What a heart-meltingly cutie-pie my little Lauren is! It's her first birthday this Sunday, February 8 - where did 12 months disappear to?? Roz is organising a 'Finding Nemo' birthday party for her.  

Waterbaby Lauren and Roz at the beach at Mandurah. 

Happiness is a bowl of water and a hot day! Lauren on the back patio at Mandurah. 

Happy Third Birthday to Arthur, pictured here with his dragon birthday cake mastefully made by Steph. When asked what the name of dragon was Arthur paused, thought a moment, and then replied "Rudolph the Red Nosed Dragon"!

Uncle Stu with giggly Thomas. This shot was post a three-way wrestle with Arthur & Mariene (Steph's sister's daughter) and everyone was still cracking up - we had a laughter-filled afternoon, it was wonderful!

Bless 'im! Little Arthur is sharing his birthday cake with me - athough if you look closely you'll notice his tongue sticking out while his eyes are glued firmly to his slice of cake!

On hallowed ground...Highbury stadium, home to Arsenal football club after they spanked the Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup! That coat is sooooooo toasty warm! 

I got my first essay back last night and I got an A (72%). I am so relieved. I got a bit muddled up with the referencing as you include the source bracketed within the text of your essay in psychology, and not at the end like I did in my English essays at UWA. But that’s ok. I was succinct, I had clarity of expression, I answered the question completely, my coverage was comprehensive, I had depth of insight into theoretical issues, (these are examples of some of the 11 marking criteria). My tutor would have liked me to include more experimental evidence so I'll do that in my next essay (another psychology/science thing I’ve learned – back everything up with someone’s experimental data!).

So, in short, I rock (my ego is feeling very healthy today!). And I feel even more now that I CAN juggle a full time crazy busy job with study and a life.

And even better, today is my monthly pay day. I'm off for lunch!

Snow
I walked out of university last night into a flurry of wet snow tumbling and spiralling through the pools of street-light. It was a delicious moment – the first snow of winter for me, which I still find thrilling. I am always momentarily surprised to see the skies filled with fluttering flakes muffling the sounds of the city. The silence of snow is part of its magic.

Random Sunday Morning Thoughts
Well it's Sunday morning again, I've been up studying for a few hours and am heading out to meet a friend shortly so we can prepare for our seminar on Thursday. I wish I could magic more hours into my life to fit in all the things I need & want to do!

They've forecast snow in the counties around London tomorrow, I hope some of it makes it into London too! There is something exquisitely beautiful about falling snow, I love standing amongst the swirling spiralling flakes. As long as I'm dressed warmly!

We signed and finalised all the paperwork for the new flat rental yesterday morning. I want to be there now! I am so looking forward to being settled somewhere for the next few years. 2004 was very unsettling, for so many reasons.

Mum forwarded to me my new WA driver's licence which arrived yesterday morning. There was a slight problem with the photo of me on it though. On it was a small sticker of a pig carrying a handbag in its mouth. Not quite sure what the licencing department were thinking, although I suspect my Dad may have had something to do with it! Ah the Wood family humour at work. You can see the family resemblance :P

This is Dolores signing off...

Fifteen stitches later..
My poor Mum tripped on top of a metal bucket on Wednesday and sliced her leg near the ankle through to the bone. What with Andrew severing tendons and arteries on a snowboard last year, Dad tripping over and ripping his tendon earlier this year, and now Mum slicing her leg open (but thankfully missing all arteries and tendons), we all figure that's the third and final leg injury for the Wood family!

Pheasant Plucker ditty - thanks to Rod!

I'm not a pheasant plucker,
I'm a pheasant pluckers son,
and I'm only plucking pheasants,
til the pheasant plucker comes!

Say this quickly after a few drinks and you'll discover the level of my humour.

>:)

Haikus

I have no idea how this started but Stu and I have started doing haikus every day! We admit we have totally destroyed this high art form by writing about things like housework and Star Wars. The format is simple:

1) It has three lines
2) The first line has words totalling 5 syllables exactly
3) The second line has words totalling 7 syllables exactly
4) The third line has words totalling 5 syllables exactly

As in:

She asks me to clean
but asks the impossible.
I'm just NOT tidy!

Do or do not, there
is no try; The great Yoda
speaks the truth wisely

Email me your Haikus!

We have a home...
...on the West Hampstead/Kilburn borders. A lovely 2 bedroom raised ground floor flat, with a terracotta-tiled terrace overlooking the gardens below (and summer is on the way!), a fireplace in the massive living room that has 13 foot ceilings, a smallish but workable kitchen and a decent sized bath! The second bedroom will most likely be turned into a study which will be fabulous as now I tend to study on the bed which isn't ideal. Am so completely relieved to have found somewhere nice so quickly, I thought it would take weeks. I will put some pics up at the weekend.

STB at Highbury for the FA Cup game against Stoke City. It was very cold, but enjoyable as always to watch my boys on the pitch! 

This is SunRISE - which it's easy to be up for in winter here! This was just before 8am last week! 

Homeless
Well. Our 'lovely' landlady telephoned us on Tuesday last week, precisely 10 days after the 6-month break clause in our rental contract, to give us notice that we had to move out so she could move back in. This was rather unexpected and threw us into chaos for a while there. We had no intention of moving anywhere, especially considering how much we love this flat, and what a complete pain it was to move house only 6 months ago. The thought of doing it all again so soon makes me wince.

I had a few tantrums, tears and hissy fits in the days after the phone call, but eventually realised this is out of my control and it was going to be less painful the sooner I could accept it and move on. So, still ever so slightly cranky and grumpy, we started calling local real estate agents only to be told time and again there is a dire shortage of 1-bed flats in the area at the moment. Which means the price of what is available is massively over-inflated.

So, for not-that-much extra a week we ventured into the 2-bed flat rental market, and have seen some places over the weekend. One flat still had a bong in it left by the previous tenants, filthy walls, and a 'garden' consisting of cracked concrete and knee-high weeds; another place was in a council housing block and the door opposite the flat had been smashed in and was boarded up; the third place was a lovely 1920's era town house, raised ground floor flat with the living/dining room being the same size as our current kitchen, dining AND living rooms, clean walls, two bedrooms, and a roof terrace. Guess which one we put on offer to rent on? We find out Monday if we got it or not. It felt right for both of us from the moment we walked through the door, we could both picture ourselves living there and being happy there.

It's in West Hampstead (the Kilburn side for those who know the area, near Shoot Up Hill Road), the bedrooms are on the small side but the living space more than makes up for that, it has really, really, really high ceilings, a fireplace with a gas fire that looks like real flames, the roof terrace overlooking the gardens below with views to north London, a small kitchen but clean and modern looking, and a standard bathroom with ginormo Jodie-sized bath.

I really hope we get it. I woke up at 4am this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. I need to know I have a home, and feel so unsettled at the prospect of being homeless. This place would be home, we would be happy and comfortable living there. Fingers crossed! , I have so much packing to do...

Food news
I have to say the smell of the chicken I am roasting for lunches this week is fantastic, but is about the superceded by the pheasant I am about to roast! Yes, that says 'pheasant', which you can now buy in Sainsburys. I've not tried it before, and I like most game birds so hopefully will like this one too! Does anyone know the rhyme about the pheasant plucker's son??

Study Update
For my upcoming tutorial co-presention on the development of language in children we're going to look at the influences of genetics vs the environment. I know most people start tuning out when I start talking about my psych, but for anyone interested there is a fascinating book by Stephen Pinker called 'The Language Instinct' and it is full of studies and analyses about language structures and abilities in general, as well as in children, that will have you saying 'no way!' out loud at the complexities of grammar that a 3 year old can understand without ever having been explicitly taught about it all. I keep finding areas that fascinate me, and don't have enough hours to read about it all!

It's Sunday morning, and I've been sitting at the table next to the porthole window going through my psych texts and notes. I'm co-presenting a seminar in two weeks on the development of language in children, have an essay to hand in next week (which is pretty much finished thankfully!), and another essay due in about 8 weeks, but have a load of revision to be getting on with, and lecture notes to type up in the mean-time. The second essay I am working on is a critical evaluation of the dopamine model of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a fascinating area - if you've got any questions on it ask me and I'll find out the answers for you and consider it part of my study!

The best part of this morning has been all the little birds coming to the feeders on the porthole window, softly chirrupping their delight through the open window. It's a lovely noise by which to study.

And now, we're off to Highbury for Arsenal vs Stoke in the FA Cup competition!

Exxxxxcellent

Pretty much every other website I try to access from work is blocked but for some reason my blog isn't. >:) I can't upload photos from here (no non-corporate software is allowed on the pc yadda yadda blah blah) but I can bore you all senseless with my various ramblings instead!

Don't know if you've donated to the Tsunami appeal but if you haven't, and you would like to, you can donate online at http://www.dec.org.uk/ . Beware all the scams going around, some people have been going door to door or telephoning for appeals and pocketing the money themselves or fleecing your bank account. It is a sad fact of life that there are people who prey on others, but something to be aware of.

Well, Christmas is over, 2005 is here, I'm back at work, uni starts again on Wednesday night and it's all systems Go Go Go! I'm sitting here listening to Kasey Chambers singing 'The Captain' on a compilation cd we bought last night on the way home - Music from the Sopranos (mafia TV series!) and editing my essay which I should have finished weeks ago. Whoops. Meant to complete it over the Christmas break but spent too long playing Halo 2 on the Xbox, reading things other than text books, and trying to forget about the realities of life for a while! Got a bit bleak for a while there around New Years. 2004 was a tough year. Farewelling it, thinking back on it, thinking of what's to come, what needs to be done, it was all a chunky mouthful of food for thought. Life is unpredictable, it's how we roll with the punches that gets us through. And it's the people we surround ourselves with that get us through as well. You know who you are. Your wings have carried me over some rough ground and I am forever, deeply grateful to you. The older I get the more I appreciate my diamond friends, my precious and rare beautiful people. There are always autumn leaves, friendships that don't last the distance, that are right for a season and no more, people who want you for what you can give to them, who leave you stranded and alone at the first hint of trouble. I have less time for them now. There are things about life that I now know. There's plenty that I don't know too but as time goes by, some things do become clearer.

One more thing about the trials and tribulations of life - in the words of a gorgeous woman I know, "It is what it is".

Enjoy the pics of my precious niece Lauren that follow... I'm off to finish my essay and then read about causal and dependent variables and control conditions in experiments!

Nanna and Grand-daughter on the foreshore at Mandurah. Somebody loves their Nanna's kisses! 

Great-grandmother and Great-grand-daughter on Christmas Day at Brad & Roz's.  

It's my little darlin' Lauren!