Return to your Glory Days Party

This is very advanced notice that on either the 25th, 26th or 27th of August, Heath and I will be holding a 'Return to your Glory Days' party at our new apartment.

Its not intended to be a loud or late evening at this stage, but more of a quiet gourmet wine, beer and conversation night. The plan is that everyone who attends has to bring a story to tell from their past, either from their glory days - whenever that may have been, from travels over-seas, travels to the local, or a story that helped define who they were.

Now I know it sounds all a bit sassy and touchy feely for a wannabe weetbix strongman and an accountant, but if it gets everyone out of their comfort zones and generates a bunch of laughs, were all for it (Actually, Heath knows nothing about it at this stage!)

Please let me know if you think this is a good idea or not?

Alvin on Rove Live

Alvin (AKA Nivla) May be on Aussie TV on Tuesday night! I sent a pic of him pointing at a very wierd street sign into the What the...? Section of Rove Live last week. So depending on how far ahead they record, he may be on TV soon! Keeps your eyes peeled people!

PS. There is a profile of Alvin linked to the Sidebar. Check out the Pic here

Austalian Federal Police

Was lucky enough to have a visit from teh Ausralian Federal Police the other weekend at our new apartment. i was hone alone, cooking rice, had the music turned up, walking around in my trackie-dacks, as you do... as you do. Eventually heard them pounding at the first of our two doors, answered it with a saucepan full of rice in hand and closely inspected the badge that was provided, it was decidedly not impressive.

The polite but bulky gentleman came in and started asking a bunch of questions about a young Australian-Pakastani friend of mine who had recently had a flurry of financial transactions with prominent Swiss bank accounts. This associate of mine had apparently been joined in a tour of disreputable places and characters in western Europe by a traditional Irish troublemaker and the authorities were obviously a little concerned as to just waht they were getting upto... Big shout out to the lads (and you are lads!) in Europe.

Unfortuantely, I did have a visit from the immigration department, they were looking for a young indonesia female who had aparently over stayed her visa... Should have seen their eyes light up when I opened the door with a saucepan full of rice!

How wierd is the human body?

Very weird!

No this is not going to be a sex-ed lesson, I'm less then qualified! However, the University does think I can tutor Cost Management Systems! Crazy people! Anyway, after feeling ill that time watching Heath and Sarah go through her book of gross illnesses (with images), I knew why I never did biology at school. So, in light of recent events, a lesson on the Liver (have to find some way to balance the sites approach to responsible drinking!).

"The principal roles of the liver include removing toxins and processing food nutrients."

"The most common cause of liver disease is excessive alcohol consumption."

(Vic health)

A lot of people (me!) thought the livers job was just to stop the crap we consume from affecting any other parts of the body, kind of like a big filter. Predominantly, that is correct. However, the Liver also has a job creating protein (Huh - Just got Heaths attention) and processing some food into good stuff for our bodies.

"The characteristic structure and organization of the liver enables it to perform vital roles in regulating, synthesizing, storing, secreting, transforming, and breaking down many different substances in the body. In addition, the liver's ability to regenerate lost tissue helps maintain these functions, even in the face of moderate damage."

(Janis & Friends hepatitis help)

According to Janis & Friends, these are the main roles of the Liver:

1. Regulations, Synthesis, and Secretion.
2. Storage.
3. Purification, Transformation, and Clearance.

Check out the webpages for more details, you'll be amazed to find out the liver has a role in cutting down fat, controlling your sugar levels, storing protein and vitamins, sorting out your snot and bile, controling your hormones, watches your acid levels, has a role in your metabolism, and can have an affect on what your skin looks like! Pretty impressive!

All in all, I think the message is that you should look after it, because its job is to look after you!

Lightbulbs for Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Have you seen those people handing over free energy efficient lightbulbs? Have you wondered why nobody accepts them? Maybe they are busy, maybe they are afraid they have to sign away their personality, maybe they think its just a marketing gimmik, cause they know nothing comes free.

Well, I'm not sure why people don't at least find out what these free lightbulbs are actually going to cost them, its probably just because we are sick of the personal affrontation of marketing these days. What I do know is what they cost you - your ability to trade your carbon dioxide emissions.

Carbon dioxide emissions are now a tradeable commodity, but I don't think you or I can really participate in the market - except by gaining a few cheap, energy efficient lightbulbs. What I theorize happens is that energy companies are now limited in their CO2 emissions. However, like water for irrigators, they can buy extra emissions, but those emissions have to come from somewhere. So, we have companies like easybeinggreen who offer you free energy efficient lightbulbs in exchange for the reductioninyour CO2 emissions. They then trade those CO2 emission credits back to the energy companies - which enables them to expand their CO2 emissions.

Theoretically, there will be a trickle down effect. The reduction in energy use by consumers hopefully means eventually, energy companies can reduce their CO2 emissions because they are not required to provide as much energy anymore.

Sound confusing - it is, least of all because im not really sure how it all works yet - but I'll find out and get back to you about it. However, I'm all for it.

Oh yeah - Stock tip of the day for the environmental conscious: Buy any stock that sells/manufactures anything to do with water purification and rain tanks. Long term (100years) outlook is amazing growth! In fact - go one better, start stockpiling your water supplies right now while its cheap, because no doubt, one day - its going to run out!

Day-in-the-life-of-Ange Part Two

Hola amigos!

Well while waiting for a bus to Trujillo to see Kike I have decided to write
the second installment of a day in my life. Excited? Where was I? Ok so at school..

I am currently team teaching fifth and six grades with Ko and Sarah. Fifth grade I have been teaching since I started and I really love them to bits. Despite being a class of 47, they are a lot of fun and I feel bad punishing them with boring topics such as verbs and pro-nouns this week but it has to be done. It's hard not to have favourites, but I have a few. Lil' Damian and David Octavio are THE cutest lil' guys and make me laugh all the time. And Elmer actually looks like a cross between Elmo and Gollum. It's possible. But the sweetest lil' guy too. And 'Old Man Roberto' is 14 but looks like a little old man, and the most responsible 14 yo I have met. Yeah as you can see most of my favs are boys. Don't know why. The girls are really unenthusiastic, even though I quite like Maribel and Luz Angelica. And these few are probably the smartest in the class too. So they always make me feel better when I think all is lost. I ask 'Damian?' and he's always right. Thank you. Someone is getting it. He had the cutest little red shirt on yesterday.

So I teach the fives and then the sixes who are just so hormonal at the moment. And so unwilling to do what you ask of them. Always complaining. 'Mala!' Lori and Maria del Pilar say to me. 'Bad!' Whatever. I mean they should have all got at least 19 on their solar system exam. So after classes we can go home, visit families or have recreo (recreation)and that means playtime. Yesterday we tried to teach them netball. But it turned into a completely different game. They really don't like standing still with a ball. But at least they used their hands and not their feet. That's progress. After 45 minutes of games we head home. Before I jump into a moto, the girls like to tell me that I'm pregnant. Ok, I may have put on a little bit of weight since I have settled down in Piura, but looking pregnant is over exaggerating a little. But it's always a shock to these girls that I am 21 without children. It's then back to the kiosko to buy some 'orejitas' (little palmier type cookies) and into an uncomfortable combi to Piura.

The afternoons I spend sleeping, eating, emailing, talking and more talking usually. So that's basivcally what I have been doing for the last two and a half months in Piura and travelling on weekends or hanging out in Piura. Not really that exciting, huh?hehehe you wanted to hear it!But well I am having fun and in a week and a half it's all going to be over and I am really going to miss it.

Until next time.

Ange.

The little green man flashed before me!

I nearly died and possibly saved a life or two this afternoon!

I'm a serial amber-light pedestrian crosser. Some smart postie once told me familiarity breeds contempt - At intersections I know, I often start crossing on the amber light when I know that as soon as it goes red, the little green man will light my way. I hate walking in crowds, and this gets me to the front of the que.

This particular day, I didn't do it on Broadway, because the buses in the bus lane can be damned scary! As I crossed the second lane, I looked into the oncoming traffic and just as I was about to step into the third lane, I casually noticed the guy was going very fast... he saw me, pulled an amazing :0 face, slammed on the breaks, shot right by me and went more then half-way into the intersection. He stopped less then 2 meters away from the car turning right onto broadway. I estiamate a distance of about 30 meters from when he saw me and where he stopped. The speed limit on the road is 60 or 70 Kmph.

Two observations:

1. If I walked on the orange light and didn't look up - I'd be dead or at least in hospital.
2. If the driver hadn't of seen me at all, he would have ploughed right into the passenger side of the other car. He certainly didn't seem to see the red-light.

Interesting times.

WinkMan & WinkWoman

I want to start a new craze, but its not a craze like a fashion fad, or cool slang, and its not for my own personal benefit (although it could be) and I don't want to start it just so I can call it mine, Best yet, it has the potential to make the world a better place (yes, I'm ambitious!).

The new craze will be:

Winking

This idea started a while ago and has (upto now) been a personal mood booster. When I'm walking along, a little glum for no particular reason other then lifes not fair - I make eye contact with a (usualy female) passerby, and wink at them. The thing with winking is, you just can't help but smile! Your scrunching up half your face and it naturally lifts your lips into a smile... and if they see you, the passerby can't but help smile back. Just a small way of making somebodies life interesting and making them feel good about themselves. It doesn't have to be a passerby of the opposite sex, it can be whatever you feel most comfortable with.

Now, as I discussed with Nick some time ago, for best results - don't make the wink too suggestive or obvious and most importantly - reserve your wink for ordinary people and never use it on two people in a row! In that one blink of an eye you need to convey a special meaning, you have to make the passer-by believe the wink is only for them, and the only way of doing that is to make sure it IS just for them.

By avoiding winking at only drop-dead beautiful people you are also setting yourself up for a better response, because your engaging people who don't expect it and who possibly aren't used to the attention. Besides, beautiful people get enough attention - its time for the ordinary folk to rebel!

Coming soon: The Just Jeans / Canada Exchange inspired Free Hug Coupon coming to a back pocket near you!

Site Changes

Thanks for the post Ange! Look forward to the next instalment.

I hope some of you have noticed some changes to the site. Let me know how you like them and feel free to make some suggestions for other changes.

I'm currently working on getting the recent comments section into date order, currently it operates in Post order. That is, the commetns are listed in order of the post they apply to. Comments that relate to the most recent post will be at the top of the list.

Day-in-the-life-of-Ange

Saludos de Peru!

So there has been a request from the creator himself on a 'Day-in-the-life-of-Ange-in-Peru post' so well here it is..and because i have a tendency to write a LOT, I will write in a couple of parts. It's really such a different world and it's all so normal to me now. My day begins with the alarm like any working person and it will be set for the latest time possible. I have a cold shower (there is no such thing as hot water here in Piura unless you pay something like $50 USD a night at a fancy hotel..pfff whatever) for like a minute to wash off all the dirt from the day before. I don't fancy a cold shower at night, even in a Piurian Summer, so I go to bed dirty. I greet my family 'Buenas Dias' and whoever else is in my house and head to the bakery for breakfast.

I meet the other volunteers at 8.30am and we get into a combi (it's a mini
bus meant for let's see..maybe 17 people but they will try and squeeze as
many people, animals -including dead fish, turkeys and today Cedric had a
screaming goat- as they can) but it's normal. And if you are REALLY lucky
you will be stuck up the back next to the fattest smelliest men or woman
ever with the driver going at a ridiculous speed and you will hit your head
constantly on the roof because these buses are NOT made for gringos. You
will also have the attention of the entire bus with your blue or green eyes
or light hair. Your every move. And the questions '�Donde eres?' o '�Que
pais?' (Where are you from? or What country?) A great start to the morning. We arrive in La Arena in about half an hour. And get a moto-taxi (motobike taxi) to Alto de los More where the school is. Passing through the town of mud brick and straw homes or the chakras (farms) with horses and donkeys pulling carts of reeds and people drying corn out the front of their homes and dirty looking children playing in the streets with their boney dogs.

We arrive at the primary school which has around 250 students from ages 5-14 (I have an 11 yo in my first grade and 14 yo in my fifth grade..there are no special classes for kids with learning disabilities and kids get kept down all the time)The school has seven class rooms, the principals office and a small playground, the rest is dirt. There are maybe four unflushing toilets, a small garden and a tin shed for a kitchen (canteen) Ok that's all for now..I will continue a typical day next time

Ange

lamron - backwards logic.

Try this logic on for size and validity:

Consider a world where everybody is special or different and where normal is defined as the most popular choice or the most likely outcome. Being different and special is clearly the most popular choice or outcome. Therefore being different and special is clearly normal.

If being different and special is clearly normal, and everybody is special and different, everybody must be normal because we defined normal as the most popular choice or most likely outcome (being different).

If everybody is normal, nobody is different and only some people may be special (those who weren't simply special because they were different).

Clearly, this world cannot exist. In fact where normal is given by a majority, a priori, we cannot have a world where a majority of people are different - because that would imply being different is normal.

The Weekend that was...

... was very Interesting.

Reminded me of a Discworld book; "Interesting Times" where Rincewind the Wizard is cursed with 'interesting times' in his future. Rincewind is a coward, he likes things safe, predictable, boring, planned and convenient. The weekend was none of these, it was awesome and odd at the same time.

Suffice to say; Welcome home Mel, CBD, $3.50 Vodka-anything, *12 (Approx), D&M's, Disapearing acts, 4:00am, running home barefoot. Interesting times, Use your imagination.

Thanks to all involved.

A man and his donkey.

Ok, so i have really become disturbed about the Peruvian culture. It's not the first time I have been utterly disturbed by Peruvian cuture but the information that has just come to hand has really made me wonder... And I'm sorry Damien if this is a G-rated website and feel free to delete the contents of my recent post. Ok firstly, It's a universally known fact (well maybe not univerally known.. but in Australia anyways) that people from New Zealand have a thing for sheep. We just assume because there are more sheep than people there that it might be ahh hard for some to umm to you-know-what.

And when my dear hermanito Cedric told me that he had come across some lads in Ecuador that admitted to having sex with a donkey. I could NOT beleive it. So I took my case to Kike, my beautiful wealth of Peruvian knowledge. The look on his face confirmed everything. It was true, and not just in Ecuador. So it seems, that it is not unheard of to sleep with a donkey, a sheep, a turkey maybe? anything you can get your hands on in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, wherever. Kike told me he had witnessed an event when he was 12 that involved a man and a donkey. 'It's normal' he said. I lared at him.

My friend Anne was undisturbed by the news. Anthony and I were in shock. How? Why? What? When? Where? Why? Why? Why??? And so I ask myself these questions. And I think it has something to do with the men in these countries. And then I thought, it can't just be these countries. It has to be happening at home. So please guys. Tell me. What's going on? Just a thought for today. Ange-out.

And no Kike hasn't, you know, with a donkey ok?

Normalacy

Nobody is fu*ked up anymore,

everybody is normal now.

The problem is,

normal is fu*ked up.

Society accept so much today that its hard not to be normal.

Anonymous.