Wednesday 27 July 2011

Tiny Houses

So I found this really cool site called Tumbel Weed Tiny Houses. Like the name suggests, it sells tiny - tralier able - houses ^_^ !! Granted most of them are quite ugly, and too small for a family house, but they would make nice holiday/travel homes!

www.tumbleweedhouses.com

The one I would probably get is called the Lusby. It's almost $50 000 but, hey, its pretty neat! And with the ulterations I have in mind you could probably live with a family of three comfortably. Say, if you were ever taking a driving holiday around europe.


I would probably close off the lofts with more wood, and just leave space for a small door, then fit beddings into both. I would move the kitchen into the down stairs bedroom and put some built in comfy seating along the wall where the kitchen is currently. Then all it needs is another chair at the table and voila! One double and one singel private beds, dining, cooking, sanitising and sitting around!


Well anyway it I were to buy it, then I would choose a darker wood. Or maybe I will retire into something like this - however, stone, slightly bigger and with a fireplace.

Steph xx

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Good Songs


The three songs I have been listening to the most recently. All very good.

Steph xx

Sunday 24 July 2011

Well... I made a cake...?

I realise I haven't posted a blog in a while, I have been exceedingly preoccupied. I am attempting to sort out a lot of issues and it takes most of my focus. Well lots has happened since I last wrote but not much of any importance. My horrible phone bill does deserve a mention, however. Last Sunday I dropped my phone and it broke, so I have been using my dad’s old phone for the time being. Anyway, with my phone if I pressed the 'end call' button then the internet turned off, and also my internet - while at home - automatically connected to my home internet.... dad's old phone does neither... let’s just say it is surprising how much money it can cost to have a YouTube video running on repeat, on a phone, in the background, for three days...

Well yeah, nothing much else of any importance... I made a cake...



Steph xx

p.s. I almost forgot! I have been promising talk about Daniel. I broke it off with him probably about a month ago now, because... well, it sounds mean, but... because he wasn't on the same level, intellectually, as I. He couldn't intellectually stimulate me, and I need that to be happy. Not, necessarily, in every relationship - not so close friends, colleges, ect - but definitely in a partner. So I ended it, because I knew we were going nowhere and it would have been mean of me to lead him on. Sad but true. He is a really nice guy. But a nice, simple guy - and it wasn't going to work.

I am glad he doesn't read this.

Saturday 16 July 2011

Song meaning



I think it's about a man who (purposefully?) overdoses on some sort of drug (I'm thinking a pill - being cut open to get them out). Not being taken by aliens but having a near death experience where he saw white light and heard voices calling him (perhaps he heard God) and was taken to the hospital. It was a 'turning point' or a wake up call for him to change his life. No one believes him or pays much attention and he starts to doubt his sanity (the dream makers - God - gonna make you mad) but he hears the voices at night sometimes and they 'justify his claim'. Caught between the devil and the deep blue see (revelation - making their last stand near the sea ??). The song maker (him) says it aint so bad (continuing to live a presumably unchristian/ignorant life) and the spaceman (or non-Christian/ sceptical person) says everybody look down, its all in your mind - the spaceman sees nothing more than a planet: no heaven or hell.

Steph xx

ps. the nile (maybe 'river of life'/ God ??) and east to west (unlike north to south) goes on for ever. But now it doesn't because the earth is seperated by sin.

Saturday 9 July 2011

Copy Cat

A couple of years ago my best friend came back from Scotland, after living there for four years. We had kept in contact via phone, email and the odd letter, but when she came back it was really like I didn't know her, as a person, at all. It wasn't difficult to get to know, and become very close to, her again though; I enjoyed the process implicitly. 

When she came back she was drastically different in taste, style and interest than she is now. Really, she was just drastically different. She liked mostly modern music, apparel and furniture, to name a couple of things. Although now she is the exact opposite! She loves everything old fashioned. This is, I must say, mainly because I showed that type of style, and many other things she now loves, to her. I'm not proud to say, it used to drive me to tears that she would start liking everything I liked. I used to rant to my sister for hours about how it seemed like she was 'trying to take my life' and 'stealing my identity'. She would have one opinion/taste, I would express my opinion/taste, and she would suddenly change her mind to mine. I would change again, she would follow. It wasn't for everything, but the majority of stuff, and it made me furious. I had lots of resentment because of it, but I told myself that I shouldn't care - she was my best friend, after all, and we should like similar stuff - so I never said anything to her. 

Today I was at her house and we came across a questionnaire that we did about a year and a half ago. My, how we have changed! It was fun to answer all of the questions again and think of what our reactions will be like in another year and a half! For me, though, it also aroused an unpleasant memory: when we first did it, it was towards the beginning of the time when I was at the height of my annoyance over the 'copying' issue. And because of that I lied about most of my answers, just so we would seem different. I thought it was better to let her take my identity and find another one for myself, than saying anything or just ignoring it.

I struggled with resentment towards her for quite a while because of that. I couldn't find an identity that I was happy to have, other than my own, and I didn't think it was fair that she should get it. One day I was telling my grandfather about my troubles and he said something which revolutionised the way felt: 'copying is the most sincere form of flattery'. Suddenly I could see how childish my thoughts on the matter had been. I couldn't believe how I could have been so selfish as to not want my best friend, my dearest friend, to have what I would think of as 'nice' tastes and styles! I was appalled with myself! Then I realised something else; it may not have been to such a great extent, but I sometimes, too, copied her. I was shocked. I saw how completely petty and immature I had been. And, although the resentment took some time and work to get rid of, and still resurfaces sometimes when the copying is intense and blatant, I now think of it more as my best friend thinking that I have good taste. 


Today she is more of an individual, as well, and also today, while we were re-answering the questionnaire, we openly copied each other. It was marvellous. I can't think where I would be without my dearest, dearest, most wonderful and special best friend. 

Stephanie xx

ps. A little while ago I broke up with Daniel, I just haven't remembered to tell you guys yet. More about it next post.

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Heidi.

I have always loved the mountains. Ever since I can remember, I have loved them. Which is probably partially due to my love of, and longing for, Heidi's life. Not many people know this about me, as generally I come across as an Anne Shirley; living on a picturesque island, or a Laura Ingalls Wilder; discovering the great prarie, but where my heart truly lies is high up in the mountains. I like the character Heidi but, unlike other 'fans', I do not love her. I also hate the term 'fan' and so am not one. I have always seen her life in the alps as the thing to love. What I wouldn't give to live with my father, God, goats, and the glorious swiss alps. There is something about standing atop a pleateau high in a mountain; looking at the vallies and peaks around you, feeling the fresh breath of wind that seems to blow right through you and leaves you tingeling, the fresh clean air that you can never breath enough of, the great rush of wind through the trees. There I feel free. When I need to escape my life, that is where I imagine myself. It may sound corny but my heart longs for it. I feel a physical pull inside my chest, a burning, hollow sensation. Of all of God's creations for man to behold, what is more fulfilling, humbling, calming and grounding than a mountain?


I yearn for a simple life at high altitude.


And I know one day I will get there, I can feel it.

Steph xx

Saturday 2 July 2011

Mariosarti

Last night both of my brothers were out so my parents decided to go out for dinner and buy my sister and I fish and chips to have at home.

Then my dad thought it might be nice to go with the four of us, and he invited my grandparents and my uncle too. My mother, however, was far from thrilled. She had wanted it to just be the two of them.

I was also far from thrilled becuase I was feeling ill and looking forward to fish and chips, a movie, a bath and my bed. My sister, however, really wanted to go out. We decided that if my grandparents could come then my sister and I would also go, and if they couldn't then we wouldn't.

They couldn't. So they plan was that we wouldn't, but my sister was really disapointed. She told mum that she was fine with fish and chips but she clearly wasn't. So mum took pitty and booked a table for four in Mariosarti at 8:15, and somehow I gathered the energy to have a shower, wash and dry my clothes and do my hair so we could all go.

An hour before we were meant to leave (and while everyone else was busy getting ready):
My older brother came home... a couple of awkward moments later (on my part) everything was fine and he assured me that he would rather have the house to himself anyway.

Fifteen minutes before we were meant to leave:
We got a call from the parent of the boy whose house my little brother was meant to be sleeping over at. Cameron was apparently very sick and needed picking up.

The plan to go to dinner was off. Mum went to get cameron and dad called Mariosarti to cancel, but their phones were just on a recording so he left a message. Then he sent an email. It all depended on how sick my little brother was, but maybe we could still go out to somewhere closer... like the coffee club... which made ME disapointed. The coffee club, in my opinion, is like the macdonalds of the restraunt industy.

So then five mintues before we were going to leave for Mariosarti, mum calls from the car to say that cameron wasn't really sick at all but he didn't want to get sick and his friend's brother was sick... She thought perhaps if we left as soon as she got home we could still make it, but she didn't know that dad had cancelled.

Dad thought that maybe they haddent gotten the message and were still holding us a table so we should go and see, and if they had filled it then we could just go some where else.... like the coffee club...

So cameron stayed with jordan and we went. By some wonderful mistake, they had left their phone off and forgotten to checkthe messages, so we were still booked. After all that kerfuffle the second to origional plan was back on and we had a really lovely dinner.

I had stuffed quail as my entree, then gnocchi with a goat ragu for my main, and for dessert I had a frangelico, espresso and gelato thing.

It was spectacular.

But I didn't get a bath at all and I didn't get to my bed until 12:30ish.

With that said, I think, however, it was worth it.

Steph xx