Well, hello James!

Meet 21 year old James Magnussen.

He's a member of the Australian Men's Swimming Team competing in London right now.

Before some of the swimming finals this afternoon,  I'd never heard of him.

He's as known as The Missile, Maggie and The Magnet.

Here he is with the silver meda he won in the 100 metre freestyle today. He was beat by American Nathan Adrian by 1/100th of a second. Canadian Brent Hayden is there too, he won the bronze.

And he doesn't only look good in a Speedo...

And he looks pretty darn good in a suit too...

With a smile so adorable you just want to pinch his cheeks...

And just listen to his accent!

Now I know some of you might think this post is pure objectification. For those of you who think that,  please refer to this video.

I rest my case. I sincerely hope Mr. Magnussen does well in his remaining events, and at all the swimming he does over his career. As they say in Auss, good luck mate!

Journalist and Designer Nail Artist?

I've had a long and storied life with my finger nails. Fr the first 22 years of my life, I was a nail biter. And not just any nail biter, a bite-them-to-the-quick-and-they-bleed-profusely type nail biter. Then one day, I was offered a mini manicure. I of course laughed at the idea - I had no nails to manicure. The lovely lady said "No, no! I'll do them. I bet once I do them you'll never bite your nails again, either." I laughed in her face. Obviously not my proudest moment, but it happened.

So I had my mini manicure and made a conscious effort not to bite the polish off those suckers. And boy for the first couple days was it hard. But as they days went by, it got easier and easier. One day it dawned on me - I was biting my nails anymore. It freaked my shit up, let me tell you. Then they started to grow. After that many years, I didn't think they had it in them.

For those of you who've never bitten your nails before, you can't begin to understand the sting and pain that newly growing nails causes when they're moving up the finger and cutting the skin. That's part I don't care ever want to feel again. I remember I was able to have nicely painted nails for my University graduation - it made the pictures look so much better.

I guess the most exciting part was being able to paint my nails for the first time in my life. A whole new world had opened up to me, and I went a bit bananas with polish buying (I have to have at least a hundred bucks worth of polish in my fridge). And then I started to get creative.

There's lots of little thing people can do to show off your personality - I had no idea nail design was such a big one. Over the last few years, I've had my nails painted a bunch of different ways, and let me tell you, people notice. So I've gathered a few different 'styles' I've rocked. Love em or hate em, they're different, and me. That's the best part.

My Union Jack nails...( a little blurry, but you get the idea)

My Canucks nails...(which made it on TV, what what?)

My Union Jack "I'm going on vacation" nails...

My England Euro Cup 2012 nails...

And my latest creation I did tonight, my Pacman nails...

And there you have it. My bff Erin suggested I make money on the side from it. I just don't think any potential customer would appreciate the way I cuss like a sailor when I'm doing the tiny difficult bits. But hey, maybe one day it could happen. I'm open to suggestions on anything I should try out. Drop me a line if you think of something fabulous!

xo

Well Aren't I A Neglectful Blogger...

So I got a reminder in my g-mail account this morning about my blog. I'd be lying if I said I remembered about it. I'm going to go with the excuse that Twitter and Facebook are far more....accessible. Yes, accessible. The e-mail also told me that the last time I posted was in October 2011. With it now June 2012, I figured my next entry (which you are reading right at this moment, GASP!) should be a list of everything (that I can remember - feel free to remind me of something I've forgotten, I question my own memory on a daily basis) that has happened in the past 8 months. Yeah, it's been that long. So where we go:


December 2011 - January 2012: We started a new year! Yay!

February 2012: I turn the ripe old age of 25! Oh, and some Queen in England had a Diamond Jubilee.

April 2012: The Toronto Maple Leafs missed the playoffs... again. *sad face*

May 2012: THE AVENGERS WAS RELEASED. You don't even know how this changed my life. It's even a life event on my facebook - it's the only movie I can say I've seen five times in theatres.
Facebook goes public. You hear crickets. You continue playing Farmville.

May to June 2012: I visit Vancouver. And Seattle. I love Seattle - who wants to move there with me? :)

June 2012: The Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup. The 8th seed in the West won the Stanley cup. Las Vegas must have imploded that night.
The Miami Heat win the NBA Championship.*golf claps*
England advances to the quarter finals (SO FAR) at the Euro Cup. (Gooooo boys!)

So there you have it. My memory is telling me that nothing important happened in 2011 after October 11th. It may be true, who am I to judge? And I'm sure plenty more has happened in the first 6 months of this year. I'll blame that on information overload (one of the many unknown side effects of being a journalist). I'm gonna try and get into blogging more. But as my track record shows, I can make no promises. Hope summer treats you well.

xo