Sunday night... as predictable as meat and three veg.

I'm just going to put it out there - Sunday night is the most predictable time of the week. I don't even have to think from 5pm onwards on a Sunday. I know it's going to be a roast dinner at dining hall, I know I'm going to go back to my room, have a cup of tea and get myself ready for Uni, I know I'm going to watch 60 Minutes and I'll probably have an early night. I am boring personified.

In saying that, however, there is something comforting in knowing that, if nothing else, Sunday night is the one time in the week that just happens easily. Sure I'm open to being spontaneous, but it's nice to have order. Okay maybe I'm a bit of a control freak.

Is Sunday night as predictable for others as it is for me? I'd guess many people enjoy Sunday sessions at their local watering holes, or go out for a meal with friends, watch a film, or even have a regular family BBQ. For me, that may come once I have a full-time job and need to make the most of any opportunity I have to catch up with friends. For the time being, I'm more than happy with my predictable and boring Sunday evenings!

Please Uni... Hurry up so my life can start again?

The past month has been spent trying, perhaps in vain, to productively pass my days when I'm not on duty in the Galloway boarding house. You see, without Uni and living in a relatively small country city, there are limits to the array of activities available at little to no cost.

I've been frequenting my gym (generally daily), and that has taken up a good hour each day, but the Scots resos have managed to come up with many other relatively enjoyable activities to pass the time. We have had Noodle Box at the top of Mt Panorama, overlooking the gorgeous view of Bathurst and beyond. Tuesday night trivia at the Kings has been a good source of entertainment, as has the Ox's trivia on a Wednesday night. We've taken our new resos late night swimming in our pool with a bottle of Chardonnay we won at trivia, and we have had plenty of movie nights and random drinking nights playing games like Never Ever, Roxanne, Kings etc. Emiley (a friend and also a resident) and I have been on a roadtrip to Blayney, where we drank Coke's in the local pub, and sang our hearts out to and from Blayney.

It has been an interesting experience welcoming in new residents to our school. Many have just finished school, and have only just begun university, and consequently we have felt somewhat responsible for ensuring they come home safely after their O-Week parties, and are enjoying themselves sufficiently. Last night we went to Dag Night, having sourced our outfits from Bathurst's Op-Shops. This in itself was a thoroughly enjoyable experience - sampling the many 1980s dress suits and the beautiful floral floor length dresses available. We pre-drank at my friends' house - Toph and Tyson ensured we had lots of fun in providing us with drinking Jenga. It was really nice to pre-drink at a house down-town rather than being either on-campus or at the school. That freedom was certainly appreciated and was very refreshing. All the friends we were with then danced together through the night and even took our new male resident, Dan, under their wing, teaching him how to dance and attempting to get him as drunk as they possibly could with Never Ever.

We loved dancing to Jelly Bean Jam, who played both new and old music and played instruments as well as singing fabulously. It was a bizarre experience to be with all those new faces of the freshers because they just seemed so much younger than us. Which, to be fair, is an accurate observation as they are at least three years younger than us. It was scary to think that some of the first year students are actually my brother's age. Emily and I vowed we wouldn't frequent unibar much any more - we just feel too old - and might choose instead to make the Wednesday night Pool Club our regular social activity.

Here are some of the photos from our past few weeks waiting for uni to commence.

Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is my least favourite day of the year. And it's because I am b-i-t-t-e-r. And I don't pretend that I wouldn't absolutely love Valentine's Day if I had a boyfriend, because I certainly would. But I don't.

It's not that I would want a tacky giant teddy-bear, or a dozen red roses, because I really don't need a lot of money spent on me... I would rather a picnic packed up by my BF, with a bottle of wine and an antipasto platter he'd put together, and we'd spend the day lying on a picnic rug overlooking the harbour somewhere. Or otherwise, I'd love to be able to cook him dinner - something like spaghetti marinara, and we'd spend the evening together listening to good music, drinking nice wine, and enjoying each other's company.

I hate seeing extraordinarily awful Valentines Day cards around this time. I was looking at a few the other day in the newsagents and I almost gagged when I read one that had a picture of a guy on the front of it, and in side it said "Happy Valentines Day, your gift is my stimulus package." Nice, huh. Oh, and who can forget the cheesy "Roses are red, violets are blue" specialties. Yuk.

My problem at present is that I'm kind of disillusioned when it comes to guys that I would actually want to go out with. Sure there are lots of guys whose company I enjoy, but very rarely do I find a boy that really gets me. If I'm honest, I can be a bit self-conscious around guys and feel inadequate, so maybe I should work on feeling more confident about myself... still, I'm sure everyone has their own hang-ups, and when you meet the right person, you don't feel inhibited and self-conscious, you're comfortable to be yourself.

Well, because I don't have my very own boyfriend to cook for or to go picnicking with, I'll just have to settle for watching Definitely, Maybe (my favourite romantic comedy) and watching the dreamy Ryan Reynolds until my very own Prince Charming comes along.

Resemblances

Main Entry: re·sem·blance
Pronunciation: \ri-ˈzem-blən(t)s\
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 a : the quality or state of resembling; especially : correspondence in appearance or superficial qualities b : a point of likeness : similarity

The concept of resemblance has been at the forefront of my mind this week. There has been a "doppelganger" week on Facebook, whereby people have made their display pictures a photo of somebody they supposedly resemble. I've been told, more than once, that Nigella Lawson and I have similarities. Sure, we love to cook, and we have brown curly hair, and we both have hour-glass figures, so I guess we might resemble each other in some ways.

I'm currently reading a book titled Social Intelligenec: The New Science of Human Relationships by Dan Goleman. It has taken me quite a long time to get through it - with a multitude of complex ideas - but today I came across something that I found truly charming.

... something rather remarkable tends to happen with couples who live together for decades, finding happiness with each other. Their continual rapport even seems to leave its mark on their faces, which come to resemble each other, apparently a result of the sculpting of facial muscles as they evoke the same emotions over the years. Since each emotion tenses and relaxes a specific set of facial muscles, as partners smile or frown in unison they strengthen the parallel set of muscles. This gradually molds similar ridges, wrinkles and lines, making their faces appear more alike.

Goleman goes on to describe a study where wedding photos and photos from couples 25 years later were compared. Not only had their expressions and faces become more similar, but the more alike their faces had become, the more happy they were in their relationships.

This phenomenon results in partners being able to sculpt desirable patterns in each other. It is known as the "Michelangelo phenomenon".

In a similar way, many dog owners choose a dog that resembles themselves. One would imagine it would occur subconsciously; in my case, my dog has curly hair as do I. A new scientific study states that this is the case, at least this is the case with purebred canines, according to research from the University of California by Nicholas Christenfeld and Michael Roy.

Forty-five dogs and their owners were separately photographed and judges were shown pictures of an owner, that owner's dog, and one other dog, with the task of picking out the true match. The proof of resemblance was that a majority of the purebred dogs and their owners could be identified by the 28 judges called upon to examine the photographs, with the results showing 16 matches out of the 25 purebreds. There was no evidence of resemblance between the mixed breed dogs and their owners.

Given that dogs are a man's best friend, and you often seek out a friend that has similar traits or is like yourself, it is no wonder you might choose to select a dog that looks like you do.

Many times comments have been made about how my friends and I are so similar. We get each other's jokes and seem to speak another language; presumably because no one else can understand us (or at least they don't find our jokes funny). We also sometimes dress exactly the same - or develop the same obsessions - and it's all done without necessarily communicating with each other. We will get together and discover we've become mirror-images of each other, either through our outfits or our passions/ interests. Sometimes it's almost creepy how quickly your own personal identity is matched by someone else's.

In any case, i've enjoyed pondering the concept throughout this past week... look around you and see whether you associate with individuals that share great similarities with you? Has it always been this way?