Studying 3 nights a week means that I don’t really have as much time as I’d like to post. OK, well that might not be quite true because there are still 4 nights in the week, but I always seem to be doing other stuff. I don’t know what, but there’s a lot of it.

Last weekend was a long weekend for the Queen’s birthday. On Saturday, M and I drove to Dublin. Alas, not Dublin, Ireland, but Dublin SA. Not comparable by any stretch of the imagination. The idea was to go there to see whether it was an up and coming area that we could buy cheap real estate in, and then the area would be developed and the value of our investment would skyrocket. That plan was unfortunately laid to rest when we arrived and saw that there really was nothing there, and a good amount of faith and foresight would be required in order to invest. We drove to a nearby beach, but that didn’t look like a worthy investment prospect either. So I think we have to shift our holiday house dreams back to Ardrossan, which is still my idyllic getaway spot after the last time we visited.

On Monday I decided that I needed to get some warmer clothes, so I went shopping at one of those clearance shopping centres - I can’t think of what they’re called now, but you know what I mean. The retail shops that have the same stuff as the normal shops but are a lot cheaper. Anyway, I tried on quite a lot of stuff considering how much I hate clothes shopping, and bought a few things. Not many warm things, but things I can wear to work anyway so it was still productive. The one purchase I was especially pleased with (and the one warm thing I bought) was a Dolce and Gabbana top reduced from $235 to $49. I saw it there and thought it might not fit, but for $49 I was going to give it a shot anyway. And it did fit, so that was even better. So my wardrobe now contains one ‘designer’ item. Just let me think I’m cool even if I’m not, ok? They had lots of other designer stuff, but nothing that met both my criteria of being in my size and not being ridiculously expensive. That’s the problem with outlet stores - even though they’re meant to be cheaper, often they’re not really that much different. Or maybe I’m just a tight-arse who doesn’t want to part with money.

*****

I downloaded the new version of Google Earth and have been enjoying looking at pictures of places all over the world, and marking spots I’ve been. They’ve got new, high resolution photos now, so you can zoom in enough to see our house, whereas before it wasn’t on the maps. I was looking at various parts of Australia and have decided that I’d like to go to Uluru, Alice Springs and Darwin. I’ve seen virtually nothing of the country I live in. Maybe a trip on the Ghan (the train which goes from Adelaide to Darwin, through Alice Springs) is in order. When I looked up Uluru, I was actually a little surprised because I never knew it looked like that from the top. All the pictures I’ve ever seen of it have been a nice, regular-looking rock shape, so when I saw it I initially thought that it couldn’t be it. But now I realise what part I’ve been seeing in all those photos. I’m actually a bit embarrassed and ashamed that I didn’t know something so basic about such a major Australian landmark.