Viva la outings,

I have to say the past few days have been pretty much choc-a-bloc with stuff. Again, I'll keep it at list form just to make things a bit more concise:

• I got my pickup changed in the Gretsch guitar. The pickup is meant to sound alot "hotter" than the old pickups but because of the mildly dodgy job the peeps at the music shop did, I'm not hearing anything yet. They've put the pickup too far from the strings, so it's not "picking up" as well as it should be. I tried to do it myself but I figured that you needed an allen key to open up a certain part of the guitar.., but I couldn't find the aforementioned allen key. What I was most pleased with was that the pickup that was displaced as a result of the switch, are actually pretty good pickups to begin with anyway (well the brand name and model suggests so). I thought that the guitar had stock boring pickups but instead, they were actually pickups which are fairly sought after. Win win! What I didn't like though was how much of a rip off the music shop made me pay to pull the guitar a part and solder it up. It was 50 bucks all up, and they were about to make me pay another 25 dollars just to restring the guitar (25 dollars not including the strings themselves). I told them that I could just restring the guitar myself... and that job takes literally 5 minutes to do. Fck that.

• Emily had a little party/bash thing the other day and invited all her friends, school+uni. Whilst making new
  friends, I thought it was super weird how when they found out that I did optometry, I suddenly turned into "Answer-man" as they just shot questions left right and centre: "Why were my eyes blue and why are they green now?" "Why am I -3.25?" "How can I make myself see better?" "Why do babies eyes never grow?". I thought I'd be the last person to say this but it's come to the point where I seem to wear my profession on my sleeve. Am I beginning to like Optom that much? Haha, who knows.. I whine about the course whilst partaking the course, but there's definitely an element of pride when I explain what's going on with the eyes on a physiological basis, and from what I can tell, I can somehow make it sound so fascinating to the layman. Hmmm, I actually love this aspect of the course - the teaching side to it (and well well well, it all stems down to the first passion now doesn't it?)

• Went and watched Transformers with the boys on Wednesday. It's so good hanging around the boys (or any Hurlstonians for that matter) as it's truly on then when I really do feel like myself, and that I act in a manner which best describes "Tan". It's those moments which are, unfortunately, irreplaceable. The movie itself was pretty good, but hurt my eyes seeing as it was at the IMAX theatre. Like it was effing huge. Never been to the IMAX before. Movie had some strong emotions conveyed but in the end, masked by the immense CGI effects and slowmotion booby bouncing and rump cavorting Megan Fox. Couldn't help but laugh everytime she ran, they had to zoom in on the features that best define the female architecture.

• Staying at home and spending time with mum is truly underrated. Since the car accident, she's been spending everyday at home for the last year and it's amazing how she's got on by walking around the back of the garden and tending to her plants... You'd think it would feel pretty lonely. Now that I'm at home, I spned alot of time with her talking, and she's filled with a wealth of knowledge and experiences from the bygone era of Vietnam. I drove her out to Cabramatta today to go for the doctors and she was telling me a story about one of her old high school/uni friends and I got so engrossed into the story that I missed turns and streets whislt driving. That made mum stress a bit because we were getting a bit lost but I told her it was ok, "I was just listening to your story anyway. There's always time to turn the car around."

• It's been way to cold to go on jogs lately which saddens me. I feel like I'm not as fit as I was before and possibly not as strong. Had this full mad plan that I was going to try and get my speed back to where I want it to be but I've been getting so lazy as of late. Actually, this weather should be encouraging the wearing of my tights, so I'm actually quite confused as to why I'm not even excitedly sporting them on and doign sprints and runs. Maybe next week... maybe later... The ultimate phrase for an university scholar really.

• And I need to get back into cooking. Like really. First off, I need to learn how to make some awesome lasagne, then try and woo some sort of unsuspecting female with it. It will be glorious surely.

                                                                 Tan.N