Can you close the doors from the outside?

Friday, I got Monday on my mind.

This evening I caught up with the rest of the world and watched HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON in "eye popping" 3D.

Once again, I will state that 3D is not needed. Its currently a pointless aesthetic that everyone's grabbing at. That said, the 3D in DRAGON was quite decent.

I think what really had me here, the selling point if you will was the Chris Sanders. The Chris Sanders brought this beautiful retelling of the ugly duckling into a breathing reality. True, the main character of Toothless resembles his previous box office winner Stitch, but so do all his characters.

This movie hit all the right chords for me. With two outcasts coming together and forming a co-dependency that strengthens them and the world around them, the tears were in no short supply. The beautiful themes of companionship, love and being true to one's self just ate away at my loneliness and left me with a yearning for a bond such as that of Hiccup's and Toothless.

Fruit of the Moment: New Mustard

What kind of f*@:ed up assary IS this?

Today was such a sleepy day.

I did get to work a hour early. And there was very little to do today, despite receiving a call at midday from Shanghai asking about my progress (very little). And out of the "very little" pile of itsy bitsy things to do, I managed to stay occupied for the whole day.

I'd say the highlight of the day was the Steve Martin Double feature: Father of the Bride Parts I and II. And a poorly written script it was. The whole thing is narrated. BOTH movies. Shameful writing. I remember watching these films when they first came out. I thought they were the bees knees. A nice slice of nostalgia.

The "maintenance" plan arrived in the email today. It had virtually no difference to the original diet. Screw that for a pair of sixpence. I rebelled with jam, avocado and sultanas (in separate meals of course). Now I feel very sick having all that sugar. Blame that mad cap diet I was on.

Fruit of the Moment: Visa Fail

Double Bay

Gotta love a Davenport pickmeup kinda day.

I am sorry to report that I not yet received my final spreadsheets of diet data. So the aforementioned graphs can not be created. However, soon they shall arrive in my inbox and all will be well.

Work was such a rewarding experience today with checks and yarn-dye stripes for the men's 2011 2 pack boxer-shorts. The Dav design assistant was an amazing help at every step of the way. It was such a perfect pantone pickathon that we even got a green boxer in! Green, I have been told is not a very commercial colour.

The LOVESONG fliers arrived in the mail today too. And not a moment later I was handing them out to the office staff left, right and center.

Those of you will be glad that Mr Wednesday was overly joyed to see a flier. And a little embarrassed to ask for my phone number, which he lost after I gave it to him 2 weeks ago on a post-it. Now, safely in his iPhone, we shall see if anything comes of it...

Now that my diet is over, I'm feeling insanely hungry at dinner time. Which had me reaching for seconds at cheap Asian Food World in Chinatown with Genevieve before heading off to rehearsals for LOVESONG.

The rehearsal went super smooth with Peter and Hanni, despite having to spend my last dollar on a public phone to call my mobile which was locked inside the old church we rehearse in as I foolishly locked myself out half way through the run.

The drive home was scary and sleepy.

Fruit of the Moment: Vegetarian Eggplant

There's gonna be much blogging. I'm jealous

Today was a day of rebirth, revisiting and repayments.

STEP ONE on our magical journey begins late last night, with an online booking for the happiest place (and second happiest place) on Earth. Yes that's right. I'm spending 14 glorious Orlando Days in both Disneyworld and Universal Studios!!

After much deliberation of three days, I bit the bullet and secured 11 nights inside the Disneyworld theme park, and four nights at Universal Studios. Giving me a total of 10 days in Disneyworld and 4 days in Harry Potter World!

STEP TWO along the war path was an office devoid of any upper management. We all came in and thought we should be wearing silly hats or something. After yesterday's turn of events, I definitely needed a perk-me-up.

Another designer sat down with me today and had a long chat about how to process yesterday's events. Having assessed the work I showed them from the "rejected pile" they became dumbfounded. They reassured me my work was beautiful. "Perfect" was also an adjective thrown in there for some. This, I assure you perked my spirits higher than any coffee van double strength long black without sugar could.

STEP THREE along the line was spreading the Star Wars joy! Currently, Brendan and I are "watching" Empire strikes back. As part of Gen Y, we are quite capable of multitasking online tasks in conjunction with film viewing. We have just passed the "I love you" / "I know" scene. So cool.

FINAL STOP aboard the Hogwarts Express was the CONCLUSION TO MY DIET! Tomorrow, I shall have some visual aids and report on my progress with perhaps a graph or two. Needless to say over the course of 12 weeks, I lost 14Kg!? Something 12 weeks ago I would have believed impossible. Glen informed me that I could be soon smelling my own feces through my rib cage.

I therefore celebrated with Thai. It was a shame that the home delivery service in Campbelltown finds it difficult to understand complicated requests such as "I'd like to order satay chicken" or instructions such as "I live at the following address". The soup was delicious. As was the large rice :)

Fruit of the Moment: Chewtoy

Its on the Saturday isn't it?

In summary: today taught me that I have no affinity with the BRAND X signature.

When two lines of Underwear are canceled because your design wasnt up to scratch, it makes you very upset. Indeed it made me quite emotional.

Today, a good 10 minutes were spent trying to compose myself in the privacy of the men's room. This was after being informed that all of my work for one particular brand had been abandoned. Quite a blow I'd say. And out of left field for me. I just didn't know how to process it except with hundreds of tears.

I've only broken down twice before at work. Once when I was a prac student and told in a basic condescending way that I was a terrible teacher, I would never amount to anything, and have no creative skill whatsoever. This information I held in until getting to the car and then let loose. I decided never to work at that school when I graduated. And never have.

Another time was when I was locked in a room with my 2 supervisors, being heavily criticised for my first attempt at writing reports. This resulted with a composed walk to the Korean Office and an emotional phone call to my parents. They ended up coming down to work. To add to matters, I had the previous night come out of the closet to my best mate, and was disturbed when I got a phone call from his parents the next day (10 minutes before my "meeting" with my supervisors) asking if I knew where he was. As I didn't know the post emotional sledgehammer twisted the scenario into some kind of soap opera where my mate couldn't handle being the best friend of a homosexual and took his own life. This of course would have never entered my head, had my supervisors a) kept their office door open and b) treated a first year teacher with the support he needed.

You will be glad to note that the Principal of the school was horrified at how the situation was handled and I received a new supervisor as of that day.

Today, I was only told that all the work I had slaved, and done overtime for, and re-worked, and re sized, and re-everything over the past 5 months had ALL been scrapped. ALL of it. I'm kinda impressed how little crying I did. My only call for help was to Genevieve who told me I should print off as many colour posters as I could and visit a few porn sites. I did neither.

I even managed to stay at work for a further 2 hours, as working tirelessly on the unused designs had put me behind with every other brand that needed me.

Tomorrow will be a new day and I will be having loads of coffee. And with a new mindset that everything I approach for Brand X will be with a new mindset.

Fruit of the Moment: Improvised Grilled Eggplant & Veggie Sausage Sandwich

Losing this year's winter crop; finding it is snowing...

This morning was my second 8mile. With a good nights rest and a sunny morning, 8am is not such a daunting time for the weekend.

It took me a while to establish a loop, and in practice it was a little hillier than expected. But I made it, and slightly improved on my time from last weekend.

Today was a great day to spend by myself, putting my room, clothes and things in order. Catching up on some creative projects and researching travel plans were all part of my Sunday Monologue.

Louis had asked me 2 weeks ago to design a logo for his new software design company. Called "Guardian Software Design", I initially thought of an 8-bit angel as their logo.

Here's my efforts in 8-bit design.


I also busied myself with planning my Disneyworld vacation with the online vacation planner. After a few hours, I came up with what I found to be the best deal I could find with the maximum amount of extras at minimal costing, totaling at $1,800.

Now, for 10 days living in the park with all meals, it doesn't sound too high. $180 a day is pretty good for entry, food and accommodation I'd think. This is of course with the BUDGET hotel room, with very little in the way of space. But who's staying in their $1000 a night room when you have DISNEYWORLD right outside? Right?

Adam, meanwhile had appreciated how much I had appreciated his Song Cycle LOST AND FOUND. Waiting in my inbox were a few demo recordings from the show. They continue to be fabulous. I'm totally excited about seeing his work realised. It's really amazing stuff. I kinda had it playing on loop all day.

Mum meanwhile has bought herself an iPhone. Shes real excited about it too. It seems I've created another mac minion for my elite armed forces.

Fruit of the Moment: 6 hour pasta

Okay, i'm gonna go cos i'm on the toilet

Today, there was no glorious sleeping in.

There was also pain and discomfort.

I had consumed a large portion of food after 10pm last night, and my stomach, all shriveled and small was rebelling against the strain. Particularly since I had about 400g of dried fruit.

It was nice however to arrange a little bit of order in my life before tralumphing down to Wollongong for the Contemporary Musical Theatre Workshop Performance. Things like washing, ironing, cleaning, etc can all pile up so easily when you don't spend any time at home.

Being responsible with food intake today, Glen called me up at around 20 minutes into my trip down the Gong and asked if I was able to do a Lorenzo's dinner tonight instead of last night. There was much celebration of mind and stomach.

It was arranged post Cabaret to meet at 8:30pm for delicious deliciousness. And it was. It may not have been low calorie, but it was amazing.

The Cabaret went splendidly. I was relieved that there were music stands set up for all the performers, and that safety net was a blessing to an unpolished performance. I managed to put a plug in for LOVESONG before singing Dont Let Me Go from the music Shrek. Everyone loved it. Of course, its such a cool song, its hard not to. Also, I was a little bit smiley after a few more assessments from the audience... :)

But the big surprise of the evening was Adam showcasing a composition of his from a musical he's writing LOST AND FOUND. It was a beautiful ballad. I hear there are many more in the Song cycle. Cant wait to hear them.

Fruit of the Moment: Dessert Lament