chinese bridges and the alps.

Last night i went to the Chinese Bridge Language competition, and it was quite interesting...i must say victoria university's competitor was uh, an interesting character. his speech was very off topic and basically retelling an un-successful attempt to pick up a german girl in china...and apart from the very loose connection that she moved to Beijing, i really couldn't see the relevance to the Beijing 2008 Games topic. while very good at striking poorly comical 'thinking' poses, he had no idea of the answers to the two questions he was asked by the judges. i even knew the answer to one of them! and then he went on to amuse us in his 'performance' item with an electric piano accordion!!!!! Musically talented, maybe, but he was not exactly of the calibre i was expecting to turn up to compete in the competition. Our uni's competitors did pretty good, but alas we missed out on the top placings. I believe it was a Monash student who won and i did agree with that decision. he was very good!

the highlight of the evening of course was the unexpected free (always-large-sized) tshirts! lol. my teacher tried to give me a brilliant green one but i asked for the black. got one too many bright green chinese tshirts already if you ask me, (thanks Suzanne Scraggs! ;-P )

Next up i got incredibly lost trying to get my way to brunswick street via the incompetent melbourne public transport system. made it to the evelyn eventually where Cathy, Gem, Nat and I enjoyed the Little Stevies band.

Clothes reeking of smoke i crashed the night at Cathy's and then spent the day there too, where we enjoyeda spectacular lunch of bread and cheese (and fruit and salad), lazed in the sun like contented kitty-cats (well, mostly I lazed in the sun) and cooked a banana bread.


the lunch ingredients were compliments of the Queen vic market which we took a late morning venture to. we spent the last of our change on a fresh supply of veggies for the week, and um-ed and ah-ed over which cheeses and bread to buy. After some time Cathy managed to decide on a goat's cheese, smoked applewood cheese and quite unexpectedly i picked up a little bundle too!

what type of cheese did i get? wouldn't you like to know! (or rather, u probably dont really care, do you?) well, firstly i was taken by the quaint name of the deli stall "Curds and Whey". how cool is that name?? i love the little Miss Muffett rhyme! but yes was on the hunt for a very particular type of cheese, and i found it in three different varieties at Curds and Whey! it was Heidi cheese!

yes, my namesake in cheese! how very impressive!


of course it draws its inspiration from the Heidi story. Excluding two occasions last year in china (both with Germans, so they're forgiven as it's a german name!), it's been quite some time since i've been quizzed by people on whether or not i've heard the story of Heidi. however just to clear up any misunderstanding, yes, i do know the story, yes, i have got at least one copy of the book (in fact i have the 2 sequels too), and no, yet another copy of the book will not make an appropraite birthday present for me, yet again!


But aside from the at times rather tiresome quizzing on the Heidi story, i am very fond of the story, in all it's gayness. gay meaning happy of course.


and while searching for a picture of the alps i discovered that there are Halloween costumes for Heidi. How bizzarre!!! So yes, this year you too can dress like a girl of the alps, especially you Daniel! ;-)

haha. i cant stop laughing at Peter. what a manly pose. but that Robin Hood hat is so the wrong colour. but Heidi does look quite the ho, but i guess it fits with the commonly heard pet form 'heidi-ho' . this too becomes tiresome.

recently a stranger at uni called me Heidi-ho after finding my name was heidi, but he was rather shocked when i viscously snapped back 'oh great! u just take any opportunity to add on the word ho, don't u?!'. looking back, it was a very funny outburst, and he really didnt deserve it. but it makes me laugh.

I'm getting back to my roots, the goat scattered Alps.

moving on, and back to today. at lunch while eating my namesake (how many people can eat their namesake?? hehe) a quote from the sequel of Heidi (written by a different author to the original story) came to me. basically the book tells the story of heidi's later teenage years spent at a boarding school in Paris or somewhere rather classy in Europe.

For fun i shall share it, and then leave you all to ponder the plight of my alter-ego, the little girl of the alps.

One day, near the beginning of vacation, she received a little package from Dorfli, beautifully wrapped and tied with string. The girls were curious and tried to guess what it was.

“It’s chocolate!”

“No, it’s a round package.”

“Perhaps it’s a bunch of flowers. They’ll be quite withered.”

“All wrong! I’m sure it’s a cake.”

“Hurry, Heidi,” they begged. “Open it and see who’s right.”

Heidi cut the string and opened the package. To the astonishment of all the other girls, there lay a little goat cheese, round and white.

“Cream cheese!” they exclaimed, wrinkling their noses.

“It smells bad,” one of the English girls added. “Poor Heidi! Your grandfather must have thought you were starving.”

“It’s a good joke,” they agreed, beginning to giggle. Heidi alone did not laugh. For a moment she wished she might throw the unfortunate cheese out of the window because they were all making fun of her.”

… …

“Phew! What a smell!”

“Quick, some air!”

“Throw open a window and let the wind do its worst!”

“I don’t want to stay in that room. She’ll probably keep her cheese for a souvenir and I can’t stand that odour!” cried Eileen.

…. …

“Mesdemoiselles,” began the principal when Fraulein had brought the girls to the library, “you know what has happened. Your schoolmate, Eileen, has refused to room with Heidi. Would one of you mind rooming with Eileen?”

For a moment there was complete silence; then Edith raised her eyes and said, “Mademoiselle, we would all three like to share a room with Heidi!”

… …

“What am I going to tell Eileen? She will be heartbroken, poor child!” the Directress added with a stiff attempt at sympathy.

“Possibly, but it will do her good,” replied the professor. “Does nobody think of Heidi’s heart?”

Heidi Grows Up – Charles Tritten (the sequel to Heidi - Johanna Spyri), Chapter IV pg 29-33