Jessie McKinnon

So since I've last written on here, I've managed to get myself a job straight out of uni and I'm already at the point in my career where a three and a half week holiday is well deserved. I've been at my job for a whole year as of June 30th! It's crazy how fast time starts to fly as your work and life routine just gets going. Tom and I have started our first trip back to England in nearly three years with a five day trip to Norway with his parents. To be entirely honest, I was a bit lazy and did very little research about Norway, except enough to figure out that we were doing a Norway In A Nutshell tour. We got to Oslo and I had low expectations - I think I expected it to be a pretty city but kind of boring. I think I thought something similar of Norway as a whole. I knew nothing much about the country except that I was there at the wrong time of the year for the Northern Lights and that it was renown for being particularly expensive. Boy, was I wrong about th

I'm in a funny mood right now, where my brain feels kind of 'fuzzy' and a little bit lost and I don't know why. It is a strange feeling but not a feeling I can quite put my finger on. I feel like writing a blog post as I'm hoping it'll help me sort my thoughts out a little bit. I realise I had a bit of a 'thinking and lost' post a little while ago, but hey, it worked for a little while! No pictures today, just a rambly one.. So fingers crossed, here goes! I have spent a lot of today thinking about the future, in particular my career path, and the more I think about it, the more muddled I get. I'm quickly approaching the end of my degree yet I'm no closer to approaching knowing exactly what I want to do ... I have no answer to the question ' So what are you going to do when you finish? ' Absolutely none. I don't know. Is winging it okay? I was never a kid who knew exactly what I wanted to do. For a long time I remember wanting t

Kitty Green’s film Ukraine is Not a Brothel is a very honest and delightfully composed documentary of Ukraine’s topless feminism awareness group, Femen. The film that was originally sparked by an article in a Melbourne newspaper was born of over 700 hours of footage; recorded whilst Green lived with these girls in Ukraine.   The movie follows the stories of the young women who protest in order to change Ukraine’s reputation of being full of female sex-workers and the perception that all Ukrainian women are controlled by men; they wish for females to be equal to men and have the same work opportunities. It begins with quite an optimistic view of the girls, who each share tales of their involvement with the organisation, and how it affects them and their families, through interviews and footage of their bare-breasted protests. Each of the them are stunning, slim, model-like girls (apart from one, whose grossly overweight body is used for her ‘shock factor’ and publicity f

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) runs from the 31st of July to the 17th of August this year. I've decided to do a subject at uni that is centred aroundthe festival and this means I'll be going to six documentaries and two industry talks as required by the course, and four films of my choice! This is one major plus about choosing to go to Melbourne Uni.. I'm almost finished my maths degree, yet all through my tertiary education, I've been required to do a subject a semester outside of my faculty, and it's been great to immerse myself into arts subjects (namely music and film) that I wouldn't have studied otherwise. I'm really glad that I chose the documentary stream, as I really think I'll get a lot more out of it than a fiction stream. I'm not a huge film kind of girl, and it's not unusual for me to be gasped at with an 'oh my god, how have you not seen [insert film here]?!' I don't really have an excuse, I have

I thought I'd write a short blog post while waiting for some rice to cook. I haven't put my thoughts down in writing for a little while so perhaps this sort of therapy will work its magic on me. [ Image Source ] First things first, I've signed up for my very first half marathon. It's with the Melbourne Marathon , and is about twelve weeks away. I'm absolutely terrified. I've never made this kind of commitment... and it is a really really long way! It's further than the distance that I travel on my bike in a day, commuting to uni, and that in itself takes about an hour. I'm already worried that my legs are going to stop working halfway through. So I've been reading a lot of articles, and searching Pinterest relentlessly for half marathon training guides. I think I'll use my Nike+ running app as a guide too. If anybody has any tips, please share them with me! I reckon I'll finish it comfortably in about two and a half hours.

Last night for dinner, we had burgers. Burgers are an awesome, cheap and easy meal. It uses loads of pantry staples so if you have lots of sauces and spices, you won't end up having to buy very much! This recipe is to make about 8 or 9 large burgers. You can make these a few hours ahead of time and you can freeze any uncooked leftovers for next time! Jessie's Easy Burger Recipe Serves 4. Prep time: 10 minutes (with 20-30 minutes time in the fridge). Cooking time: ~8 minutes. Utensils you need: a teaspoon a grater a large plastic or glass mixing bowl a large frypan a spatula a large plate cling film/glad wrap Ingredients: 500g of 3-star beef mince mince 1 large brown onion grated (unless you like chunks of onion, then diced) 1 large egg 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs Seasonings of your choice (I used the following but you can put in whatever you want) - Tomato sauce - BBQ sauce - Worcestershire Sauce Dried herbs : ros