holidays in australia

well... i've been home for almost 2 weeks now. have finished editing 'we will be remembered for this' (it'll be released soon! watch this space!), spent a few days down at the most beautiful secluded beach, and done the obligatory family christmas stuff. it has been great being home, even though my boasts to my european classmates have been rather disappointed - the weather here has been terrible! rain, wind, HAIL AND SNOW on christmas day! unheard of. still, it's nice to be home for a while.

strangely enough for this time of year, i have assignments to do! i have about 8,000 words due on 8 jan, and explaining this to friends and family is met with blank, puzzled looks, as in the southern (sensible) hemisphere, the word 'homework' is dropped from the lexicon between november and february!

anyway i'd better go. off to see a movie and have some dinner and continue the terrible hard slog of being on holidays.

very best wishes for the new year!

jess x x

have just got off the phone from a friend in baxter. in the last 4 days, 6 men have hanged themselves at baxter, all in separate incidents, quietly, in private. some of them have also slashed themselves with broken glass and mirrors.

at least 4 of these men are people whom i know personally. right now, all i can think of is the deep sadness i have seen in all of their eyes, and how despised, betrayed and abandoned they must feel by Australia.

as far as i'm aware, they're in hospital in port augusta and adelaide but at the moment i don't know anything. the press doesn't seem to care.


this news comes on the same day as the news of the death of Wendy Foran, refugee advocate, faithful detention visitor, and wonderful surrogate mum to many asylum seekers. she fought cancer bravely but died yesterday.

Nobody could stop Wendy Foran from passing away, but the lives of 6 other men have been destroyed wilfully, deliberately, and they have been locked for years upon years in a prison specifically designed to drive them crazy.

some days it's all just a bit much.

Scruffy the Cat

Here is a picture of Scruffy the cat, helping me to study for my management exam. In actual fact, he was lying across my notes, almost entirely obscuring them. Which was actually more helpful than you might think.

Tomorrow morning is the exam, then I'll be on a plane, Melbourne-bound. Can't write more now because I have to go and "discuss and analyse the criteria to ensure effective budgetary control systems are in place for donor funded projects". gaaah.

jt

probably not interesting - and this time i mean it.

hello faithful readers (both of you!),

just checking in to say hi, i'm still alive, and gaaaaah.
the gaaaah translates as "i'm in the middle of my exam period, have just done my third exam in 4 days, and i'm having trouble formulating complete sentences".

i had social anthropology on tuesday, geopolitics on thursday, and today (friday) was epidemiology (public health and medicine). the epidemiology exam was basically about flies, cockroaches, diarrhoea, dead people and latrines, so after writing the exam i feel a bit like i need to have a shower. delightful.

last weekend i moved out of my little house in Goatstown, and into a big, 5 storey historical mansion of some literary import to the city of Dublin (will elaborate with pictures in a few days), but due to the infernal wind and arctic temperatures, it hasn't really been a good base for studying. this has meant that i've been crashing on the (very accommodating) living room floor of 4 of my (very accommodating) classmates, studying with them, eating with them, going slightly mental from the cabin fever with them... this study period has felt like we've been in a nuclear bunker - we don't leave the house, our meals are quite repetetive (mmm rice cakes anyone??), and the most exciting thing i've done in the past week is to pop down to the shop to buy loo paper. oh stop!

I should probably give an update on the latest morcels of Taxi Driver Wisdom:
1 x "all ye need in this cold weather is a bottle of whiskey and a lad to keep ye warm"
1 x "even if ye've already a boyfriend, he's a million moiles away! ye should get ye'self a man to push around while you're in Dooblin"
1 x "i personally agree with capital punishment. i mean, without the death penalty, people just won't learn!"

.... i got nothin'.

it's been FREEZING cold here (maximum temps of 5 degrees, and winds like i have literally never experiences before in my *life*). but i'm going home to melbourne on tuesday, and the weather forecast for when i arrive on thursday morning is 34 degees. oh dear goodness i can hardly WAIT.

just one more exam - management. it's a bit of a nasty one, but i have saturday, sunday and monday to prepare. the exam is at 10am on tuesday, and then at 6pm i'll be on a plane home. nearly time for a holiday...

oh, in other exciting news, i got my results for my thesis / law degree etc, and I'm very happy. against all possible odds, I will graduate from Law with Honours, which is a relief! It's also made me quite philosophical but now is not the time nor the place.

OK i'm out of here. it's friday night and I'm going to go and put on a tight dress* and some impractically high heels**, and go out dancing*** til the crack of dawn****.

JT x


* pyjamas
** slippers
*** sit on the couch
**** til i fall asleep

Meanwhile, back on the farm...

Thawt y'all might like to see what folks're readin' down here at the Ag Science faculty at UCD...

Front:


Back. I'm not joking:


We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto...