Well, after my complete inability to sleep struck early on my birthday, I finally got to sleep at about 4 am and was awakened by lawn mowing at about 7:30 am. This didn't help my mood for the rest of the day at all. I got calls from Illara, Maddy and Mum, so that was wonderful. I was running late after picking up meds and donuts for work, so it was down to see the girls at 11 am for coffee. I was happy that they had remembered, so that was nice despite the fact I was desperately tired. I had a large latte and then stalled half-way through the second one. I couldn't handle it and so I left it. At that point I realized how much caffeine I had been pumping into my body and that this couldn't be a good thing, so I resolved to go on caffeine detox.
I headed back to the lab, did a little work but really wasn't in the mood. It was International Women's Day, so it was fairly busy around University. In the afternoon I retreated to the safety of my bed to catch up on some sleep. I felt somewhat better after that. The rest of the day passed quietly, chatting to a dear friend on ICQ and catching up on lovely sleep. I received a card from Mum and Dad which had the usual humorous bee motif on it. I've always loved bee's ever since I was very young (I had a stuffed toy bee), and Mum keeps finding and sending me cards with bee's on them.
Friday was interesting because of my "no caffeine for a week resolution". Basically I was going through withdrawal symptoms which weren't pleasant nor particularly bad, but which definitely said my body had become all to habituated to 1,3,7-trimethyl xanthine. At midday I had lunch with Jenni. It was really nice and we covered lots of fun and interesting stuff. She's very nice and I'm glad to be able to call her a friend. I spent some of the afternoon in bed hoping the headache would go away. About 5 pm I headed into town and was wondering how I would get to Aveline's party which was on that night in Evatt. Aveline is the sexuality officer for ANU this year and despite seeming scary (lots of tattoo's, Mohawk and so on) she's actually quite nice and knows people from many diverse backgrounds. Evatt is a suburb a long way out from the centre of Canberra making transport difficult, but as I headed into town I bumped into Llewellyn who mentioned he was going to the same part and so I managed to agree to get a lift from the guy (Graham) who was giving him a lift.
I finished cycling into town and went to Lincraft, a shop which sells fabrics, textiles and cloth. The idea of the dress I had in my mind was bouncing around inside my head and I wanted to see what the price of fabric would be. True velvet was so expensive I nearly coughed up a lung when I saw the price, but I found some fabric called "crushed pannae" which was only $5.48 a meter and it was exactly what I was looking for. I bought about 4 meters which was more than I needed, but I wasn't certain how much it would shrink in the pre-wash so I wanted to be on the safe side. I couldn't find the deep purple I was specifically looking for, so I went for a more silver-pewter colour. I also bought a present for a friend which I hope she'll like. I came home chatted on ICQ briefly and then rushed around getting ready for the party. I did end up putting on make-up and I was quite happy, especially since I'd had my hair professionally blow-waved the day before. I received a phone call from Peta (G) who said she was coming down for the weekend and hoped that we could catch up maybe on the Saturday which would be good to see her.
The guys arrived, I tumbled in the back with my bottle of left-over cheap plonk and after a almost missing it, we found our way there. It was an interesting night, with three main groups; the Goths, the Role-playing Gamers and the Queers. Obviously there was a fair bit of overlap to some extent, and I admit I having seen that much black clothes, PVC/fetish wear and Doc Martin boots in one place at the same time. It was an Ok party I guess, I've seen Aveline's house which is "interesting" but given the distance I don't feel the absolute need to go back in a hurry.
I got home and eventually got into bed (damn make-up) at about 3 am, and this is only just the start of the Canberra day long weekend. Today I've done very little though I need to take a reaction off at the laboratory, I just applied a temporary tattoo of the Chinese pictogram for "Chrysanthemum" to… well, *cough* just above my left breast peeking out from my singlet… hey, I'm allowed to! ;)
I know there's more to report, but I guess I'll post this now and when I remember stuff I'll post it later.