happy days

Something has changed for me over here, suddenly out of no where I have relaxed, become more myselfand am generally happy. The first two months were trilling, then there was the freak out home sick moments that followed. Then there was the developing of relationships and hating my job. And now there is me. It only took four months but I have been laughing and joking adn generally feeling comfortable with people on the union, ready's flat mates, the LGB, class mates and randomers. I am back to my happy flirty self. I have been having good days after good days but I think the realization these good days were related to a general sence of satisfaction came last night.

ready's father was in town to visit a mate in the hospital, he asked me to meet him at the pub. I phoned him after executive and me said to meet him in an hour and a half at this pub near a gaff of mates of ours. Snce it was only 15 mins away I didn't knwo at first where I should go. This guy who lives at the gaff near the bar was heading home so I went there with him. When we got to his place I still have an hour to kill so I went and chilled in his gaff with these guys from the union. Even a week or so ago if ready would have suggested that I would have shyed away from randomly hanging out at there house without an invite. But it was all cool, they even made me veggie sasuages, beans, toast and mushrooms.

These guys can be a bit intense for me at times, they ar eall union lefty types. The five of them include the president, the deputy president, the accomidation and employment officer, the development officer and a mate of there's who is dating a flat mate a ready's and who is in local politics. Politics is discussed all the time. Some of the discussions I get involved it but many are jus tover my head. But here is the key point, althought at times I have no clue I don't feel intimidated - i just realize this is there thing what they get off on.

So I went to the pub with these guys and met up iwth ready his father and two of his flat mates. Things like that can be extreamly akward-since there was a group of us in this informal setting it was cool. There were moments that silence stricked the group, but that is to be expected. To break the silence his dad started to tell this joke, damn it with his country accent I didnt' get all of it. There was a tension in the air as he told this long joke. What if it wasn't funny, do we laugh anyways. and in my case what if you don't follow it ahhhhh!!! luckily I got the general idea and was able to laugh at the end, what a relief.

I heard a few cute stories about ready. like when his dad asked him to plow the land in his teens he would try to read a book at the same time. Which in his fathers eyes was horrible the plow wasn't in a straight line ;) It was so perfect of a story since of course he would be reading some political book about class struggle or anarchism rather then working. especially in anxy teen years.

zines
the other night I was smoking a joint with a bunch of guys after a night at the student bar. ready went on a rant about the hierachy of publications. Him and this guy chief are working on a student union publication, but they were having a hard time getting people to write for it. His rant basically said that peopel are willing to write posts on indymedia for example that basically read like articles but are intimidated by having something published. There is a hierachy with publications that shies people away. but there is no difference about a rant on indymedia or one in this publication especially since it was DIY.

I had been hessitant to write something for the publication and for this other zine that he is working on. But the next day when I got a email from Marikes collective asking me to write something I decided to give it a try. I realized that I post here all the time and sometimes my rants too can be read as articles. So I sat doen and wrote two pieces, one on the postive space campaign and the second on squating my heart (poly). The squating my heart one I sent off to marike and to ready's zine. And the positive space one I sent to ready for the publication.

That is such a huge step for me, for those who know me well know how anal I am about having people read my work. When I first started my blog I said one of the reason was to get more comfortable with sharing my writing and I suppose it worked!!!

bin bread

It has been awhile since I posted so I thought I would share a story from last week. Last Monday ready and I headed into town so I could get a few movies for my essay on the possibilty of a lesbian gaze. On our way back to the bus stop, we passed Marks and Spensers. Now ready had told me before how at the end of the day they through out perfectly good food into the bin cuz its shelving date is come up. The food is kept in their seal containers and then put in seperate bags, so nothing is touching the bins themselves. He headed into the alley to see what they had. To our delight there was a full bag of this herb french bread. The type of bread you need to heat up in the oven. We grabbed a three of those and then there wasthis fnacy cheese. NO I didn't take them to eat, but they came it this great containers that you could put tea or suger in.

The only problem with our great find was that M&S put ink allover the package of the bread in hopes that no one would take it. So our hands were died blue for a little while but what can you do! My flat mate looked down on us but made the best point ever to reinforce why this was not only a wonderful idea but the right thing to do. He said that M&S says that they give all the food that is on its last few days of shelf life to homeless shelters. But no the huge company lies again. There is not reason to let good food go to waste. yummmm it was so good to!! bin bread you got to love it!