The Rose in the Lily Pond

Never before have I cowered into my friend's shoulder at absolute disgust of what was on screen. 24 teenagers forced to fight until the death, with only one sole survivor. It is all televised in a twisted combination of Bear Grylls’ “Man vs Wild”, “Big Brother” and warfare. Set in the future but not that far from the present, Suzanne Collins, author of the bestselling novels that the movies are based off, tells how she came up with the story line. She was channel surfing and on the one hand the likes of Jersey Shore, or Big Brother, or dear I say our own crappy reality show (that is funded by the STATE no less) The GC was on, and then on the other hand there was war. In her tired state, these two concepts blurred into the story that is now The Hunger Games. In this future world, there are 12 districts, and a class system that ranks district 1 as the richest, and district 12 as the poorest. Katniss Everdeen played by Jenifer Lawrence, comes from the poverty stricken d...

After two years of travelling the world, Queen’s Ferry Hotel was the perfect place to come home to. It was full of travellers, and it felt like I was still on an adventure. Kiwis were the minority, and around me were Americans, Canadians, Scots, Brazilians, Irish, English, Swedes and many more. Just like when you travel, you form such tight bonds with people, because it’s not a job, it’s a family and a lifestyle and I will never forget it!     So let’s raise our glasses one last time: Cheers Queen’s Ferry, here’s to all the memories with all weird and wonderful people! Two Mysterious Australians: Two Australians walk into a bar. Two bartenders mischievously look at each other. Bridget was the other bar tender, she was from Boston, she would buy people a drink if they told her a joke she hadn’t heard, and every time ‘Tiny Dancer’ comes on I think of her. This night isn’t one to remember because of mysterious Australians, it’s one t...

It’s been 3 months, 28 days and 12 hours since I’ve heard from you. Every morning I race to the letterbox and every morning is the same. Nothing but a few bills. I can’t do anything but wait. Wait for a letter from you, or wait for a letter from the Government. Please Jeremy, please write. I don’t want that letter from the Government. I don’t care about sentiments. Don’t tell me how much you love me. Don’t tell me how much you miss me. All I want is two words. I’m alive. That’s it… Please write Jeremy. Please. Yesterday I smashed a plate. For no apparent reason I picked it up and threw it on the floor. A shard cut into my leg, and you know what Jeremy, I savoured it. I relished in the pain and let the blood drip down my leg and onto the ground. I stared at it with relief; all this pain and frustration finally had a release. It was cleansing Jeremy. It was good therapy. Please write Jeremy, Please. A young girl sits on the bus. She has her iPod plugged in and she stares out the ...

Six Feet Under is a television series that I suggest everyone watches. I am so glad that when I was doing my undergraduate studies I would procrastinate by watching this series back to back, because it taught me a more valuable lesson than any essay I was writing at the time. It taught me to appreciate birthdays. Seeing death on a constant basis in crazy, unusual, and instant ways ingrains how much of a privilege life is, and how fragile it can be.  Turning another year older is ultimately what we all strive for. It’s what we want. I recently celebrated my 26 th birthday! Yes, it kind of snuck up on me; I’m not quite sure when that happened? I still remember my 21 st birthday so clearly! Still I have done a lot of living in 26 years, and even though there is still so much to achieve, 26 seems like a bit of alright. Another pearl of wisdom that I learnt 3 years ago is that time doesn’t matter as long as you are happy with where you are in life. The moment that I had that epiphany...

These are those moments that aren’t that significant at the time, but send you down a rabbit hole of something a hell of a lot bigger. My friend Janine brought me an acting class from one of those daily deal websites, and I was forced to define one of these moments. We were tested to act out something in your life that you wished you did differently, and it brought me back to primary school in Collingwood, Goldenbay. I was “friends” with a group of girls that weren’t all that nice. Everyone had their turn of being on the outside, but it seemed to be me and another girl, Amelia, that used to get picked on more than the others. I used to live in fear of getting on the school bus because I didn’t know whether my “friends” would speak to me or not. The days that I was on the outside were the loneliest days of my life, and I used to spend lunch times in the solitary confinement of the bathroom, or searching through the lost property because I couldn’t handle the shame of sitting by myself....

Lately every weekend has been filled with weddings and hens nights, it has forced me to revaluate my relationships and what I really want out of love. Those who know me, know that I am not the biggest fan of marriage, I remember telling one of my friends who got married recently, “maybe when I’m 50 I’ll get married, because then I’ll be closer to death.” Somehow the marriage gene has skipped me. I never enacted with Barbie dolls two people walking down the aisle, or envisioned a dress, a cake, food, a venue. It’s just never been a big deal for me. Perhaps that has something to do with my parents. My mum and dad married when I was about 9 years old, I got to be a bridesmaid at my Mum’s wedding. The reason they got married is because my Dad had a near death experience, and one of his regrets would be not marring her, and Mum kinda felt like she couldn’t say no to that. There is a lot of love between my parents, but marriage wasn’t really a big deal. It was a low key day....

Whatever it is, eating a piece of cake while you are on a diet, drinking to excess when you have to work the next day, going to bed with someone who you aren’t meant to go to bed with, tagging a “make Kony famous” sign on a side of a building, having sex in a public place. I know these are minor illicit acts in the whole scheme of things but I get how doing something that goes against the laws of normality is so exciting and spellbinding. Why is that? Someone can try talk sense into you as much as you want, but once you have a bite of cake, it’s almost impossible to resist eating the whole piece.   There are consequences for all these things; feeling sick, having a hangover, getting hurt, getting caught, having to clean sand out of places you have never had to clean sand out of before, but somehow these things don’t matter. Is it the thrill that you can cheat the laws (real or moral) and not have to suffer the consequences?  Looking to Google for the answers, it leads me t...