Maiden name
The other day I was chatting with a colleague about changing your name when you get married. She got married last year and changed her name. But I am not sure if I will change my name. I think I will change my name, unless my partner takes my name, which seems unlikely. But I might keep my name at work. If I start working at a new company, I might use my new name, but I’m not really wrapped with the idea of changing my name since it’s so obvious that I got married. I’m not saying that I wanna hide my marriage, but I just don’t feel it is necessary and it’s work and nothing to do with my personal life. I heard one of the girls at work uses her maiden name and use her married name outside of work. I think it’s a good balance.
Who is the real criminal?
Today Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death for crimes against “humanity” over the killing of 148 people following an assassination attempt on him. Well, I’m sure what he has done could be termed a crime against humanity, but if that is a crime against humanity, then what is the spraying of Agent Orange, or the invasion to other countries?
I don’t think it was a fair trial anyway. The Iraqi Special Tribunal itself was established by the Iraqi Interim government, which was created by the United States and the coalition.
If Saddam Hussein was convicted over crimes against humanity, I’m sure Mr. George Bush has blood on his hands and should be in the dock.
Constipation
I often get constipated and feel bloated. Recently I’ve been wearing a skirt since my pants are too tight. So I googled “constipation”, and it said it’s commonly caused by too little fibre in the diet, not consuming enough water, lack of exercise and so on. I know I don’t have a lot of fibre or do much exercise, but I have been trying to have more veggies and do more exercise over the last couple of weeks. So I think in my case it’s a lack of water. When I’m at work, I often get caught up in things and don’t drink enough water. And I think the timing is important too. I sometimes feel like going to do a #2 at work, but I can’t do it in a public restroom. I reckon I’m too self-conscious but I honestly can’t help it. So I’m thinking of taking a bottle of water or something to work. If you have any good ideas, please let me know.
Weather
This year it’s been said we are currently experiencing the worst recorded drought ever, especially on the east coast. Everyday the news has articles on the weather or farmers.
Anyway, it’s been raining since last night. Every single time when I got out of the car today, it was raining cats and dogs and I got totally drenched. But since we haven’t had any rain recently I can’t complain about it. The Wivenhoe dam is only at 25% capacity. Water recycling is not common practice in Australia and a lot of water is wasted. So we are thinking of buying a water tank and using the water for the garden. The government is developing a water recycling strategy, but as you know, this kind of thing usually involves a lot of red tape and takes time. I hope they establish a proper water recycling system soon.
Wedding
On Friday two of our friends got married, so we took the day off from work and went to their wedding on a beach on the Gold Coast. It was a really nice cozy wedding. It was a shame that it was so windy, my hair and everyone else’s was messed up. A seagull was flying like a toy in the wind above the wedding watching us, and the bride’s braided girdle, which was her ‘something blue’ came off and blew away, it was funny though. They poured two different coloured bottles of sand into a single bottle as their first task together. It came up really nice, purple and white sand swirled and layered on top of each other.
After that we headed to a hotel for dinner. It was a seafood buffet and the groom and bride wanted everyone to change seats every time you got up for another serving. I don’t think it worked exactly as they wished, but it did make the event nice and casual, with a lot of people moving around and chating with whoever they liked.
Our wedding presents have not been arrived from America yet. We bought pairs of different German and Belgian beer glasses each in very different shapes and sizes and arranged to have it sent to my work. Hopefully we will get them next week.
Hen’s Night
Last night, I went to a hen’s night. We went to a really nice restaurant in a redbrick, old British style building with a high ceiling. They served sort of Frenchish meals. Some people were saying their meals were beautiful and seems that they have been there a few times before. But I was sort of disappointed by the meal. I didn’t think it was tasty or worth $60.
Anyway, besides that it was good. We stayed in the restaurant for about 5 hours, which surprised me. We didn’t notice that we stayed there for that long. One of the girls there was hilarious. She is such a comedian. It’s so easy to get carried away when talking with her and lose track of time. She has such a big personality and is really down to earth. After that we headed out clubbing.
When I got home, I was buggered, but somehow I couldn’t sleep and start bothering PC who was trying to sleep. After a while I had woken PC, but I had become sleepy – so he went to read a book and I fell straight asleep.
First Time
Last week when I went to Toowoomba, PC took some pictures of me. When I saw the pictures, I was so shocked. I knew I had put on some weight but my face was fully round. When I start putting on weight, it’s easy to see as it appears on my waist and face first.
I haven’t done any exercises for ages and ages. So I decided to sign up with a gym last week. Just a few minutes on the bicycle and my thighs were killing me. I’ve never joined a gym before, so I’m not sure how long it’s gonna last, but if I could keep it up a couple of times a week, that’d be good.
Miss little Sunshine
I went to see “Little Miss Sunshine” Friday night after work. It’s a story about a dysfunctional family going on a road trip to California. It was hilarious. Each character was perfect and the dodgy van they travelled in suited the fractured family and makes it funnier.
The Father was a motivational speaker who believed in using nine steps to success and preached it to anyone who would listen. The Mum was a housewife who was on the verge of breakdown. Her brother tried to commit suicide and need to be kept an eye on at all times. Grandpa was addicted to heroin. One of the two kids of the family had vowed not to speak until he was accepted into flight school and the other was a 7 year old girl who wanted to compete in kiddie beauty pageants.
I heard most of the reviews gave the movie a high score - 4.5 out of 5 or 9 out of 10. So I think it’s worth checking out.
Duc-cyan is going to get married
The other day, I saw a news article about Nguyen Duc, who was born as one of a pair of Siamese twins joined at the pelvis, is now preparing to get married. He was born in a province in Vietnam which was heavilly sprayed with Agent Orange by the US army during the war.
The twins were separted on 4th October, 1988 howeverhis brother, Viet, was unluckly and suffers from cerebral paralysis.
Duc works as an office employee at a hospital. He met his girlfriend during some charity activities to help underprivileged children. I heard a lot of people there are still suffering from Agent orange. Even the new generation of children are still suffering as the chemical can be passed on through the mother.
His girlfriend was saying that Duc is self-confident and is always optimistic about life. And he was saying that with his girlfriend, he has more strength to overcome any obstacles. I really admire how strong he is, even after he has gone though so many difficulties.
Toowoonba
On the weekend, PC and I went to a day trip to Toowoomba which is a one and half hour trip away from Brisbane. It was a really nice and peaceful place. We popped into a café for coffee, and it quickly became our favourite place. It had a beautiful charm about it, the coffee and hot chocolate we had was fantastic and the scones came with fresh berry jam and cream. We also saw some parents with their kids there – the kids were so cute. The café is next to a large park and a lot of people go there for a walk with their dogs or to play with their kids.
Later – we returned to the café for lunch and we weren’t disappointed. We wandered around the city and went to the famous Japanese gardens. It wasn’t big but it was well designed and had ducks swimming in the pond. We saw two newly married couples there taking pictures.
I couldn’t believe that Toowwonba was on water restriction level 5, the city was much greener than Brisbane. The roads were also much wider and lined with trees on both sides of the road. It was lovely city.