Baby Animals!

Today there was a launch of a student run magazine at Uni. To get people excited they had baby animals to play with. What else is there to say really.

Reflections

'Reflections' from Bliss and Eso.

Well I've been down this road before
It's been one hell of a ride
The challenge is to balance on that fine line
Between the earth and sky
And I will wait for the morning sun till the way is clear as day
Well ok hallelujah
Now watch me take the stage

The Children's Bach

At night, when they had put the children to bed, Dexter and Athena walked. They were ruthless about going.


They kept pace easily, not touching. They covered miles each night in the dark, sometimes heading east along the creek across the parklands to where it joined the Yarra River, sometimes north-east as far as the huge upturned saucer of Royal Park where the wild dogs in the zoo howled at the moon and monkeys gibbered behind the wall.


Dexter wanted to live gloriously, and on the nights they walked he did.

The Children's Bach by Helen Garner is one of my very favourite books. I studied it in year twelve and I never quite appreciated its quiet skill. I am re-reading it and it is so much better now that I am living in Melbourne and running around Royal Park past the zoo in the evenings. I get it now. Read it. Especially if you live in Melbourne and like Garner's writing. Even if you don't. It's just right.

If you can, walk around that area. It's right in the middle of the city but you would have no idea. Get onto Flemington Road and keep going through the park towards Princes Park in Parkville. You can twist and turn along little tracks for hours in there. It's quite and smells like calm.

Firm Freebies and Cheesecake

One of the rare perks of sitting through firm sponsored seminars each lunch time; free highlighters and study related loot. Well played firms. In other news:

Last night I did zero homework. My tute was cancelled and it became all too much for me so I stayed in bed, watched revenge and made a sugar-free cheese cake. On the way to the supermarket to get cheesy products a horse and carriage pulled up next to me. Adorable. For a split second I thought, hey wouldn't it be cool if everyone got around by horse?

Then I remembered the billions of childhood trips to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat-a 1850s theme park. The stench of horse manure is a real alexanderdowner, on an otherwise awesome day filled with raspberry drops and gold panning. Nothing says good time quite like a blood-red tongue and a hand-made 1850s walking cane. Surprisingly popular with the able bodies young'uns at Sov Hill. May even top corporate branded highlighters.

Ballarat in the 1850s! The modern day recreation of the first victorian gold mining Boom. Eat your heart out Gina Rhineheart.

Cheesecakes ingrediants.

It appears substantially less visually appealing than it actually tastes.

Also, I'm a poor student and can't spring for "cake tins"etc. Yes this is a casserole dish.

DLA Piper provided post it notes (RRP $9.99 at Officeworks). Win.

Yes the pen does produce its own post-its. Double win.

http://www.melbourne.visitorsbureau.com.au/tours/aat-kings-t5/sovereign-hill-2880-3.jpg

An older chap's best friend

Sasha's idea of a good time.

Walking our two dogs in the park this morning I met an elderly man who had a jack russell. For one reason or another he proceeded to tell me that the dog was his best friend. In the last few years he had lost his wife, a couple of sons and his previous jack russell. He is turning 80 this year and his dog is all he has left.

The dog was saved from the pound "he just spoke to me and told me to take him home". He sleeps next to the man and follows him around. The chap next to us at the park said "dogs are a man's best friend. You can't loose an argument with a dog". Well who am I to argue with that.

Public Holiday

I am now that person who takes photos of food. And blogs about it. I spent the day cafe hopping with my admin books.

Many would say Clare, why blog about your silly little day and post meaningless pictures of food? To that I say, good point. I tend to become obsessed with things in short and intense bursts. I learn everything I can about the subject and cram it all in, because I don't know when I will just as suddenly be over said subject. This happened when I quit sugar completely for a month and read for hours about all the dangers of the white poison. Then easter happened.

I became equally obsessed with Mormonism. Have no interest in becoming a Mormon- they're just weirdly fascinating. Now a bit meh. Same with my blog. So fun for a while. Now it is a little challenge to post something, anything everyday. Just some routine, in a good way.

Posting means getting a little break from studying, or watching Modern Family when I should be studying, or thinking about how much I should be studying. As the days roll over I should be doing more studs and less everything else. But I think back to exam prep in previous years and I feel sick with how much effort is required for seemingly so little reward. Supposedly it will all be alright in the end. Just feels a tad like high school when people kept saying "wait until you're in the real world" when we obviously were already. Still feels like I'm not quite there yet. Still studying. Stuck in a study funk. Surely will blow over. Yes?

Monday night mind

Monday night:

What I'm learning
(the old test for self-defence in Victoria under the common law)

Viro propositions:
1. It is for the jury to consider whether the accused killed the deceased and reasonably believed that an unlawful attack which threatened death or serious bodily harm
2. If the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there was no reasonable belief by the accused of such an act no question of self defence arises
3. If the jury is not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there was no such reasonable belief by the accused it must then consider whether the force in fact used by the accused was reasonably proportionate to the danger which he believed he faced.
4 .If the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there was no such reasonable belief by the accused, it must then consider whether the force in fact used by he accused was reasonably proportionate it should acquit
5. If the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that more force was used, then its verdict should be either manslaughter of murder, that depending upon the answer to the question by the jury: did the accused believe that the force was used was reasonably proportionate to the danger he faces?
6. If the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did not have such a belief the verdict will be murder. If it is not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did not have that belief the verdict will be manslaughter.

     But really what I'm thinking about is these.

And this is playing over and over in my head.

Law student fail.

Running from the law

Surviving the JD is a tiny bit easier with running

I am nearly (but not quite- exams and hell yet to come) half way through my law degree and man it is tricky some days. So much inside time staring at computers or books or each other. So much staring and typing in law!

Last year I lived in a little house with very few windows. Those were the days. To cope we started running one day out of the blue. We just decided that as a house we should run. It would be good for us and we'd feel better. For me, the thing about running is that you feel better after and maybe at the very beginning but not during. Ever. At all. Which is why its so easy to not go and to stay inside and stream stuff or highlight stuff or facebook stuff. This is not good. 

My friend was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency in the midst of her arts degree heyday because she got so caught up and forgot to go outside. In such a sunny country when outside is right in front of us we could maybe get out amongst it a bit more. It feels better.

https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2002/177/3/vitamin-d-intake-and-vitamin-d-status-australians

We now live in a different house on a different street but we still run when one of us can be bothered. Today was the most beautiful day in Melbourne so after hours of useless computer time I finally got outside and ran around and really it was pretty good. End sunlight rant because of all people I am probably most likely to get skin cancer but you can't win them all.

Today in Melbourne:

Ps some sneaky indie yarn-bombing in Princess Park.

Wye River in the autumn time.

Looking fine old Wye

Getting into the blog of things

What you want in a good blog

As of this year I have spent many an hour in trusts law perusing the blogosphere. There are so many clever little blogs doing different things and many bloggers actually earning a living on their creations.

Not really the goal of this blog. 

It's more of an outlet. An extension of twitter if you will. People says blogs are public diaries but I don't think that fits either. The blogger presents a very select view of life. My posts and tweets are really but a drop in the ocean of my strange but mostly routine days. I think it is for the benefit of everyone if I subsist from posting extensively about trust law. Although it probably would help me with the actual learning of trusts.

I have blog envy for a strange and specific category of blogs. The Mormon Mummy blogs of Utah have captured my attention like no other! The fascination lies in the beautiful "mamas" who post about the beauty of their lives. They are often close to my age but are married and have at least one super photogenic child. They spend time walking around American cities with red lipstick on and their babies strapped to their chests, instagram at the ready to capture the idilic-ness of it all.

Emily Matchar wrote of the success of the mormon mummy blog on Salon.com and about her own obsession with such blogs. As another unmarried overly educated student with zero kids in my life (or in my friends lives) I don't quite understand my own attraction to these blogs.

But really I do, because these woman make life seem happy and beautiful. Which I guess is what most blogs do in some way or another.

Principle lesson from this blog: it is not a real portrayal of my life or any other- but merely a snapshot of life on a good day, with an iphone camera and rose coloured glasses. But that's ok too.

 http://www.salon.com/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs/ 

Hanging out in the home of the Mormon Mommy Blogger