I’ve been rather absent from blogging lately, so sorry about that! I haven’t been in the mood to write anything, and that includes in my paper and friends-only journals. Tsk!

Mainly what I’ve been up to in the last week is sorting out the last of my university application¹ and student loan stuff. Yesterday I went into the UoA campus to process² my Acceptance of Offer of Placement form, so I’m now officially enrolled at The University of Auckland. It’s pretty exciting!

After I sorted the paperwork out I had a coffee with a friend who’s at uni and she showed me around a bit. I have to go on a tour of the campus, but there is definitely a whole heap of stuff that only other students can really tell you about, I think.

Anyway, due to my Targeted Admissions status I’m only allowed to take up to three courses in my first semester, making me not quite full time (a pain when trying to sort out student loan stuff!). However, I’m pleased that I’ll be easing into the work as opposed to taking four or five courses to begin with and potentially becoming completely overwhelmed by it all.

My courses are as follows:

• ENGWRIT 101: English Writing for Academic (I’m required to take this).
• SOCIOL 100: Issues and Themes in Sociology.
• STATS 102: Statistics for Social Science (pre-requisite to taking psychology as my major).

My timetable is pretty decent with the earliest lecture starting at 10am and the latest finishing at 3pm so, depending on when tutorials are, I’ll have plenty of time for the one hour bus ride into the city and back. I'm not looking forward to that part at all because I can't read while moving so it's like wasting two hours of my day.

<sup>1. I needed to accept the offer of placement.
2. Usually you can accept online, but I’m a Targeted Admissions student because I did not have adequate NCEA/high school qualifications.</sup>

I’m a fan of the show True Blood and I loooove this song, which is the theme for the show. I think it’s a bit sexy.

I’m bored and I found this survey at Jabelle.net, so I shall do it, too.

What is your current obsession?
Winning toys from claw machines and buying vintage clothing patterns. This is actually a relatively low obsession time for me. Usually I’ve got more things on the go!

What is your weirdest obsession?
I don’t think I have any weird obsessions, but I do have some weird, or at least out of the ordinary interests, such as collecting vintage erotic photographs. There is often a sweet innocence about them which I think stems from my old view that “olden times” were not as sexually forward as we are today. So wrong!

What are you wearing today?
Black singlet, black knit sweater, tartan trousers in shades of grey with a thread of red, and socks.

What’s your favorite comfort food?
Spaghetti bolognese, lasagne, and probably salt and vinegar chips but I can no longer find any vegan ones! It is a sad, sad world sometimes.

What would you like to learn to do?
Some kind of martial art.

What’s the last thing you bought?
Two belts. One’s red with white polka dots and the other is blue with white polka dots.

What are you listening to right now?
No music, surprisingly. Though I can hear a plane overhead, the wind, our chickens and my computer.

What is your favorite kind of weather?
Quite warm, but not horribly hot, and sunny.

What is your most challenging goal right now?
Going to, and making it through, my first semester of university.

If you could have three houses totally paid for and fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would they be?
New York City, Japan and Iceland.

What would you like to have in your hands right now?
Someone else’s hands.

If you could swap lives with anyone for one day who would it be and why?
A man. I think it would be beneficial to experience life that way, though a day isn’t really enough.

If you would go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Oslo, Norway.

Which language do you wanna learn?
French.

What do you look for in a friend?
Humour, trust and honesty.

Who do you want to meet in person?
All of the wonderful people I know online.

What’s your favorite type of music?
I don’t think I have a favourite genre anymore because my taste is so diverse, although if I had to choose I would probably go for rock, alt rock or indie rock. Or classic rock.

Any favorite blogger?
No, I don’t have a favourite. There are too many to like!

Things you wish you could change in the past?
Not a thing.

Fashion Pet Peeve?
Extremely baggy clothing.

Do you admire anyone’s stye?
Amelia’s, Angelina Jolie’s, Natalie Portman’s, Scarlett Johansson’s, Marlene Dietrich’s, Audrey Hepburn’s, Marilyn Monroe’s, Jane Russell’s, Rita Hayworth’s.

Describe your personal style?
It’s a big mix. I love classic, sleek outfits like trousers and a nice blouse, but done in a more vintage/retro way; straight leg jeans with a loose-fitting singlet; cardigans galore; sometimes very feminine and pretty, other times more tomboy/off to a mosh pit; I can be very colourful and artsy or fairly ordinary. Really just depends on my mood. I think if my budget was unlimited I would buy/make much more vintage clothing and dress in a 1930s, 40s and 50s style with some modern influence.

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
I don’t really like ice cream all that much.

What’s your favorite makeup brand?
I don’t have one.

Do you get enough beauty sleep? Yes or no? why?
I try to. If I don’t get enough sleep I tend to get grouchy.

Why did you start your blog?
Because I wanted to share my thoughts and opinions, and I love designing websites so the creative part appealed greatly.

I had my university entrance English screening this morning, the one all first-years have to do to access their academic English skills. It’s 30 minutes broken up into vocabulary followed by speed reading and editing paragraphs. I was unbelievably nervous beforehand, which is to be expected, but it was so bad I thought I was going to throw up. Rarely do my nerves create that sort of feeling; generally I just get butterflies and need to pee a lot.

The test went well and I was on, I think, the second-to-last paragraph when the time ran out. Fortunately I had done enough, and well enough, to pass, as the results they emailed to me told me. Now all I have to do is pick my courses (one has to be English, one will be Psych, not sure on the third yet) and take my Offer of Placement form into uni so they can go over it with me.

I need to remember that I am not automatically meant to know things like what exact stationery I’m going to need, what kind of bag I’ll want, and all those little things. I’m coming to terms with the big stuff, the scary “OMG, I’m actually doing this” stuff, now all the little details are stressing me out. Bus routes and times, are my shoes comfortable enough for walking, I’d better start walking on the farm so I don’t die on the hills in the city, etc.

This milestone is like shedding the old skin in order to get a better one.

Anyway, tomorrow around midday I’m going to help out at my sister and brother-in-law’s new cafe. They need some help and I could do with the experience. I don’t know if I’ll get paid, and to be honest I don’t really care right now because I just want to help them out until they get their feet on the ground.

Do any of you lovely WordPress users know of any decent comment plugins? The main thing I want it to do is send an email notification to commenters when I (or maybe even someone else) replies to their comment.

P.S., this is hilarious.

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!Please avoid spoilers!

She recalled Merthin explaining, in the guild hall, how he planned to drive stakes into the river bed in a double ring then fill the gap between the rings with clay mortar to make a watertight seal. The water inside the coffer could then be taken out so that the builders could lay a foundation on the river bed.
World Without End by Ken Follett

I rarely read books written by men—not on purpose, it just seems to be that most of the books I gravitate towards are written by women—so when I find one that is, and interests me, I get quite excited. This is a big book and is actually a sequel but that’s not making the plot hard to follow at all, and so far the story is proving to be quite good.

This is from the movie The Caddy. Look out for a dorky young guy!

I don’t think I’m a natural “doer” sort of person. I seem to be a “do it for me” kind of person, at least at times. Like at this time. I have a million things to do: my last assignment which I’ve not even really started; loads of university-related things to organise; crafts to finish; dust and vacuum my room. I don’t want to do any of it. I would rather curl up in bed and sleep, or read a book, or go and see a movie.

I don’t really know what’s wrong because there is a part of me that wants to accomplish my to-do list and the only thing standing in my way is myself. It’s this self-jeopardising circle that never seems to end, and boy is it exhausting. I think half my problem at the moment is pre-occupation with totally pointless rubbish, most of which I can’t go into on this blog because it’s too private to make so very public. But, put it this way, I am apparently the sort of person I loath: the sort of person who gets utterly distracted by members of the opposite sex as if they’re the most important thing in the world. A really stupid thing to let happen, especially right now when so many life changes are happening that need all my attention and time.

I know I’m not alone in this kind of distraction, but I definitely feel like a right fool for letting it occupy my thoughts and time so much.

So it’s been quite cold in the mornings recently. Spent a few hours with a friend today; found some nice food; found an adorable guy at the shop where I bought the yummy food (did not bring him home, but wanted to!); decided university isn’t going to be as scary as I’ve felt it might be.

This is a beautiful piano and cello arrangement of Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’, with a bit of Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’ in the middle.