Busy Busy Busy

This week and last week have been crazy busy! I've had assessments to finish (only 2 more weeks of uni to go!), work, dancing etc etc.

Last Thursday I worked at PAC in both the sick bay and the photocopy room. I'm a jack of all trades! There weren't many patients, which was a surprise because normally come recess and lunch time, the sick bay is chock-a-block.
Although, I did set a record I feel. In a space of 15 minutes I patched up 5 scraped knees (and the kids agreed I did better at that than the nurse Miss Natalie does! Yeah!)

I was pretty flat out running between the 2 rooms. Normally the photocopy room isn't very busy so I always bring a book with me. On Thursday I had plans to read my workbook for my next assignment, but that didn't happen!

Given that I seem to be a regular at PAC now, they've offerred to pay for me to do a St Johns First Aid class, which is good of them. Now I just have to get over my fear of needles and all things medical! LOL.

After work, I went to have my hair done since that was my reward for getting through a pretty stressful week. I said to my hairdresser "What do you think about red?" and she agreed as long as it was a dark brownish red since my hair is already so dark. I said okay, as long as it isn't the same as mum's! She reassured me it wasn't!
I have had lots of compliments on it, which is good considering I'm not even sure how much I like it yet! I'll try and take some photos later so you can see.


Yesterday I had my first violin lesson in 3 weeks. My teacher lent me her book over the holidays and said to just keep working through it. When I showed up on Monday she asked me how I'd gone with it and when I showed her (I left for the holiday on page 20 and came back on page 50!) she said "Bull!". I replied "No Bull." Then she said "Okay, prove it!" And we went on to have a concert of "Alicia's greatest hits" as she called it! She was speechless I have to say, and said she was very impressed. Then she asked me to consider going in her end of year concert, which is just held at PAC. The thing is, I'd be the only adult student. This made her more determined to get me to go in it! She said since I'm a "performer" (with dancing and all that) she's going to put more pressure on me to do it! I still haven't agreed, but I said I'll think about it. I'm a bit Type A (perfectionist) so I want to be confident before I make any appearances!!

A Big Weekend

I had a very busy weekend last week. Although it was the last week of school holidays, I was still at uni and work. In addition to working Friday, Saturday, Sunday at JeansWest, I had birthday parties to attend, assignments to finish and errands to run.

Thursday was Emi's birthday party at AMF Bowling. Emi is one of my dance teacher's daughters. I babysit her and her sister Jordan quite often. She turned 8 last week and to celebrate everyone went bowling. A few of the PAC kids that turned up looked at me suspiciously and asked "What are you doing here Miss Parata?" Like, what am I doing outside of the school grounds? I don't have a life outside school! Are you kidding? hahaha.

Anyway, I didn't actually bowl (I'm not that good) but near the end, Jordan was trailing quite considerably so I helped her out.

Saturday afternoon/night was Kearney's surprise 60th. We all had to hide in the garage when he arrived, and it was a stinking hot day so it wasn't particularly nice. It was funny however when, whilst we were working on being silent and undetectable, Martin's phone went off not once, but twice! The whole Jackson clan flew down from Queensland and Kearney was quite surprised to see his nephew and the whole crew.

We had a night of games and drinking (well not me, I was the designated driver. Always the responsible one!) Mum relented that my gross motor skills were never particularly good when I failed miserably at the toss-the-footy-through-the-hole game. I retorted that dancing requires great gross motor skills, thank you very much!

It was good to see everyone again, we don't see them much besides on Christmas Day.
Here are some photos:




With Kearney's granddaughter Chelsea









Showing off my gross motor skills...



Me, Paige, Paige's boyfriend Spencer, Kearney's niece Taylor, nephew Karl, Myles & Aleata.



Kearney & Martin



Martin, Kearney's sister Desna, Carwyn, Carwyn's fiance Phillipa



Here are some photos from Myles' 40th back in May so you can better see Paige & Kayd:

New photos

One of my favourite places to go is the Sydney International Regatta Centre, right here in Penrith, right around the corner from our house actually.

Here's some photos I took today.

Drama, Drama, Drama

Latest obsessions:
listening to... the Dixie Chicks

reading... books about the Middle East for my history essay.

eating... gluten free double choc muffin.

loving... that some of my uni classes were cancelled, since Wednesday is usually my full-on day.

hating... crazy drivers.

feeling... pretty mellow and humbled. :)


So I had plans to talk about things that had amused me over the past few days (eg. a car that had a huge "Physco B***ch" sticker on its window... obviously spelling isn't much of a priority to this person) but then today something happened that blew all of those ideas out the window.

I was driving home from uni, planning to go via the library to drop some books off when I saw this big puff of smoke right in front of me. All of a sudden I realised I'd just witnessed a car crash occur right in front of me. I stopped and sat in my car in shock for a while before I realised that obviously someone needed to call 000. I was still in the middle of the street, but there were cars everywhere so I was stuck anyway. I pulled out my phone and even dialled the numbers 0-0-0 but then I noticed the man in the car in front of me jump out to help and the woman in the car to my right was talking to someone on her phone. So I called my mum instead. I still could not believe what I'd just witnessed. I didn't know what to do. Should I get out and try to help to?

Luckily the accident happened literally opposite the hospital, so in a few seconds the sounds of an ambulance siren were heard and soon enough there were 2 fire trucks, 1 police car and the ambulance. Meanwhile I was still talking to Mum who told me to pull over somewhere and get myself together. It was pretty shocking I guess to see it happen right in front of your face. As I drove past I saw both of the drivers were okay physically. I was a bit worried because at first it looked like they were trapped, that's how bad the crash was. The bonnet of the second car was smashed right up to where the passengers would be sitting. And there was the small matter of the cloud of smoke coming from the engine.

Like I said, there were police, ambulance and firies on the scene so everything was under control but it was still scary to realise just how fast it happened. It happened in a second. Pretty scary.

Favourite Things

Latest obsessions:
listening to... the Dixie Chicks & Rascal Flatts

reading... lecture notes for my Stats class (eww)

eating... well, drinking, black tea with honey (yummm)

loving... the fact that it's a long weekend

hating... that I didn't get my mudcake (explanation below)

feeling... pretty happy about life right now :)


Tonight I went out with my church friends to Glenbrook, which is kind of like Penrith's own version of Glebe... there's all kinds of cool stuff but also you get the strong sense that along with the hippie vibe and alternative lifestyles being offerred, someone somewhere is doing some serious drugs.

Hence the reason my hair smells... hippie-ish... herbal-ish... weird-ish, I guess. Not that I was witness to any drug activity. But the busker in the cafe we went to was a little slow on the uptake...

Any way, after indulging in some orange almond cake (I wanted mud cake, but after they sold out of that, I decided I should embrace the "alternative-ism" and be a little radical. Hey, when in Rome...) I did try to go back to the cafe with Mum a few days later in an effort to try the mudcake, and seriously, it was closed! I think God is trying to keep me from this mudcake...

Anyway I was driving home all relaxed (or maybe that was the sugar kicking in at 9.30pm) and when I arrived home I saw one of my favourite sights. We have this big tree (I just checked, we think it's a gum tree. How Aus-strayan!) in our backyard that attracts one of the outside lights, and at night it looks absolutely beautiful. The yellow light creates these dramatic shadows and I love it. It looks like a picture straight out of a coffee table book or something. I decided to take a photo of it, because it is one of my favourite things. I was determined, however the moment I ran inside to grab the camera and stepped back outside, the wind picked up and big fat raindrops started to fall. Like I said, I was determined, so I kept snapping even as the wind blew my dress and my hair all around me, and the rain kept making splashes on the camera. Hence, the photo probably isn't my best work...




And then I took some photos of one of my favourite places, the Regatta Centre