I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind… Does that make me crazy… Probably…

You know you’ve reached a different phase in your life when little Do It Yourself (DIY) home projects get you all excited and keep you up at night.

Well, don’t get me wrong… I am and always will be a wild child. Even when I am a tottering old grandmother bouncing a grandchild on either knee, I will be saying “Bring on the drinks and let the good times roll…”!!

But ever since we paid the deposit on the apartment, all I can think of is how to do the place up, what to buy, where to place it, etc. etc. And it doesn’t end with this apartment… I’ve been glancing through a few home design idea books and I’ve picked up a huge number of ideas for that ultimate dream house of mine that I intend to start building in less than 10 years.

But that’s some time away. For now, let me tell you about all the things I’ve been doing in the last month in preparation for this big move into the new place. So first I said, well now I surely require some new furniture particularly since I now have two spare bedrooms to furnish.

When I was a student I had absolutely no furniture… we slept on a mattress and I had a $5 computer table and $10 chest of drawers and we had some other miscellaneous dining table/desk/shelves/TV table/low bar stools items that totalled $100. We also had some mattresses lying around the living room which is what we sat on… I’m not sure where these came from. We certainly didn’t buy them.

Then once we started working, we decided to buy furniture… but furniture, even cheap furniture, when you try to buy it all at one go, is really expensive. Anyway, we went and bought a two-seater couch, a couple of chairs that were more like outdoor furniture lounge chairs, a couple of lamps, a proper home entertainment stand, and a bed. My father visited and slept on my mattress and said that mattress was going to kill me as it did his back and he bought me a new one. He also bought us a bean bag which I love – its bright green and yellow and made from vintage 70s fabric – I really need to get it fixed though… it has been looking most limp for many months.

So now it is time for me to completely upgrade my living room and get rid of the remaining reminders of Ikea which I truly hate because it is too closely associated with being a frugal student… if you look at any uni buy/sell website, all you’ll see will be Ikea bed for sale, Ikea mattress for sale, almost new Ikea couch, as new Ikea potato peeler… yes, potato peeler… there are people who try to sell every last item in their house before they return overseas.

So anyway, the couch we upgraded a month or so ago. We bought a really nice dining set a year ago… it was such a good deal and it’s still being sold in store at almost the same price a year later. And now, I have bought a few other items, the biggest of which is a brand new bedroom suite so I can put my current bedroom suite in one of the spares. We have upgraded to a Queen size bed… I am looking forward to the extra room :-) The most annoying thing about ordering furniture is that everything takes about 6 weeks to arrive. So now I have only received my bar stools which are so yummy looking and this weekend we pick up the bedroom suite but I have to wait I’m not sure how long before I receive my new custom fabric armchairs and funky coffee table and these are really the items that will tie my living room together. Haha, watched a bit of The Big Lebowski the other night – when his dirty old rug gets peed on, his friend keeps saying ‘that rug really tied the room together dude’.

So that’s on the furniture side… there’s still plenty more items I’m planning but for now this is all we can afford. Furniture is still really expensive especially since we aren’t even going in for the cheaper Ikea options… Mr. Moonlight has decided he is carrying around this furniture with us to wherever we go for the rest of our lives. Mr. Moonlight also forcibly closes my eyes if we drive past a furniture/home improvement store...

On the DIY side, we went to check out the apartment again a couple of weekends ago and saw it all empty and as happens with apartment inspections, you will never fully notice/remember important details about the comfort, etc. of an apartment until you live there so it’s always a huge gamble. Anyway on this visit, we found out the previous tenants who’d lived there for FIVE years had decided not to give a damn about anything, particularly cleaning, and the walls looked awful and the carpet was downright filthy. The carpet, I’d always been quite sceptical about the colour and intended to change it as soon as we saved up for it and the walls Mr. Moonlight intended to paint before we moved all our stuff in.

So I started choosing paint colour schemes and was absolutely certain I wanted a feature wall and finally have chosen the combination below. That’s not my apartment, just from some paint website and the dark trim looks uneven cos I hurriedly did that in Photoshop.



So in the last two weekends, I have found out all there is to know about paint. I understand the basics of colour theory and primary and secondary and tertiary colours and what not and I know what kind of sheen level of paint is suited for what kind of surface. The only thing left to do is go in and paint the damn thing which is planned for this Friday. Every paint expert we’ve spoken to in the shops has said at least a weekend is required for a whole apartment by a professional. But us amateurs have ONE afternoon/evening… the voice in my head says, “Be afraid, be very afraid”. And we will literally have no choice but to watch paint dry.

We would’ve had at least two days if we hadn’t gotten overexcited and signed up for new carpet also. So the paint’s gotta dry before the carpet layer arrives on Saturday morning. But I’m really happy about the new carpet cos now the apartment will feel almost new with new paint and carpets. I now also know a lot about carpets and the difference between polypropylene, nylon, wool and wool blend. I have been introduced to underlay, broadloom meters, and dodge beige. We just walked into a couple of carpet stores to get a quote and before I knew it, Mr. Moonlight and Carpet King started heated negotiations with the full-on numbers on paper being passed back and forth thing and we became the proud owners of new carpet.

So this weekend is going to be very hands on with painting and moving and it’s all gotta happen seamlessly or we’re screwed. I intend to take before and after pictures and hopefully it will come out looking like how it does on those DIY TV shows. If not, I will not be putting up any pictures.

And finally, thanks to all of the above, I am more broke than I have ever been… and it doesn’t end here because there’s still more things to buy like linen and bathroom and kitchen accessories AND my parents are coming to visit me in 3 weeks…

As the voice in my head keeps repeating, “Be afraid, be very afraid”.

Me and you and a dog named Boo…

People actually read this blog it seems :-) Got a few messages of sympathy and surprisingly from a few non-bloggers as well. So I’m still sad and now I’ve been remembering more and more little things about her. I remember that time when we were renovating and she had to stay on at home in the midst of all the workers and rubble and dust for six months… she didn’t really mind… she had company… but she’d go nuts when we visited her… one time, we were still in the car with the windows down and she just leaped into the car from three feet away through the window… and after the first three months of living with aunt and grandparents, we moved into this apartment just down the road from my house… it was about 10 houses away but it was still down the road and you had to take a left… and I don’t know how, but somehow she found her way there and she’d run up the backstairs and whine at the back door until we let her in… she did this a number of times while we were living there and she always found her way there and back… cos, I’m sure she tried even when we weren’t home… she was one smart cookie and she was the most relieved when we all moved back in with her and everything got back to normal.

And this other time when I had friends over, she ran out and Holly ran out too but Holly came back and warned me and so my boyfriend (who shall hereafter be known as Mr. Moonlight (also a song by the Beatles)) and Kat went down the street in the car to get her and Kat gets out of the car and politely says to Chocolate... "Chocolate, get in the car please. Chocolate, get in the car.." and Chocolate just looks at him as if to say "Are you for real, dude..." And then Mr. Moonlight had to get out and forcibly pick her up and put her in the car. This story is not so much about Chocolate as it is about Kat but it always cracks me up.

And now I’d like to share some thoughts from my aunt and uncle on Chocolate’s passing that really made me smile.

So sorry that our friend Chocolate has left but we imagine she is having a great party with a host of her friends—Uncle Ralph, Appachen, Teddy, Dinky, John Lennon and so many more that were dear to us. Gizmo says he doesn’t like all this talk about our friends leaving as he is very hesitant to go to the other side! But he sends you a sloppy, smelly kiss and an equally smelly fart as that is how he consoles himself in times of sadness (ask Mama, she will tell you all about him).

And from Uncle Phil…

As Rita says, Gizmo is hesitant to cross over to the other side—but he definitely has one paw in the grave. Teddy keeps coming to him in his dreams, bringing messages from the other world. Sometimes they are cryptic—like the one where Teddy was wearing a astronaut suit and carrying a case of beer—but others are more direct, like when he told Gizmo that Dinky recently persuaded Uncle Lon’s big red dog to join him in chasing celestial butterflies. So Uncle Lon — almost always accompanied by his trusty dog—went looking for his furry pal. He was supposed to usher our Uncle Ralph to the Uncle’s Banquet (Teddy said they serve every uncle’s favorite dish—every time—and the food is heavenly at that), but the two uncles went looking for that big red dog together instead. By the time they caught up with the red dog, they had to settle for some chaat and hot dogs on the roadside (but even roadside fare is divine where they are.)

Anyway, Gizmo suspected something was up with Chocolate, as Holly told Teddy to hold all of her calls as a new guest had arrived.

That’s all Gizmo told me. Then he fell asleep and is dreaming now as I type this.

They’re mad… they’re coming to visit me in December… I can’t wait. Oh, and Uncle Ralph was Phil’s uncle who passed away recently and Uncle Lon is a family friend uncle they met when they were visiting India and apparently he had a big red Irish Setter he was very attached to but I have absolutely no recollection of this dog. Anyway, both Uncle Lon and the big red dog also passed away some years ago. Dinky was Rita’s dog and Gizmo’s best friend and Teddy was my first dog who died a few years ago. Gizmo is the only one still soldiering on… he must be at least 13 years old and he can’t be left alone and he goes to doggy daycare when they’re at work. He was even in therapy for a while… he has a lot of issues… he’s taken the skin off my nose whenever I visited him and annoyed him… and he hated my sister… haha…

This is Gizmo. He looks dead, but he’s not.



P.S. I was going to title the post something else and then this song played on Party Shuffle... Celestial forces at play courtesy Teddy??… I’d like to think so.

Little wild one, I’ll come back to you

Chocolate has died… she passed away quietly on Saturday morning… she was 10 years old… she was the most loyal dog a family could have… she loved us all as we loved her… she watched as we welcomed dogs to the family and she watched as their time was up before her… now she gets to join them all in doggy heaven…

Dearest Chocolate

You were my best friend for all the years you were with me… I was in madly in love with you to begin with… you entered my life at a time I really needed you… you were funny and naughty and mad and that’s why I called you my little wild one… do you remember me singing that to you all the time… surprisingly, after we welcomed a little puppy who was even naughtier than you, you seemed to realise your frolicking days were up and it was time you tried to set an example for the new brat… so you became the mature, obedient one… you came when we called… you got up quietly and went out when we told you to go outside… and you always welcomed us with a smile and a cold nose touch when you saw us… even until recently when it became so painful for you to get up and walk… you taught me a lot about love and commitment and responsibility… I’m going to feel very sad when I get home and you’re not there to greet me… you always knew, every time I came back on a holiday, you were so glad I was so back… you remembered me so well… you remembered me as the one you loved the most who’d seemingly gone away one day… you remembered me because of your unfailing devotion to me… dear little Chocolate… I hope you have been reunited with all the others from the family… are you with Fudge and Teddy and Biscuit and Snoopy and Dinky and Jeanie and Max and Ginger… I bet Holly led the welcome wagon because she loved you as much as we loved you… there will always be an empty space in Fort Knox because no one can ever replace what you meant to us all… Goodbye dear Chocolate and please continue to take care of us from above…

I keep waiting for it to hit me… when I first heard she was sick a week ago and realised she was going to die soon, I sobbed my heart out. When I found out that she had gone, I shed a tear and that was it… I just felt so sad, like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders… and anything I see on TV about chocolate reminds me of her and makes me sadder but I still can’t cry… when Holly died I cried bucket loads for weeks and I can conjure up the tears for her even now… why can’t I cry for Chocolate? Because my love for her is a much deeper, steadier love… the grief is mingled with relief that her suffering was ended… so now, I just feel a huge emptiness when I think of her… and returning to my home will never be the same without her sweet loyal face at the gate as a welcome… Goodbye dear Chocolate… you will always be my little wild one and one day I’ll come back to you, I promise.

Here are all the pictures I could find of her online... Most of my pictures of her are pre-digital era...

Here she is 3-4 years ago with her good friend Holly... she was still smiling then and she was healthy and strong



Here she is play fighting with Rusty last December in a rare display of energy. Well, the energy was all from Rusty's end really... all she did was growl menacingly at him... and you'll notice Rusty all set to spring... he never got beyond getting set because he took her quite seriously and knew she wouldn't take him jumping her...



There's the growl... watch it, young punk... I've been there, done that...



This was her favourite rug to lie on downstairs in the washbasin area...



She never lost her appetite... This is a piece we call "Dog & The Bone"



She used to feel cold in her old age at nights... I bought her that dog sweater as a joke gift ages ago never thinking she'd actually need to use it :) This was her other favourite spot... on the warm rug outside my parent's bedroom. Of course her most favourite spot was my bed but for the last couple of years, she had all kinds of sores on her body so it wasn't hygienic for her to sleep in the same bed as humans, poor baby.



This is my favourite most recent picture of her... how sweetly she stretches...



Also, one year ago, my Appachen passed away on this day. We still miss you and think of you everyday. Rest in peace, Appachen & Chocolate...

If I leave here tomorrow... Would you still remember me... For I must be travelling on now... Cos there’s too many places I’ve gotta see

So the weekend before, we had a house leaving party (a lot of people insist on calling it a house cooling party as opposed to a house warming party but I think house cooling sounds horribly uncool)… Anyway, I had a really awesome time and all… in fact, I didn’t stop drinking until 7 in the morning… and a lot of people showed up… and I laughed a lot… and we sang a lot… and my photographer friend took a few hundred photos…



But in the midst of all the madness, whenever I remembered what the party was about, the melancholy took over and it was all I could do not to tear up and start lamenting the loss of this oh-so-warm home of mine… of course, I did end the night in tears but that’s a whole other story and quite irrelevant to this post.



It’s hard to explain my peculiar attachment to this house of mine… it’s just an average two bedroom apartment off the block… it must be about six years old which isn’t too old but quite old for my demanding modernity standards… we leased it in quite a hurry… after all, it was a lot bigger than the old one and the master bedroom actually had an ensuite bathroom which I thought was a luxury I’d involuntarily given up forever the day I left my home in Madras… but on the evening we started moving in two years ago (almost to the day), I noticed a lot of things I hadn’t noticed before… the carpets were moderately stained (and to which, stains have since been generously added by the number of parties we’ve had)… some of the wood was chipping… a few of the lights didn’t work… the guy who’d vacated hadn’t put too much into cleaning it for the new tenants… it was high ceilinged, so that was just begging for cold draughts of air... even the water tasted funny (and it still does… and its impossible to get cold water out of the freaking tap… and I’m addicted to ice cold water… tepid water I can’t even swallow)… and worst of all, it was located in a completely alien suburb and I felt quite sure I’d never enjoy living here…

You see, before this, my entire universe was centred on the Melbourne CBD… my first awful apartment on Swanston Street and my university not even 3 minutes away walking… that apartment was truly dreadful… it was the size of my finger… but the convenience of living next door to city life was incomparable… not that I had any money to enjoy city life… but still, the bright shiny lights were right outside my doorstep…

After six months of living like sardines though we moved just up the street and right to good ol' Lygon Street. Compared to Swanston, the Lygon Street apartment was like a mansion... and it was all sparkly and shiny and brand new and I thought I'd never want to live anywhere ever again... I quickly grew to love the area... it wasn't the poshest or even the nicest of areas... Carlton is notorious for mob activity and theft in general and we've witnessed our share of car chases... not the actual cars, but choppers flying all over the place and us having an illegal smoke on our balcony with the light shining down on us and wondering if our number was finally up... good times :)... paranoid times, but good... our car was broken into twice in our alleged secure basement carpark... but still, it was all quite safe and we walked home late at night from the restaurant/shopping part of Lygon Street many many times... my university was now a 10 minute tram ride away but 10 minutes in the life of a student is negligable... of course, paying for the tickets was a huge unwarranted expense and that's when I started that whole deal with God thing about fare evasion :)

But the most important thing of all was I absolutely loved heading home... walking up to the entrance and through the front door always made me feel welcome... it was clean so we tried our best to keep it clean... there are some aspects to my personality that are rather Monica Geller like in terms of getting mildly obsessive compulsive with cleaning... but in the old place I shocked myself at my complacency with collecting dirty dishes in the sink, not wiping the counters after cooking, never dusting or vaccuming... but all that changed and housemates of mine surely regret how I reverted to my natural ways... I became mildly obsessive compulsive again about the kitchen and my wrath at dirty kitchen counters and undisposed of garbage was not easy to deal with...

You see, this was the first time I felt like I had a home again after leaving my real home... and it was important to me to have the kind of home that made me want to go back to it... what else do you have to look forward to in a strange foreign country if not some place to call your own and make your own... we were always strange that way... other Indian students thought we were nuts when they saw the "fancy" place we lived in... most of them lived in disgusting little holes or an hour away from civilization... because of the rent, of course... as a struggling student, I had a strict stipend per month from home... this strict stipend was suggested by IDP as being more than enough and I know now who they spoke to to come up with this figure... the ones living in the dirty little holes... so here we were, shelling out half our monthly allowance on rent of all things... that left very little leftover for food/expenses/books/entertainment... but I never regretted it once... there was my beautiful apartment, a shining beacon of hope in the midst of all my homesickness and coursework and meagre social life... So until now we were still very focussed on Lygon Street and the CBD and I really had no clue what was outside these boundaries... on rare occassions I went down to Chapel Street or Smith Street or Sydney Road or St. Kilda Road and these were all slightly frightening adventures outside my comfort zone... they were also outside my "hood" so I always bought a tram ticket... and always, I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I returned to familiar territory.

Then the unthinkable happened... I finished studying and was lucky to get a job almost immediately but this job was all the way down St. Kilda Road, past the CBD, on the other side of the Yarra River (you could almost call it the wrong side of the tracks for me). After almost two years of waking up whenever I felt like it I had to discipline myself to going to bed on time and waking up at 7:30 am so I could leave by 8:15 or so to get to work by 9:15. Yes, it took me the better part of an hour which just shows you what cruel tricks life can play on you… because distance wise, and if I was driving there, it would be all of 20 minutes. But thanks to the wonderfully slow trams that absolutely insist on stopping at every tram stop (which is at every block) and because I had to cross the city on the way and since of course the city is full of thoughtful drivers who are always driving in the tram lane and slowing things down even more, it used to take me that long… And did I mention the sardine theme again every single morning and evening because I was travelling at peak hour? There was simply no relief until I was 3 blocks away from work or home by which point it didn’t matter… I did this for about 2 months before deciding I just couldn’t go on and absolutely had to take the drastic decision of leaving Lygon Street and my beloved hood Carlton and moving to the other side of the city, the names of which suburbs I didn’t even know yet.

By the time we did move, it was something like six months… August 2004… Dandenong Road, Prahran… as I said, at first, I was miserable to move in… but in the first week of arriving at work/home within 12 minutes by tram including waiting time, it was quite easy to forget about Lygon Street (shame on my fickleness) J There were still annoyances such the tepid water and Dandenong Road being the busiest road leading to some few outer suburbs and being busy 24/7 so there was never any respite from traffic noise, but even this worked out in our favour because we could scream our heads off and sing our lungs out and have 20 people simultaneously talking on the balcony and there wouldn’t even be a polite knock from a neighbour asking us to keep it down… we took full advantage of this over two years and hosted a number of loud and rowdy events.

So you see, slowly but surely my universe shifted to this side of the city… I still went to the city for drinks and dinner and what not, on occasion, but I also started visiting more shops/restaurants/bars in my area… since my work was also in the area, we spent many a lunch hour roaming the streets of Chapel and High and Commercial (we shouldn’t leave St Kilda Road out of it too… remember the beautiful bay views)… it’s hard to explain exactly why it is so special… I guess everywhere else is just pretty boring and average… what you see is possibly the same thing you’ll see in other cities around Australia… but Prahran and South Yarra and especially Chapel Street are so eclectic and surprising, you just never know what you’re gonna get… and its my absolute favourite area to drive around looking at all the beautiful houses… at least 30 of my dream houses are located on Orrong Road and Toorak in general… this area is the playground of the very rich and even though I didn’t live in a multimillion dollar house, it still felt pretty good to tell people I lived in Prahran…

And this was the truest test of my love for this side of town… my new job is in the city… yet another cruel life trick… so now I sit (if ever I do get a seat) on the tram for 50 long minutes one way as I travel to work and back… and yes, it bothers me but not once have I ever felt like just escaping… well maybe, some mornings… but every evening, as soon I cross the Yarra, I don’t regret for a minute that my home is still half an hour away… after all, my home is in Prahran… my home is right next door to Chapel Street…
Do I visit Chapel Street every night or weekend? No…
Does that make a difference? No…
Is it enough just knowing its there? Yes…
Just like the beach in Madras, I suppose…
Could we ever get by in a non-coastal city even though we swam in the sea maybe thrice a year? No!

So anyway, our time together is almost up… Sep 1 is when I move… I’m moving to high-rise, non-unique, commercialised personified – Southbank! Why, after all this, am I leaving Prahran you ask? Because it wasn’t affordable in Prahran to buy the kind of place I could see myself living in… Yes, dear reader… I am now a first home owner – a fact that fills me with immense pride and intense dread, all at the same time. And even though Prahran was not really affordable, there were a couple in my old hood Carlton that might’ve worked but I just couldn’t bear the thought of moving to that side of the city again after having lived on this side… this side rocks… that side is seemingly dark and depressing now even though I didn’t know any better then… so anyway, I had to compromise somewhere and Southbank it is… the best thing about Southbank is that work will be a 7 minute tram ride or a 20 minute walk… I see plenty of exercise potential… but anyway, the new place is a whole other story that I’ll save for later.

I think I forced everyone at the party to have a shot of some killer fruit punch (concocted by yours truly) as a tribute to the Dandenong Road house… now the apartment seems to know that I’m moving on and is reacting with uncharacteristic coldness and emptiness… Not to worry… it will always one of the dearest places I’ve lived in… I’m quite sure when its time for me to move on from Southbank I will feel a similar sadness and write about how I regretted leaving Prahran but finally ended up madly in love with Southbank, but that’s just the way I am J I get peculiarly attached to places which after all are just wood and carpet… I think it’s because I am at heart a most intransient being… I get comfortable someplace and never want to leave… I’ve lived in the same house in Madras my whole life and when I had to move out once for six months while renovating I thought my parents were being most unfair to me by kicking me out of my room… as it turned out it worked out well that I lived in Nungambakkam and Adyar for half that time because at least I got to have a very fun summer without having to deal with the annoying logistics issues that are part and parcel of living in Annanagar…

So whatever it is, it’s always hard for me to move on… but eventually I adapt and mostly it works out better than I expected… this is true of any change in my life… so what’s the lesson learned here… nothing… because even though I know I will adapt, it doesn’t stop me from feeling sad at leaving.

So whatever… goodbye Prahran… hello Southbank!

So much for the city Tell me that you'll dance to the end So much for the street lights They're never gonna guide you home

It’s been a while since I’ve written one of them ‘and this weekend I did blah blah…’ so, here it is. So, this weekend I had a very random girls night on Friday where the most of the other girls proceeded to get very drunk and I tried to get to the same level but it didn’t really happen. I had lots of fun though watching the other girls being very drunk. When I got home I hung out with boys being very drunk and laughed for many hours.

On Saturday we packed up and headed to the big city… haha… the big city is this town called Geelong about an hour away from Melbourne and our friend has been living there for about six months because of his workplace and now he’s returning to civilization at the end of the month so we kinda forced ourselves on his house for one big slumber party. And every time he heads back there on a Sunday night after spending the whole weekend in Melbourne, he says, “See you later… it’s time I was heading back to the big city”… hahaha, it amuses me no end. A billboard on the freeway proclaimed the big city as the most liveable place in Australia and that also amuses me no end…!!

So we engaged in many fun activities whilst there… we played the world’s most moronic board game – Battle of the Sexes, if you please. According to that game, it seems that the only subject women are well-versed in is wine (and a few books) and the only subject men are well-versed in is beer (and a few TV shows)!! Anyhow, we played it and there were also many stupid dares involved such as dancing for ONE WHOLE MINUTE… very daring, I know! But towards the end we reached a stalemate because the stupid dares wouldn’t let us move on and kept moving us backwards so I think people lost interest and stopped playing. But by this time I was toasted and very upset that we ended the game without a winner. Well, that’s not entirely true… I think we all agreed that the women were the smarter/cooler/better sex! Haha… who can refute that with my commenting turned off!

So we also sang many songs very loudly and I’m sure the other inhabitants of the big city will not be too keen to receive us again. And then someone suggested the awesome plan of driving to the beach which is about 20 minutes away. I was most upset that other people’s common sense prevailed about driving drunk! I ended the night on my dear little blue sleeping bag that has seen much better days. What fun tales my sleeping bag also could tell… But it is kind to me no longer… I had a very sore hip the next morning, although, to be fair, I bruise like a peach.

We ended up our trip to the big city at where else but a classic icon of suburbia – MacDonald’s (with three other fast food places in the same lot). I walked in playing the part of trailer trash to perfection in my sweats, sweatshirt (which is some 100 years old and belonged to my DAD), and heeled footwear (from the night before)… haha!

All in all, it was a very fun trip to the big city and though I will quite possibly never return, I will forever keep with me the fond memories of my one night in the big city.