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 |   Nothing official here; just come chill! |
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Welcome! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Welcome to my little Den! Here you'll find all sorts of things- mostly blog challenges, but mixed in, you'll notice:  I'm a bit of a fangirl  My life is very busy I enjoy using emoticons  I don't tend to swear, but stuff happens. |
| Hope everybody is enjoying themselves so far. Our next destination is Adelaide! We are staying in the Playford Mgallery  in Adelaide, South Australia for today. We've got a free morning for exploring the city, and lunch will be a packed picnic at {x-link:https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=kingston+gardens+adelaide&FORM=HDRSC2}Kingston Gardens{/x-link} on our way to the Beaumont House from 2-4:30. Make sure your watches and phones are set in the correct time zone- Adelaide is 2 1/2 hours ahead of Perth and Broome! We'll spend the night in Adelaide, but tomorrow is an early start- we're driving 3 hours up to Port Augusta at 6 am, to get there by 9 am. Hope nobody gets carsick!Once more, we arrive in the city at some hour close to midnight and finish checking into the hotel really close to midnight. Everyone is tired, and I don't blame them. Hanna ~ Be Kind 💕  was struggling to keep her eyes open in the car and I think fell asleep on Elycia Lee ☮  at some point.  Most of the rooms are 3 people each again, though some of us seem to have snagged some sleeping bags from the last residence and decide to do a big room with 5 people, and 2 rooms with 3 people for the females. I end up on the sofa bed again, rooming with Hanna ~ Be Kind 💕 Kit  Elycia Lee ☮ and SB Musing  . In the morning, I sneak out early-ish to check out the railway station and parliament house, and find that AlyCatAuthor HAPPY 4th!  and Andy~hating university had the same idea, so we go off adventuring together. We pick up breakfast at the railway station- I get a white hot chocolate to sip and blueberry muffin to munch as we walk to the Parliament house. It looks a little foreboding to me, but we end up going in and assimilating with a school group, so we pretend to be chaperones and listen to the teacher explain about Parliament. We sneak out of the group once we hear they're going to do a debate, Parliamentary Style, because that doesn't sound much fun. We decide it's about time to return to the hotel, and BlueMoon and Spacecat are waiting in the lobby for the picnic. Brother Nature 's Andre seems pretty excited, too, when I see him in the hallway. I think he wanted to play hide and seek in the park. Heading to the picnic and Beaumont house will be an interesting experiment in terms of drivers- we have me, Kit and AlyCatAuthor HAPPY 4th! driving, though with only 13 of us I think we can get by squishing into two cars. Hey, Hanna ~ Be Kind 💕 , you up for driving, too?  We may need one more driver on the long roadtrip days so we don't have people falling asleep at the wheel! *coughs* No previous driving experience is necessary *coughs*The picnic ends up to be wonderful place to run around, which alot of us do after eating. Andre does, indeed, initiate a game of hide and seek, and we all insist that since he's the monkey, he should be finding us- otherwise he'd hide up somewhere nobody can find. WakeUpAndLive️~🚬🚭2024  ends up being the hardest to find, and even Andre almost gives up until we spot her behind a bush.  Hide and seek turns into tag, and we all run around for a while, which attracts strange looks from other visitors. We almost lose track of time, but Lyn's a Witchy Woman  points out it's nearly 1:30 and that we'd better get going if we're going to make the tour of Beaumont house, so we all pack up our stuff and head back to the car.Beaumont house isn't that far away from the gardens, but we get to see the inside of the treasury house, which is kind of cool, and be led around the surrounding gardens. Thankfully we don't lose anybody in the massive place- we all got in and out, and no monkey business! After the tour, we go back to the hotel, where Kit invites me to Hahnsdorf with her. It's a nice little german village, and I find myself having a chicken schnitzel and apple streudel.  Looks like dinner's been taken care of! We decide not to stay for too long, since we both need our sleep, and each have a car to drive. Look out people, we've got two unlicensed drivers on the road tomorrow morning! |
| It's day 2, and we are in Perth! Perth is still in WA, so we won't be changing time zones just yet. We're checking into Adina Apartment Hotels nice and early today, because we're going on the Fremantle Lunch cruise from 9:45 am to 2:45 pm. Hope you got some shut-eye on the plane! If not, you can always use the time after our cruise to catch up on your Zs, or explore the city and buy more souvenirs. Just make sure you're back by evening so you don't miss the flight to Adelaide! We arrive in Perth late on the 1st- and it's nearly midnight once we get to the hotel. Which is just as well, because I could sense Kit getting fidgety in the car while everyone else took mini-naps on the way to Adina. Brother Nature 's Andre comes out and alarms the shuttle driver, which wakes up SB Musing , and when she sees what has just happened, the three of us have a good, silent laugh, so as to not further disrupt the driver or wake up the others.When we do arrive at the hotel, we head into our respective apartments- we find the girls' apartments have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms each, with a total of 12 single beds and 6 sofabeds, which is way more beds than people. I room with Kit and Hanna ~ Be Kind 💕 and take the sofabed because they can be pretty comfy. Lyn's a Witchy Woman suggests we use the spare rooms to store luggages in the morning, and we think that's a pretty good idea and keeps the actual bedrooms nicer and less clutteredI decide to skip breakfast in the morning and just wait for the lunch buffet on the Fremantle Cruise, because, hey, it's a buffet, and it's included in the fare. I'm going to make the most of it! And they pulled the flyer from the site so I'm assuming it's a buffet. I learned a bunch more about Perth on the cruise, and saw some cool sights and sites, which I decided I wanted to visit afterwards. I ask around and AlyCatAuthor HAPPY 4th! and BlueMoon both seem interested in being touristy with me, but everyone else seems pretty tired so Princess Megan Rose 22 Years  leads them back to the hotel. Apondia  , Andy~hating university , Spacecat , and WakeUpAndLive️~🚬🚭2024 say they will join us for dinner, though, before we fly out to Adelaide, and will bring along whoever else ends up being awake at that time.And we end up hearing this song at dinner, which remains stuck in our heads until Kingdom Come. [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] |
| I promised I'd try to keep up. And I like to keep my promises. So considering I'm the hostess this month, I'll be joining along in this wacky Aussie adventure. G'day everyone! Welcome to the land down under, or Down Under, as we like to call it. I am Dragon is hiding, and will be your Australian blog tour guide for the month of December. I hope you're all ready for a month of adventure and fun; we are in Broome, Western Australia (WA) today, so once we check into our hotel, Kimberley Sands Resort/Spa , we're going on a half-day seaplane tour of the city at 11:14, then you'll have the rest of the day to yourselves until we fly out to Perth in the evening.And after that, if you are interested in becoming a designated driver for the month, please reply to "Re: December's Activity." !  Okay I've never actually been to about 3/4 (or more) of the places we're going so this is going to be fun. From what I see, we've got WakeUpAndLive️~🚬🚭2024, Lyn's a Witchy Woman, Kit, Fivesixer, Elycia Lee ☮ and Andy~hating university. I heard Brother Nature express interest but haven't seen him around yet. Maybe he's got acrophobia and doesn't want to go on the seaplane tour.   I wonder how everyone is going with their jet lag, as well... The seaplane tour shouldn't be tiring- and no, 11:14 is not a typo- it actually leaves at 11:14, so we probably leave the hotel around 11 to get to the place on time. We'll be taking the 11 train (aka, our legs  ) to get there, because it's really not that far away (if I remember correctly from the maps! ) It's a balmy 37°C outside, which I think is about the mid-90s in Fahrenheit, which means it's definitely time to don those sunnies, shorts, singlets (tank top) and thongs (flip flops/sandals! ) and prepare for a good time. The breeze, at least, is cool, but the sun beating down on us without clouds for shade make it pretty hot, which means it's wise to prepare sunscreen, even if we will be on a moving plane. After the seaplane tour, I go back to the hotel to cool off a bit with Elycia Lee ☮ and WakeUpAndLive️~🚬🚭2024, and we decide to grab an early dinner at the Dragonfly Cafe alongside Kit and Fivesixer because it's got some nice, healthier options and smoothies. And who doesn't like smoothies? Someone texts Lyn's a Witchy Woman and Andy~hating university and they end up meeting us there as well, so we all eat together before flying out to Perth tonight and settling into the hotel there to sleep. It's a 2 1/2 hour flight so I suppose we fly out around 8 to arrive around 10:30 and check in, get settled, and sleep!******and that is what I should be doing right now. But hey, I kept my promise, yes? You know who you are. |
Did you have an after Thanksgiving or Black Friday tradition when you were a child? from Prosperous Snow celebrating  for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" Ummmm not that I can remember, though last year, uncle and I went Black Friday shopping, which was quite fun. We even did the right-after-Thanksgiving-dinner rush, which means we left around 5 and got back around midnight, even if we weren't done yet. I remember I missed out on a pair of leggings because Mom semi-demanded we go back to get our rest, then continue on the next day (which we did, but the leggings were gone!). I didn't hesitate to let Mom know, of course.  Then, there was another Thanksgiving in 4th grade (I want to say 4th grade- either 4th or 6th, I think 6th now, because we got a new car that year, too, and it never had a Dapplegray sticker on it.) I just looked and it was 4th.  Anyways, there was a big visit from Australia- Grandfather, an aunt, a cousin (Uncle's ex's sister's youngest son, who's still older than I am! ), and Uncle. We even had a turkey stuffed with Taiwanese-style sticky rice. I'm sure there was more to dinner than just a turkey, but that's what I remember, because we never get turkey, like, ever. Mom told me and sis we were going to a new place that night, going to eat at the Loop House. Turns out, the Loop House was the Pool House, and the food was already all down there waiting for me and sis. I don't remember much else, besides it being cold and dark, and me and sis were all bundled up at the front door, waiting for Mom to take us to the Loop House, and then she was all "why are you at the front? You haven't figured it out, have you? The Loop House is the Pool House!" and we were both probably just going "ohhhhhhhhh!  " Aaaaand that's about it.  most of the time we don't make much, because it's just three of us, so Thanksgiving really isn't a big deal at our place. |
| Spellbinding: Write a magic spell. Ugh I'm on my hotspot to get on right now and I'm due back outside to make biscuits soon. SO I guess I'll have two spells- one to stop time (but you can still move about!) and another for ever-working internet. That'd be nice, wouldn't it? Okaaaay here goes: Minutae Freeze! Then it'd forever stay 2:24 until I unfroze the time. And I really shouldn't be on, anyways.  Though I suppose it's good that 1/2 of the guests will be late (party of 4, 8 of us total) so I have a leeetle bit more leeway in terms of time and such.annnnnd: Networkay Everlast! For an everlasting network connection. Long story short, I called dodo this morning and was probably on hold for about 25 of the 40 minutes I talked to the guy. And the guy wasn't very friendly, either. His sass was off the charts. and he still expected us to rate him out of 5 on a survey after he hung up and I was like nuh uh *hangs up* I probably could've gotten the guy fired. His name was Edward, if there's any DoDo people out there reading this. And I did not find his service very helpful until he finally said they'd send a technician over.........except we'll get a notification first..... ....and that notification will come in 24-48 hours. Dead as a dodo, indeed. |
| I suppose I can say I've been lucky enough in my life to not have encountered depression or the stuff surrounding it, but at the same time, that means we were never really taught how to interact with those who did. I won't deny it- my school district was pretty well off, but that also means topics like depression, death, or suicide weren't that frequently discussed. It was more about drunk driving, safe sex, no drugs, and cancer. Cancer- it's an odd topic to be discussed, yes, but we had 3 students in the district- two in my grade, actually- with Hodgkin's lymphoma- one of whom actually passed away a few years back. Yes, we did have counselors and support staff you could talk to, but at the same time, those bright red counseling office slips aren't the most discreet in the world, and, well, if you're called in (and not a high-achieving student), it's pretty obvious you had "problems", and the counselor was seeing you because you were in trouble at school or otherwise. Case in point: I had a friend who "disappeared" from school for about two months. My friend group wasn't large- maybe 8-10 of us on any given day, and seeing that it was 11th grade, lunch also meant club meetings and different extracurriculars, so out of the 10-15 of us total, we'd usually be a group of 8-10. I found out about two weeks in that she was "sick"- obviously it wasn't something anyone else knew, but the person who told me (over Skype) was good friend with both her and me, and figured I wouldn't be one to blab. And I wasn't- I barely talked anyways. I preferred to listen in to others' conversations. She didn't take her AP tests and she dropped down into English 3 Honors instead, and I think she dropped about half of her extracurriculars? It was pretty major when I found out the severity. She was Chinese, too, and our moms were/are friends, so the next time they met up, Mom did get the full details. My friend called it burnout. I think the counselors called it depression. And the girl had supposedly mentioned how she previously (years ago) had had thoughts of hurting herself, which *probably* led to the counselor pushing the emergency button under her desk1 They called her parents and everything, from what I know, and I think she still goes to see a psychologist. And the family covers it up usually, by saying she has a doctor's appointment. It's a whole matter of saving face, I'm pretty sure, which is another rant for another day, but yeah, that happened. I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, it can happen to anyone. And they may not be open to sharing it, but it is important to at least open the conversation with them. Here in Aus, there's a suicide-prevention charity called R U OK, that literally asks you to go around asking people "Are you okay?" It's a really simple question, but not many people ask it, though it can easily save someone's life. And don't just ask to ask, ask because you actually want to know. The person may end up opening up to you. Maybe all they needed was someone to listen, and because you asked that, you ended up being that person. I saw a news segment (here's the article) a while back where someone had saved a man from jumping off a bridge after being diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. But the point here is, a simple action can help. Any small gesture that shows you care can literally change someone's decision and help them to climb off the bridge, back to safety, or put down the weapon and make a different choice.It helps to reach out. It really, really does. Footnotes |
| It's 11:51 pm here so let's see if I can do this thing in 9 minutes then call it a night and get some sketching done and sleep. Nicknames... they seem to be a trend all of a sudden. Did some celebrity just declare it cool to have nicknames or something? If so, I totally missed the boat on that one, because in the past few weeks, 3 different people have called me D- two within the past 24 hours, actually. Not that there's anything really wrong with "D", just that most of the people I've interacted with who called me D, well, our interactions didn't end so well. So I'd rather not be called D. Plus, everyone already calls me Dragon, so why do I need another name? I already do- Fore Long. And please don't ever, EVER call me that. Like, ever. I get enough of that on the first day of school/classes/with substitutes already, and then I go "it's Dragon," to which they usually reply "Dragon? " Yes, that's what I said. Dragon. No, no need to go get your hearing checked. My name is Dragon. And before you ask, it's the English translation of my Chinese name. So back to "D"- I get that it's convenient to just call someone by the first letter of their name and such, but is "Dragon" really that difficult to type out or say? Okay, compared to typing Chinese, which is also 6 letters long in pinyin (the pronunciation) but only 2 characters: 佛 and 龙, I can see the appeal of the Chinese, but for the non-Chinese, there's tonage and pronunciation, and I don't think most teachers would want to take 10-15 minutes out of their day just to learn someone's name in Chinese. So aside from me being called "D", I don't see a Justin being called "J" or Marie turning into "M", so how did Dragon become "D"? That really, really confuses me.Don't get me wrong with the above, though- it's not that I dislike nicknames- I just dislike "D" for the obvious reason that I didn't end up with a very favorable opinion of the people who started calling me "D" in the first place- and if you started that, and I liked interacting with you, well, I wouldn't want that to end unfavorably! So let's stay well away from D, though if you're creative enough to come up with something that suits me- go ahead and try it. I won't mind too much. Hanna ~ Be Kind 💕 can probably attest to that since she's come up with Firecracker... though I'd have to argue that "Dragon" is still simpler to type/say. Just sayin'. And please, don't start calling me Firecracker unless you're Hanna. |
| The Christmas Pageant- I said I'd do a blog update, and here I am! For all the pictures/videos from yesterday, go here: https://1drv.ms/a/s!AlGKDJGvglVWvnEj6Z8ZwVYvBSX3 Yeah my selfie game was pretty strong yesterday- I definitely had fun before the pageant even started! I got to help Grandfather hold the tray of Ha da scarves 2for the VIP visitors we had before the floats began moving. We had put on a mini-lion dance for them and gotten the local politicians to dot the lion and dragon eyes. I recognized Elise Archer (speaker of the House of Representatives), Rob Valentine (Previous Lord Mayor until 2012), and Sue Hickey (Current Lord Mayor[ess]), though there were many more than that. Shoulda tried getting a selfie with them for the Selfie Project - even if it would've been a sneaky one. Because who would want a selfie with a random girl wearing an elf hat? It's so... random!Okay, back to the pageant: We had lion dancers, fan dancers, ribbon dancers, flag marchers, drummers, and wavers (me and piano prodigy cousin, and anyone else who may've been driving/riding in a float car). In total, we had 130+ people in our float alone- the fan, ribbon, flag, and drum groups were all quite large, and we had a couple people running around and taking pictures as well. Most of the time, I just waved to people, and some of the kids actually got really excited when they saw me waving, and some might have made eye contact as well and got all excited when they waved back. I also got two Hi-5s.  I think they were brother and sister- the brother stuck out his hand so I Hi-5'd it, and then his sister saw and stuck out her hand so I Hi-5'd her as well. Hey, if he gets it, she should get it, too, right? I totally get that.The Pageant Path: https://snag.gy/FzsSEn.jpg We did our prep around the area where the X is- the corner of Campbell Street and Liverpool Street, and when it was go time, we turned left onto Liverpool. https://snag.gy/ClYkSi.jpg After Liverpool, we turned onto Murray Street, then again onto Collins Street- so the path made a rectangle pattern, though we didn't actually complete the rectangle, because we ended at the corner of Argyle and Collins. I waved much too vigorously with my fake bells, and the smaller jingly bells that were attached both fell off, though at different times. They need to be tied on, not glued on, silly manufacturers! Glue doesn't last too long, but a good knot most definitely will!After the pageant, we went to a Chinese buffet place to eat, called Grand Banquet. It wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't amazing, though the desserts were definitely better than a regular buffet place- there was coconut cream jelly and coconut panna cotta. And the watermelon was quite sweet.  I think they could've done with a bit more variety in terms of what they had, because three choices for dessert- two of which is coconut cream-based, isn't much, even if it is yummy. So all in all, not a bad day at all! I had loads of fun and my only wish is that I could go back every year for it. Which, unfortunately, I cannot, because of flight times and school! Footnotes |
| When someone says "And this is where the magic happens!", what are they referring to? Take this prompt in any direction your imagination lets you. I automatically thought of Disney when I read this prompt... Coming from SoCal and a *relatively* prestigious high school yearbook, we had annual trips to Disneyland- complete with backstage passes to see "where the magic happens". Or, as some of the more die-hard Disney fans called it, "Where the magic dies", because you get to see where everything happens- people take off their costumes, swear, and do all sorts of stuff that is probably against the rules of when you're in character in the park. So this isn't going to be very "creative", unfortunately, but we'll see where my thoughts take us with this. "Where the magic happens" = "Where everything you're not supposed to see happens" because, really, that's the point of magic, isn't it? It amazes you because you don't know how to do it. If you did, the magic loses its charm, because hey, you know how to do it already, what's so great about that? I guess that's also why people say "ignorance is bliss", and "what you don't know won't hurt you"- the less you know, the more amazing the world seems, doesn't it? Look at kids- they think everything is so amazing, but as adults, sometimes we just go "eh, what's the big deal? It's just a (insert whatever object here)." Because we've seen it so many times, it's gotten old. It seems like we're really only shocked/surprised/delighted when something big and completely out of the ordinary happens- and usually we don't stop to marvel over the situation if it's good, and if it's bad, we either try to forget it as quickly as it happened, or we'll sit on it forever until it does our head in. Either way, it's not very good, because it should be the other way around- sit on the good stuff forever because they're awesome, and forget the bad stuff because thinking about it for way too long isn't going to do anyone any favors, especially if it's just something small, like someone nicking your parking spot in the carpark. With that said, I think it's a bit like the Christmas pageant because watching it as a spectator, you're enjoying all the performances and floats and such, but you really don't know all the hard work that goes into it. Like, for our float, everyone was up at 5 am every day for a week to train for the procession. For those who didn't have school, work, etc, sometimes the trainings didn't end until 10 am. And the float decorations- they didn't finish those until about 2 am the morning of, and considering everyone is still all energized and waving and peppy, you would've thought everything was done way beforehand and everyone slept 10 hours the night before, and then had a few cups of coffee too many, when in reality, afterwards, everyone's tired, beat, and maybe even a little cranky. And maybe if people had known that, they would be a little more appreciative of the floats, or maybe the floats would lose their magic because it's definitely not what you'd expect in terms of the work and effort that goes into it. So yeah- "Where the magic happens" means "all the backstage stuff", I guess? The stuff that makes the magic, magic. |
| On this day in 1928, Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" starring Mickey Mouse was the first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon. What is your favorite cartoon? Well, looking around my room, the bedsheets are Sagwa themed, my blanket is Winnie the Pooh, and I have a Hello Kitty Friends & Fun activity pack sitting on the shelf. Not to mention the plushies on my bed: Weenie the Dog from Eloise, Max from Secret Life of Pets, and a Fluffy the Unicorn from Despicable Me. With that said, I think the sheer amount of Winnie the Pooh-themed plushies in this household (Big Pooh, Medium Pooh, 2x Baby Pooh(s), Musical Pooh, Squishy Piglet, 2x Baby Piglet(s), Eeyore, Baby Rabbit, 2x Baby Tigger(s), and probably many more in the mirror closet whom I'm forgetting!) would mean I have to choose Winnie the Pooh. Plus, I won a The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh DVD in 11th grade, from a Miss O and Friends raffle. Mom says, when I was a toddler, I looked very much like Winnie the Pooh. I waddled around when I walked, I had a large stomach, and my feet always turned in. She'd dress me and sis up in Pooh clothes, too. I remember having a blue jumper with Pooh on the front, and it probably came with matching pants as well. Now, I like Pooh because he's cute. And it's pretty funny when Rabbit gets upset- he goes off so easily, even if it's a small misunderstanding! So aside from me being a bit mean and enjoying it when Rabbit is upset, I think Pooh is a great show of friendship. They'll all do anything to protect their friends- in the DVD I won, Christopher Robin had a note saying "Back Soon," which Owl took to be the "Backson," a supposedly very, VERY scary monster. So they all go searching for Christopher Robin while trying to trap the Backson. Then, for those less friendship-inclined, there's some pretty good puns in the movie, too. And for writers, I think that should be a rather large plus! In fact, since it's almost 3am here, I'll leave y'all with this: [Embed For Use By Upgraded+] "Owl read this to me once, and it was certainly the longest thing I ever heard." Not that type of long, silly Piglet. And if you're just watching Rabbit's expression, it's like he's trying not to lose it. Until the end, of course. Then there's Eeyore's classic cynicism- "it's all for naught *sighs*" And Pooh's innocent misunderstanding that "not knot" is not a knock-knock joke. |
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