hullabaloo and beyond....

flew back to perth this past weekend for hullabaloo. perth's swing dancing extravaganza, full of social dancing and workshops. i didn't catch up with too many of my non-swing pals, not enough time since i was on the dance floor for most of the visit. also didn't take that many photos but i did manage to sneak a few via facebook from the other attendees, so you'll get the gist of how bloody fabulous the weekend was.

managed to catch up with my nan most days, she's at the respite in mt lawley til they get her back to kalg. she's looking really well, so yah to that. also snaffled time with all my mad aunts, chris was in from alice springs and heather from kalg (they're in the photo with me, mom and nan). then mom's brother peter dropped by, so it rounded out the duca side of the family.

friday night was the mustang bar... i'm the one in the red shirt in a couple of the pics. the last one in this series has inga and myself in it.





and then onto the claremont sideshow.

saturday before workshops i had my little brother sean's christening to attend, and i am now his fairy godmother. heaven help him. he also turned 10 on april 29. time sure does flies.

saturday night was the masquerade ball at the magnificent midland town hall - with the windy city jazzmen band.

sunday, another few hours of workshops, followed by a talk by peter (our u.s. teacher) who has a great love of dance history. could've listened to his stories for hours, days even. the photo below is of the group at the end of the sunday workshops, i'm in there somewhere.

then onto the hullabaloo hop at the perth town hall and the oz big band. completely spoiled dancing to live music. this was my favourite night of all. picture below is of peter and mia (u.s. teachers).

no pictures of me in my finery though. none even of my friends, definitely next time. i'm now suffering withdrawals from not dancing the last couple of days. but i'm on the floor tomorrow night. phew!

a big thankyou to gail for putting me up and putting up with me over this mad weekend of lindy.

the last three days

i've had a wonderful few days of wandering around melbourne. the first couple of pics were taken on the way to work on friday. more ballooning going on, but i remembered my camera this day.

i had to go to a meeting off campus, to werribee mansion. only there for an hour so i didn't really get to look around too much.

if it weren't for the gum trees you'd swear you were in england somewhere. :)

these couple of pics were taken as i wandered over to rathdowne street on my way to a hair appointment.

this is my neighbourhood. i haven't taken a shot of the front of soph's and my place yet because we're still waiting on the owner's to rebuild the front fence, it's a bit messy at the moment.

today, being sunday has been my favourite of the days. besides being an absolutely beautiful 24 degrees out, i joined the art deco society last week and this morning took a walk with some of the group around south melbourne. looking at some of the inter-war buildings. here's a few of the shots i took.

after this i went to find some lunch. i think my camera will be a constant companion from here on in. snap happy i am. and i love autumn.

now for a little light reading before watching an arts program on the abc... i'm actually reading a book "the architecture of happiness" by alain de botton at the moment and this show touches on this. happy day to you.

on the way to work...

they were landing in a field that i drive by on the way to work. sorry about the quality though, it was with my phone camera through a very dirty windscreen. there were about 6 or 7 hot air balloons coming into land - a blue-sky day in melbourne, so the view of the sunrise must've been fantastic.

coupla cool things

april in melbourne

today felt very long indeed. i think it's because i did so very much. started off quite early at the melbourne international flower show at the royal exhibition hall in carlton. let me warn you right now, there are a whole lot of flower pictures to follow.

i love this building - it was completed in carlton in 1880, built for the international world fair that took place in 1888. it also opened the first parliament of australia in 1901.











wearable flora. pretty fantastic looking.





















this photo is for gail. jason from better homes and gardens.