Soccer World Cup final tonight, between Brazil and Germany - although you really would have had to have been living under a rock not to know that one. Possibly the most popular sporting event on the planet (it's a bit debatable between it and the Olympics), the World Cup really seems to have reached to every little corner of the globe. I think that it's been a pretty good tournament - although slightly disappointing that there haven't been as many big match-ups between the major teams as I remember from the previous world cup in France. Not having France, Portugal and Argentina pass through the first round was a bit sad, and Holland not even being there did take a little bit away from the tournament. However, the surprises of Korea, Turkey, Senegal and others meant that this tournament has been incredibly exciting to watch. I think after tonight, everyone just won't be able to wait until 2006 in Germany.

Nats is still feeling pretty crappy - not getting a good night's sleep and relying on painkillers has become the norm lately. It's a bit worrying since it has been nearly a week since the operation and you would have expected things to get a bit better by now.

Life is rather confusing at the moment, everything happening at once last week has meant that my life has changed quite a lot. Having Nats in bed and feeling crappy all the time is fairly depressing, while on the up side I don't have to worry about my exams anymore. Come to think of it - I never really worried about my exams as much as I should have. I hope that doesn't mean that my marks are going to be too bad, I've kind of dropped my expectations a bit so hopefully I won't be too disappointed and angry at myself. Funnily enough, the only time I've ever been disappointed and angry about my marks was in Bursary, and that was probably the year that I got the best marks ever in my life. I think that I just had way too high expectations. Typical me, it doesn't really matter what the marks I get are, it's how they compare to my expectations that matters - so hopefully if I lower my expectations I might be pleasantly surprised.

Hey, it's 12:28am so I can write tomorrow's news. Actually it's today now so all I'm really doing is confusing myself. I've been reading through my entire news page over the last year and a half nearly, I thought that I had better since my younger sister (can't really call her my little sister anymore at 16!) read the whole thing last night - and began quizzing me on things that I had written about a year ago. I guess altogether my news page has been a journey, and I know that I have learned quite a bit about myself through it. Hopefully people have learned quite a bit about me through reading my site.

Wooohooo... it's the weekend (by half an hour), and also near the end of the month which means that I'm going to have to go through and switch all my news from this month to another page, and the come up with a blank page for July. July! Man this year has gone by really really quickly. I guess we're pretty close to halfway through the year, the shortest day has just passed so the days are getting longer now - thank goodness as I just can't stand it being dark at 5pm.

Hopefully by Monday Nats will be feeling a bit better, at the moment her throat is rather nasty, all bruised and still bleeding slightly in some places. She's also snoring pretty badly! (Sorry baby... just listening to it at the moment.)

So I guess that I'm on holiday now - worked yesterday for the first time in a while - it was good to get back to work in some ways although it seemed as though something had changed at work. Interestingly enough I was getting the same feeling that I got last year when we had the same store manager that's at Queen St. now, the "let's be really suspicious of all the crew people and treat them like shit" feeling. But that's strange, because whenever I've talked to the store manager, she's been really kind and joking, and has seemed fairly friendly to everyone else that I've seen her talk to - so maybe it's just me, and maybe just because I've had a while off and I wasn't exactly used to the McDonald's way of doing things.

Nats is slowly on the mend I think, although she doesn't really seem to think so, and the pain is still about as bad as it was on Tuesday when she had her tonsils removed. She's been given the strongest painkillers they can find, and then they're only just working. Hopefully a nice, relaxing weekend will make things better - a nice sleep-in, and the day in bed. Ahhhh.... that sounds like a good way to spend Saturday...

The good news or the bad news first? I guess I'll be positive and give out the good news: my exams are finished! Although it didn't go that great today, it's a relief to get them out of the way, as there's heaps of other stuff that I need to be focusing on at the moment.

For the bad news, Nats isn't really feeling any better, although she is home and out of hospital - my poor baby must have had a reaction to the anaesthetic, and is feeling rather terrible. Hope that you feel better in the morning.

So Germany beat Korea in the first of the semi-finals last night. I did expect that to happen, but I must give the Koreans a bit more credit than I did in yesterday's news entry. They are a very good team, and even if a few marginal calls went there way in the previous rounds - on merit they definately weren't outplayed by the Germans. Funnily enough, that's not unusual as the USA outplayed the Germans in the quarter finals, yet Germany still won the match 1-0. They say it's always a sign of a good team when they can be outplayed yet still win, kinda like Tiger Woods who has a bad day and yet still wins the US open!

It's all happening at the moment - with the baby being born, Nats going into hospital herself today to have her tonsils removed, and me having my exam tomorrow. Poor Nats has to stay the night, bloody tonsils! Oh well, there should be no more problems with them from now on because they're not there anymore!

At last, this time tomorrow I will no longer have to worry about exams - my economic geography exam will be over and done with, and although I don't think that I know it as well as I did for the Environmental Geography paper, I think that's because they haven't given us as good clues about what the exam is going to be on - so hopefully the essay answers won't have to be quite so specific. I kinda figured that anyway, because the paper has been about broad topics such as commodity chains and the shift from fordism to post-fordism. I know the basics pretty well, so I should be sweet.

First of the world cup semi-finals tonight, although unfortunately it's far too late for me to watch as I have to wake up early tomorrow morning to go to my exam. All I can really hope for is a good, fair match - as the world cup has the potential to be ruined by the controversy surrounding the defeats of Spain and Italy by South Korea. I expect Germany to cruise past them, as they have a much superior team, but then again I also expected both Italy and Spain to easily beat the Koreans so you never know.

Overnight there has been a new addition to the family. At roughly 4am this morning Nats' auntie Delwyn gave birth to Alexandra Rose Campi. Sorry to sound all official and all, like one of those notices they have in the newspaper. We all really expected her to come a bit sooner, but still she had a week to go until full time so it's pretty good. Congratulations to everyone....

Well, I have about three days left of semester, probably the best way to put things - in other words I have an exam in three days time, well two days really now. At least after that it'll be over and I'll be able to relax a little bit. Well, mentally at least because I am going to be working fulltime.

In the middle of my exams, had Philosophy yesterday which I think went OK. Well it could have been better, but not because the questions were anything unexpected - but more that the subject hadn't really interested me altogether that much and I hadn't really done that much reading for it.

Tomorrow I have environmental geography, which is GOOD. Of all my papers this semester, this is the one that is probably 'me' - if you know what I mean. It's all based around Sustainable Development, which is the 'big hope' of the future - to solve the environmental problems we face as well as reducing poverty. Interesting stuff, as I plan to talk about it in terms of the Auckland Regional Growth Forum, the history of forestry in New Zealand, and dam development internationally. Should be OK, I just wonder whether I should have a back-up topic just in case the essay questions are a bit strange.

Poor Nats is going into hospital next week to have her tonsils removed. I'd have to say that from what heard you've gotta have guts. I could just imagine myself saying "that just sounds too bad.... never mind". Just a bloody pain that the operation's a day before my last exam. So this time next week I'll be completetly finished with my exams - what a relief, and back working fulltime at Maccas. At least I'll earn some money, which I REALLY need at the moment!

Nats is now 18, happy birthday for Sunday! Now we can all go out and get smashed (legally) and go to R18 movies and everything like that. Hmmmmmmmm...... not that we've ever really wanted to do that kinda stuff at all. It always seems like a big deal when you turn 18, and I guess in some ways it is as you are officially an adult. But really, it's just another day in your life and I don't think anyone really "feels" older the day they turn 18, it's a gradual thing.

Exams!!!!! Yeah I know that by now I really should have got used to exams - as this is like my 14th university exam. But they are still pretty stressful, and I have one tomorrow and then another one on Friday. It's the one tomorrow that's really annoying me, as Philosophy of the Mind has hardly been the most interesting paper that I've ever taken. It's probably going to turn out to be my worst ever mark at university which is also a bit of a disincentive for me. At least I'm going to pass.....

Another early start this morning, I'm actually getting quite used to waking up at 6am now (that's actually pretty late for us), as Nats is always starting work at 6:30. It has meant that I've been able to get into university while it's still reasonably quiet and find a seat in the library (it's actually a fairly difficult task at this time of the year). And since I'm probably going to be working mornings during the holidays, and hopefully every day so that I can pay my mounting bills I had better get used to these early mornings.

My studies for environmental geography have actually been quite interesting - which is really good since usually it's a bit of a grind studying for my exams. Yesterday I focused upon the Auckland Regional Growth Forum, as well as a history of forestry in New Zealand. It was good to do something that I can see the effects of - and since I've always been interested in Auckland's growth and how the city is layed out etc. it was really interesting to find out where it's likely to be headed in the future. I could see myself working with them in the future to analyse and update the growth strategy. I must also say that I agreed with most of the plans they had, as they didn't get all ideological about creating either a 'compact city' or greenfield development, but instead took bits and pieces from all the different theories and seem to have applied it to the Auckland scenario in particular. So I guess in the future you should look out for high density housing around train lines as well as in major suburbs, along with some urban sprawl near Albany, Orewa and East Tamaki.

It's my Mum's birthday today - so HAPPY BIRTHDAY (not that you ever read this....lol!)

It's been nearly a week since my last update - the result of me being too bloody poor to afford to spend any money on the internet while I'm at university, and the fact that I've hardly been at university that much over the past week as my lectures are finished and I've been working during the day.

.... Which has meant bloody 5:20am wake-up calls for me and Nats! Luckily tomorrow there is no work (just a hospital appointment!), so we get to sleep in at least for a little bit longer than normal.

The reason I don't have any lectures is because I've got exams coming up instead. Yes, it's come to that time of the year again when all hell breaks loose and you end up going absolutely insane with studying for university exams. Fortunately I only have three, and one of them is only worth 40% of that paper's total - my history paper is all finished and I'm about 100% sure that I'm going to get a B+ for that paper as that's what I've got for every single essay.

Can't wait for exams to finish - for the first time since February I won't have the guilty feeling that I really should be studying rather than doing what I'm actually up to (which normally isn't studying....) I have to admit that I've been fairly good this semester when it has come down to handling the stress, I haven't let it catch up with me and it's been manageable.

I gave blood yesterday, yes that was very good of me to do such a thing. And it bloody hurt when they put the needle in! At least things weren't as bad for me as they were for Nats though, the nurse couldn't find her vein and had to keep moving the needle around - I just cringe at the thought of it. But I did rather well, gave the full amount of blood and didn't faint as I made sure I had lots and lots of stuff to drink just before I started.

Exams are looming closer and closer, my first one is Wednesday of the week after next, less than two weeks away. I know that seems like a long way away at the moment, but I bet it will seem like this time passes so quickly that I'll be writing in my news page in about a week that it seemed so long ago, and now my exams are looming incredibly soon. I have to sort out which exam I have when, at the moment I know that I have one on the 19th, 21st and 26th - I'm just not sure which one is when.

Had my parents over for dinner last night, things went pretty well even though I did help with the cooking (mustn't have stuffed things up too much, everyone's still alive!) It meant that I didn't get that much sleep last night as we were up early this morning, but you know it's probably good practice for next week when I am working 7-2 from Monday to Thursday. Bloody early start for me, but I guess the good thing is that at least I'm getting some pretty good hours, and at the moment that's what I really really need!

I've only got one more lecture to go for this semester, then my three exams, but it seems to have gone by pretty quickly. It's been an OK semester university wise, I probably haven't done that great in my papers but I'll still pass them easily and I still should be able to do well in my geography papers, which is most important.

10 days until Nats' eighteenth birthday. That will be pretty cool in some ways, as if we want to go to a bar or nightclub (although it's not really my thing), we'll be able to. Means that there's going to be less money around, which is a scary thought as we're struggling at the moment to meet all our costs - but I'm sure that things will work out someway or another.

Welcome to a new month, and welcome to bloody winter! Hmm.... what looms for me in June? Well I have exams, holidays and Nats' auntie is almost 100% certain to have her baby in this month. Well it looks like quite an interesting month, hopefully a bit better than 'killer month' May. With all its essays, May was very very busy, I guess with exams I can't really expect June to be that much quieter but we shall see.

Worked 9-6 yesterday, which was rather tiring but pretty good, as I feel that the managers at Queen St. are showing more faith in me than ever before. I guess in some ways being on production meant that I had a pretty easy day as I didn't have to cook that much, but in other ways production is the hardest station because if you stuff up then everything is gone.

Last week of lectures for me this semester, seems strange as March 4th doesn't really seem that long ago in some ways - but in other ways it has been a while. It was also my first day working at Queen St. McDonald's and was just a couple of days before Nats started work at Starbucks. And it does seem that we've been working at these places for quite some time.....