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Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey

You might be wondering what the deal is about the title for this post, well even if you weren’t I will tell you anyway. Pabbi has just been diagnosed with the D word aka Diabetes Type II. Currently his blood sugar levels are in a bad way – high 20’s, low 30’s – the normal level is between 4 and 6. Hopefully though as his medicine and diet changes kick in, it will improve.

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The internet is well the internet.
This blog (I really hate that word but let us keep on moving) has reconnected my family to at least three people so far and I think that is pretty cool.
We have hooked back up with Neele who was our first German exchange student in 2001.
My older brother has hooked back up with one of his mates from around the time Matthew was born in 87.
And just the other day I received an email for Mum from a Kiwi lady who knew Mum from the fish factory she worked in Iceland many, many years ago.

All through the power of Google!

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We spent the most delightful time this morning on the phone to Karl, whilst he was wandering round the streets of Berlin at 1am in the morning, killing time between his flights as he heads to Munich/ München for Oktoberfest. Mum started telling Karl about the time she had spent in Berlin and the bullet holes in the buildings, when he asked where they were and Mum of course couldn’t remember. I quickly hopped on Flickr and Google to see what I could find. I found a couple of streets and then by the time I was back on the phone with Karl, he had actually started to walk down one of the streets I had found on the net. Then as we talked, as he walked and looked for bullet holes, he found what he thought could be bullet holes, well more to the point, there was little else they could be – lots of dimples on old stone buildings, which matched with what I saw in photos. The wonders of technology!

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I also just watched the season three opener of Veronica Mars which MSN is showing before it starts on TV in the states next week . Bonus! Play the episode in Windows Media

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I am also in the midst of finishing an essay on the Japanese camera industry and I have to say not only is this essay coming out faster than any other, it certainly rocks writing about something I really enjoy and have a decent knowledge on already. I certainly never thought at the start of this degree that I would be writing an essay on Canon, Nikon, Sony and the like. Certainly pretty cool.

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21 today :)

Sometime round 3:00pm this arvie I entered my twenty-first year of life.

Twenty-One years of been Helen Thura Palsson or Helen Þura Pálsdóttir depending on where you are in the world.
Twenty-One years of been the littlest sister to Karl, Anika, Herdis, Hafthor, Toti and Palli.
Nineteen and a half years of being the older sister to Matthew.
Almost at the end of seventeen years of schooling.
Three trips overseas.
Countless km’s spent on foot, bike, canoe or car exploring this Great Southern Land.
Friends made, friends lost and friends re-united.
At least one computer around for almost as long as I can remember.
Close to eleven years of orthodontics.
Four different musical instruments.
One broken arm, two broken toes, torn ligaments in my fingers and my ankle.
Countless trips to the library.
Four different jobs.
Three cameras of my own.
And countless other little bits and pieces that make me who I am.

I went to work as usual at 5am this morning and had the most delightful shift. When I rang the bell to be let in I was greeted with a big “Happy Birthday” from my closest friend at work so that was very nice and then as I moved through the store getting ready for work more people came up and wished me a good day. Then about 7:30am (30mins before the store opened) my line manager put a message over the PA system telling everyone it was my birthday and they should find me and wish me Happy Birthday.

Every Monday a lot of people start work at 5am, whereas on other days they would start between 7am and 9am, this is because of all the things that need to be done to set the shop for a new week of trading; display ends need to be built and tickets need to be changed (that is what I do). Because of this every Monday a group of us have morning tea together and we have a little roster set up so we all take turns brining in something to share. One of the other girls who I am also close to had her turn today so she made me a white chocolate mud cake with Happy 21st Helen on it as well as 22 little tiny cupcakes that spelt out Happy 21st Birthday Helen, it was so very nice! There was of course singing and chatting and people trying to remember how the tune to Happy Birthday Helen goes.

Yep, there is a song by the pretty classy Australian rock band Things of Stone and Wood called Happy Birthday Helen and every Aussie worth their salt knows the song. Of course the lyrics may not be totally relevant to my life but still it is Happy Birthday Helen.

Happy Birthday Helen
Things of Stone and Wood
[audio:Things of Stone and Wood – Happy birthday Helen.mp3]

Let’s not forget last night
Yeah, how we drove along the Yarra
How we sang harmonies
To Carole King

These three years now just gone
They are the legends of my mind
We both kneel at these rocks
To drink of the mem’ry

You are the tunes in my head, the fire in my ribs
You are the voice in my heart that whispers compassion
Happy birthday Helen
Oh-oh…, oh-oh…, oh-oh…

We kissed on that bridge that fell down
While we held hands at the Taj
We’ve been stuck in a cave
With that bloke who says Oi Am

And when I cried for my cruel heart
You rubbed my back ’til I felt better
We ate bread on the lake
And yearned for the seasons

You are the tunes in my head, the fire in my ribs
You are the voice in my heart that whispers compassion
Happy birthday Helen
Oh-oh…, oh-oh…, oh-oh…

You are the tunes in my head, the fire in my ribs
You are the voice in my heart that whispers compassion

You are the storm on the ocean, poems in the trees
The smell of the winter that haunts me each autumn
You’re my everything
You are my everything
You are my everything
Happy Birthday Helen
Oh-oh…, oh-oh…, oh-oh…
Shake

Oh-oh…, oh-oh…, oh-oh…
Oh-oh…, oh-oh…, oh-oh…
Happy birthday Helen

Tonight for dinner I made Roast Chicken with Sultana and Almond Cous Cous (from the Claudia Roden book) and Mum made Mulberry Crumble with the Mulberries I picked at the farm yesterday on our way home from having a birthday afternoon tea with Grandad. It was all just so very nice!

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Happy 21st Birthday Sam

One of my best buds had her 21st birthday party on Saturday and what an event it was. I met Sam during my first year at uni when we were in the same Indonesian classes. She is doing B of Arts/B of Education which means that in a bit over a year she will be teaching kids Indo, history and the like. In the past couple of years we have had plenty of fun filled times from concerts to nights out and just chilling.

The Birthday Girl

Her party was a pretty laid back affair held at a local hall with both family and friends. The party did have a casino theme but I think we ended up playing more games of “Go Fish” then we did 21 🙂 Lots of little and not so little kids running round playing with balloons, making hand print memory pages, eating and drinking, singing and dancing, just all in general fun.

Sam is the queen of the jelly shot, I don’t think she has ever had a party which did not involve jelly and vodka. I didn’t have any of these as I was driving but they looked quite nice especially with the two layers of jelly, very tricky!

The Birthday Card Jelly Shot Tower

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Laughs and Shoes

After much phone tag and clashing schedules (Andrea works mon-fri and I work on sat) we finally manged to get a Sunday where we were both free. Of course then we were at odds at what to do! After checking out her newish flat we went in to the Valley where we had fun cruising the aisles of the Asian variety stores and found a source of little containers for when we next need to make jelly shots.

We then hit our primary target for the day; The Valley Markets, however I guess because it was bit overcast it was pretty dead so we didn’t stay there long before having fun checking out all the aisles in one of the Asian grocery store and seeing what things we could see such as the whole frozen Durians or the 1000’s of different dried mushrooms or MSG powder (mmmmmm MSG…..). After we had done a little bit of shopping we headed into the city to have lunch at Sizzler.

After a brief poke round Borders we headed back into the Myer Centre to find all the goodies. Our first stop was the Oxfam shop where after much drooling I walked out with a new hair tie and a bag made by Timor Leste women who are part of the Alola Foundation. The bag is gorgeous, it has a tais panel which I just love!

New hair tie Close up of Alola Tais Bag Alola Tais Bag

Our next stop was Myer where we were drawn in by the super big sale they are having and the tables upon tables of shoes they were clearing out for $20, $30, $40 etc. Andrea hit the jackpot and got a new pair of shoes and I well I thought I had hit the jackpot. These orange shoes, so very, very nice and the only size they had them in was 9.5 which was a tad tight. Ok well they also come in black, brown, white, baby pink, red and olive (I wanted the red, the orange or the olive) but no the only 10’s they had were in white or black 🙁

nooo.... Please....

Since I had fallen in love with them I resolved to ring round the stores in the morning. Once we had a bit more of a browse and a 100 more laughs we hopped on the train back to her flat and had a little hang out chatting with her boyfriend and showing me some scrapbooking she had done 😀

I tell you when Andie and I get together we just become the biggest giggling gerties, it’s a total crack-up 😀

Fast Forward 16hrs.
After I finished work this morning at the grand time of 9:45am I went down to the Myer in our centre but they only had the 10 in white :(. I get home and do some ringing around and get told by more stores we only have the white or the black :(. Dude, those shoes were so funky but alas it seems it was not meant to be.

I wanted a new pair of jeans and since I had nothing pressing yet to fill my day with. I headed out to DFO to see what I could find 🙂 Well I walked out with a new pair of jeans from Country Road and almost walked out with 2 new skirts. The biggest find however are the shoes in the photo below.

Simple Tevas

The ones on the left are Simple and the ones on the right are Teva. They are both the first pair of thonged shoes I have owned in years and years as I normally find the thong bit between my toes very uncomfy but these ones don’t seem to be too bad and they both have soles which feel like clouds which is what my feet like 🙂

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about that

Well I think I have ironed out all the bugs of this new theme, what do you think?
I am still trying to decide what I want to put in the header so at the moment it is just a pretty simple graphic using a brush from Jason Gaylor’s Worn Hi-Res Brushes III.

I cracked down and bought a new camera bag yesterday, I got a Crumpler Seven Million Dollar Home in Blue. Buying a camera bag is one of the hardest things to do. I have been after a bag for a long time which would take some uni books, some other stuff and some camera gear, after playing with numerous different combos at the camera store and at the Crumpler store, I have had to decide that the product I want is just not on the market yet.

Mum is progressing along nicely, the other day she moved up from a 7/8 plaster cast to a fancy knee brace, which looks like the one on this page.

We have watched some more movies

  • I Heart Huckabees (This was cool)
  • Before Sunset (This was an amazing film, very different to what I am used to as it basically only has two characters and the movie consists of them walking round Paris talking)
  • Bride & Prejudice (This was super rad, I could watch it over and over, loved the musical parts and all the colour)
  • Ladder 49 (Parts of this make me teary :()
  • The Princess Diaries (A simple little movie to curl up on the couch watching on a Friday night)

Tonight however, I will not be watching a movie but will be sitting on the edge of the couch full of anticipation as Australia goes head to head against Italy to play for a quarter-final spot in the World Cup! Go the ‘roos!

Some of you may know Karyn but for those who don’t, she was the first non-Australian person from 2peas that I gotten to know, she is in the USA Navy and is married to an Icelander (which is how we connected), well after some time spent training in SC she is now smack bang in the biggest sandpit she has ever known in other words she is now in Iraq (or in her words Irock the Casbah). She has posted some photos that are well worth checking out and she is always up for well wishes.
That is about it.

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Hello Holiday

So the Socceroos didn’t get up, we only lost by two against Brazil and Japan-Croatia tied with no goals, which means that we still look good for the next round.

I did my last exam for the semester yesterday, now I just have to wait for the results to come rolling in, even though grades are not announced until July 5, I already know that I have gotten two distinctions (6) and I think I might get another two yet and one credit (5) if I manage to pull this off, it will be my best semester at uni ever. One of those distinctions would have been a high distinction if I had not done miserably (11/20) on the mid-semester. Bring on next semester (which is my last semester of my undergraduate Bachelors degree)!

I watched three DVDs yesterday. The first was with Mum – Hope Springs, quite a nice romantic comedy and the character played by Minnie Driver was just a total piece of work. The second was with Mum and Matthew – Do You Remember?: Fifteen Years of the Bouncing Souls, which was a really great doco about The ‘Souls which made me think I really should have gone with Matthew and his friends to see them when the played the other month. The last one I watched was Speak, this was an incredible movie, I didn’t think it would be anywhere near as dark as it was but it was just incredibly moving.
Bring on five weeks of holidays and try to forget that this time last year we were busy preparing for the Palsson Grand Iceland Tour of 2005, I guess though in four years times we will all do our best to make our way back as a family for the quinquennial clan gathering.

I have plans of grandeur to fill my holidays with, which include the following.

  • Make this top – Simplicity 4589, view A
  • Make pasta
  • Finish the final testing of a new blog template
  • Attack the ever increasing pile of recipes to try and make a good number of them
  • Learn how to knit – Continental style (Mum was taught English style like most Australian’s but thinks it would be better for me to learn Continental style as it is so more efficient, she talks of when she was in Iceland and like most of the other women spent a lot of time knitting by hand or with their machines and how the Icelandic women were just powerhouses with their knitting, maybe I can talk her into paying for me to go to Iceland these holidays to learn how to knit?)
  • Get a fair stack of scrapbooking done
  • Make a couple of bags
  • Get my bike serviced so I can start riding again
  • Go on a couple of mini photographic expeditions
  • Go see Trivia at the Metro Arts
  • Go see Death Cab for Cutie at the Arena
  • The Brisbane Flickr meet up on Sunday
  • Get a couple of photos printed and mounted for a long overdue birthday present
  • Have fun
  • Work a heap
  • Organise some sort of filing system for the clippings I collect
  • Hit up the shops/life with Andrea
  • Party hard(ish) with Sam
  • Play copious amounts of Gamecube with Matthew
  • Organise something with The Girls from school
  • Read all the books in this monstrous stack I have – five different trips to the library and the four I need to finish beside my bed (if you click on the photo you can see it full size so you can have a “browse” of my library shelf)

books to be read

The real question is how much of this list will I actually get through and how much I won’t finish.