Social Events, Psychology, Holiday
Feb. 14th, 2023 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipThe past few days have witnessed a few social events which have correlated with a positive post-exam mood. Friday evening was a wonderful dinner with thoroughly charming and ever-amusing Cate L, at the Clarendon Hotel. The following day was a "long lunch" (we finished after midnight) with Angela and Rob L., which involved samples of Rob's absinthe from his Rockwood Brewery and some delightful violin playing and singing from Angela. This was after I attended the AGM of the Australia-China Friendship Society which was addressed by the Acting Consul-General, Zeng Jianhua, along with a rather interesting presentation on Chinese language education by Dr. Bo Hu. Interspersed among all this Erica H., has provided excellent company as well and will be looking after my visiting doves whilst I am on holiday. Somewhere among all this I also managed to top the diamond league in Duolingo for the 11th time, mainly through Spanish-English lessons which I haven't done for quite a while.
The following day I started a trip to Adelaide. Taking the Overland train is really for three types of people; tourists who want to see the great Australian landscape (such as the Brit sitting next to me), those who have heavy luggage and don't want to pay excess on their flight, and those who what to relax in their own thoughts. I fall into the latter category, and my reading material for the journey is indicative of the subject matter; I finished Jackson Mackenzie's "Psychopath Free: recovering from emotionally abusive relationships" and "Whole Again: healing your heart and rediscovering your true self after toxic relationships". These are very popular books (who knew that emotionally abusive relationships are so common, eh?), written from the perspective of a well-informed layperson with a lot of practical advice and insight, but also a little verbose and without the hard-nosed academic referencing that I prefer.
Yes, this is an actual holiday - I have far too much outstanding leave I have found myself staying with the happy and smart anarchists Craig W., and Paula DA in the rather quiet and beautiful lands of Port Wilunga. There is something that's quite perfect for the climate here that makes it quite wonderful for an array of typical Australian birds; in the few hours of lights this morning, the small backyard has been visited by magpies, larks, galahs, corellas, crows, lorikeets, and more. In the coming week, I plan to do fairly little (at least by my standards) and spend a lot of time discussing political economy and history in beautiful surroundings and great company, whilst mentally preparing myself for what will be a fairly busy time in the next two months as I finish one degree and start another.
The following day I started a trip to Adelaide. Taking the Overland train is really for three types of people; tourists who want to see the great Australian landscape (such as the Brit sitting next to me), those who have heavy luggage and don't want to pay excess on their flight, and those who what to relax in their own thoughts. I fall into the latter category, and my reading material for the journey is indicative of the subject matter; I finished Jackson Mackenzie's "Psychopath Free: recovering from emotionally abusive relationships" and "Whole Again: healing your heart and rediscovering your true self after toxic relationships". These are very popular books (who knew that emotionally abusive relationships are so common, eh?), written from the perspective of a well-informed layperson with a lot of practical advice and insight, but also a little verbose and without the hard-nosed academic referencing that I prefer.
Yes, this is an actual holiday - I have far too much outstanding leave I have found myself staying with the happy and smart anarchists Craig W., and Paula DA in the rather quiet and beautiful lands of Port Wilunga. There is something that's quite perfect for the climate here that makes it quite wonderful for an array of typical Australian birds; in the few hours of lights this morning, the small backyard has been visited by magpies, larks, galahs, corellas, crows, lorikeets, and more. In the coming week, I plan to do fairly little (at least by my standards) and spend a lot of time discussing political economy and history in beautiful surroundings and great company, whilst mentally preparing myself for what will be a fairly busy time in the next two months as I finish one degree and start another.
