2 Dec – A Pleasant Surprise

Talk about a surprise that made you happy.

Due to my self-reliant nature, and the fact that I’m constantly disappointed in people in general, I find that I get quite excited and find a lot of happiness in the smallest of surprises.

Daily Prompt – Road Trippin’

‘Tis the season for road trips — if time and money were out of the equation, what car-based adventure would you go on? (If you don’t or can’t drive, any land-based journey counts.)

There’s three continents that would make an excellent driving adventure: Europe, North America and New Zealand.

Daily Prompt: Papa Loves Mambo

What sort of music was played in your house when you were growing up? What effect, (if any) did it have on your musical tastes?

I remember as a kid, being subjected to all different kinds of music. When I was a little kid, I remember my parents were both into music by Roy Orbison, John Farnham, Van (The Man) Morrison, Sarah McLachlan etc. My father loved artists like Slim Dusty, Jimmy Barnes, Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl, Dire Straits, Midnight Oil etc etc. Mum’s music taste on the other hand, was completely different. She was a bit all over the place. She listed to artists like Joni Mitchell, Crowded House, Peter Gabriel, Tracy CHapman, Phil Collins as well as artists like Madonna, Enya, INXS, The Eurythmics etc.

Needless to say, I was exposed to quite an eclectic variety of music, and because I was too young to really have my own taste in music, I generally seemed to like whatever mum liked. As for Dad’s music… i loathed it, however, unfortunately that didn’t change the fact that I was subjected to it regularly. Sometimes I look back and ask myself whether or not that type of behaviour would be considered a mild form of child abuse?

What makes it worse is that I still know so many of those songs, even to this day. It was only a couple of weeks ago, I found myself constantly singing John Farnham songs to myself, and got a little bit too obsessed about it. I realised that something was wrong when I was looking through the iTunes Store contemplating whether or not I buy his Greatest Hits album… :-S sidenote: I didn’t buy anything… although even thinking about it now I still kind of want to… *sings* ‘Just give me a reason / And I’ll come runnin’ / When I have reasons / I’ll know the way / I’m pointing my feet in the right direction / give me a reason… <Reasons -John Farnham

GOD DAMN IT!! Now I wanna buy his albums… just FYI Whispering Jack and Chain Reaction were my favourites as a kid. I remember we’d always play them in the car when we went away on family trips in the car… even as a small child, I’d be in the back seat, wailing away…

…and now I realise just how that has affected me and who I’ve become. hehehe.

*listens to a preview of ‘Playing To Win’ on iTunes*

…DAMMIT!!!

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/daily-prompt-papa-loves-mambo/

Daily Prompt: Let’s Go Crazy

Sometimes, we act on impulse: it could be something as small as ordering that special dessert on the menu, maybe asking out that cute boy or girl, or as large quitting your job and selling everything you own to become a shepherd in New Zealand. What’s the most crazy, outrageously impulsive thing you’ve ever done? If you’ve never succumbed to temptation, dream a little. If you gave yourself permission to go a little crazy, what would you do?

I walk a conflicting path in life. Part of me wants to be impulsive and spontaneous, but the other part of me is the logical / rational part that considers all the ‘what-ifs’ of being impulsive and spontaneous; weighing up all the pros and cons. I’m my own contradiction, and it’s fucking exhausting.

I find that I tend to be more impulsive with Hulk, however he’s the one who usually says ‘No’. But to be fair, I also have my moments of saying no to things as well. I think when I was younger (and single) I was much more impulsive. I was only responsible for myself, and that worked for me.

I remember one of the most impulsive things I did was jump in a car with a mate of mine, and we drove around to pick up a couple of other friends and then went to go check out the Christmas Lights in a particular suburb. Then my friend (who was driving) simply decided to do a roadtrip. It was about 10:30pm and we decided to just go for a drive to Geelong.

Once we got to Geelong, we decided to go to Torquay, and then before we knew it, we were on the Great Ocean Road. It was the middle of the night and after a very, very long drive we found ourselves in Port Campbell. By this stage it was about 3am. I remember that it was cold and foggy. We drove past the Twelve Apostles, and we couldn’t see them because of the fog. We pulled up in Port Campbell for a toilet break, and because nothing was open, we turned around and came home – except we came home the inland way, as it was much quicker.

As we were driving, I remember we pulled over in the middle of nowhere (literally!) just so we could stop and watch the sunrise. We were deep in farming area, so all the ground was vast and flat, and the sunrise put an incredible glow on all the different coloured crops surrounding us. And for the first time the whole trip, everybody was completely silent. It was just a beautiful moment.

Breakfast was at a McDonalds at a service station on the highway back to Melbourne, and not long after that, we approached the outer suburbs of Melbourne. We then hit the morning traffic… (did I forget to mention that it was a weekday? I think it was a Thursday!) which meant dropping everybody off took soooo much longer than we had anticipated. By the time I got back to my place, it was about 10:30am… a full 24hrs after we’d set off on our journey.

I remember getting home, having a shower (and subsequently falling asleep temporarily in the bath under the running water!), then crawling into bed and completely crashing. When I woke up, it was almost midnight. I made myself some 2-minute noodles, checked all the messages on my phone (Sorry, no interest in going out tonight! too exhuasted!) then went back to bed, and slept for another eleven hours. I was wrecked, but it was a fun little adventure.

Now that I’m older, I don’t get to do anything like that anymore. However, my plans of being a bit impulsive have changed somewhat…

For about 18months now, I’ve been slowly building up my frequent flyer points. I realised a while ago that I could get a one-way ticket to L.A. or N.Y. and I’d just have to save up enough cash for accommodation etc, and all I’d need to do is pack a bag and go.

Granted, this was something I’ve decided that I’d do if I ever happened to breakup with my partner. It’s not something that I anticipate happening, but it was something that I brought to his attention last year around my birthday, when I said I would disappear overseas if he tried to throw me a surprise party…. that’s how much I dislike them!!

Now, my recent statement has shown me that I have accrued enough points for a return flight to either London, LA or NY… which I’m LOVING!! It’s not everyday somebody like me has an opportunity to travel overseas on a whim. I’d love to be able to do it, but I’d want to make sure that Hulk can come with me… so it might need some further planning. A holiday in New York… yaaaaasss!!

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/daily-prompt-lets-go-crazy/