Kirsten's birthday

Today is Kirsten's birthday! We had cake for breakfast. I had cereal either side of that so I don't feel so bad. The cake was alright. I don't have anywhere in particular to be today so I'm struggling a bit with what to do. I need to go to Centrelink and I need to call the Deakin bookshop because I'm missing one set of readers, which I didn't realise. I had listed all my units as online so they sent me the books, but I changed them to on campus study. I changed one back when I saw that there were the readers but not the other as the bookshop didn't mention anything about readers. I looked online last night and they don't have the ones I need in stock so I'll call them soon and ask if there are any anywhere. There is an online copy but I prefer having the physical book. So there's that! I will also vacuum this place for Kirsten before the birthday party tonight [combined] and I need to get in contact with George's cousin about having a meet up just for fun. There are some other little things I can't think of.

Yesterday I had my first day of volunteering at the Mission to Seafarers. It's so cruisy there. Monica taught me how to catalogue photographs so I did that for most of the day. The photographs were of the stained-glass windows in the Saint Peter the Mariner's Chapel and I found it hard to describe the and use religious or olden-day terms. I'm not so good at that. She got me to bring my laptop to do some scanning on but I didn't bring the CD drive thinking I wouldn't need it so I didn't actually use it. It was a bit of a waste to lug it around there and back. We finished at around 3pm and I went and met Nicole, Sarah's now ex flatmate from Tassie. We had a drink [hot chocolate for me, iced mocha for her] and a chat. Then I did some shopping and came back here. I did some more study, found lots of useful things on the Deakin website about unit resources and unit guides. Now I just have to find out about that last reader. It's for Monday so that's a bit annoying. Arrg.

Tomorrow I have that trial at Kamel. I'm not looking forward to it only because I'm used to not working anymore and I love it! I want to keep not working and just get Centrelink. I wonder if with all the study I'm sure I'll be doing if I'll have time for a job. I'll have one, hopefully two days of volunteering work, and that leaves three days. I might have to work on a few of them but I'll need one day free for sanity and for studying but I'm sure I'll always have to study. I take a long time to read one chapter so having lots of breaks in between works the best for me. Drat it.

I had a lovely chat to mum, Sarah, James, dad and George last night in that order. It was strange being on the other side as we usually call people who are far away and now that's me. It's strange not being there for the dinner I miss that. I didn't even know about it and that makes me a little sad. Now I get what Sarah meant about being out of the loop. It was so easy living there knowing everything that was going on. Thinking about it makes me a little sad now! And feeling crap about this trial is getting me down more. It would be nice to disapparate there Harry Potter style for lunch or something lovely. If only. I was thinking of going back for Easter but I had a look at flights for the 21st to the 25th or something and it'll be $300! That's not cool. I'll check for cheaper ones. I might have a week off Uni at some stage but I'm not quite sure yet. I might go then. Who knows.

It feels so natural and relaxed being in Melbourne and yet so much, or not so much, is still happening back home. It's strange to be missing out on that. It makes me sad that I'm missing out on seeing Etta grow up more and more. I'll be back to visit eventually and not let her go. Hehe.

I really want to get started on my running training. Once I'm settled in a house I'll have to start my 6-12 week program. Kirsten mentioned the half-marathon. She's going to enter and Sandi, one of her housemates, is also going to enter and yet she hasn't trained much. It's not until October so hopefully Sandi and I will be ready by then. Plenty of time. I really hope I get the Hawthorn house. Please! I doubt it but please!

What else is news? Not much. I can't wait to start Uni on Monday but first I have to get over the hurdle of this darn trial at Kamel. I might really like it and might even get a bit of cash for it which would be awesome. I'll just have to endure it. It won't last forever. It's a shame it's so far away though. I could do Friday and Saturday day shifts there for a while. I want to keep Sundays free. I hate working on Sundays.

I went into the Telstra shop yesterday and upgraded my internet from 500mb to 1g. I can't wait for it to kick in. I didn't even have to pay! I'm so excited about that. All I need now is a new computer with internet that works. Something lighter and smaller maybe. I'm not sure if I should get one of the mini laptops or just a normal sized one. Depends if it's really light or not. I like the idea of taking a small one traveling for the internet and storing photos. One day I might have both.

I will call the Uni bookshop and see what they say about the books.