Je Ne Sais Quois

First Sock of the Year!

2011-01-06T02:31:00.002+11:00

So it turns out that my first sock of the year wasn't any of the four that I mentioned previously. I had been determined that Twisted was going to be my first pair for the year but since the gauge disaster i decided that I should wait until my sock needles arrive as I think they'll be easier on my hands.

One of the KALs I joined is one that is making its way through Cookie A's book Knit Sock Love. The first sock on the menu is Hedera. The first sock has come together wonderfully quickly and I'm looking forward to making its pair in the next couple of days.

I've also been trying to keep a bit active while I've been knitting so I've also managed to drag my sorry self to the gym and used FitFu on my phone to remind me to get up once every 45 minutes.

Not much else to report other than having made it through The Pacific and two seasons of Spooks and looking forward to several more as I complete the socks.

Looking Forward to a Year of Socks

2011-01-03T00:02:00.003+11:00

I feel a little bad about abandoning my blog last year but there's not a great deal I can do about it now except attempt to write more often this year. It was a pretty incredible year which saw my Dad getting remarried and three new family members as a result. Here's hoping they'll actually be able to join us in Oz on a more permanent basis soon!

Otherwise I spent a lot of time looking after myself as I'd gotten run down. This meant baking, lots of tea, some knitting and the rediscovery of sketching and jewellery making. So I have many reasons to look forward and now seems as good a time as any to start moving ahead with some projects.

2011 is being touted as the "year of legs". So in celebration of that I've decided to make it a year of sock knitting. So far so good!
I cast on the left sock of Twisted on Christmas day using a skein of my stashed Araucania Ranco Solid yarn in green which is looking gorgeous so far. The tiny 2mm needles have been proving a bit hard on my hands so it's been slow going. I've just gotten to the heel flap which I made a slight error on due to misreading the pattern but having solved that I seem to have discovered that I need to start over anyhow as the sock is a little too tight. ARGH!

Dad's Thuja socks, also cast on on Christmas day, are flying along. The 4mm needles are bliss to work with and Panda Magnum Soft is truly as it's named (soft that is, not a panda). Just turned the heel of the first sock and am a quarter of the way through the foot.

I also found the socks I had started to knit out of my pretty yarn from Norway. For the last two years they showed up around the house, I'd look at them, think how pretty they were and then lament the loss of the pattern and the broken needle. Finally the day after Boxing Day last year I decided that I could reverse engineer the pattern from what I had done already. After all I had one completed sock and 13 years of knitting experience. Armed with a stitch book and a new set of needles it took me a grand total of half an hour to work out the chevron pattern.

The final sock pattern that I currently have on the go is the Adirondack Socks which are my current crochet project. I'm making this out of a ball of Moda Vera Noir that's been in my stash as well.

Phew, that is a lot of socks! I do like working on several though as I find it easier on my hands and my interest levels. at this point I'm working on a different pair/pattern each day and it's entertaining me marvelously. I'm also really looking forward to making socks with Fi as we embark on some KALs this year.

Here's hoping I have a wonderful collection of socks by this time next year!

Lost

2010-01-16T23:07:00.001+11:00

"There's a world, there's a world I know
A place we can go where the pain will go away
There's a world where the sun shines each day
There's a world, there's a world out there
I'll show you just where
And in time I know you'll see
There's a world where we can be free
Come with me"

39 Q & A on 2009

2010-01-01T18:15:00.003+11:00

My annual, where-did-my-year-go post. Happy New Year all!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Saw more live theatre performances, that I wasn't working on, this year than ever before.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Honestly can't remember this year's resolutions so perhaps I'll just skip them for this year. Oh wait, I still can't juggle three balls.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully not this year.

5. What countries did you visit?
America, Macau SAR, Hong Kong

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
More work!

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Saturday 7th Feburary because it felt like the city was burning down around us.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Working out what I wanted in life, what's important to me.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Getting sensible amounts of sleep.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not too badly this year. Except for slipping down some stairs and even that wasn't so bad.

11. What was the best thing you bought in 2009?
My Muppet!!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Clio & Zeus for being far more sociable than expected.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Can't think of anyone so it must have been a good year...

14. Did you do to any weddings?
Yes, three in fact.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My Muppet, my new camera, traveling and the amazing shows I saw, not necessarily in that order.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
"I'm Alive" from "Next To Normal"

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
---happier or sadder? Much happier
---thinner or heavier? Heavier
---richer or poorer? My life has been more enriched this year

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Baking and reading. Can never bake or read enough.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastinating

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Euro Christmas with my adopted family on the eve, Christmas Day at home with the pugs trying to learn how to draw, Christmas night

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
:)

22. Were you rejected by anyone?
Not per se

23. What was your favorite TV program?
I'd have to say Battlestar Galactica, but I'm a bit behind in my TV viewing.

24. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?
Nope.

25. What was the best book you read?
The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doige, MD

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I still remember how to play the violin

27. What did you want and got?
A digital SLR

28. What did you want and did not get?
To go to the Merrell store in Hong Kong

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
I enjoyed most of the films I saw this year. Maybe "Up".

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I had the day off work and I'm still 26

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Nothing, it was a pretty good year all round.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Blue jeans, black top.

33. What kept you sane?
My wonderful friends. They know who they are :)

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
No one really.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Gay marriage.

36. Who did you miss?
My Mum and I still miss her.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
The lady in Washington Heights who showed me what berries to pick in the park.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
Time is the most precious gift you can give.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"Happiness is anyone and anything at all that's loved by you."

Sights, Sites & More!

2009-07-13T14:21:00.002+10:00

What can I say? I love this city! I love how green it is, with every inch of free space teeming with plants and parks. From rooftops to canopies to the tiny park across from the hotel with a waterfall drowning out the sounds of the city. It is truly a remarkable city.

Day one saw a trip to the newly opened High Line which was gorgeous. A beautiful reclaimation of space that is already visibly seeing the surrounding areas clean up.

Walking through Chelsea it was great to see the different buildings and the variations in their architecture.

It was a reasonably clear day so it was off to the Staten Island Ferry for my first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. The tours up to the crown have sold out till September but it was nice to see her from the water.

A quick trip down to Wall Street to check out the Stock Exchange and it was time to see my first show on Broadway which was The Little Mermaid which was fun.

Since then I've seen West Side Story which I can only describe as amazing and 9 to 5 which I really enjoyed against my expectations.

Spotted my first squirrel in NY yesterday and had many failed attempts to capture this on film. Made up for this by going to a camera/electronics/cd store to browse. Came out lightly with only two CDs.

Have also discovered that mixed drinks are much stronger over here. Will bear that in mind for the next time I'm out.

Toured Radio City Music Hall and was blown away by the architecture, the detail that went into the restoration and the stage lifts and just the whole place was pretty incredible. Again, there are many photos.

I spent the evening exploring Times Square, trying to become familiar with the theatres, their locations and what was playing where. Not sure how successful that was... Walked along until I caught my first glimpse of Central Park where I took a mini bike-cab tour of the western side of the park. I was hoping to get a ticket to the final Shakespeare in the Park performance but it was not to be.

Tomorrow the crazy run of museums begins!

Vegas Baby!

2009-07-10T21:12:00.002+10:00

It's amazing how much we rely on the internet nowadays... Four nights in Vegas largely without internet gave the illusion of freedom from the everyday and holiday mode kicked in!

Arrived in Vegas on 5th July at around 10:30pm (local time) and headed straight to TI to drop off bags before heading for a quick look at the Strip. As is tradition, ice cream must be eaten upon arrival in a new location. Cue Ben & Jerry's. Watched a couple of the short shows at the Lake of Dreams at the Wynn before watching the Sirens of TI from across the road.

Black out curtains are wonderful things. Slept in on the 6th before heading out for the first attempt to make it down the Strip. Managed to get most of the way down the strip but had a slow, snap happy, start with the Venetian before moving on to see the Wynn, Palazzo, Bellagio (fountains), Paris, Miracle Mile Shops (skip the fountain shows), Coca Cola World, MGM Grand (cute lioness asleep at the top of a waterfall, didn't take a photo for some reason). Took many photos of umbrellas (Palazzo) and hot air balloons (Bellagio). Saw my first Cirque show, Mystère at TI and loved it. Straight off to the next show, La Reve at the Wynn. What can I say, I do love a good water show and it was stunning.

Day 2 in Vegas started the day with the breakfast buffet at TI then headed off down the Strip again doing the interior of some of the aforementioned casinos. More balloon photos. Was impressed by the curved escalators in Caesar's Forum Shops. More umbrella photos. Had around exterior of Paris & around New York, New York. Must be time to see a show right? Zumanity was very pretty!

Day 3 booked an express tour to Hoover Dam. "Won" $1.50 from the vending machine I bought snacks from. Many photos at the Dam. Then took a helicopter flight over Hoover Dam and boy was it windy up there! Back at the Strip was M&M happy at M&M's World before having another look at MGM Grand, New York, New York and making it down for a quick look at Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay before hightailing it back to Luxor to see Believe which was um... yeah. Then off to MGM Grand to see Ka which was AMAZING! When in Vegas how do you not play slots at least once? Managed to come out a whole $7 (give or take a few cents) on top. Decided to cash out while I was ahead. Ha!

9th July was a travel day. Check out at noon off to the airport to head to NY where I am at the moment. Loved Vegas but am very excited to be in NY as is demonstrated by my waking up at 6:30am having gone to sleep at 3:30am. Wee!

Signing off now to go see the city, and possibly purchase a giant bag of Reeces pieces...

On the Nightward Shores of Dream

2009-06-03T04:09:00.002+10:00

It's been brought to my attention that I've been neglecting my blog. Skimming over the last couple of entries it occurs to me how inaccurate my blog is at the moment.

For one thing, it implies that I am in Adelaide, when in fact I didn't end up going to work on the festival at all because I wanted to spend the last few months of Mum's life in Melbourne with her (despite her protests). So I stayed in Melbourne and was lucky enough that a job came up on Billy Elliot which has kept me out of mischief for the last six months.

This is however drawing to a close as our season finishes in just under two weeks. After that, who knows what I'll be doing or where I'll be. Will endeavour to write more often, but make no guarantees.

Not much news other than that! Am looking forward to a break after the show. Quite possibly going to head off on a holiday. Destination and duration to be determined soon...

Anyway, I should give sleep another try. Am suffering from insomnia or possibly have reverted to a nocturnal state. Not good. Sleep is important according to the SBS documentary on sleep depreviation I watched last week... in two viewings... because I may have fallen a sleep due to being a tad sleep deprived. Ahem.

Sleep.

Hearing Things

2009-02-04T01:29:00.004+11:00

I've avoided writing a new post for awhile now. Largely because I had nothing to say. I have no words to describe the events of the past twenty months, nor do I feel an urge to find them.

There are still days when I wake up thinking I've heard my Mum calling me. It happened the day she died and a couple of times since. Last night as I drifted off to sleep I heard her asking me questions that I can't remember anymore. It leaves me unsettled and a little melancholy. I'm okay with that even if it does make me feel like I might be just that little bit crazier than I thought. I figure it's because I'm still grieving. I never really expect it to go away. The sadness that is. All I hope is that like the ends of the relationships I've experienced so far, the heartache will dull and at some point turn into something that is a pleasure to remember instead of bittersweet.

It's Mum's birthday in nine days and I suspect the next few weeks will be hard. I'm trying to find a balance between the memories and remembering to still experience the present. It's a struggle but I think I can get there, where ever that might be.

39 Questions on 2008

2009-01-03T23:30:00.002+11:00

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Flew a helicopter. Watched the Melbourne NYE fireworks live in the city. A few work related things. A couple of things that I shall keep to myself.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Still haven't achieved the juggling. Admittedly haven't really tried for a couple of years. Resolutions for 2009? Take better care of myself.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My cousins and one of my work friends.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Mum lost her battle with pancreatic cancer in December. My grandma (Mum's Mum) lost her battle with cervical cancer in November. Interesting to note there is not previous history of cancer on Mum's side of the family.

5. What countries did you visit?
Singapore.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More travel.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
15th December - a day filled with coloured cranes and my nearest & dearest.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Saying no to work.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Unfinished projects largely knitting & crochet.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Not really. The had the flu, and an ear infection that's it.

11. What was the best thing you bought in 2008?
Three lego kits. A train, a crane and a forklift/car.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My parents again but this time for their inspiring final 18 days & nights together. Anyone who can find romance in the face of death and in a hospital is truly amazing.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I'd rather not say.

14. Did you go to any weddings?
No

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Mum being in remission at the start of the year. I said it was "great" when I got the call and then an hour later was crying on the tram home.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Look Mummy, No Hands by Dillie Keane

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
---happier or sadder? same same
---thinner or heavier? thinner :(
---richer or poorer? same same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Lived a little and travel

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
(over)think

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Eve was spent watching Carols By Candlelight with Matt. Day was spent with family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Perhaps

22. Were you rejected by anyone?
No?

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Mad Men for a new show. Got a little suckered into Grey's Anatomy & Private Practice too... oh and House

24. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?
Yes.

25. What was the best book you read?
The Name of the Wind closely followed by The Widow Clicquot and possibly Growing Up Asian in Australia

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Death Cab For Cutie & Gotye

27. What did you want and get?
More time to get to know Mum. An iPhone & the most amazing wool from Germany.

28. What did you want and did not get?
Overseas travel.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Madagascar 2 - I like to move it move it....

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I went to the supermarket. Did some laundry and French homework. Still 25.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More challenging work. Or more helicopter flying.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
More colourful than most years. More feminine in Brisbane because it was warm and I was in an office for 3 months.

33. What kept you sane?
Large quantities of tea. Nick.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Samuel Barnett. Always have a soft spot for Johnny Depp & Clive Owen though.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Couldn't say.

36. Who did you miss?
I miss my Lisa who's in Paris and Tamsin who's about to leave for the UK.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Natalie, she's like a long lost sister :)

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Don't be afraid of living. There's always time for the little things and romance is not dead.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

Wrench yourself from your demons
For far too long you’ve believed them
When they told you you were weak
Take a step in the tunnel
With the light ’round the bend
In the end
You can start to make amends
Who knows where you’ll go, baby
So much you could do!
Haven’t you heard, baby?
All will be well
If you want it to

Mid-Festival Update

2008-10-05T09:23:00.002+11:00

It's been just over a month since I last wrote and things are settling down a little. Which is perfectly normal given that I'll be temporarily relocating to Adelaide in less than a month for work. We're well in the swing of things for Melbourne Fringe and I'm back in the rhythm of sleep deprivation and general festivity.

Mum's been in and out of hospital with an infection but we think we may have it under control now. As I walked past their bedroom door, I caught her reflection in the mirror which is the only way I knew that she was home. Just shows how much I've been home in the last day...

I'm off to see Wicked this afternoon which I'm excited about but also sad given Rob Guest's passing. Then it's off to the theatre to get ready for another night of circus at the Fringe.

I do love my festivals :)
Great people, great times.
Sleep can come later

A Disjointed Catch Up

2008-08-22T00:10:00.004+10:00

I can't help but notice that my lack of blogging seems to stem from just after Gene & I broke up last year. It's almost as if when we broke up I couldn't find any words to write. No way of really saying what I thought and I really didn't feel a need to share how I felt as frankly that would have been boring.

So almost a year on I guess I'm still trying to find myself. Not so much remember what it's like to be single, but discover my independence and learn to enjoy it.

Okay, random burst of self-reflection over (phew!).

Let's just say that there wasn't a great deal of reading in May & June... Combined reading list for those months include:
1. The Dragon Queen
2. Pardon My French
3. Growing Up Asian in Australia

If only event management plans counted in the list... but as thick as some of them were, they're not quite books.

June consisted of many weekend trips from Brisbane to Melbourne & Sydney. Visiting family, farewelling friends and celebrating a birthday. It's a good thing I don't mind flying really. After the last weekend away the Festival really started to ramp up production. Defintely my favourite part that's not the actual Festival.

July saw the start of the Festival. We worked hard, we played hard. There were many opening nights and closing nights celebrated. It was good. Was lucky enough to see some shows which was rather novel. It was all over in a haze of beer, gin & wine and before we knew it we were bare-foot bowling on a beautiful sunny August day.

It would be hard to believe that only a fortnight ago I was sitting in the sun watching people bowl... except that I landed back in Melbourne on Saturday. It was not sunny. Luckily it wasn't too cold either. I keep telling myself that it's "the same temperature as Brisbane at night... but brighter".

Right now I'm in Sydney enjoying the sunshine and 20˚C days... well I was, it's supposed to storm tomorrow. Still trying to work out what I'll do tomorrow... am thinking it could be a good day for a museum or possibly the aquarium. I may yet fit an antique fair in.

I must admit I'm in a bit of a strange mood tonight. It's been a bit of a odd day. I woke up with a migraine and feeling a bit out of sorts. Did a bit of shopping. Had a nap. Woke up when my phone rang. It was Dad. My grandma in Singapore has stage 4 cancer. I pondered the fact that my Mum's family has had and excellent health history until now when both my Mum & Grandma have cancer. I'm starting to think that my random (morbid) thought that I'll die in the water is possibly incorrect and that it's more likely to be cancer. Strangely I'd rather the water but I'm trying not to dwell on that as I don't particularly want to die at this point in time. When I get bad news that I can't do anything about I turn to depressing music to soothe my woes. So after a good hour of depressing tunes I headed out to have cocktails with a few friends. Dinner followed the cocktails (although perhaps it should have been the other way around) and I must say I'm in a much better mood having gone out.

So to summarise... I had a fabulous time in Brisbane and miss the lifestyle up there although it's still not really my city. Am restless, reflective and honestly I think I'm a little angry with myself. Akrasia, what can I say? Do better. Rocks. Anyhow, no point dwelling on that, just have to keep moving forward. Right?

Less disjointed post next time, I promise.

Two months in a nutshell

2008-05-28T00:10:00.001+10:00

As seems to be the case far more often than I'd like it to be, I've had good intentions of writing but failed to put those intentions in to practice.

April in Brisbane passed fairly quickly and uneventfully after I worked out how to ring the bell on the bus.

My "silver jubilee" was pleasantly quiet and spent doing grocery shopping, laundry and studying French. Just what I wanted really. A normal day catching up on things that I wouldn't otherwise get done during the week.

I've read far less in the last few weeks than I had when I initially arrived. Big crocheting projects like blankets and jumpers saw me spending much more time in front of the television. I'm still very much in chick flick viewing mode but I am hoping to move into arthouse again some time during the week.

A few weeks ago I was in Melbourne visiting Mum & Dad and it was sooooo good to see them. There was much excitement in the house. I've never seen the dogs run around quite like that when there isn't food involved! It was a short visit as I had to head back to work but I'm glad I went down to see them anyhow.

There's a bit of traveling about coming up next month with hi-jinx in Sydney, and another trip to see my folks before the crazy festival life takes over till mid-August.

I had planned to write more but I'm going to save that for another day when there's more to tell.

April Reading List

2008-05-04T21:47:00.003+10:00

April started strong with plenty of reading done in the first few days. Then three and a half seasons of Grey's Anatomy coupled with some serious knitting & crochet proved to be formidable distractions.

1. The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort
2. Call Me Elizabeeth by Dawn Annandale
3. Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn
4. The Ages of Lulu by Almudena Grandes
5. The Encyclopedia of Crochet Techniques by Jan Eaton

Not sure how May's going to go... I still have several books I'm catching up on or finishing off but there are already other books catching my fancy and I'm hoping to finish knitting my jumper in the next week or so... Not to mention the French homework & reading I have to add to the list...

Numerical Update

2008-04-09T22:08:00.004+10:00

611 days ago I left Brisbane and just 4 days ago I returned.
3 of those 4 days were spent with a fever averaging 38˚C. Yesterday I drank 1.25L of water and 1.15L of flavoured still mineral water. I also slept for 12 hours. I'm feeling much better and the fever is almost gone :)

It took me 1.75 bus rides to work out how to get the bus to stop without actually having to call out to the bus driver (or in the case of my first bus ride, continuing for an extra three stops). Apparently I managed to get the really old buses twice on my first day. All other buses have had the red stop button I'm used to.

I've only been working at the Brisbane Festival for 3 days and today marks 100 days till the festival opens.

While I've been up here I have read one book, gotten lost once and been to the doctor once. I've made an appointment to go back to get my third and final (yay!) Gardasil vaccination.

Since arriving in Brisbane I have received 22 text messages from people I know, one text message from someone I don't know, 12 messages via facebook and many emails of which 2 were personally addressed to me.

I have to be back in the office in 10.5 hours and given that I need at least 45 minutes to wake up, 10-15 minutes to get to the bus stop (which is not that far away but the traffic lights, and the traffic, are a little kooky) and another 20 minutes to get to work, I should probably go to bed now.

For those interested it took me 34 minutes to write all this because I kept getting distracted by a Skype conversation regarding donuts.

March Reading List

2008-03-31T01:27:00.003+11:00

Far less falling apart this month, much more normal levels of crazy in my head. Sadly this hasn't translated to the number of books read.

1. A Child's True History of Crime by Chloe Hooper
2. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (re-read)
3. Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett (partial re-read, started but hadn't previously finished it)
4. Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett (partial re-read, as above)
5. Odd & The Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
6. The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel

So who guessed that I'd just finished unpacking my Pratchett collection this month?
I'm interested to note that I've consistently read six books per month for the first quarter of the year. It's not a conscious goal but seems to be my average for times when I'm not spending weeks on end being a book hermit.

Update
Knew I should have kept a running list as I read... I actually made it to 7 books (ten if you want to be accurate but I'm counting Lost Girls by Alan Moore & Melinda Gebbie as one book broken into three volumes.

iLove my new phone

2008-03-16T22:21:00.002+11:00

It's shiny, pretty and as womderfully fun to use as I anticipated and then some. Need I say more?

This post was brought to you and typed on my new phone.

Shiny :)

Life Lessons in Scrabble

2008-03-03T00:38:00.004+11:00

Today was a very domestic day. Clean-Up-Sarah's-Act Day. Well, clean up my room & bathroom anyhow.

Three loads of laundry (I actually bothered to sort out my clothes into coloured and dark) and I was well on my way. Several boxes of books have been unpacked and others removed from the bookshelf and packed into boxes in a [moving] deckchairs-on-the-Titanic-esque manner. After slipping in the bathroom while mopping the floor and hitting my head on a shelf while dusting I decided to retreat to the safety of the bedroom. After a few hours I was happy to rediscover my floor under the myriad of boxes I headed downstairs for dinner.
THUD
What was that? Mum askes.
I wander upstairs having quipped that it was probably my bookshelf.
Turns out it was my bookshelf.

I may have gotten a little upset. Just a little.

The floor had disappeared under a mound of books that had also dismantled my clothes rack.
Just a little upset.

Three hours later and I had reclaimed the floor, fixed the rack and precariously stacked the books on the chest of drawers. I needed a break from the domesticity.

Clearly a game of Scrabble was in order.

Dad & I had bought Mum the Deluxe Scrabble board for her birthday.

The christening game reminded me of a valuable lesson. Greed is not good. I could have finished the game but decided to hold out by one more move in order to score more points. If I'd put the original word on the board I would have won. Instead Dad took line honours for tonight's game. Ah well, there's always tomorrow. Anyway, I have a floor. I need not for winning Scrabble.

February Reading List

2008-03-02T01:12:00.002+11:00

Well, I've been slack with the blogging but life fell apart a little (at least in my head) so I've been taking some time to re-group.

Anyhow, books read in February were:
1. Thud by Terry Pratchett
2. Where's My Cow by Terry Pratchett (re-read)
3. The Black Crusade by Richard Harland
4. Green Eggs & Ham by Dr Seuss (re-read)
5. Shadowfall by James Clemens (re-read)
6. Hinterlands by James Clemens

Not a great deal of reading done and most of it happened on the 28th February but hopefully I'll manage to get a few more in. After all there's a medium box of books that have been waiting patiently for me to read them for almost 2 years now.

Happy Birthday Mum

2008-02-13T00:04:00.000+11:00

I'm sitting here wondering what to write for Mum's birthday card. Something that not only expresses how much I love her but how incredibly lucky I feel to be her daughter. The thing is, I don't think that it's quite sunk in that she's in remission and quite possibly going to be okay. Just eight months ago, we were told that her cancer was to be incurable. We were going to have to wait and see if we could prolong her life after 18 months of treatment. I can't speak for Mum or Dad, but for me the last 8 months has passed both quickly and painfully slowly. Having looked into the general statistics for pancreatic cancer patients, the odds weren't looking good. Less than 1% of patients go into long term remission.

So here we are. Full radiological and biological remission.

Amazingly good news and funnily enough I'm still having to tell myself to just breathe.

I started to look at my posts from when we first found out that Mum had pancreatic cancer. Sure that I would find some poignant or inspired words from the time as I never shared those with Mum at the time. Reading posts from the two blogs that I write, I found myself in tears. The emotions are still raw. I suppose I've been spending the last eight months trying to live from day to day and not think, not to feel. I almost lost my Mum last year. If she'd been like many pancreatic patients then she would have most likely passed away around September. I still can't find the words to say how I feel now that the outcome is what we'd been hoping for.

It would seem that I'm still lost for words. So I think, for Mum's birthday, I'm going to say:

Happy Birthday Mum. Thank you for staying positive and fighting against the odds. Thank you for ironing my dress for me before the party even when you were tired because you knew I'd do a terrible job and take twice as long doing so. Thank you for holding me and telling me it was going to be okay when we found out you had cancer and when we found out you were in remission. You truly are an inspiration and you handle what life brings you with grace and poise. I love you. Thank you.

:)

2008-02-08T23:00:00.000+11:00

Mum's in remission. There's no cancer left in her body.
Words cannot express how I feel right now.

:)

Dreams

2008-02-05T22:41:00.001+11:00

I was up early this morning to drop Dad off at the station. It was nice to be able to return the favour. It was also good to get out of bed at what is a normal hour for most. Particularly as I'll be needing to be up early for work on Thursday.

The sleeping tablet worked a treat and I managed to sleep uninterrupted through the night although I was a little groggy during the day. I've been told that should pass. It was good to sleep although my dreams were fairly vivid and strangely realistic. I seem to recall a need for a new notebook but have no idea why. I figured it must have been part of my dream. What I do remember from my dreams was waking up in my grandparents' living room - where it seems I was sleeping on the floor. I had to start a new job that day and I was looking forward to it. I got dressed and then I realised that I was in the wrong clothes, I couldn't wear jeans and a t-shirt to work. I had to be in corporate attire. The casual workplace was a thing of my past and not real for me anymore. I woke up then. I felt a bit sad after that dream.

I've been thinking a lot about what I'm doing and I love what I do. I always have. I suppose I worry that I'm getting lost at the moment.

Too much time on my hands. Too much thinking.

I wonder what tonight's dreams will bring

Playing Catch Up

2008-02-05T09:21:00.000+11:00

Quite a bit has happened since I last wrote and although I've been meaning to write (and have often gotten as far as opening up the "create post" page), I just haven't found the words. I'm feeling a little despondent at the moment. Well, more than a little. Nick mentioned the Korean term Han to me yesterday and I think that combined with an overwhelming sense of ennui would be an apt description of how I'm feeling.

Anyhow. It's been a couple of weeks and since then Mum's come out of hospital and is going for a PET scan today to make sure that there's no cancer left. She has to go to a hospital in Moorabin for the scan.

Moorabin is where I flew a helicopter last Monday. (What a segue way!) Which was amazingly fun and I'd really like to do it again some time. Perhaps when I've stopped working in the crazy profession that I seem to have chosen? Who knows, but I was lucky enough to have a great instructor who took me up to the training airspace and once I was a little less wobbly with the controls he directed me from Carrum back towards Melbourne's CBD along the beach en route to the airport. Many thanks to Lisa & Dave for the opportunity to fly!

Stepping back a week, I finished up work on Summer Fun in the City with Set Sail which was a great three day event where people could book in for free sailing lessons. There's nothing quite as special as seeing a nervous five year old come back from the water all excited because they sailed a small two person boat! We were even lucky enough to try it out after the last group on the Wednesday. A perfect time to be sailing as some of the Sydney to Hobart yachts were still moored down at the Docklands.

A brief trip to Sydney to say hi to Tamsin at the opening night of Carmen and generally get away from Melbourne for a couple of days and I was back to watch the ladies finals of the Australian Open. Good grief it was hot! Good match though and there's nothing quite like the atmosphere in a stadium - or talking to the random people sitting next to you. I really should see more live entertainment...

Our family were down for the weekend and while I had every intention of taking my cousins to check out Australia Day celebrations we settled for Sing Star instead. Did I mention I should see more live entertainment...?

Which brings me back to the week that's just passed. Not much else to report. Had a small operation to remove and replace the implant in my left arm. I'm rather pathetic when it comes to needles and the local anaesthetic hurt more than the scalpel going in (and that was before we had to reapply the anaesthtic which for some reason hadn't taken).

Sunday was Dad's birthday so we had a feast at our place. Roast beef for 11, one baked fish (with lime and ginger), many many roasted veggies, a freshly baked loaf of bread and a sweet potato & green bean salad (with sweet chilli & balsamic vinegar dressing). Dessert was a stack of profiteroles (Dad's new favourite baked good) and a plum & nectarine crumble (made from the fruits from our backyard!). Given the number of profiteroles and cake that I've eaten in the last two days I should really stop writing and go for a VERY long walk.

Besides, it may help me sleep and perhaps think less... which would be nice. :)

End of a Fairytale Season

2008-01-20T21:40:00.000+11:00

Today was the last day of the show I've been working on for Summer Fun in the City, Fairy Factor. It was looking pretty grim for our first show of the day as it was raining incessantly until 9:30am when paused long enough for us to set up the show on the stage that's normally used for Twilight Rhythms. I'm glad we did because despite the inclement weather we still had over 100 people show up to brave the weather. Happily for all it didn't rain at all. In fact it cleared up to a bright sunny day with cloudy patches. By the time we finished our second show for the day and final for the season it was quite muggy!

Sadly Mum had to go back to the hospital today as she's been feeling rather under the weather and started to develop a high fever (the only lucid memory she has from this morning is telling Dad she didn't want to go to the hospital). She's doing much better, although she's feeling very fatigued. Her temperature is down which is the important thing. Now we just need to work out where the infection is. Hopefully she'll be home in a few days.

Anyhow it's almost bed time. Just a couple of job applications to write and then early bedtime before an early rising to Set Sail tomorrow!

A Productive-ish Week

2008-01-19T21:46:00.000+11:00

It's been a fairly productive week in some ways. I've replaced my lost diary (left it on the plane back from Sydney), baked breakfast muffins which formed my lunch for several days which has been my lunch for the week and finished the first book (Across the Nightingale Floor) in the series I've just started to read.

Work has been good although I've clearly been spoiled by my extended break as the short 6 hour days are still getting the better of my energy levels. I came home to day and slept for a good 4.5 hours even though we finished early due to the rain!

I've been feeling a little more tired lately since my cervical cancer vaccination. Not sure if that's a side effect or if it's all in my head but I'm glad that I've only got one more shot left for the immunisation. While it seemed less painful the second time round my arm still feels bruised. It should be better just in time for me to get my implant replaced... Oh the joys of pressure bandaging.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Fairy Factor which is the great 1hr free kids show I've been working on in the Fitzroy Gardens. It's been a real pleasure watching the kids (even when they rushed the stage). There have been some amazing costumes and more pink fairies than you could poke a stick at. I've made a mental note that if I have a daughter not to dress her in a pink fairy costume, if she's into fairies, as I'd never find her in a fairy show audience. On Monday morning I'll start three days of Set Sail at the Docklands Shed 2. I'm really looking forward to that, I only hope the weather holds up a bit for the duration of the event. There's a possibility that I'll give the flying trapeze a shot next week but we'll see how that goes!

Back in Town

2008-01-10T19:38:00.000+11:00

After a relaxing few days in Sydney and a delayed flight I'm back in Melbourne counting down the hours until the cool change sweeps through the state.

Overall I did well, returning with just one addition to my library, Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn. While the cover and Japanese themes have always grabbed my attention, I'm fascinated by the concept of a nightingale floor. Perhaps I should add that to the list of random things that might be cool to have in a house (I've been watching Grand Designs again).

Having enjoyed a few days off (it only counts as a holiday if I'm elsewhere... while I'm down in Melbourne not working it's more like unemployment or being lazy) I'm ready to tackle the grand task of sorting out my life. I'm currently considering treating that as a job in itself. It's the control freak in me really.

Anyhow, tomorrow I'm going to start my lists afresh. Set new deadlines for various bits of paperwork and generally spring clean my life and get rid of as much clutter as possible. We'll see how long the enthusiasm holds... hopefully long enough to spark the next challenge!

It's good to be back at work though, even if it's not the challenge I'm seeking, at least there's some structure to my day to keep me from languishing in the comfort zone that is Melbourne.

Three Weddings and a Park

2008-01-06T19:21:00.000+11:00

I spent most of the day sitting in Hyde Park enjoying the sunshine and drizzle with equal pleasure. I was just grateful to have escaped the heat of Melbourne. Sadly cooler weather brings mosquitoes so I ventured into the city in search of some insect repellent and something to make the stinging go away. This just adds to the recent trend of buying practical yet contextually strange things on my outings. I bought a pair of rigging gloves on the recent beach trip.

Armed with the spray I managed to read half of Signal to Noise before the start of my shift. I ended up working on the Weddings at the Macquarie Street stage. I think they went well, but I only saw the third wedding as I spent much of the evening waiting for deliveries up the road. It was a beautiful if brief ceremony (each of the three weddings went for approximately 20 minutes) and the three couples looked happy despite the inclement weather. It was great to bump into people who I knew who were working on the festival too.

After work I caught up with Tamsin after a small delay (who'd have thought that there would be two polar cone vans in the same intersection?) and we roamed Hyde Park in search of a bar. Spiegeltent was closed for a private function so our plan had been somewhat foiled. We failed to find a bar in Hyde Park although we were sure that there was one nearby... after all it was opening night of the Festival! We trekked to Martin Place before deciding to head back to Tam's to drop off my bags and find a bar at nearby Oxford Street.

We ended up with G&Ts in hand noting that at the bar we'd stopped at people seemed to be segregated into all male or all female groups of varying sizes. There were also enough candles arranged on a shelf to inspire a funeral-esque atmosphere so we decided to move on. Not managing to find anywhere else that caught our fancy we headed back towards her apartment to make a final stop a the Irish pub which turned out to be closed. The universe seemed to be telling us it was time for bed.

This morning we got up, lazed about and then headed to a lovely little bookshop & cafe for breakfast and departed caffeinated, fast broken and armed with a book. Secondhand bookstores are a dangerous place. Throw in food and drinks and I may never leave!

I've finished reading one of the books I've brought up with me and have enjoyed an afternoon relaxing in the cool but wonderfully fine weather that seems to be gracing the city. It feels good to be somewhere different even if it still feels the same.

Shelter

2008-01-05T11:16:00.000+11:00

I arrived, bleary-eyed in Sydney just after 09:00. After spending a good hour having breakfast at the airport and wondering how exactly to pass the five hours left until I start work tonight I decided to head into town. I figured that I could find a relatively sheltered park and sit there for a few hours with a book for company. As is often the case, the sun was shining and continued to do so long enough to convince me that the chance of rain might actually stay just that.

So right now I'm sheltering in Starbucks drinking an extra large coffee to make up for the hours of sleep I flitted away last night. Ever the optimist when it comes to the weather. Coming from Melbourne I should know better...

Late Night Packing

2008-01-05T02:54:00.000+11:00

I'm leaving for Sydney in less than 5 hours, so I figured it was about time to pack. I keep telling myself on the bright side, I started to consider my packing list at the start of the week...

With nothing left to pack but my laptop I really should just bundle it into the bag and get some shut eye. Instead I'm sitting here tapping away. It's largely because I've actually gotten out of the house a bit in the last couple of days.

A trip with some friends to a rather cool beach for a brisk swim, via a winery with a dog named Bingo, capped off with an evening at Moonlight Cinema yesterday added to what has already been a fairly pleasant start to the year. Couple that with falling asleep before 02:00 yesterday and I'm doing rather better than I expected.

Today was good for other reasons. Another load of laundry done means I'm 70% on the way to a tidy room, with the remaining 30% more to do with finding storage (or even better getting rid of stuff). I've also got a few more days work lined up for early February which is great. Still many emails to write but at least there's something to look forward to!

Anyhow, I really must close my eyes as I'm exhausted. A day of domesticity combined with the Grand Designs marathon have rather taken it out of me...

A Quiet Start to the New Year

2008-01-03T04:47:00.000+11:00

Three days into the New Year and I'm desperately clinging to my resolution for a better 2008. My weeks of scattered work are all culminating with an incredible impatience for my next contract. My mind is going a little spare without work. After all, she's my mistress.

New Year's Eve was one of the less painful of the 24 that I've experienced, although I can hardly count the earlier years as difficult as I was blissfully not thinking much at that point. I was lucky enough to spend brief amounts of time with quite a few friends, I'm sorry to say, achieving more quantity than quality in terms of time spent compared with number of friends seen. Still it was wonderful to see the Monash kids, who I seem to see annually, as well as a few of the Ceremonies crew. It was the first NYE that I've actually gone into the Melbourne CBD (or any city's CBD for that matter) to watch the fireworks. They were pretty and shiny as fireworks are want to be. There was champagne, singing and the odd reveler throwing sparklers from their balcony to mark yet another year passing.

The city was a ghost town the next day until mid-afternoon. Apparently I was up a little "early" for the New Year. I followed up my social evening with more social catch ups before I inevitably disappear from the social scene and drown myself in work. Well, that's sort of the plan any how...

When I finally made it home last night I curled up in bed and read for awhile before falling asleep at a far more respectable 00:30. This allowed me to wake up, for the first time in weeks, in the morning! So I spent much of that time in bed anyway, finishing Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I liked it a lot although it did make me feel a little sad.

One load of laundry later and I feel like the day has been reasonably productive!

Now, I'm waiting for the birds to start their morning song, triggering that part of my brain that allows me to fall asleep. Not long now...

Books Read in January 2008

2008-01-03T04:43:00.000+11:00

January
1. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
2. Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson
3. Signal to Noise by Dave McKean & Neil Gaiman
4. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
5. Grass for his Pillow by Lian Hearn
6. One Red Paperclip by Kyle MacDonald

39 Questions on 2007

2007-12-31T01:01:00.000+11:00

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Traveled to Darwin and lived there for three months. Traveled to Norway (yay for the Arctic Circle), Belgium, Germany and Spain. Had the chicken pox (and as a result had my first doctor's appointment in French). Called a dance show. Baked pound cake, lebkuchen and vast quantities of shortbread. Went dog sledding, tobogganing and horse sleigh riding under the Northern Lights. What a year of firsts!

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I think I achieved same same, but different however the three ball juggling still needs practice.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Not that I'm aware of or recall.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully no.

5. What countries did you visit?
France, England, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Singapore, Qatar.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

Direction.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
2nd Feb - Gene & I celebrated our 5th anniversary in St Flour and Nick gave us the most beautiful gift of a script.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Starting to make life decisions and learning (still learning) to life with the repercussions.

9. What was your biggest failure?
not working hard enough on my relationship

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Chicken pox, minor joint damage to my left shoulder and a rather nasty case of tonsillitis. All in all a good year...

11. What was the best thing you bought in 2007?
my laptop!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My parents for both taking the news that Mum has pancreatic cancer in their stride. For their strength and determination and solidarity through the treatment so far and for the serenity that they seem to have found in this difficult time. I applaud them and hope that one day I will find a similar serenity in the face of challenge.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Probably my own but that's more depressed than appalled.

14. Did you do to any weddings?
nope.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Cookies! Armed with 500 Cookies and the internet the baked goods world is my oyster. On a more serious note, hearing that Mum's cancer seems to be gone.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
Intermission by The Scissor Sisters

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
---happier or sadder? sadder
---thinner or heavier? *sigh* thinner
---richer or poorer? poorer financially, richer in life experience

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
reading, knitting/crochet, baking

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
being unproductive

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Eve was spent singing carols in the dark to entertain Mum (we had a black out) and handing out cookies to people in the court we live in. Day was spent partially at Grubby's and at home cooking roast for my folks.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
no

22. Were you rejected by anyone?
no

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Had a big Gilmore Girls thing going mid year but seem to have taken a real shine to Grand Designs. Oh and the Green Wing ("She's your schmoo too!", classic...)

24. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?
nope

25. What was the best book you read?
Close call between His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, Lost Girls by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie (comics count as books in my library) and The Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Oedo Sukeroku Taiko

27. What did you want and got?
many things with many outcomes

28. What did you want and did not get?
the location of a missing box of my favourite books from when my folks moved about 5 years ago!

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Honestly didn't see much film this year so I don't feel I can answer this one!

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? Mourned the loss of Percy the pinata, spent the day with Gene & my folks before dinner at my favourite Japanese restaurant to celebrate both my birthday and my family's 21 years of being in Australia before catching up with my ever wonderful friends at the Bystander Bar for Comedy at Trades. I'm still 24.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
it would take more than one thing (yes I want to eat the damn cake too)

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
fashion concept you say...? umm same as last year although possible more summer oriented given the three months in Darwin. Still largely black though.

33. What kept you sane?
My ever patient friends and family.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I'm still happy to watch Johnny Depp, Clive Owen and Cillian Murphy at this point but to be honest I haven't really followed the celebrities much this year either.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
probably the abortion debate although I acknowledge that climate change is a rather important issue too.

36. Who did you miss?
no one in particular, I've managed to keep in touch with quite a few people even if it hasn't been face to face.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
I can't pick! The team I worked with up in Darwin and most of the people I worked with the the last half of the year are all pretty amazing.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.
See below.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
... getting your dreams it's strange, but it seems a little - well - complicated. There's a kind of a sort of cost. There's a couple of things get lost. There are bridges you cross you didn't know you crossed until you've crossed. And if that joy, that thrill, doesn't thrill you like you think it will. Still... Who wouldn't be happier? So I couldn't be happier, because happy is what happens when all your dreams come true. Well, isn't it?

Baking for days

2007-12-20T02:09:00.000+11:00

It's 02:07 and I've baked 7 mini flour-less chocolate cakes and have another four in the oven. So much for last night's marathon sleep (21:30 until 12:30) resetting my sleep cycle. There's also a large bowl of dough chilling so that I can get up early (ha) and bake some lebkuchen while I prepare some jam drops and shortbread. I'm on a bit of a baking kick...

I state that for the benefit of the majority of you who will not witness the results of tonight's grocery shopping. Purchases include:
- 5kg bakers flour
- 1kg pastry flour
- 2kg caster sugar
- 1kg brown sugar
- ground cloves
- butter milk
- 1.25kg unsalted butter
- 440g almond meal
- several mini cake tins
- 36 eggs
- 1 pot of strawberry conserve
- 1 pomegranate

As you can tell, my baking is probably not the healthiest I've done, although the flourless chocolate cake involves surprisingly little sugar. The pomegranate has very little to do with the baking and more to do with my newly discovered love of the flavour pomegranates.

The oven is beeping at me. I should probably make it stop.

Today's post is brought to you by the numbers 0.75, 1, 1.5, 2

2007-12-18T21:05:00.000+11:00

0.75 is the number of hours sleep I've had in the last 32 hours. I sense my nocturnal habits may be at an end.

1 is the number of days I've worked this week. It's good to be working again, even if it's just an orientation.

1.5 is the number of cards I ended up writing yesterday before being distracted by the arrival of the Schoeller & Stahl Zermatt yarn that Dad bought Mum & I for Christmas. I am now knitting a sweater despite the summery weather in the vague hope I'll finish it in time for Autumn/Winter 2008.

2 is the number of chapters I've read of The Ghost's Child. Since my last post I've discovered that The Pleasure of my Company doesn't actually have chapters. As a result I'm having a lot of trouble not finishing it in one deliciously indulgent reading. I'm trying to pace myself.

Midnight Cakes

2007-12-17T02:15:00.000+11:00

Not only am I nocturnal, I'm beginning to make a habit of baking cakes at midnight. This is of course totally in line with Dad's nocturnal habits but I'm sure it's not good for us!

Tonight's cake was a simple pound cake made with a recipe that I've altered a bit and am still tweaking. Perhaps a little less egg but otherwise a delicious cake that will be perfect with my morning (ha!) coffee.

Speaking of coffee I don't think I've mentioned how in love I am with our new espresso machine, which in all honesty isn't that new any more as we've had it for almost a month... Purchased the day after the dishwasher caught fire which I also seem to have failed to mention. I guess that's what happens when I write while I should be asleep.

I have had a fairly productive day today despite only making it out of bed at 13:00. I've achieved 80% of what I wanted to do.

Tomorrow I'm aiming to:
- do at least one load of washing
- clean the bathroom
- head to the post office and post my international mail
- head to the supermarket to pick up some supplies for further baking adventures
- have a cup of coffee with a slice of tonight's cake
- read another chapter of The Pleasure of my Company and one of The Ghost's Child (apparently children's fiction and literature have captured my attention from the stack of sci-fi/fantasy that's sitting by my bed
- write a few more cards
- finish the entrelac scarf that I've been making out of Noro's Silk Garden yarn.

We'll see how I go... first I need to get out of bed before noon! Excellent practice for Tuesday when I have to be at work at 09:00. Wish me luck!

Infrequent Insomnia Blog

2007-12-08T04:11:00.000+11:00

Lately it seems that I only write my infrequent blog posts in the wee hours of the morning. Mind you it seems to be getting later each time so who knows, maybe I'll find myself, over time, posting during sensible hours again.

Last time I was up at all hours typing away I talked about awakeness. Well in the day that followed, I remember little of the LX plots - I think one was canceled. Don G was great despite having to leave the theatre just after the start of Act 1 because I was feeling faint. That night I made it home after stopping by the side of the freeway for a nap. The next day I decided to see a doctor. Tonsillitis. Never in my life have I had tonsillitis that made me feel quite so dead. Armed with antibiotics I headed home to sleep off the time that it would take the antibiotics to kick in. Two days apparently. Two days later I was in the doctor's office again. Apparently it had gotten worse and my throat was quite swollen and it was now affecting both sides of the throat which was making breathing, eating and drinking awfully more taxing than usual. Stronger antibiotics were ordered as well as something to help make them easier to stomach. The tech run felt like it went forever. Seems the medication that made the antibiotics easier to stomach were also making me feel cloudy as all hell but I was under the impression that was the tonsillitis. Oops. No more driving if I have that medication again.

Before I knew it the show was running and even sooner it was over. I finally took some time off like I'd been speaking about doing for quite some time. Three days into my break I was bored and looking for work again.

Mind you I've had a rather enjoyable time since then. I've since, many thanks to Tam, seen Alcina and Tales of Hoffman just to complete the season of operas. I've also seen more contemporary dance which was a little lost on me but the set and lighting was very sexy. Aside from that my hours have been spent sorting out paperwork and trying to work out a plan for the foreseeable future. I've also re-discovered reading as a pastime. Robert Charles Wilson's Spin was a fabulously engaging read, now I'm slowly whittling away at the books sitting next to my bed. Steve Martin's Shop Girl is currently battling several sci-fi fantasty novels for my attention. However I did find myself rather taken with the film so it's hard to say which will triumph. I suspect neither and I'll just flit between them.

Given that the sun is likely to appear in the sky shortly I should stop writing and attempt some sleep before it wakes me up. Oh well. I figure that this time on Tuesday I'll be on my way to work so it's probably not a bad thing to be a little nocturnal. Seems to be my natural state anyhow.

End ramble.

Failure to Write

2007-11-14T02:35:00.000+11:00

In the wee small hours of the morning, when the whole wide world is fast asleep I'm lying awake wondering why it is I've got Carly Simon stuck in my head when I've been listening to Edith Piaf's rendition of L'accordéoniste on loop all day.

I'm frustratingly nocturnal at the moment. Frustrating because I have two LX plots to attend tomorrow and I'd like to be awake for them please. As well as tickets to see Don Giovanni. Again with the awakeness.

Since I wasn't sleeping anyway, I figured I might as well update my sorely neglected blog.

Let's see, last time I wrote I'd just planted a mini-herb garden for a show. Well, the season went really well. So well in fact that Kat & I don't own any plants (dead or alive) from the show. Since then I've moved onto another show and am in the process of looking for more work over the silly season. Mind you I think I could do with a couple of days off to sort out my body clock and get a little R&R but we'll see. Plenty of time for that when the theatres are dark again.

Other items of note in no particular order are:
- my shoulder (which I fell on about two weeks ago after a particularly sleepless night... futons should never be underestimated for danger, can anyone say trip hazard?) is feeling much better but is at the annoying stage where it feel good but as soon as I do anything more than hold a cup of coffee in my left arm it begins to complain. Not that I've been doing anything but resting it of course... ahem

- Mum's started her next course of chemo after a week's break last week. For some reason I kept thinking it was her last course last time... hopefully this is the one. She's getting great results from the treatment but I think she's looking forward to stopping the chemo.

- I've made it further on my NaNoWriMo novel this year than ever before, but I'm still many thousands of words behind where I should be. Perhaps I should attack that instead of this blog... I should probably also note that I'm only ahead of my previous attempts by about 1,000 words... oh well, only 48,000 more to go...

Anyhow, that's all that springs to mind at the moment. I think I'm approaching the "low" in my sleep/wake cycle, so I'm going to make another attempt to fall asleep. Wish me luck!

Greens

2007-10-23T10:00:00.000+10:00

The show I'm working on at the moment calls for a herb garden. Given our rather tight budget, Kat (the set/costume designer) and I decided to donate a small herb garden. The best part was planting all of our random plants into our make-shift container.

Here we have the main container (the no-weeding required garden) which has basil, tomatoes, cos lettuce, parsley and some random flowers.

This is the second container (weed-me!) which contains baby corn, more tomatoes, more parsley and more lettuce as well as some weeds from outside the cafeteria.

We love our garden and hope that it's still alive in three weeks time when the season closes...

Post-Festival Update

2007-10-20T21:01:00.000+10:00

Tonight I had dinner with my family for the first time in a month. It's strange to think that we're all living under the same roof and our only interactions have been in passing as I waltz out the door (or stumble depending on what time I made it home from work the previous night).

The (Age 2007) Melbourne Fringe Festival was great fun as I expected. I had some fabulous shows which some of my fabulous friends came to see. It was great to see them at the festival as it was the first time I'd seen some of them in months. Plus it meant that there were people out and seeing theatre. The Festival Club was our place to unwind and you could generally find us tucked around the lighting & sound desks or jumping up to follow spot random patrons and staff as the night traveled on and we burnt up the dance floor.

As is always the case, I blinked and the festival was over and I was moving onto my next gig. It's funny being back at uni but not as a student. I'm still amused by the idea but am taking great pleasure at watching the cast working. We open in two weeks time and I think the show is going to be great. Besides, with the Spiegeltent in walking distance, I'm sure that opening night drinks will last into the wee hours.

Mum's doing well and if I'm not mistaken has one more chemo treatment for this course and then gets at least one week off (which she's looking forward to). The doctors seem pleased with her progress which is great!

I kept meaning to write during the Fringe but I could barely string a sentence together let alone a thought. You should have seen me ordering coffee...

Well, I should stop procrastinating and get back to sorting boxes of stuff. I'm gradually packing and weeding through things that I clearly don't need anymore as they've been sitting in boxes for over a year now. It's a painful boring process but I'm sure it'll feel great once I'm done.

I'm feeling a tad guilty about how little packing I've achieved as I spent most of the day browsing YouTube on the AppleTV and teaching myself Fur Elise on the piano. Yep it's been a productive day.

Fringe Family

2007-09-28T14:31:00.000+10:00

Three tech rehearsals down, one to go and then we’re on! So far it’s looking like I’ll have an interesting mix of shows with music being a strong theme.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since I’ve been in the Meeting Room at the North Melbourne Town Hall. There are so many familiar faces around the venue. People who I still remember coming over to our house in the wee hours of the morning having paid an exorbitant amount of cash for drinks from a 24 hour bottle shop after the bar closed early one night. As always there are new faces but Melbourne Fringe will always feel a little like a family reunion in that way.

Speaking of family, my Mum’s cousin is down from Singapore for a holiday. We went shopping last night at good ol’ Knox City and Dad’s taking her to have a look around the Vic Markets today. She’s been here for almost a week but I’ve barely seen her as by the time I’m home from work she’s in bed and I leave moments after dragging my sorry self out of bed in the morning. I must admit that I’m looking forward to sleeping in on Sunday morning before spending the afternoon reading the script before Monday’s rehearsal.

It’s good to be busy again! Now if I could start sleeping well again then life would be nigh on perfect.

A Silver Lining

2007-09-14T02:24:00.000+10:00

I couldn't sleep last night. Couldn't and didn't. Seem to have lost the "off switch" for my mind. Still every cloud has a silver lining they say and mine looked a little like this...

Pardon the quality of the picture. My actual camera ran out of battery and it was taken through the bedroom window on my phone. It was a wonderful way to start the day and I wanted to share it. I have a strange suspicion I'll be seeing something similar in a few hours time.

Back in Melbourne

2007-09-12T23:06:00.001+10:00

I've been back in Melbourne for a week and a half now. More than enough time to settle into my nocturnal habits once more. Luckily I'll be working nights for the Melbourne Fringe.

While I was in Darwin there were a few changes around my folks place. For one the old CRT tv transformed into a 42" plasma tv. What caught my attention though, once I managed to drag myself away from the new blue-ray DVDs was this...

It would seem that the dogs are enjoying the same fresh water that we are. It's only fair I suppose...

Nothing else to report really. My days have been spent looking for post-Fringe work, reinstating the blue streak in my hair and feeding my Facebook addiction.

It's been great spending time with my family though. Since Mum's cancer diagnosis Dad's been working from home a lot more so we've been lucky enough to have most meals as a family.

Mum's doing well at the moment. We received the latest results from her scans/tests and have been told that the cancer is now largely hard tissue and it's looking like she will only have to go through one more 6 week cycle of chemo before they can remove it. Right now she's having a short break from treatment as her white blood cell count is too low. Overall we're pretty happy with the latest news and I'll be sure to keep any interested parties posted. Many thanks for the well wishes.

Plans over the next week involve reading trashy magazines with Mum, heading to the city to see the Guggenheim exhibition as well as the Pixar showcase and of course the mundane catching up on paperwork and job hunting. I must admit I miss Darwin life, the warm walk-conducive weather and beach just moments away but it's good to be back in Melbourne. The skies may be grey but it's still t-shirt weather for most of the day and the owls nesting outside our house are much less shrill than the birds that shared my garden in Darwin.

Departing Darwin

2007-09-01T01:53:00.000+10:00

It's 01:22 and my flight was due to depart in 18 minutes. However the plane servicing this flight has been delayed and as a result I now have an hour to pass before I start the long journey home.

Even though I'm at the airport I can barely believe I'm leaving Darwin. I had a fairly typical Friday today. Rushing about for work culminating in drinks at the Ski Club watching the sunset.

I've really enjoyed my time up here. I can see how Darwin slowly seduces you into staying. It's laid back nature, which is wondering and trying all at once, suits the climate. I've found it to be a friendly city which I'm looking forward to visiting again in the near future. Having spent 12 weeks here I've gotten to know the city and its suburbs and have started to get to know it's locals. I must admit I'm a little sad to be leaving!

There are many things that I've learned/observed/been amused by/generally noted during my stay. Here are a few of them, in no particular order;
- Left Turn Permitted On Red Light After Stopping - it makes sense but doesn't stop me getting nervous when a police car comes up next to you while you're doing it!
- no one drives at the speed limit, you're either well above or well below
- the sunsets are amazing most days of the week
- on a really clear night you can see the "dust" of the Milky Way
- rattling the pipe gently can help to clear the blockage in the block of temporary toilets
- birds sing at all hours of the day
- there are some amazing beaches in Darwin
- it's the only place that I've ever paid $6.60 for yesterday's newspaper
- no curfew time for planes means many crazy flight times
- insect repellent and sunscreen should form part of your daily ritual. Everything seems to bite and sting up here and people get sunburn just thinking about it
- there's always something happening in Darwin

I suppose that's what I love about Darwin. There's always something happening and yet it's still a great place just to chill out and do nothing.

Well my ability to construct meaningful sentences has diminished so I'll quit while I'm not too far behind.

Next stop, Sydney
(unless this delayed plane makes me miss my connection... which I've been told is a possibility)

A Toast

2007-08-26T14:22:00.000+10:00

Five, possibly six years ago, in a small theatre in Melbourne I met Nick. As we trimmed trees during the church service next door, hauled dentist chairs and squeezed puppets that barely fit through the doors into the theatre, we didn't really talk much. That was must of the season until we had our final two shows, a matinee and an evening show. We had a couple of hours to kill so we headed to the pub and played a whole lot of pool and from that moment a friendship started to grow.

Over the years Nick's been an amazing friend. He seems to have a sixth sense about when I'm feeling under the weather no matter where I am. A text message will appear or my phone will ring just at the right moment. Just as I'm thinking I need to talk to someone. Most importantly he's honest with me. He's not afraid to tell me I'm being an idiot or that I'm doing okay.

Well, it's Nick's birthday today and I wish I could be there to give him a hug and a beer but there's a festival to close tonight so the beer will have to wait. Well, his beer anyway!

So happy birthday darlin'. To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due.

Four Things

2007-08-24T18:05:00.001+10:00

A: FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:

1. Retail sales in a teddy bear making shop, counting eyes was always fun...

2. Teller at ANZ

3. Tutor - English, Maths, Biology, General Science

4. much theatre

B: FOUR DVD’S I WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:

1. Triplets of Belleville

2. Spirited Away

3. Groundhog Day

4. Amélie

C: FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED:

1. Singapore

2. Melbourne

3. Ballarat (well I had a house there that I was occasionally at...)

4. Doha

D: FOUR TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH

1. Coupling

2. The Muppet Show

3. Green Wing

4. Deadwood

E: FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON HOLIDAY

1. New Zealand - Queenstown being a favourite

2. Aireys Inlet

3. Singapore

4. Europe

F: WEBSITES I VISIT DAILY (or regularly)

1. Neil Gaiman's Journal

2. Knitty

3. Wired News

4. The Age

G: FOUR OF MY FAVOURITE FOODS:

1. Roast anything

2. beef tataki

3. kueh lapis (indonesian layer cake)

4. mmmm cookie!

H: FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:

1. Melbourne - so I could give my family a huge hug and let them know how much I love them

2. Aireys Inlet - with a small group of friends, some wine, cheese, biscuits and a good roast

3. London - for more theatre and museums

4. Tromsø - there's nothing quite like the arctic

I: FOUR FRIENDS I THINK WILL RESPOND:

1. Anyone who's bored and in an office

2. Anyone who's bored and not in an office

3. Anyone who's after something to do an is at a computer

4. I think that covers it

J: FOUR OF MY BEST MOMENTS

1. Sharing meals with my close friends

2. Finally making it to Europe after years of dreaming

3. Watching my first opening ceremony from the control room

4. Swing dancing with Gene in the carport when it was almost 40 degrees in Doha

K: FOUR OF MY WORST MOMENTS

1. Finding out my Mum has cancer

2. Putting down my 16 year old dog who had a stomach tumour on the same day that my grandpa died

3. Most mornings (unless I'm still up from the night before!)

4. Seeing my friends or family troubled

L: FOUR TEAMS/GROUPS I HAVE BELONGED TO

1. Tintern Taggers (school kayaking team)

2. Monash Players

3. Dorien le Gallienne orchestra

4. Swing Patrol (infrequently)

Home Soon

2007-08-24T17:17:00.000+10:00

I'm struggling to comprehend the notion that this time next week I'll be in Sydney! We've got three nights left at the Star Shell before it all gets packed away for another year.

The last week or what I think is the last week (days and nights are melding into one) has been quieter on the going out front. However it's SoCo's second last night tonight so I think there will have to be a bit more effort on our parts to get out and enjoy the containers one last time for this festival season.

My laptop is fixed! It's probably the biggest news for me today... it's been out of action for the last couple of weeks as I've been busy running about doing Festival stuff I didn't manage to get it serviced until yesterday and they managed to fix it today! Very excited. So much so I'm going to drop by home and pick up my camera to take all the site photos that I've been meaning to take but didn't because I figured I couldn't get them off my laptop anyhow.

I've had a change of plans for my return to Melbourne. I've decided to cut my Sydney visit shorter so that I can be home to hassle my Mum earlier. So for anyone who cares to catch up with me in the coming weeks...

I'll be in Sydney between 1st and 3rd September and I'll be back in Melbourne on the morning of the 4th September. There are many drinks to be had!

The Star Shell is calling... I'll try and write again soon (no excuse now that the laptop's working!)

Festival Life

2007-08-21T19:12:00.000+10:00

Well the Darwin Festival has well and truly opened... so much so that we're into our final week of shows! It's been an amazing time up here and really great to see so many people coming to see the shows.

Photos of the venue would have been posted (along with more regular posts) had my laptop's hard-drive decided to die on me. So as a result there are no pictures and yet another fortnightly update.

The Santos Concert on the Esplanade was our big opening night. We had over 6,000 people attending which is not bad given the population is estimated at 71,900 people (in 2006). Excellent music although I did miss the final act to go and paint a set.

I was lucky enough to operate three performances of Play Play which was a physical theatre show from Singapore. It was quirky, occasionally morbid but balanced with a great sense of humour. I wish that more people could have seen it! It was also great to get to know the company who taught me how to play "paper, scissors, rock" in a group. An excellent way to pass some idle time!

There hasn't been much sleeping since we opened. Partly because we're busy through the day doing the office work. Partly because we're busy at night at shows. Also partly because SoCo Cargo is a two minute walk from my doorstep and as such it seems almost rude not to drop in to say hi to the crew there...

In other news I had a minor accident in a truck and was bitten several times by a spider at the same time. It was a rather boring 5 minutes of my life but all is well!

Today I had a little R&R with the crew from the Star Shell when we spent the morning at Berry Springs have a swim in both the main & lower pools as well as the actual spring. I must say I'm a little sore having spent four solid hours swimming in the water but I'd do it again in a flash.

Tonight I'll be back at the Star Shell to say hello and soak up the atmosphere. Not to mention the great food that's down there... Why cook and create dishes to clean when you can have excellent food on site?

Well, I thought I'd just say a quick hello before I run away to Festival land again.
See you soon!

Two Weeks of Good Intentions

2007-08-03T09:35:00.000+10:00

As the lack of blogging in the last few weeks has shown, good intentions sometimes don’t get you very far. This comes from years of finely tuned procrastination skills, recent increased personal letter writing and (I like to think) the Festival opening being next week.

Life has been fairly uneventful in a rather pleasant way. The weather has been consistently warm and sunny. The sunsets are always beautiful and I feel a little spoilt knowing that most of the people I know are going through an actual cold winter.

Since I last wrote I watched 2 seasons of the Gilmore Girls (five and six) until I started dreaming about the show. Season 2 of House was next although my lack of self-discipline saw me watching 4 of 6 discs the night before my senior first aid course. 8 hours of first aid training on 3 hours sleep is less fun than you might think.

I made sure that I had marginally more sleep the next night, after all I only had two more discs to go…

So I now hold a current senior first aid certificate and I rock at bandaging. This is not meant as an encouragement to do something that requires bandaging!

My DVD marathons aside, work has taken up most of my days. The hours have started to get a little erratic with somedays ending at 5:30pm and others at 11:30pm. On the bright side (?) they’re all starting at approx 9am. Right now I’m in tech spec & scheduling land. Especially since I have crew arriving in town this weekend. It’s a little frustrating trying to chase people up in Darwin. It’s almost like they’re on slightly faster timeframe than Doha time, but not by much. Jaia and I also letter dropped over 2% of the population of Darwin. So far we’ve dropped letters to 1300 houses notifying them of our main venue as they live in the area. It’s astounding to think that so many people have our numbers. Luckily they’re not all calling at once. Sadly the big print runs of letters killed our printer… it took over 6 hours to print 1100 pages. I was not a happy camper at the end of that day…

On a brighter note, some of you may have heard of the Triple J Goes AWOL concert that was in Humpty Doo. Well it just so happens that Humpty Doo is about half an hour from Darwin. So we packed a picnic rug and headed out to check out Blue King Brown, Something For Kate and Missy Higgins. It was a great night despite it being the first dry concert that many of us had been to. (The vodka tonics were flowing when we got back into town).

At some point in the next week I’ll be moving from the city, to Nightcliff, which is all of fifteen minutes drive from the city. I had a look at the place today and I feel spoilt to be moving so close to the beach. It’ll be wonderful!

Having had nothing exciting to report in the last couple of weeks, I’ll leave you with some photos from the Darwin Show. While I was updating my first aid skills I was missing out on such highlights as pig racing and pig diving. The unofficial world record for pig diving was broken at the show. Sadly there wasn’t a Guiness Book of Records person to officiate… Miss Piggy (the record breaking pig) will have to wait till the next diving meet. Many thanks to Viv & Rosie for taking the photos.

When the moon was smiling

2007-07-17T20:48:00.000+10:00

Tonight when I left work I was thinking to myself how dark the car park was and having a "but not for night" sketch running through my mind simultaneously when I looked up and saw the moon smiling at me.

There's much less light pollution up here because it's a smaller city than Melbourne. As a result, the crescent moon was very bright and the shadow of the rest of the moon was visible as well. Very pretty!

Launched!

2007-07-12T21:19:00.000+10:00

We're officially launched! Darwin Festival 2007, check out our program even if you can't make it up here. It's looking to be a http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifgreat festival.

Our program launch was very well received last night and a good night had by all. It was good to see everything come together.

It's been a busy week and as a result it's passed in the blink of an eye. I'm not really sure where it went but I have a vague suspicion that I'll be cleaning out the cupboards one day and stumble upon a pile of lost time huddled in the corner... I can dream!

Not much else to report other than a second crochet bag is almost complete and my attempt to memorise The Sneetches seems to have stalled but I'm getting back to that now that the launch is over.

Darwin is still a buzz with the filming of Australia. Nicole's made the front page of the paper for the past couple of days. No star sightings for me but I haven't really had the time to head down to the wharf for a sticky beak.

Not long till the Festival opens so erratic blog post season is back!

Thinking of all back at home who are freezing in the Melbourne winter (two days ago there was an article in the paper "South to blame for our recent cold snap" after a few 15˚C nights)

A Walk in the Park

2007-07-07T16:30:00.000+10:00

With our program launch on Wednesday it's all systems go at work which is just what I love. Still there's been so much I've been wanting to share so here goes. (I'll try to be relatively brief!)

After a few hours of indecision as to when to leave we left for the park on Friday night at 21:00 and arrived at the Merl Campsite, East Alligator at about midnight. We would have gotten there earlier but I was looking for a different camp site. If you're wondering how we made it there that quickly, the 130km speed limits certainly helped.

A few hours of sleep and the sun was rising so it was time to get up. I was not particularly keen on this concept but there was plenty to see and do.

The smoke from the various controlled fires made for a beautiful sunrise.

The morning was spent at Ubirr which is a gorgeous rock art site that overlooks some flood plains. Stunning sunsets from what I've been told but we were there at the wrong end of the day. Still, spotting the thylacine rock painting and looking out from the top of a really big rock and seeing the terrain change from bush to flood plains to rocks to semi-tropical forest was just amazing.

In the afternoon we headed towards Jim Jim Falls where the roads had just been graded making them much more passable for newbie off roaders like me. The falls were a 900m scramble over rocks that was vaguely marked with orange pointers that were often few and far between. It felt like we'd been scrambling forever until we rounded a particularly large rock and discovered a beautiful sandy beach area. It was worth the hike.

On the ranger's advice we camped at the falls (camping in Kakadu is very civilised. There are hot showers and actual toilets) and woke up early to head to Makuk (Barramundi) Falls where there was said to be good croc-free swimming.
After more scrambling over rocks (an extra 100m) we made it to a gorgeously cool plunge pool with a spectacular waterfall. After a bit of coaxing I made it into the cool (cold) waters and swam to the base of the waterfall to relax in the sun just underneath. Possibly having had a bit too much sun I decided that I really did want my camera to take photos of what it was like under the waterfall. Only problem was the lack of waterproof camera gear. This was the solution.

The rehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifsults?

The rest of the photos can be found here:
Zoto Album
or you can find in my Facebook album.

After a morning of swimming and not dropping our cameras in the water we headed to Gunlom Falls to experience the rock pools at the top of the waterfall. Spectacular views yet again.

I can't even begin to describe how beautiful Kakadu is. Everyone should go and experience it. It was quite a clamber up to the top of Gunlom but well worth it in the end.

So after plenty of sun it was time to head home.

We stopped for diesel at the Mary Road Road house where we watched the Territory Day fireworks (and stomped on the small spot fires that were caused by said fireworks) before heading back to Darwin. It was a good drive home with only one suicidal kangaroo, who we missed, and a rather large bush fire we were advised to ignore. Life's a bit different up here but it's great.

Wish I could send you all a big parcel of sunshine!

Bound for the bush

2007-06-29T09:02:00.000+10:00

I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, I've just been trying to be sociable for the last few days!

One of the many people I met in Doha, Adam, is over in Oz on holiday and is likely to one of the very few visitors I get due to the incredible airfares that are required to get to Darwin from most Australian capital cities.

So it's been a week of trying different food options ranging from seafood platters at Lewinsky's (named after Ms Monica) and a delicious selection of Thai curries at Hanuman, it's been a truly delicious week.

Having promised myself I wasn't going to repeat Doha where I managed to not make it out to explore the desert (while virtually living in it), this weekend will see my first trip in a long time out to the bush.

Kakadu's only 250km from Darwin and while we won't see all of the park there are definite highlights that I've been given from my work mates. So I'm looking forward to sitting in a croc-free pool at the top of a waterfall to pass at least one of my afternoons.

Might even make it back in time to see all the fireworks on Territory day...

Must run, toast is ready and I have to leave for work otherwise I won't get to leave for the park!

PS. Hot showers are back!

Environmentally Friendlyish

2007-06-23T11:47:00.000+10:00

We've had some delightfully "cool" days up here with the maximum temperature varying between 25˚C and 29˚C which made work feel much more pleasant. No air-conditioning required, just open up the doors! We even made it to a low of 15˚C some nights. Rumour has it the camping store has sold out of thermals.

I've made quite a few trips to the supermarket in the short time I've been here. It seems to be my hang out of choice when away from home (Woolies is no match for Carrefour in terms of random items that you don't need). However the green bags just never seem to be in stock... so while browsing the aisles I found a few balls of mercerised cotton yarn and hey presto, an environmentally friendly bag was born.

So now I'm taking my bag, book, hook and left over yarn, off to find myself a patch of park to make my own for the afternoon while I wait for the sun to do it's work and heat up the solar panels for the hot water system. Tonight is looking good for the first hot shower in three days!

Relaxing Darwin

2007-06-16T17:48:00.000+10:00

Darwin is a gorgeous city, if a little warm for my tastes. There are tropical trees in almost every street and the wildlife - early rising - is amazingly vocal. Having been here less than a week it's still a bit rosy for me but I can imagine coming back for a relaxing break.

I took some time to walk around the city today, partially to sate my need to explore and also to fulfill my mission to get a hat before tomorrow's festival. It was a pretty successful day!

My walk took me down Mitchell Street which is one of the main streets in Darwin. It's the backpacker and tourist street complete with the 24 hour Coles which I'm sure I'll be well acquainted with soon. I browsed a couple of shops and tried on a ridiculous number of hats before I found myself in a hat shop just off Mitchell Street. I made the decision not to leave the shop until I had a hat in hand. I'm ashamed to say it took half an hour of hunting through hats and trying them on before I found one that fit, with a wide brim, that didn't look too ridiculous.

Armed with a hat I headed towards Fisherman's Wharf to check out the Darwin Seafood Festival site where I'll be stage managing tomorrow (as you do on your first weekend in Darwin). It's looking good and I watched the sound check for Double Entendre who played an awesome version of Caravan. I think it'll be a hot but really great day tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it.

One other piece of exciting news (if you're me) involves the purchase of a second-hand book in what could become my favourite shop in Darwin... the secondhand bookstore that buys books as well as sells them. While browsing the sci-fi/fantasy section I was looking for the familiar covers... Pratchett, Adams... Gaiman... when I realised that I didn't see any familiar Gaiman covers... On closer inspection, I found a copy of Ghastly Beyond Belief, the somewhat out of print book of quote that he wrote with Kim Newman. Best $6 I've spent in awhile. There goes lunch tomorrow...

Before I run off to lounge on my bed and soak up the good-bad sci-fi/fantasy goodness, I want to thank everyone who's sent their well wishes after my last post. I was in a bit of a horrible place but it's getting better now. Mum seems to be in good spirits and there's a team of people looking after her so I know she's in good hands.

Nothing Compares

2007-06-12T20:14:00.000+10:00

Nothing in my 24 years of life could have prepared me for the news that my Mum's cancer is incurable. Not even my GP telling me that treatment was more likely to prolong her life than cure the cancer. Still to her credit she's still remaining positive and is ready to step up to the challenges that the treatment will set for her. To say that Mum is a strong woman would be an understatement beyond compare.

When I called Dad and he told me the news I was standing in my new bedroom watching a gecko scampering across the wall. I nodded and asked the questions that I wanted to ask and then he had to go. One minute later it hit me. A sudden feeling of being completely lost in the world. Not knowing what to do, who to call or how to breathe. It lasted for a brief moment before I realized that there is nothing I could do except to be there for Mum. The hardest thing for me (being the control freak that I am), is knowing there is nothing that I can do to fix this.

Luckily I remembered how to breathe and with that all-important knowledge remembered who to call. I deliberated calling home again as I didn’t want to disturb her rest. After all the phone was bound to be running hot tonight in the wake of the latest news. I called anyway figuring that I had special dispensation (being her daughter) for interrupting rest. I’m glad that I did because she seems to be having one of her better nights where she’s not feeling exhausted or dizzy. Just hearing her voice and hearing her describe her first thoughts (what am I going to do with all my wool and beads?) after mishearing the oncologist and thinking that she only had 18 months to live (as opposed to finding out the results of the treatment in 18 months which I believe is what he said).

Hearing her voice and hearing her talk was wonderful. For just a moment I was just on the phone having a chat with my Mum like I always do when I’m away. For ten minutes life seemed normal again.

Right now I’m sitting on my bed trying to remember what I was originally going to write. After all I’ve been in Darwin for 33 hours now and it’s a wonderful place.

The house I’m staying in is just amazing. The gardens are large and beautiful with a fabulous array of lizards of varying sizes. There are plenty of windows in each room letting the sunlight and fresh air circulate through the house. I’m staying in a quiet street that’s a mere 1.5 km from the city centre and it takes me just fifteen minutes to walk to work at a comfortable pace.

I had my first day at work today which is always exciting. It started with a staff meeting which is always a great way to start. It means you get to meet everyone and get an idea of what’s going on and where you’re at even if none of it makes much sense yet. It always feels a little slow settling in but I had a good time reading through the documents from last year and getting a feel for the information that I’ll need to gather in the coming weeks.
We ate our lunch in the Botanic Gardens where I managed to find my favourite tree from Singapore. (I’d just like to clarify that I don’t actually know where the tree originates from but Singapore is the first place that I encountered the tree). It’s a big leafy tree that has red seeds about the size of a pea. I used to go to St Andrew’s Cathedral in Singapore and collect the seeds with my Mum and she’d make them into tiny bean bags (about the size of the small high bouncing rubber balls you used to get in news agencies). Then we’d play five-stone (jacks) with them until it was time to come back to Australia where we couldn’t bring them.

So all in all there are plenty of things about my first day and night in Darwin that have been really wonderful and my brief experience of Darwin has been really positive. I think it’s a great place and will rave about it as much as I planned another day.

Tonight, I’m just not in the right frame of mind for it. I’m just going to have a quiet night so that I’m well rested for tomorrow.

I’m also going to continue to curse the fact that I forgot that I didn’t have a modem and as such have no internet access at home so this will have to wait until tomorrow to be posted.

This is a much longer post than I’d planned to write. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. It’s been really good to get these thoughts onto a page (and a half).

Many thanks!

Failing to Pack

2007-06-10T02:56:00.000+10:00

While I should be packing for my trip to Darwin, I am instead updating information on the plethora of profiles for online communities that I've joined this week. It would seem that it's the week for it... after all I've joined three groups (Facebook which I much prefer to MySpace, Friendster, and Linked In). With the amount of time I've spent playing about with the profiles I can't help but think that I should have organised drinks with friends instead... Oh well!

Friday was my last day of temping for at least the next four months and I'm grateful for that. The day dragged on as there was very little for me to do. Still it was nice to be asked to stay on by so many people. Even nicer to know that I couldn't because I'll be in Darwin on Monday in a job I'm actually excited about!

So packing you say? Well, tonight wasn't really the night for it as I headed out for drinks to celebrate Dave's birthday. Besides, anyone who's traveled/lived with me knows that I'm a last minute packer. The world would implode if I wasn't up to the wee hours of the morning throwing things into my bags/boxes...

Merry-Go-Up-And-Down

2007-06-04T23:13:00.000+10:00

Tonight I went for a ride on the Big Sky Wheel at Birrarung Marr. I thought that it was just the lights that made the wheel look like it was spinning quickly... I was wrong.

While Nick, Gene & I were walking towards Southbank for dinner after seeing Keating we spotted the ferris wheel which has been there for awhile and wondered why they're called ferris wheels. We guessed that it might have to do with the construction of the early wheels possibly being iron beams (turns out it was steel which makes sense). Wikipedia tells me that it's actually named after George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., who designed an 80 meter (264 feet) wheel for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893.

Naturally when we couldn't come up with a reason for its name we had to come up with a new one. Henceforth we now refer to them as merry-go-up-and-downs. A bit of a mouthful but we likes it :)

Fever and Excitement

2007-05-31T23:36:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I woke up feeling far more fatigued than I had the previous couple of days. I thought it was just lack of sleep but then I realised that I was feeling more than a little feverish too. I was grateful for the 24 hour contact line that my temp agency has and called in to let them know I'd be late because I needed to go and see a doctor. The call took much longer than it needed to because my teeth were chattering throughout which made me a little hard to understand.

Against Mum's advice I drove myself to the doctor (didn't want to wake Dad up and I'd already woken Gene up at silly o'clock to confirm my fever). After he noted my visibly swollen lymph node but otherwise healthy self he decided it would be best to rule me out for a strep infection and thus I'm on erythromycin. I must admit the anti-biotics are knocking me around about as much as the fever was but hey it's only been two days of the course and my lymph node is looking much better. More to the point it's feeling better because I can't see it sticking out from my neck anymore.

So two days of bed rest has me ready to head back to work. Mainly so I can finish up my temp contract and runaway to my next job which is with the Darwin Festival. Yay! I leave in just over a week and I can't wait!

Unexpected

2007-05-28T23:22:00.000+10:00

First day back behind a desk today and it was a little different to what I expected. My brief involved helping to catch up on a backlog of typing and answering overflow phone calls. Today I ended up being the receptionist which involved a lot more switchboard operation (woo hoo new skill!) and very little typing.

Still it was probably just as well because I was a little sleepy having stayed up far too late last night.

I'm working on Bridge Road conveniently within walking distance of the Ishka warehouse. Mmmmm pretty clothes!

Anyhow I've promised myself an early night's sleep and as it's already 23:51 I'd better get to bed before I turn into a pumpkin.

Small Amusements

2007-05-26T01:31:00.001+10:00

I've been hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifaving a little trouble getting to sleep lately. So I've taken comfort in the vast resource of entertainment that is the Internet.

From the evil laugh activated hand drier to the Death Star-esque building proposed in the UAE, there are hours of entertainment to be had.

Other current internet haunts include:
LibraryThing - where I'm in the slow process of cataloging my books
TwitterLit - First lines of books
The Anticraft - somewhat alternative craft... probably not something to show your folks!
Wired Magazine
Knitty - if only to be indecisive over my next potential knitting project

Tomorrow I'm thinking of heading to the Leica Gallery in Collingwood to check out the Qatar Migrant Workers photographic exhibition. I think I recognised a couple of the guys we worked with in Doha...

We'll see how that pans out when I eventually crawl out of bed.

Just Breathe

2007-05-23T21:26:00.000+10:00

Mum didn't come home tonight. Her blood sugar levels are refusing to get off their roller coaster so her surgeon wanted to keep her in for observation. She's in good spirits though all things considered.

The good news is that they only had to do the biopsy once today to get the tissue they needed. We even have results. They're less good but at least we know, the tissue is cancerous. I think Mum will be seeing the oncologist tomorrow to discuss treatment options. Mum called to let us know just after 9pm. Dad's at the hospital with her now and I'm at home doing a call around, manning the phone, minding the dogs and just breathing.

It's not Thursday

2007-05-23T10:49:00.000+10:00

It's always reassuring when you get a call from the hospital asking to speak to your Mum when she's actually admitted to the hospital... Anyhow, I guess they don't really talk interdepartmentally much! We should be picking her up from the hospital soon though so all's well.

Now all that remains is more me to convince myself that it's Wednesday and not Thursday. My siesta yesterday after the job interview was enough to convince my brain that it was Wednesday last night... Silly rabbit!

Temp Extraordinaire

2007-05-22T20:52:00.000+10:00

I never sleep well when I'm worried I won't wake up in time for an appointment the next day. As a result I was up and in the car to the train station four hours after I fell asleep. Not quite the state of zen I was aiming for in today's interview but it went well regardless.

I may well be the only customer service/data entry/secretarial/admin/teller temp with a fork lift license at the agency...

All was well and by the end of the day I've got my first assignment starting next week. (The one starting tomorrow fell through). Bring on the typing and phones! I want to get my typing speed back up to the 80wpm (words per minute) I used to be at. Down at 68wpm at the moment.

It's good to have something to do again. Something to keep me busy till I find more exciting things or August comes around for Fringe... which ever happens first!

Mum's in hospital for one more night as she's having a biopsy tomorrow there. It seemed easier that way. She's definitely home tomorrow after meeting with her dietitian. No results on her blood tests just yet but I think she's just happy to be coming home again.

Eep! Got to run. Almost time to go to work again!

A Longer Post for a Shorter Day

2007-05-21T23:54:00.000+10:00

First day back in a theatre today and it was a good feeling. Bump ins are good fun, almost as fun as bumping out...

It was a slow starting day beginning with a hot shower that I'm grateful for as Dad didn't have hot water due to a black out. I was less awake than I thought I was as I managed to stick my right index finger partway into the toaster in an attempt to retrieve my toast. Unsurprisingly this resulted in a small burn on the right side of my finger. Sadly despite my first aid training the first thing I did was swear and blow on it before thinking (quite literally) what the hell are you doing you idiot, run it under cold water! Which I did. It didn't help. Stupid burn. The chilled water made it a bit better but eh... give it a few days.

After work I headed to Knox to get a pressie for my cousin Nadia who's birthday is on Sunday and to pick up a couple of headbands for Mum. I also picked out my birthday books using the voucher from my family in Canberra. I ended up with A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon and another book who's title escapes me but has something to do with time lords from memory (not Dr Who).

Armed with a bagful of books I headed to the hospital to visit Mum. She was in fine spirits and was sure to let everyone know that she was feeling much better and was ready to go home. We're still waiting for the blood test results to come back but the specialist/surgeon seems fairly confident that she can come home tomorrow. In true Mum fashion she's already packed and ready to leave. Ever the organised one in our house!

Tomorrow is a long day of spending QT with Mum and trying to catch up on sleep, bookended by a job interview in the morning and a bump out late that night. It's good to be busy again. If only for a day!

Mum's Sad Pugs

2007-05-20T23:56:00.000+10:00

Mum's back in hospital after a feverish night last night. They're running more blood tests to her disdain as she's a little over having needles. Not to mention how unimpressed she looked when they came up to her with a drip.

Anyhow, they're concerned that there could be an infection so she's on antibiotics while the tests are done.

She's still in good spirits though and claims that she could go ballroom dancing right now. We told her that it's a little late in the evening for that. Spoil sports I know...

The pugs however know that something's up and were unimpressed that we left with her and returned home without her.

Sad pandas!

Hitting the Town

2007-05-19T09:52:00.000+10:00

Last night Gene & I decided to hit the town (the cinemas at Eastland anyway) and see a movie. It's been awhile. Hot Fuzz was the last thing we saw and that was in Geelong. We're slowly moving closer to the CBD in terms of distance...

There really wasn't much on. We could have gone to see Spiderman 3 but it was a Friday night that screamed annoying teens in the cinema so we chose to see The History Boys.

The basis of our decision were the billboards and the big bright signs we'd seen for it in London's West End earlier in the year.

Tickets in hand we entered the cinema to find ourselves the youngest audience members by a clear 40 years.

Still, it was a great show. There were parts which seemed very theatrical and I'm keen to read the play script now. In fact we're both wishing we'd seen it on stage as I can see how it may have worked a little better. It was different watching a show with an audience that's at least a generation older than you. Hearing the different points of laughter (compound adjectives and all) and the similar points.

Being the party animals that we are, we're heading out again tonight to a swing ball to dance the night away. Should be good!

A Pug's Life - Keep On Rolling

2007-05-17T13:19:00.000+10:00

Click on the images to make them go big! :)

Staples & Yarns

2007-05-16T00:04:00.000+10:00

Today started as many do with Mum & I on the couch knitting & crocheting. Admittedly mine started much later than hers did as I was attempting to catch up on the sleep I didn't get over the weekend.

After a quick lunch we headed back to the hospital to catch up with the surgeon for the latest round of results. Oh and to get the staples/stitches removed. Having never seen staples being removed from a wound (or surgical staples in general) it was interesting and odd all at the same time. I think the removal of stitches was more painful to watch and I'm not sure why...

So the important news is that the results are looking pretty good. Fairly normal in fact. There are still a few cells that they're concerned about but it's looking relatively good. They'll do another biopsy and try to get a few more cells but if the results are still inconclusive I think they'll just monitor the tumour. So far there's no treatment required. Mum's pretty happy about that part!

Staples removed we hit the shopping centre to pick up some wool (because clearly we needed more). I'd accidentally bought the one ball of the wrong wool for a blanket that I'm crocheting and as I'm halfway through... I've also started working on the Sudoku throw rug that Mum and I are making for the couch. Photos soon I promise!

The Little Things

2007-05-09T22:45:00.000+10:00

Mum's looking better with each passing day and even though she had her biopsy today she was still pretty cheerful.

Dad and I were with her when her lunch arrived.

It was so good to hear her laughing again. Even if she was holding her stomach in slight pain to do so. You see, the spoon in the picture is actually a tea spoon. While she had ordered a small serve she wasn't quite expecting it to be that small.

I think she's looking forward to coming home to a home cooked meal!

Spunky Medical Staff

2007-05-08T20:53:00.000+10:00

I spent most of the day at the hospital with Mum today. The remainder of my day was spent rushing around the house failing to find various items that Mum was after as well as the car keys. Happily the car keys were located (down the side of the couch where most lost things go). The crochet hook is still M.I.A.

She's much happier today and I think a fair bit of that has to do with her having had her first meal in four days. Mum's also been moved to the bed by the window which is a little nicer. We're considering holding the dogs up to the window to say hi to her :)

Many thanks to all who have called, visited etc. It's all greatly appreciated and Mum's in good spirits.

The specialist came to see her today (spunky dresser) and is organising another biopsy tomorrow as the second lot of tests on the tumour have come back as inconclusive. So it's back to CT-scan-land tomorrow.

Must say it was cute medical staff night tonight... rather cute nurse attending to the room opposite Mum's. Anyhoo... must go and do something productive like watch the Gilmore Girls episode that Gene taped for me.

Happy Beanie Smart Cookie

2007-05-07T12:39:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was Gene's birthday. I was not as prepared for celebrations as I'd planned to be as it's been a big week at home. (I keep saying that but the weeks seem growing exponentially).

I started and have already failed my attempt for 1 photo per day. No matter it's the quality over quantity thing I say! I will share two photos though.

The view from my window:

Dad's first finger-knitting experience:

Dad learnt how to finger knit earlier this week and what you're seeing in the picture is a headband he made for Mum.

Further finger-knitting explorations have been put on hold as Mum went into hospital on Friday. Turns out she has a lesion or tumour on the head of her pancreas (might not be diabetic after all). So she went in for surgery on Friday where they removed her gall bladder (neither of my parents have gall bladders now) and bypassed the ducts that had been blocked by the growth. Sadly they couldn't remove it as there were too many surrounding blood vessels. So they took a biopsy and we'll know the results today or tomorrow. It's looking like she'll go for radiotherapy when she's better. Mum's still in hospital, probably till the end of the week but she's recovering well with her sense of humour well in tact.

While I'm sure other things happened this week I can't recall them. Priorities and all!

So it was Gene's birthday yesterday and I was unprepared. The space invader socks have proven far more time-consuming than I had bargained for and I had to start again with finer wool and less time. The short-row knitted beanie that I'd started for him was gigantic. It was looking a bit disastrous. I had to resort to plan B - making it up as I went along. In the end there was a large cookie cake (think two cake sized cookies with chocolate-cream-cheese icing) and a crocheted beanie. Why the cookie-cake? When I was at uni in Ballarat in one of my end of semester assessment interviews the topic of Gene came up and one of my lecturers said that Gene was a smart cookie (I was a good fish apparently). As for the beanie it was crocheted quickly in Gene colours as he said he'd lost his Barcelona beanie.

Happy Beanie Smart Cookie! I hope you still had fun even though you had to work last night!

A Shadow of A Smile

2007-04-30T11:57:00.000+10:00

"One more chapter of Lost Girls" turned into the rest of Book 1. As a result I'm limiting myself to reading Lost Girls only during the day.

Today seems to be dragging its heels a little, although I have been up for five hours so I suppose it feels like awhile. I waved everyone goodbye on their way to work and have two snoring pugs beside me for company.

Random small projects keep popping up in my mind as I try to pinpoint something to occupy my time. The other night I started to transform The Arctic Measles That Never Were into comic format but it was a much greater task that I could accomplish at 0300 with no forward planning. I'm back to sketching panel layouts now and trying to decide how to illustrate the characters/photos.

I also had a play with PhotoBooth again having just worked out what the iGlasses function does with my webcam. Can you tell I had fun?

Firsts, 24ths and 21sts

2007-04-28T22:02:00.000+10:00

Thursday felt like a Friday. Yesterday felt like a Saturday. Today felt like a daze. It seems that's what happens when I stay out till 0500 and have to be somewhere by 1230 the next day. I think I've caught up with my week now...

On Thursday I went to see the opening night of Opera Australia's Rusalka with Claire, Matt and Nick. It was my first time at the opera and it was lovely. Visually it was quite pretty and the music was beautiful although I did find myself ignoring the surtitling at points and just enjoying the music and cast roaming about the stage. Jezibaba was by far my favourite character. I think I went to school with the woman who played the kitchen boy.

We went for drinks afterwards and I tried to get a taxi to meet up with Gene at Trades Hall as the bar started to close. No joy there. Apparently the taxi rank at Flinders Street was not the place to get a taxi. There were about 8 of them there and none were taking passengers for short trips. They'd been waiting too long without a fare it seems.

After a few hours and several early birthday wishes at the Bystander Bar we headed home.

I surfaced from my sleep about four hours after crawling into bed and promised myself a quieter night... maybe staying out until 0200 as I was a walking zombie much of the day. Mum & Dad had come home with a slice of my favourite cake and four Mythbusters DVDs including the Son of a Gun episode that I hadn't seen the end of. Gene and Nick bought me Lost Girls as the pugs had gotten to Percy (the pig pinata that they had been making for my birthday). The day couldn't have been better really. (Unless I'd gotten some sleep).

We ate till we were stuffed at Matsumoto to celebrate my birthday as well as our 21 years in Australia and then it was back to the Bystander Bar for drinks that night where I caught up with Paul, Deb, Nick C, Nick S and Tamsin. Paul and Deb gave me a beautiful flocked journal and note card set that I can wait to start using. Perfectly timed as I'm almost through my current journal.

As the best laid plans go awry we ended up have so much fun that we stayed until about quarter to five this morning. I had my haircut booked for 1230 today so I was up and on the road by 1145. My hair is now a darker shade of blue-black with violet pieces for those interested and my nails are the fashionable black that harks back to my uni goth-clubbing days. Matches my hair and general wardrobe though!

So after all the excitement I crashed out on the couch at 1700 and woke up only an hour ago. I'm definitely ready for bed. That's not going to stop me from reading one more chapter of Lost Girls first!

Festival FINA Photos

2007-04-26T00:22:00.000+10:00

I've been meaning to post some photos for quite some time... a month to be more precise. Time to make a start...

In March I worked on Festival FINA. Our first job was working on the Kusama sculptures which were affectionately known as the mushrooms. One hopeful teen licked the white dots just to be sure...

I mentioned in an earlier blog a few of my highlights of the Festival including Group F and Mechanique Vivante.

What can I say... flame and sirens are always memorable :)

Restless

2007-04-21T18:54:00.000+10:00

It's been almost a week since I posted and it feels longer and shorter than that at the same time.

I keep meaning to post about things that have been happening. New projects (knitting related of course) and general news but I can barely sit still at the moment. Proverbial goldfish-esque attention span.

Definitely time to get some work. Just something temporary and casual to help fund my future travel plans (Europe again in November with any luck). Something to stop me from feeling like I'm going quietly insane.

At the moment I'm knitting Gene a pair of Space Invader Socks which is taking much longer than anticipated. I'm glad that I decided to start early because it took me about five hours to make it through the 10 rows of the cuff (usually only a 30-40 minute task in front of the TV for anyone who hasn't had my sock knitting inflicted on them). It's also allowing me to do two colour stranding in my knitting (new technique I'm learning) which involves me knitting with a strand of yarn in each hand. Continental (a.k.a. left-handed) and English knitting (normal technique). I'm loving it but when my brain is ready to explode I move onto a pair of lacy socks that I'm making for myself.

Still going strong on the cooking front. More so as our family move to a healthier diet. Anything involving mushrooms and baby spinach is a favourite at the moment. Less baking happening on my part but Dad made a delicious banana cake last night. His first if I'm not mistaken. A proud moment as he got to use our cake mixer and blender last night. Pictures to follow.

I'm so wrapped up in my thoughts at the moment that I'm sure it's not good for me. So far the most exciting thing thats not space-invader-sock-related is my drive to label and catalog things. I spent the better part of Tuesday labeling all 253 posts in this blog. I then spent much of the wee hours of Wednesday starting to catalog my book collection at LibraryThing.

Yeah rock on I say!

Mixed Up Day

2007-04-16T00:25:00.000+10:00

When I woke up this morning I had no idea that I would finish the day owning three Tupperware mixing bowls. Admittedly it's not a thought that strikes many people first thing in the morning.

I decided that while I'm not working I should use this time to do as many of the things that I talk about doing when I am working. Like getting fit. After working on Festival FINA I'd toned up a bit and am hoping to keep it that way. Figured if I can keep fit I'll stay healthier and do less stupid things (eg. coffee table incident in Doha). So after staring at the grey clouds outside I decided to start the morning with a gentle hour of stretching. This was followed by dancing like maniac to music on my iPod (happy owner of two versions of 99 Luftballons).

Having disturbed the dogs (and any neighbours who happened to be passing) I plonked myself on the couch to catch up on Max's Top 100 Tear Jerkers countdown. This formed the last part of my plan, to sit on the couch and keep knitting and crocheting for the stall.

Just after Michael Bolton's How Am I Supposed to Live Without You my parents arrived home. We had lunch and in less than an hour I was off to my first Tupperware party. I was determined not to spend any money. I don't have a house. Why would I need Tupperware? (Aside from the pretty new hot pepper colour range and durability).

Two hours later I'd placed an order for some tumblers (to keep my tea in), a 2L mixing bowl (excellent size and it has a splash guard) and a small 260mL container. I've never owned a mixing bowl despite my love of baking so I figured this would be an investment what with my love of baking and all... Mum's also ordered my birthday present, the baking mixing bowl set (which has a 3.5L and 600mL pair of bowls with the great splash guard too). They're blue and pretty and importantly dishwasher safe. I love them and can't wait till they arrive in a couple of weeks. There will be much baking!

Oh and the number one song was Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah.

A Gingerbread Family

2007-04-12T21:51:00.000+10:00

Caution: Naked Gingerbread Women Ahead

I've had many blog entries in mind today. Each one of them writing themselves in my mind differently depending on my mood at the time. Believe me when I say they were largely variations and a tediously melancholy theme.

Not sure why this is. Think I just started the day badly. Not sure how though.

My lousy mood aside the day has been a lovely one full of things to be happy about.

For one my birthday present from my folks arrived just after midday in a courier van. A sleek black set of JBL Onstage II speakers. The remote control hasn't left me yet.

In an attempt to break Grumpus' hold on me I started to bake. After all any girl who's feeling down loves a good snacking session on something sweet and I do love my baking! Plus I got to try out the lovely new baking tray that we bought on the weekend.

Current Cookie Count:
- 16 raspberry jam drops
- 12 wildberry jam drops
- 28 chocolate "jam" drops
- a gingerbread family

After the delicious chicken & mushroom risotto that Gene cooked we sat around the table and decorated the gingerbread people that I'd baked earlier.

It was a wonderful way to spend time with my family. It's not something that I get to do everyday even though we're all living in the same house at the moment. We all have our own rhythms and routines and often spend our time doing our own thing but tonight we sat around the table, grabbing the various tubes of icing and made our own little family of gingerbread folk and that was the best part of the day.

I've spent a bit of time with my parents over the weekend. Driving up to Sassafras for another visit to Tea Leaves for yet another tea buying spree (this time for Dad who is now the happy owner of 500g of ceylon pekoe and 100g orange pekoe tea). Then gorging ourselves on the delicious Yarra Valley icecream (this is starting to sound like an ad for Mount Dandenong isn't it?). It was a great way to spend some time with my folks before returning to our normal routines.

So even though I'm feeling a out of sorts today I'm content in the knowledge that things will improve again and making a gingerbread family with my family was the best way to cheer me up.

Heaven in a Tea Cup

2007-04-05T23:58:00.000+10:00

Today the knitting and crochet was put aside for a trip to the beach. Due to the inclement and wonderful Melbourne weather though, Nick and I decided to head to Mount Dandenong instead and take in the views of the forest and city skyline.

The drive was pleasant as it usually is when you're surrounded by big old forests. Not to mention the quaint little tea houses and pubs that all claim to be the best in the region.

We ended up heading to the Sky High Observatory point at the top of Mount Dandenong and were surprised at the entry fee (admittedly only $4 per car) as it had been free for as long as we'd remembered. So we wandered about and visited Igor the Giant's chair, Percy Possum's house and saw the Sky High Maze under construction (grand opening next week). It was a great view of the city though, as good as I remembered. In fact the only thing that made it better was the rain clouds sweeping across the city at the time. We played spot the building which was easier for Eureka Tower than the Menzies building but we found them both.

After walking through the English garden we headed back down to Olinda for lunch at the pie/pastie shop. Beef and burgandy is a wonderful thing in a pie. The lemongrass tea I had was great too although perhaps not the best accompaniment to the pie.

As we were heading home through Sassafras we found the tea shop next to Miss Marple's tea room that I'd remembered from when I went up there with my folks in high school. Naturally we had to stop.

It was heavenly. We spent a lot of time in there. There were many teas to be smelled and teapots to marvel at. After careful deliberation I narrowed my purchases down to a warm and friendly 4-cup filter, blood red, teapot by London Pottery and 4 blends of tea. So far I've only sampled my French Earl Grey, which is like a girly version of earl grey, and the after-dinner tea. I also got the Refresh and Relax blends for the days when I need a little pick me up or some mild sedation. They also had a cafe latte tea which smelled pretty damn good too... Nick said I should have asked for a job there.

So you can all rest easily now. My teapot hunt is over for now and I have plenty of lovely teas to get me through the next little while.

I'm sure that as time passes I'm just growing into my inner granny. I'll be eighty and still knitting, crocheting and drinking tea but I'm okay with that. There are worse ways to go!

Wooly Days

2007-04-05T00:07:00.000+10:00

The last two days could best be described as wooly. I've felt a little wool in the head but it's what happens when I slow down again.

There's also been much wool shopping (oh the retail therapy) lately after speeding through my current partial stash of yarns to try and make a scarf that Naomi could take to Europe. The speeding through my partial stash comment is a little inaccurate as I still have quite a few random balls of yarn...

It's just that I can't walk past a well priced ball of lovely yarn and K-Marché and Spotlight were having sales...

So Mum and I have spent a couple of days of QT trawling through bargain yarn bins together. Mum scoring record deals like 40c for twenty balls of baby yarn while I lashed out on $24 dollars worth of mohair/wool for a long cross-over wrap. I still have a bit to learn about saving...

We've since been inspired (or possibly it's the guilt of having so much yarn) into holding a stall at the end of the month. That way we can continue to knit and crochet to our hearts content while not filling the house with millions of scarves, socks and other items.

Having finished our knitted socks for our boys (Gene & Dad) we've moved on to making scarves. I started two today... one with a pretty shell pattern (it's a peachy pink) and the other with an open-work pattern that I'm in the process of designing (making it up as I go) that's based on a crocheted block.

Knitting socks is fun but incredibly addictive. Even though it can be exasperating at times once you've made a pair of socks you just want to dive into another sock pattern. There are quite a few I want to try at the moment. One's a lacy stocking-sock from a leaflet Mum got the other day, then there's a crocheted sock... not to mention the space invaders socks that I want to make for Gene... On top of all of this we got some great self-patterning sock yarns that we can make basic socks with pretty patterns!

So many socks, so little time!

Things Beginning With the Letter "s"

2007-03-30T23:19:00.000+10:00

Festival Fina closed on Sunday with some delightful weather and crowds after a wet and windy start. Definite favourites for the festival were (in no particular order) Quidams - Herbert's Dream, Group F, Guo Yue, ERTH Dinosaur Petting Zoo, Ulik and Le Snob and the memorable installation of Méchanique Vivante's Song of the Sirens. It was great to see all the performances run smoothly and even better to see people showing up in the Melbourne weather. Yay for Nick and Nomi coming to say hi!

I must say that's one thing I love about Melbourne. Weather is no barrier for the arts/festival loving people. They just bring their umbrellas, jackets and rugs and huddle together to enjoy the show. It's great and very much appreciated when you're totally soaked to the skin and still have at least 8 hours of your shift to go.

After a swift load-out of the bulk of the festival life's been slipping back to craft heaven for me. Mingled of course with large doses of Final Fantasy XII and season 1 of Buffy.

This Sunday we'll be getting ready to farewell Naomi with a lovely picnic and what was going to be some blues dancing that I was very much looking forward to...

Sadly I slipped down the bottom half of the stairs yesterday and landed (well but painfully) on my knee and ankle. It all happened a bit quickly and involved the dog stepping on the back of my pants causing the fall as I was holding my laptop... Laptop is in tact but my leg is still a little sore when I put weight on it. I may have to take a rain check on the dancing for a bit.

So I've decided to spend my restful time making scarves to bring to the picnic on Sunday in the hopes that they might find a good home. I'm slowly making my way through my stash of pretty yarns that have been hoarded over the years. It's good for me :)

I've also almost completed Gene's socks which he's happy about... Just having some troubles with the heel (namely I misread the pattern when I made the first one and now have to decide what to do with the second one). Yeah, post-festival life is complicated.

I'm sure I'll live though.

Here comes the rain again

2007-03-24T10:39:00.000+11:00

The last week or so has been wonderfully busy. Finally back to work (until Tuesday I think) working on Festival FINA we opened last night.

For the last week we've been getting Birrarung Marr ready for the festival (attaching sculptures to a hill, building roads, chasing flags, etc). So when we got the much needed rain last night we were still a little sad that the night was rained out. In the end only the performances at BMW Edge (known during the festival as "The Deep End") with it's free cabaret and the amazing Group F and Mechanic Vivante performed.

I do have pictures but the cable's upstairs and I'm lazy. They'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Everyone should come down and check out the festival for many reasons. Firstly there are some amazing acts from around the world. There's circus, live music, a dinosaur petting zoo... just to name a few things. Secondly it's all free. Yep. All of it. Bargain any day I say! Finally (before I get ready to sprint for the train) if people continue to go to these free cultural events, maybe if we start to have more cultural events...

Yesterday as we were battening the hatches and catching falling flags in the heavy rain I couldn't help but be reminded of Doha and every other outdoor event that I've done... it has to rain at least once and rather heavily. It's tradition :)

It's meant to rain again tonight but I think we'll be fine. We still got a great crowd for the river shows despite the rain

falling on my head like a memory

Travel Bug

2007-03-12T10:46:00.000+11:00

Today is an Autumn cleaning day. We've got family coming to stay with us on Wednesday night for the rather big weekend that Melbourne is set to have. I believe that the Grand Prix is what's caught their attention.

So it's looking to be a day of sorting through clothes, doing laundry (potential secret to happiness?) and working out how to store our clothes temporarily. That is one thing that I miss about having a house. Admittedly we tended to store things on the floor but we did try sometimes!

Last night we caught up with Paul, Deb who we hadn't seen since we left for Doha which was great. Love their new place (which when I think about it isn't that new) and it made me think two things. Firstly - Gee it'd be nice to have a place again and secondly It is kind of nice not having a place in some ways too... The latter is due to my urge to travel again.

I definitely have a bad case of the travel bug! You'd think that two months traveling around Europe would have cured that. When I think about it though, it's not so much the traveling that I want to do (I could live without spending quite that much time in train stations on a daily basis) but more the being somewhere else. I think I really do want to move somewhere else for a while. Currently "somewhere" is the UK (which isn't a particularly original destination for an Aussie) because I really liked the small taste I got while I was there. In any case there's still a lot that I want to see over there.

While I've been trying to work out how I can get back there I discovered that I can also do a working holiday type thing in Ireland for a year. That covers me for being over there for three years if I add it to the other one... By which stage I'll probably have moved on anyhow because I don't ever seem to be in the same place (physically or mentally) for particularly long. Commitment you say? I like my freedom in most things.

Okay I really should get stuck into the cleaning if only so that we can get back to our DVD/Final Fantasy XII routine before we start work tomorrow!

Efficiency

2007-03-10T09:06:00.000+11:00

It would seem that Gene and I have been rather efficient over the last few days. Since my last post we've:
- watched all of season 1 of Love My Way which we both really enjoyed and even got Mum interested in. After we watched the first episode we watched the remaining nine the next day.
- headed to our first day of work where we proceeded to finished two days of work in just under one

Okay so that's not the greatest list of achievements in the world but it makes me think that we've at least done something!

I've also finished one of my socks and have started the second sock. After this I've promised myself that I'll start on Lisa's socks again which I started on while I was in Doha (complete with tailored design) then proceeded to lose the pattern traipsing around Europe. Typical! Anyhow, I've found a prettier variegated cotton yarn to make them from instead of the angora/cotton/wool blend which would have been bulky.

In terms of my location for the near future I have no set plans still. At this stage I'm not heading to Darwin (didn't get the job and due to poor timing on my part realised that it was good job but not what I wanted to do. Worked out well for both parties I think!) Still really keen to head overseas though. Shall have to look into this a bit more I think.

Well I'm off for a girly day of haircuts and manicures, just have to go and wake Mum up first...

Breakfast Post

2007-03-07T07:04:00.000+11:00

I've been meaning to post something again for the last few days but to be honest I haven't had much to say because I haven't really done much! If only they had a patch for blogging... or procrastination.

Anyhoo... since rehearsal last week I've been to two dance lessons, one blues and one swing, gotten a quarter of the way through the pair of socks that I started a while ago and had a job interview. (Incidentally, I'm still about four rows off finishing Gene's Norwegian scarf... *sigh* Figured I'll hold out until closer to Winter because it's too warm for him to wear now)

It would seem that we've caught the swing bug again. Last Tuesday I went to my first swing class in about eight months with Naomi which was an open class (combined levels) and it was a fabulous way to get back into it. So having been totally hooked after one class back we decided to try some blues dancing as there was going to be a class on Sunday.

Blues dancing was awesome. I think if I keep it up my following might even get better. My inner(?) control freak gets in the way of my dancing if I'm not careful but because I had no idea what was happening I was more likely to just do as I was led. Great music and it seems more free too.

Still last night's intro to lindy hop was really good. We'd done a bit of lindy hop and it's a bit like learning to ride a bicycle. The rhythm stays with you and the more we seem to learn of the basic steps the more we have to learn. I did find that the harder I thought about what my feet were doing (they get a bit sneaky) the harder it got. I think I needed to relax more.

After we got home and dined on a fine dinner of greasy chicken (so much for the healthy eating kick), Gene and I watched an episode of CSI with Mum, the first episode of season 1 Love My Way then the first episode of season 3 of Deadwood. I think we did well with the pacing of the actual shows but lost in our timing as it was fairly late when we stopped. Not a problem today when we don't have much planned except for swing again tonight.

Tomorrow however we need to be out in Tullamarine for work by 09:00. Oh yeah bring on that early morning rush hour traffic. It'll be good to be back at work though. Miss work. So I'm up "early" today. Woke up at 05:30 and lay in bed watching the sun creep over the Dandenongs until about 06:30. I do like watching the sun rise and set.

Breakfast calls (well my stomach does).

Distractions

2007-03-01T11:51:00.000+11:00

Well it's back into the rehearsal room again tonight for the "Scottish Play" Rock Opera. It's my last rehearsal with the group I think as I'm only filling in for a couple of days this week. It's been good to be back in a rehearsal room although odd filling in for someone you don't know. Anyhow I've learned a bit about Sibellius so that's been good.

I noticed that I fell off the face of the blogging planet again but I've been distracted by no only the joy of having an oven again or my knitting (sock has been stalled at row 49) but my shiny new laptop.

It's a bit of a tradition to name your laptop/computer at my place so I thought long nd hard about it. After all my iPod is Deep Thought. I had many suggestions for more Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy names but as my first reaction to the laptop was "shiny!" Gene suggested that it would be better named Serenity.

That pretty much sums up what has been entertaining me for the last couple of days. Synchronising information across the laptops and setting it up just the way I like it. Important things like desktop pictures and backing up music. I love it. It's just like setting up an office but with less physical effort. Perfect for a lazy summer's day. :)

Yesterday I was happily distracted by Sim City 4 Rush Hour. Yes, I'm a control freak at heart but I love these simulation games. My city's doing quite well thank you for asking!

Today I've promised myself that I have to achieve some of my to-do list before I can continue to build my thriving metropolis.

I'm doing okay so far. Aside from procrastinating while writing my blog. I just need to get to the bank so I can change my date of birth. According to them I'm born in September. News to me... Mum & Dad might be surprised too...

The only other thing I really should do is get around to baking the banana cake that I bought buttermilk for yesterday... The bananas are, to quote Mum, a bit on the nose. Might make some more sweet potato and green bean salad too. It was my favourite dish from dinner on Sunday which involved AU$80 roast pumpkin soup (that's Dad's story to tell so you'll have to wait until he tells it then I'll make the link), a simple roast garlic, tomato and mushroom pasta and the aforementioned and below salad. Tasty :)

I think it must be dinner party time. Anyone for dinner?

Back to Baking

2007-02-24T17:46:00.000+11:00

Happy birthday everyone. It's the seventh day of Chinese New Year today, also known as everybody's birthday (birthday of humans). I must say it's one of my favourite days of the CNY celebrations as it's the day that we feast on yu sang which is a raw fish salad. The raw fish is eaten to bring sucess through the year Aside from my love of sashimi I love this dish because it's a lot of fun to to eat. Before the salad is eaten everyone gets their chopsticks and tosses the salad together. The aim of this is to toss the salad the highest as it's meant to be luckier the higher you manage to toss it. This can get a little messy but most of the salad usually ends up back in the bowl! You're also supposed to eat noodles for longevity.

It's been a good day today. I've made progress on the sock that I started from the funky sock yarn that Gene bought me in Norway.

Sadly I am out of form with my knitting so my hand started to ache after a mere 24 rows of sock knitting.

Having been inspired by the cookie baking that occurred in Stranger Than Fiction, which we watched with Matt on Thursday, I started baking again. Gosh it's good to have an oven again!

Pleasant Day

2007-02-23T21:20:00.000+11:00

I've been in home for almost a week now and it feels like I never left.

The job hunt has slowed down a bit but I'm happy just making my way through the laundry and unpacking. I've also started going through old clothes and my wardrobe is already looking much more reasonable.

Sleep patterns are better than normal (ie. I'm awake when most people are and haven't turned nocturnal yet). I think sleeping with the curtains open is helping. It's hard to sleep when the sun is streaming down on your face.

Today Gene's dad, John, came to visit and spent the afternoon chatting with us (Mum, Gene & I) before we headed into town to meet Cathy, Gene's mum, and Dad for dinner. I think we may have ordered a little much which is likely to be my fault as I was keen to catch up on favourite Chinese dishes but it was an excellent meal!

It's looking to be a pleasantly quiet weekend. I think I'll finish reading The Amber Spyglass tomorrow. I'm not particularly far into it but it's been an easy and engaging read for the last two books.

I think I'll spend most of the weekend trawling through the photos from the last six months and posting the ones that aren't too terrible on my Zoto site. When I get bored of that I'll return to my sock knitting which is currently driving me a little crazy. I seem to have lost the ability to count.

I'm actually looking forward to going to rehearsals on Sunday to help Naomi out with her show. It's a show that I wanted to see while I was up in Brisbane last year but failed miserably to make it. So it should be good. Always happy to help. Especially since I'm not doing much at the moment. It'll be good to be back in a rehearsal space. It's been a while!

All Home

2007-02-21T21:18:00.000+11:00

We're all home now. Gene & Nick arrived safe and sound at about 02:39 which was only an hour and twenty four minutes after they were meant to.

I think they were both happy to be back on Australian soil. As we drove back from Tullamarine the boys marvelled at the changes to the Melbourne skyline - largely to do with the Docklands and Eureka Tower. We dropped Nick off at about 04:30 and arrived home ourselves at about 05:00.

After a quick snack of kueh lapis we all trundled off to bed.

Today was spent picking up bits and pieces like Gene's license, but mostly just lounging at home. The job hunt went less well today. I did get to spend most of my day reading and I'm now on to the second book of His Dark Materials and I'm really enjoying the books. I sense that tomorrow isn't going to be particularly productive given that I've still got one and a half books to go...

Day 1 in Melbourne

2007-02-19T10:36:00.000+11:00

I achieved most of what I wanted to do today. Admittedly I wasn't aiming very high and my to-do list was questionable but it's a start.

I'm eternally grateful that I'm not suffering too badly from jet lag. Ended up going to bed at 22:30 and getting up at a respectable 08:45. The day started well with a couple of bits of toast and the long awaited vegemite. This was followed by a delicious cup of chai tea. Mmmmmm.

I spent the morning starting my Doha gallery at Zoto but I've only got 16 pictures up so far and the rest will have to wait until Wednesday when I pick Gene, Nick and the laptop up from the airport. I thought I had all the pictures on my hard drive but I was wrong. Ended up posting some pictures that I took in Brisbane as well because I figured I might as well store them online.

After a few hours Mum came home and kindly drove me to VicRoads where I was able to replace my driver's license. Yay for having a license again. Now I just need to replace my fork & EWP licenses, a couple of bank cards, health insurance card... *sigh* Stupid wallet.

Naturally, having no work until March, we headed to the shops for a quick browse (my bad. I wanted to get some cocoa butter to help soothe my skin). We both came back with woolen skirts that we'll have to wait until Winter to wear (but they're pretty!) and a random collection of cosmetics (Mum wanted to get some mascara so it wasn't entirely my fault). It was a fun afternoon but highlights my need to get a job.

Looking forward to Wednesday night where not only will I get to pick up the boys from the airport but Dad will be picking up my laptop. Yay for shiny new toys. I'm looking forward to setting it all up. I'm having laptop withdrawals, sad I know.

As we no long have Gram (Gene's car) I'm without transport. I don't count public transport here. So it could be a while before I'm out and about again (except for job hunting purposes). I am strongly considering trying to make it to Kew for swing dancing though. It's been awhile and I do miss it. I should get as much in as I can as it's looking more and more like I'll have to move away for work.

It's been great getting text messages welcoming me home. I feel very loved :)

Tomorrow I'm aiming to get some more of my random lost cards replaced and sort out some other paperwork. If I'm really good I'll start going through my old clothes because most of them don't fit me any more.

We'll see how I go.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2007-02-18T10:14:00.000+11:00

I've been in Melbourne for less than twelve hours and I've already settled back into relative normality. It's almost like I never left. Except the part where we drove down the Tullamarine Freeway and I noticed that they'd added bits. Or even when we were landing and the city skyline looked just that little bit different.

The flight was a little late but otherwise uneventful. I was grateful to have slept most of the trip home because the people sitting behind were being really obnoxious to the flight staff and it was starting to really get to me. It would seem that immigration has gotten a teensy bit scarier. I don't remember the second officer asking you lots of questions after you'd made it past the first officer. It's not particularly fun trying to explain why you've been in Qatar for four and a half months, what the Asian Games were and what a production asssitant did at 2am. I had trouble remembering what countries I'd visited in Europe too... Wasn't expecting an interview!

Anyhow, made it through immigration and for a brief moment didn't think my bags were ever going to appear on the carousel. They did and I headed to customs and declared my kueh lapis, Indonesian layer cake, then it was out the gates to see my parents for the first time in six months. It was great to see them and when I did I knew that I was home.

Upon arrival home there was a small exchange of random items that I'd picked up on my travels, the ones I could find anyhow then Dad brought out the long awaited char siew. Mmm BBQ roast pork. It was good. We started watching a bit of the Opening Ceremony before realising that it was 4am and clearly bed time for all.

I headed to my room, spilled open my baggage and then made the unwise decision to start reading the first book in His Dark Materials. After three chapters I forced myself to put it down and closed my eyes. A couple of hours later the sun was rising and I woke up and watched it through the bedroom window. There's something nice about coming home and watching the sunrise. It's not something that I'm usually up for!

More reading followed that and I eventually got out of bed at 9am to say good morning to my folks before they headed out. Now up I'm in the study with two snoring pugs behind me and all is well.

Tomorrow is likely to be a big day of getting paperwork sorted and applying for jobs but today is going to be a quiet one I think. Just settling in and enjoying being in one place before I disappear off again.

Oh and before I forget, gong xi fa cai to you all. It's my year this year and I'm hoping it's going to be a good one!

Homeward Bound

2007-02-17T01:08:00.000+11:00

I'm on my way home at last. By the time I arrive in Melbourne on the 18th February I'll have been away for exactly 6 months.

Our travel arrangements of late have been rather interesting. We were hoping to be able to depart on the 18th February but were doubtful of getting seats. As a result we've been calling Emirates on a daily basis to see how we were doing. Today Gene called up and was advised that we'd all been kicked off the waiting list as it was too long and that the first day it reopened was the 20th Feb. They also mentioned that I should fly soon as the ticket that I was under the impression (due to the printed words at the top of my old ticket) was valid for a year from issue was only valid for six months according to their system. Not wanting to have to buy a new ticket to argue this later we took the one ticket back to Australia that they had. The only catch is I'd have to leave tomorrow.

So I'll be leaving Gene & Nick (again) and heading home first to pave the way for them. With any luck they may be able to get a flight on the 25th Feb but if not they're confirmed for the 28th February.

After recovering from the shock of having to leave tomorrow instead of in a few days or a week my first instinct was to pack everything that I wanted to do into my one day here.

First port of call after a fine breakfast of currypuffs was to take Nick down to Far East Plaza and Orchard Road to see the main shopping strip of Singapore.

We were briefly distracted at Takashimaya where we had a Korean lunch and I bought traditional snacks like mwah chee which is a rice flour dough dipped in crushed peanuts (taste better than it looks and sounds) and some Japanese sweet pancakes (again with peanuts).

Once at Far East Plaza we took him to our favourite ever bookshop, Sunny, where Gene and I proceeded to purchase new libraries.

Reading List for early 2007
- His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
- The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
- The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy: and Other Stories by Tim Burton
- The Science of Discworld II: The Globe by Terry Pratchett
- Wicked by Gregory Maguire (Gene bought this one)

Nick left with nothing which was very restraint of him.

Having only just eaten less than an hour ago we trooped upstairs to have Hainanese Chicken Rice at the shop that I've gone to since I was a wee lass. You don't even have to order now. You just let them know how many people need a seat and as you sit down they roll out the rice, chicken, broth and off you go! Two serves for $5.60. Now that's what I love about eating in Singapore.

Next stop was Pan Photo to visit Doris where Nick made up for his lack of shopping at Sunny Bookstore. We walked out of there with one 80GB iPod (Nick), a set of in-ear headphones and iPod Nano case (Gene) and an iPod remote (mine). After that it was time for the boys to stop for a beer if only to interrupt our shopping.

We decided we'd spent enough money but should get some clothes for Chinese New Year's day (you're meant to wear new clothes). We hunted for red shirts for the boys but were unsuccessful. It's red t-shirts instead. I managed to find a lovely red skirt which is about a million miles too long for me but I like the hem (well bottom 20cm) of my skirt dragging on the ground... ahem.

If you think that's the end of the shopping then (to quote Captain Jack Sparrows), clearly you haven't been to Singapore. We headed to Bedok to find some shorts for the boys so they didn't melt. This was a successful trip where they found shorts and I found the world's most comfortable bra. Win win situation for all.

Finally it was time to head home for a rest before heading out for a meal of more local foods...

Tonight's Menu
- BBQ Stingray - Gene's favourite
- Sambal Prawns
- Sambal Sotong (calimari)
- Fried Oyster with egg
- oyster omelette
- 10 x otah (fish cooked in coconut leaf)
- 30 x satay sticks (10 x beef, 10 x chicken, 10 x lamb)
- char kway teow
- another squid & veggie dish that I don't know the name of
- 1 x fresh coconut
- 4 x lime juice slushies
- 1 x fresh sugar cane juice
- 1 x grass jelly drink
- 1 x long neck of tiger beer

We're in the process of trying to introduce Nick to as many of the local foods that we love and crave when we're in Singapore. Needless to say we're all rather full.

So tomorrow I'll have some bak-kwa slices of marinated pork and whatever else that catches my eye before I run off to catch a plane back to reality. It's going to be a big day!

Doha Sweet Doha

2007-02-14T19:44:00.000+11:00

We've finally made it back to Doha. It's been just under two months but it feels like an eternity!

Our flight from Paris to Dubai was delayed by 40 minutes last night while technicians changed the oil filter on our plane. This made us a little nervous as we had just under an hour to make our connecting flight to Doha. Luckily we caught a tail wind so we landed five minutes before we were supposed to board our connecting flight. Naturally the gate was at the opposite end of the terminal so we made our way up there at speed to find that there was "debris on the runway" resulting in what was to be a 45 minute delay. Once we finally took off the flight went smoothly and we had a great time chatting to the flight attendant who turned out to be a Melbourne girl too.

At the moment I'm sitting in our room at the Four Seasons. It's stunning. We got upgraded to an ocean view room and while there is a big dome blocking a third of the view it is still lovely overlooking the bay and the poolside bar.

Still no news on the flights back to Melbourne. Nick & I are going to head down to the Emirates office when it opens again at 1600 to see if there's anything we can do and also to double check we haven't missed anything important.

The weather is perfect here. It's 22˚C and sunny. A fine change from France. I have a feeling that we're going to melt when we land in Singapore though. It's going to hurt. Still there will be plenty of distractions like Chinese New Year so I'm sure we'll cope. Plus nothing could top the Doha summer.

It's funny being back in Doha. Most people think we're doing a visa run from Dubai. The city has changed ever so slightly. More of it seems to have been built which can only be good for it.

Same same but different.

Last Night In France

2007-02-13T11:15:00.000+11:00

It's 01:15 and I really should be tucked up in bed asleep but having had three days of solid sleep care of the Arctic Measles I've found I'm back to my usual insomnia. I like to think it's a sign I'm getting better.

We leave for Qatar tomorrow, some would say to tempt fate in Doha, which I'm sure will be fine. Gene & I are looking forward to catching up with our favourite limo driver while we're there. The whole day spa thing is a little out of the question in light of recent events. A pity because we'd been looking forward to it for most of the trip.

Am feeling much better and made contact with the world again today (ie. started looking for work and called family & friends). That was lovely. It's nice to be back in the world even though the world is currently still a little sore. The paracetamol's looking after that though.

In answer to Nick's comment on my previous post I must admit I didn't feel particularly medieval during the chicken pox although I did spend some brief moments gazing wistfully out the window at the happy people outside before hiding behind the curtains incase they saw me. More fairytale trapped in a tower due to being a disfigured, misunderstood creature than medieval but an interesting description of the experience of chicken pox from your family. I'll have to ask other Nick how he felt about it... He did go sledding though so I doubt it was medieval. Sorry Rami I don't think the story will be illustrated any time soon. You'll have to use your imagination.

So here we are. We've made it to the end of our whirlwind tour of Europe. It's hard to believe that we've been here since Christmas Eve. Time seems to flow differently when you're on holiday. It's been great fun having gone through a variety of countries where we've all spoken the language, not spoken it at all, or had one or two members of the party speak the language. Norweigan was a tough one to pick up. We've come away with only one word takk which means "thank you". Still it was a good experience for us to muddle our way across borders with our phrasebooks and we're looking forward to doing it again.

Tomorrow we start the journey home navigating our way back through Asia. We're still on the waiting list to get back to Australia so we're making plans to show Nick around Singapore for a few days. This largely revolves around all the great places and foods to eat as well as a tour of the Esplanade. We're theatre geeks at heart, how could we not?

We've already started discussions of the first things that we want to consume upon our eventual return home.
Gene - large Aussie with garlic and chilli
Nick - Boags draught

Me? I just want some vegemite on toast. Some biltong too (although it's South African so not particularly patriotic and I had some in the UK anyway).

Having been away for a few months now I'm expecting the city to be, as they would say in Doha, same same but different. My Dad posted some pictures he'd taken around Melbourne and it was good to see the city sights again. It's not something that I've really taken much notice of until we went away. While we were flying to Paris from Oslo I was reading the inflight magazine and there was an article on Melbourne. The photo accompanying the article was an old photo though. The old Gas & Fuel buildings were still standing opposite Flinders Street Station with St Paul's peeping out from behind them. No Fed Square in sight.

While it will be good to see the city again it really is the people I'm most looking forward to seeing.

Almost home but not quite. No ticket back yet and our house in storage. It's a little odd but strangely liberating.

40 Questions on 2006

2007-02-12T23:25:00.000+11:00

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Worked on the Opening & Closing Ceremonies for both the Melbourne Commonwealth Games & Doha Asian Games, flew internationally by myself, went to several countries I've never been to, played with hexadeck, achieved one of my New Year's resolutions

2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I certainly did! 2006 was indeed a better year. Still working on the juggling though. :)
Here's to a better 2007 (and juggling)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Julian & his wife Kate

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No

5. What countries did you visit?
Japan, Qatar, France and England.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
To think less & do more.

7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
1st January because Gene & I had rung in the New Year with angry words and I had no idea what the year was going to bring. Thankfully it turned out to be one of the best years I’ve had.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Actively enjoying my month off work in the middle of the year.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not looking after my health.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
First experience with bronchitis (which lead to an intolerance/allergy to penicillin), fractured my shoulder blade, a stupid amount of ear/throat infections. Fruit is your friend. Apparently sleep is too.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Plane tickets. I agree! Followed closely by my iPod.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Fi and Mark for proving year after year that romance is still alive. Congratulations!

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
No one that I feel a need to speak of.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Pounds Sterling/Euro to US/Aussie Dollar exchange. We're thinking of it all as dollars. It's less painful that way.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Opening Ceremony in Melbourne. I cried. There’s something good about knowing that you’re friends and family are watching the show you’re working on. Plus it’s the first show that both my Dad’s and my name has been in the programme

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
Under the Milky Way - The Church

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder? Thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?
Happier, thinner, richer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Played my violin, sketched and followed my whims

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stress

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent Christmas in Paris with Lisa and making friends with her friends while eating a vegan Chinese banquet (with Nick & Gene)

21. Did you fall in love in 2006?
As I do every year :)

23. How many one-night stands?
Nada

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Ah television... Didn't see much of it but most of it involved Battlestar Galactica and Dr Who. Oh have just started to watch the Green Wing but we didn’t do that until 2007 so it probably doesn’t count.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Not so much.

26. What was the best book you read?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel by Susanna Clark. Possibly Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman but I still haven't finished it.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Fabienne Delsol

28. What did you want and get?
A job doing what I love

29. What did you want and not get?
See a show that Matt Lockitt directed (I think I’ll have to add it to my resolutions list)

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I could go with Batman Begins because it was pretty good or Pirates of the Carribean II because Johnny Depp rocks my world, but I think I’m going to go with Confetti because I liked the feel of the movie because it wasn’t too polished. It was fun and just perfect at the time.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was working but my wonderful friends came to visit and have drinks. I was and still am 23.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being able to proficiently juggling three balls.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Comfortable, practical (many useful pockets) and marginally less black than 2005 but only just.

34. What kept you sane?
Biltong, miso soup, Gene & Nick (not necessarily in that order).

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Johnny’s a steady favourite but Clive Owen’s pretty spunky too…

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Tony Abbott almost being able to determine what medications were allowed to be prescribed instead of the AMA.

Out of interest, what happened to question 37?

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I’ve met some amazing people in 2006. Can’t just pick one.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.
Trust your instincts, have fun and be safe.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Just another day in paradise
as you stumble to your bed
Give anything to silence
those voices ringing in your head
You thought you could find happiness
just over that green hill
You thought you would be satisfied
But you never will learn to be still.

The Arctic Measles That Never Were

2007-02-09T23:47:00.000+11:00

A.K.A. WE’RE STILL IN DOHA, TA-NAH!

Once upon a time there were three friends, Tech Boy, the Little One and Ta-Nah! who lived in the city of the Four Season Days. Tech Boy was generally cheerful and enjoyed fixing things with one of his many purpose built matte-black tools. His smaller half, the Little One, spent more time shrouded in papers or when she wasn’t working in yarns of all colours and plys. Ta-Nah! was so called because of his happy disposition, and ability to point out things that should seem obvious but aren’t. (Possibly also because I’m terrible at nicknames and it’s the first thing that sprang to mind from the trip).

The three friends spent much of their time wearing large amounts of black while toiling in the hope of attaining the much prized black “crew” shirt from as many shows as possible. They were folks of simple wishes. The work was often hard with unsociable hours and they didn’t get to see many of their friends outside of this world. It was not without reward though. They often enjoyed the shows that they worked on and even when there was no t-shirt in sight, the pleasure of having a hard earned drink with workmates often made up for any aches and pains from the day.

It was having just returned from one such work trip that had ended in holiday resort Up North that the Little One heard a call from a desert. It was a crackly call but it spoke of unbearably hot days, slightly more bearable nights and a culture like she’d never experienced. It also mentioned a fabulous job and people who she’d enjoyed working with earlier that year and the promise of paperwork. Much paperwork. How could she resist? Maybe there’d even be another t-shirt…

One week after her return to Four Season Days the Little One packed her bags, bid her friends farewell and set off towards the Land That Will Always Be Free.

As the Little One settled into her new temporary home she sent home tales of the heat, the lack of pork products, the need for a license to purchase alcohol and the sole bottle shop in the country as well as the crazy drivers and roads.

Tech Boy was stunned and could not believe that such a place existed.
“What? No pork products?!” he exclaimed, “That’s crazy talk”.
So it was that two weeks later he joined the Little One in the place where the People of the Desert came together and joined hands with the People of the Sea.

Time passed and although the Little One and Tech Boy were enjoying their time, despite the food and drink restrictions, they missed Ta-Nah! greatly. He was part of their family and they felt lost without him.

More time passed before they found out that Ta-Nah! would be joining them in the desert in a matter of weeks. They were most excited. Days and nights were carefully counted and important preparations were made for his imminent arrival.

As a result Ta-Nah! was greeted at the airport by his two friends bearing gifts. One had brought him a stack of papers of varying degrees of usefulness and the other had brought him a case of beer.

After terrifying their friend with tales of road accident statistics, various ways to (by home standards) easily get yourself incarcerated and how easy it seemed to become severely dehydrated, Tech Boy retired to bed for a few hours rest leaving the Little One to look after their friend.

The day ran smoothly overall after the Little One had attempted to get them both run over on the way to lunch. After this, the days and nights started to run into one long day of show preparation.

The weather began to cool down and one by one the beanies and coats started to grudgingly appear despite it being 23˚C. It still seemed cold. There was also the welcome sight of a couple of drops of rain which rapidly became less welcome when it was discovered that the city was not particularly drainy.

As the temperature dropped the tension, stress and excitement grew until it culminated in a spectacular, albeit wet, opening ceremony. There were horses, a city of lights, another horse and a great big flaming cauldron. Just in case all involved weren’t wet enough from the show, it continued to rain through most of the night after the show with the exception of the half hour or so that it hailed. Tech Boy, Ta-Nah! and the Little One were beginning to think they’d seen it all.

The days passed quickly and before they knew it they were well into the closing ceremony. There were campfires to be lit, camels and horses to do as they do, thousands of little genies to get entangled with and a donkey. After the show there were a few more long nights of packing up followed by many nights of celebration before it was suddenly all over.

Friends parted, old and new alike, with promises of keeping in touch or visiting. This was not the case for the three friends in our tale though. They had decided to go on a whirlwind tour of the Continent, the Land of Tea and ultimately the Arctic!

So they did.

They spent Christmas in the City of Love in the Land of Wine & Cheese with an old friend while regaling some new friends with tales of camels and 1200 men with flares.

In the Land of Tea, Tech Boy and Ta-Nah! searched fervently for a decent cup of coffee while the Little One unhelpfully pointed out that this might be a lost cause as she sipped on her cup of tea. They kept searching and eventually found a decent cup of coffee by a museum.

Having achieved their coffee-finding mission the trio made their way back to the Land of Wine & Cheese where Ta-Nah! was twice crowned the King of Revelry.

A last minute decision saw them travel even further South to a city by the Mediterranean Sea where they discovered the long-lost secret to getting Tech Boy to smile in photos. There were human statues aplenty and more historical architecture and gardens than they could fit into the two days that they had and they agreed that they would have to return one day.

It was here in the city by the Mediterranean that the trouble started.

While Tech Boy, Ta-Nah! and the Little One were reclining on a pier by the Mediterranean, Ta-Nah! started to explain how it wasn’t really a sea but a big bay. He continued to explain a little of the Mediterranean’s history and his reasoning behind his statement. The Little One was doubtful that this was a good idea to be insulting the very body of water that they were reclining beside. The three of them made a few more flippant remarks about being dragged into the potentially offended Mediterranean before heading off for a little piece of home at the theatre.

The next few weeks passed uneventfully and the trio thought nothing more of their quips regarding the Mediterranean. They continued their journey to the Arctic through several countries stopping to sample their beers, wines and as much local fare as they could find.

On their journey they walked on the World’s Greatest Stage, visited the Little Mermaid and wandered through red light districts at the wrong time of day. The trip was going well.

Two days before they were set to arrive in the Arctic, Ta-Nah! mentioned that he wasn’t feeling well. Not knowing how else to respond, Tech Boy and the Little one responded with encouraging words (“you’ll be right” and “have some spirulina and some paracetamol it’ll help” respectively).

They were sadly mistaken as when they arrived up in the Arctic, Ta-Nah! had not improved at all. The attractive Arctic doctor confirmed their fears. Ta-Nah! had Arctic Measles. Sadly the attractive Arctic doctor had no solution for Arctic Measles but the good news was that it wasn’t contagious.

Naturally the explanation for Arctic Measles was that the Mediterranean had been cunning in seeking to teach the three travellers a lesson in manners. As all bodies of water are connected in some way She had sent the Arctic Measles to them as a reminder that there was nowhere to run. Naturally.

So the trio continued with the activities as planned. Despite his protestations that he “didn’t do fun”, Ta-Nah! continued to partake in the night-time tobogganing, sleigh riding, dog-sledding and seeing pretty lights in the sky with Tech Boy and the Little One.

As the days passed Ta-Nah! improved slightly. By the end of the five day Arctic excursion he was well on the mend.

At this point the Little One parted from her travelling companions for a side trip back to the Land of Tea to visit more people and drink more tea. Tech Boy and Ta-Nah! continued on to the Land of Wine & Cheese where they passed the days eating good cheese and drinking varying qualities of wine.

Feeling refreshed after her trip the Little One rejoined her companions and spent the week relaxing with them. Tech Boy and the Little One celebrated their five years together in fine company as the Little Lisa had chosen to join the trio for the weekend.

The Little One was starting to feel rather fatigued. More so than normal and much more than she should as she was sleeping quite a lot during the day. She put this down to her usual stressing about life, the universe and everything and tried to put it out of her mind.

On what was to be their second last day in the Land of Wine & Cheese, the three travellers headed South to the coast to visit the Mediterranean to ensure that everything was good between them and the Sea. The Little One barely made it out of the car.

She had discovered a few little red itchy spots appearing over the last few nights.

By the time they arrived back in the cottage some of these had blossomed into blisters. They still itched but now they hurt too.

This perplexed the three travellers as they looked awfully like the non-contagious Arctic Measles but by the very nature of non-contagious Arctic Measles couldn’t be.

The next day Tech Boy kindly took the Little One to the doctor who cheerfully pronounced that she had chicken pox. Yes it was definitely chicken pox which is unfortunate in an adult. Yes it’s what Ta-Nah! had too, even if the attractive Arctic doctor said otherwise. Bed rest till the end of the week and try not to catch anything else as it could get complicated… and that was that.

Oh and dragons and unicorns and such. (for Nick)

So it’s now the end of the week. The blisters are slowly drying and last night I managed to sleep for more than four hours at a stretch for the first time in a week.

Gene & Nick are in fine health and are looking after themselves to avoid a relapse of chicken pox and have kindly taken over the travel arrangements while nursing me back to life. It’s my first time out of bed in three days and I may be heading back that way soon.

There are two points to the story.

Firstly, don’t insult any body of water. It always ends badly.

Secondly, the three of us will be home late. We’re not sure how late we’ll be yet as we’re on a wait list to get back from Singapore but I’m sure we’ll keep you posted.

For now, thank you for reading, have fun, be safe and we’ll see you soon.
- The Little One.

St Flour, France.

Adventures in Europe.

2007-01-29T03:40:00.000+11:00

Norway can stay. While we've been travelling about we've been jokingly talking about bits of the world that we like and bits we think we could do without. Pretty much everywhere we've been can stay in our re-modelled world.

Norway was stunning. Tromsø was truly breathtaking. In the three nights that we were there we made friends with taxi drivers, Norweigan kids TV stars (and their film crew), went dog sledding, saw the Northern lights, went to the hospital, rode in a one-horse open sleigh (hey!), tobogganed at night, ate many random sausages and sat in what must be the only Irish pub that didn't serve Guiness.

The taxi drivers in Norway were wonderfully friendly. Our first taxi driver told us about the region as he took us to our hotel. Our second taxi driver asked us what had posessed us to come in the middle of Winter to the Arctic (in no uncertain terms) and our last taxi driver taught us some Norweigan on the way to the airport.

We were pretty lucky with the weather for our dogsledding. It snowed a fair bit initially but cleared up enough for us to catch the Northern Lights briefly. I say we were lucky because there were a couple of girls there on a Northern Light safari on the same night as we went sledding and they didn't get to see the Lights. The three of us felt a bit bad about being so heavy and making the poor twelve gorgeous huskies tow us around for 10km but we were advised that they were in training for a 1600km race. We still felt bad. After we thanked the dogs for hauling us about the hills we retired to a traditional-ish tent and had a rather rich reindeer soup. Gene maintains that his had a red nose. It was delicious, much like the chocolate cake at the end.

The horse sleigh ride was slow and fun and our host was friendly and informative. His wife told us folk tales of the relationship between the Vikings and the Northern Lights while we ate a home-cooked lamb stew. Dinner was followed with a fortified home-made wine with home-baked cinnamon cake. It was delicious. We passed the evening talking to the aforementioned film crew and TV personality as they had been filming an episode where the presenter overcomes his fear of horses. They were a great bunch and lots of fun. Then we were joined by a group of six Chinese government officials. My Chinese could do with some work... The Northern Lights were pretty faint that night but the company made up for it.

I should probably explain why we went to the hospital. Nick had what we termed Arctic Measles. The hospital was the only place we could get a doctor to see him so that's the first place we went in went Tromsø. Doctor said he'd be fine and it was just a reaction to a virus not chicken pox. We were happy about that.

After three days of freezing in the Artic we returned to Oslo overnight before flying back to Paris where we would split up for a few days.

Paris was a bit of an adventure considering I was there for less that three hours. When we landed at Charles De Gaulle we ended up in terminal 1 which doesn't have a train station there. On top of that it took us 20 minutes to exit the terminal and about as long to get to the station and buy tickets. By the time we got on the train I was meant to be checking into the Eurostar terminal to get my train to London. We made it to Gare du Nord 20 minutes before my train was meant to depart. I managed to sprint through the station and board the train 10 minutes before departure. Nothing like a run through a French train station to kick start a holiday!

Turns out that Gene & Nick had a similarly exciting day when our Eurail pass got pilfered out of Gene's pocket, they couldn't find the car hire place and it was a 15€ taxi ride from the station and it was snowing too hard for them to drive to St Flour where the cottage was so they had to stay in a hotel overnight. 25th January was a good day.

I arrived in London and headed to the tiny studio apartment that I'd rented for my stay. The apartment is in South Kensington near the Glouster Road station and while being slightly smaller than my bedroom at home was perfectly located for supplies and transport. The only down side was that 2 of the three lines that go to my station are closed for maintenance this weekend.

My first night was unexciting as I crashed out in bed at 8pm. My second day involved walking around the area and discovering that the lovely Italian place that according to Gene and Nick served the only decent coffee in England closed down. That evening I caught up with some of the gang from Doha for drinks and food in an Irish pub was a bit of a labarinth. After eating we walked to Trafalgar Square and then went to another pub before heading off home our separate ways.

Today being my last day I went to the Camden Markets. A goth, punk heaven in terms of clothing it was probably a good thing I hadn't gone there while I was on the hunt for a skirt earlier in the trip. There were a few amazing stalls there but just watching the people was great fun.

I took three trains to try and get to the National Theatre to pick up some things for Nick but it turns out the one day the bookshop is closed is Sunday. So I watched the London Eye for a bit before jumping on a train to head home. Tonight I'm catching up with Joe which I'm really looking forward to and then it's back home to finish packing so that I can make my train for France tomorrow to meet up with Gene and Nick again!

Turns out there's a new Tom Stoppard play on in the West End that I totally missed. I knew I should have dragged myself out on my first night instead of giving in to my fatigue!

Anyhow, it's been great seeing people and seeing more of London. I'm looking forward to a restful week and a half in St Flour now before we start the journey back home.

In a big nutshell...

2007-01-22T08:11:00.000+11:00

It feels like ages since I last posted. I'm having blog withdrawls! Sad I know. Anyhow we're still on the move but I thought I should do a quick update... On a side note the European keyboards are driving me crazy so bear with the erratic punctuation.

We're currently in Tromsø, Norway. I've been lead to believe that this is within the Artic. We're most excited! It's only -6 degrees celcius so it's not too crazy yet. Much warmer than we were expecting so we're happy. We're up here to check out the Northen Lights (coinciding with the festival that's about to start up here).

In short since I last posted...

We made it back to London a few times and visited the Museum of Natural History which was not only an impressive museum collection wise but the building was also pretty spectacular. While we were there Gene & Nick found what they believe to be the only decent cup of coffee in England in a little Italian cafe near the museum. The barista was pretty cute too :)

Other exciting things we did in London included taking Gene's cousin Will and his wife Harika to see their first show in the theatre, The Phantom of the Opera. Nick & I were particularly excited as it was our first theatre show that we'd seen as kids too. Gene got us amazing seats in the Royal Circle and it was every bit as cheesy and wonderful as we remembered although they did change some of the lyrics. Some of the acting choices were interesting too but we still enjoyed it.

After Phantom we headed to the pub where I caught up with Dave briefly before we headed back to Guildford.

Some time after all this we headed back over to France. I had finally let my post-show cold get the better of me and spent three of the four days in France in bed. We went to St Brevin des Pins, to stay with Gene's French family, which is a gorgeous little town on the south west coast of France. It has many bakeries and a yarn shop. I could live in a place like that :)

It was interesting having a fever and having to speak in another language. I found that all my dreams were in French which is really hard work when your entire knowledge of French is based on Year 8 French. I found myself waking up exhausted thinking of sentence structures. When my fever broke my dreams were in English again and the first and only word that I thought of was "ameliorate". Appropriate but more complex than necessary.

After St Brevin we made a last minute decision to head to Barcelona. We took an overnight train there and stayed for one night to see Tap Dogs and catch up with Dave again. There's something surreal about sitting in a theatre and listening to Midnight Oil in the middle of Barcelona. We liked it a lot.

We also discovered that making Gene say "Barcelona" makes him smile for photos. Yay!

Barcelona was amazing. We saw Sagrada Famillia (ignore my spelling) which you simply have to do. It's the cathedral designed by Gaudi that they started building about two hundred years ago... they're still going. The postcards say something about 2010 for finishing... Aside from my wallet getting pinched (it's all good folks, cards are cancelled not much cash lost and my passport is with me). It was a fabulous trip.

We had a little time in Paris where we caught up with Lisa again and finally got to see the Eiffel Tower. Queues to go up were too long so we didn't.

We returned briefly to England where we regrouped, jettisoned excess baggage and saw Wicked. Again with the amazing shows... It just blew me away. Love the music and the set and costumes were visually stunning. I just can't say how much I loved the show.

Then we headed off to Brussels for a few hours where we drank good beer, visited the "world's greatest stage" at the Grand Place (which was pretty special), the boys ate mussels and chips while I had sausages and strøemp. Then it was back on a train to Hamburg.

It rained in Hamburg. It rained a lot. We were soaked but we chose to walk all around the city anyway. Pictures of grey Hamburg and a tour of a couple of churches (one was intact the other destroyed in WWII and left as an anti-war memorial) then it was onto another train to Denmark.

We spent two nights in Copenhagen. During the day we walked from the city hall to the Little Mermaid who was indeed little. It was a lovely walk which took us past the palace. Didn't sight Princess Mary although we were willing to converse about drop bears and Boags draft if it happened. Pity the Tivoli Gardens were closed when we were there. They looked pretty special.

After Copenhagen we headed on a train to Oslo where we spent a night and a couple of hours wandering the city enjoying the snow. After a quick photo taking walk to the Palace and National theatre in Oslo we boarded a plane and here we are now!

In a nutshell that's what we've been doing for the last 18 days. Tomorrow night we're going dog sledding and the night after that we're going on a horse sleigh ride to see the Northern Lights. It's been a big trip and we're starting to feel a little worn out but what a holiday!

Keyboard's driving me nuts so I'll finish here.

Another speed post

2007-01-04T04:40:00.000+11:00

Apparently I like to post in a hurry at the moment... If my laptop had better battery life I would have more time... 33% left... I should get on with it.

We finally made it up to London yesterday and we spent the first couple of hours marvelling at how close everything was.

Our first stop after Waterloo was to walk to South Bank where we were immediately side-tracked by the National Theatre. Wow. I ended up in the bookshop within about 10 minutes of arriving and 20 minutes later exited the proud owner of Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett and Darkness Illuminated by Robert Butler about the staging of His Dark Materials at the Olivier Theatre through the production process. It sounds like an amazing show. I wish I'd gotten to see it. I must read the books now. They sound pretty amazing too.

After that we explored two exhibitions at the Tate Modern until our brains hurt and we needed some water and a quiet debrief about the art on display.

The evening was passed watching our first show on the West End, Chicago. We'd originally planned to see Spamalot or Wicked but they'd sold out. It was entertaining as expected and an easy way to ease ourselves into theatre again.

I love the greyness of England. I woke up this morning and spent the first 5 hours of my day on the window sill of the flat writing in my journal (almost finished it...) and sketching the upper part of the street with my fountain pen. It was very restful and a wonderful chance for me to just daydream and well, be.

We had lunch with Aunt Jackie at the Guildford Institute which was a quaint little tea room. I had the mushroom lasagne which was delicious. Gene's feeling somewhat under the weather after the big nights out of late and is still a bit feverish. So we've tucked him up in bed.

Tomorrow I'll be catching up with some friends in London which I'm really looking forward to. We might even fit in the British Museum with any luck...

19% battery left so I should go!

Hallas 2006, bring on 2007!

2007-01-02T07:49:00.000+11:00

Last year was amazing. It was so fantastic that I can barely believe how well it went!

I'm not sure if I mentioned this at the start of 2006 and I'm not online so I can't go back and check but I started the year with two resolutions.
1. 2006 was going to be a better year (than the last 22)
2. Be able to juggle three balls comfortably

I can say that I well and truly achieved resolution one. Resolution two? Well, there's always 2007! I can vaguely juggle three balls... just not very long...

It was a rocky start to 2006 for me as I saw then New Year in through teary eyes but things only improved with each passing day. 2006 saw me travel to Japan & England, two places that I've dreamt of going since I was little. In fact I'm still in England as I type this. I was lucky enough to work on and watch four ceremonies in the space of eight months not to mention the incredible people I've met along the way.

My last day of 2006 was spent visiting Stonehenge with Gene & Nick. Gene's Aunt Jackie kindly drove us there despite the weather forecast for galeforce winds and allowed us to roam about the fields observing the rather ancient stones. My brain is still struggling to comprehend how old everything is over here. I took several photos but was distracted at one point by the rather stunning road that was just over the hill from Stonehenge. I was momentarily transported to my childhood weekends spent driving around regional Victoria hunting good roads for filming (preferably no powerlines). This was an awesome road. I mentioned this to Gene and he pointed out (rightly so) that he was more fascinated by the big rocks in front of us that had been there much longer than the road and that we'd just paid six pounds to see. Did I mention I was struggling with how old things are over here?

Actually, I think my brain is just struggling in general. I can't even remember what I posted last. I'm dying to write something and share how fantastic this trip is but I'm just lost for words. It's a little sad because everytime I manage to find Internet access I totally lose the ability to write anything. Typical!

Anyhow, after Stonehenge we had lunch in a pub and I started to send my first round of New Year well wishes via SMS to some of the folks in Australia. Not sure if all the messages made it though as I did get a couple of error messages but the thought was there! It was really great to hear back from so many people. Sending the messages made me miss home a bit. It made me realise how many people were back in Melbourne who I wouldn't see for quite some time.

After lunch we went back to Aunt Jackie's house where we were kindly allowed to use the Internet and laundry facilities. We all checked our emails and most importantly finances while making sure that we had some clean clothes for the New Year. Multi-tasking is a beautiful thing!

Once we were sorted out Tom drove us back to Guildford with Jamie and we had dinner at Dragon Phoenix. At long last we were able to enjoy the delights of char siew. We've only been searching all of France and most of Aldershot/Guildford for the last two weeks for this BBQ pork dish. It wasn't as good as Dad's cooking but it'll tie us over until mid-Feb! Along with our other Chinese restaurant staples (salt & pepper squid etc) we sampled some of the wine... Great Wall of Peking was less palatable than we thought it would have been but the slightly cheaper muscodet was an improvement.

I headed back to the flat after dinner because I didn't really feel up to a big night. I just want to knock off this stupid cold that I've carried here from Paris. Didn't think a long night of whiskey in a smokey pub was going to help things. Gene & Nick headed back with Jamie & Tom to a pub in Aldershot where they apparently saw the New Year in and made sure of it by celebrating until 8am.

My last couple of hours of 2006 were spent curled up in bed with my journal for some last minute musings before leafing through Fragile Things. The next thing I knew there were fireworks being let off and the cries of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie... OI OI OI resounding in the street below. Apparently we're not the only Australians in Guildford... It was a quiet night but just what I needed. The rest of the night was passed in bouts of sleep interjected with listening to my iPod.

I woke up today and had a relaxing morning of stretching, reading, a bit more knitting (I'm making Gene a scarf so he doesn't have to pay thirty pounds for a bought one) and then a trip to the shops to check out the sales. I achieved my mission of finding a skirt. It's amazing how four months in steel caps, high vis vests and hard hats can make you want to wear a skirt and knee high boots. Maybe that's just me.

At about 4pm I got a message from Nick saying that they'd made it home and were wondering where I was so I headed back armed with some wine, cheese and bread to see how they were faring. Nick was well if a little sleep deprived. Gene was a little... fragile. The rest of our night was passed over a game of Scrabble before the lads decided it was bed time.

Right now I'm archiving my files having just sorted through about five years of photos on my computer. My laptop is screaming for more memory at the moment so I'm rather appreciating the hard drive that Dad sent me.

Transfer's almost complete so I should finish here.

We're (finally) heading back up to London tomorrow. If all goes to plan we'll be seeing Wicked tomorrow night. There is talk of seeing the Tate Modern tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

Plenty of photos to be uploaded when I get the chance of Paris and Stonehenge. Will try and ramble less in the next post... maybe that should be part of this year's resolutions list... I'll work on it.

Speed posting due to poor battery life

2006-12-28T00:23:00.000+11:00

What a Christmas! After the long hours spent in Dubai airport we arrived in France's Charles De Gaulle airport and waited in the long queue to get through passport control. There was a loud cheer as another officer joined the sole person who had been processing the plane load of passengers.

All of our luggage arrived safely with us and we were off to catch the RER B train to Gare du Nord which is our closest train station. The Hotel Magenta where we're staying is about a block away from the station and we rapidly discovered that even with our culling of random luggage we've still got too much stuff...

We had our first meal at Hippopotamus which is like a French fast restaurant chain (Sizzler without the buffet). The wine was lovely.

Christmas day was spent with some of Lisa's friends who kindly took us in, fed us and allowed us to share in their Christmas meal.

Yesterday my post-show blues/cold sank in. That was less good but was helped by my brand new lined boots which are much warmer than my other shoes and Gene's purchase of cold/flu tablets for me today. We also checked out Montemarte, Sacre Cour and Notre Dame. Plenty of pictures taken. Mulled wine is a definite favourite over here.

Tonight we'll visit the Champes Elysees and enjoy dinner with Lisa again.

Must run as my laptop is running out of battery rapidly... must fix that at some stage. Off to bed to rest a little before re-packing gear for our train trip to London tomorrow.

Gene's Aunt Jackie has kindly offered to put us up in a place in Guildford which is where we'll be basing ourselves for the coming weeks until we journey to Norway & southern France.

A bientot!

Three Ships

2006-12-24T10:40:00.000+11:00

I saw three ships a sailing...

and I was glad. It meant that the show was going on! I was lucky enough to see the show from the field and watch the final fireworks with Gene beside me.

The load out went well despite the rain. I've decided that rain is a definite event during a load out. Interestingly the bin-liners lasted longer as rain protection than the plastic rain jackets that we'd bought by the hundreds.

Several nights of celebration have since passed and before I knew it I was sitting outside an Irish pub with Gene & Nick in Dubai airport wondering how to pass the seven hours before our flight. Blogging, shopping and looking up accommodation for the UK. Not sure when we're going to be there yet but figured it'd be good to start looking anyhow. Wish the exchange rate was a little friendlier but hey, who's counting... ahem.

It was a little crazy today. Doing the final packing up of our villa and saying goodbye to Fred (after the character in Angel) the cat who'd started to call our villa home. We picked up our tickets for our final return leg today at the Emirates office before having dinner in the Old Souq. Then it was back to the villa to pass an hour before the car came to pick us up. At the airport we bumped into the last of the skilled crew who were on their way home that night. There were hugs and kisses and then we were off.

So now we're in Dubai airport. I've picked up my Christmas shopping for Gene & Nick and now we're just passing time until it's time to board our flight to Paris. It hasn't even come up on the departures list yet...

I had grand plans for a well thought out and written post but it would seem that last night's final hurrah at Garvey's has taken more out of me than I expected... there was much whiskey & beer had by all.

There is one more thing that I will say though and that is that Doha has been an amazing experience and I've met some incredible people and learnt more than I could have imagined. Today while we were at the Souq a guy came up to me and asked if I'd been working at Khalifa. He was one of the many hundreds of local crew who we'd been working with over the past few weeks just wanting to wish me a safe travel as he'd finished working with us. Experiences like that are just the tip of the iceberg of how amazing this experience this has been.

It's going to take me awhile to remember to introduce myself as "Sarah" and not "Swong" because that's how it's been for the last four and a half months. Can't wait till the next one :)

Stopping this post now before I fall asleep typing. May join in the game of uno going on beside me. I'm sure that Nick & Gene say hi...

Catch you all from France!