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.
Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Back in Town
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Back in Melbourne
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.
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.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Heaven in a Tea Cup
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!
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!
Friday, March 30, 2007
Things Beginning With the Letter "s"
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.
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.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Gong Xi Fa Cai
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!
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!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Grumblings
We're back in Melbourne and I'm marveling at how quickly we've settled back into life here.
Gene's back to juggling work shifts and I'm back to the job hunt. I think I might do some temp work while I sort out various jobs that may require some travel. It would be nice to know what the next few months hold for me but at the moment I'm happy just exploring my options.
I'm currently trying out blogging software called ecto and it's working well so far. I'm enjoying the templates and the WYSIWYG features. I also love that it supports multiple blog posts and it's just unfortunate that MySpace don't have remote blog posting capabilities. I've spent the last hour trying to find out info on how I can make this work for MySpace as well and even considered emailing MySpace about it but after my last run in with them regarding the Advanced Editor error messages that seemed to be inconsistent with my experiences, I decided against it. I was happy and disappointed all at once that someone else had tried to ask a question of the team and all they received was "how to change your email address" responses. Happy that it's not just me and disappointed for the same reason.
Aside from that there's nothing new to report. I've got a gig lined up at the start of September but nothing until Fringe after that. I'm still trying to work out what I've got in storage and what I've stashed in Mum & Dad's place... Mainly regarding the various yarns for knitting/crochet purposes (of course) but it'd be nice to know where other things are.
Pictures from our Briz Vegas trip are ready for uploading. That will happen soon I promise.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
A Few of My Favourite Things
A good meal shared with friends is possibly my favourite thing in life.
Last night Gene, Nick & I went to Iku-Izakaya for dinner and it was lovely. We had a bit of fun finding a carpark but once we got there it was lovely. Friendly service and great food. We had the Ozeki Set which was rather filling and overall well timed in terms of the courses. After dinner we decided to take a stroll across the fish-shaped bridge (well it looked like a fish from the restaurant) and discovered that it led to the Blowhole Sculpture in the Docklands. After playing on the air-pressure platforms, climbing all over the slide, jumping on the springy foam ground and swinging on the swings we headed back to Nick's for a lovely cup of tea - or beer for the boys.
After that we watched Napoleon Dynamite which was amusing but weird before retiring to bed to read our respective books.
It was a pretty good day all round really. Good food, good company, a movie, some reading, more knitting and a play in the park. What more could a girl want?
Last night Gene, Nick & I went to Iku-Izakaya for dinner and it was lovely. We had a bit of fun finding a carpark but once we got there it was lovely. Friendly service and great food. We had the Ozeki Set which was rather filling and overall well timed in terms of the courses. After dinner we decided to take a stroll across the fish-shaped bridge (well it looked like a fish from the restaurant) and discovered that it led to the Blowhole Sculpture in the Docklands. After playing on the air-pressure platforms, climbing all over the slide, jumping on the springy foam ground and swinging on the swings we headed back to Nick's for a lovely cup of tea - or beer for the boys.
After that we watched Napoleon Dynamite which was amusing but weird before retiring to bed to read our respective books.
It was a pretty good day all round really. Good food, good company, a movie, some reading, more knitting and a play in the park. What more could a girl want?
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