bookshoplaura

In light of all the year in review things that have been coming up on my Facebook timeline and of course it being New Years Eve tomorrow, I have decided to look back on the last year in a whimsical manner. You may ( or possibly may not) have noticed that I didn't share my own year in review and that's because the graphics annoyed me, the photos were selected at random and by the time I worked how to generate one I was already tired of seeing other peoples. Instead I will look back at my year from the comfort of my couch and I will decide what photos reflect that.  Tomorrow night I will be ringing in the New Year in Momo, a restaurant offering a bites and bubbles package and we keep saying we must try them out so let's call it a happy compromise between my desire to do absolutely nothing on New Years eve and Stephen's to do something to ring it in. I think its safe to say with the big January detox looming that I might have a few glasses of some sort of wine and my h...

Some people have the habit of referring to their sober or drunk persona's as separate entities but I have taken this one step further I on the other hand have current me and future me, So there is me right now who is lazy, unconcerned about her future, sugar habit and lack of willingness to exercise the last few weeks. She is having all the fun and she is not worried about the consequences of her actions (mostly because she's not exactly doing anything crazier than eating chocolate buttons in pyjamas) because Future Laura has got that covered. Well future Laura would want to have her shit together because current me is really counting on that. Current me has put the car insurance letter to one side, is not worrying about the phone bill with the extra upgrade costs, ignoring the fact that all this sugar is making her a bit squidy around the middle and isn't stressing out about the fact that she has really promised herself this is the year where she will go from having ...

This morning at 7 am my alarm went off and my first reaction was surprise. Then my brain connected the dots and I realised I had to get up and get ready for work and I almost cried. I did not have time to cry however because I was putting my alarm forward half an hour and then going back to sleep reasoning that I didn't really feel like eating breakfast anyway. Unfortunately I don't really trust my alarm so I would say I spent 5 minutes of that extra half hour sleeping and the other 25 worrying that the second alarm would not go off on time so I was remaining alert to keep checking the time. I dragged myself out of bed and made myself look vaguely human and threw some items that looked like food into a bag as a half assed effort at lunch for later.  Here it is the dreaded return to work after the Christmas break. I am told it's worse the longer you are off but at this point I wouldn't really know because it's been a few years now since I have gotten more than tw...

After an incredibly manic Christmas Eve in work, powered entirely by sugar and coffee, I made it home for Christmas with the family. The only difference this year is my boyfriend, Stephen was coming with me. We arrived that evening laden down with bags, it was a little embarrassing how much I was carrying with me because I had made a hamper for my parents and brought all of the usual stuff as well as extra presents but we squeezed them underneath the tree and sat down to watch my niece bounce excitedly around the room. I found it amusing that when telling people that I was bringing Stephen home for Christmas the main reaction was an overwhelming concern about the fact that my family is vegetarian but he is not. Neither of us were particularly worried and he certainly wasn't planning on bringing his own turkey to quietly feast on it in the corner but many strangers seemed to think it akin to a form of cruelty. He wasn't complaining when we sat down to a delicious dinner that n...

I am not going to say that today is the most productive day I have ever had but it is certainly going well. An unexpected day off this close to Christmas is fairly similar to having your school close due to flooding in that you enjoy that day off much more than a regular day. I have been up early tidying the apartment and listening to old style Christmas music and feeling altogether more festive than I have in weeks so I decided to make my way into town and pick up a few things. Truth be told I did my Christmas shopping weeks ago and for the most part the stuff I am buying now is fairly unnecessary but I do love that feeling when buying for other people so I can't seem to stop myself so long as I have money left. Stephen's present is done and dusted and my kriskindle one for my sister is bought and badly wrapped already so really it was just a few token gifts I needed to get. I don't really like going into town when it's this busy as all the crowds and the queueing ...

I am sure everyone is well aware that Christmas is mere days away, none of us more so than the poor suckers in retail like myself. I can't say that I am feeling all that Christmassy so far despite my many festive work accessories like my Santa hat above or my hairband with tiny santa hat on top and my Christmas tree earrings. I am doing my best to give off the impression that I am a festive little elf indeed. Instead of an incredibly stressed woman who is spending the Christmas season thus far feeling under pressure and eating all her bad feelings in the form of chocolate. I think over the last few days I have mostly been going around with a slightly shell shocked expression on my face, from dealing with the crowds and the mess and the constant queries. It wears you and wears you down. It's hard with all of this going on to get the Christmas spirit going. I haven't voluntarily listened a single Christmas song yet. That's not to say I haven't heard one because I ha...

Last night I went to yet another Christmas party, I seem to be doing the rounds at every Christmas party bar the actual work one. Perhaps if they had gotten a chocolate fountain for the work party I might have made an appearance. This party had no chocolate fountain and I went anyway but this time came home without chocolate stains so on that basis alone I would consider the night a win. The party of course being the Central arts Christmas party. The great thing about holding the party in Central Hall is that we got to bring our own drink which I find works out both cheaper and more delicious.  I was working all day yesterday and it was hard going because I was tired from my late night the night before and I think it's a well established fact that Laura without sufficient sleep is not a lovely thing. By the time I got out of there I was absolutely wiped and my head was full on explodey, a fact not helped by all of the children in store and the very squeaky puppets. I found ...

Midnight at Central  Just barely gone, it's the witching hour. I watch from the wings as the band packs away the stage neatly in a manner that suggests this is a well practised routine. I hide a yawn as the day catches up on me, my body shivers as the echoes of the music trickle from the room and I walk home, my shoulders hunched to the cold, clutching their latest album so that I can replay the gig from the comfort of my living room. During the night the band have unleashed a cacophony of instruments, each fitting seamlessly into the songs and I fight the urge ( and fail)  to capture them on camera. Pretending that I believe in aboriginal principles and choosing to leave some of their essence in the room. They craft melodies from a bluesy style of rock, some slower numbers have undertones of folk and I struggle internally with my own ineptitude at describing musical genres. My toes still feel like tapping as...

Yesterday at a kids party I was watching my niece at the chocolate fountain with a spoon and her determination to keep eating even beyond the point where she was likely to be sick reminded me of me. It is no secret that chocolate is not my friend, I have told everyone who will listen and many who really don't want to. I hope I don't have to drag out the photos from my who ate Laura days ( that's when I was fat) just to prove my point. I am not sure if you have heard the expression go big or go home to illustrate how you should give things your all. Well in this case if I don't go home soon, I'll have gotten pretty big. My relationship with sugar, I can now appreciate, is not a normal one. When I go through my phases where I am off it, I am pretty strict with myself and I frequently get told that everything is fine in moderation but my problem is that I cannot seem to do chocolate in moderation. I can either have none of it or every last delicious bit. It would s...

Laura likes being warm; having tea, eating yummy things, hugs (from Stephen), a really good book, taking photos on my phone, hanging out with my nieces, a good workout, long naps, chatting about books and time with friends. She does (seeing as I started off in the the third person I may as well continue) not like the days leading up to Christmas; being sleep deprived, the feeling of eating too much sugar, hangovers, being shouted at by angry customers, big crowds, endless days (at work). I am not sociable all of the time, I like being with me and listening to music, reading books, blogging, cooking and watching cop shows. I can however pull sociable Laura out of the bag on occasion like a party dress I haven't worn in a while and dust her off for a night out.  I spent most of my week looking forward to such a night out with my Sisters gym. They had organised their Christmas night and I was happily off the next day so I planned my outfit, packed a bag and headed to work wit...

Due to a shortage of decent novels being released during December and the fact that Laura without a book does not function ( if you think I am antsy on coffee you should see me bookless) I have taken to borrowing stashes of children's and young adult books for my reading pleasure. It is not always a good thing to be able to read quite fast because sometimes even with a whole bookshop to choose from you can feel like you have nothing to read. Now I am not suggesting that I have read everything in the shop or even everything worth reading but I do every so occasionally go through phases where nothing looks appealing and I can't bring home a book if I don't like the cover. It turns out that never judge a book by its cover can also be taken literally and I can't seem to stop myself from doing it. So here we are in the run up to Christmas a great time for choosing books as presents and there's not a single decent new release in my to be read pile. Someone up in publis...

You know those people who bounce out of bed, ready to great a new day ? well I am most definitely not one of those. I am the one sitting at the breakfast table thinking murderous thoughts about whoever is there with me as they slurp through their cereal. I realised many years ago that I am most definitely not a morning person and that's okay. There's plenty of room in the world for people who embrace mornings, I just don't particularly want to share my living space with them. I am the kind of person who would be a lot more pleasant after a nice mug of coffee but sadly due to my caffeine deprivation for quite some time I can no longer tolerate it and can't have coffee in the mornings unless I want the party to continue for at least 16 hours after and when I say party, I actually mean me being all twitchy and unable to sleep.  I am pretty useless in the mornings and I have to rely on the part of my brain that automatically processes routine tasks like dressing and fee...

One of the things that no one really tells you about being an adult is that you can find yourself under just as much pressure to fit in as when you're younger. The one major difference for me is that I seem to care a lot less about it. Fitting in has never really been my area of expertise but I am at the point where I have stopped trying because why be normal when you can be happy or something a long those lines. It's strange when you reach some level of acceptance of who you are, quirks and all and realize that some people will dislike you no matter what so running around trying to make everyone like is both exhausting and fruitless. It's also hard to say what exactly normal is anyway or so I tell myself. Here are some things you may or may not know about me depending on whether or not you check my blog on an occasional basis or have the good fortune to know me in person. 1. I am a full on, know no shame about it nerd. I love lists and being organised. I like pl...

I am not sure what normal people do in their alone time because I am much too busy being awesome in my own company to actually stop and ask them. Last night I was having a too tired to function in the company of others night so I was home alone in comfy clothes, relaxing. As well as catching up on all of the shows I had downloaded ; drinking many cups of tea, reading the hot young adult book of the moment ( in one sitting, it wasn't a good book but I couldn't sleep) I also spent quite a lot of time playing with my phone. I have been using that old Iphone 3gs for so long now that I had gotten used to not taking photos any more but it was cool because I had Stephen for that. So now the camera on my phone can do lots of fancy things and I  am still finding those out.  I will admit that it depresses me somewhat the mode my camera uses with front facing camera only is called selfie because really who wants to encourage the endless tirade of young women ( mostly ) posting pictur...

Last night I crawled into bed with a hot water bottle and what felt like moments later I was getting up to get ready for work. It was in fact a good 5 hours later but if I have learned anything about myself in adulthood it is that I do not cope well when deprived of my full 8 hours, in fact I kind of fall apart. So I stumbled about my apartment getting ready for work and feeling half dead from tiredness, despite all of this, I was feeling buzzed enough from last night's gig that I wanted to get a blog post written and posted before work so apologies if it didn't make a whole lot of sense but I was mostly asleep while writing. By the time I left for work, I was already running late but I made a pit stop for coffee, my first in a month because I figured it was better to a minute later to work and be a functioning human for the day. My other option was to do without coffee and probably be found snoozing under the bargain books table later in the day. As I ran into work someone...

It feels a little like I have been playing a hermit lately because I haven't had any escapades to blog about. Last night I set out to rectify that. Okay so I didn't, last night I had genuine plans so I actually left the apartment. My boyfriend made us a last minute reservation for the newly opened Burzza on John street, a place I'd been hoping to try since I saw their really cool menu being shared on Facebook. It's nice to see new places opening and it's also cool that for the first time in my life I am actually going out and eating in them. As it was their opening night, the gluten free options are still being worked on but I did manage to get myself a lovely falafel burger with fries and tried not to look on jealously as everyone around me got delicious looking pizza. I am told they are working on a gluten free one and when that happens, I am going to get so fat ( okay so probably not but I will be the first in line to try it)  After dinner we headed d...

Everyone knows that feeling of excitement when you first get a new gadget and you just want to hole up in a room and play With it until the novelty wears off. I remember getting my first ever phone at 18. Before then, no one I knew had a phone so it wouldn't have been terribly exciting to own one. That was 14 years ago (yes I really am that old ) and it was a Siemens c65. I really wanted a Nokia because they were much cooler but I didn't want to wait the two days for them to come back into stock so my impatience pushed me into buying a Siemens. If you're too young to remember the phone then I understand (please stop flaunting your youthfulness in my face ) It was pretty basic. It had no games or camera and when you received a text , it would move across the screen slowly in a single line. It wasn't all bad ,no one had anything like a iPhone yet so you didn't feel hard done by and the battery on it would last for days. Plus you could go online (on your pc) a...