Great Day!

Today went excellently. I got up early and went swimming, then went into Uni and had a hot chocolate with a friend of mine, Jenna. I went into a computer lab class and got another 3rd of my half-semester's work signed off, and then headed to a CAKE meeting. CAKE is something to do with composites - that's what I study, that's what I like. but we also got CAKE.

Then I headed to my lab - this took 3 and a half hours, but it wasn't too bad. Then I went off to find Alice's new house, and took her shopping for her friend's 21st, and then out to dinner. NOW I am home. Phew!

Tomorrow, I am driving back to Rotorua. I am going to be a part of Relay for Life - Fundraising for Cancer by running for 24 hours - the team, not an individual. I am quite excited! First I will hang my washing on the line though, that'll be good.

Right. Time to sort out my awesome enviro engineering crap.

xx

I went WOOL SHOPPING

Hey! Today I treated myself to checking out the Knitting Warehouse in Hamilton. (geeky treat, I know) It was totally awesome! The lady in there helped me out, explained a few things to me, and I walked out with wool to finish my scarf, wool to make my fingerless gloves, needles to make the gloves, a crochet hook, plus the offer to go back if i ever needed help with my work! My mother had told me a certain project would cost lots and lots of money to buy the wool for, but if I make it acrylic I can get it for $36 from that shop! I am SO excited!

About my scarf.... it is SO ugly. It started out as a project to use up some wool i had lying arund with no name on it, and to learn/practise how to knit/purl. Well, i've done that, and now I am left with a scarf that begins nicely (two small holes where I curiously missed stitches), and then goes into this hideous knobbly wool stuff - and the scarf gets wider! MUCH wider! even though I checked, and I'm using the right needles and the right wool - I'm guessing the tension is different... Anyway, then I ran out of that stuff too, and my scarf is only half the length it should be. So I go to the Knitting Warehouse, and the only knobbly stuff they had was this creamy-yellow stuff, so that's what I am doing the 3rd quarter of the scarf in, then plain creamy yellow wool to finish off. So, basically, grey/blue to cream/yellow, with the middle portion being soft and knobbly to wind around your neck. Fan bloody tastic. EXCEPT for the width!! to my great disgust, when I added on the yellow knobbly stuff, it got wider still!! What is the world coming to?? So I added a few stitchs together, and it seems to be undercontrol.

I am seriously contemplating sewing this scarf into the middle of a blanket. Stupid ugly thing.

My Genetic Superiority

Hello!

So! I found out that the weird ability I have to smell ANTS is genetic. As in, I have some sort of gene that allows me to smell ants - possibly the formic acid in them - whilst others can only dream of having such talents. I have been laughed at, ridiculed, and called a liar for the past double decade when I have announced I can smell ants - and now, it is time to say "I TOLD YOU SO!!" to all those untrusting, unfaithful, unloyal "friends" that did not stick by my claims of ant-smelling. "What do you mean, you can smell ants?" I hear you ask. Well. I'll tell you! Say I am sitting on the steps on your front proch. If there are more than 5 ants around, I will be able to smell them. They have a distinctive smell! If there is one ant, and I squash it, then I can smell it too. But I can't smell a single ant by itself just crawling around. But then again, who can? I am an ANT-Smeller! I can only conclude that I am genetically superior to all those that cannot smell ants. Just call me ANT-WOMAN. Amen to that.

I wish...

This is me, officially not caring about University. You have dominated my life for so long, too long, and you plan on holding my full attention for years to come, you evil hussy! I NEED to be happy - to not have that niggly little voice at the back of my stomach, giving me nausea until ALL assignments are completed to A+ standard, ALL exams are A+ through, and ALL lab reports are A+ understood.

I want to be a B student, and I WANT TO LIKE IT!!

.....

who am I kidding? I'm screwed. I'm off to do an allnighter on a research Assignment. How surprising.

My death may be further away than expected..!

Howdy!

Don't the new apple Macbook air laptops look amazing? I want one! so thin.

Anyway, after speculating that the pain in my gut was possibly a twin of mine that didn't separate properly in the womb, it hasn't been hurting today! hooooooray! i'm going to the doctor tomorrow, but i suspect he will tell me that it was all just a random gut ache. Or perhaps he will tell me i DO have a twin after all, and that it can be operated on and then i can keep in a jar. Hmmmmm.....

So i guess i'll be alive for a while longer!!

Went to a cool 21st last night, op shop theme, so wore an awesome floor-length bright green dress i bought for about $12. Also went op shopping that day, and have added quite a bit of mohair to my yarn stash!!

Friend Chels came round tonight and we went out to a really good Indian restaurant. Then, like all good friends should, I took her grocery shopping. How nice of me.

This week is going to be so hectic, I have a huge assignment due on Thursday that I don't actually know how to do, BUT then Friday morning I am catching a bus up to Auckland to spend Easter with my best girlfriend, Stella, so that'll be a cruisey weekend! I think I should do some Enviro Engineering work. Anyway, my computer game development is coming along nicely, I will eventually put it on here for download (if I can do that, can I do that?). Right! Bedtime :D

xx

Update for the last few days

Hello, Cyber World!

Well I just stuffed my gut with a burger and chips(Burgerfuel - best burgers ever!). SOOOO..... I would like to draw everyones attention (yes, all 1 of my readers, counting me) to an awesome chicky and her interesting blog, Nikki Knickers and http://redheadeddevilchild.blogspot.com/

Try it. Go on, I dare you. She is the inspiration behind all of my hermit-like tendencies.

In other news, I haven't done any knitting this week. Oh no, I lie, I did a row to my fingerless mittens whilst sitting on my bedroom floor waiting from my computer to reboot. Why is it, my computer has to be restarted 20 times before it does what it is told? I live with 2 computer technicians, and both of my computers have issues!

I think I am dying. DYING. I have a bad feeling that the dull, aching pain hovering somewhere on my lower left abdomen is something more serious, as it has been there for 3 whole days and worsening. (is that a word?) I'll let you know when they amputate.

Have actually had a good week, have been swimming twice this week, and going again tomorrow and I am really enjoying that, as well as the early morning walk I took with a friend on Wednesday. Did a proposal on the big project I am researching this year, but only got 70% on it, which was a bit disappointing, but i learnt a lot doing the readings for it so that's good. Hmmmmmmmm..... My awesome friend Stella told me about her stupid restaurant boss who yells at her everyday - yesterday, her 16th day of work in a row, he said she was "fucken appalling" at customer service - this is about a woman who has worked in an elite, home-style cafe/guesthouse since she was about ten, as well as working in a flash restaurant in Auckland City, with no complaint about her waitressing skills... Plus she is about the nicest person I know - she is never in a bad mood, and doesn't let anything bother her. I want to hit this boss guy, how dare he pick on the one person that won't say anything back? I think he has short-man-syndrome. GRRRRRRRR

Enough of this blog for today. ciao xx

Another day of teaching small creatures. Childs.

Today I didn't do a whole lot - got up early and did some swim training, then missed my one lecture of the day (which was good, it is boring), so I spent the day trying to write a silly 2% report on energy efficiency, before heading out to Cambridge to teach a few classes piano keyboards. Got a few new kids, they were enthusiastic so a good day really.

cooked dinner - burnt the roof of my mouth. Owww.

End of Day I think, I'm zonked.

First public demonstration

well, today i had zero classes seeing as i am a big 3rd year and can be trusted to be "highly self-motivated" and do papers that have no classes. So this semester i am doing a computer paper, a paper on environmental engineering, and a research paper on something of my choice. i'm doing some top secret materials research, and hopefully by the end of the year i will have a nice fat report concluding some cool stuff and MAYBE even a publication to put in a Materials Journal.

AAAAAANYWAY.... today I just had to teach/demonstrate a couple of materials labs for 3 hours, and then i was free. except... being the idiot i am, i left my cellphone charger and all of my medication (that's right, medication - bring on the taunting!), at my parents house (1 hour away) when i visited this weekend. So i had to wait for my mum, who happened to be travelling my way, to bring it round. It was actually really good, we spent the afternoon gathering all of the fruit in my back yard - I've got 3 types of apples, quinces, grapes, and rhubarb, as well as feijoas, mandarins, lemons, grapefruit, oranges, and tangelos to ripen. Good to see it go to a good home though, my flat never gets through it all. In fact, we generally ignore it all until we have garden drinks and need footballs. I have been eating the grapes though, totally loving them.

well - i suppose i should get to the point of this blog yeah? this afternoon, instead of making my mum find her way to her check-up appointment, i took her, and had to sit in the waiting room for 25minutes or so.... perfect opportunity for some knitting! I totally aced my first public knitting display, even though i'm still slow and still have to watch every stitch, AND i dropped the ball of wool under the chair, I managed to get it all together in the end and leave at the end of a row, with my yarn and my knitting under my arm. so proud right now!

Swimming in the morning, can't wait to get back into it :-) ciao xx

My First Blog EVER!!

Hi! So, my name is Claire and I live in an awesome place called New Zealand. I like apple pie and I like clean lakes. I like music and I like my family.

So I was thinking I need a place to write down all my stuff seeing as I just kick-started my creative side again. Inspired by my brothers girlfriends sister Nikki, I have moved to blogging!!

So I'm thinking of talking about my knitting projects, my crochet projects when I learn to crochet, anything I want to talk about (this happens a lot), and MAYBE, eventually, some of my poetry and possibly even some songs.

Hmmmm. Fun. Right. So there's this really cool website called Ravelry - http://www.ravelry.com/ which is a knit and crochet community. So at the moment I am knitting a scarf and also a pair of fingerless mittens, both so I can learn how to knit properly. The exciting news of the weekend is that I visited my Nana, and asked her if she had her knitting stuff from when she used to knit. Unfortunately, she had thrown out most of it, but she did still have one small box - only one pair of needles, but quite a few small balls of wool. But the treasure of them all - lots of little squares that she has knitted, which I can now crochet together into a blanket/rug which will serve as excellent lessons to learning to crochet good!!

This weekend was also my mummy's birthday, and so I went to my parents house for Saturday. We had a great roast dinner, and then went out for breakfast on Sunday as well. Then my brother got mugged, and now he has broken bones and we're all ropable about the guys that did it. My brother is cool, why you attack him??!! I will need time to process this :-(