Credit/debit

Purchasing goods online has always made me nervous and not because I’m concerned that someone will gain access to my accounts. Seriously, I’m a student: what is there to steal? It’s more a matter of self-control. The reason I wrangled a debit card was so that I could buy tickets to gigs that I kept missing out on. For months I have stoically resisted the lure of teh internetz and not allowed my feet to dangle in the dappled, sunlit oasis of online shopping. It was a noble sentiment that didn’t last.

I ordered a book online a week or so ago from a teeny independent publisher called Elephant Ears Press. The book is called Uncorrected Proof by Louisiana Alba. Elephant Ears only stocks in about 5 bookshops in the world—a couple in the UK and Shakespeare and Company in Paris—but they provide free shipping anywhere in the world including shipping-retardant countries like Australia that are perennially discriminated against for their geography. It arrived today and lo, to what fanfare!

None, actually. I swung into my driveway saturated after riding home from Lygon St. and there was a parcel lying on my porch. A parcel—what transports of delight! Father! Fräulein Maria is back from the abbey!

Naturally, the online shopping didn’t end there and I’ve dipped into ModCloth, ordering a galaxy dress, a film noir wallet and a pair of shock-gold tights with a peacock pattern on them. Before that, I bought a limited edition collaborative book between Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman. I found out about the book from an interview 1700 did on Channel 31 with Amanda Palmer and she also mentioned the book on her mailing list. It’s a series of photographs of Palmer murdered in different cities around the world, with words by Gaiman. I have no idea what it will be like, but it sounds fantastically weird.

I’m not much of a shopper, but I enjoy the drowsy browse here and there and I shallowly admit that seeing a parcel at my feet this evening perked me up.

The university semester is burning out as quickly as I am. I was little drawn after I had my wisdom teeth out, but then another bedridden weekend followed and my body just sighed. It was 11am at work this morning and I wanted to crawl into bed and then I got my period and developed a headache that hasn’t since left my head.

Hence, I’m eagerly awaiting my trip to Cambodia in a month’s time where I’ve firmly resolved to sleep, read, amble around Phnom Penh, drink pina coladas and do little else for two weeks. This trip is supposed to be a month away and I have no passport, no plane tickets, no luggage, no visas and no itinerary. Yet, it’s a warm glimmer in the distance and I have a place to briefly call home while there, for which I’m grateful. I’ll sign off now to give you a reprieve from the weary inner workings of my head.

Sorry if I grossed you out by telling you I have my period but, you know—that’s what you get for reading my blog.