Just dropping in again for another life update, because there were a few little things I didn’t write about.

iPhone 7

I bought the iPhone 7 in rose gold. I didn’t really need a new phone but Brandon wanted to buy my 6S. He was getting bored of the 5c he had (which he inherited from me). And I get to salary sacrifice my new phone because that’s one of our perks at work. It means I will save some money on the phone.

It is really not very different from the 6S. I’ve noticed that the rose gold colour on the back of the iPhone 7 is a little darker – more brown and less pink – compared to the 6S. I like this, actually, because I am not a huge fan of the colour pink. Maybe the 6S just faded to a more pink colour? I am not sure.

Hey Geronimo’s new video for Bake A Cake

It should be no surprise to everyone that I love Hey Geronimo. I mean, I saw them for the 31st time last weekend at a community festival in the city. :P Last week they released a new video for their song Bake A Cake. It’s a super catchy song that has always been a joy to watch live, and of course I got super excited when their debut album was released and I could finally listen to the recording.

The song is just so infectious and fun to sing. I even put it as my alarm tone so I wake up to the sound of, ‘Hey hey! Find a penny, pick it up’ with a multitude of hand claps. I haven’t yet gotten sick of it. It’s a wonder, really, since most songs you put as alarm tones tend to drive you mad after a while.

The video for the song is adorned with fail moments from fail compilations. Some just plain funny, some totally excruciating to watch. In between snippets of these sourced home videos are the contrasting, sharp quality extreme close-ups of the band playing their instruments. Deliberate visual distortion supports the vocal echoes in the song, and there is even an amusing moment where Pete gives Bingers a dirty look for coughing towards the song’s conclusion.

Have a watch, and let me know what you think. 👍

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUZe-sS0NeQ

Indonesia trip

As some of you know, I was in Indonesia a few weeks ago to attend my cousin’s wedding. It was a quick trip! The wedding was huge. The ceremony was in a church, and the reception was in a huge hall with a giant stage where all the professional photos were taken. Indonesian weddings are not like Western weddings – there’s no seating, and it’s essentially a buffet. You walk around and mingle with people. The wedding is quite focussed on family reuniting with family, and from the ones I’ve been to, no one makes any speeches.

My cousin and her husband make such a cute couple too. ☺️

Handing over A Day in the Life to Liz

Thankfully, my dear friend Liz has decided to take over A Day in the Life for 2017. :D I am working on making banners for her for every month of next year. I appreciate that she was keen to pick it up, especially since she has participated in quite a few.

Beck’s graduation

Nick’s sister graduated from high school. It made me think of my own high school graduation – eight years ago! – and how long ago that was. Our farewell song was Send Me On My Way by Rusted Root, and many of you might recall that song from the end of the movie Matilda. The graduation ceremony was great to watch and it was full of love for the teachers. I don’t really remember our year group showing a lot of love, but graduation is always a tearful occasion.

The funny thing about graduation in most schools in our state in Australia is that it is held before we even have our exams that get us into university – the HSC. So even though school is technically over, the next day you will be studying your head off if you want to get into the course you want.

My year group has not had an official reunion, as far as I know. There have been groups who have met up, but no official reunion where we have all been invited. A few years ago, I thought that I would not bother attending one, if one was held. I didn’t like a lot of people in my year group and I still kept in touch with those who were still my friends. But now I think it would be good to show up and catch up with everyone, even though I know I probably won’t speak to a lot of those people afterwards, or ever again.

The Lizard in the Yard

OK so I will cut to the chase: the lizard was not really found. But earlier this week my parents spotted what they thought was a huge snake in our backyard, headed under our house. I was at work at the time, but my mum called up rescue services and snake catchers, some of which promised to send someone, but no one came. Eventually she got a hold of someone who came later in the evening.

His name was Rob Ambrose and he turned out to be a pretty well-known snake catcher in Sydney! There have been endless articles on the internet about him. He was a really nice guy, super friendly, patient and relaxed. He was obviously happy to be doing his job. He said he loved reptiles since he was a kid. After searching under and around our house he did not find any lizard or snake, but said that what my parents saw was unlikely to be a snake, given the weather and the description they provided.

He did find a lot of snail shells under our house, which blue-tongue lizards like to feed on, and said that our long grass made our place a welcome habitat for lizards. I’ve seen blue-tongues before, and my dad found one a year or two back, and we just left it alone and never saw it again.

We still had to pay Rob for his service, but the cool part is that he brought out a blue-tongue lizard he had with him (so we could see what it looks like) and we got to pet it. They are harmless creatures and don’t bite. Their skin feels weird. And they do look a little snake-like when they are lying in the grass.

He said he has one as a pet and has had it for over thirty years. He feeds it chicken and strawberries! I’ll end with a photo of Rob and the lizard he brought along, which he said was going to be used for educational purposes. You can see that the lizard’s legs are a little out of sight.

Until next time! 😌