Beer painted on the side of a pub in Yarraville.

I have a few rant/issue posts in my head but they will have to stay there for probably another week because things are too frantic at the moment.

Mr T arrived on Tuesday.

I slept a total of 4 hours the night before. His plane was also about 10 minutes late and it took about 40 minutes to get through customs. I swear that 40 minutes was the longest of my life. Yes longer than a boring day at work. My heart was pounding, i felt like i would vomit, i couldn't stand still and each person who walked through the gates i did a little 'is that him? no! ohhhhh'. By the time he arrived i was ready to collapse.

Thankfully i didn't, i did however get sick soon after. The next 48 hours consisted of the worst hayfever ever (which i should mention i rarely get), vomiting, and just feeling completing exhausted.

I can't help but wondering what the psychological connection was. Its like after I went skydiving after you get down from the adrenlin high your body just wants to sleep.

Depsite that though, i am happy, he is happy, we are both very happy. God am i making you sick?

I've since been showing him around, and running the neccessary errands, and unfortunately working.

We did however manage to see Sons and Daughters at the corner on wed night, which was an amazing show.

Working has been hard, i feel a lot like I imagine a mother might feel, slightly guilty, and a little concerned if they can manage on their own. He has been fine though my family has adopted him and he had fun roaming around melb all by himself.

Anyhoo, will be back very soon.

Protest Against Racist Attacks

The text message read:

"Can this text spread as well as the race riot ones did?
Nonviolent protest against racist attacks Fri 16th 5 pm Bourke st Mall. Spread this like wildfire."

Yet another time to feel ashamed as an Australian.

As taken from the The Age

Mobs yelling racist chants chased down and bashed people of middle eastern appearance at Sydney's Cronulla beach today, also turning on police fighting to prevent a full-scale riot.

Some groups in the crowd, estimated to have peaked at 5,000, also stomped on and swarmed around police cars trying to move from one violent flare-up to the next.

The trouble began with scuffles about midday after thousands of people, many carrying Australian flags and dressed in Australian shirts, rallied at the beach.

As the crowd moved along the beach and foreshore area today, one man on the back of a ute began to shout "No more Lebs" - a chant picked up by the group around him.

Others in the crowd, carrying Australian flags and dressed in Australian shirts, yelled "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie ... Oi, Oi, Oi".

Many had adorned their bodies with racist slogans. One shirtless teenager walked by, this message painted on his back: "It's time for a f---ing war, so join the army of hardcore".

What the hell is going on in Sydney?

I of course went looking for answers at Darpism who shed a tiny bit of light of the situation.

According to Darp (which you should read for a more detailed version of the events):

There most certainly have been times where large groups of Lebanese youth have acted in an anti-social manner down Cronulla way. The initial incident which sparked off the Cronulla situation being no exception.

From what i can gather from his blog and the SMHl ebanese youths were involved in the following:

North Cronulla Beach, in Sydney's south, was the scene of two violent incidents last week - an attack on two lifesavers on Sunday and a brawl later in the week in which youths turned on a media crew.

Whatever the reason though that behaviour is not only inexcusable, its also disgraceful, disturbing and absolutely disgusting (yes threes ds).

As Darp put it:

Whatever the case, one thousand people fueled with alcohol seeking to beat the crap out of someone because they look different is certainly not the Australian way.

------------
Probably not a good idea to mention in less than 48 hrs Mr T hops on a plane on his way here. We are not all like that, I promise! Besides there is something in the water in Sydney, Melbournians on the other hand are a different breed all together
;-)

Ok maybe not all of them, but we do have a lower crime rate!

I am woman hear me roar

I chose some what of a sarcastic title for the rant that is about to follow.

I had two slightly unrelated yet related disagreements today.

The first:

Today at work i was talking with co-worker A about lunch when co-worker B attacked me on the whole vegan thing.

The worst part co-worker b is a vegetarian and his argument against veganism was that socially it was too difficult.

Yes, the whole conformity issue!

I then said actually its not so bad, a little more difficult than vegetarianism but there is generally food options around. He then went on to probe more and more, what about ?, to which i replied with what dishes i ate where and also commented that i have more of an issue getting a meal without fish than eggs and dairy since when i eat out at non veg restaurants it tends to be at asian restaurants (thai/chinese etc) more than anything else and they don't generally use dairy, that wasn't enough though. Nothing was enough, what about italian? to which i answered i normally eat ... I even told him about the few choices i had at food courts. The conversation went on from there to, to the social issue. The whole thing i found pretty hypocritical considering almost all of the arguments could be made forth against a vegetarian diet: limits your choices, holier than thou, makes eating out hard, socially difficult, what you won't have a little bit of mayo? what you won't have a little bit of fish sauce, chicken stock, minced meat etc etc?

And the whole social thing please conformity and mainstream doesn't make it right. The majority once thought a lot of things that we now don't consider ok to be ok: like slavery.

As if to make matters worse I realised that once again i'm seen as the bad guy, if i defend myself i'm seen as argumentative, how does that work?

To confirm this further i finally had enough of arguing and walked away so i could continue eating my lunch which was taking way too long to eat and of course no sooner had i walked away had my work colleagues started talking about me behind my back.

Guys if you are going to do to it try to make it subtle!

My question to you though is what should i do? To me it seems like a lose lose situation. I figure if is say nothing or choose not to discuss it then they think they are right and frankly veganism doesn't get a fair hearing.

The second:
Talking with an acquaintance after work about renting and he got all argumentative about how i should buy a house blah blah. I then said no its not for me, of course that wasn't enough he wanted to know why? and then kept going on and on. I don't even care much about the issue but i do care about people telling me what to do. So i played a long with a few reasons why i am not buying a house right now.


The problem I have with both issues is if i've seen talking my mind or even defending myself particarualy if it is a view outside the norm than i am seen by others as emotional, opinionated, argumentative, difficult etc.

If a man does exactly the same thing then no one blinks a eye.

On the other hand, why do I have to defend myself to others? and why the hell do others care so much when you do or feel differently about a issue?

The proposed answer: they feel threatened, often its about their own insecurities projected onto you, or it makes them question themselves.

Hence the reason vegetarians often feel more uncomfortable about vegans than anyone else.

I realised as soon as i got home what may have prompted the first demand that i defend MY CHOICES.

In the first case, co-worker b is vegetarian and earlier on the day we were talking about making risotto and he mentioned he put both cheese and sour cream in it. Cheese i get, but sour cream? that was my statement. I then make some passing joke about vegetarians over-using dairy (i'm reading diet for a new america at the moment will explain later) and about it overpowering the other flavours. I should have realised then that i what did insensitively was made him feel like i was attacking his lifestyle, when in fact it was actually all about flavour, and really who put sour cream in risotto? Vegetarian friends please feel free to jump on here and tell how i don't normally criticise your lifestyle choice.

I'm also quite certain that most of the things he said to me had ben said to him by a meat eater about vegetarianism.

In the second case, i suspect that he had some insecurities about being well into his late 20s and still living with his parents so he could buy a home. I suspect that quite a few people gave him a hard time about that and hence the projection onto me.

Ahhh people people people!

The thing is, it in actual fact MY life and MY choices.

if i'm wrong with my proposed answers, then why do you care so much about something that actually has no impact on your life?

You would think that i was doing something wrong from the way it is demanded that i explain myself when in actual fact in the first instance I'm living a lifestyle i choose to minimise suffering much the same as yours. I never once said vegetarianism was bad or that you weren't doing enough, or that i was holier than thou in anyway. In case two i'm simply broke.

Disclaimer
------------------------

This was written on my own blog so i could get it off my chest! I don't intend to participate in any more arguments at least not this evening, i'm tired.

I know there is a strong possibility that co-worker b will read this but i am not going behind your back about how it made me feel as i told you i was disappointed today.

If you do have issue with it written up here or want to keep asking me to DEFEND my OWN actions, email me.

Nov 16th: A sad day for vegans

yes very late with this one but just got news via a email list that i'm on.

Donald Watson founder of veganism died aged 95 on that day.

Not so bad age wise for someone who didn't eat ‘proper food’.

It is due to him that we can thank him for the term vegan rather than the other suggested names: dairyban”, “vitan”, “benevore”, “sanivore” and “beaumangeur”.

Imagine that: 'no i'm a beaumanageur'

'a what?'

hehe

News taken from times online.

--------------

In other news i have perhaps been listening to too much punk music, as i allowed my hairdresser tonight to colour my hair bright orange (or copper as he calls it).

Photo taken somewhere along the Great Ocean Road on our first break from long distance

Long distance almost over

Its less than a week to Mr T arrives and i can barely contain my excitement.

Which means we survived 18 months of long distance with only a couple of very short breaks in between.

When i first left HK i told Mr T quite surely that i didn't think i could handle the distance for longer than 3-6 months.

Prior to leaving i was even questioning being a in a long distance relationship relationship at all.

But unfortunately due to financial reasons 6 months turned into 9 months, 9 months turned into 12 months and then eventually 18 months.

People say to me all the time 'i couldn't handle a long distance relationship' and i can understand it.

Now though i realise that no one walks in saying 'oh yes i want a long distance relationship'. For us it was a simple choice, either stick with yucky long distance or break up and for the first time in my life breaking up was not a option.

Thats not to say that long distance is not hard though, it is!

There are so many moments when you go i wish he could see this, or be here with me now, or meet ... or whatever.

And of course there are arguments, its a big transition going from seeing each other to long distance. It also tends to highlight any problems in the relationship.

You do have to work hard to make it work. So i thought i would write up my thoughts for others in or about to start a long distance relationship besides from what I have been told the long distance memory will soon be a thing of the past that i will struggle to remember.

The success of our long- distance relationship is mainly due to:

1. Having an amazing partner
2. Having an amazing bond/sharing a lot in common

Beyond those things though I do have some advice:

Communication is the key!!!!!!!

* which means talking as often as possible
* honesty
* being able to talk about the not so pleasant things (I'm fortunate in that Mr T doesn't run away from conflict and instead will say to me 'we need to talk about x so it doesn't happen again')
* learning to argue fairly
* talking about the everyday/tiny things in your life

Before Mr T and I were together I was in another long distance relationship which didn't last very often (a couple of months despite being together 2 years before that) and one of the traps we fell into was not talking about the little things because its a long distance phone call and you don't think its worth it and ... Which led to two things happening, one us having nothing left to talk about because after all life is made up of lots of those tiny moments and most days just aren't that exciting. That of course let to the second thing: us growing apart.

It really is all about the little things. The co-worker bugging you, the cat scratching you, what you made for dinner etc etc.

Other things i found helped:

* trust (although as long as you 100% honesty shouldn't be much of a problem)
* packages (Mr T somehow went from Mr unromantic to Mr romantic with his thoughtful packages including a beautiful special mix cd). I really enjoyed making packages for him too.
* international calling cards (thank god for those)
* MSN-with webcam, its nice to be be able to see each other from time to time
* visits (as often as you can afford it)
* text messages (really not sure if it would have survived without all the text messages).

Having said all of that, i do have to admit there is perhaps one main benefit of surviving a long distance relationship. You end up with an even deeper emotional bond and lets face it you know for sure its not just the physical stuff keeping you together ;-)

Van Nguyen pic taken from The Age

I know I am a bit late now and I am sure it has been spoken about to death (bad expression considering) but still I have to express it in the only public forum I have.

RIP Van Nguyen.

I don't condone heroin and especially heroin trafficking.

But killing him in one of the most inhumane ways (hanging) has established nothing!

The government should have used him to go after one of the drug lords instead of killing a drug mule.

By the sounds of it half of the australian population doesn't feel the same way.

I understand that those who know someone who was killed by heroin want to blame someone, and why not pick the drug mule, i mean he is contributing to the problem.

Unfortunately though its not the simple.

A small part of me that wants to scream 'but you choose to take and buy heroin'.

I'm sure if I wanted to buy heroin and try it I could. But its a choice I and almost everyone I know chooses not to take.

The rest of the population though has to realise we (being the half opposed to the hanging) are not against him being convicted, or being inprisoned. But against the death penalty. And for some its not even about the death penalty, its about the horrible method.

Whats wrong with hanging?(as taken from wsws

If the hangman’s rope is too long, the victim’s falling body weight can result in death by decapitation. If too short, death by strangulation can take as long as 45 minutes. When the rope is correctly measured, the victim loses consciousness when his or her neck is broken in the fall. Brain death then takes about six minutes, while full body death takes a further ten minutes. According to the US-based Death Penalty Information Center: “If the inmate has strong neck muscles ... or the noose has been wrongly positioned, the fracture-dislocation is not rapid and death results from slow asphyxiation. If this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates, and violent movements of the limbs occur.”

And the whole not allowing the mother to hug her son before he is killed is pure bullshit. What the hell is she going to do in the last minutes before he is killed that can be done through hugging but not holding hands? Sounds like a power game to me.

I'm left with no answers forRobert Richers question:

The great question is: what are we doing about it? We need to campaign hard and permanently to make sure that this does not happen again.

I am not sure about the whole boycott Singapore thing. Don't get me wrong i'm all for some types of boycotts (animal products, sweatshop made items, items tested on animals, and other companies that contribute to suffering of any kind of abuse) but i'm just not sure what it will accomplish with Singapore. With most of the things I boycott its almost about choosing a better alternative; no sweat shoes instead of converse for example. Besides are we going to start boycotting every country with the death penalty? I guess in all honesty I could since i'm poor and won't be travelling anytime in the near future anyway.

Yes like half the nation I am left sad and feeling kind of hopeless.

Baby cat in the boot of my car in the middle of me cleaning it up.

Life has been hectic but good.

Its less than 2 weeks to Mr T arrives and so that has motivated me to do be a little ok a lot more productive than normal.

I'm still doing 7 days a week but i manage to get quite a lot done in the evenings.

Today in addition to washing my car, phase 4-5 of cleaning my room, doing a load of washing, dishes, cooking a big meal (garden of vegan- spinach and tofu salad-highly recommend btw) and grocery shopping i also met with my uni
co-coordinator. She gave me some very good news, it might be possible for me to complete my masters part time in 3 years instead of 4. I also picked up two assignments which have been graded and somehow I managed to do well in both of them.

Life is indeed good.

I had my second wing chun this week, and it has been challenging and painful (in the days that follow the classes) but i'm enjoying it. This week there were more women and more newbies both of which kind of helped ease the pressure of being a hopeless beginner.

Last sunday i also had the privledge of attending vodafone live at the chapel(relatively intimate performance) with Sarah Blasko for free. It was good, although strange to see a live artist perform a few of the same songs twice just to get it right for TV.

I have noticed though that music like Sarah Blasko that is a little softer I haven't been enjoying as much lately. I'm hoping it will pass since it includes quite a lot of music collection(M Ward, Jens Leckman and many more). In the meantime lots of great rockier performances coming up. Sons and Daughters- which will be the first show that Mr T will attend with me in Melbourne. And Big Day out recently announced there new line which includes The subways which I like.

Other shows that i'm thinking about but probably won't attend for financial reasons include:

The Kills

Sleater Kinnery (yes i will see them at Big Day out but still...)

St Jeromes Laneway festival (includes pretty girls make graves, broken social scene and more)

and

the Carpark festival (includes: sons and daughters(yes again), kills, Architecture in Helsinki and more)

I also noticed that all the upcoming shows at the corner (sons and daughters included) are smoke free-yayyyyyy! Although a couple of my friends will be disappointed that they can no longer smoke a joint there- you know who you are!

But seriously are they all smoke free now? When did that happen?

------------

Also sighted more more Asian male- white female couples including: a couple perhaps in their late 30s or early 40s playing with their kids, and today an eldery couple. Maybe its just because I'm getting out more or something...

A double decker bus in HK.

Keeping your surname is a sin to some.

Also inspired by something from Carnival of Feminists which is currently being hosted by sour duck, Shrub has posted a quite a lengthy list of statements on why 'We Can't Be Equal While...'. I found i could relate to quite a few, but one that stroke a big chord with me at the moment is:

For different-sex couples, women are expected to take their husband's name, or at the very least hyphenate, but many men still balk at the idea of even considering adopting their wife's name.

I am not taking Mr T's name.

As a result I constantly have to explain or rather defend my actions. The biggest question is 'what about your kids?' to which i have started to reply with 'sorry you might have me confused with someone else, i don't think i ever mentioned plans to have children'. Yes there is a big assumption that marriage= kids. But that's another story. And anyway, they still want to know just in case I do have children somewhere far far away in the future. In case you are one of those non-creative people who can't imagine how a family could possibly cope if the mother and father actually had separate names, there are other options: that boys taking his name, girls mine, or hyphenated names.

I have been accused of being racist. Mr T Chinese and so I supposedly don't want to sound like I am Chinese when i'm not, my middle name could Chinese too, so my whole name would sound very Chinese. But NO that’s why!

But that’s not the worst part.

My brothers ex-girlfriend asked me 'why?' and i said 'why should i change it?' to which she replied 'because you love him'.

A prominent pro feminist blogger recently commented that he felt trusted as a result of his new wife taking his surname.

Many have said in quite a condescending way 'how does he feel about that?'.

What the fuck? Because I choose not to follow a pointless patriarchal tradition I'm accused of being racist and it is inadvertently suggested that I don't trust or love him. So i take vows in front of all of family and friends saying that I want to make a lifelong commitment to him. But I don't love or trust him?

Poor Mr T!

No women still don't have equal rights.

You might as well burn me at the stake now!

Thank a feminist!

I found this through sour duck who found it from Roxanne who actually got it from someone else and so the author is unknown, but the point is it needs replicating. One of the major issues i have with anti-feminist women is that that it seems like such a slap in the face to all that feminism has done for women.

So heres a great reminder on why to thank a feminist.

If you're female and...
...you can vote, thank a feminist.

...you get paid as much as men doing the same job, thank a feminist.

...you went to college instead of being expected to quit after high school so your brothers could go because "You'll just get married anyway", thank a feminist.

...you can apply for any job, not just "women's work", thank a feminist.


...you can get or give birth control information without going to jail, thank a feminist.
...your doctor, lawyer, pastor judge or legislator is a woman, thank a feminist.

...you play an organized sport, thank a feminist.

...you can wear slacks without being excommunicated from your church or run out of town, thank a feminist.

...your boss isn't allowed to pressure you to sleep with him, thank a feminist.

...you get raped and the trial isn't about your hemline or your previous boyfriends, thank a feminist.

...you start a small business and can get a loan using only your name and credit history, thank a feminist

...you are on trial and are allowed to testify in your own defense, thank a feminist.

...you own property that is solely yours, thank a feminist.

...you have the right to your own salary even if you are married or have a male relative, thank a feminist.

...you get custody of your children following divorce or separation, thank a feminist.

...you get a voice in the raising and care of your children instead of them being completely controlled by the husband/father, thank a feminist.

...your husband beats you and it is illegal and the police stop him instead of lecturing you on better wifely behavior, thank a feminist.

...you are granted a degree after attending college instead of a certificate of completion, thank a feminist.

...you can breastfeed your baby discreetly in a public place and not be arrested, thank a feminist.

...you marry and your civil human rights do not disappear into your husband's rights, thank a feminist.

...you have the right to refuse sex with a diseased husband [or just "husband"], thank a feminist.

...you have the right to keep your medical records confidential from the men in your family, thank a feminist.

...you have the right to read the books you want, thank a feminist.

...you can testify in court about crimes or wrongs your husband has committed, thank a feminist.

...you can choose to be a mother or not a mother in you own time not at the dictates of a husband or rapist, thank a feminist.

...you can look forward to a lifespan of 80 years instead of dying in your 20s from unlimited childbirth, thank a feminist.

...you can see yourself as a full, adult human being instead of a minor who needs to be controlled by a man, thank a feminist.

--Author unknown

A random couple in central-Hong Kong who almost look they should be part of the billboard behind them. Photo taken from on top of a double decker tram

The planet works in mysterious ways

On the day i found out the good news (thursday see below) i later went to a local shopping centreand saw 5 wf-am(white female-asian male)couples. More than i have seen in a whole year.

On Saturday a little after i discovered the date Mr T will arrive I saw a wf bride with her am groom.

I think mother nature(don't ask how) is smiling at me.

I will post more soon just working like crazy at the moment (5 paid days and 2 volunteer days) and trying to get prepared for when Mr T arrives (which is about 3 weeks away).

And yes i'm still walking around occasionally smiling to myself.

The Best News

I was in the doctors office today (nothing serious) when i got a text mesage on my phone. I was quite embarrased because I was actually in with the doctor and i of course should have had my phone off, so I tried to pretend it didn't happen.

After I paid and got in my car i checked the message, which is by far the best text message I have ever received, it read:

My Aus visa had been approved!

I then let out the biggest 'woooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooo' ever and then something strange happened: i started to cry happy tears. Yes today i became a happy crier.

I've been so worried lately that it wouldn't be granted in enough time for him to get a flight here before xmas or new years eve. Not to mention that we have waited for him to move here for so long (17 months), it was just such an amazing relief.

I called or texted everyone and then proceeded to drive home very very slowly quite concerned because I was in so much shock i was not only crying but also shaking.

I'm so happy right now!


Mr T jumping for joy in HK.

What have I got myself into?

For some reason i decided to play around with my template today and therefore all my links are gone.

Please be patient while I get it re-organised.

In the meantime i need to seriously think about whether perhaps I should just move to blogsome instead of blogger because i lurrrve the categories option.

Can someone tell me whether the right side of the blog is appearing correctly, to me it seems as if the links don't show up completely.

IR protest today in Melbourne

photo taken from the age

Super cheap lunch box from a vegetarian restaurant in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.


About cooking...

The last post had me thinking about cooking. I avoided learning how to cook at all for a quite a while. As a a teenager I had family members who would comment on how I don't know how to cook, and then ask questions like 'who is going to cook for your future husband?' which of course turned me off cooking all together.

It wasn't until I become a vegan that I actually started to cook thanks to my then boyfriend. He used to make this beautiful vegetable risotto and taught me how to make it, actually I think he just gave me the recipe. Somehow though I ended up making it better than him. I was quite pleased to discover that not only could make one dish by myself but also a slightly difficult one too. Risotto even for me now is something that can easy be ruined if you don't watch it carefully.

Its basically grew from there as i taught myself how to cook from cookbooks and recipes i found online. Strangely what inspired me to cook even more was actually the opposite of what initially deterred me from learning at an early age. I didn't want to be dependent on others, whether that be my boyfriend, my mother or having to eat out. Besides a lot of the new ingredients (tofu, lentils, chickpeas) I was starting to discover in restaurants neither my family or my then boyfriend could made.

Somewhere early on in though I discovered something very very scary: i liked cooking! I felt slightly guilty like somehow I was becoming my then worst nightmare: a house wife.

Thankfully I grew past that and now here i am cooking about 5 nights a week and I can't get enough cookbooks. I honestly read them like a novel sometimes.

Apparently I can cook (without a recipe).

I'm a strict recipe follower well at least until i have made it enough that I can play around with it.

Tonight though i wanted to make something similar to a dish i had at a local restuarant, and i searched online and was unable to find a similar recipe so I decided to make it up and its not too bad and super quick to make.

I call it butter garlic beans (couldn't think of a name)

2 tablespoons nuttlex (vegan margarine)
garlic (as much as you like, i used about 2-3 cloves)
1 teaspoon of veg stock powder
1/2 cup of water
400g can chickpeas
400g can kidney beans
400g can cannellini(white beans)
a handful of baby spinach leaves
salt
pepper

Heat nuttlex and garlic for a few minutes. Add beans, stock, and water and bring to boil, simmer for 5 minutes and stir in spinach leaves

Add the essential salt and pepper and serve on rice.

Serves 2.

The one thing i would add to it next time would be an onion, but i simply didn't have any this time.

The wall along the staircase on the way up to 'The Panic' (indie music shop in Mongkok)

If you like rock, or punk or folk then check out:

Sons and Daughters album repulsion box

They are a Glaswegian punk folk band which I come across thanks to Claire.

And they are my favourite band at the moment and are coming to Melbourne very soon.

Am super excited!

The Tagging game

Shamash tagged me with these instructions:

Go into your archive.
Find your 23rd post.
Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
Tag five other people to do the same.

Mine is from June 2003 in a post called sell my soul and the fifth sentence in my case is very short:

So i didn't apply for it

a lot has happened since then!

Now i tag Erin, Claire, Andrea [aka tekanji],Sour duck and Daniel. As well as anyone else who wants to join.

Don't worry I won't be offended if you don't oblige, but i do recommend it just because it is interesting to see what you were writing about particularly if a lot of time has passed since the 23rd post.

I did struggle coming up with the five people since most of the blogs i read have already participated.

Female Chauvinist Pigs

I bought it on friday and finished it within a couple of days, could have been a day but I tried to drag it out as much as possible.

I can not recommend the book enough. Its easy to read obviously. It made me laugh, and also quite sad and quite angry at times (not at the author but at the issues).

Below are a few quotes please keep in mind that the book actually covers quite a lot of topics (teens, sexual education, lesbian relationships,feminism, anti-women women, tv and more) and i struggled choosing only a few quotes.

Here she discusses incidents with teenage girls giving sexual favours in public (a sad section):

What all these adolescent incidents have in common are, of course exhibitionism and oral sex -oral sex for the boys that is. Like the mythical rainbow parties, these situations revolve around girls giving erotic performances and boys literally lying back and enjoying the benefits

Below she discusses women who enjoy going to the strippers, and watching tvs shows like girls behaving badly:

Because part of the answer is that nobody wants to be the frump at the back at the room anymore, the ghost of woman past. It's just not cool. What is cool is for women to take a guy's view of pop culture in general and live, nude girls in particular.

On women in the sex industry:

It's a cliche that bears repeating (and substantiating) that most women in the sex industry have been victims of sexual abuse........... Estimates range from 65 to 90 percent, and she is inclined to believe the highest numbers as are all the other experts I spoke with. Obviously, people who have suffered sexual trauma in the past can move on and enjoy their sex lives in the future. But there is something twisted about using a predominately sexually traumatized group of people as our erotic role models It's like using a bunch of shark attack victims as our lifeguards.

It no wonder I'm not a fan of porn!

The thing is society tells us that engaging in certain types of behaviour (porn/strippers included) is not only normal but sexy. Sexy is something we are told we are seeing every day in adverts, on tv, on the street (in so called sexy outfits), in strip clubs, porn etc.

She also points how 'sexy', or 'sexually liberated' people like Paris Hilton aren't necessary enjoying a good sex life.

She concludes with:

We need to allow ourselves the freedom to figure out what we want from sex instead of mimicking whatever popular culture holds up to us as sexy. That would be sexual liberation

I'm free!

Free at last

I celebrated with a few glasses of wine, dark chocolate, a few pretzels, some blogging, lots of phone called advising the world i'm free and tv watching (it was house, gotta love house).

Not exactly your traditional celebration, but that will come later.

I am so looking forward to being able to have a life well for a few months anyway: going out after work, watching movies, going to shows, going out for dinner,reading for fun, learning wing chun.

Speaking of wing chun, i've paid and picked up my uniform and will start next week. Very excited since I have been talking about it for 5 years, actually maybe 6.

Crappola jobs

Over at venus in fake fur he discusses some of the crappola jobs in HK-(english version on the bottom half).

I also discovered waiting on hold a blog which focuses on call centres and call centre staff. If you know someone who works in a call centre forward the blog details so they can participate by posting about their jobs.

Horse Racing is not cool

Tomorrow is Melbourne Cup day, a public holiday for horse racing.

Everyone has gone crazy in Melbourne with the spring racing carnival which appears to be an excuse to dress up and get drunk.

Its important to not lose sight though about what the day and the rest of the carnival is centered around: cruel horse racing.

I'm not much of a fan of gambling all together but forcing an animal to run as fast as it can by whipping it continually is really NOT cool.

For more about whats wrong with horse racing check out here and here

My henna hand-studying now!

Apparently Baby cat likes toffuti ice cream too.

World Vegan Day

I went and ate and ate and spend all my money.

There were so many people. We arrived just before 2 and you could barely move in some sections and the line for veggie burgers was always long.

Unfortunately no tofutti ice cream though. They only had their cream cheeses to sample and empty ice cream cartons and tubs to tease us with.

I fell in love with Bombay bliss bags.

I also like the look of the yoga retreats, cooking classes and even their vegan recipe calendars available at mukti in Hepburn Springs. Mmmm i could handle a trip to Hepburn springs.

Plus I discovered another vegan beer range.

Food wise, I managed to fit in a choc jam donut, very filling 'schnitzel' burger, chocolate, wonton(free), five spice tofu(free), satay 'chicken'(free), and a cherry and chocolate muffin.

Its a good thing i skipped breakfast.

I also bought an over the shoulder bombay bliss bag(good for going out), save babe t-shirt, orgran biscuts and some other little things. Plus i got a henna tattoo on my hand.

All in all a good day.

I love the blog world!

Recently there was at least three blogs all attempting to answer the incredibly hard question: why are there so many anti-feminist women or rather the whole 'I'm not a feminist but...'.

Something that i'm always shocked by and a little saddened by. I faced it a lot when I was in HK. Perhaps because Mr T kept announcing that I was a feminist and then asking if they were a feminist (he meant well) they would reply quite defensively 'no i'm not a feminist'. But of course it stills exists here. I remember after a women studies class in my undergrad days one particularly girl who obviously walked in there with a preconception about what the class was, and then after the class spoke about how she hated men-bashing when the lecturer failed to mention men once. I've also had plenty of friends state feminist comments only to later defend by saying 'its not like a feminist or something'.

Anyway its a question for the ages and i wish i had time to post more. Go check out the lengthy posts at all of the blogs.

I first learned about it though sour duck links page which then led me to no pod and that lead me to mind the gap and finally i ended up at Hugos post which seems to be the original.

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Anyway also wanted to announce that I just completed my first semester of lecturing!

I had a senior lecturer call me up yesterday and congratulate me and basically told me about how lecturing when you first start is all about survival. News that would have been helpful at the beginning but still its nice to know that I wasn't alone in wanting to quite on more than once occasion. She then told me what everyone in the faculty says and you taught '..........(insert subject title here)' thats really really brave. Basically without revealing too much i taught a science/maths subject to social science students and they hate it. Everyone hates it and there is more anxiety with this subject than any other in the course because so many fail it.

She then told me that i should feel proud of myself to which i could honestly reply that i am.

Another book to add to the list of must reads once semester is over and I have the privilege of reading for fun.

Female chauvinist pigs: Women and the rise of raunch culture

I Read the review on the age, and have also seen mostly ok-ish reviews on amazon and indie bride.

Reading for fun! I can't wait.

and why am i posting so frequently despite how frantic my workload is?

Its theraupetic and kind of a quick fix (have you seen all the extra typos I have made recently- no time for re-reads or proper typing) particuarly since I can barely start a conversation at the moment with my loved ones which isn't either boring (eg: in response to what did you do today: worked on my assignment/lecture preparation etc) or complaining (in response to how is it going: 'not so good, i have .................... all due in the next week').

I suck as a friend/fiance/family member right now, but i will be back very soon I promise!

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Btw, world vegan day this sunday, those are in melb should check it out at albert park lake. Tofutti (the best vegan ice cream ever) have a stall, now if thats not reason enough than I don't know what is. Just in case, there will also be music, lots and lots of stalls, lots of kids activities and plenty of food!

Plus I'll be there taking a small break from it all.

I watched the ARIA's tonight in between preparing lecture notes and was really suprised by a) how much pop music i like and b) how much australian music i like. So i thought i would make a list of all the popish aussie music i like:

ben lee
architecture in helsinki
john butler trio
missy higgins
sarah blasko
evermore
grinspoon

Ok for most of the above i wouldn't go out and buy their albums or see them live but i like a song or two at least. It certainly seems to be an improvement from previous years anyway.

Now back to work!

My homework level feels about as high as the the buildings.

Will be back in about in about two weeks.

Inroducing.....

weatherpixie -------------->



I love the fact that her outfits/and the background change with the time of the day and the weather.

There are so many types to choose. I love the 20s doll and might change to it once i can be bothered playing around with again.

I added it yesterday when melb weather was beautiful for once.

I was considering adding a second one too maybe an asian guy for HK weather but there are no asian looking men (only asian women) and besides seeing HK weather alongside melb weather would just be depressing.

Sodastsream on sat night and yes the guy on the right is playing a sword.

Thankful

I attended emergency relief training over the last couple of days.

Its been a good experience. An experience which has once again reinforced how bloody lucky i am to have the following:

a place to sleep
family and friends
education
employment
no disabilities
no kids
a loving non- abusive partner
english skills
no major medical costs/debt


Its been great as well to see those who orginally started the training asking questions such as 'how can you tell if they are just trying to scam the system' to realise that the vast majority of clients don't come for help unless they really need it. As the instructor pointed out, they don't think to themselves 'i wouldn't mind some extra kidney beans better go beg for them'.

Others have stopped the victim blaming and started realising that sometimes clients are in a really horrible situation because of bad circumstances rather than bad choices.

And i doubt anyone walked away without being thankful for what little they may have.

Speaking of which, i have something extra to be thankful for:

Mr T handed in the immigration forms today!

Now back to one thing i'm not so thankful for: homework.

Explicit warning!!!! Ugly Hip Hop lyrics ahead.

Hip hop bad

When i was last in HK i had the unfortunate experience of going to a hip hop club.

I noticed instantly that there was two main styles of dancing, one consisted of basically standing on the spot and moving only slightly, the other consisted of moving quite obviously up and down, and some serious butt shaking. Take a wild guess who was doing what(in terms of females or male)?

I wasn't obviously impressed with the song lyrics all evening, but then the following song come on(keeping in mind this was the chorus):

So lick it now, lick it good, suck this dick just like you should
Right now, lick it good, suck my dick just like you should
Thats it, like that, lick my dick and my sack
Don't quit, like that, lick my dick and my sack
Yeah bitch, like that, lick my dick and my sack
Don't trip, like that, lick my dick and my sack

Charming isn't it?

But wait it gets even bettter:

First you gotta take your tongue stick it out up and down, let it run
All around my dick and balls, let the spit drip from your jaws
Get hype wit it, it's your chance, squeeze my dick let it slide in your hands
Don't stop until you make me come, after me give my homeboy some
Bustin' nuts all in your face, open wide, I know you love that taste
The best head comes from real ho's , I get big like a dildo

I stood there on spot at that moment quite annoyed, and thinking surely i'm not the only woman in the room not quite enjoying the lyrics, but apparently I was because most of the women continued to dance as if they were imitating sexual movements right there on spot.

Sadly when I was researching the above lyrics,I actually had trouble finding the song, because there are quite a few songs with similar lyrics.

I was however suprised to discover that part of the lyrics was actually created by a woman-khia in a song called my neck my back, althought it of course referred to licking female body parts and then Too $hort created his ever so 'poetic' version which was just a touch harsher in comparison.

I also found this song which ends with more charming lyrics again:

Hey mothafuck, I want you to suck Dre's dick,
Then I want you to suck Yella dick
You already sucked Ren's dick ..

Apparently hip hops horrible relationship with women still exists.

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Hip hop-good

I'm still not a fan of hip hop but I was recently impressed with Kanye West.

I watched the MTV interview with Kanye West recently where he explained how homosexuality is almost an antonym to hip-hop and that basically it (gay bashing) needs to be stopped.

Mr T (defender of hip hop- the one area of music we disagree on) was then explaining how one of his new songs even talks about problems with the diamond industry. Nows thats impressive!


Now all we need is some mainstream hip hop or just mainstream music in general talking about women's issues. Or simply starting to undo some of the issues created with lyrics in the first half. Perhaps thats what the female singer khia was trying to do in her song 'my neck, my back' in her own crude way.


Yeh i guess I am dreaming there!

Asleep in front of the heater. Licorice the black lab, Paris the white american bulldog, and Dairy the stray cat. 

I payed off my credit card bill!!!!

Goodbye debt, and hello saving.

There is so much to save for too:

Big Day out tickets (go on sale next week) and I'm dying to see sleater-kinney and white stripes and quite a few others. I've never been before so i'm very excited!

Wedding dress and other wedding costs

A new Nookart lunchbox (check them out here under tin products lunch boxes).

Xmas presents.

Car insurance (due very soon) and other bills.

House stuff, bond etc with the plan of moving over the summer holidays (Australia).

Any tips for saving money?

So far all I have is cutting down on processed package foods which has been a struggle.

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The other thing is I'm going to stop procrastinating and actually start my major assignments (including another 5,000 one) which are due in the next month. Which means laying off posting and reading blogs for a while. I wonder how long that will last.

It was on the way to work on sunday that I heard about the bali bombings on the radio.

All I heard though was that one australian teenager was confirmed dead. I waited for more but thats all i got, I didn't know how many bombs went off, how many were injured or anything until I actually arrived at work and checked the newspaper online.

Why is it that when terrorist attacks occur in other western countries the media tends to mention all the details in total, showing stories about the locals injured as well.

But as soon as something happens outside of the western world, the locals tend to be ignored.

Thankfully the age pointed it out:

where yet again most of the dead have been locals and most of the damage has hit local businesses.

Obvious, right? Maybe, but the media still seem to be ignoring it. I now know from the media that two australians are confirmed dead and another two missing and thought to be dead. Yet I have no idea how many locals were killed. I understand pointing out the Australian deaths for a few reasons but we need to remember we are not the only ones killed or injured.

My heart goes out to them all!!!

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Edited to add: I checked the age online again this morning which revealed that

At least 14 Indonesians died in the blasts at Kuta and Jimbaran Beach

Perhaps we are starting to care about the others

My crooked photo wall version 3. The original idea was inspired by a clipping on Erin's inspiration board. At first it was just one line with spaces, then one line with overlapping pictures and then of course I opted for two lines. I love it crookedness and all because its contains a few of my fav things/people/places and its situated on the wall that I face when i turn my head away from the computer (which I live on).

Immigration.

The immigration forms were ALMOST in!

Handing in the forms has been a long long process. I filled out the first set back in march this year. But there has been continual obstacles, money being the biggest. It costs a bloody lot for Mr T to move here without all the immigration costs.

We were so close, MR T had an appointment to hand them in but when the immigration woman was confirming that we had everything she also insisted that I too need a free to marry certificate (its not on the list) to show that I'm not already married. Now i have to wait a week or two for it and send it to Mr T before the forms will be handed in.

Ahhh feels like I have been in a long distance relationship forever (coming up to 16 months in case you were wondering).

Sometimes i feel like i have a gene missing:

the ohhhhhhhhhhh wedding dress shopping fantasy

I hate wedding dress shopping!

Perhaps because I want something slightly different:

not white (that includes ivory)

not strapless

not huge

and not expensive

But I do want something that has a train (i'm not really sure why, but for some reason its the one thing traditonal wedding dress part that I like).

I started looking recently because I know it will take me a while, and so far the only one I have found is overseas which means getting it send. What do you think? Too risky?

Satan lurrrrrrrrrving

Ok i stole this from someone else, but just had to pass it along because its makes me laugh so much.

Below is part of a newsletter that St. Mary's church in Colorado Springs sent out recently:

If Your Child is a Gothic, Reform Through the Lord!

Listed below are some warning signs to indicate if your child may have gone astray from the Lord. Gothic (or goth) is a very obscure and often dangerous culture that young teenagers are prone to participating in.
The gothic culture leads young, susceptible minds into an imagined world of evil, darkness, and violence. Please seek immediate attention through counselling, prayer, and parental guidance to rid your child of Satan's temptations if five or more of the following are applicable to your child:

-Frequently wears black clothing.
-Wears band and/or rock t-shirts.
-Wears excessive black eye makeup, lipstick or nailpolish.
-Wears any odd, silver jewelry or symbols. Some of these include: reversed crosses, pentagrams, pentacles, ankhs or various other Satanic worshipping symbols.
-Shows an interest in piercings or tattoos.
-Listens to gothic or any other anti-social genres of music. (Marilyn Manson claims to be the anti-Christ, and publicly speaks against the Lord. Please discard any such albums IMMEDIATELY.)
-Associates with other people that dress, act or speak eccentrically.
-Shows a declining interest in wholesome activities, such as: the Bible, prayer, church or sports.
-Shows an increasing interest in death, vampires, magic, the occult, witchcraft or anything else that involves Satan.
-Takes drugs.
-Drinks alcohol.
-Is suicidal and/or depressed.
-Cuts, burns or partakes in any other method of self-mutilation. (This is a Satanic ritual that uses pain to detract from the light of God and His love. Please seek immediate attention for this at your local mental health center.)
-Complains of boredom.
-Sleeps too excessively or too little.
-Is excessively awake during the night.
-Dislikes sunlight or any other form of light. (This pertains to vampires promoting the idea that His light is of no use.)
-Demands an unusual amount of privacy.
-Spends large amounts of time alone.
-Requests time alone and quietness. (This is so that your child may speak to evil sprits through meditation.)
-Insists on spending time with friends while unaccompanied by an adult.
-Disregards authority figures; teachers, priests, nuns and elders are but a few examples of this.
-Misbehaves at school.
-Misbehaves at home.
-Eats goth-related foods. Count Dracula cereal is an example of this.
-Drinks blood or expresses an interest in drinking blood. (Vampires believe this is how to attain Satan. This act is verydangerous and should be stopped immediately.)
-Watches cable television or any other corrupted media sources. (Ask your local church for proper programs that your child may watch.)
-Plays videos games that contains violence or are of a role-playing nature.
-Uses the internet excessively and frequently makes time for the computer.
-Makes Satanic symbols and/or violently shakes head to music.
-Dances to music in a provocative or sexual manner.
-Expresses an interest in sex.
-Masturbates-Is homosexual and/or bisexual.
-Pursues dangerous cult religions. Such include: Satanism, Scientology, Philosophy, Paganism, Wicca, Hinduism and Buddhism.
-Wears pins, stickers or anything else that contains these various phrases: "I'm so gothic, I'm dead", "woe is me", "I'm a goth".
-Claims to be a goth.

If five or more of these apply to your child, please intervene immediately. The gothic culture is dangerous and Satan thrives within it. If any of these problems persist, enlist your child into your local mental health center.

~St. Mary's Catholic Church

I didn't realise that Buddhism was a dangerous cult religion.

I have more than five!

The drummer's hand after the pillable show (from Alok's 31G)

Why Native English Speakers are sometimes arrogant fuckers

Most of us only speak one language-English and sometimes not so well (i can vouch for that!).

Many travel to other countries where English is not commonly spoken and try to speak English only to get annoyed when they can't communicate back-what a big surprise! Even sadder when this is happening and you are in a non english speaking city and the person on the receiving end of the abuse is apologising for not speaking good english (witnessed in a few parts of asia).

And then when someone is attempting to speak English in our country we either tease them, laugh or the worst thing possible start to raise our voice and talk to them to in a patronising/angry manner. I have seen this over half a dozen times in the last week. Just try for once to slow down and have a tiny amount of patience it might prove more successful than shouting at them like they are deaf.

They are trying to speak a second or perhaps third or fourth language and rather than appreciate the effort, many get annoyed, and even angry and start to spew out comments like 'he/she/they can't even speak English' to others. However generally that comment is made about someone who is speaking English, its just imperfect and/or slow.

Get over yourself arrogant fuckers you can speak English most probably because you were born and raised here (or there), so what?

Stop giving the rest of us decent native English speakers a bad name!

To those of you who are attempting to speak english if you are being treated like that from someone while they are at their workplace (shop, restaurant, etc) make a complaint to their supervisor. Its the only hope to get the message through to them, and even if doesn't they will hopefully get into trouble for it.

Random mini reviews

Watched spanglish yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting some brainless comedy but instead it was much more of a drama with a few funny bits thrown in, it actually inspired a d&m between my bro and I, any movie that manages to do that gets the thumbs up from me.

Have tried a few new recipes mostly from online with mixed results. Loved the Lemony lentil soup but just wished I made more. The chickpea curry was just ok but seems to be lacking something, and the basil tofu was very disappointing. The garden of vegans chickpea and swiss chard (p117) was great considering it took no more than 15 minutes to make.

Speaking of garden of vegan, I have been informed that Sarah Kramer (one of the authors of garden of vegan and how it all vegan) will release a new cookbook called La Dolce Vegan at the end of the year. Can't wait!!! Both the current books are my fav cookbooks. I just wonder if she can pull off another great cookbook and this time without Tanya.

What's in a blog name?

Somehow the name of my blog become the topic of conversation amongst a couple of my friends and surprisingly a few interpretations of my blog name (the bluerthanpink part) were given.

I'm interested in hearing how others interpret it before I reveal what its all about.

Flinders Street station taken new years eve-2005.

A new terrorist threat- Melbourne?

I have been discussing the new terrorist threat with a few of my friends and even my mother in pretty much the same way as I discuss what i think is going to happen next in a tv show. Strange that the conversations are so casual but i guess that's the only way to deal with it.

There are a few things I/we don't quite get though.

First why Melbourne? Sydney is Australia's famous city. Besides it has more famous icons- the bridge, and the opera house. I've been trying to think about what is so special about Melb. Don't get me wrong I love it but its certainly not up there as far as big cities go. It is supposed to be the worlds most livable city, is that why? A lot of people don't even know where Melbourne is. I can just imagine if there was a terrorist attack here, all these people around the world asking 'where is Melbourne'? I guess that's one way to put it on the map- for the wrong reason.

The other thing is where in Melb? We don't exactly have a huge population and the city centre is small in comparison to most big cities. My theory is flinders street station (see above) its one of our few icons and has more trains going there then any other station. My mother thinks the commonwealth games but I doubt it. Apart from the countries actually involved I doubt anyone knows let alone cares about the games. The only reason we care is because we win so many medals.

One more gripe. Erin (my AMERICAN friend) pointed out the terrorists incorrect pronunciation of Melbourne. For the record its pronounced more like Mel-burn/ Mel-bun(a cross between the two perhaps) NOT 'Mel-born; as he pronounced it. If you are going to threaten out city at least get the pronunciation right!

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On a much much much happier note I just recently discovered vegan lunch box if you haven't already do yourself a favour and check it out. Its possibly the cutest blog ever!

Vegan Junk food 2

Ok this is going to be the last one for a while as I'm going off sugary snacks for a little while. I've going to be a better snacker I swear.




These are pricey but well worth it, well the mint ones anyway. I have brought two packs in the last week. They taste like a cross between tim tams and choc mint slices. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

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Btw, I apologise for the new word verification thing with comments, it just had to be done, my spam comments seem to be on the rise for some unknown reason and I'm sick of deleting them.

The support act before architecture in Helsinki at the corner hotel-yes a melb pic for once.
 

I've been thinking a lot about work lately.

I'm fortunate to have two very different jobs. Three if you include volunteer work and four if you include studying. But lets stick to the two that i get paid for. One my crapola job which is extremely laid back, and also very monotonous, not very well paid and almost anyone can do. I call it a crapola job because society devalues it, some people even go as far as thinking that they should take out all their problems on you by yelling at you, its also not particularly stimulating. The other of course is my lecturing, which is stressful, and a fairly big responsibly.

Lecturing takes a lot out of me. Not just in preparation, but also in terms of energy and the amount of time that I am thinking about it, stressing, and planning. I guess it doesn't help that I am teaching a science/maths subject to arts students. Each week is a new challenge. This week for example I have lecture notes which are too detailed. What i mean by that is there is nothing more for me to expand on, examples are already included and detailed as well. So basically i feel like I'm going to stand up there and read the lecture notes. Bloody great!

My other job in contrast gives me no stress at all. Its out of my mind as soon as I leave. In fact at the moment I find myself looking forward to it in contrast to the rest of the stressful week. I've also got some bloody great co-workers and often get paid to have all sorts of interesting conversations and/or debates (see below for example). As well as getting some studying done when its quiet.

The thing I have been thinking about is: is it worth it? If your job is interrupting you out of work hours?

The other thing is i hate the amount of presumptions that come with the question: 'what do you do for a living'? Don't get me wrong I ask that too (so i can get ideas for future occupations for me), but judging a person based on their job is just plain stupid. Some of my most interesting friends do crapola jobs (call centre operators, hospitality workers, cleaners, retail staff, taxi drivers). Their job says nothing about their passions, their music taste (highly important), about what they do outside of work (volunteer, write, cook, travel, do a martial art, blog etc)or about who they really are. Take for example an acquaintance who is very selfish and unsympathetic yet job consists of helping people as an international aid worker. I myself am also probably more interesting when I'm not studying or doing a stressful job because of course if your in a job which doesn't challenge you, you tend to look for challenges outside of work (for me learning canto among other things), am more likely to volunteer, to see more of my friends and family, to read more (i miss it!!!) and to travel. I've decided in the future to answer that question with simply my crapola job, if they discontinue the conversation it just shows how boring they are. I've also decided to adopt my friends approach and ask a different question in place of it: 'what do you like to do outside of work?'. Now that will start to reveal how interesting the person is.

Derrick Jensons (amazing writer) words also haunt me. In regard to work taking up 75% of your time and what it does to you to be in a job where you basically wish your life away?

I guess the trick is to get a job which doesn't take all your energy and certainly not more that the 75%, but at the same time you don't hate, any suggestions?

Bringing vegan junk food to a blog near you

There is a vegan woman at my local health food store who has been introducing me to all sorts of new vegan products. I walked in there the other day buying hand cream and walked out with an extra three items. My fav of the week is this one:



Orgran are perhaps my new fav brand. These biscuits rock, as do the other flavours: amaretti and lemon poppy seed. They are also not too bad money wise, are gluten free and come in a zip lock bag.

She also showed me a few of their other good items: Orgran Chocolate Mousse Mix, and muffin mixs. I might actually start baking again.

My other fav junkfood item of the month has got to be tofutti vanilla almond bark. About friggin time we had their tubs in australia. Thanks Erin for introducing it to me.

Are you afraid to walk alone at night?

Perhaps the answer of this question depends on your gender.

The Male privilege checklist suggests it is.

Ari and I were discussing this at work today (yes working really hard as per usual).

He's never afraid (and I know he's not exactly the macho type who would worry about saying if he was).

I am! While it doesn't generally stop me from going out, or walking by myself at night it does make me feel uneasy when I am out by myself. I have created two blanky style ways to help though: being on the phone, and holding the keys in between my fingers (you want a key shoved in your eye?).

Beauty competitions for Men?



The contestants.


Some of the contestants in their national costumes.


When I was in HK I watched a little bit of Mr Asia. A new competition. Its old news now but I was just reminded of it the other day. I was intrigued with what a beauty pageant would be like for men. I only watched the last few sections, however it was enough to give me some sort of indication. As taken from the website:

The Judges indicated that besides physical appearances, the contestants should demonstrate other quality as well. Fanny tends to judge on their charm, masculinity and inner beauty, while Janet will focus on their appearance, character and personlity. Mrs. Judy Hong believes that the vitality of their eyes are very important. [Engrish included]

I didn't see any judging of their inner beauty, strange that.

I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but the question/answer section wasn't much different from female pageants. Silly questions were asked and silly replies were give such as the winner -Mr Israel's one reason why he should win:

"I have the biggest eyes"

Or Mr India's reply to the following question:

What is the biggest problem in your country today, and how will you deal with it?

I think the biggest problem in my country is over-population and pollution. I hope that people can be self-discipline and don't waste materials. Just use what must be used and don't waste. Also, keeping hygiene is very important.

Something seems different though. Something I can't quite put my finger on. It was different from competitions like Mr World in that the emphasis wasn't on muscle. At the same time it didn't fully compare to the female pageants either. Perhaps it was just the change of men being subjected to it all.

Photos and quotes taken from the website.

Happy Birthday Mr T!!!

Wow-beer

Ian Lubek visited my small time blog and left a comment here.

At first I was excited and extremely flattered but then I realised he probably found the entry through googling his name (who hasn't done it?).

Sadly though if you do google his name (depending on the country preference) -my blog is quite high up on the list on entries.

Too high. This man, and his cause deserve more attention! Particularly when he is trying to use the media to shame the beer companies into being more responsible in Cambodia as well as spreading the word amongst consumers.

If you haven't already go and read the post or better yet read more at one of the below sites:

Cambodia-HIV/Aids Research
Beergirls
Ethicalbeer
Fairtrade Beer

Btw, I've switched to Icebeer, its cheap and not bad as far as beer goes (although I must admit that i'm more of a wine/cider/spirits girl anyway).

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Also thanks to sourduck i discovered bloglines.

Instead of having to check individually who has update their blogs, i just check bloglines and it tells me. Perfect!

Sam Kee (Dessert place- at 1am where I had yummy almond dessert soup)





A book for me perhaps

I across a book called 'being vegan in a non vegan world' from vegan momma's blog

From chapter one:

All of us who are vegan have at some time or another just felt like absolute outsiders in the places that we’re supposed to be the most comfortable… our homes, our jobs, and with our friends and families. Though most vegans are likely not any “freakier” than your average person, the simple and compassionate act of denying animal products for ethical reasons can literally make you into the weirdo at the dinner table, or in other social and personal contexts.

.

I haven't got it YET but judging by that quote alone I want to. Perhaps the hardest part about being a vegan isn't the food, or the shoe shopping (although at times that part is tricky) but attitudes from others.

As argumentative and passionate as I might be, I don't preach, well certainly not to acquaintances anyway. In fact I've even learned that when someone asks you why you are vegan at a meal time to simply reply with 'if you really want to know ask me at a time when your not eating'.

I've learned lot alot about people since becoming vegan. Things that I would never have imagined. The word vegan is simply said (often by other people) and I don't even have to say another word without assumptions being made, and defensiveness, anger, frustration, someone wanting an argument, or to get a rise out of me. Someone proclaiming that it is a faze, or that i will get sick, or that it is crazy or god knows what else but you can be sure I have heard it all before. One guy even told me that his idea of hell was discovering that he couldn't eat meat. A certain ex boyfriend had this whole idea that my veganism (and my concern for anything he disagreed with-womens rights, the environment) was just a way for me to isolate myself and so that I could feel different. Because being different is so much fun (idiot!). Everyone also has a story of someone they knew who was vegetarian once and went back (many who suprise suprise got sick as a result of a french fries diet). Somehow I'm also made out to be this extremist animal rights activist who is yelling murder at the top of my lungs when I'm just sitting there eating my food and wanting to be left alone. Answers are demanded from me-why? (its all in the way you say why, its a dead give away) and a thousand others. You can also be sure that I know my nutrition back to front (a lot of people seem to get their nutrition advice from tv ads- the dairy corporation has done very well for itself in that respect), and I won't even honour a response to the 'but plants have feelings too'-pllllllease stop wasting my time and my energy.

I should probably say that its all in the tone, I have plently of meat eating friends who I never have these conversations with, and plently who ask out of genuine curiosity. I don't mind answering and explaining to them. I was certainly one of those people prior to being a vegan and I guess thats why I was suprised by others reactions towards it. My family is perhaps the worst, you would think I would have created a crime the way my grandmother goes on about it.

Mr T is vegan too but has a very different approach. In fact quite often he will tell me not hide the fact that I'm vegan which I must admit I do at times just to avoid confrontation (see above), sometimes I just want to be without having to explain my lifestyle choices. In a similar way I don’t throw around the f word (yes feminist). Both words create a lot of feelings in people and its not nice to be the person on the receiving end all the friggin time.

He on the other hand will proudly tell everyone he meets and explain it with patience. I have a few theories on this. One i've been a vegan slightly longer than him and therefore have learned my lesson, or otherwise exhausted from explaining/defending my choice within my life whereas it just hasn't got to him YET (pessimistic i admit). Two, different cultures perhaps chinese are more open minded to veganism and not quite as defensive as Australians are (although doesn't quite sound right). Three, he is simply more patient and pessimistic (he thinks that they everyone will be open minded).

HK Fashion (slowly fazing out all my HK pics)







I love the fashion extremes In HK.

It is so hard taking pics of people without them noticing it. Especially when they are walking, and the camera settings need to be adjusted. So I handed it over to Mr T for a few of these shots.

Five songs I’m loving right now As requested by Erin.

1. I'm Sleeping In A Submarine- Arcade Fire. (i loveeeeeeee their album- its quite diverse-thanks Claire!).
2. Haligh Haligh- Bright Eyes.
3. Do The Whirlwind- Architecture in Helsinki (so much more more respect now that I have seen them live).
4. Positive Tension- Bloc Party (yes very similar to banquet but so catchy and always wants to make me dance).
5. Not a pretty girl- Ani Difranco (had to include one of her songs but choosing just one was like picking children...)

The list was suprisingly hard to make. I don't really think in terms of individual songs rather albums. So I choose my fav song at the moment on each album. But even now I want to keep changing it.

Anyhoo now tagging Emma, Vera and Mr T (sorry) and anyone else who wants to join in.

Edited to add: Claire.

There are quieter places in HK, like Sha Tin (New Terriorties)where I stayed and where the pic was taken.

How to choose a wing chun class if your a woman...

Visit them with a male friend and notice if they pay you any attention at all.

It took me three before I found one.

Considering that this particular style of kung fu was created by a woman you would think that instructors would see women as clients too but apparently not.

Last night though I went with a male friend and the sifu (instructor)actually spoke to me too. Not only did he speak to me, he also made eye contact with me and asked me if I had any martial arts experience and why I wanted to do it? and various other questions and provided me with information and get this-he even asked if I had any questions. About half of the attention went my way. Yayyyyy!

In previous classes I was literally ignored.

Considering that not only am i being ignored but that my male friend knows very little about wing chun or kung fu in general it gets pretty damn frustrating quite quickly.

I was starting to think that wing chun instructors belonged to the same category as car salesmen, mechanics and IT salesman. All of which which tend to assume that women know nothing and therefore why bother paying them any attention, well at least if they are accompanied by a male.

Thankfully I was wrong well at least there is one instructor. Now all i need to do is save a little money so I can start the lessons.

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On the bonds note.

I got my reply from the advertising standards board. yes I complained and am in training to be that annoying old women who writes into the paper.

Apparently I'm not the only one to complain. They listed some of the previous comments most of which likened the ad to porn and others spoke about the inappropriateness of the time (during the day).

The complaint/s were dismissed however bonds have agreed to show the ads only after 8.30pm.

In their arguments they stated that it was created as 'spoof of advertising by Calvin Kleins...'

They also admitted that the ad was 'certainly more sensuous than previous bonds ads but ....'

I've noticed there recent ads are a huge improvement. So there is some hope (a tiny bit) after all.

Bonds-rant.

Is anyone else annoyed with the new bonds ads? Click on the link to view one (although its not the same one i watched- no butt close ups).

I generally love bonds. So much so that I have been known to ask at times 'what did we ever do before bonds?'.

This ad gets me so frustrated though.

The new ad features the very frustrating body fragmentation technique. As if the male gaze in general is not bad enough, its always great to be reduced to a pair of breasts, or a butt!

Its amazes me how someone can made an ad that is supposed to appeal to women which actually creates all sorts of problems for women. For example: it's certainly not helping with body image issues and also attempts to reinforce the women as posessions idea at the same time.

Nice one bonds!

Food food and more food in HK



The last time I was in HK I discovered some new foods which I love. The picture above shows the very last turnip cake (white-ish rectangle) on top of all the other yam cakes (which are nice but not as good as turnip cake). They are called cakes but really they are savory slices. I've told Mr T it would be much appreciated if he learned how to make it because I can't find a vegetarian recipe online. I'm not sure how I lived in HK without trying it but now I feel like i was missing out all along. Mmmm i love vegetarian dim sum. There is some thing extremely comforting about eating lots of little dishes.



I didn't actually eat this one but the sign is funny.



Dried mango and all sorts of other yummy things sold on the street.



Ja-ja (sp?). I love HKs dessert soups. I thought red bean or the almond one was my fav til I tried this one!

Speaking of food, MR T informed me when I was there that a tomato tofu dish that i was fond of was made mostly from ketchup/tomato sauce. I did some googling and found a recipe that sounded like it here. I tried it a few weeks ago and again last night and sure enough it tastes very similar to the same dish i had in HK. Who would have thought I could make a delicious sauce out of tomato sauce, soy sauce, ginger and not much else?