last day of winter

here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and i say it's all right

little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and i say it's all right

little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and i say it's all right

sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

little darling, i feel that ice is slowly melting
little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and i say it's all right
it's all right

-the beatles-

my kingdom for a ford quattro

i haven't been feeling too well the past couple of days but this turned out to be almost a good thing as it gave me the opportunity to sit down and watch the third series of ashes to ashes. oh my... as warned the last episode of the series bears watching again which i will do before handing back. a brilliant series following on from life after mars. uk tv rocks you know.

the lindy charm school for girls

for some sunday afternoon fun i went along with 29 other girls for a few hours of miss chrissy and miss kim teaching us how to create a 40s hair do, a 20s pout and how best to treat ourselves and others. it was a really lovely time, met a few new people and also sat opposite cheng, which was a fabulous surprise as she's getting married in a couple of weeks and i haven't seen her in forever.

the workshops of the charm school endeavour to revive the golden age of glamour and was a lot of fun.

team bogie & bergman

a bit of hollywood glamour in the suburbs on a saturday night. a few of us tramped out to the back woods to support a local kindie holding a trivia night to raise some funds. our table was the only one without children, perhaps we were just big kids? ;)




ilona, who has a child in attendance at katrina kindie, wasn't able to make it due to falling ill a week or so before, and we suspect we were bamboozled into still going along. sneaky but it worked and was worth it. we all had a pretty good time and won by one point. yah to the interlopers. it looks like a really great community they have there.

perks

i managed to win a couple of tickets to tonight's opening of the writer's festival. eight writers: eight ways to be human @ the melb town hall. not bad huh? the players were norman doidge, barry dickins, jostein gaarder, cate kennedy, fiona mcgregor, alex miller, nadifa mohamed and brenda walker. some more entertaining than others, but it was great to be there. had dinner at the supper inn afterwards, nothing like tramping down a dark lane past dumpsters to whet one's appetite. love this city.

australian music tv

jamie and i took an insider's look at rage this evening. acmi, as part of live in the studio series, had a couple of the abc rage producers, a music clip director, and john safran as a previous guest programmer, panelling this event. a couple of hours of listening to anecdotes and watching clips ranging from the late 80s til present. it began my last year of highschool, april 1987 and only a couple of months before countdown played it's last sunday night. a good way to spend a thursday eve.

blessings

i can't make my 25th year school reunion in early october but a good thing came out of the facebook invite list. i managed to track down someone i've wanted to get in contact with since leaving highschool, almost 23 years ago. so yahhhhh...

another non-working day

at last i took them to carlton and lygon street. i swear i'm related to blood-thirsty rumour-mongers. mum and chris were interested in who got shot where etcetera... i had and still have no idea. aargghhh...

but brunetti's - reg was overcome with the selection and it took him forever to decide, it was quite hilarious.



then after a bit of a drive around richmond it was off to take mum to the airport, and chris and reg to their hotel in the city. it was so good to have mum in melbourne. come back in the summer won't you?

the apartment feels really large now with just me to fill it.


i think i almost saw it snowing this night. well maybe not, but definitely the closest i've seen it yet. driving to write-club and it started to rain, getting heavier and heavier, so much so it started hailing. but tiny tiny hail that built up almost to snow status. there was white everywhere for a few minutes. sigh... one day leisa.

non-working monday

this day was pretty much all about the city. trammed in for a look around the sights. wandered past flinders street station, through federation square (and i suspect they all kind of like the space now that they've got to see it up close)... along southbank and the river - the weather has just been great.




a walk through the docklands which has a perpetually abandoned feel to it. (so when does it start to look part of any scene whatsoever??) and through south wharf shopping district.



i was gifted with a slow cooker which i now have to learn how to use. but yah to that.

the four of us ended up at bridie o'reilly's for a pub dinner. the guys got to check out my usual monday night haunt and a few of the lindy moves too. another exhausting day of walking the streets of melbourne.

markets upon markets

4 hours of wandering up and down every single aisle at the queen victoria market. oh my aching feet. though i managed to be gifted with some fabulous brightly coloured mixing bowls for my troubles. chris and mum managed to walk out with a new leather jacket each. nice work ladies.


early afternoon found us in st kilda, along acland street for chips and the esplanade markets. gorgeous day out over the bay.



all tuckered out from all the walking and sightseeing, a pizza in front of the tube watching dancing with the stars with the family. that show really does suck. ;) company, not so much. ha!

saturday with the family

after waiting in line FOREVER with mum at the polling booths, getting more and more narkey from lack of sleep and food i got to vote. trumpets sounded off. did i feel that joy of getting a say in the way that my country is run... um no... whole thing was a complete farce.

unlike breakfast at joe's garage on brunswick street. thank heavens for eggs benedict. by this time it wasn't really breakfast but an early lunch. then i got to wander around laneways in the city, showing mum the highlights of my glorious city.

we popped out to the airport to pick up chris and reg (aunt and uncle) at twilight. they arrived an hour late, but it was tiger air, so that they arrived at all was a blessing. ;)

and since the three of them were visitors to my fair melbourne i could only do the one thing i really didn't want to do, but... i took them to crown casino. not my cup of tea by a long shot.





but...

mum almost forced me to put a coin in the pokies. which i did and then promptly broke the machine. once repaired there was $3 of coinage to play and the machine practically played itself. i walked out with $120. and no mum, i will not be a regular at that strange place. but it did pay for my new red bag which will henceforth be known as my casino bag. ;)

this day

started without the alarm. not sure why it didn't go off. i set it before going to sleep, i guess it's just one of those mysteries. the garbage truck woke me around 6.26 but since i was heading off to work in the city it didn't matter too much.

got to breakfast at starbucks. watching the world wake up - there was a man editing a paper, writing a report, or perhaps a story or poem. but he was reading out loud, just quietly but it was quite amusing listening to him... his words just out of range to hear clearly. i should've perhaps asked him to speak up a little. ;)


at twilight i found myself in a cinema to watch inception. fantastic film that must be seen. had me entranced all the way through. christopher nolan did an absolutely brilliant job.

midnight airport run for mum, she may freeze over here.

phew!!

not only do i get to see my mum, aunt and uncle soon, but because of their impending visit i was forced to organise and clean the apartment. so with one night to go there was frantic activity around the yellowness of my inhabitance. the spare 'oom (to quote mr tumnus) has been catalogued and there is a sleeping apparatus in the middle of the floor, ladened with mountains of blankets and doonas. i got a fantastic workout from pumping up that damn air mattress, then there was the trips up and down the stairs to finally get rid of the moving boxes. yes... this is it, i've finally moved in. 7 months later. ;)

i've got to get a few more things (after they leave) but things are mostly sorted. definitely need pictures for the walls though. a work in progress. like me.

meredith, here we come

i am a ballot winner. which means i'm in the first round to buy tickets. but technically, if i'm paying does that still make me a winner?? 20 years of music and camping (not me, but the festival) - it's going to be a blast.

grumpy writing

really it should read writing at grumpy greens, which is a great cafe/ bar on smith street. dave and i have been meeting here for a little while now, a change from richmond, though i'm occasionally missing the great garlic bread olmec's had on offer. we're in deep r&d (research & development) mode about writing a series for the web and it's an exciting time. i'm a bit out of my comfort zone as it's a thriller, but what a challenge. to that end i've been watching a few shows on the web. today at lunch was compulsions and last week was girl number 9. there's some really interesting and professional shows out there, and on the opposite side of that fence, some real crap as well. we will try for the interesting and professional approach, honest.

69 love songs

more good came out of MIFF. i was introduced to a new band, the magnetic fields. i purchased this over the weekend and have just started listening to it. even the first song caught me... very fabulous indeed.


and then there was dancing.

an ordinary sunday

sunday walking from lygon street tram. spring is coming.

later in the day i headed over to lea and terencio's for session two of the "so bad it's good" movie extravaganza. tonight was sausages and french toast and chocolate cake. not all together, so tasty. the film on offer was from 1982, the beastmaster.


not good, but not bad either. so it didn't rate quite so low. a fun evening was had.

pegasuses or pegasi?

with mum, chris and reg showing up next week i've been forced to organise my spare room. which means going through the couple remaining boxes, these contain my journals and diaries going back to 1983. eek! and one thing is very clear from reading some of them, i really haven't changed in all that time and i haven't learned much when it comes to boys. at this rate i'll have to repeat my life over, someone hit me over the head will you?? maybe a blunt object might jolt me out of the patterns... maybe?



these were letter books that friends and i had for three or four years. i still don't know how we got away with writing these in classes, i guess the teachers were just expecting letters, not exercise books. go us.


these papers were something warren earl wrote in math class in 1984. he had an argument with the substitute teacher and got thrown out. i have no idea why i ended up with the story, but it's funny to reread.

also flicked through the five egshs year books, the pegasus was the school emblem. upwards and onwards the motto. they were such low quality, i wish they had taken better photos of us all. still funny to read and remember.

malthouse theatre

i won tickets to the trial at the malthouse. an absurdist play by kafka. nice to see theatre again, a strong, strange cast and the staging was amazing. bit of a mind bender and fun.

at home on couch

i watched the movie state of play a month or so ago (it was good) and now i'm watching the bbc tv series. it's a fantastic show if you can find it, thrilling story and great actors, two of my favourites being john simm and james mcavoy - oh yeah. there really is nothing on australian tv at this moment - where has all the quality gone?

a new beginning

bek and my office at footscray park... furniture has been moved in since. will get back to you. note the brilliant view of the grey concrete building out the window. but hey, we have a window, which let's in real light. yah!

on reflection

my top 10 movies of the melbourne international film festival of 2010 would have to be...(tried making it 5 but i got carried away) and they're in order only by the date i watched them. i would just like to say that all of the movies i sat through in the last weekend were bloody fabulous (even though some of them didn't make this list).

*the illusionist
*the red chapel
*spine tingler: the william castle story
*four lions
*bill cunningham new york
*matching jack
*wasteland
*when you're strange: a film about the doors
*waking sleeping beauty
*scott pilgrim vs the world

special mention goes to joe dante's gremlins. and i was going to put my worst pick but i shall leave that nameless, you know who you are.

a brave new world appears....

where there is light and people walking aimlessly about. there is dancing and music in real life, not just 2 dimensionally. i'd forgotten it could be like this. ah life, thou art sweet.

39, 40, 41 & finally 42

last day of the melbourne international film festival, last day of queues upon queues, last night of choc top dinners (well, maybe not).


film 39: summer wars, a japanese animation at acmi2. a fun and engaging story of love and technology and family.


film 40: waking sleeping beauty. what a doco to break last year's record on. i love disney. and i love movies. it's history, present and future. i love the creation of supposedly impossible things. the magic of movies, ahhh.... i suspect the only thing better is being in love. this film was about the rebirth of disney animation 1984-1994. fun and inspiring.


film 41: sex & drugs & rock & roll and choc tops with jamie. an entertaining film on the rock and roll lifestyle of ian dury and the blockheads. there wasn't anything shocking or new about this story but i really liked the way the story was told more than anything, little off-kilter, a bit carnivalesque.


film 42: scott pilgrim vs the world. fabulastic this film was. comedy and fantasy with a bit of romance thrown in - awww... melbourne was the first in the world to see it, which meant handing over our phones (recording devices) at the door. a few of us to see this movie. i think i might even be persuaded to see it again.

****

the festival is over. life can begin again.

35 & 36 & 37 & 38

saturday in the dark, i wish it was the fourth of july (strains of an old chicago song). i need extra time, it's running out and i've too much to do.

but instead i've been sitting in cinemas.


film 35: catfish. this could have been a film or a documentary to be honest. was it a true story of a guy fooled by someone on facebook? it was amazing how elaborate the lie got.


film 36: wasteland. artist vik muniz turns articles from the rubbish into art and in the meantime helps people transform their lives. a beautiful story from the world's largest rubbish dump in brazil.


film 37: when you're strange: a film about the doors. this was a great doco - i really loved the way it was told, stock footage aplenty, great script and narration. hit exactly the right tone. will be listening to their music in the future, it just grabbed me as it never has before.


film 38: strange powers: stephin merrit and the magnetic fields (which i keep calling the magical fields) with a whole bunch of friends. another fabulous music documentary. introducing me to a new sound to listen too. will hunt out the albums in the next week.

it was still early so we all moved across to a bar called berlin, where you are seated in east or west berlin after you knock on the door and they allow you entry. i was given a passport that had to be handed back in before we left (with payment of beverages). it was good to catch up with people in real conversation again. who'd have thought there was life outside the cinema???

33, 34 &

film 33: mother of rock: the life and times of lillian roxon with jamie. an aussie gal who transplanted herself to new york in 1960. her rock encyclopedia was published in 1969, she died in 1973. it is said that lillian was the dorothy parker of max's kansas city. i read the book mother of rock by robert milliken when it was first published in 2005, it was re-released earlier this year.


film 34: gremlins. yep, you read right. joe dante's 1984 film, GREMLINS. awesomely awesome fun. it was so cool to see it again on the big screen. and also listen to the audience who had never seen it before. oh, and some of the ultra-corny lines. just magic. ha!