At last....

Firstly, my apologies to everyone for my depressive rant in the last post. For anyone who doesnt know - and who hasnt figured it out yet - I actually do have depression ( its not just a little joke when i mention it... ) for which i take medication. However, sometimes the black dog rears its ugly head and i have a really bad depressive episode. This past weekend could be counted as said episode, and i barely feel in control during these moments, so ordinairly i would think twice about posting such a rant. So apologies for dumping it all on here, but many thanks to those of you who left kind and supportive comments. I could totally feel your bloggy-love...And now onto something way less intense. You know i love a good list, and you also know i love a good meme - so i'm creating both in one! Someone asked me yesterday what the last movie i saw was, which got me thinking about " lasts ". Last movie, last book, last purchase - all that good stuff. So i thought maybe i should make a record of some cool " lasts " thus sharing some more of myself with the rest of you. Brilliant idea you say? Yes, i know, its what i do. So:

Last three albums I bought:
" Pretty Odd " - Panic at the Disco
" The Odd Couple " - Gnarls Barkley
" Oracular Spectacular " - MGMT

Last three films I've watched:
" Hellboy 2: The Golden Army "- directed by Guillermo Del Toro
" Transformers " - directed by Michael Bay
" Baby Mama " - directed by Michael McCullers

Last three books I've read:
" On Chesil Beach" - Ian McEwan
" Long Way Down " - Nick Hornby
" Soul" - Tobsha Learner

Last day of high school :
I dont remember the exact date but it was some time during September of 2001. What i do remember is that i could not wait to get the hell out of there. We had a graduation ceremony - no hats, no robes, just full school uniform and the presentation of graduation certificates, and speeches by our school captains, school principal and year advisor. Kind of a snoozefest really. Even though i knew there was going to be a morning tea held afterward for the graduating students and their parents ( if they indeed attended ), as soon as that assembly was over I left. I could not stand to be in that institution one second longer than i technically had to be. Not that i hated school - I loved getting to hang out with my friends, and i didnt even mind the classes so much - i just didnt like the whole concept, the institution of " school " as it were, not by the end of it.

Last good home-cooked meal:
It was poached salmon with a yoghurt dill sauce on a bed of potatoes and cherry tomatoes, cooked by my father last Tuesday night. One word - delicious! And i know you're thinking that sounds pretty damned fancy for a home cooked meal but, frankly, my dad is quite the culinary whiz. He's not a trained chef or anything but he's just one of these people who can take a recipe, pull together the ingredients, and the meal will turn out exactly the way it looks in the cookbook. Almost always tastes pretty good too. I'll say this, my dad is a much better cook than my mum - i love her, bless her cotton socks, but she aint much of a cook unless its something fairly simple.

Last birthday you helped celebrate:
My dad's 47th, on April 25th. Seeing as my dad isnt real big on my making a fuss over himself, his birthdays are usually simple affairs. Put it this way - he says if any of us try and organise a suprise party for his 50th in a few years time he'll walk in, let us all yell " Suprise!!! " and then promptly take himself off to bed. And yes, he would totally do that, I have no doubt. Thats just the way he is ( and part of the reason i love him ). Anyhoo, so we just had the immediate family around for dinner, which my dad cooked ( yes, so very sad i know.... ) . I cant remember what he made for dinner but I was responsible for dessert -apricot cheesecake with macadamia crust. Don't salivate too hard . It might sound fancy but its pretty simple if you're the dessert Queen that i am. Any celebration or special occasion we have, i get called upon to make the sweets because, hey, its just what i do. Fathers Day this year ? My own cherry ripe concotion - chocolate mousse with blackcherries and coconut.

Last good vacation I went on:
Southeast Asia , last November. I spent three weeks tripping through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand - completely awesome! If you search your way back through some of my old posts you can probably read a little of my adventures, but suffice to say I had some great fun touring around with 13 other people, all like minded, almost all fantastic ( i say almost all because we were saddled with two late 50-ish Brits who did nothing but complain). I got to experience some awesome culture , see some gorgeous sights, and eat some fantastic food! Seriously, you want some good, healthy, flavoursome food, hit up South East Asia. There is no better place to get Thai mussaman curry than in Thailand. Oh, and lookee here - thats me at Angkor Wat in Cambodia!!



Last " big " purchase:
So, for me, anything over about $200 is a big purchase. So, that being said, my last purchase over above this is my cute little HP Mini notebook. I've had it for a couple of months now and its serving me very well. Its nice and light and little ( just like i'd like to be... ), although the battery power doesnt last quite as long as i'd like. But no matter, its much better than my frightfully old school desktop that i was using ( and by old school, i mean its probably about 5 years old... ).

Last gift I bought:
My sisters birthday present. I was going to tell you what it is, but it has just occurred to me that she could possibly read this entry and find out. I'm about 99% sure she doesnt read my blog - firstly because she's always giving me crap about being on the computer so much, and secondly because she doesnt read, well, anything really - but even still, i hate for her to stumble upon it in the address bar drop down box and ruin the suprise. I will say that because its her 18th birthday its a special present. 18 is the legal drinking age here in Australia, so you're 18th is like a " coming of age " birthday. We're all going out for dinner and then my best friend and I are taking her to a few of the local pubs for the first time. I cannot wait to get her screaming drunk and hang over the next morning.... its going to be so sweet!

Last time I was lost for words:
I only have three words to answer this one - The Mary Incident.

And thats all, ladies and gents. I'm not going to tag anybody to do this meme ( although if I did, I'd tag Andy, Steph, Paula and Sheena :) ), so if you want to steal my idea and make your own" lasts " post then please feel free. I hope this has been much more enjoyable than my last entry - perhaps look forward to a " firsts " post in the future!

Where in the world is Amy Wells ?

Well, well, well.... i find myself with a little free, " alone " time this afternoon here in Saigon and i figure its as good a time as any to mkae a quick blog. I had these grand illusions ( or should i say delusions ? ) of being pretty thorough with my blogging while i'm away but to be quite honest by the time you're done with the days activities, maybe showered, freshened up and gone out for dinner, well.... i'm stuffed. Completely friggin' cactus - i feel like nothing more than going to sleep. Not that its a bad thing at all - its been really awesome the past 10 days, always having something to do ( except when we've been on sleeper trains - as i've mentioned before, they kind of suck ).

So to skip ahead from where i was last at..... i had my clothes made in Hoi An and i have to say i'm pretty pleased with them. Three dresses tailored entirely to yours truly, which is every womans dream to have her own personal wardrobe made. Hoi An was absolute heaven on a stick really, i wish we could have spent more time there. It would have been nice to do some more shopping but also nice to just head down to a local cafe and have a drink, or an icecream, or head down by the water and just sit around. It's only a small place in comparison to the other cities we've been too and its actually World Heritage listed - its very French provincial and although it seems to be a tourist favourite it remains relatively untouched by Western ways.

From there it was another awesome trip on a train - afternoon this time, so technically not a sleeper but just as crappy - to the resort town of Nha Trang. For those of you who have been keeping up with me on Facebook, you will already know that there was a typhoon scheduled to hit Nha Trang while we were there but thankfully it didnt eventuate. It did rain the first day we were there but that didnt matter so much. Instead of heading to the beach we went to the mud baths and got all dirtied up, loosened up in the spa and then had a massage. Jealous yet ? Much.
The second day saw the sky blue so we did head out on the water for a while. I didnt actually enjoy it all too much - in fact, whilst over here i've discovered that i have a weird aversion to falling into water that i've never notcied before. WE'd been on a bicycle ride a few days previously and we had to ride on some pretty precarious paths straight between rice paddies.... i almost had a full on panic attack because i was SURE i was going to fall into the water and drown. Kind of the same on the boat, although i did swim.... i was more afraid of not being able to swim back and drowning. Might have something to do with the fact that the humidity around here is making my asthma play up and my lungs feel like theyre shot to shit half the time.

Anyhoo, one final sleeper train trip ( hallelujah! ) and we'd arrived in Saigon. Saigon is completely nuts in comparison to the rest we've seen here. The traffic is unbelieveable and the city has a real cosmopolitan feel to it. We spent the first day after our arrival doing a tour of the Mekong Delta which i can describe in two words - surreally hot. OK, maybe that doesnt make sense but the whole time we were tripping around i was either thinking how beautiful it all was or how much the heat and medication i'm were making me want to throw up. We also did a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels this morning and i guess i was over-awed. Firstly, at the severity of human endurance - how we as humans can find such incredible ways to survive, but also be aware enough to find incredibly deceptive and cruel ways to kill others; and secondly i was over-awed at the disrespect ( in my opinion anyway ) that some Western tourists seemed to be showing. I mean, for example, there was an American army tanker on the grounds, there as an historical aretfact i suppose and our tour guide had just finished telling us how at least 6 American GI were killed in that particular vehicle. I look up and there are about 20 grown adults crawling all over it and one idiot who had lowered himself into the hold so that his top half was sticking out, and he was smiling and mugging it up for his friends camera. For God's sake, the tank was, for all intents and purposes, a tomb for some people and these idiots were treating like it was a ride at Disneyland. I wasnt sure whether i wanted to throw a rock at them or throw up.

Anyhoo, tonight is actually our final night in Vietnam before we head over to Cambodia tomorrow. We're all going out for a final dinner with our Vietnamese guide tonight ( his name is Phuong, when i get my pictures together back in Australia you all can see him ) which is going to be kind of sad cause he's a sweet little fella. Plus, its one of my fellow travelmates birthdays today so i think we'll all put on the best of our ratty clothes and party up big.

Boo yea to that and look out Cambodia!!