The Traffic, The Weather, other such News…

Some things have happened lately. Not the blame the moon, but I blame the moon. Please enjoy this brain dump!

It’s not supposed to rain inside!?

A couple of weeks ago, Wollongong copped a crazy amount of rain. Not to be dramatic, but a good amount of this rain ended up in my bedroom. It came spouting cutely through a section of my ceiling at 5.30am, and we awoke a bit confused and not all that worried. I got up to move some clothes out of the firing line of the drip – and, enticed by a gentle stream falling from the bottom of my wardrobe door – discovered that we may have a disaster on our hands. Steadily, the rain seeped through my ceiling in various locations, and soaked my mattress all the way through. My sweet girlfriend was running a bucket of water out of my cupboard into the laundry sink that was filling up every 3 minutes at some stage. A conveniently uninhabited fish tank guarded some of the water coming from the ceiling, but obviously it was a pitiful match for the nightmare water park surprise party. It was my girlfriend’s birthday. The water really crashed the celebration. But my lover is the giggle at a funeral, or whatever Hozier said. so we had a nice day despite all this.

After a long stressful weekend of trying to get in touch with my realestate – I am very glad to announce that I now have a new, mould-free wardrobe with no holes or damage. I also have a legendarily white ceiling and a fresh new mattress. I had to wash and dry most of my clothes and bedding – and move every piece of furniture I have, but boy does it feel good to know in my heart of hearts that my room is clean.

I’ve been interning REALLY hard

If the constant posting didn’t tip you off – or my never ending chatter, I am still clocking up hours through my journalism internship at The Illawarra Flame. I’ts been hectic to do, amongst work, uni and the occasional photography job but extremely fun, regardless. I’ve produced some work over the last few months that I am extremely proud of. And I’ve had a very humbling and personally rewarding time doing it.

I’m not one to advocate for journalism as a university degree. You don’t really need it, and I’ve seen a healthy handful of my peers lose interest or drop out of their journalism degree. I say “you’re supposed to drop out of journalism. It’s the right thing to do”. Not that it isn’t valuable or important in a broader sense, just that personally speaking, the degree was nothing like what I expected (perhaps foolishly) at 17 when I decided to study journalism. I’ve been in university for 5 years, and I’m absolutely revving to finish. That said, this internship has restored my faith in the profession after university.

I attended an art exhibition close to International Women’s Day this year, to take photos and prepare a story for the Flame. I had a beautiful night and spoke to some really interesting and cool people. My editor also tasked me with covering the world-renowned poetry book-turned theatre piece, ‘Wild Dogs Under My Skirt’ by Tusiata Avia. I spoke to the writer, who was lovely, and had the privilege of seeing the show, which I loved. There’s been quite a few arts & culture stories thrown my way, a few photography pieces and overall, a lot of consideration for my interests and skill set, without coddling my lack of experience. I’m learning a lot and I complain about being busy, but it’s beyond worth it to have these opportunities.

Easter Friday – no meat but BOY is it Tough!

My partner and I went to visit my family over Easter weekend (which as a bonus feature was also my sister’s birthday). We drove there on Easter Friday, and of course, it was a bit hectic on the road. There was really only a traffic issue going through the Blue Mountains (damn Sydney Siders and their holiday homes), so it wasn’t as annoying as it could have been. And I had my most favourite person in the world to accompany me the whole way, so I can’t complain too much. We had the most incredible sandwich on the way there. It was nice bread and zuchinni, sun-dried tomatoes, some sort of cheese, etc. And I’ve been thinking about it every day since.

On the way back from Dubbo, we made the clever decision to leave later in the day, to avoid the crazy traffic. We stopped at a lookout, where I endeavoured to complete my Uni homework by photographing the landscape and such. It was really nice up there, and the sunset was so pretty.

Hard Launching my Crocs

A few months ago, my amazing girlfriend attempted to get me some fun pink platform crocs. Due to the curses of postage issues, it didn’t work out at first. Eventually, though, they came! And she got me the cutest set of Jibbitz to decorate them accordingly. One of them was a light-up film camera Jibbitz. Unfortunately, I lost that one while we were in Dubbo – sacrificed to the Bunning’s carpark; I suspect. But before that, I got to stomp around and show everyone my light up shoes.

They’re so fun, I wear them every day. They make me so tall and comfortable. Sinead had a great idea to take a classic low-angle 0.5 photo so that I could lovingly reveal my new favourite shoes on Instagram.

Reccomendations

Listen to:

Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan. It came out not too long ago and I’ve listened to it multiple times a day since. It’s brightened my life in such a way only comparable to fairy bread. I love it.

Watch:

Not Poor Things!

I was fairly interested in watching this critically acclaimed movie, after it won awards throughout the star-studded Holywood awards season. I love Emma Stone, and I’d seen the beautiful trailer. I watched it, and while I don’t steadily wish that I hadn’t, it definitely wasn’t what I expected. It’s just like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s weird, but not in a way that suggests that being weird is the point of the movie. It makes commentary, but seemingly not about anything in particular – and surely not in a way that enlightened me to see. There are plot points, things happen, but to no real conclusion. It confused me, but not in a way that made me think. It’s a couple hours of my life that just kind of happened. I don’t know, watch it if you like, but don’t feel you’re missing out if you don’t watch it. You’re not.

Eat:

Minestrone soup. Sinead and I have been on a long, beautiful quest to find the best minestrone soup that supermarkets can supply. Apparently people in Italy that live for 100 years + swear by it as a tool for longevity. Or, go to The Hydro Majestic Hotel and eat that zuchinni sandwich. It’s delicious.

Play:

The NYT games. I was admittedly very late to board the Wordle train. But recently, my girlfriend and I have been playing all the New York Times games before bed, and I’ve found myself very invested. I generally play them in the following order: Connections, Wordle, Tiles, Letter Boxed, maybe the Spelling Bee (I’m not very good at it), The Mini, Strands, and finally, I’ve proudly got the hang of playing Sodoku.