Part of the view from Jason’s balcony.

Last night the VNM and I went to a friend’s place for a Halloween dinner party. Our friend lives perched on the edge of a hill with a great view of the city, and I have spent quite a few evenings sitting on his balcony watching the sun set, the light change and the planes roll in over the city. We sat outside under the bright, close to full moon and ate an amazing bbq dinner with some new and familiar people. I like the mix of new and familiar at dinner parties, it always adds to the spice. It was the first time in ages that I have celebrated Halloween, and it was fun telling stories of spooky and weird experiences and freaking the kids out with scary tales. Another thing we did at dinner that was really fun was “Best and Worst”, where everyone had a chance to say what the best and worst thing was about their day. With seven adults and five kids it pretty much took up the whole meal, but I really liked the way that everyone got a chance to talk to the whole table.

Sitting outside of an evening is something that has happened a couple of times so far this season, but the season really only changed to Summer this week. Last week it was getting up to the low 20’s for five minutes mid-afternoon before plummeting back down to the low teens again, and I was still sleeping with my feather quilt. Suddenly this week it is full blown Summer with temperatures in the low to mid 30’s! Yay for Summer at last! I thought it would never come.

Another change, a much smaller one this time, is that as of midnight last night, I graduated onto my full licence, which means that I can FINALLY have a glass of wine or beer with dinner AND legally drive home. It only took about 3 years…

I am almost finished with study. I have one huge assignment due tomorrow, and another one due kinda Monday week. I say kinda because I had a chat with my lecturer a few days ago and she suggested that perhaps she might want to extend the due date so that she could fit everything in as well as make sure that the industry partners were happy with our outputs. This was of course welcome news - she’s offering an extension! - but at the same time, work expands to fill the time allotted and I have so much work work (ie income generating) waiting for me when I finish studying that I really don’t want to drag this out any longer than necessary. There are still a bunch of little but important pieces due Friday week. I want it to be over and then I can earn some money and have some time off. I especially need some time lying on the beach under my fabulous beach tent, snoozing or splashing around in the water and doing very little.

I have decided not to study again next semester, but to go back again part-time in the middle of next year, and take it a bit easier. This year has been pretty full on, and my motivation is running low. This year has been fantastic, I have learnt an incredible amount and really enjoyed working with all the people I have come into contact with, but if I want to work as an anthropologist then there is no getting away from another one year (or 1.5years part time) of study.

But that is next year. Right now, I have a whole bunch of work to do to finish of a very interesting project, and then another whole bunch to do to finish off another very interesting project, and since I have made the effort to come to the library I should be doing that instead of writing blog entries. Its just that last night the VNM heard an interesting piece of news, had a very interesting idea, and we talked about it this morning, and I am now totally intrigued and distracted by this new project (due Dec 1st) which I can’t start until I finish this Uni stuff!!! I would love to talk more about the interesting idea, but that might have to wait until it has either been approved or denied sometime early next year. If it is approved then there will be lots to talk about for quite a while, and if it is denied then there will be no harm in saying what we attempted.

Bah! Time to get to work!!!

• Kristen (slowly cooling tokyo) said on 09/11/01 at 11:54 AM.....

  You must be in your glory with summer starting and school finishing. You’ll be enjoying it in full before you can blink.

• The Goddess (At work) said on 09/11/04 at 05:39 PM.....

  Oh - very crytic post at the end…  teasing us with exciting news or plans.  Teaser!!   

• j-ster (adelaide) said on 09/11/04 at 06:02 PM.....

  Im naughty aren’t I… if I cant say I shouldn’t say. Let’s just say that an interesting property and land package has come on the market and the VNM is in the mood to buy! There is a bit more to it than that, but to be honest, you would probably be quite bored by the bits that I find most interesting.