Happy Birthday to Me

Well. Here I am. It's my 25th birthday.
A bottle of wine and the desire to chat to a Friend on the Other Side of the World (henceforth known as J) has kept me awake long enough to welcome the anniversary of the day of my birth as soon as it ticked over.
And at 12.01am, when I mentioned to J that "OMG it's 12.01am" he said "Happy Birthday" and when I asked how it felt to be the first person to wish me a Happy Birthday he said "Pretty cool. Would be cooler if it was in person" Bless his cotton socks!

So there it is, my first 'Happy Birthday' from an absolute sweetheart. Pity he's on the other side of the world...

Ahhh Friday ...

Friday. That wonderful day of the week. You hit the 'Logout' button on your phone, hear the three beeps and no you won't have to answer another call in your politest voice until Monday. Two days of freedom.
This particular Friday also happens to be my last day as a 24-year-old (yes, I am one of those people who likes to milk her birthday for all it's worth. It's MY day, dammit!), so all the more reason to enjoy a pleasant alcoholic beverage. Or three. Tonight's tipple? A lovely Sauvignon Blanc. Marlborough region of course. I even splashed out and paid more than my usual limit of $15! Indulgent or what? (Still didn't go over $20, just in case you were wondering).
The rest of the evening will be spent in relaxation. Ahh. Bliss. Wandering through the internet, sipping lovely wine, and eating dirty dirty pizza. What more could a girl ask for?
If I'm brutally honest? I wouldn't mind a wealthy, handsome stranger (but not a strange stranger, a nice one) suddenly calling my mobile and suggesting that we go out to dinner at an obscenely expensive restaurant - after he purchases me a stunning outfit of course - followed by cocktails at an exclusive cocktail bar and then ... well, I'm lady, so after the cocktails I'd be more than happy to come home to my bed and cuddle my teddy bear ;)
Vivid imagination? Slightly. I'm entitled to it. Fantasies can be more fun than the reality.

Have a lovely Friday night, dear readers.
xx

37 weeks ... but who's counting?

No, I'm not announcing a pregnancy. 37 weeks is how long I have to wait before I go on my European adventure. Yes, I'm a tad excited.
Having never been overseas before, I'm excited about the adventures that await me, but shit scared about the flight. The longest flight I've been on was four hours, and my partner at the time said that he never wanted to fly with me again. When we discussed going on a trip to London, he was more than willing for us to fly separately, and he would've happily waited 2 hours for me at Heathrow. That's not a good sign is it?
Flying issues aside - I'm sure a doctor can sort me out with something to knock me out or calm me down or something, although it's more an issue of being uncomfortable, so we'll go for knock me out - the excitement is definitely the emotion that I'm feeling the most right now.
New cities, new cultures, new sights to see.
At this VERY early stage in the planning process, the itinerary looks something like this: Fly Brisbane to Paris, spend 5 days in Paris. Fly Paris to Rome, spend 5 days exploring Italy - I'm actually more interested in the smaller villages than Rome, I want to immerse myself in Italian culture. Fly Rome to Amsterdam, spend 4 days exploring Amsterdam. My 'Tour Guide' and travel buddy lives in Amsterdam, so I'm sure he'll be able to show me around the city with a great deal of ease. Then I fly back to Brisbane and start saving again for another adventure. Preferably a longer one.

Of course, 37 weeks is a long time to plan, so perhaps things will change. Perhaps between now and then I'll find myself in the position to consider working over there, or the opportunity to get into my dream job - travel journalism - will present itself.

The possibilities are endless. "The rest is still unwritten" ~ Natasha Bedingfield

25 while 25

I've borrowed and "re-modelled" this concept from the lovely Kahlee Rose, as it's a bit late for me to squeeze 25 things in before I turn 25.

So what's "25 while 25"? Well, I'm going to compile a list of 25 things I want to accomplish while I'm 25. They won't all be things I've never done before, as I'll be on a tight budget. Darn trip to Europe absorbing spare funds.

Here goes:

• Grow my nails
  
• Go to the gym at least 3 times a week for at least a month
  
• Run the Bridge to Brisbane again and improve on last years time
  
• See the Eiffel Tower at sunset on Valentine's Day
  
• Eat a pizza in Italy
  
• Go to a music festival
  
• Ski in New Zealand
  
• Stay out dancing until the sun rises
• Ride on a rollercoaster
• Tell my dad I love him
• Earn another payrise
  
• Walk into/out of the city once a week during Spring
  
• Go out on my own again and have another wicked night
  
• Stay in bed all day and have a movie marathon
• Go camping with friends
• Photograph my day - one photo per hour
  
• Download classical music to listen to on my Ipod
• Paint a picture
  
• Get another tattoo
• Learn Italian
  
• Join a dance class
• Go to a Singles Night
  
• Do volunteer work
• Remain car-less
• Ice-skate

So there it is. I really hope I can cross everything off.

Travel Bug

I've not yet been bitten by the travel bug, but it's certainly been niggling at me. Unfortunately the funds disappear from my bank account before I'm able to feed that niggle.

However ... before the end of the year, I'll be going on two interstate holidays. One to Adelaide, and one to Sydney/South Coast. It will actually be my third trip to NSW this year. I hope my dad feels spoilt! Plus a special little girl is turning 2, so I'll be making sure my trip coincides with the celebrations. I'll do anything for fairy bread. Well, almost anything.

Interstate schminterstate though. I need to take myself on a proper holiday. A little encouragement from a friend (who suggested I take myself on a romantic holiday to Paris, but then thought better of it realising that I'd be travelling solo) has prompted me to research, and my aim is to head to New Zealand in February of next year. Flights are marginally more expensive than flights to Adelaide, so I'd be silly not to make the most of it.

I'm sure once I get back I'll be raring to go on more holidays, so hopefully I'll be able to save the funds to take myself on a full-blown overseas trip in around a years time. I'm thinking Europe. Anyone want to come with?

xx

Edit: Okay, so turns out I'm being more impulsive that I ever thought possible. The thought is now in my head that I will be going to Paris in February next year! Time to start saving!

Why NOT to buy a credit card

Given my current health - or lack thereof, my tiredness, my general nuttiness, and my desire to embrace as many opportunities presented to me as I can, I'm so glad I don't have a credit card.

With access to the internet and hours of daytime television viewing, if someone was to hand me a limitless credit card, I'd no doubt go nuts buying an abundance of apparently useful items. I'd soon be on a first name basis with the lovely people at my local post office, and probably my local bottle-o (although I'm nearly there anyway, not my fault they put the same person on every Champagne Thursday).

What would I have purchased, you ask?
Well by now, hypothetically, on their merry little way to my pretty blue house in the 'burbs would be an order of Proactiv (advertised by a girl who used to be my next door neighbour), a subscription to Jenny Craig in the hope that I too can show people a platters worth of 'fat slabs' that I'd lost. And a shed. Just because I can. It was advertised and I was suckered in.
If I'd bothered to have the television switched on between the hours of 9am and 11am, I'd probably have various cleaning products on their way also. This lovely blue house would be cleaner than umm.. something really clean? And I'd have a hose that is guaranteed not to burst off the tap. Oh credit card, where are you? How have I survived for 25 years without a hose that's guaranteed not to burst off the tap?
Before, during and after being influenced by televisual advertising, I'd be shopping up a storm online and buying even more useless items, no doubt.
Flights. Plenty of flights. I have two holidays to plan for later in the year, so I'd book those and then I'd book more flights just for the sake of it. Of course, I'd also have to make reservations in apartments so I had somewhere to stay when I went on these holidays. And clothes. What's a holiday without a whole new wardrobe?
DVDs, music, more clothes, makeup, goats and chickens for people in Third World countries. My my my, the list would be endless and the courier would be my new best friend.

Yes, it's probably a good thing I don't have a credit card. Especially when I'm at home sick.
Hmmm, actually, I'd be just as bad at work, what with the mall about 100 from my building and all. I'd set a new record for how much crap one can buy during one hour.

Unless I can find someone willing to repay this limitless credit card, I think it's best I not have a credit card, even with a small limit. The thought of making many a purchase and the money not coming out of my savings account would be far too alluring.

I think I have shopping issues.

Going Ga-Ga: Not of the Lady variety

Either I'm over-tired, or this sickness is playing with my mind. I'm in a particularly nutty mood today and saying some very random things. Not to say that that's outside of my normal character, but somedays it flares up more than others - like the blemishes on my face.

Nuttiness for today? Asking a mate if he'd turned into a 'homey-g' because he signed off a message with 'Peace' (He'd never done this before. I found it odd.), suggesting that I should marry myself so I could buy some lovely invitations (No other contenders for a Mr. Gemma, so why not?) ... I'm sure there are more, and I'm sure there will be more. There are many more hours left in the day.

Adventure Time

The title suggests that I'll post about my adventures, so here goes:

As a newly single, fun-loving girl, I'm enjoying the freedom of heading out of a Friday/Saturday night and having some good ol'-fashioned fun.
A couple of Friday nights ago, this was my intention. Had it lined to up to catch up with a friend after he'd been to the football, so I had a couple of beverages at Friday afternoon work drinks, then headed home to re-energise, have a few more 'pre-night-out' beverages and pretty myself up.

Football finishes, I call friend to organise the catch-up, don't get a response, decide to head in anyway. Call friend while on bus, and am told he'll be an hour (at this point, I'm about 10 minutes away from the city). Advise him that I'm not impressed by this, and it's agreed that we'll meet in half an hour. Sweet, we're on. Bring on the night's fun.

I get to the city. I wait. I try to call, the phone keeps ringing out. Call some more, finally someone picks up, but I quickly realise it's not him and crack the shits. Whoever it was that actually answered that call got a fine display of my ability to swear like a trucker when in the right mood. Such a lady.
At this point, I've been wandering around the city for over half an hour, my feet are killing me (but gosh the shoes are cute!) and the alcohol is beginning to wear off. Not good.
Knowing that Friend is not going to show, I head back to the buses and am delighted to see that there's one there waiting. Disgruntled, disappointed and disillusioned, I decide to call another friend. Immediately I'm cheered by his delightful English voice, and he tells me that he's thinking about going out. Sweet. We line it up for me to call him back in half an hour.
Twenty minutes later (I'm somewhat impatient by this point and just want to have a night out!!!) I call him. As we're chatting away, I go to cross a main intersection near my house (yes, the little green man is lit up) and am nearly hit by a car. Trucker Mouth overtakes me once again, much to the amusement of English Boy on the other end of the phone.
By this point, I'm fairly certain that I was not meant to go out this particular Friday night, and decide to call it a night.

Saturday rolls around .. actually, it was Saturday by the time I actually got to bed, but I digress .. and I'm determined that after the dramas of the night before I WILL go out and I WILL have a good night. However, I'm lacking in people to partake in festivities with. Hmm.
Coffee and overly indulgent caramel slice with a friend, and she texts one of hers trying to line me up a 'party buddy'. Further texting to as many people I can find in my phone that may be interested as possible, and I'm still without a 'party buddy'.
I summon up the courage, and decide that I will make a night of it anyway. Yes. On. My. Own.

Totally not my style. I'm normally quite shy, until I'm out and having fun. Not bold and adventurous. Until now.

So I do it. I head out. It's about 10pm when I leave home, and I don't get home until 10.30am the next day. High five to me.

Turns out going out solo is a load of fun. Will I do it again? Maybe. Who knows. This particular evening was quite successful, made new friends to hang out with for the night, had the interest of a rather attractive guy. Wins all round.

'twas a fun and adventurous Saturday night for a girl who not long ago would always spend her Saturday nights at home doing not much.

More adventures to be had this Saturday night. If you're lucky, I'll even share.

xx

Always starts out like this ...

Whenever I start a blog, I make a ridiculous amount of posts in the first couple of days, then it dies off. I'll try not to do it this time. Promise.

I do have a point, I'm not just blogging for the sake of it. Today's subject is: Music.

Music is such a big part of who I am. As I mentioned in my previous post, rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to music, and when those rare days occur, I feel as though I've missed out on something.
I could probably pick an appropriate song for every poignant moment in my life. I find motivation in songs. Two tattoos that I want are actually the names of songs.

My taste is very eclectic. Currently I'm listening to a bit of ska, thanks to a lovely friend re-introducing me to the kind of music I enjoyed as a teenager, while ripping a Michael Buble CD to my computer. Makes perfect sense.

I'll listen to pretty much any kind of music, and will listen to pretty much any song once. If I love it, I'll probably play it to death, or flick through the radio stations until I hear it again.

"This music is the glue of the world Mark. It's what holds it all together. Without this, life would be meaningless." ~ Eddie: Empire Records

So, who is Gemma?

There's no short or definitive answer to that question, I'll still discovering the answer myself, and I've been Gemma for nearly 25 years now. I guess I'll never know who I really am, but I like that. I like that every day I discover something new about myself, and that I'm exploring the many facets of Gemma as I explore the many facets of life.

A few random facts about me:

• I'm one of two daughters for my father, and one of three daughters for my mother
• I haven't had my natural hair colour in about ten years
• My favourite physical features about myself are my smile and my eyes
• I took piano lessons from age 7 to 16, and miss having a piano in my house
• I once moved 10 times within 8 months, but I wouldn't recommend it to others
• I fall in love far too easily, then become a heartbreaker
• I'm a Gemini by starsign, and I feel that I'm very Gemini by nature
• I love music and rarely a day goes by when I don't listen to music
• As an early 25th birthday present to myself, I got a tattoo that combines the two above facts about myself
• The tattoo bug has now bitten me, and I am planning my second one
• My favourite way to spend a Friday night is out on the town dancing the night away
• I'm somewhat disorganised and messy, but at the same time I can be somewhat of a perfectionist and feel a need to have things well-planned
  

...

I could probably go on, but I won't. I'll leave it at that for now, and hopefully be back blogging again soon.

xx

Let's try this again ...

I never seem to have much luck with my blogs. I set them up, blog for a while, then forget to blog and in turn forget my password.

I should be right this time though. I think I've out-fooled myself. Let's just hope I remember to blog regularly now.