Study Update

Halfway through exam block! *Pop confetti crackers*

I have my first exam tomorrow morning so I thought I'd update you quickly before I retreat back into study zone for my last exam. 

Since we last met. .  .

My crippled dog found a tin of old paint tint. She must have know purple is Matthew's favourite colour. Not my favourite thing to come home to though! 

Also...

All my fish died. Before you point fingers and curse my name as satan pet killer lady - it wasn't entirely my fault!!! Everything seemed fine as my pH levels remained stable when suddenly my two white angels dropped dead.I went to the fish shop to get a water test and figure out whether it was bad fish or bad water. Very BAD water. Nitrite levels off the scale. 

Apparently that happens when uneaten food goes rancid in the fish pebbles. The reasons behind the high levels all contributed:

The dirty pebbles from the guppy tank weren't washed before put in the new tank

The filter that came with the tank wasn't assembled correctly / isn't suited for tropical fish 

There was no catfish initially and the angelfish are lazy eaters 

So we raced home to rescue the remaining catfish, knife fish and clown loach and even after two days of heroic water changes - they died. Regardless of conditions reaching perfect, the little fishes had been through too much. Sorry fish. 

Hopefully my resurrecting powers will work this time because my PLANTS are also on the way out. My tomato plant contracted tomato blight and majority of the leaves wrinkled, died and were covered in spots. Feeling morbid I chopped 3/4 of the plant off and so far the stunted remainder is actually faring well. Pray for the tomato! Of course Matthew's strawberries look lush and perfect. Grumbles.

So from all this we can conclude that Gemma has the poison touch and kills all her little precious babies.

Dog with broken leg.

Killed $100 worth of fish

Tomato plant on it's way out.

You wonder why I don't want kids?! Just joking :) 

Wish me luck for my exam tomorrow. 

Until next time.

xx

School's almost out!

Hello reader!

I'm here to confirm that I am still alive even though you haven't heard from me in so long. I'm doing quite well actually, considering I finish my first semester of second year university in about two weeks. Quite a few things have happened over this time so I have to fill you in!

I promised my friends, family, all of your readers and most importantly myself, that I would knuckle down and achieve my dream. To transfer into studying veterinarian science I need to obtain excellent grades at university. My goal is to achieve greater than 85-90% in three subjects, which will allow me to study and become a veterinarian.

You'll be impressed to know that my results from all assessment so far have been well on track! I have achieved 78%, 85 % and 93% of available marks in my subjects. A grade greater than 85% is considered a high distinction and the highest grade achievable. However these grades haven't come without effort and sacrifice.

Don't get me wrong, I've come to love study. I feel physically ill if I haven't summarized lecture content or revised what I've learnt. Call me crazy but it's my thing. I've also learnt some really cool things!

One of my subjects involved me taking a field trip excursion to Fraser Island to study the island's ecology. We performed surveys on crabs, small mammals, dingoes, vegetation and mangroves to analyze the abundance of organisms and the relationships between factors. 

Credit to http://www.flickr.com/photos/76379704@N06/sets/ for the pictures below.

We measured Ghost Crab burrows along a sand dune to infer crab size and abundance and how they related to type of vegetation cover. This involved laying out big grids and estimating percentage of plants within each grid square. Give it a go yourself! Now times that frustration by 25 as we measured that every 5m for a 100m stretch. I'm tired thinking about it.

One of the more exciting activities was the Dingo prey preference and abundance analysis. We laid Elliot traps to estimate the abundance of prey that Dingoes hunt. These traps lure small mammals into a enclosure with bait and then snap shut as the animal steps onto a pressure trigger plate. It was awesome going to check the traps the day after trapping because when a trap caught one we all got to watch it get released!

Something bizarre happened to me one of the days I was trapping with my team. My job was to roll little balls of bait to put into the traps. It just so happens that dingoes like the smell of peanut butter and oats. While my team sat in a clearing within the forest, a dingo appeared and began walking toward us. Being excitable science students we just watched it in amazement. Until it walked two metres from me and I realised I was holding food. Smart one dumb one. I threw the food away and we scared the dingo off, but it was still a close call.

We did lots of other activities looking at vegetation and plant adaptations. Too many to describe.  Overall it was the most fun I've ever had while doing assignments.

It's not all fun and games though. My decision to pursue my studies has limited my social circle and number of outings I attend. This is pretty lame but I have to hope that the quality friends will understand that I'm temporarily unavailable while pursing my number one priority. Hopefully someone will be standing at the finish line to congratulate and celebrate with me.

None of what I've achieved so far would have been possible without the support, encouragement and sometimes strict supervision from my friends, family, partner and pets. I've made friends with some of my partner's friends and they've been more of a good influence than bad! Instead of letting me pull apart and rebuild cars with them, I've been banished to finish before joining in. They even ban me from patting their dog. It's a hard life.

On my occasional down day where I relax my brain and have some fun, I've been having dog dates! We take our not so little puppy Nanuk to hang out with Mika. Nanuk chases Mika, Mika chases her Kong, Nanuk chases Mika. It's very entertaining. We've come to love our 7 month old giant puppy dog like a child.  She's certainly spoilt more than scolded by me. "Are you being naughty Nanuk? Oh, why not have a treat!"
Not quite, but if you ask Matthew that is apparently the truth.

I also got Nanuk to master the agility course at the dog park. Life goal complete!

Aside from puppy play dates, Matthew's family recently got two kittens! So now I get face licking and scratching on a regular basis. The grey is a girl called Malibu and the ginger a boy named Ollie. 

I also get plenty of sleepy kitty cuddles to distract me from study. 

Unfortunately my happy little family all crashed down the other morning when my dog starting yelping. That's nothing unusual as Nanuk tends to cry wolf when she thinks one of the other dog's is going to pick on her. However this time she didn't stop. We ran out and found her soaking wet lying on her side at the bottom of the stairs. Yelping and making no effort to stand up, we rushed to the vet to find our baby broke her growth plate from her knee bone.

So now I have a hyperactive puppy with a cast on her leg and I'm not meant to let her run around?! 

Impossible. I spent half a week babysitting her while I studied.

To cheer me up from my life dilemma I got a new fish tank and fish! Upgraded to a roughly 30L tank with brighter LED lights and inbuilt filter so everything looks and stays cleaner. Also took the big kid step into tropical fish using heaters and pH tests. 

Cool creepy looking platinum white angelfish and even more creepy see-through catfish. I'm going to buy some black ghostknife and maybe the ultra ugly elephant nose fish. Just because I collect weird fish. 

Mmmm. Weird fish. 

Aside from additional animal critters to brighten my life, I also got domestic and bought some plants! Trips to Bunnings Warehouse resulted in my new vegetable growing urge with cherry tomatoes and strawberries on their way. Hopefully.

Who said anything about crazy cat lady? I've got psychotic plant passion!

Aaaand now you're up to speed with my life over the last 5 months or so. Mostly mundane study with highlights of animal and plant drama. I will update more frequently after the 20th as that's my last exam! Expect vidoes and mischief!

Thanks for reading and sticking round.

Melanie xx

Schools' Back

Noooooo.
Holidays are over. Three months has flew by and now it's time for me to knuckle down and be studious yet again. Before I inform you on the nitty-gritty university stuff, I want to share with you what I got up to in my last few weeks of fun.

Nanuk Playtime. 

We did lots of it! If I ever had spare time it was like, "Can we pleeeeease go walk Nanuk", or, "Can we pleeeeease go wash Nanuk", or "Can we pleeeeease go pat Nanuk", to the point where Matthew would cave like, "Argh okay! I swear you like that dog more than I do".

I quietly think to myself, " Perhaps I like that dog more than YOU. But Shh". That's a joke, sort of. So, we took Nanuk for her very first walk and so many more since then.

She's very obedient and hardly needs the leash. My ultimate favourite thing to do with my giant snow puppy is to walk her to the dog park! 

At the dog park she bounds, bounces and bops other dogs. It's awesome seeing her play and I like to chase her around and throw sticks for her, in the faint hope that she might chase it....and retrieve it...which she doesn't. YET. 

"Nanuk, you listen to your mother. You will chase that stick and bring it back okay?!"

"But I just want your tummy rubs mum!"

"Awww okay. Cuddle time it is."

Cuddles all round. Nanuk seems to like Matthew more than me. This is unacceptable so I am instigating a very sneaky plan. You see, I have a bag of delicious crunchy dog biscuits. I plan on giving Nanuk a treat every time I see her, so she will get SO excited when she sees me, thinking it's treat time, that I will receive equal love as Matthew. Fool proof, I know right. 

How could she not love me. All I do is smother her and cover  her in wet sloppy kisses every time I see her. 

Alright enough about the dog. I did do SOME other things on my holidays. 

I ate food lots. Sort of regularly, like three times a day. Bizarre really. However this food isn't just ANY food. This is delicious, hand picked by us, cooked by Matthew and covered in Nando's sauce food. Now you understand. The cute domestic fun of going to the grocery store and umming over different cuts of meat and vegetables, then taking it home and watching Matthew cook for me in my kitchen. So good. 

I did my fair share of the work too! I lit candles every night. Lots of candles! I also put toothpicks through our burger buns and spiked an olive and a handcut love heart on each of our burgers. I like doing the cute details. 

Lastly, the other cool thing that got done before university went back, was my whiteboards. 

I've always whinged about wanting whiteboards in my room so I wouldn't have to make those study posters I've shown you guys before. Well, with the help of handy Matty, we went to Bunnings Warehouse, bought three 1200 x 900 sheets of clear perspex and 5 cans of white spray paint and presto! About 5 hours later, Matthew finished my shiny smooth whiteboards, screwed them into my walls and went off to go nurse his very tired hands. 

Now, the idea behind these whiteboards brings me back to university talk. I spent about $150 (maybe more) on those whiteboards because I aspire to do, very very well at university this semester. Let me explain why.

My lifelong dream/goal since I can remember is to become a vet. That's my thing. To study veterinarian studies you must get an OP1 or equivalent score at university and then transfer into the course. I didn't get an OP1 in high school, so I am studying at university trying to get a GPA of 5.8. 

This is achievable, it just takes sacrifice. I'm currently on 5.5 and am enrolled in only three subjects this semester (instead of four), because I'm thinking the extra time will allow me to focus more and study harder on the subjects I have. I have to get one 6 and two 7's (on a scale from 2 - 7 where 4 is 50% pass) which means I must get at least 80% and above right over the entire subject. Hard! But this is my goal. 

The truly exciting thing is, if I do really really well in then first semester (6months) of university, I won't have to do a second semester because my marks will be good enough. I could take half a gap year, have a holiday and reward myself. I want that pretty badly. 

So that is my current situation. You'll understand when I don't blog regularly because I shall be studying, so that I can blog to you for 6 MONTHS if I achieve my goal. That was the last few weeks of my holidays, I hope yours were equally interesting.

Take Care

Melanie xx

A Perfect Day

February 14th. 

Today is the day! The day girls wait with bated breath hoping someone will notice them and gift them a rose. The day where little things melt your heart and you share your appreciation and love for someone dear. Well today it was my turn to give and receive what has been the best Valentine's Day ever. It was perfect and not because it was flashy or I got kidnapped away to somewhere romantic, but because I enjoyed every minute of my day making him smile. Please kick back, relax, and enjoy my February 14th story. 

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

"Beep Beep BEEP", the iphone alarm pierces through my deep sleep. "Ghruugh", I groan as my comfortable back pillow starts to move about. "Sorry babe, go back to sleep", Matthew says as he climbs out of bed at a stupendously early hour of the morning. Yes I most certainly will go back to sleep.

(Mm dreams of marshmallows and fairy floss)

"Urggh, stop it marshmallow man..I don't want to eat anymore...". "Gemma, wake up I have to go to work", Matthew shakes my shoulder gently. I roll over and crack one eye open groggily. "You look preeetty", I compliment Matt when suddenly I notice something colourful behind him. 

"WHuugh!?", I was instantly awake. "Happy Valentine's Day baby!", he says while smiling. I stare stunned for a while, scruff my bed hair then jump out of bed to get a closer look. 

"Woooaaahh it's so pretty! Lots of pretty pretty things!" "I got flowers! HOORAY! Lots of flowers, a teddy ohmagod". I blab-erred continuously while stroking the rose petals and cuddling my pink fluffy teddy. Matthew laughs, "Open the box". "Nu-uh. I can't open it. Can you pleeease open it for me!?", I squirm and wriggle in denial. I don't handle high pressure open the box situations very well. "Fine, I have to go to work like five minutes ago", he said while opening the little blue velvet box. 

"Whouuh", I suck in a breath. "I designed them and had my mate make them, do you like them?". So much sparkle, so pretty. "Yeah! I love them.". "Good, they match your necklace I gave you at dinner". 

"Wow", I whispered while taking in all the cute incredibleness. "I have to go now babe, I love you", he kissed me on the head and dashed off in his work suit. His car vhrooms and pulls out of the driveway. "I got. . . so MANY PRETTY PRESENTS!!!!!", I squeal into my empty house. "SO pretty. Omg, they're so preeeetty!". I did a lap of my house squealing and squeezing my teddy bear. My life is winning! 

I finally settle down and focus on plan - revenge. You didn't think I had no presents for him did you? For the past week I'd been cutting, folding, twirling and gluing colourful paper roses I learnt from this tutorial. Lots of them! I have a devious plan to annihilate his precious car. 

So I wrap his presents, put them in a really big black bag, pack scissors, sticky tape, double sided tape, a pack of 20 red balloons, two 16piece packs of red fabric hearts and a couple of handfuls of pretty roses. This is war! 

I awkwardly carry the large bag to the bus stop and swipe on with my go-card blindly. Hehe, I feel so secret and under-cover. Arriving at Matthew's work, I ride a prestigious elevator up to reception. It's awkward, there's business people in the elevator cramped beside the casual looking me holding the huge bag. Hrmm. "Hello Linda, my name is Gemma. Is it possible that Matthew left his car keys here for me?" "Oh hello! Yes not a problem, here you go", she hands me the keys with a jangle and smiles. 

I have the power. Mu-ah-ah-ah. I practically sprint to the car park and unlock his car. I have an hour on the clock, starting now. DECORATION BEGIN.

With nimble fingers I snipped and peeled more double sided tape than I ever want to again in my life. "Stick damn flowers! ARGH". I cursed his dusty dirty car for stopping the tape from sticking. 

However with much much patience, it was done. I destroyed his driver's seat. 

I had 30minutes left and 20 balloons to blow up. 1.5minutes per balloon. 

Die car Die! I carefully stuffed the balloons so that they'd fall out when he opens his door. Hehe, I am wicked. 

Suspicious spherical objects in the driver's window? 

Barely noticeable. 

So inconspicuous! 

So I met Matthew at work, walked him to his car and was 100% satisfied with his reaction. 

He did a lot of waving his arms around, slapping the top of his car in disbelief. "Omg, what have you done to my CAR!!". 

He then sat in the driver's seat and painfully removed all of my flowers and relocated them gently to a less 'dangerous' area of his car. He was too pussy to drive with it all 'loved' up. He was impressed with my patience and attention to detail. Yay I made his day in return! 

He popped all my balloons! So in revenge, I made him open his presents in front of his family to embarrass him. It totally worked. 

I ordered him a custom mouse pad with our beautiful puppy on it. It's a weird present but he works in an office so he can use it. Actually all his presents were weird but they were things he liked. 

You could tell he genuinely was excited and loved his presents. I was so so glad. He also got a packet of licorice black jelly beans, a relationship book I filled with photos and stories and I ordered two Alice cups from Max Brenner because he'd mentioned that he liked them when we dined there. A pretty good stash truly. 

We spent the rest of the night patting our puppy, lounging on each other watching T.V and eating Baskin-Robbins ice creams together. See what I mean by a perfect day?

I loved my February 14th. How was yours?

Melanie xx