All posts filed under: personal stories

Some Grotesque Teenage Beast of a Boy – 6th & 7th August 1999

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Originally posted on If Destroyed Still True:
Friday 6thRhian, Abby and I went swimming today. The main reason behind it was not to swim but to see Ben McFarlane. We did but only briefly. He wasn’t actually doing his pool attending like we’d hoped but he was in the shop part. I saw Rhian’s friend Laura Morgan’s brother, Duncan, today. The rest of his family are in Florida but he’s stayed here with his auntie who’s having a barbeque tomorrow to which we’re invited. Duncan was working in his parent’s café today and Rhian was ordered by Auntie S to introduce us to him, seeing as he’ll be at this barbeque as well, but she didn’t. Instead, Rhian got food and I got a good look at Duncan. I’ve never seen him before but Abby saw him at Christmas and Rhian sees him all the time and they both told me he was minging. So, I went in there expecting him to be some grotesque teenage beast of a boy but in fact I was…

He Said That he liked me as a friend – 22nd & 23rd October 1998

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Originally posted on If Destroyed Still True:
Thursday 22ndI was in a really miserable mood this morning. I think I was tired after being on a high last night but I just felt really down. Ed’s party doesn’t help. It’s going ahead on Saturday night and Ed only asked me coz Emma made him. That didn’t make me feel too good, I can tell you. Reuben Leigh (he left our primary school and I used to really like him) is going and Emma says Ewan is. I know what I’m like though. I always get my hopes up but then get disappointed and Emma always throws herself at people who she likes so I probably won’t have any chance. Either that or they won’t be there. I don’t even know if I’m going yet. Freda is having a sleepover tomorrow night. Hopefully that’ll be good but if I do go on Saturday I’ll probably be knackered! BYE! Saturday 21st Freda’s sleepover went okay last night. Nothing really interesting happened but she got a photo of…

Leaving Goggles

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I’m leaving my job. That’s right folks; after over a year and a half of working full time in my kooky little call center, I am leaving to travel and follow my dreams of being paid to write. It’s exciting, it’s terrifying and there is a very real chance I will end up extremely poor and never be able to move out of my parents flat. It’s even more of a daunting prospect because this is the only thing I have done since graduating. I literally left university on the last day of June two years ago and started working here on the first day of July. I didn’t take a break or a summer off, this is literally all I know of the adult world. I always planned to leave; in fact I had no idea I would be here this long. The plan was to save enough money to go traveling before settling down into ‘adult’ life. Initially I naively thought that would take about six months. I kept postponing leaving partly because I didn’t have enough money to …

Midnight Swims in Bali

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TRAVELLING THE WORLD SOLO Moving my home base from Adelaide to Darwin was something that happened very quickly and something I did for many reasons. Darwin is literally on the other side of the country from Adelaide and the two cities are worlds apart. Darwin is as close to Singapore as it is to Adelaide and as a result – it is a total melting pot of culture. So what prompted the change? I have felt the need for a long term sea change for years now. Adelaide is a wonderful city, but to me it felt stagnant and monotonous, like nothing could ever really surprise me. My ultimate goal is to work with MSF (Doctors Without Borders) and with the Royal Darwin Hospital being the closest tertiary hospital for an enormous catchment area spanning three states, numerous islands and many remote communities – I knew it would be the place to really get… View original post 651 more words

Suzanna the Slapper – 3rd & 4th July 1998

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Originally posted on If Destroyed Still True:
Friday 3rd We had today off school coz it’s an inset day so Rachael came to my house. We were phoning everyone to try and get them to come down to the village but we decided not to bother in the end coz it wasn’t fair on Emma coz she’d gone shopping. We rang Freddie and had a short conversation with him and we also rang Ralph. I was on for quite a while to him. I apologised again for last night and he said he wanted to ask me something but he wouldn’t tell me over the phone. I told him I still liked him and that I wouldn’t never go out with him. That didn’t seem to help matters and he said he was just getting depressed again. Later on we phoned Graham Baxter. Rach really wanted someone else to do it coz she fancies him and was embarrassed but I wouldn’t. She ended up asking him if he wanted to come to the cinema next…

All she seems to talk about is her hair – 18th June 1998

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Originally posted on If Destroyed Still True:
Thursday 18thI’ve been feeling a bit left out of everything for the last couple of days. It might just be me being sensitive bit it feels as if nobody really cares I’m there. – Emma’s too busy with Freddie all the time and all she seems to talk about is her hair and how many spots she has today. – Hayley would rather I wasn’t here at all coz she’s decided she wants a boyfriend so has started fancying Ferny again and, of course, I’m competition aren’t I? – Ralph just doesn’t give a toss about me anymore which is a big difference from the beginning of last week. – Rachael went to Emma’s house last night and they phoned Freddie and evidently they were talking about me. I dunno what was said though. – Ed seems to think I’ve been telling Dougie (James Douglas) things about him when I haven’t said a word. I dunno what’s going on. I also get the feeling that nobody’s telling me…

What it’s like to fly business class when you have no business to be flying business class

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Originally posted on Annabel Fenwick Elliott:
The best flying experience of my lyyyfe Last week I was lucky as fuck enough to fly to Australia BUSINESS CLASS. The downside of this is that I’m ruined for life now. I live in London and my father has lived in Australia for some 20 years, so I’ve spent a lot of time on very, very long-haul flights. It’s far from pleasant, of course, being strapped into an upright chair squidged next to strangers and screaming infants for 24 hours but obviously these are first world problems. I’ve developed a formula, and coping mechanisms, and mainly it all revolves around drinking heavily and knocking myself out with sleeping tablets until it’s all over – somehow managing to keep it together during the layover – before emerging, Gollum-like, on the other end. It’s all fucked now that I have experienced what it’s like to fly from London to Australia up at the front of the plane. I flew Cathay Pacific, which I’m told is the best in the world…

A massive wave of jealousy and annoyance came over me – 12th June 1998

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Originally posted on If Destroyed Still True:
Friday 12th [Cleo the cat’s hairs sellotaped in to my diary foreverrrrrr. Well, for 18 years. Still pretty gross.] An awful end to an awful week. Ralph hates me and I’m ill. We went to the cinema tonight with Emma, Freddie, Hayley, Lindsey Bullman, Georgia Dean, Safiyah L and Olivia. We all split up. Georgia and Safiyah saw Sliding Doors, Lindsey and Olivia saw Scream 2 and me, Ralph, Freddie, Emma and Hayley all went to see The Wedding Singer. It was quite a good film but Ralph went all miserable and sat on his own. Hayley said he said I was a bitch but Emma said he said an evil witch. Either way – BASTARD! Well, he wasn’t much company on the way to McDonald’s either. There were just the four of is coz Hayley went early with everyone else. He didn’t say one word to me. I don’t understand coz he spoke to me in school. I know he’s gone off me and doesn’t like me…