Compostable Kate

I've lost friend s over my personal views about “not doing” Christma s, but it's just as well that I'm not into Christmas in a big way, as I am totally skint at the moment, and can't even afford postage for Christmas cards. I'm hanging onto my home internet connection by the skin of my teeth, so may be able to send out a few virtual seasonal greetings, although I'll probably just tweet something (it shows up on facebook, too, you see). If I submitted to the social pressure of Christmas I would be feeling even worse than I already do about being so poor, and so far away from my family. I can't afford cards, or gifts, or festive food, or any kind of party or gathering*, and can really appreciate why this is such a difficult time of year for many people. Of course, I miss my family at this time of year, and if I had the money I would definitely travel to go and see them. If I had the money I would probably also send them gifts, because I love them a...

I am going to have a lot of spare time on my hands during these uni holidays. My attempts to get some casual holiday work failed, so I have to develop my own program of activities to keep my occupied. This is the start of my list: 1. Sort out my plastic storage containers! 2. Knit all this into socks for Knitting for Brisbane's Needy. 3. Re-read Harry Potter. 4. Get through my To Read pile (this is part of it). Other activities may include: knitting Andy's 2nd sock, teaching Dexter a new trick, and going swimming at least once before next semester.

I have a task for one of my classes to draw a leaf, and write inside it my favourite poem, book and movie. Drawing the leaf itself was the easy part, although I think it's barely recognisable as a leaf! What is really difficult is choosing just one title from each category. In our very first tutorial, as a get-to-know-you exercise, we were asked to introduce ourselves and tell everyone our favourite book. Not one of us could narrow it down to just one book, so each gave a few examples of what we like to read. To select just one book, I have to think of it as a Desert Island book. If I was stranded on a desert island, and could only have one book for company, what would take? My answer: Laura Ingalls Wilders' "The Long Winter." It's an amazing story of her family's survival through a seven-month blizzard, stranded in their tiny frontier town.  It affected me deeply when I read it, and it still affects me each time I re-read it. I think that, even more tha...

Seriously, I don't like scary movies. I am sure of this, because I just watched one . It was accidental, because foxtel doesn't give any genre information in their on-screen program summary, and by the time I realised it was going to be scary, I'd already got far enough into the story that I needed to see how it worked out. Besides, Chris Noth was in it (sort of). I don't enjoy the stress of scary movies. I don't like the dread of bad things happening to the good people, especially LeeLee Sobieski, who is quirky and cute, no matter what character she is playing. This scariness stays with me, especially if I was very scared. Being forced to watch "Jaws" for my end-of-Grade-6 class activity left me afraid of the deep end of swimming pools for years, and the thought of swimming in tide pool practically gave me a heart attack. It may well still do, but I don't think I'll force the issue. I also don't enjoy scary books. I've always thought ...