Life's But A Walking Shadow

Found out some shocking news today...Hannah Modra died yesterday. She was a good friend in primary but I hadn't spoken to her since. It is SO UNBELIEVEBLY SAD. Her poor family. They have been through SO much. Hannah's brothers disability, her mums cancer and now her dying. She was such a bubbly, happy Christian so it's so hard to understand why she did what she did. I wonder what was going on in her mind beforehand. It really makes you think how fragile life is. One mistake, one not-thought-out act of desperation and it can all be over. I wish we had 9 lives. But I guess God wanted us to be with him sooner rather than later. Ahhhhhh. So freaking sad.

R.I.P Hannah.

Enough of the depressing d'n'm thoughts.

Today was so gay. Got woken up at 6 freaking 30 by Angela and Dad and Jon. Ange, to go to gym, Dad, to take her and Jon, to catch the train to school. HAHAH suckers. Went to hospital again to visit someone then came home. Only to take a ONE HOUR MATHS TEST ON THE LAST DAY OF THE HOLIDAYS. Like seriously. That is messed up. People shouldn't even have tuition on the holidays let alone take a test to get into a tuition place. Oooh that place is really scary. For each exam thing, they not only post up the top scorers on the bulletin board but the three people who got the lowest marks. I think that's even more messed up than tuition on the holidays. How do they expect encourage people to do better? By publicly humiliating them? That's not right. I don't know if I want to go there anymore. Waaaaay too hardcore. Ahahah I should probably see whether I got into it or not before I decide anything :P I could hardly remember anything. Not using my brain for like 10 weeks has taken a serious toll. Stupid logs. I knew I should have revised them beforehand.

And School tomorrow. Kinda excited :)

Love, Julia

The Day After Tomorrow

...is SCHOOL!!! hahahah...everyone excited? I feel so unprepared :P Went to pick up textbooks from school today and save myself a locker, then went to the hospital to see someone...stayed there for AGES. But I like hospitals so it was ok :D I'm weird I know. Have to do some homework tomorrow. I'm actually really excited for school; seeing everyone again, all the spares, getting our diaries and timetables, sitting on the balcony...should be a great year :) Apart from all the homework and exams..but lets not think about those until we need too :P

Love, Julia

Finally a Productive Day

Can you believe it...I actually did some work today :D Got most of methods done and most of spesh...only chem left now plus a few questions I didn't finish. I also baked THE best chocolate cake/muffins EVER. It's the "Mother of All Chocolate Cakes"...recipe in previous post.

These tasted SO much better than the other cupcakes I made, even though they don't look as good.

Anyway...going to school tomorrow :O but not to go to school. As in I'm going but not going going. If you get what I mean :P Saving a locker and picking up textbooks. Might stay for scriptwriting if I can be bothered.

Time for bed!

Love, Julia

This Is What I Do Instead Of Homework

I should start my holiday homework...I've been meaning to start since this year began actually :P Ahahah oh well. Still have until Friday.

Anyway, these past few days have been quite hectic.

Thursday - Went for another bikeride with Linley. We went to my old primary school Essex Heights where they have this AWESOME sunflower field and good trees to climb :) and then to Damper Creek. It started raining on us but it was fun anyway :D Went grocery shopping then cooked a fantabulous dinner for everyone :) in the process burning myself with hot oil...Slept over at Linley's house.

Friday - Went to Linley's old house in Healesville. Watched Josie and the Pussycats on TV (funniest/weirdest movie ever) and helped mow their lawn :) Watched stupid Djokovic beat Federer ;( Slept over again.

Saturday - Woke up late, got home at about 2pm...bummed around...went to Marcus' 18th which was fun but also meant a consecutive 5th night going to bed after 12, meaning I was dead by

Sunday - Had to get to church at EIGHT IN THE MORNING. Earliest I've woken up all holidays :P Went to Knox with family but ditched them and joined Gabby and her boyfriends (her brothers group) at Nandos. Shopped for a bit then came home...didn't really do anything. Watched Djokovic beat Tsonga ahhhh so gay. Everyone I want to win, loses; Federer, Nadal, Dellaqua, Ivanovic and Tsonga. Also finished "Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle yesterday. Biggest shock ever: Sherlock Holmes is a DRUG ADDICT. He injects either cocaine or morphine into his arm whenever he gets bored. I was extremely disappointed but other than that the book was good :D

Today was tres boring. Cleaned the bathrooms for Mum...pretty much it...wanted to bake a cake or muffins or SOMETHING but we didn't have enough ingrediants grr. Also didn't get any homework done. I'm the worst procrastinator ever. I think I'll go to state tomorrow and just not leave until I finish. Doubt it'll work...I'll just go to the fiction section and get a book. Oh well...worth a try. On another note, I've FOUND MY PHONE! wooo...felt so cut off and isolated without it :P

I would upload more pictures, but I think the internet is capped and Jonathan is laying all the blame on me. TYPICAL. Oh, and if I'm talking to you on msn and suddenly sign out, it's not me it's Jonathan cutting off my internet. He's angry cos I won't lend him my straightener. He should be thanking me for trying to stop him turning into a wannabe hardcore asian gangster. And I'll probably be made to get rid of this paragraph. OH WELL.

Love, Julia

Linley and Julia Smell Like Poo

Tiger and Cookie had their second vaccination today...they were so good, no struggling or scratching at all :) They have both double in weight since the last time they went...fat cats hahaha. Was going to go to church after that to help out with some craft stuff but the Wades came over like 5 seconds before I was going to leave (sorry Jackie forgot to text).
This is what Linley and I made:

The "Give Her What She Wants Double Fudge Cake" with chocolate frosting. Oh man. The richest, chocolatiest cake I have ever had. It is SO good. And really easy to make too. After that we went for a bike ride to burn off the sugar in that cake and to motivate Mum to excercise since she has weak bones. Bike riding is so much fun :D We came back pretty late (it was already dark) to find this in the rumpus room:

Talk about disgusting *shudders*. I hate cockroaches more than spiders and snakes and anything ugh. Would have stomped on it but we weren't wearing any shoes so Linley and I caught it in a plastic container, slid a piece of paper under it and chucked it outside. High five Linley, we rock :D

So that was our day. Linley's sleeping over and we're cooking a three course dinner tomorrow which will be mad fun :D

Love, Julia

Lazy Day Half Spent In Bed

Ahahahah Tiger is seriously the funniest and strangest cat in the world. As if anyone could go to sleep under the tv!

Today was a boring day. Got up at like 12, went to Link the bookshop to get Angela's textbooks...ended up getting some study guides for English which reminded me again of all the holiday homework I still haven't started...ahhhh. Went grocery shopping with mum then came home. Should have started homework but I didn't :P hahahaha. Ooh also got the coolest pens ever. I love stationery.


But the thing I'm most excited about...chocolate cake recipes I found on the web! Oooh yeah :) Gonna try them out tomorrow...if I have ingrediants. I'll take pictures if I do :D
Here are the recipes:

Holy Mother of Chocolate Cake
Layers:
3 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting:
1 pound semisweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup unsalted butter

You’ll need:
Two 10- by 2-inch round cake pans
Wax paper
Electric Mixer
A good attitude

For the layers:
Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease those pans. My grandmother lines the pan bottoms with wax paper, too. Finely chop the chocolate. Then, in a bowl, mix the chocolate with the hot coffee. Stir until smooth.
In a large bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl, beat the eggs for about 3 minutes. An electric mixer works best. Then, slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to the eggs, beating until it’s all combined really well. Add the sugar mixture and beat (on medium speed). Finally, divide the batter between your pans and bake them in the middle of your oven for about 65 minutes.
When that’s done and your kitchen is smelling really, really good – Cool the layers completely in their pans. Run a thin knife around the edges of pans and invert the layers. Carefully remove the wax paper and cool the layers completely.

For the frosting:
Finely chop the chocolate. In a saucepan, bring the cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until the sugar is dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate, whisking it until it’s all melted. Now would be the time to whisk in that butter until smooth. Put the frosting in a bowl and allow to cool, stirring occasionally.
Then, spread the frosting between your cake layers, over the top and around the sides.


Insanely Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake
For this one, you can opt to use the same frosting from my grandma’s Holy Mother of Chocolate Cake. This cake also works pretty well without any frosting at all. It’s up to you.

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sour cream
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 (6 ounce) package chocolate chips (I like the mini kind)

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 pan. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sour cream, butter, vanilla and eggs. Mix all of that goodness together. You can use a mixer at medium speed for about 3 minutes.
Then, pour half of the batter into your pan. In a separate small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle half of that sugar mixture and ½ cup of your chocolate chips over the batter. Repeat with the remaining batter, sugar mixture, and chocolate chips. Bake it all at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
If you want to add the frosting from my previous recipe, you can do so now. If not, no worries.


Give Them What They Want Double Fudge Cake
Again, you don’t have to use frosting on this cake if you don’t want to. If you do, use the frosting from my first recipe.

6 ounces semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup cocoa powder (not drink mix)
1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare an 8 inch round pan by greasing its bottom and sides. Cut a circle of waxed paper and fit it around the bottom of the pan. Grease that, too.
Coarsely chop your chocolate. Then, melt the chocolate and the butter over simmering water. Stir the sugar into the chocolate. Beat the eggs (fast and hard), one at a time, into the chocolate. Next, add your cocoa, pepper, salt, and stir. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake about 40 minutes.
Cool about 10 or 15 minutes. Then run a knife around the edge to loosen, and invert on a plate.

Ahahahahh gotta love the names of the cakes :P Can't wait to try them out!

Love Julia

Curiosity Killed The Cat

Tiger has unfortunately discovered the toilet (as seen in previous post) however today he not only got his two front paws on the toilet seat, but jumped up onto it, fascinated by the large mass of bubbles within. Guess what happened. That's right. He fell in.



Aah silly cat :P

Went to Sarah's house today, had lunch at a korean restaurant in Box Hill mmm yum :) On the way back we stopped at Flight Centre and got stacks of brochures for schoolies and random stuff. Found one on working holidays where you can work for example at a ski resort in Canada or on a holiday camp in America...all of which sound really really good! I really want to go to Canada! And this is particularly good because jobs and accomodation are confirmed before you leave so you don't need to worry about finding work or a place to stay :D Just have to get through year 12 first :P

Love Julia

Death By Chocolate

Angela and I made them this morning :) If that wasn't bad enough, we went to Koko Black this afternoon. Enough said.

Julia

Picture of the Week

No, Tiger, you can't drink from there.

Went shopping at Knox with Gabby today. It was awesome. Found a dress to wear to either the induction dinner, yr 12 formal, valedictory dinner or graduation dinner (are the last two seperate or the same thing?) and it was mega-cheap for a formal-ish dress :D Very happy. (Gabby, we forgot to take pictures!) Ooh also bumped into Kasten and Nicole there :)

I also got to add two more books to my new bookcase; Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas yay. When I have a house of my own I'm going to have a library and fill every wall with books and a comfy couch :)

After that we went to Linley's house to pick up Jonathan and ended up staying there for a bit.

Dead tired now.

Love Julia

Bookworm

I just thought I'd post a picture of my lovely new bookcase which I built all by myself with no help at all :) not even to carry it up from the car hahah.

I think it was made for my room. Seriously. It fits perfectly between my door and my desk. Yay :D Today was the 3rd trip to Ikea just to get this bookcase. The first time we forgot to drive the stationwagon so it wouldn't have fit in our car and the second time 4 people came; Mum, Linley, me and Angela so it still wouldn't have fit since we couldn't put the back seats down. So finally today everything was fine. I love books. I really do. More than clothes. Maybe even more than shoes...mmm that's a close one...

Julia

Beach - Sunscreen = Raw, Red, Painful Sunburn

Oh man, so incredibly burnt. I even have a sunglass tan. Not kidding. My face is brown/red except for where my sunnies where which is white. I would take a photo but it's too embarrassing. Here are my legs instead (and my lovely pj's :P). And it's MUCH much worse in real life. The camera seems to take pity on me. How did I get so sunburnt you ask? I was lying on my tummy reading Jane Eyre :P ahahhaha...

And it hurts too, everytime I bend my knee...I was meant to go to the Aus Open today but I'm glad I didn't...the only thing I can wear to cover up the sunburn without it rubbing against it is my pajama pants. Me and Mum went to pick up my new bookcase from Ikea and I was walking for about half an hour with my jeans rubbing against my sunburn and it absolutely KILLED to walk anymore.

Moral of the story: wear sunscreen to the beach or be prepared to wear pj pants for the next week.

So what else have I been up since I last blogged? Definately no homework that's for sure... I saw Atonement with Gabby...actually funny story, on NYE Linley and I watched Becoming Jane...and so did Gabby with her family on the same night. The next day Gabby and I saw Atonement which Linley saw with her family on the exact same day ahaha...completely unplanned :P I saw 27 Dresses with Mum as well which was really really good :) Last Friday Linley's family and mine went blueberry picking up in Toolangi and then went to her old house in Healesville and then to a creak where we soaked each other with water bottles which left us shivering when it started to rain :P Ooh I also got to add 2/3 hours to my driving log since I drove there...the total now stands at about 23 hrs...only 97 more to go hahaha...

Oooh I forgot about Planetshakers! It was REALLY REALLY good I thought...and the speakers were amazing! Definately worth the $90 I reckon. Now I can't wait for Easter Camp!

Yesterday me, Andrea, Amy, Libby, Sarah, Kasten, Fiona, Jess, Nicole and Venetia took the bus down to Mordialloc beach for the day (where a few of us got burnt). Afterwards we went back to Sarah's house for pizza and karaoke. It was such a nice day :)

Other than that, nothing much has been happening. Jonathan's room is being painted blue and green, the kittens are growing SO fast...and school is in 2 weeks *cries*...year 12...gosh we're old as. Still have to do my holiday homework, go stationary shopping and get textbooks....I'm so not ready to start year 12...

Love much

Julia

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wooo it's 2008 ALREADY... how time flies! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and ended 2007 with a bang (or almost being hit by a car like Linley and I hahaha). I have to say this new year's eve was the best so far even though we didn't do anything super-special. We had lots of people over for dinner at ours including the Wade's...ate a lot (as always), watched a movie, stuck ferroro rocher stickers on our faces and took lots and lots of photos :D The best bit for sure was almost getting run over. We were lying on the road outside taking photos and looking at the stars when a car came up behind us..."CAR!!!" screamed Linley and with astonishing speed we ran to the sidewalk after I almost tripped over wearing one of Linley's ginormous thongs :P ahhh one of those unforgettable moments...LINLEY IS SO COOL! SHE IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD!

Can't believe 2007 is over :( Now I have to start holiday homework...and year 12 ugh...

New Year's Resolutions: take more photos, drink more water, read more books and eat more chocolate yay :D Already started all of them...Currently reading Area 7 by Matthew Reilly ($13 from Myer woot) and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Christmas prezzie from Jon)...ooh and btw the movie Becoming Jane is really good and SO SADDDD!

Anyway, I'm really tired nowwww so I shall blog later... Planetshakers the day after tomorrow! Can't wait :D

Love Julia