when is a weekend...

not a weekend?? when there is very little napping involved. chaotic, fun friday, saturday and sunday had. need recuperation time. thank goodness for work.

friday night was drinks at le choix for jenn's birthday, mingled with her fun friends before tramming over to richmond and the corner hotel for robyn hitchcock. i'd not heard him before and was majorly impressed. really great time. and the banter between tunes had me in hysterics. i honestly could just listen to him wax lyrically about absolutely nothing. he did it well.

saturday was writing in the morning and some shopping in the afternoon before the empress hotel with nat for two bands, not the wolf and mcfusilliers. also a lot of fun. then into the city for the bad movie, confessions of a shopaholic. don't do it. i knew that it would be bad, i accept it was bad. i am just trying to save you the heartache. :)

the pictures below may almost describe the sunday mayhem of the grand prix. nat, soph and i met jamie at fed square before heading to albert park. sophie's mad dash across the road bridge started a very funny day (sadly no pictures of that besides in my mind's eye).



















it was a long day. definitely flagging by the end of the who. but i'm glad i got to see them (just since we were way at the back), you know, i can say i've been to a who concert. that's something.

have i told you lately that i love you... melbourne

there has to be an early morning road trip in my near future somewhere. i had to go over to the office in footscray this morning. yes, saturday morning at work, but don't worry i haven't had a lobotomy, i had left some scripts there so before i could continue writing i had to retrieve them. but it was the exhilaration of driving fast with the sun rising, air fresh, radio blaring that calls me to the open road.

anyway, it's the weekend and before i head out for another saturday night i thought i'd catch you up with the happenings of last night. alex and i met in the city to watch a show called "for the love of the objekt instrument" by chicks on speed. i have to say that i enjoyed it for the most part, though some i didn't understand but that's okay too. the artists made their instruments from found objects (hence the title of the show), so it was performance art as well as film. started off with just sounds, some discordant which could be uncomfortable and by the end there was rhythm. there was butts being slapped on screen, a stiletto turned into a mini guitar, gourds strapped to a spinning wheel. gotta love the capacity of people to dream don't you?? we caught up with chris in the aftermath for malaysian. home and in bed by 10. on a friday night no less. :)

today's melbourne was a beautiful blue sky day. there was writing and wandering and splurging on a new dress for my birthday (yes, i know it's just around the corner). walking down gertrude i found a couple of new shops to favour, and then smith had some gorgeous finds too. an afternoon nap before the day turned to night and now here we are... about to walk out the door to friends.

it's a choix thing

choix creperie on collins is a wee place. filled with crepes, good beer (so i've been told), a mean vodka and cranberry and great company. the owners are fabulous and know us by name (do not insert song from cheers here), starry and sheeds. another grand trivia win by team don't give a crepe this night. the first round was pretty abysmal but we came back strong. i think it was the alcohol truth be told. just needed that extra edge. no pics this time, but i'm back there next week for jenn's birthday drinks so i might be persuaded to take some candids then. maybe. we'll see. til then, au revoir as they say at the cwepewie. ;)

three times broke

a late night should really equal a sleep in, but no... sleep at 2am only to wake up at 6.38am worrying that i had forgotten to email a document to my boss. so i had to jump online to see if i had taken care of that yesterday... and i had. phew! first break.

the next one happened on the way to bendigo with jill and mark. we were driving up to view the golden age of couture exhibition at the galleria up there. (beautiful but no pictures were allowed i'm sorry). anyway, the second break came when the strap of my top magically unsewed itself from the bodice. on went the ever-present cardy for the rest of the day. then after jill and i had grappled through the queue in the rain, been elbowed and bruised by the zillionth old lady we caught up with mark for lunch. good lunch by the way, in a cute cafe across from the gallery - much recommended, el beso i think it's called. no, that means kiss doesn't it? no, it could've been el belo. can't remember.

break three was my sandal. which happened as we were leaving the said good luncheon place. so i went bogan for the rest of bendigo and the trip back to melbourne. yes, i was bare foot. ha!

bad things come in three right? so i'm counting this as my three for the day. no more better come forth (absolutely no pun intended). and they weren't really too bad. even though my green sandals are now at the bottom of the bin.

birthday dinner...

some pics from last night. i organised a semi-surprise dinner for nat at tuk tuk's. semi because she knew something was happening but not how many people were involved. yah to everyone keeping it a secret. half of us ended up at the swing ball after eating to work off all the fine food. hap hap happy birthday nat.

ONE WHOLE YEAR!!!

yep, i can hardly believe it. 12 months has gone by since i rolled into melbourne. and there has not been one moment that i wanted to go back whence i came. no really... not once. 366 (remember 2008 was a leap year) days and nights of fun. socially it's been a whirl-wind of activity, and it looks only to continue in this next year. work has been interesting and i'm hoping to change that this year, plans are in action and i will let you know when something more substantial arises. so i've covered work and play - what else is there..? life is grand and i'm living it.

p.s. we had an earthquake last night. nothing major... just small rolling waves... i've had bigger. ;)

from footscray to the city

view from the office on a rainy friday.

happy birthday mum

i've only got one pic on me of her at the moment. and it's one of mum and dad before i was born. and she looks to be a sulking 16-17 year old. oh, and she's actually not really a blonde. ;)


hope you have a stupendous day mum and the flowers i sent actually bloom. love you.

high culture

sophie and i went to the ballet last night. the absolutely breath-taking new york contemporary ballet company, complexions.

we started out with dinner at pellegrini's. sweet pellegrini's. then moved onto the state theatre. photos weren't allowed through the show so i nicked a pic from the website. yes, he was one of the dancers. actually, for those of you that watch so you think you can dance, there was a performance by two of the dancers on monday night just gone. honestly, the whole experience was just beautiful. the last act used the music of u2 and you could just watch the joy in the dancers faces. glorious. and we were singing the songs all the tram ride home.

indoor drive-ins

crap photos i know, but you get the picture. of course you don't get the picture like we got the picture. ;)

how fantastic is this? fits in with the melbourne weather so well. the indoor drive-ins. jamie and i went along to the screening of a 60s trashy russ meyer's film, faster pussycat, kill, kill. it was all cleavage, karate chops, cars and bad dialogue. in other words, fantastic. the guys at no-vacancy gallery were great. before the film we were fed burgers and popcorn, plied with beer and wine. afterwards we stayed around for a couple of hours waxing lyrically about films with the organisers, scott and emma. they plan to bring it back as a regular melbourne mainstay and to a bigger audience. here's hoping.

p.s. we were told that there is a monstrous indoor drive-in in las vegas. will have to get there some day.

not february 29

oh well, there goes that chance of asking someone to marry me. maybe next leap year???