Vanilla Silence

I read this somewhere recently:

so, essentially – it’s a holiday that celebrates a violent British invasion of a once proud people, living peacefully on this continent; filled with American-style patriotism, horn-tooting flag-waving mayhem.

or, to most Australians; a day off work where you can go to the beach, get hideously drunk, eat too much meat, insult and humiliate those born overseas – and claim that it’s okay.

Sigh.

Sure, I’d be fairly upset if someone walked into my house and sat down and said it now belonged to them. But I am also aware that this kind of thing happened across the world for that period of time and for 100 years following. Whenever they felt like it, Russia and Germany decided to go and invade stuff. And please, let us not get started on the United States and their invasion of everything. We’re not talking about all the concentration camps and wars today, are we? Because that’s apparently not relevant to Invasion Day. For crying out loud.

When Kevin Rudd apologised on behalf of Australia and said sorry for what happened, fine. You apologised for something that happened a long time ago. Unfortunately, this can’t be changed unless you’ve got a time machine. Lingering over the point that on this day someone set foot on Australia and thought it was a good idea is ridiculous because I didn’t choose to be born or grow up here, but I still took it as my happy home. And I will certainly not have my Australia Day, with MY traditional cricket, Hottest 100 countdown, BBQ and friends, tarnished by it. I am aware, I am sorry for what THEY did, but unfortunately it wasn’t me. And because we can’t go back, let’s go forward instead.

To the children and young people of Australia, and all the optimistic refugees, Australia is a place of opportunity and freedom. It wasn’t going to stay the pristine lands of Aborigines forever, it would be stupid to assume that.

The Australian flag and the green and gold is the way we get behind our country because we’re lazy – don’t deny it – and it’s a great way of showing support. Athletes love it! The claims of racism and telling people to get out because we’re full are surely exaggerated. I don’t know anyone who feels this way. On a honest note, when I was interstate I felt I was slightly outnumbered by overseas visitors and tourists in some instances – especially in Sydney. However, I also felt it was quite balanced, and I am sure that when out in the suburbs there are some suburbs which have migrants and some don’t – just like here in Adelaide. Where I live and where I work is mostly Australians. In the west, it is mostly migrants. Who cares?

Tinsel on your car, Christmas decorations on your house, and a Christmas tree – all Christmas, right? The same way roses, chocolates and hearts are Valentines Day. And easter eggs, hot cross buns and many, many church services are associated with Easter. So, the Australian flag is associated with – you guessed it – Australia Day. Folks, I don’t think the general population is being an arrogant bogan when they are displaying what I interpret as national pride on their cars, their clothing and themselves. You just have to remember that there’s always a bunch that spoils it for the rest of us.

It really brought a smile to my face yesterday when visiting my brother and sister, who were very excited about Australia Day! They sort of understand what it is about, and showed me their outfits with the Australian flag on it. That child innocence is what we should all be taking a note from today – don’t be stupid about our national pride and turn this into a contest where we should be telling people what to do and how to act. It should be about loving the ground we’re standing on. Because I wouldn’t live anywhere else.

Happy Australia Day.

I’ve been back from my holiday for two days now and I’m really back into the swing of things here. I’ve worked the past two afternoons and got given an all day Sunday shift for the first time in a very very long time. I don’t think I can go seven hours without a toilet break! Might have to call for “backup”. :D

As soon as I’ve gotten home I’ve launched straight into planning and updating things for Cupcake Treats. I’ve got my function thing officially commencing on Feb 1st so I really want to be as prepared as possible, I suppose. Not only for that but just in general.

I’m also cutting back on my shifts at the book store and am planning to be left off the regular roster at the end of February, if things go well. I am going to help Michael with some things for his work, as well as working on my own and hopefully if I get accepted studying. Fingers crossed. :)

I decided not to spam my RSS feeds too hard with my 365 stories, so I’ll just post up occasional ones and my journey through 2010.

I wanted to set some goals for this year, things I’d like to achieve and do – I have already done a couple of things on my list so I will mark them down and cross them off. :) Thanks to my friend @edible_hat for the idea :)

Goals for 2010

• Declutter. Even though I started last year with almost nothing, for some reason I still seem to have a lot of junk. It’s all useful, but lots of it I don’t use. I am thinking of donating some of my jewellery supplies to a couple of people, and really thinking twice about what I have in the cupboard. Do I really need it? If I haven’t touched it in the last year I think it should be ditched.
• Worry less about what people not close to me think/say about me. I know everyone has a problem with this and wants to fix it, but you seriously can’t help it sometimes, right? I have done a good job with this over the last year thanks to some help from Michael but there’s still a couple of people that rub me the wrong way.. Have to learn to distance myself from it and not let it bother me.
• Declutter my clothes every two months. I really want to stick with this one – I always seem to have so many clothes I don’t wear. Will sell the good stuff on eBay or things I’ve barely/never worn, and donate the rest to charity.
• Some form of study. I’m working on this – I didn’t make the first TAFE offer round because I changed my preferences too late but I hope to get into the course on the second round. It’s a Cert IV in Hospitality (Patisserie). After reviewing the course units it seems good for me, and it’s only six months. If I don’t make it, I’ll take some short courses through TAFE instead. I need to start studying, I deferred last year which was a huge waste study wise.
• Keep being me. A bit of background: in 2007 I had a breakdown and had to quit my job and have worked on and off for the last two years with some recurring anxiety episodes. Since my last major one in September I have been much better and even the difference to how I acted last time I was in Queensland is huge, which is fantastic.
• Quit my part time job. Not that this is a big deal, but I would like to get to the stage with my business that I can quit and focus on one thing. Even now in the beginning with so much going on it is getting hard, and unfortunately it seems it’s starting to show on my work (not the cupcakes). Even though I’m trying quite hard, it doesn’t seem to be good enough, so I’d like to get C/Treats up to speed quickly. That shouldn’t be too hard, considering the opportunities I have already!
• Be a little bit more comfortable with myself. I am getting loads better at this! Last year I worked to tone up and lose some weight with WiiFit and I will continue doing this when I can. I also eat a lot better… (well, up until Christmas, hahaha).

I should be good to finish most of this but now I can see how I really go over the next 12 months. :)

So I have neglected Vanilla Silence. Once upon a time I know I used to write frequently and I’ve had this domain almost a year now that it would be silly not to renew it or something like that. Or is it two years?

Anyway, I have decided in 2010 I might make this a bit of a lifestream website. Obviously then I guess RSS feeds will change and whatever so you won’t be spammed with updates and things. I might write Tumblr style posts, or might even link this to a Tumblr. Who knows – but it won’t be returning in the same format it is in now.

The reason I think I strayed away from this website is because of some negative attention I suppose it attracted, and then I felt like everything negative or joking I wrote would be scrutinised by anonymous commenters who are most obviously here from my Twitter feed. I decided that I just wouldn’t post anything for a while.

When I wanted to come back I started writing posts and would get half way and think that they looked ridiculous. It’s sad that now it seems that over 140 characters makes me feel like it’s not worth it. Not only that but… I feel like the attention spans have gotten shorter.

At any rate, I still want to do something with this website and I think it might just document my Twitter 365 (if I can keep it up) and other random things.. Probably a combination of everything. The personal lifestream, as opposed to the monnie.com.au front. :)

See you in 2010 then. :D

After the success of Cupcake Camp Adelaide, and repeatedly being told that if I had a business, they would promote me, or buy cupcakes from me, or I could sell them, I set myself up as a sole trader and made a website.

Without even realising, I actually got an order from a random google search and it went magnificently.

Cupcake Treats was born solely out of the website name – it was on a drop list of expired domains that was about to come up as available and therefore be able to register again. I snapped it up and it lay dormant for three months, pointing to my cupcake blog MonnieCakes for the time being.

Cupcake Camp came and went and then when I was returning something to a party shop, they told me that if I were to get going with it as a business to drop some cards in and they’d promote me as there isn’t anyone in this area that they know does the whole cupcake scene. So in that following week, I worked pretty hard on getting the website set up and then finally launched it.

It has been interesting so far, and while it is quiet at the moment I guess it is the time of the year. This comes with perks though, even though there are no flood of orders right now; wholesale access to cupcake and cake decorating suppliers. It has made things so much easier, and with the right tools and equipment my cupcakes now look better than ever :)

I’m interested to see how things progress in 2010, whether it kicks off enough for me to quit my part time job or drop TAFE (if I get in). It shouldn’t, but I know there has already been a lot of interest for it and I’m pleased to hear that they were a hit after every event. :)