What is romantic love?

What is romantic love? Is it something that can be attained by virtue of being close to another person for an extended period of time? Or does it involve instances of feeling a fluttering feeling within your heart?

Reaching a degree of compatibility These days, it seems a lot of people are in relationships. The reason they are in relationships is because things generally work with their other half. You share some common interests. There are some people who, as hard as you try, you're not able to become friends with because the conversations do not flow naturally. Couples work because they are able to communicate with eachother with relative ease.

And so you begin spending more time with that other person. By doing this, you share common experiences and pick up eachother's habits. This gives you even more opportunity to communicate with your partner. This leads to spending more time with them. This cycle continues. As time goes by, each member of the couple forms a dependency on the other.

Let's say you get along with your partner. Things are alright, you have the odd argument from time to time. You don't like everything about your partner. But you are able to get along with eachother.

So a degree of compatibility is reached. You are compatible to an extent that you can form a relationship. As I mentioned before, many people are in relationships. So are most these people in relationships in love?

Magic Now picture this situation. You are with someone else. There is something about them - the way they talk, the things they talk about, their behaviour, whatever it is, creates a giddy feeling in your heart; your heart flutters, melts, or beats in a strange way. This feeling may cause tears to well up in your eyes. Also, I'd like to point out that this is not a temporary feeling you get when you first meet them. It continues through years and years.

You feel as though this person knows you so well. You are completely comfortable with this person, able to share all your secrets and thoughts with them.

There are more ups and downs with this person than the one discussed above. You experience more conflicts and differences. You identify many more flaws and personality incompatibilities with this person than the one above. These negative factors strain the relationship considerably.

Does this special feeling within your heart mean it is love? Or is this thinking too simple and immature?

Situation 1 versus situation 2 Although being near someone for an extensive period may cause you to believe it's love, in reality it is feelings of attachment and familiarity. If the relationship has been going on for more than a year and the heart-fluttering sensation has not occured, it is not possible that this will happen out of the blue one day. The feelings of closeness may gradually turn into love and care in time. However, for the most part, people tend to find someone they are compatible with and settle for that. Therefore, most people are not in love. They are content for the present moment. The positive though, is the stability that comes from this kind of relationship.

Some people may think the second situation is shallow and overly simple. But how many people do you meet that can make your heart melt? This occurrence is very rare. You could meet 10 people you are compatible with to an extent that a relationship can be formed out of it. But out of those 10 people, it is most probable that not one of them can cause a reaction in your heart. When you meet someone in the second category, you will know it is completely different to all other relationships.

Uncertainties I question whether there is a clear distinction of what is love, as I previously described, or whether there are varying degrees of compatibility and once a level is reached, that is called love. It may be there is a scale of compatibility. Everyone you form a romantic relationship with is on the scale. It is when someone is on the higher end of compatibility to you, that becomes "love".

For now, I believe in a clear distinction. When you get a unique, out-of-the ordinary feeling different to other feelings you have had, you will know it is love.

Crochet Lola

My first crochet project! Lola the old biddie. She's approx 30cm tall.


Pattern is free: http://www.lionbrand.com/ - sign up for free and do a search for 'Crochet Lola' (the name of the pattern)

Hanging basket

I went to Canberra for the annual Floriade show. It's the biggest flower show in the Southern Hemisphere and I love flowers. Entry was free! There were LOTS of pretty and colourful flowers, most of them tulips. They were meant to be of patterns, one was of two elephants, when you looked at them from an aerial view, but I didn't see the patterns. There were also exhibitors' tents, market-like stalls selling candles, dessert-looking soaps, women's clothing, essence oils etc. There was a circus section with ferris wheel and other rides, and free competitions. One of the competitions was painting ceramic gnomes. Another one was creating hanging baskets from pot plants. I did the hanging basket one and brought it on the plane back to Sydney!

I couldn't believe it was free!! It was really beautiful and I'm glad I went to Canberra for this.

Knitting needle knitting bag

Knitting has become a serious hobby for me. I think I will be knitting for years to come, and I have a lot of knitting needles. For this reason, I thought I would make a bag to put all my knitting things into.

It took around 10 days to make working everyday after work..not bad. The pattern is pretty simple. I used 4 balls of "Prism" yarn by Lincraft. See below for photos.

Free pattern: www.knittingdaily.com/media/p/13978.aspx

Photos:

Knitted bolster

I started knitting a bolster towards the beginnning of August and finished it mid September. Am really happy with the way it has turned out! I have never made a bolster before or sewn on embellishments onto my knitted projects.

The only problem is the border around the edges of the bolster - where the start of the border meets the end, I had trouble making them connect smoothly to make it look like there were no breaks.

I used 6 balls of Paton's Zhivago Home yarn. It was quite lucky too, when I had finished, there was around 50cm of the yarn remaining! Here are the photos and the pattern:

Pattern: Knitted Bolster

Materials

6 balls Paton's Zhivago Home (I used a white/creamy colour)

1 pair 5mm (UK 6; USA 8) needles

1 5mm circular needle

1 wool needle

Sewing pins

70cm x 80cm Plain white fabric

Stuffing

Measurements:

70cm length x 40cm circumference
Tension: 16 sts x 23rows = 10cm (5mm needles)

Body:

Use 5mm needles:
CO 72 sts
Row 1: *K8, P8* repeat until last 8 sts, K8.

Row 2:*P8, K8* repeat until last 8 sts, P8.

Repeat last 2 rows until there is a total of 10 rows.

Row 11: *P8, K8* repeat until last 8 sts, P8
Row 12: *K8, P8* repeat until last 8 sts, K8.

Repeat last 2 rows until there is a total of 10 rows.

Repeat the entire pattern worked so far until work measures 40-45cm,ending on either the 10th or 20th row pattern.

Cast off.

Bolster ends (make 2)

Using 5mm circular needles and the "magic circle" technique (search on youtube for how to do this):

CO 100 sts.

Round 1: Knit

Round 2: Knit
Round 3: *K8, K2tog* repeat until end

Round 4: Knit

Round 5: *K7, K2tog* repeat until end

Round 6: Knit

Round 7: *K6, K2tog* repeat until end

Round 8: Knit

Round 9: *K5, K2tog* repeat until end

Round 10: Knit

...Follow this pattern (decrese knitting 1 st on each odd row) until 10 sts remain

Divide the sts on the needles so that 1 end of the circular needles has 6 sts, and the other end has 4 sts

K2 tog until end (5sts remain)

Break off yarn

Use a wool needle and thread yarn through all 5 remaining sts. Remove sts from needles, draw yarn into the wrong side and tie a knot.

Embellishments:

S-shaped patterns on body:

CO 3 sts.

Make 8 x 20cm lengths of I-cords.

Pin 4 of these on each end of the body in a S-shaped scroll pattern, spaced evenly and using the pattern on the bolster as a guide (see photo below - pin sides to where the second set of "square pattern" motif ends)

Using a wool needle, sew the S-shaped pattern on bolster.

Twisted band on bolster ends:

CO 3 sts.

Make 4 x 40cm lengths of I-cords.

Using 2 I-cords on each end of the bolster, twist them together and pin down on each end of the body (see photo below)

Using a wool needle, sew on lengths of I-cord.

Winding circlular pattern on bolster ends:

CO 3 sts and make 2 x 40cm lengths of I-cords.

Wind length of I-cord on each end of right side of bolster in a circular fashion, starting from the middle (see photo below) and pin down

Using a wool needle, sew on I-cord.

Tassels on ends:

Make 2 tassels, leaving a long tail.

Using wool needle, thread 2 tail ends into the middle of the winding circular pattern sewn on bolster ends.

Tie a knot on wrong side.

Repeat for other end.

Sew main bolster material together, ensuring the patterns on the joint match up to eachother.

Sew 1 end onto the bolster.

Bolster insert:

Cut out piece of fabric slightly larger (around 3cm) than bolster.

Sew into bolster shape and stuff.

Insert into bolster.

Sew remaining end onto bolster.

Lucid dreams

Controlling the subject of your dreams is a surreal experience and unique ability. I have experienced this in the past and have been fascinated by this as I didn't think it was possible.

I lie in bed thinking about a particular subject, and when I fall asleep, my thoughts turn into a dream that is directly continuous from my thoughts (there are no breaks or disjointed parts from when it turns from thoughts into a dream). This happens maybe once every 2 months. When I wake up, I remember these dreams exactly as they occur. However, given the fact that humans dream every night, I have trouble remembering most my dreams.

The night before last night, I had brought my knitting on a holiday. I wrote down the pattern on a small piece of paper and packed it into my luggage, but when I started knitting that night, I was unable to find the piece of paper, having looked through all my luggage. That night in bed, I kept wondering where the piece of paper could be. Strangely enough, I had a dream of myself going through my handbag, and a particular plastic bag inside my large luggage bag. The dream ended when I found the piece of paper.

The next morning, I searched through the bags I had dreamt of. Surprisingly, I found the piece of paper! I must admit I was a little scared by my ability to dream of this and have it happen in real life, but nonetheless I was pleased I had found it.

This morning I was thinking of the perfect location for my wedding, piqued by a holiday magazine featuring tropical destinations for couples. I remembered a year ago when I was doing research on possible holiday destinations, I had come across a hotel site with a photo of the place I had envisaged to hold my reception at. All morning and afternoon, I wanted to find the photo. I searched various hotel sites across worldwide locations but to no avail. Immediately after, I had a nap. While I was waiting to fall asleep, I tried extremely hard to remember what site I had found the photo on. During my nap, I experienced myself on my laptop and going to a hotel site, seeing that the chain had 2 hotels in the Maldives, and looking at their pictures. My dream photo was not there. Then, I navigated to a particular hotel site and clicked on their list of worldwide hotel locations. A new screen opened with the cities, and I clicked on a particular city. Sure enough, viewing the photos on that page, I had found the photo I had been looking for.

I woke up immediately after and went to my laptop. I did everything in the latter part of my dream. The pages were exactly the same as what I had dreamt. I found my dream wedding reception on that page!! I was completely shocked. Although I was pleased in finding it, I was and still am scared and shocked at what I have done. How could I not only controlled the subject of my dreams, but used them to find what I couldn't find consciously? Also, how did I dream of the exact layout of the webpage that I had last viewed a year ago?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am a bit scared of myself :S

First week of work

As you may recall, last week I was dreading having to start work, because of the monotonous tasks that lay ahead. Surprisingly, work hasn't been that bad at all! The firm specialises in wide areas of law, and this week I've been working on a few of the areas.

It hasn't been all admin tasks..I have done some filing and faxing, however, a lot of the work was legal. On my first day, a solicitor asked me to attend a property settlement, acting for the purchasers, by myself! Talk about being thrown in the deep end; I was overwhelmed but it was interesting and relevant to my degree. I managed to get it done. I attended another property settlement on Friday.

I've learnt how to file documents in court, and have been preparing court documents and barrister's briefs. All in all it's been a lot more interesting than I had previously thought, and time goes by quickly.

In my last post, I mentioned applying for positions at legal centres. I received a call from one on Monday, and went to the interview on Tuesday during my lunch break. I was successful, and only had Wednesday to make my decision. My dilemma was that I enjoyed what I was doing now, the work is varied, time goes by fast, and I was actually doing tasks that helped people; on the other hand the legal centre is a lot more relaxed, the hours are shorter (by 1 hour), and I would have a 1hr lunch break as opposed to half an hour. The legal centre specialises in one area, and I thought I might be limited in terms of learning.

I sought advice from friends and family but they felt the decision lay with me. I didn't take the position; I didn't want to risk a position that was a lot better than my expectations for the unknown.

I went indoor rock climbing on Wednesday night - this is not a bright idea in your first week of work when you are exhausted just from being at work. My arms felt like jelly by the end of a few walls. I climbed half as many walls as I would have on a weekend.

The cake I made for Father's Day turned out well! It was gone within two days. I baked a mudcake yesterday and am yet to taste it! I've been told that the Father's Day cake was better than this one.

Yesterday, I also went to my first Zumba class! It's enjoyable, the movements are easy to pick up, and it's freestyle in the sense that people do variations of the moves, so as long as you move in time with the music, you won't look like an idiot.

I also went out to dinner with some friends, 2 of whom I hadn't seen in a year! It was good to catch up.