THAT weekend

As you may or may not be aware, at the beginning of the year I spent three weeks on exchange in France. It was probably one of the best, most enriching experiences of my life. I met 27 of the most wonderful people but grew a close attachment with 6. They were: Olivia, Cleo, Chase, Nick and Mel and since then we've kept in very close contact. It was during our exams the Olivia "Liv" turned 18 and so we decided once the exams were over we'd all treck it out to her party and have a little reunion. So, this ended up being last weekend. AND YEAH. It was probably one of the best weekends EVER to celebrate the final exams. I think we can see that in the amount of alcohol I may have consumed. Vodka goon - always helping a brother out :') Yeah, maybe one day I will go into depth about why this night was so great but for now, let me leave you with the words "so, SO brill".

A long awaited return

Today is the 15th of November, 2012. Wow, how did we get here? Is it possible that my written words on paper had taken over my typed words online? Yes, that must be it. A LOT has happened in these past 2 months. Some great things, some not so great - but mainly great.

Firstly, I finished school forever. We had an assembly in which I was nominated for "The Biggest Feet Award" which is really ironic if you know me and the tiniest feet I have. Proceeding that, we were clapped out by fellow peers in the year level below us as well as teachers. It was strangely emotional. I had grown such an immense attachment in only 2 years to some of the people that surrounded myself. It was ultimately a pretty dandy week and was ended with a formal graduation in which I sang EVERY song with the choir and BAWLED with them in the last songs we sang.

Secondly, I turned 18. It was a really lovely day in which my bestfriend and I went to the film "Ruby Sparks" (c'etait brilliante) and then during the night-time my family arrived for a seafood feast. YUM. The following night was my party and afterwards I was joined by a few friends to attend some over 18s venues. Oh that night...it was an adventure to say the least! Since then I have attended another 2 over 18s venues bringing it to: The Great Nothern Hotel x2 ("Open Mic"), The Cambridge and The Brewery. It was a nice time of my life, spending it with my great family and friends and I was extremely positive about the following weeks.

Uh huh, so then the following week started the endless cycle of preparing, studying, excersising and sleep in an attempt to "forfil my potential" in the upcoming 7 written exams. Let me tell you, it wasn't that I was STRESSED but more or less BORED. I kept a healthy connection with my friends and even went to a few more "open mic" events during that time. For once, the exams worked in my favour, maybe not so much Visual Arts, but I think I pulled it off. Such a weird time of my life. Devoting myself to getting rid of the exams. AND FINALLY. The day arrived. The 8th of November 2012 - the last time slot of the last allocated day of the HSC exam period I had my Visual Arts exam. AND, like I said, it was ALRIGHT I suppose. We all finished the exam and hugged and smiled and walked together down to the office to sign out of school forever and recieve our graduation tickets. The following night was our formal graduation and throughout the day I got ready. At about 3pm family came over to "inspect" the last child in the family's formal for a fair while. After that we went to a really great friend of mines house with 10 others from my group. The night was preeeeeeeeeeetty swell.

Oh gosh, that's a lot for one post. I think I might make a new post for the past weekend.

Haha, oh man, this is so not even worth reading but kudos to you.

Nina

I definitely just made a post in an old entry. I'm a timelord!

Spring has sprung

Spring has officially surrounded Newcastle for 14 days. 14 days of blissful, vibrant life.

I think everything is really coming together. New friendships in my own year (with people I hadn't even seen before) are occurring and its super great. It's just really cool to know that we won't all leave school and forget about each other. It's as if these little promises in our friendships is what will bind us together through the next couple of years when a lot will probably change. My favourite bet is with my art friends on our friend making it into the Olympics by 2016/2020 for rowing. This would be really cool if it happened, if not, whoops $40 to every art student. That'd be fun.

I'm really high and calm and goddamn happy. Even with this silly headache. I have a lot to be grateful for.

ALSO, YES I'VE FINISHED ALL OF MY PRACTICAL HSC EXAMS, FUCK YES.

LOL HEY PAT!!!!!

Faux Summer

The end of August's Winter and the starting of September's Spring always impresses me. When you feel an absolute warmth in the morning after a drought of cold breezes, the sun burning on your head throughout the day...even the accidental, slightly pink nose from being burnt from the unexpected heat.

Yesterday was exceptional. Newcastle was beautiful. The way the water glinted from the sunlight's reflection was amazing. Standing atop King Edward Park Hill...

And yet, it reaches late afternoon and I am reminded of August's chill and it's overwhelming burden on Spring's warm air.

It's nearly been a year since I ran to that Hill, thinking how horrible time can be. I remember being so angry that I hadn't gone for that run a couple nights prior. Maybe I could have seen him, maybe I could have changed the events that escalated.

Ultimately, there is nothing I can do and nothing I can ever do to change that but it really sucks. I have looked over that cliff edge and it's height is so frightening. I really miss him. I miss a lot of people and things but I miss my friend a lot too.

Well this was vague. Possibly obscure, whoops.

I'm really lost.

"Too late", she cried!

"Too late" she cried! is the perfect expression for this coming post.

After having finished my French Trial Exam this afternoon, I had a rather swell bike-ride throughout town ending up in a park with the sun still shining - what great weather! And I was in a proper mood to maybe write a decent blog, but each time I thought over an idea for a blog...the words kind of escaped me. Still, I persist. I would like to write a blog...maybe this won't be a "cool" blog but you know what...everyone needs an appreciation blog for their dog. And my dog "Rocco" is looking so damn cute right now.

What do I like about Rocco? I like how he instantly realizes the surrounding emotion of the room and attends to it. I like the way he greets us every afternoon as if it has been years. I like the way he "talks" to you in weird sounds. I like the way he doesn't like sitting on your lap but is always happy to join you, lying on the ground and warming your toes. I like the way he interacts with my parents and brother. I like the way he tries to hide his food from the crows by collecting leaves from around the garden and placing them upon his plate. I like the way he can open the door by himself, and how we figured out he could do this. I like the way you can hear his paws on the wooden floor boards as he comes running down the hallway. I like the way he scratches his back on the pavement, by continuously rolling from side to side. I like the way he is fluffy and white but with black ears and a long continuous line of a sandy-red colour down the middle.

How on earth did he end up in RSPCA? He is the most loyal and wonderful dog. And woah, he has his own facebook! What a good mate!

End of appreciation.

Stay Gold Mes Amis,

Nina

Musician appreciations

From the amount of hours I have slept today (moderately ill/sad), I highly doubt I'll be sleeping for a while...so what's better than writing a new post :')

I'm actually half way through writing my new "belonging" composition for HSC English based on the musician: Elliott Smith (it's kind of an abstract, last interview that's taken place just before his death). I've definitely been connecting to a lot of his music recently, I think there's something really special about the way he makes his music and the justifications he has about what it means to be a singer/song-writer. Possibly my favourite quote of his would be from this Swedish Interview in 2006 where he says:

“The thing that’s kind of a drag about singer/songwriter – the whole tag – is that it has this connotation of being super sentimental, really manipulative lyrically, as if the person singing is trying to get everybody to feel just like them. There’s a big difference between describing…I mean you can take a picture of New York and one person looking at it will think it’s really depressing…frightening. And someone else will look at it and think of all the fun things you can do in New York – and I think songs are kind of like that”.

I think this quote is true about any of the arts. I mean don't different forms of art and writing and film define sentimentality and manipulate the onlooker? I think this is definitely the case in art...there's an essence of inescapably in art from being manipulated to feel a certain way. I mean sure, not everyone feels this way.

It's interesting because I've actually never considered Smith to be in my top 10 artists until recently. I don't know what it is about his music but his gentle vocals and guitar playing is something I probably won't tire from. There is this set I was watching earlier tonight from one of his latter concerts and fuck, he seemed like the most broken man. At one point this person calls out "get a backbone" and I literally cringe every time I hear it and wait for Smith's reaction of: "I can't be more fucking for real". It's such a raw performance.

Basically if you've kept up with me about my ramblings then I congratulate you and hope you don't feel like you've wasted maybe 2-3 mins of your life if you're a slow reader. BASICALLY, thank you to my Brother, Jack and I'm pretty sure Lachlan for showing me his music. Well I think it was them, otherwise I have no idea how I came about it because my best-friend (we have VERY similar tastes) doesn't even know who he is.

Stay gold,

Nina!