzle-thing. We got it as a communal gift for Riz for her birthday. Anyway, Jamie's kind of obsessed with it because we got it at Woollies, where he works. He had it over his face, but he thought I'd taken the picture already, and he was still smiling when I took it. Yay :D (Yes, he does look slightly insane. He usually looks like this. No, he's not on crack/pot/crystal meth/heroin/mushrooms).

4. And then there were spastics.


Backstory: We'd just arrived. Karisma appointed me official photographer (a good thing, seeing as I am pathologically obsessed with taking pictures of anything and everything) and I started straight away! At the front is her mother, Marisa, (who is like a second mother to me) then her sister Alloya peering around the side, Ashlyn at the back and Karisma at the side. I love this photo <3>

5. LET THERE BE LIGHT!


Backstory: We do this at one birthday party every year. Last year we did it at mine with fluffy rings, and this year with glowsticks at Karisma's. My arm is the bottom center one (kudos to me for getting such a good picture with only one hand on a camera phone) Karisma's is the middle left one, Ashlyn's is the one above hers and Jamie is the one to the right of me. I can't identify anyone else D:

6. And then there were awesome shoes.


Backstory: Me and Enyar have ALWAYS owened shoes that are about 395349856w349876854 times cooler than anybody else's (yes, there's a random W in that number, I can't be bothered taking it out :P) and we are NOT just tooting our own horns, everyone says so. Enyar's were fifty dollars from Sportsgirl (she's on the left) and mine were thirty dollars... from Amazon.com :D

And now I leave you with only one more word.

QUACK!



the sensational crusader! (:

Riz's birthday.

First of all, though, IT'S THE HOLIDAYS HERE :D time to do whatever I want, whenever I want (this is pretty much what I do all the time anyway, but I'm not under time constraints :D). My first endeavor of the holidays was Riz's birthday party.



Jamie with his balloon thingy. Me and Riz had a bet that there wasn't enough hot air in him to inflate the balloon using a long cardboard tube (Riz owes me twenty dollars). Anyway, just to prove his point he stickytaped it. I think by this point he'd had a lot of sherbet.



In this country, the policy "innocent until proven guilty" is the general gist of all wrongdoing, but not in Jamie and Karisma's case. They are always assumed guilty until proven innocent. The look on Jamie's face is sort of "it wasn't me hey!" when in actual fact it was him (he filled a balloon with sherbet so it went all over our clothes. This was taken just before impact).



Enyar and Niknak (Nicolina). I love this picture, Nicolina had to wrestle Enyar into the frame. She was still smiling though <3

I'll post more later, and probably about the party, but right now I need to start my holiday homework or I'm going to drown in it. Lol :P

the sensational crusader! (:

Some pics :)

I have nothing to say tonight (again T.T) so I thought I'd post some pictures I took today while shopping (and other fun timez :D)

1. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.


Backstory: Bored at Hudak's cafe, me and Erin decided to sit on the top floor, away from all the small annoying children :) she decided she wanted to regress into her second childhood (note the army boots. This girl is not to be fooled with).

2: Escape.


Backstory: Erin decides she doesn't much like the enclosed, trapped feeling of the kiddies enclosure, and makes a break for freedom (we almost got caught by a waitress :D).

3. Strange encounters.
.

Backstory: Erin tries to recite her Macbeth presentation to us. Karisma gets bored. Chaos ensues and I put my phone away before something could happen to it.

4. Ridin' solo.


Backstory: On his break, Jamie gets down and dirty with an under-threes tricyle (there was a mean joke somewhere around here, but I won't post it :P). He proceeds to wheel it madly around Target, scaring little children and getting chased by an old lady.

5. No explanation.


Backstory: Somehow we end up in the home decor department, and Karisma finds another tricycle. High off Mother and half my iced coffee, she decides it will be fun to ride up and down through racks of curtains on it, and turns to display her disdain of my photography. As you can see from her sister's stance, not many people are willing to associate with her. Lol, I do tho :D I think she said something like "TO THE PIMP MOBILE!" at the time.

6. Rainy days.


Backstory: My baby emos after I finally beat her at tug-of-war. She forgave me after I fed her some turkey meat :D

Well, that was fun! I have holidays soon, so I might not update during that time, but after that is the tertiary trip to Bendigo and Melbourne. Going it Bendigo Uni, Deakin Uni, RMIT and La Trobe for tours :D I'll keep a journal so I can update.

Comments are love.

the sensational crusader! (: