Lameness indeed. So I will have to go AWOL again. I have a job at a youth hostel in Edinburgh (that's not the lame part!) and I also live there too. That's the lame part because I have to pay for internet! Which means that I will only randomly appear here from time to time. I do intend to get my own laptop soon, but the internet price fo WiFi goes up even more, double actually! But at least I can write blogs and stuff before I go online and that way I'll still be able to post stuff when I have time.

I will try and keep up with comments but I can only try. I at least get to check the internet when I'm on reception but I think they'd freak if I wrote out blogs when I'm supposed to be working!! So from now on, I'll mainly be on facebook so come and find me there

I miss this place already!!!!!!!

Ok, so here is the first of (hopefiully) many travel blogs. First stop on our travels is Greece. I've been fascinated with Greece, mainly its history and mythology, since as long as I can remember. I even went on to get a degree in ancient history so Greece has always been very close to my heart. My wonderful travel companion was my friend, Shelly, who I met at uni while we were both studying ancient history. I had to put that in just to warn you that during these blogs I may go off on nerdy history tangents.

We battled against rude air stewards, delays and jet lag but finally we made it to Athens, after what seemed like an age. You know when you just arrive somewhere and it feels like home? That's how I felt when I took my first steps in the city of Athens. It was bustling, noisy, smelly and I completely fell in love with it. It took a while to find our hotel as the street signs are sometimes only in Greek. But even though I was so tired, it was just a joy to wander the streets. I've travelled quite a bit but this was one place where it really felt 'foreign'. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Once our hotel was found, we made a valiant effort to stay awake until 8pm and then gratefully fell into the land of Nod.

Here is a picture of the busy metropolis:

On our first full day, we were all about visiting the Acropolis. The metro system in Athens is an absolute delight (Thank you Athens Olympic Games, 2004!), so easy to navigate, and we were at the Acropolis before we knew it. I still can't quite put into words what it felt like to actually see the Acropolis and the Parthenon for the first time. I'd seen photos of it, I'd studied it for years and now finally I was actually there!

We began climbing the Acropolis. Ok, first history lesson of the day, just to clarify, the Acropolis is the hill and the Parthenon is the main temple thing on the top. The climb was ridiculous! So steep and of course, we attempted it at midday because we're idiots. The only thing that kept us on our climb to the top was the dream that a small Greek urchin would be selling bottles of ice cold water for us. When we got there, no cute Dickensian street child, no water at inflated prices. Nothing. Finally we found a water fountain and I think we spent more time searching for water than we did looking at the site

My favourite photo of the whole holiday (and yes, I really am that bad at photography!):

This was also the start of my obsession with stray dogs. Athens, and Greece for that matter, is absolutely crawling with stray dogs. All very friendly and all well fed, despite looking worse for wear. I am the biggest dog fan and so I would stop and say hi to every dog. Shelly wasn't such a fan of the stray dogs... she muttered something about rabies, but I can't help it. I think there's something written into my DNA that draws me to canine DNA!

We went back to the hotel and moved on to our next destination, Delphi. But first we had to find the bus that would take us there and so began the longest walk in history. I'm not even kidding. It was at least two hours, walking in the hot sun, lugging our heavy bags over cobble stones. The only good thing was that every single guy (no exceptions!) was absolutely in love with us. Not in a sleazy way, just in an appreciative way. We got stares, we got beeps from horns, we had guys hanging out of windows, calling out to us. We decided we must be hotter in Europe, or that the Greeks like their women all hot and sweaty! And so began another key theme on our holiday, people staring at us. All throughout Europe. It got to the point that I actually wanted to stop people and ask why they were staring at us. People would double take at me and Shelly, they would look at us and then excitedly whisper to their friends. To this day, I still don't know what it was. The best I could come up with was that we looked like European celebrities because that's the sort of excitement that we created wherever we went. It was truly bizarre!

We finally found the address of the bus terminal... and it wasn't a bus terminal. I seriously nearly started crying. What was supposed to be a half hour walk had turned into a two hour trek. I was thirsty, I was tired, I just wanted to get on the damn bus. Neither Shelly or I spoke a word of Greek and even then, there was nobody to ask for help. I have never felt more lost in my life. We slowly went back the way we came and then found the bus terminal down this weird small alleyway.

And apparently, not many tourists take the bus to Delphi. They did not want us there at all. I have never come across a less helpful person in my life than this ticketing lady. She barked the price at us and literally threw the tickets at us. When we tried to ask what platform we would be boarding on, she just ignored us. So rude!

But then things got better. Because our bus driver to Delphi was smoking hot. SO amazing. We spent the whole three hour bus trip staring at his reflection in the rear view mirror. We wanted to get a photo with him when the bus stopped but turned out that Delphi wasn't the last stop and we were unceremoniously kicked off the bus at Delphi.

Delphi is without a doubt, my most favourite place in the whole entire world. It is just gorgeous, it's picturesque and everything you imagine a small Greek town should be. We arrived at about 10 at night and all the locals were just sitting outside their shops or houses, chatting with neighbours and enjoying a nightcap. In ancient times, Delphi was were the oracle hung out. Before you made any important decision, you consulted the oracle and they'd tell you what you should do. And when you see Delphi, you can completely understand why they thought this place was close to the gods. The scenery is mind blowing. The hills are so wide, so deep. Our hotel room had a view overlooking the valleys. So beautiful and majestic. The phrase of the day was "My pictures just aren't capturing the majesty!!". But I'll post a picture of the view from our balcony anyway.

And so this is where I'll leave you because I don't know how much I can write *and* post pictures.

Stay tuned for the rest of Delphi, more stray dogs and backstory of Mouche's true fear of ancient demi-gods.

... and members of TV cop shows came to investigate the crime scene?

This all came to me when watching Criminal Minds. In this particular episode, they are in a victim's apartment. There's the usual mess that you would have in your apartment. Reid comments, somewhat dryly, that the place has a 'lived in' feel to it. Hotch picks up a DVD and says "Looks like she spent most of her free time here". And I don't want Morgan going through my underwear drawer. I want to be wearing the underwear when he sees my underwear for the first time. Although upon saying that, I'm dead so I guess my chances with Morgan are out the window.

What if that particular day you were running late and you didn't have time to make your bed, you left your underwear on the floor and you didn't put the milk back in the fridge? Just thinking about what someone would say about all that makes me shudder! Can you imagine the lame remark that that guy from CSI: Miami would make about me just before the opening credits roll? "I guess the sour milk is the least of her problems now" or something equally 'cutting'.

I would be so mortified. My place right now is an absolute mess. Everything, and I mean everything, is lying around. And someone would make a snap judgement about the status of my mind based on that. Or what if I was killed the day after I did my big clean up? They might label me as an 'obsessively clean person'. Then they'd be going about it all wrong. All I'm saying is "Don't judge me!!"

I don't want Grissom checking for stains on my bed sheets. I don't want Goren standing on my table in order to sniff my air conditioning vent. I don't want Monk counting the number of black socks I own as opposed to the number of white socks.

But... who would you want investigating your fictional murder?

Hello all!

I'm here!! At the moment, I am sitting on my bed with a kitten on the end of it. I'm house sitting for my friend while she's away on her honeymoon. I'm about an hour from London but like a hundred years from my dream of living in Edinburgh. I've sort of hit a dead wall. Dead wall? Is that the phrase? Oh, dead end or brick wall. Hey, I just combined two phrases to make a whole new one, never mind. Um, so where was I? So I'm staying somewhere that isn't Edinburgh and so it is incredibly hard to search for a job or place to live there because I can't go in for an interview or see the place myself. I've been trawling the internet and it's so, so hard! Especially because I'm not going to be there until the 28th. I just want to have that all sorted out and then I'll be fine. BUT because I know it's going to be a while before I can sort it all out, I am currently living in a stressed out state. And I'm never stressed out, which is why I'm feeling so bad!!

Phew!

Needed to get that off my chest. Thanks for playing Dr. Phil for me

Travelling now seems like a distant but wonderful dream. I promised people that I would do blogs on each country I visited and I really will but I decided to save writing about it until I'm all settled with a job and am back in the grind of daily life so that I have something nice to look back on and write about.

And on a nice note to leave you with, here's one of my cute and cuddly charges while I'm house sitting

I thought everyone knew about this but after having a few people freak out on me, I thought I'd do a blog about it. This way everyone knows

It's official. I'm moving. From 17th June, I will no longer be an Aussie. I'm travelling around Europe for six weeks and then settling down, um, wherever. I really want to live in Scotland but I figure London will be easier. I'll be flying by the seat of my pants, I have no place of abode lined up for me there, no job, nothing.

So from now until the 17th, I won't be online very much. I just realised I'm going in less than a month and I've only got a few arrangements sorted out, so I need to be super organised and get everything done. My British passport still hasn't come through and I worked out that the six weeks they ask you to allow for it to come through, is two days after I go... I have been doing some serious prayer!!!!

Although upon saying that, as soon as I have lots of very important things that need to be done, I immediately start procrastinating, so I'm sure you'll see me around very, very often!!

I genuinely count you all as my friends, not people I call my 'internet friends', but my actual friends. And it might be a while until I see you again, but I shall return!

I'm ranting. You've been warned.

I hope one of my friends on tv.com is secretly a network executive and will listen to me.

So many shows get cancelled these days! Too many, in fact. And even if they do come back by some miracle (like Jericho), they just get cancelled again.

Two of my fave new shows Moonlight and Women's Murder Club just got the axe. I'm sure there'll be more if I look properly. From what I've seen, Women's Murder Club was one of ABC's highest rating shows- why would they cancel it?! And I hate how (in America at least), ABC put it up against SVU obviously in order to make people choose which crime show to watch. It's ridiculous- don't make people choose!!! So many people that watched SVU would have watched WMC too but they were never given the chance. Most of the people will continue to watch the show they've been watching for like seven years, and really, come on, it's Benson and Stabler... how is anyone supposed to compete with that?!

Networks don't give shows a fair run. Heather Graham had a sitcom which only ran for one episode. How can the executives know if the show will be successful or not after ONE airing?! And you can't cancel a show half way through the season, it's just not fair. And if you do decide to do that (may you get a very painful ear infection), then at least tell the writers before you dump their sorry ar$es, so they can at least scrape some kind of ending together.

Television ratings are dropping and I know the reason- it's because there is NOTHING to watch on TV. It's all reality these days and don't get me wrong, I enjoy a slice of 'real life' as much (probably more) than the next person but give me a well scripted, well acted television programme and I'll watch that any day of the week. And you know, what? It doesn't even have to be particularly well acted, I'm not that fussy. TV schedules are changed around at the drop of a hat. Your show might be on at Thursday at 8 but when you turn on the TV, something else is playing and you find out your show got switched to Wednesdays at 9. Next week, you watch on Wednesdays at 9, only to find that it's actually Fridays at 8.

There are so many spin offs and while I generally do like them (the Law & Order ones in particular), why are they so afraid to try something new?? When something new *is* tried, it's just cancelled after a matter of weeks. I'm very wary about watching new shows because they always seem to get cancelled and there's no point in watching a show, falling in love with the stories and the characters, only for it to get cancelled after 8 weeks.

Like Journeyman. I heard the concept (man randomly gets transported to various points in time, has to help a person back in that time. Discovers his dead fiancee is not actually dead but also a time traveller, who helps him on his way, causing trouble because now our guy is married with the cutest kid) and thought to myself "ooh, sounds interesting but I just know it'll get cancelled". But I watched it despite myself and after the first ep, I was hooked. Loved the characters, it was well written, well acted and not too sci-fi so that it could appeal to the general public who may be a bit put off by sci-fi. And after like 6 eps, it was cancelled. No resolution, nothing. Just one week, there was an episode. The next, there wasn't.

When has your heart been broken by the networks and your favourite show been cancelled??

I'd also like to bring up the fact that the number one show in Australia is consistantly Border Patrol. What?! I've never watched that show ever in my life. None of my friends watch it. I thought that I was in the key demographic but the 18-30s are getting their butts kicked by the geriatrics. Lame.

I'm still cranky and I feel like I havn't said everything properly.

New resolution: I'm not watching a new show ever again until I find out it's been picked up for a new season. That's the only way to save me from heartbreak and the loss of my sanity.

Funny story.

Ok, so at work, we get a little stir crazy, especially on a Thursday where you've got a set of people starting at 8.30 and going for nine hours and then you have another set of people starting at 12 and going for nine hours. They're long shifts and they're just awful!

Anyway, to cut a very long story short I decided to give everyone gangsta names. I was just going round the staff but then my manager wanted in as well. Her name is Leisha and I decided to name her Lesh*zzle. Then I got overexcited when I realised that it was also "Le Sh*zzle" a half French/half ghetto way of saying "the sh*t". I was in total ghetto mode when I bounced up to the counter, told her her ghetto name and then also informed her that her name also meant "the sh*t".

She looked at me blankly. Then: "Did you just call me "the sh*t"?"

I'm like "yeah, isn't it great?!" I pause, looking at her, wondering why she isn't as excited as me. Then the penny drops. I started backtracking like nobody's business!! I was like "no, no, no, the sh*t is really good. It's like the best, the coolest! I promise!". Luckily she started laughing but for a second, she looked as if she was going to majorly yell at me!!

It then became her favourite thing for the rest of the day to refer to herself in the third person as "The Sh*t".

You know when something just hits you?

I love this poem, I found it at work today. What?! It's hard working in a bookstore and not reading!! It's so simple and yet I don't quite get it and yet I completely get it and yet there's whole layers I'm not supposed to get. It's by Michael Leunig, an Aussie poet (amongst many other things). And he has awesome curly hair. Anyway, enjoy!

'Come sit down beside me,'
I said to myself,
And although it doesn't make sense,
I held my own hand
As a small sign of trust
And together I sat on the fence.
It's not schizophrenic.
Uninterrupted contemplation.

I literally have just got in and closed the door. And said numerous curse words while jumping up and down, trying to contain my laughter.

I'll explain...

This morning, I was just getting ready to go out for my run when I heard his gross phlegmy coughing outside. I was all dressed and ready to go but I really, really didn't want to pass by him. So I went out the back door and crawled through a hedge and jumped down the wall onto the sidewalk. Very James Bond!! I was dreading him being there when I got back but he'd gone inside by the time I returned.

Then a little later when I left for work, I opened the door and right in my line of vision, there CN was!! He had a mug of coffee and was just drinking it. I was looking at him the whole time but he refused to meet my eye, it was hilarious! And by the end of this post, it'll be even funnier.

I get home from work and it's already dark. Sucky. And there he was!! He ignored me and I couldn't resist it. I called out a 'hi'. I'm SUCH an idiot. He replied and I quickly got my key out and went to open the door, when he called out a "Can I ask you an odd question?". I put a suitably puzzled expression on my face and answer 'yeah'. He goes "oh sorry, we haven't been introduced properly, I'm Robbie". I'm like "hi, Laura". He continues "Yesterday, about four, I saw a little red light coming from one of your windows like someone was videoing me". I pulled another puzzled expression from my repertoire and go "wow, that *is* weird". He asked if I had anyone over yesterday and I was like "no, it was just me yesterday". He goes "hmm...", not like he didn't believe me, just that he was trying to find another solution to the problem.

I offered him one. "Maybe it was the radio we've got in the bathroom. I have it up on the window ledge, maybe that was what you saw?". Total bare faced lie which I came up with yesterday afternoon in case he came round. He shrugs. "It was just weird. Coz I saw a little red light come on and I called out a "I can see you, hello!" (which he totally didn't!!) and I saw somebody move around and the curtain flap". Unfortunately Roomie's curtain flaps in the breeze but that's in a whole other room so I don't know what he was going on about. I gave a shrug and was like "sorry?" because it seemed like he wanted me to apologise but I had no idea what he was going on about.... lol!! He then laughed and was like "Nah, if someone was filming me, I'd have done a little dance" and he did one right there and then. I almost considered putting aside my sanity and confessing, just so I could get that dance on film for y'all!!

Then he started talking about how he'd seen on current affairs shows that burglars videotape what they're doing and how he thought maybe that's what had happened. And then he was like "I was going to come and knock on the door to see if you were alright". I then replied "Thank you" very genuinely and turned to try and get into my house. He kept going on about how weird it was, especially because my car is normally parked in the driveway when I'm home and it wasn't there at the time. I was like "um... there are two of us". His face was hilarious! He had no idea that there was a Mouchey and a Roomie!!! He asked for my name again and then Roomie's name. He acted like he'd never met Roomie before when I know for a *fact* that he's introduced himself to her before. And that just says to me that he is a burger short of a Big Mac. And it also is hilarious because that means that he's not uber friendly to Roomie and scared of me!! I just find it funny that poor Roomie has had all the attention! And also if he's met her before, why is he introducing himself to me!!

Then his face lit up and he said "ah, maybe it was your flatmate taking photos". And I said very sternly (because I didn't want him going through this with Roomie as well!) "No, she was at work at yesterday. She wouldn't take photos of you". So after like a five minute conversation in which we went round and round in circles, he ended on "Maybe it was just a trick of the light". I agreed and was like "whatever it was, it's weird" and ran inside. I don't know how my Yr 12 Drama skills stood up under interrogation. I think he's onto me and was trying to call me out on it. But I was like "whatever, if you think I'm weird. Pal, I *know* you're weird". Crap though, I just realised that now we've properly initiated contact, he might start thinking we're friends or something and want to talk all the time!! I liked it when he was scared of me!!!!

I was actually kind of bummed when I came inside because it meant that I wouldn't be able to take another photo for you, so the blurry photo would just have to do. I put my groceries on the bench and saw that Roomie had written me a note. She works late shift and we often can go a week without seeing each other, so we communicate via notes. Her note to me read: "I got those photos you wanted. A little tricky but they capture the essence. They're on my computer". I ran onto the computer and here he is in all his beautiful creepy glory.

We interrupt this broadcast in the name of everything that is HOLY! I am not even kidding, this is ri-dic-u-lous and genuinely happened JUST after writing the above paragraph. I heard a knock, it sounded like my neighbours upstairs so I carried on writing. The knocking continued. I went to my front door, looked through the peephole, nobody there. Was about to come back to the study when I heard another knock, coming from the back door. With no peephole. I called out a "who is it?" and the reply came back: "Robbie from next door". I nearly died. I had this whole thing written up on my computer!! I opened the door and unfortunately had to open the flyscreen door as well. He just kind of stood there. And then I realised he had something in his hand. It was a pink tulip plant in a white bowl. I just stood there dumbly staring at it. He said "This is a little housewarming gift for you. I know I've been living next door to you for a while now but I just wanted to give you a housewarming gift". I have NO comeback. My mother's training comes out though thank goodness and I go "wow, thanks so much. It's beautiful". I take the plant from him and he's kind of blocking the screen door so I can't shut it. He'd put on all this aftershave which I can still smell. He then rambled for a bit about how he didn't know anything about plants, I laughed and said 'me either'. Then he stood there again, being awkward. But he doesn't know that I am the Queen of Awkward Silences. I genuinely think that he wanted me to invite him in. Hellz no. I finally went "well thanks so much for the plant". He reiterated that I had to keep it alive, then he shook my hand. I now understand what Roomie means about the caressing of the hand. He was like "maybe your roommate knows a thing or two about plants". I laughed again. Hmm... maybe he doesn't believe that Roomie exists. Crap I feel sorry for her when she comes home tonight. I bet he waits up for her. Normally I'm in bed but I'm waiting up too, just so I can fill her in. I'm SO glad I'm moving in a month. I wish it were sooner. I think he's harmless but you really don't know. Before he was just creepy, now I'm really feeling the creepiness.

Ok, I think we've finally caught you up.

Here he is, so you now know who to avoid in the streets! Aren't her photos the best?!

I don't get it. Is he weird? Is he sweet but maybe has no social skills? Should I feel sorry for him? Should I continue to ignore him? How the hell am I going to get rid of him?

So in the morning, I was deciding whether or not to go for a run when I hear the beautiful morning sound of CN hocking up phlegm. Very sexy. So that's a no to the run because I don't want to have to go past him at all. I was like "aw, it's a shame Roomie's asleep, I could take the perfect pic from her room". Then it dawned on me that if I stand in the shower, there's a little fly screen window that I could peer through and hopefully take a photo. I went into the bathroom peeked out the window and there he was in his semi-naked & boxer shorts glory. I ran back to my room to get my camera but before I got into the shower, I blew my nose. And like a delicate woodland animal, a noise from a human being scared him off and he scurried back into his house. I was like "crap" because like I said before, he's a very rare sight nowadays. That was like my one chance to get him.

Then about twenty minutes later, I hear him leave his house. I sneakily peek (lots of peeking going on!) out my bedroom window and see him walk past. A huge supermarket is at the bottom of my street so I figured he was walking to get groceries, which meant that he would have to walk back some time soon. I stationed myself at my window, camera at the ready. Half an hour passed and I got bored. Plus I had actual stuff to do today so I couldn't really be a proper stalkerazzi.

I get back from being a grown up later in the day and Roomie was just getting ready to leave for work. I filled her in on my mission to get a photo for y'all and she said that she was in. And she also said that recently he'd become all overly chatty with her again! She says she gives him absoultely no time of day, always has her earphones in, makes sure she looks super p*ssed off when she pulls them out to answer him and always answers him with curt one word answers. But with me, he runs and hides!!! What did I do to intimidate him so?!

Later that afternoon, I'm watching TV and I hear a screen door crash open. I run in my slippered feet, skidding around the corner, back into the bathroom, into the shower and yep, peek out the window again. And there he is!! Seriously, even back in the day when he'd hang out all the time, I've never seen him so much in one day. It's like trying to get a photo of Big Foot. So I realise that *this* is it. I go get my camera and being total stealth, I angle the camera towards him. Then I got a little freaked out because he seemed to be looking directly at me. I calmed myself down by telling myself that he was just looking in my general direction and what are the chances that he'd catch me. Plus I'm sort of a little bit above him and I've got flyscreen shielding me which is hard to see through even when you're directly looking. So I took a photo. Unfortunately it was late afternoon, sort of enough light so that you could take a photo without a flash (I didn't want him to see the flash) but it didn't come out too good: see Exhibit A.

I take a look at my findings and think, maybe it'll come out better if I'm not so zoomed in. I angle the camera again, making sure I'm personally far away from the window, it's just the camera there, when he suddenly calls out "You alright?". I yank the camera away from the window and stand frozen. I suddenly realise that I'm standing fully clothed in my shower, trying to take a photo of some middle aged guy, smoking on his doorstep. A lot of other bad words go through my head. I waited half hoping that someone else would reply but I really think he was talking to me!! CN caught me taking photos of him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm hoping that he couldn't really see what I was doing, just saw the shadow of something/someone looking at him from a window.

I turned on the shower as if to be all like "what? I'm just taking my afternoon shower. You didn't see me standing there looking at you at all. I was just in the shower and you just saw the back of my head, while I was sorting out the shampoo bottles. That wasn't a camera you saw, that was the little portable radio I use in the shower so I can listen to music while in the shower. Why on earth would I want to take photos of you? What a strange misunderstanding". For like the next hour, I was paranoid he'd jump the wall and knock on our door. I had my excuse all worked out. I've even deleted the photo from my camera... just in case But it shall live on here and in my heart. And don't fear, I intend to get a better shot. I'm hoping with the morning light, it'll turn out better. I loved that little addrenalin buzz!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give to you Exhibit A: a somewhat blurry photo of CN. And look, he even put a top on for you. A very fetching fluro yellow one too.

I've been lurking on here for a while and feel that I should probably contribute to tv.com society, so I decided to write a blog. A few posts ago I wrote about my creepy neighbour and I know you've all been thinking about him a lot (some of you in a romantic way... Suze, I'm talking to you, LOL!!) so here is the update.

A few nights after the hooker incident, he came home in a taxi but ran out on the cab fare. The driver drove up and down our street, honking the horn, obviously a little pee'd off. CN appeared on the sort of balcony/walkway of our apartment building. Appartment One (who is pretty cool) chucked a sh*t and told CN to get lost, but not in so nice a way. And turns out, Appt One is friends with the people who own the building where CN lives and has informed them of all CN's creepy habits.

I also reported that I hadn't seen CN for ages, which was in complete contrast to how he'd been before when he couldn't get enough of hanging around outside, half naked. I mentioned to Roomie that I hadn't seen CN in a while and she agreed. Finally last week, I saw him. I was walking up the drive to my place and I could make him out where he was sitting on his doorstoop. Then all of a sudden, he gets up, goes into his house, shuts the screen door, shuts the actual door and then turns ALL the lights off in his house!!!

I was like "huh???". Buddy, I know you're in there. And then a few days later, I came out of my house to go to work and he was sitting there. I avoided eye contact as per usual but he still called out a "good morning". I said 'hi' back and then he got up and went into his house really, really quickly!

I've spoken to Roomie about it and she's said that the exact same thing has happened to her. If he sees her coming, he'll go inside his house.

It's SO bizzare!! It's like he knows that we all think he's super creepy. I don't know why all of a sudden he's avoiding us. It's like we've offended him or something!!

Oops, maybe he reads this blog...

Last weekend, I found a diary that I'd written in my last year of high school. It was terribly morbid and intense. I was a total freak and I think I may have had an eating disorder! That part really freaked me out, I was writing about how I hadn't eaten in days. I never even realised at the time that that's what I was doing, it's only now looking back and reading it with fresh eyes that I can see it.

It brought back a lot of memories, good and bad, and so many things that I'd forgotten. It made me remember arguments I'd utterly forgotten (complete with fresh anger over them!!) but it made the laughter come back too. It was weird reading about things that had happened four years ago (wow, ok, now I feel old!) and how vivdly I remembered the things and all the feelings that came flooding back.

And it made me decide to keep another diary. But this is going to only be filled with good things. Every night before I go to bed, I'm going to write one good thing that happened, even if it's only "I ate a doughnut and it was awesome" (which was Thursday's entry) And then a couple of years from now, I'll be able to vividly recall all the really great and fun things that happened in my life, instead of all the sucky ones. And I'm sad to say that I can always easily recall four or five bad things that happened, that I could go on and on about but it's much harder to find one simple good thing to write about.

And I thought I'd share my one from a few days ago because it really was the cutest and strangest thing I've seen in a long time:

"When I was checking the tables out the front at work today, I noticed a little boy about four or five. He was walking a little funny and so I took a closer look- and the kid was wearing his mum's red high heels!! It was seriously the cutest thing, this little boy clumping around in these quite high shoes. And his mum was wearing her own shoes, which signals to me that some time before they'd come to the shops, the mother and son had had a conversation about the fact that he wanted to wear her shoes out. He was just being a typical little boy, running around the store and picking up all the books... except he was in red high heels. He was actually doing really well in those shoes too, certainly much better than I would have managed!".

So what was your good thing of the day??

I was tagged what feels like half a century ago and now I'm finally putting them out there!

1. I get very serious crushes on historical personages. It makes dating almost impossible.

2. I grew up as an oil brat in four different countries.

3. There's still a small part of me that thinks that a world that you enter through a wardrobe could actually exist.

4. I'm an honest to goodness mutant. But you musn't tell anyone. My secret power? At random times, one hand is freakishly colder than the other. I must learn to harness it for the forces of good.

5. I think Star Wars suck. Yeah, that's what I said.

A couple of weeks ago, this guy moved in next door to me and my roomie. Everyone in the neighbourhood smiles and nods to each other but this guy takes it to the extremes. He is *always* sitting right outside his house, in his driveway, smoking. Fine, you may say, a man's free to do whatever he likes on his property. But he's smoking whilst wearing nothing but his boxers. And unfortunately he does not look like this:

Mmm... can you imagine if I lived next to Shemar Moore. Hell, he could smoke naked and I wouldn't care. In fact I think I'd encourage it.

Instead my neighbour looks like, ok, you know the movie "The Mummy" and our heroes are forced to take along the prison warden, who meets a sticky end. He looks like him, but slightly younger and slightly slightly skinnier!! Ok, so I've established that it's yuck.

Anyway, I can always just feel him watching me and it's nasty.

My roomie does shift work and gets home at around 11.30 at night. Three nights ago, when she got home, he was still sitting outside. She gets out of her car and he jumps the wall to talk to her. Admittedly it's not much of a wall because it's knee high but it's still a wall!! You don't jump people's walls!! He comes over and introduces himself (she says "he didn't shake my hand- he caressed it") and starts chatting away. She slowly backs away to the door and is then safely inside.

She potters around for a bit and then heads to bed at around 2, 3am. (Meanwhile, I'm safely tucked up in bed fast asleep missing all the excitement!) Now, you get an architecture lesson about my apartment and my neighbour's. He lives in this house that is next door to us, but faces us. So we're separated from his front door by a narrow driveway, our 'wall' and then our narrow driveway. It's seriously like 20 ft *max* separation. Anyway, his door is directly opposite my roomie's bedroom window.

She's just settled into bed when she hears him open his door and make a call on his phone outside, using normal daytime speaking voice. She's annoyed but can't help but hear the conversation. It is as follows:

"Hi.... where are you? I'm at [insert Mouchey's suburb here]. How long will it take for you to get here?"

(Roomie's thinking 'ok, maybe he's calling a cab..")

"How much will it cost?"

(Roomie: Maybe it's still a cab?!?! Please be a cab!!)

And the clincher from creepy neighbour: "What does she look like? Asian? Yeah, I like Asian".

15 mins later, a car pulls up. Roomie can't resist the urge to peek out her window. A lady goes in... and does not shut the door. My poor sweet roomie heard EVERYTHING. And according to her, the lady of the night was a Hollywood type moaner. And apparently they talked the entire time during sex, about what this guy did and didn't like.

I actually haven't seen him since. Roomie hasn't either.

Maybe the hooker killed him.

I thought it was high time I sucked it up and blogged about my trip to New Zealand. I went for ten days and I'm now paying for my holiday in blood, sweat and tears. I've been working non-stop ever since I got back. I'm halfway through a sixteen day straight work binge... seriously, kill me now! But let's look back on the good times.

I went and stayed with my dad (and my dog, who we had to literally wrestle away from my gran!) in NZ. He lives in the North Island, about three hours from Auckland. Or Orc-land as it was renamed since the Lord of the Rings movies!

It was a pretty laid back sort of holiday. I spent most of the time reading and catching up on sleep and trashy TV. Dad kept asking if I was sure that it was ok that he was working while I was just sitting at home! I think he thought he had to keep me entertained or something. I was like, trust me- I'm fine But I think he felt bad for me so we took a trip to Taupo.

To get there, you have to drive through Rotorua. This is one of NZ's favourite tourist destinations because of the natural hot pools that are created by... um... something to do with geothermal stuff. Ok, maybe I didn't listen. All I know is that there are a ton of amazing natural pools that are warmed by being heated from the underground. Basically, it's like natural spa pools. The downside is that there is the constant smell of sulphur in the air. Which thanks to 'Supernatural', makes me think of demons! And due to the rotten egg smell of sulphur, there were plenty of fart jokes between me and my dad! I can see where I get my awful sense of humour from

We then hit Taupo. The weather was actually really awful so we spent a lot of time inside, watching DVDs. When we did go out, we did what I think can safely be called the highlight of the trip- plus something I've always wanted to do. White water jet boating!! SO much fun!!!!! I've never been so soaked in my whole life! We hit the waves at such force that the water came over the side of the boat in bucketloads, more like truckloads! Here are some piccies of our trip. Me and my dad are in the back, I'm wearing the stripes and you can sorta see me if you squint...

Whee!!!

We're all just a tad wet!

Napier was next on our list and it was absolutely gorgeous. I'm a total sucker for things from the 1920s/1930s artdeco period and this entire town is built like that. An earthquake pretty much destroyed Napier in 1931 and so it was all rebuilt in the design of the times and as a precaution, nothing is allowed to be built over three stories high. And of course, that was when the batteries died on my camera! I'll find some photos on the net for you guys though. And in Napier, they have this artdeco festival where EVERYONE dresses up from the 30s and they have period music playing on the beachfront and everyone just swans around pretending they're from the 30s. So cool. We just missed it by a couple of weekends, I was bummed. I'll have to visit again.

On the way back home, we passed a sign saying "Craters of the Moon". I always get sucked in by advertising and so I made my dad pull in so I could see what it was. It was a "geothermal walk" whatever that was and you couldn't see over the fence. By now I was like "I really need to see what this is!!" so we went inside. This was it.

Have you ever seen something look more like craters from the moon in your whole entire life????

Dad and I kept remarking how there was such an eye for detail, how they'd gotten the exact same vegetation that grows on the moon! The craters themselves were pretty impressive, I'll give them that. There were little patches where the natural gases from the earth kept appearing. Which meant more sulphur smell. Which meant more fart jokes.

This was me getting engulfed by a cloud of sukphur gas. It was disgusting. The air was warm, sweaty, humid and smelt of farts and I was surrounded by it!

This is a picture of a walkway that we took in the park. Isn't it beautiful?

Once we arrived back home, I told dad that before I left, I wanted to climb the Mount. Big mistake. The Mount, as it's known locally, or Mount Maunganui is GINORMOUS!! I'd climbed it when I was five so I was like "meh, I can do it now, 17 years later". Oh man. At one point, I began cackling hysterically because the slope was ridiculously steep, it looked like a cartoon someone would draw of a steep path, that's how steep it was. I also mysteriously became Jewish and would pronounce 'oy vey' every five minutes. Saying that, it only took 35 minutes to climb so it was only 35 minutes of sheer hell but it was ooh, say 35 minutes too long. But the pictures are breathtaking.

This is a pic about halfway up. I discovered that if I stopped to take photos, I could also rest. Very clever

Then ¾ up.

The view from the top.

This is a picture taken of the Mount where I am safely sitting down at a restaurant tucking into lunch. I mean, I've got to make up for all that energy I just expended, right?!

And now to end this blog, a picture of everyone's (well, mine anyway!) favourite dog, Joey! She was caught sneaking onto my bed...

Ok, I struggle with blog titles! I also struggle with what to put *in* blogs. I just wanted to say hello and that I'm back, so I thought I'd do a little cute quiz that I stole from Suze.

RULES: Only answer in pictures...go to photobucket and type in your answer...pretty easy...thing is you can only use the first page...have fun!

1. What's your name?

I have no idea what this has to do with 'Laura'...

2. Favourite food type?

3. Relationship status?

4. Celebrity Crush?

Mmm... I think I just fell in love all over again!

5. Fave Show?

6. A band you like?

Lol!!!

7. What did you have for breakfast?

And it killed me!! I'm the biggest fan of breakfast but i just got back from holidays and there was nothing to eat. There's still nothing.

8. One thing you're wearing?

This is apparently the shirt I wear for work

9. Fave colour?

Ooh, does this hurt your eyes?!?!

10. One word to describe you?

11. Your thoughts on the last person you were with?

12. Electronic you personally love?

13. Fun thing you did in the past three months?

14. Song you currently have stuck in your head?

No idea why!!

15. How do you feel?

Ew. Not really. I like fishing until I catch the fish and haul it in. Then I never know what to do. I turn into a complete girl and squeal and jump around, while the fish flops around beside me. Some of my best summer memories though are of me on the pier, jumping round like a lunatic with my dog trying her best to work out what's going in, joining in the fun by bouncing up and down as well!!

But yes, I shan't be here for a while as I'm staying with my dad in New Zealand and he doesn't have a computer. Madness, I know. His business does so hopefully I'll be able to pop in and see you all some time.

I can't believe all the good stuff I'm missing out on TV! I want to hear all about "Dance". Everything

So ta-ra for now! See you all when I get back, around the 28th Feb- if not before

xxxxxxxxx

Yay, it's Dance time again! We pick up straight where we left off, with the groups performing their own choreographed pieces, often with very little sleep.

The next group that's up, after two hours of rehearsal, the girls go to bed but the lone boy stays on. It turns out to be an entertaining piece.

The next group performs a 'sensitive hip-hop' piece. It's amazing, I loved it!

Next group also do a hip-hop piece. They perform on no sleep and are completely uninspired. Wow, ok, so the judges agree with me that the dance was rubbish but all that group is through!

Next group does a very earthy piece, very cool.

Ooh, the next performance is whizzed through, you don't even get to see who's in the group, what dance they did, don't even get to see who makes it.

Hehe, the next group is given the same treatment- obviously the producers are running out of airtime to fit them all in!

The next group perform a piece that is totally a Wade Robson rip-off!

Next group do this amazing piece which is dedicated to the people that they've lost. It's seriously breathtaking. All the judges agree on that aspect but not all of the people make it through to the next round!

Now all remaining contestants must dance for their lives. Then the judges deliberate.

The next day the Top 20 are chosen. Each person must walk into a ridiculously large hall and walk to the end of it (all ten miles of it!) where the judging panel are waiting. Along the wall is pictures and footage of the person who is being judged. It looks completely over the top. I love you, reality TV

The judges begin by turning down people left, right and centre. Um, is anyone in the Top 20 at all??

Gianne my ultimate favourite didn't make it in She was the Brazilian dancer and she was so awesome. Can't believe she didn't make it!

Australia, here's your Top 20:

Sermsah- the Aboriginal boy. Love his dancing but I hope he can cope with the pressure.

Kassie- the girl who had the tumour in her bone in her leg... wow, they're loving the sob stories!

Henry & Stephanie- the ballroom dancing pair

Jemma- ooh, she made it in but her ballroom partner didn't!

Khaly- the b-boy, he's cool but I don't think he'll do very well in the other types of dance

Rhiannon- ooh, Bonnie did the best fake out when Rhiannon got in. She was like "Rhiannon, I don't know about you... I think that you're a bundle of trouble". Little Rhiannon looks as if she's about to cry, she looks heartbroken. Then Bonnie continues "you're a bundle of trouble... for the other dancers. You're in our top twenty!". Bonnie is the queen of fake outs. You can tell she was a judge on the other SYTYCD, she's had experience in the world of fake outs!

Kate- a girl I've never noticed before

Jack- ahh!! This is the friend of my friend!!! And my reality TV crush... except he doesn't look as hot as I remembered. Never mind, lol.

Camilla- is it mean of me to say that she looks way older than all the other kids?

Laura- no, not me, some other kid with my name!

Anthony- he's the guy who's the brother of some famous footballer. He also is like the world champion of aerobics, or dance aerobics or something like that.

Hilton- the boy who's parents gave up their jobs to work as cleaners in his dance studio so that he could get lessons.

JD- hip-hop dancer and choreographer. I really like him a lot.

Demi- aw, I cried when she got in! She was told to 'sign' a message to her deaf sister and the message was... "I am in the top twenty"! Bonnie, again with the great delivery!

Ooh, some hot guy that I've never seen before is in. Later find out his name is Graeme.

Vanessa- she's the ballet dancer who Jason has a big fat crush on. I find her voice really irritating but her dancing is beautiful, I'll look past her voice!

Some other guy who I've never seen before is also in. His name is Marko

Then it comes down to the final four.

With the boys, it's Rhys vs Will. Both are... how do I say this delicately, a little camp. In the end, it's Rhys that gets the spot.

With the girls, its Nicki vs Courtney. Nicki was the one who stormed out of the Melbourne auditions but swallowed her pride and came to the Sydney auditions. I wasn't such a fan of her but then I saw her in the group dances and she was really good. She'd definitely grown. However, the judges went with Courtney, who's hair I totally want. It's blonde and curly, the very definition of the word 'cute'.

And now the real competition is about to begin...

Who's your pick for the winner? Lol, I'm genuinely thinking about heading down to the TAB that I pass every day on my way to work and placing a bet on this!!

I arrived at work today and a friend of mine was like "You watch So You Think You Can Dance, don't you?" and I was like "Do I watch it?? I love it!!!". And she jumped up and down and said "my friend Jack's in it!!" and I was like "wow, that's so cool". Then I stopped and slowly turned around. "Wait, Jack... you mean the the guy who auditioned to the Hairspray song?". She nodded and was like "yep, that's him".

AHH!!!! My friend is friends with my reality TV crush!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's too much!!!!!!!

I believe I actually used the phrase "can you hook a brother up"! I was so over excited! She used to be dance partners with him and apparently he's really lovely.

But how small is the world?! Out of all the dancers to get a crush on, I get one on my friend's friend!

I hope he makes it. If he does, you all have to vote for my future boyfriend

I wish she'd have been friends with Pasha!!!

As Nat introduces this week's episode, we see her in the exact same outfit for like four weeks running. I get that the introduction is pre-recorded but surely someone would realise and bring some different outfits for her to wear for recording the different bits!

Joining the judges for choosing the Top 20 is Kelly Abbey, a top musical choreographer and dancer. She stresses that they're looking for entertainers. Call me cynical but this is about the millionth time I've heard that from one of the judges. I think that the winner of Aussie SYTYCD won't be a trained dancer but will be a typical Aussie larrikin because that's what the judges want.

The Top 100's first test is a popping routine brought to them by a man with the interesting/dubious name of Nacho Pop (who Jason very seriously calls Nacho!). Nacho is also one of the top boogaloo dancers. I have no freaking idea what boogaloo is and nobody offers to tell me. I don't know if I misheard it or maybe even boogaloo is a new word for 'rad' or 'cool'...

With only an hour's rehearsal time, the dancers are put through their paces. But there's a catch. From the minute they started rehearsal the dancers were being judged and ten dancers are called to the stage and five are cut instantly, before they've even danced a step. Harsh. But then we get to watch the rest of the 100 perform and some are AMAZING, I can't believe that's them after knowing the steps only an hour!

I wonder where Bessy is? And my friend Gianne. And my Broadway hottie, Jack. And I'm kinda mad at the ads for spoiling who's in the Top 20 because I'm recognising faces now from the early teaser trailers for SYTYCD. I'm still hoping that they just got randoms from the top 100 to perform for the trailer but I don't think so.

Ooh, it's getting brutal. After each performance, each person is critiqued. If it's three 'no's' from the judges, they're gawn. If it's two no's, then they have to 'dance for their life'. That phrase always makes me laugh Wow, some people that I thought were really good dancers got cut.

AHHH!!!!! Jensen!!!!!!!!!! An ad for Good News Week just popped up and there was Jensen, looking a bit uncomfortable but so super fine! Anyway, back to Dance...

Day 2- learning a ballroom routine, the cha-cha. The choreographer is some Aussie guy who choreo'd 'Burn The Floor'. I always wanted to see that. Never mind. Ooh, they're doing cha-cha to PussyCat Dolls' music. Love it!

Hehe, one really tall girl is paired with a really small boy. Awkward! But they use it to their advantage and she effortlessly lifts her leg on his shoulder to start the dance and instead of looking funny and/or creepy, it looks super hot and the judges love it!

Oh, there's Bessy. She doesn't make it through. More talk about her not only being a survivor, but a winner. Geez, these judges do go on!! Next to go is BJ, the boy who just seemed to do pirouettes, who was incredibly sick in the auditions. When he's cut, he talks back to the judges, not in a rude way but explains that if he was given the chance to 'dance for his life', he could prove to them that he deserves to still be there. Good on him for giving it a go. His routine seems to consist of all these pirouettes, just like before which is what the judges didn't like about his original routine. I expect them to blast him but they LOVED it and were all like "you had to dance better than every single one of those people out there... and you did! You're still in". Ok, it's official. I know nothing!

Day 3- learning a lyrical/jazz piece taught by Kelly Abbey who seems to want to be the Mia Michaels of Oz. NOOOOOoooooooooooooo, they're dancing to that John Mayer song that was used repeatedly (to the point that I thought I was going to throw my remote at the TV- and I honestly *LOVE* John Mayer!!) on the American version of SYTYCD!! Apparently this piece is all about joy.

Suresh (??? Samesh?? I didn't quite catch his name but the Aboriginal boy who danced fantastically in his own style) is having trouble learning the routine and you can see the stress it's having on him. Kelly has a little chat with him to try and keep his spirits up and not give up. Then he's just about to perform with his group and he walks offstage. Kelly again goes to talk him into performing. He performs with his group and is really good!! The judges tell him to believe in himself and lose that self doubt and put him through to the next round. The reality TV cynic in me wants to say that they might not have put that much effort into keeping him, if he was one of the many blonde little girls that are floating around in this competition...

Wow, all Nat does is dole out hugs. I could do that job!!

Then I had to go to the loo and I missed a bit but I think that the remaining people were split up into groups, given a song and then sent to do their own choreography to perform the next day! V. stressful and most groups practised through the night and performed on no sleep. The first group started in like this human pyramid thing and used a bit of everyone's styles. The judges loved it and pretty much everyone went through. The second group had a themed dance where the girls were mannequins and the guy was the puppet master. The judges hated it, I thought it was great! The third group did what Matt called a 'drag show'. Everyone hated it- apart from Jason, who normally hates men dancing effeminately. The fourth group all hate their choice of song (excuse me but how can you hate Queen?!) and you can tell by their uninspired choreography.

Then abruptly we're shown the SAME ad for 'next time...' that we've been seeing at the end of every. single. episode and the show is over! Wait! Did all the groups get to perform? Or are they leaving the shots of their performances for tomorrow?? Will the Top 20 EVER be picked?? Will we be subjected to the same teaser trailer for 'next time...' at the end of Monday's ep.

Find out tomorrow!