Chasing Noodles

Today marks 100 years since the birth of the worlds number one story teller. For as long as I can remember Roald Dahl has been a part of my life and words like  gloriumptious,  frightsome,  whoopsy-splunkers ,  and  frothbuggling from Dahl's " Gobblefunk " (his own language) are normal words to me. In honor of the centenary of his birth this month, the Oxford English Dictionary added these six new words from Dahl’s writing: Dahlesque, golden ticket, human bean, Oompa Loompa, scrumdiddlyumptious and witching hour. As an almost teacher, I think it is incredibly important that every child has the privilege of experiencing the magic of Roald Dahl in their lives and for as long as I teach, I will do my best to do just that. Happy Birthday Roald Dahl!

...because "good" advice is necessarily 'safe' advice, and though it will undoubtedly follow a sane pattern, it will very likely lead one into total sterility - on of the crushing problems of our time.  - Jules Feiffer I love this rule and for those of you who know me, know exactly why i love this rule and you're probably rolling your eyes at me right now too. Okay, focus those eyes and hear me out. I have the most wonderful family and friends who are constantly looking out for me. They have all given such good advice and I always listen very tentatively to what they say, but nine times out of ten I'll end up doing the opposite or else something completely different. For example, when I decided I was actually in the wrong career and made the decision to study again and start over, everyone was happy for me and incredibly supportive. So began the process of studying but after a year and a bit I became a little bored, for lack of a better word, and needed a ...

And just like that, the end of 2015 is upon us. For some, this may have been a life changing year, filled with adventures and new beginnings. For others, it may have been a difficult year of loss and hard lessons. But for the majority of us I’m sure it was probably a very average, run of the mill year with some highs and some lows. On top of that, your new year’s resolutions list is more than likely untouched which means the exact same things will be on the list again this year. ‘If you’re anything like me, your list of New Year’s resolutions reads like a sort of global to-do list. We resolve to change our diets, exercise more, travel to new places, finish a big creative project. We resolve to be better by doing more. ’ Here’s an idea though. Why not skip the list this year? Why not tear up the previous one while you at it? Why not, instead of setting these unrealistic goals that leave you depressed and angry and most of all disappointed in yourself because you stil...

On a recent trip to visit my best friend in Australia I had the privilege of seeing the incredible Chris Cornell at the impressive Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane. By some miracle we managed to get our seats bumped up to a couple rows from the front, pure luck! Unbeknownst to me, Chris had a supporting act, a certain  David Le'aupepe from the band 'Gang of Youths'  and I can tell you something for free, the second this guy stood there in front of the mic with his guitar and began talking to us, I fell hook, line and sinker for this stranger and his music. Just mesmerized.  I'm not sure if it was his haunting beautiful voice, the way he connected with the audience with his stories between songs, the way he would scoop his hair back or the pure passion and energy that captivated me, but I was floored. At the end of his set I was devastated that it was over, I needed more. So the obvious next step was to go old school and buy their ...

It sits in the cupboard, whispering your name.  "Suze".  "Suuuuuze!" "You need me. You won't be able to sleep until you've just had a block". "Just one. I swear. Tomorrow, you can start that diet again."  And before you know it, you've eaten the slab. And then regret sets in.  About a year ago, I gave up chocolate. Why? Well,thank you for asking.  Why does anyone give up something they love?  There's actually a couple reasons. For one, I loved chocolate so much, so much it would sometimes hurt but chocolate didn't love me back, it just made me feel ugly and yuk and powerless afterwards. It always made me believe I needed it, like my life would stop without it and I would surely die. Chocolate also made me think I was the only one, but I didn't realise when I wasn't looking, it would let anyone take a bite. It would also always make me feel so happy in the moment when it was around but left me with what felt ...

Day one It's one o'clock in the morning and I'm feeling a little more tired than I should on a Saturday night out but brush it off as old age and the fact that I'm not drinking tonight. The drive home was exceptionally long and tedious but I made it none the less. Day two When I woke up this morning, my muscles were super stiff but I put it down to that awesome Kayla workout i did yesterday, suddenly a bit more proud of myself. Must have pushed myself harder than I thought. Silent high 5. Drive off to family for tea and cake and after drinking my tea I don't feel like cake. Why? Why don't I want a piece of this extraordinarily delicious cake? Muscles getting a tad more sore as the day goes on but need to pull myself together, I have a week of prep to get through for my practical this week. Maybe next time I'll take it a little more easy on the workout. Get home and take out my laptop, search a couple pages and suddenly feel a monster headache on its ...