Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Angelina Ballerina

Look what I have!

Photos of me in a tutu!

And I'm voluntarily placing them on the internet!

What is wrong with me?!












To make me feel better, please leave nice comments by clicking on the little "comments" button. You don't have to be a member of this website, just use your own name so I know who it's from! Me and my self-esteem thank you!


PS. Also, if you would like a copy of the CD of photos, leave a comment by clicking on the button that says __ comments at the end of this post, on the right.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Briefly...

Just quickly...

- On Sunday I got baptised at my church (which coincidentally is actually not a church building, but my old school...) And yes, I got the full dunking. And of all the gloriously hot summer days, it was freezing. As in snowing in the mountains freezing. Typical.

- I have my last uni exam on Wednesday (see point below about my memory) and on one hand I'm glad I have time left to study for it, but on the other hand, I just want it to be over! Repeat after me: Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush #1, Clinton, Bush #2.

- My teacher is having a concert for her students this Sunday, and it will be my first violin performance. And she only told me today.

- My dance concert is two weeks away. Normally I wouldn't mention this since I've been dancing practically since I could walk (I'm told I was a little slow on the uptake in that area...) but it will be my first ballet perfomance. Note: first performance in a tutu. Those things are complicated, people.

- my memory has been shocking lately... last week I turned up to an exam that was actually this week, and there was something else I did but (seriously) I forgot what it was!

- my room looks like a bomb's hit it (or so my mother says, I, for one think it has been way worse).


Aaaand that's about it for now.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

On the weekend...

...I babysat my godson Ryan (5 1/2) and his big sister Tegan (7 1/2).
I always like to take them somewhere and they usually pick McDonalds (why did kids like that stuff?) so I often take them to the park as well, that way I don't feel as bad for letting them have Maccas for dinner!



Ryan, as usual, was go-go-go!















Tegan was more chill about the whole thing:













They didn't want to leave!









But finally, the promise of ice cream meant that they were willing (and a good thing too, since it was starting to rain and they still weren't giving up!)







Me to T&R tonight as we were leaving Cold Rock Ice Creamery: "When we go outside there's going to be lots of cars on the road, so no walking across the road, okay?"

Ryan (with a serious face on): "So we run?"


Are you serious?!




After all the fun and excitement, it was bedtime. They both picked out their own pyjamas:

This is Ryan's impression of Superman:















This was the face I got when I told them "No more photos, it's bedtime".


Ryan wasn't impressed either. But you know, I am ruthless.

I'm the smiling assassin.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Ryan





Ryan, my cheeky godson, is going to "Big School" next year.



However, he is adamant that he doesn't want to go to a "God school" (Catholic school).


I was talking with his mum today and she told me some hilarious stories:

In orientation when the priest came in to say a quick prayer, he stood up on his chair, looked around and asked at the top of his voice "When's God gettin' here?"

At assembly on Monday he asked "Why is everything at this school about God? It is so boring!"


He'd rather be doing this:




I have a funny story about him too:

One day (a few years ago when he was about this age)



I asked him who God is (I love hearing kids' perspectives on stuff like that) and he looked straight at me with a serious face and replied "God (Dog) bites you on the leg!"

Who could argue with that?!






Monday, November 17, 2008

Dressing Up

On Saturday, my best friend from uni, Mel, had her 21st birthday party. The theme was "fairytale and imaginary creatures" and I really struggled to choose a character to dress up as, seeing as I didn't want to be 1 of 100 fairies or princesses!

I'm not blonde, so Cinderella and co. were out. Mum suggested Belle from Beauty & the Beast, but I didn't fancy having to swan around in a yellow ball gown all night. Other suggestions included Red Riding Hood (but sure enough, there were a few of those present anyway) or Gretel from Hansel & Gretel (do they even have an identifiable costume? Turns out they do... a couple dressed up as them on the night!)

Anyway, after much deliberation, I dressed up as...
































.... Snow White!

There were actually 2 other Snow Whites at the party (1, a shorter, skankier version and the other, a little girl in a Disney costume who didn't come near me despite my efforts to cajole her! Maybe I'm scary in costume...?)


Here are some other pictures from the night (it was 7pm, just daylight savings!)

Me with the birthday girl (Pippi Longstockings aka Mel)



Me with my friend from school (Sleeping Beauty aka Claryse)



Red Riding Hood & the Woodchopper



I Dream of Jeannie, Fairy, Gretel & Hansel


Saturday, November 15, 2008

Friday's Favourite Family Foto

I saw this idea on another blog... Friday's Favourite Family Foto!
How fun!

My friends and I talk about "iconic" photos of the group of us.

This is definitely an iconic photo amongst those who have seen it.




This was taken in Hong Kong in 1997, so I would have been 9, Chelsea 7 and Sarah 3. I don't know how we all managed to look at the camera at the same time! I guess that's why it's such a "famous" family photo!

This says it all



(Click on the picture for a larger version if you can't read what's on the numberplate border-cover-thing.)

I saw this in the carpark of the South Dunedin Warehouse... If only it could say ALICIA instead of SHRLEY... same amount of letters!
Oh, and mine would say "Did a lot of shopping"!

Pretty City

Here are some photos I took of Dunedin... as opposed to me in Dunedin.

This the First Church. It is so pretty. I think it was my favourite out of all the churches I saw (and there's like 5 to a block in Dunedin!!)



Grandma Val & I stayed for like an hour looking at all the stained glass windows.



I'd never really been to a traditional church before, so I thought everything was photograph-worthy! This baptismal font says "The little children come unto me" and I thought it was beautiful.



This was in the archway above where the pastor speaks. It says "Glory to God in the highest".




These photos were taken at Otago University... I'd only ever seen it from the street, but having connections (Grandma V) pays off and I got to tour around it! It was really pretty, and really big! The buildings were lovely and since it was such a nice day, I took lots of photos.




Monday, November 10, 2008

Down to business (and busyness)

I had another crazy busy weekend. Saturday consisted of dress rehearsals all day for dancing then the monthly meeting with my girlfriends from school and Sunday was taken up with the group dance eisteddfod.

We ended up getting placed for 3 out of our 5 dances... not as good as last year, but you take what you can get! We got 3rd in our funk jazz, 3rd in our contemporary dance and 4th in our ballet (even though we couldn't hear the music on stage and therefore didn't know when to start dancing!) We didn't get anything for our broadway jazz or our tap which is unusual because our studio is known for our tap, and we always get 1st! Even the senior tap only got a lowly 4th place.

Anyway, today I had my violin lesson (my teacher says I'm coming along nicely!) then worked in the sick bay at PAC all day, punctuated by an intermittent spot as my usual self working in the learning support in the junior school. All this before going to ballet and then to bible study.

One of my friends from church (she's also in my ballet class; we're the "oldies"!) has her birthday tomorrow so we threw her a surprise birthday party at bible study tonight. The two of us always go to Stir Crazy noodle bar after Ballet (leotard, stockings and all, which our teacher finds hilarious!) since we have an hour to kill before bible study; so suffice it to say I worked hard at keeping the secret and ran like crazy after I managed to get ahead of her in traffic and arrive first to deposit the cake in the room and still manage to look cool, calm and collected when she arrived like 2 minutes later.

After the actual bible study we usually break up into guys and girls and us girls usually promise to make our chat session "really quick this time" but we always end up with the boys prowling around outside the door (we always kick them out into the corridor so we get the room with the nice carpet! Oh, and since they usually finish first they end up doing the cleaning up! We are so strategic!) In our girls group, we go around in a circle and say what's going on in our lives. But first we usually talk as girls do, and get distracted. I told everyone "I have a story I want to tell really quickly" and Tracey, one of the student ministers who runs the bible study dissolved into a fit of laughter followed quickly by everyone else. When I asked why she finally managed to get out "You and 'quick' don't go together very well!" Apparently I have a reputation of telling long-winded stories! Who knew! So I made my story really quick and then because I talked so fast, everyone missed the punch line, which lead to more laughter (me included this time!). Anyway, eventually I started talkign about how I was going, and I said I did really well with the aeroplane trips to NZ and everyone said how good that was and I said I felt much better once I educated myself about how aeroplanes worked and they started laughing again! One of them managed to get out "I can just imagine you researching it!" and I said "But I did! I Googled it!" which lead to more laughter because apparently, that's just what this Alicia would do. Tracey then told me I was "adorable"...?!

At least I'm living up to expectations.

There is a category in itself that describes what this Alicia would like and what she would do. At work, there are Alicia clothes; eg "that's an Alicia top" (usually it's something pretty); "that mannequin is an Alicia outfit" etc etc.
There are Alicia phrases (something that only I could say), and even Alicia expressions (apparently I'm not aware when I do 'the face'. There's lots of faces... disapproving faces, "I'm bored of this topic" faces, etc etc... and I'm completely clueless that I'm actually exhibiting them! I only know because my friends tell me "you're doing 'the face'!"

It seems I've been stereotyped! Or maybe I'm just an open book. Either way, what's the point in covering your feelings? If I'm annoyed at someone, usually I tell them why (and that's got me into a bit of trouble lately with one of my friends). I think the reason why I have the reputation for telling elaborate stories at bible study is because I spend a lot of time thinking about how I feel and why I feel that way and so I have a lot to explain and a lot to say in general! I'm very introverted in that respect, yet amongst my friends I have a reputation for talking without thinking, which might seem at odds with my introversion! At our monthly meeting this weekend I was particularly quiet and after a while my friends were like "Okay, you've obviously got something to say, what is it?" (I must've had 'the face' on!) And I said that I wasn't ready to express it because I hadn't nutted in out in my head yet and they replied that I shouldn't worry about that because when it comes to me, they've got an "Alicia filter" that comprehends what I'm really trying to say beneath all the chatter that comes out of my mouth! I think it was meant to be reassuring, but I'm not totally sure if it is.... :)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Photos of my trip to Dunedin

I went to Dunedin last Friday for my cousin Ashley's engagement party (we're 2 months apart and she's engaged already?! No fair!)

Here's some photos:


Ashley & I at her engagement party



Kasee & I



Ashley, Tayla, Me, Jess & Kasee down in front



Me with Andrea



Sha-Sha & Dra-Dra



Apparently it's not "cool" to take photos (according to Jarrod, anyway)



Jarrod, Me, Ryan & Andrea



Me with Uncle Royce on my last night in NZ



Grandma Val & I... thanks for letting me stay Grandma!