Day 3 - An upward spike

Day 3

A much better day. I felt my body adjusted somewhat. Although, as my manager at work that evening observed ‘I was as weak as a two year old.’ I couldn’t open a soda bottle - let alone carry stacks of porcelain.

Things I’ve learned

Penne with passata tastes better cold

Apples and sugar are equated to coffee and sugar

Lack of food onsets delirium, much like lack of sleep

Vague is in Vogue, yes? Day 2.

So ordinarily people would say I was a little spacey, sure. Today, however, I was on an undiscovered plane of existence...

First was work experience, where I media assist for a hard-working bunch of people at a non-profit organisation. I spent two hours formatting - and one hour actually constructing sentences. The air-conditioning was down, so in addition to being nutrient starved I also felt like I was working in a cryogenics lab. Someone's fragrant thai lunch wafted through the office to taunt me. All I really wanted though, desperately, was a cup of tea. I have been brainwashed by those lipton advertisements that are supposed to come off all scientific fact like -

'ever wondered why your head feels clearer after a tea at 3 p.m?' ...

This is now a reflexive of my mind-tank every time I sit down to a task that is going to take more than the 5 minutes my attention span likes to allow. I've come to realise tea as my functioning fuel.

Then to work, at a restaurant. It's fancy and the people who work there have gold badges to mark their cultured-ness. Like war heroes, except instead they battle through the fields of wineries, service tables, and answer to the spit flinging orders of a commanding officer who cooks. I had trouble using my words. A lot. Granted spokesman ship is not usually my strong suit - I took vague and made it an adjective requiring a whole new word. Neu-vague, you might say.

Strangely, by the end of the evening I was beginning to enjoy this new found emptily floating, dream-walking feeling. It was like lovely, wow...

That vacant eyed, etherealness ...

Maybe it's not just an expression that clothes-walkers put on.

Maybe they've just had a long day and are really famished.

Ariel's Feelings

No cheese and no olives makes Ariel something something.

Challenge Accepted! -Day 1

The challenge is ridiculously easy; I am breezing through it without a craving in the world…… NOT!

Okay, okay so it is only the first day, and although I am not about to go hunting for pigeons to roast there are things that I did not factor in when preparing for this week.

Number 1: Sugar rehab…

I am somewhat hindered to start with as my diet normally consists of chocolate, lollies, sugar…. Basically I’m what one may label, unhealthy, a campaigner for the goal of diabetes. According to an article I recently read (today while trying to distract myself so I don’t start eating the sugar tablets from my pill packet) sugar addiction is actually a real thing, or according to the Department of Psychology at Princeton University it is. Apparently my usual substantial intake of sugar makes my brain release a lovely dose of opioids and dopamine into my body and this has addictive potential. Unlike the usual drug addict rehabilitation symptoms this one has only the burning desire to take children’s’ candy right from there taunting little mouths.

Number 2: All night long…. What without caffeine!

Timing has never been a strong suit of mine. Many of my friends will attest to this mostly with fond memories of embarrassing stories where I have come away with the affectionate and appropriately chosen nickname Smellis. Loosely translated Smellis means quintessential unlucky chump. So when this week began (with a maggot in my oatmeal) it would only be fitting that it would fall on my most assessment packed and last week of University. Today was the first of these lovely timed assessment pieces with me completing an exam that had somewhat deprived me of sleep…. What I would have given for a freaking coffee today! This is definitely going to be my demise this week….

So in conclusion good first day. Can’t wait for the rest of the week.

Smellis

Back to Basics - Day 1

After making an absolute glutton of myself filling up on leftovers that would have sadly withered in the fridge during our five days of strictly staples (only in the name of not wasting food, of course...), I awoke this morning with the lasagna I'd eaten at 10p.m. the night previous still filling my belly. I was positive that the task ahead would be an easy one. Energy full after my porridge fill at 10 a.m, I decided I would meander my way to uni by foot. Before setting off on the journey, craving my morning cup of tea, I had a hot water + milk substitute. Still swell. Upon arriving to class, after all that excessive fresh air to my lungs - I now had the excessive Monday yawns. 'Feed me coffee!' My brain begged. I looked in my bag for some kind of hydration to distract the plea, but alas - it was not there. Come 3p.m. the void in my stomach had begun to swell. My usual elation at the close of Monday class was today meshed with urgency - I raced from the building at double pace. No lingering for small talk. I caught my tram just before it pulled away - the ticket-eating machine read 3.01. Another hour, hot water + milk, and inhaled bottle of water later ... the threatening black hole turned to a tiny crevice in my stomach. 2 hours till dinner. I look at the food that fills the bench and resent the amassed starchiness of its contents. Rice? Milk? Potatoes? Porridge? Pasta? My respite is in the shiny green goodness of an apple. I will save this as my midweek saviour from the stodgy supply...

4.25 days to go.

Living below the line...

This week, my housemates and I are going to be hungry angry elves as we deprive ourselves of candy in an act of rebellion against our greedy CEO - Santa! In all seriousness though, from May 16th - 20th we will be surviving off just $2 a day for all of our food ... time to get creative with lentils and oats! As a household of food lovers we anticipate this being a difficult five days of sugar withdrawals, food rage, spaced out conversations and generous servings of sleep. Though as students we have also had some training, with many a sad day spent eating nothing but dry cereal and toast. So we thought - why not use our combined budgeting expertise for a good cause?

We think this is a really interesting way to raise money and awareness for the 1.4 billion people who have to live on far less than $2 every day - and to attempt to understand their position first hand.

The ghosts that broke my heart before I met you...

"In the moment and flow and flux of everyday life, the photograph preserves what the eye might otherwise not capture. This is the point at which image and photograph must be seen as dramatically different. For although the photograph has an existence separate from the viewer it can never be removed from the process of interpretation." ~ Berger

Recently I attended a good friends going away party. It took place around the time of the full moon - so it was all a tad loose and wild as people howled at the moon and rebalanced their water levels with beer. As tends to happen now that all of our faces have become books, around a week later photos of the event started popping up in the online public and clogging up our notifications and news feeds. As my sister Ellis and I looked over the most recent additions ... cringing and 'de tagging' the slatternly, droopy eyed images of our inebriated selves ... we came across several photos of a friend who neither of us remembered having been in attendance. One of these photos even included Ellis! Bemused by this and wanting answers, the following postings ensued

I found the final comment most interesting, that perhaps our friend Pap had not been there at all ... but the author of the photos had 'Photoshopped' him in.

The idea of 'ghosts' in photographs is becoming a more realistic phenomenon in a time where we have the aid of myriad nifty technological programs which can alter our memories to 'supernatural' effect...

Make a photo brighter,

a smile whiter,

or skin tighter...

Or to the entire displacement of people and objects into places in times they weren't actually apart of. This can also occur through a person being caught in a photo unaware, becoming apart of an archive they had no investment in. This happened to Ellis when she found herself apart of an archived picture of an old residence on 'Google Maps' - no longer there, though captured in that space within the webosphere. So what is the consequence of this on the 'truth' of the photograph? Are our memories becoming scripted by the liberties we have been granted in authorship?