I've got this energy beneath my feet like something underground's gonna come up and carry me

Oh dear… I just have so much updating to do it’s not funny. I might also add that I am mildly miffed that I am getting such few comments considering the hue and cry about the fact that I disabled it in the first place :-p Lurkers, show yourselves now!!

November has been a bad month for me, health and well being wise… when I’m not falling sick, I’m merely falling. I’m so over it. My goal until the end of 2007 is to not get hurt… it’s a very ambitious goal but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Speaking of the end of 2007, I can’t believe it’s so near… where the hell has the year gone?! I have barely 2 weeks left at work before I disappear for my much deserved 4 week break to India and I can’t wait.

I can’t even remember where I left off… September, October, November?! All I know is I (we) have been traveling at such breakneck speed, the crash was only inevitable… alas, it appears I am not invincible after all, but I am used to simply picking myself up and shaking off the debris and getting right back on the wild horse again. There has been so much going on… there’s been much of the usual… birthday parties, nights out on the town, concerts and shows (Phantom of the Opera – spectacular, I didn’t want it to end, Linkin Park – craziness all around AND we watched it from a corporate box which made for a nice change, The Killers – soooooo great and I think I have a teeny weeny little crush on Brendon Flowers)… there’s been much of the unusual… this crazy long drive to a rave which turned out to be 200km from Melbourne and in the middle of some windy hills and the text message said follow the signs and follow the fabric and my drunkenness was well tested as I looked out for tiny scraps of cloth, it started out as big floroscent t-shirts and then it became boxer shorts, until it finally dwindled away into tiny nothing scraps of fabric… and what was intriguing was just whenever we thought, enough, let’s just turn around and go back, we’d see another little piece of fabric… all of that to get to this crazy rave in the middle of nowhere with a huge bonfire blazing merrily and sound and lights and even fighting dogs… and there were stark Christmas trees that shone white in the headlights and when daylight was breaking on the drive back, there was a most surreal scene where it seemed like the valley beside the road was filled with soft fluffy clouds… but I didn’t think there were any valleys that deep on our route… was it really clouds… or fog… or a figment of my tired imagination? I only know that I had an insane urge for 1 tiny second to jump out of the car and float down into that soft inviting bed of white… then there was that trip to Byron… so much fun as expected… pictures, but not today… then there’s been food, so much food, quite unusual for us… and Diwali celebrated after almost 10 years for me… and so many friends visiting from overseas and interstate and other friends moving here to live… and who can forget the devilish hen’s night and the rambunctious bucks night (hearsay of course) and the Survivorish merge which is actually usual.

So again, I realized that my November number was almost up so quickly wrote this up to have this month on record too. I really don’t know what I’m aiming towards in terms of future blogging but at least I will try to make until the end of 2007. So tomorrow is the first day of summer and 25 days to Christmas and so much more hoo haa, it’s going to be unbelievably ridiculous. Sometimes I get very very tired.

I've got this sentimental heart that beats but I don't really mind (and) it's starting to get to me
Now.."Why do you waste my time?" is the answer to the question on your mind
And I'm sick of all my judges so scared of what they'll find
But I know that I can make it as long as somebody takes me home,every now and then...

It's so hard to get old without a cause, I don't want to perish like a fleeing horse,Youth's like diamonds in the sun, and diamonds are forever

So I've got to be as quick as I can... the laptop battery is so going to die in all of 15 mins and I'm so not braving the cold in the lounge just to freaking blog... I mean, this is spring and all but it's like mid-winter really... it's not fair, really, but there ain't much we can do. Anyway, enough about the stupid weather... I hope and I pray for warmer weather soonish!!

So the strange thing is, how that song from the last time still has a total hold on me... I mean, honestly, that's the only reason I'm even blogging tonight... if I hadn't had to listen to that song, I wouldn't even be awake right now. And I don't even freaking like Coldplay... as a matter of fact, I'll go as far to say I hate Coldplay...

That'll probably ruffle a few freaking feathers... but what can I say or do...

So anyway, I had the awesomest birthday... I think it always helps when your birthday is on the weekend... that means the whole world can party with you without missing work and feeling guilty for whatever reason. So my birthday began on Thursday evening when we prepared to go to the Steely Dan concert... it was full on... we had many drinks and tapas and then headed to Rod Laver and once the concert started, fully sipped on the hip flask and before I knew it, the concert was finished. I mean, I like Steely Dan and all but I'm not their biggest fan. I really love Dirty Work but they had some total Mary J. Blige type character sing it which just totally pissed me off and ruined it for me!!! Anyway, we all had a blast though and had many more drinks after the concert also. Friday was a total mess... recovering from Thurs night and attempting to clean the house in preparation for Sat night but not really making any progress. Anyway, Fri evening arrives and my lover and me go to dinner and have a couple of drinks and then he pretends like I absolutely have to go to this friends house to say Hi and way before I get there, I totally know all my friends are going to be there drinking away. So that's exactly what happens... and I have many drinks on my birthday eve with my best friends and we smoke cigars and all, just for a change. And at midnight, a home made cake comes out and champagne and all... and many overseas calls also arrive and it was just freaking awesome!!!

At about 5 am, we stagger back home and I open all my presents from my lover and try a few things on as well and somehow get to bed by about 5:30 am... alas, I am forced awake by 10 am thanks to many more overseas phonecalls... seriously, it is the only day in the year, I actually give a crap about my mobile and keep it beside me at all costs!! Anyway, there is no hope left after that and I still don't even have the energy left to clean and all... at about 6 pm, things are exactly the same and I am just many more phonecalls down. Finally, I force myself to get my act together and sleepwalk my way through cleaning the house and get ready and stuff and before I know it, it's 9 pm and my guests are arriving. And from then until 7:30 am, Sunday morning, who even freaking knows what happens. It was just madness all around. It was really awesome. And I got soooooooooo many presents, it was crazy. So much fun. And I think everyone really had a blast, that was really the best part. And the biriyani that I ordered totally got cleaned out in all of 2 hours... it was crazy... not even one grain of rice was left over. :-)

Absolutely nothing exciting has happened since then... I mean, obviously the week was completely crap and this weekend was supposed to be easy but with someone's birthday drinks last night and someone else's birthday drinks tonight, it's hard to slow down!!! So it's not strictly true that nothing exciting has happened, but for me, my birthday and all it's associated shenanigans are the eptiome of party time for the year.

The strangest thing... for a few years in between, life was strange... it wasn't as happening and I honestly wondered how smart I'd been with some of the choices in my life!!! But now, I can honestly say that I love my life more than ever and it doesn't really matter that I'm 26... I still feel 18 and my life is still as exciting as if I was indeed 18 :-) I mean, honestly, 18 till I die baby!!

Speaking of babies, my best friend's baby is almost 2 years old and obviously I still haven't met him yet but amazingly he's learnt my name... it's sooooo adorable... I spoke to him the other day and he's totally like Hi, Bye, Ithi.. awwwww.. sooo cute!!

But speaking of other babies, my baby sister is now 18... she still totally breaks my heart though!! I can't wait to hang with her in December and hopefully I can show her the way. Oh my god, did I mention the fact that she got a freaking Labrador puppy for her birthday... I'm so happy cos I get to hang with this puppy in a couple of months but I feel so sad that I can't get a dog of my own :-( And apparently, she looks like just like my beloved Holly... that figures... Christmas and New Years is going to be soooo weird this year. I'm not exactly sure why...

So I've decided to open up commenting again... haha... I'm really not sure why I stopped... but, whatever...

Sometimes when you take a step back and think about life in general, it's a bit frightening... because life is incredibly strange and it really takes you full circle... with the things you do and the people you meet and the way you change...

Also, this Forever Young song... I used to love the original by Alphaville until I actually listened to Youth Group and then it was totally like, oh my god, what were Alphaville thinking?! That just goes to show... old is not always necessarily best... this song I only like the remixed Youth Group version now... Alphaville is just yawn... but there are obviously other songs where this doesn't apply at all and old still rules!!!

It's going to be another freaking awesome year... what else is new ;-)

Forever young, I want to be forever young

How does it feel? To be without a home... To be a complete unknown... Like a rolling stone...

So I suddenly realised we were almost at the end of August and I didn't have a post on record. I could blame my online presence on Facebook but that would be a lie cos I've only been on Facebook for about 2 weeks. And what a 2 weeks it's been on Facebook... in about 3 days, I had amassed some 100 friends and 50 wall posts and the number is still growing although obviously the number of Facebook notifications I get per day has depreciated slightly. Man, this Facebook... it's freaking mad. But anyway...

So what else has kept me busy since the last post... a lot, actually. I posted how I was dying the last time and then I went to my cocktail thing on Fri night and thought, let me stay away from the ice so I'll drink wine but it was free flowing spirits so I couldn't resist swapping to Bacardi and ice. Many drinks later, we stumbled home after dancing away and went to bed very smashed. I woke up the next day feeling not bad at all and so went and partied away that night too at the housewarmings and everything was all fine and wine. And then horror of horrors, I wake up on Sunday afternoon with the most god awful splotchy red rash all over my body. It itched and it itched and I thought I was going to die and obviously there are no doctors who work on the weekend and apparently I would've been laughed at if I'd gone to the emergency room with a "rash" and then called this doctor friend for advice and she's like oh well, if she doesn't have a stiff neck, it's probably not meningitis! So that of course made me start imaging a stiff neck and having just watched an episode of House the previous week where the patient develops splotches and they suspect meningitis, I was so sure I'd be dead within the week. Anyway, I went to the doctor the next day and she gave me an anti-allergy shot and all was well and I am obviously still alive but that was quite a scare. So I attempted to take it easy the next weekend by staying away from alcohol and I did but that was totally the last "easy" weekend...

4 weekends ago, headed out on a Fri night and had a few drinks and I'm not sure at what point things started getting out of control but pretty soon everyone was hammered and went to a couple of other places quite unnecessarily and the next day, absolutely no one could remember anything from after about 11 pm! The Sat was dreadful... I think we were still drunk in the morning when we made pancakes and called my aunt and uncle. Then, went wedding dress shopping and didn't find a thing but bought many other things instead. Then went to favourite Mexican restaurant for friend's visiting mom's birthday dinner. Drank a few margaritas to stay awake but didn't help much. Then played squash on Sun morning and went to Queen Vic market to buy meat and vegies and then fought time to get ready to go to friend's afternoon engagement party. Then ate takeaway pizza dinner, watched tv and went to bed. Then almost died of muscle ache on Mon morning since exercise was after about 5 months!

3 weekends ago, headed out for another Fri night on the town. All this Fri night business was to farewell friends going to UK and Darwin. Pub crawled a bit and got mildly buzzed but didn't go as mad as previous Friday. Saturday was still crap. Sat night was friend's birthday party so went to house with favourite labrador retriever in Australia and chased dog around all night but as usual was ignored in favour of food items. Again, drank Bacardi to stay awake but didn't help much and added complication of beginning to feel sniffly at about 1 am. By 3 am, feel like total crap and head home to pass out and pray I have somehow escaped throat infection! Sunday is easy but very painful because head cold I thought I had avoided from 2 weeks previously finally arrives in full form!!

Super crappy week ensues with not being able to take time off from work. It's always like that isn't it? That's why I use up my sickies when I just want to have a lie in... chances are I won't be able to take time off when sick anyway. Mid week farewell bbq helps to chase sickness depression away ever so slightly.

2 weekends ago, started tanking up on Fri evening in preparation of Bob Dylan concert! By the time we begin walking to concert, opening act is surely over but we walk faster and slam ready-mix in hope Bob hasn't started yet! But he has and for 1 hour we listen to songs we have never heard in our lives. Slam from hip flask in hope concert will start making sense but to no avail... finally, first song in encore is Like A Rolling Stone and heave sign of relief that I know at least one song from total concert! So night continues with more walking and more pit stops before arriving at official farewell party destination, The Order of Melbourne. Many more drinks consumed and one more bar and house visited before finally stumbling back home again. Sat is crap yet again! Sat night, dress up and head out to yet another engagement party... what a year for couples around me and me getting engaged it has been! Drink wine based punch and hang out for a few years but of course body can't handle yet another alcohol bout so take it relatively easy. Sunday is not so bad after a few weeks.

1 weekend ago, plan a quiet Fri night with a few people and a couple of drinks at home and maybe a round of poker but things don't go according to plan and quiet night becomes rowdy poker session and at 1 am people insist we go out! So out we go... back to the scene of the 4 weekends ago crime and who even knows what happens for about 2 hours. Vague memories of agua shots and jagerbombs! Stumble out of the bar at 4 am and have crazy adventures on the streets because the boys are outta control... somehow bundle everyone and souvenirs from the street into a maxi cab and drag everyone home for more drunken hi jinks before thankfully everyone finally goes to sleep. This Sat is the crappest yet and everyone is definitely still wasted at 11:30 in the morning. Head to breakfast and eggs benedict are not helping the cause at all... Great news, Sat is free for the first time in months and can finally sit at home and do nothing for a night. Sunday is also relatively peaceful after a great night's sleep and amazing 22 degree weather and bright sunshine and sipping Coronas in friend's backyard.

Happy weather days are here again... however, slightly deceptive it's been since last weekend... blue skies, low twenties temperatures, light winds... and then today, we were blasted with total winter weather again, just a reminder from Mother Nature that today is still the last day of winter and spring is absolutely no guarantee of sunny skies!!!

Two farewells were also said :-( Sad, but such is life...

This weekend... absolutely no plans... but you know what they say about the best (non) laid plans...

Cold rain down on my face, buses hurry on... Work's out, here comes the race... People heading home...

So we are now officially past the halfway mark of winter but this is absolutely no guarantee of warmer happier weather in approximately 45 days.

I miss the warm sun... it feels like forever since she went away...

I even miss the 16 degree days and the 12 degree evenings... we are barely making it to double digits these days

This week we celebrated (or rather, commiserated) the coldest week in years... it rained and it hailed and it snowed (nearby) and the wind, oh dear god, the wind... such a cruel, bone numbing, brain freezing wind.

Waaaaaaaaaaaah... I feel awful... after weeks of subjecting my poor body to its usual rituals of cold drinks and harsh smokes, the added inevitable exposure to the elements courtesy mother nature in all her winter glory, has made my body screech to a grinding halt and scream enough is enough... you are now going to pay in slow, excruciating pain for what you put me through on a weekly basis and which I normally take with nary a complaint!!

The worst part is, this is like the calm before the storm... so I'm rather concerned about what's going to happen after this weekend... since Sunday night, I've had this severe pain in my sinus area and some desultory sniffling from the nose but no disgusting yellow phlegm or horrible pain in the throat which is always the harbinger of that most dreaded of winter afflictions, the mighty throat infection and flu requiring trips to the bathroom every 2 minutes to spit out all the phlegmy mucous and self-prescribed antibiotic tablets all the way from India every 6 hours. But anyway, all that I can deal with... it's awful and it sucks for about 4 days but then I'm always well on the road to recovery. This time, I feel like crap, I'm nowhere near 100% and yet, I have none of the usual cold, flu symptoms except for the heavy head and occasional drippy nose. But if I like do something, like walk from the couch to the kitchen or from work to home, it totally exhausts me which is why I know I am not 100%. So anyway, I am not medicating myself and have been waiting for improvements hopefully the whole week but absolutely nothing has changed since Sunday night and I am almost looking forward to the excesses of the weekend to act as the catalyst to bring on the storm... this false lull I just cannot handle anymore!

What a full weekend I have in store for me also... I have a work cocktail thing tonight and it's very unnecessarily black tie so I have to wear one skimpy cocktail dress now in the middle of winter... if I am not drowning in my own phlegm by Monday, but still feeling sick, I will be very very concerned. Tomorrow night, two housewarming parties to hop between and both are at some opposite corners of the world but such logistical issues will never deter such a hard core part"ier" as me... in the middle of all this recovering from tonight's hangover, getting wasted and party hopping, I must absolutely make it to Borders sometime tomorrow to pick up my new Harry Potter book. I pre-ordered of course but I fear if I go too late, I will miss out on the complimentary stuffed owl Hedwig... hehe! And also, I must make some time to read the damn book this weekend although I will fully savour the book and not read as fast as I can just to get to the end so by Monday, I will probably be the only one who has no idea who is going to die and will have to avoid all media like the plague because already the spoilers are spilling out in the thousands! I do not expect a non-Harry Potter person to get why this is a big deal at all. As much as I will miss the magical Harry Potter world, I read a rumour that next she is going to start writing mystery novels... sniff... my favouritest genre ever... good god, she will kick ass! And to round off this Harry Potter week of mine, I went to the movie last weekend at IMAX because the last 20 minutes had some 3D action... the movie was ok, couldn't come close to the book, but who really cares, Harry Potter is Harry Potter. The 3D was pretty lame.

Then, I'm trying to think if anything of great import happened to me since the last time I posted... I don't really think so... just the usual weekend shenanigans... ooh, one Sat night, we played poker and I kicked ass... we played with money for a change and I doubled my initial $10 kitty. Then, last Sat night, we went clubbing... just the weekend before I had noted that it had been a while since I had gotten to one of my total wasted stages where I am heaps of fun to be around but chances are I will not remember a thing the next day. So that was last Sat night... it could account for my feeling ill this week too!

Add to that, the weather is totally getting me down and there ain't no silver lining in sight... severe case of the winter blues... the fun weekend will hopefully drive them away temporarily!

Cold rain out on the street, I am all alone
With cold rain down on my face
I am heading home

We’re all going on a summer holiday, no more working for a week or two, fun and laughter on a summer holiday, no more worries for me and you

So what if summer has officially ended and a week or two is more like three nights… anytime spent in a rented beach house on the spectacular Great Ocean Road that one has visited way too many times in one’s lifetime although very surprisingly one hasn’t had to make the trip down there in over two years… woohoo… so now absence has made the heart grow fonder… counts as a “summer” holiday. So hello to three days of drinking, partying, eating and chilling… only the drugs are missing… what is this clean me? Well, not strictly, but still… cleaner me!

Do you remember those Cliff Richard movies? This one in particular, Summer Holiday, and the song, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. I mean, I knew it was an incredible lame, feel-good movie but I still watched it a number of times. The other song of his I remember so well which I think is also from either this movie or another soppy feel-good one is big news, big news, have you heard the headline story, I’m so happy, she’s in love with me. Haha!

Since my last post, I have managed to dodge the boredom slightly by attending Turkish birthday dinners with lethal belly dancers, watching a beer can being shoved up a chicken’s ass and then eating the same chicken once the beer had done its job of spreading flavour and warmth throughout the poor chicken, finishing a bottle of wine by myself at various BBQs as my drink of choice to avoid coke, drinking Mojitos at a delightful new rooftop bar discovery, making my Mom’s signature lemon cheesecake after many years, going to the gym on a regular basis believe it or not to proactively rid myself of the beer gut once and for all and tone those arms and legs, being the subject of a customer "incident" report after a sliver of glass somehow wedged itself into my foot at the supermarket, alas, thoughts of million dollar mental and physical trauma settlements have faded away since the cut healed itself in all of 2 hours, watching the final two episodes ever of the OC on television and almost pissing myself at the Bullit’s sons being named San Antonio, El Paso and Hanoi among various other amusing final moments, getting our row boat caught in a litter trap in the Yarra river and then promptly deciding to swim in it myself, just for a bit of Sunday morning fun… who needs to sleep in on a Sunday morning when really, you could be swimming with the fish and slime and litter and all the various other unidentified objects floating about in that beautiful Yarra. So yes dear friends… our boat got caught and we lost balance briefly and the next thing I know, I’m in the cold, disgusting water. We pulled a huge crowd and some passer-by actually blogged about it, although he obviously arrived on the scene only after the wonderful spectacle of me falling in. Can you believe I had to get back into the boat after falling in? I’m floating about, dog paddling, trying so hard not to touch the mossy slime a couple of metres below me and waiting for someone to give me a hand to pull me out of the water and onto sweet safe land and I’m just being fully ignored… people just continue discussing how to get us out of there and then tell me to haul my ass back into the boat… it was a supreme effort I tell you… I was shell shocked for the rest of the ride. Happy to report though that I have since been back twice and no untoward incidents have occurred. It’s always the question in my mind though… so, will I make it back to the boat shed today dry or soaking wet? Details AND PIX of our incident at the link below…

http://highriser.blogspot.com/2007/02/caught-in-trap.html

So anyway, now I’m off to Lorne so Happy Labour Day to everyone in Victoria… haha, who gives a crap… we have a holiday and that’s all that matters!

Update: How could I forget... I suddenly looked at the date and realised I was blogging on my best friend's birthday and not shouting out a special mention. Dear Sista T finally joins us 25 year olds today as her baby T turned the oh so big and important 1 yesterday! You're always on my mind (at the risk of sounding very Elvis soppy and senti) :-) Have a great one! Love ya.

A song for no one's in my hand A song they'll never understand Till I have gone And tomorrow brings the sun

From night skies dressed in clouds
Morning came, your taste in my mouth
I like the way that your hair falls down in your eyes
And you blush when you smile
When sleep combs your side then far away flies

I love the way that you stare when the sleep fills your eyes
So yesterday has gone
Who knows, tomorrow may bring all we'll desire
Tomorrow brings the sun

Kiss the world with fingers crossed
I've kissed the world with fingers crossed
I've been praised
I've been cursed
I've been blamed
And I've won
And I've lost

On waves that fill your heart
The future glides
I hope the serpents in the tide
Are all gone
What's done is done

A song for no one's in my hand
A song they'll never understand
Til I have gone
And tomorrow brings the sun

I’ve had this list of songs my whole life (well, it keeps getting added to) that I’ve always fantasised my loved one would serenade me with. Well, if not serenade per se, think of me whenever it plays and dedicate to me by explaining why it reminds him of me. I would feel strange to publish this list to him (cos that would be crass) because it happens that I listen to a song and think he should somehow read my mind and know too that that song was written for me and tell me so… . The list is long and varied… most of them are vague like this one… a song for no one… and then are the ones about women and relationships like Woman by John Lennon and She by Elvis Costello and then there’s Always A Woman by Billy Joel. I remember we were listening to it on shared earphones on our way to work one morning when we still had to travel 45 mins by tram and I explained how I wanted him to sing it to me because couldn’t he see, it was completely about me (it’s ok to be crass once in a while). So he said, not to worry, Billy Joel himself would sing it for me. This is true. I watched Billy Joel live in concert on Friday night. I’d like to tell you about my terribly exciting gig calendar but I am strangely not in a mood to crow about my love for U2 (although, believe me, I do love them)… I’m in a very vague mood… this could be because I’m finally moving on to bigger and better things. The risk with bigger and better things though is you just never know how really bigger and better they can be. And sometimes they’re neither.

Wow, Shakin’ Stevens and Give Me Your Heart Tonight just started playing. That’s another one. And I Love You by Saigon Kick. And The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra. And then there’s that other completely random Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day. You know, I was thinking about the bands I still have to watch live and I’m only missing Paul McCartney, R.E.M. and I realised that I would very much love to watch Green Day. And my aunt and uncle insist Beck is a must see but I don’t think I’ve heard any of their music in ages. Not that any of these people are coming over but they might. Modest Mouse who I really really liked for a while is playing on Dec 29 but I won’t be in Melbourne. The Killers wouldn’t be bad either.

Alright then… since I started talking about music I might as well talk about the concerts I’m going to watch/have watched in these two weeks… Billy Joel last Friday night, Pearl Jam this Thursday night and the grandest finale of them all, U2, baby this Saturday night. Oh, and I might as well throw in Roger Waters on Feb 1, 2007. Of these, I am more excited by U2 than I thought possible because I hadn’t even listened to my How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb LP that I received as a going away present from work in MARCH until one drunken Thursday night two weeks ago. And on that same night, I listened to the whole album once and then I listened to City of Blinding Lights for three hours perhaps… and believe you me, with an LP this is no easy task… one has to manually go over and position the needle every fucking time! But so seriously, until last Thursday all I wanted to watch U2 for was One and possibly With Or Without You and all the other randoms like Streets Have No Name and Sunday Bloody Sunday and everything but I really only cared about One. This is of course until I heard City of Blinding Lights and I will throw a severe tantrum and go into a dark depression if I do not hear them play this live after all that. I mean, them playing One is a given… it’s going to be a total final encore type song with the lighters in the air and everything. So yeah, we’ll see… either way, it’s going to be an awesome week.

Actually, it’s been pretty good for the last two weeks too. I heard some great news the previous Thursday and in preparation/anticipation/celebration had many drinks on Wednesday and Thursday night (the same U2 marathon Thursday). Then I took an extended break from work from Friday until Tuesday and luxuriated on the couch on Friday and accessory shopped for the house on Saturday and Sunday and did many household things on Monday and then Monday night arrived. Two legendary progressive DJs named Sasha & Digweed graced these shores… in fact, they graced the club right outside my house which was just an added bonus… I went for Sasha last year but apparently Sasha & Digweed together is an unbeatable combination and so went fully prepared for the time of my life and I have to say, I think I had it. I think there are some experiences better left unsaid because it is impossible to try and express with words how one really feels. I have had many such moments where there is always an overwhelming factor like the music or the lights or the people or the emotion and with one big whammy, I’m left speechless and either want to laugh or cry and sometimes do both. That Goa one on New Years Day 2002 and Roger Waters singing Comfortably Numb in Bangalore and some rainy and non-rainy moments heavily intoxicated and dancing under the moonlight with Mr. Moonlight and Mark Knopler playing Brothers in Arms in Melbourne and well, you get the idea…

Billy Joel was great. I never even fully appreciated how freaking brilliant he is on the piano. And when he sang Uptown Girl, I was so very very happy :-) That song, goes back so many fucking years, it's crazy. Of course the second encore finale was Piano Man and I have it entirely recorded on video on my phone… only, my voice singing along is seemingly louder than his… haha…

So, the days are blurring from one to the next as I wake up late and choose whether or not to come into the office… most mornings in the last two weeks, my head has had a light drum and bass band playing a welcome for the first two hours of the day and my throat has cried out in pain until I satisfied its demands for the elixir of life… The nights have been flying by with the aid of all manner of intoxicants and then there has been U2 and Pink Floyd at the crack of dawn.

Funny thing about U2… I've been an unconscious fan my whole life… When I listen to their Best of 1980 to 1990 CD, I can't help but associate memories with the entire CD… cos it would play in my car, over and over and over… as I drove through the hot, humid, dusty, streets… to college, to entertainment, to shop… the scorching sunlight abated somewhat by the air conditioning and the sunglasses…

Sometimes, as I drove home at evening or night, still humid and dusty but allowing a faintly cool breeze to come in by rolling the windows down a crack, belting out… walk on by, walk on through, walk till you run and don’t look back, for here I am… and at a lot of these times, I was hurrying home because I had the munchies and needed a food fix ASAP and all the frying smells in the air on the way home would drive me insane cos have you noticed that Madras (and quite possibly, India) smells of food everywhere you go… sure, there’s pollution and cow dung but heading home on the main streets, passing by the tea kadais and the street vendors, its impossible for that smell of something deep frying in oil to not come wafting across the cars and pedestrians and cows and noise…

And then a lot of the times, as I sat there stuck in traffic, outside the back entrance of my alma mater Good Shepherd and inching forwards towards Sangeetha’s and I’d be singing out loud as I tend to do in the car and people around me would sometimes give me amused glances and sometimes I’d be amused too and smile back but mostly I just tuned out and lost myself completely in whatever was playing… and then before I’d know it, I’d be over the Chetpet bridge and into the relatively sweet release of Poonamallee High Road… once I got to Annanagar, I always had this thing about the home stretch… it was my own special route from just before the infamous Annanagar Roundturner (which is pronounced by all and sundry as “roundtana”) to home a couple of blocks away… it was a major timesaving escape from the traffic at the Roundturner and it was down some peaceful streets with lots of trees and beautiful houses… and then this time I visited, they had concreted the main road so you couldn’t turn into the street anymore… the home stretch has never felt the same since.

So U2 were there and you were there too, and us, and them, and now U2 will be here again this weekend and I’m gearing up to bawl my eyes out because the beauty of it all will just kill me. And no one has put it better than I believe the Grateful Dead when they said…

What a long strange trip it’s been!

Spinning away, like the night sky On a hill, under a raven sky I have no idea exactly where I've been Some kind of change, some kind of spinning away

My last wild weekend in pictures (seems like eons ago now)… my first theme party in Australia I might add… Some kudos to myself (yeah, bring on the self congratulatory wishes) and fellow organiser Flowerchild.

The invite (designed by yours truly)


The banner (also me)


The party favours (some crappy $1 nail polish inside each takeaway box… it was really just for effect. How we attempted to draw martini glasses on the side with glitter glue and we found the most adorable martini glass stickers… but it was madness as we tried to finish all this at the 11th hour. Oh, lets not forget the thank you tags (thanks to Rat and sister Rat) and me maliciously mutilating it with a fork until Shutterbug came to the rescue with hole punch, blue tac and various other amenities.)

The video of NYC and Melbourne city images in the background (by Flowerchild… to set the mood)


The light bathroom reading


The food (yeah I apologise… you can’t really see it… but believe me when I say it was all very New York and hors d’oeveish. It was really cheap and easy too except driving what seemed like miles and miles to the little Middle Eastern bakery in the middle of nowhere for the mini quiches. How some people find these spots I don’t know but I nearly killed a few people turning into it. Yeah, goes against middle of nowhere if there were people to be killed but it’s complicated.)

The cocktails (of course, the best part… we had Apple Martinis and the signature Sex & the City drink, the Cosmopolitan. I know in my last post I said something about the tequila high… well the cocktail high is similar and much much better… I was floating… all night… brilliance… don’t miss the name tags so people didn’t lose their martini glass)

The bride


The hostesses


The girls (well, some…)


The dog (awwww…)


The boys (they had a stripper but from the pictures she looked old and boring… of course, they will beg to differ… in this pic, they’re pretending to be pirates, I don’t know why)





The merge (like on Survivor, but funner (I don’t believe that’s a word)… total chaos ensued… we ran out of all our booze and took to swigging straight from the Baileys bottle and some boys mixed tequila into the rest of the cocktails and boy was it foul… it completely messed some people up too)

The club (we went to this place called Marakesh which played the most awesome house and there were some incidents along the way as usual… let’s just say henceforth I will maintain a safe distance between my head and all things metal (cab doors, for example)… the club was a real blur… I was later told I consumed a shot or two of tequila which some people thoughtfully bought for everyone… this may or may not be true. I’m not even entirely sure how so many of us made it there cos it was in some alleyway and I guess there must have 1 or 2 less drunk people coordinating… I know that I will never be able to find the place again… I only remember dancing… and jumping up and down in happiness… and walking home in the freezing cold with the rain pouring down around us and ruining our fabulous dresses and high heels… and I also remember looking up at the heavens in wonder and delight… and laughing… and laughing…)

It was a perfect high and a perfect night. How come they all don’t turn out this way? I shouldn’t ask such silly complaining type questions… the truth is, I have nothing to complain about… except for a few dry spells here and there, the majority of my life has been pretty damn awesome.

On a completely unrelated note, I just walked through Myer which I tend to do when I need to go anywhere because once you get inside Myer, you can walk about 3 city blocks without having to be outdoors and on days like today that have a mild wind chill factor (ha, Melbourne weather does not understand the meaning of the word ‘mild’… it is either blistering heat or bone chilling winds) Myer is a most handy indoor route. So anyway, in Myer, they have already set up their 100 or so Christmas trees much in advance for the Christmas season. I’m sorry, but October? That is way too early even for me.

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.

It’s been a bad day. Please don’t take a picture. It’s been a bad day. Please.

I hate starting out my day in a black mood but sometimes it just can’t be helped. There is no real reason even. Just vague irritations creeping up on me from all corners. Maybe it is the mild hangover I am nursing. No, that’s not it. I never get hangovers. What does bother me is less than 8.5 hours of sleep because then my contact lenses are torture. So right now my eyes feel like poached eggs. I don’t really know how I know what poached eggs must feel like but surely this is it.

I was in a much better mood last morning. That was mainly because I received notice that U2 has FINALLY rescheduled for November. First Paul McCartney cancelled on me all those years ago and then U2 postponed on me earlier this year… it was quite a pleasant surprise indeed to find out they are coming back as promised. But I’m soooo not getting my hopes up again. Oh, and Billy Joel is also coming to Australia in November. But I think I plan to be in India then… it can’t be helped Billy ol’ chap… you’ll have to sing me a song another time. Speaking of Billy Joel, I heard Uptown Girl the other day after so long and I fell in love with it all over again.

Mmmmm… my morning toast and jam has helped ever so slightly. Although, it is some 0 point WeightWatchers fruit spread and it doesn’t taste all that wonderful. I don’t know why I even bother really… I know I don’t care enough about my weight and health. I still eat unhealthily and I quit gymming a few months ago. The 24 inch waist was a lost cause the minute I started drinking copious amounts of coke with alcohol. So now, as long as I don’t go beyond a 27 inch waist, I don’t give a crap. But I am trying to get back to breakfast everyday because we all know it is the most important meal of the day. I think you’re supposed to eat as soon as you wake up though – not 2 hours later. Well, it cannot be helped… my morning routine leaves no room for such luxuries. I have a real problem with waking up. Quite often I have a problem with falling asleep. But my real problem is waking up. I know that no one likes waking up early but you would have to get inside my head to understand just how intensely I dread it… and there’s no escaping the fact that I have to do it every freaking morning. Saturday is my only relief. Sunday I can’t take the chance of sleeping in because then falling asleep on Sunday night becomes an issue and Monday morning is that much worse. Yawn…

So anyway, I’m really enjoying my new food stash setup. Every couple of weeks I go to the supermarket at lunch and stock up on fruits, nuts, and chocolate, and breakfast items. Breakfast items include cereal, bread, and Marie biscuit type biscuits. I messed up on the cereal though – I bought some healthy looking Kellogg’s Special K thing with real fruits and it tastes horrible. I should’ve just followed my instincts and gone with Cocoa Pops… sigh… See, this comes back to the whole health thing. I don’t have it in me to eat stuff I don’t like just because it’s “healthy” so why am I even trying when it’s just going to sit in my desk drawer until next Christmas!? But my absolute favourite breakfast item is dunking my Marie biscuit type biscuits in hot coffee and having them melt in my mouth. I still can’t “drink” hot coffee, but I imbibe it through the biscuits and it is to die for! I hope I don’t get addicted to coffee though… there’s no room at the inn for more dependencies!

I haven’t eaten breakfast in four years. At home I sorta used to, especially when I was in school and college. Here, as a student I never woke up for breakfast, and as an employed individual, the snoozing has always been more important than the eating. Also I’m not into the whole Indian breakfast thing. I’m not a fan of idli vada dosai sambar… I know… and I call myself a South Indian! Indian food at lunch and dinner any day but the English and the “Continent” really have the breakfast thing down pat. Pancakes, sausages, eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, muffins, bagels, waffles, fresh fruit, fresh fruit juice… need I go on?! So my favourite breakfast/brunch activity is going to this place called Amici on Chapel Street… Amici means friend in Italian… just a little non-handy trivia… and they make the most unbelievable hollandaise sauce and the yummiest milkshakes. So that is a fortnightly routine… eggs Benedict on crispy bacon and freshly made toasted sourdough bread covered with a generous serving of hollandaise sauce and 1 chocolate thickshake, thanks! It’s all about the poached eggs today, huh? But seriously, handy travel tip… if ever this side, Amici on Chapel Street is a must-stop (and I’ve tried the same meals at other places and its never up to par)… and on a Saturday or Sunday around noon, look out for a rowdy bunch of people who quieten down considerably as soon as the food is served :)

Well I think I have bludged enough for one morning. Ha, the US dictionary does not recognise bludge but trust the Australian one to… and here I always thought it was slang. It means faffing, wasting time, etc. Ha, neither of them recognises faffing. I think I need to stop playing with the dictionaries and get back to work now. Goodbye!

Well it's too late, tonight, to drag the past out into the light

It’s been so long since I’ve written that suddenly this whole weekend the words have been tumbling out in my head and sometimes I really wish I had a Dictaphone or something so I could record these things I want to say as they come up in my head. Fuck, that was one hell of a long sentence.

So anyway, lots to tell. Work is really crap and I really want to get out of here but for now I’m just going to chill here because I’m going on holiday and what not. But like seriously, work is SOOOOO crap its not funny. Its just too complicated to get into right now so I’m just going to pretend that everything is hunky dory. And you know what, in my head, everything is really hunky dory because all I can think of is India… Madras… my home… my family… my friends… my dogs… it’s so close I can almost reach out and touch it. But of course I can’t… because there’s still a month and a half or so to get through… But then I think about it again and it’s like, what the fuck is 1.5 months in the greater scheme of things… because in my head, I’ve already planned the whole holiday… and in my head, everything is as it should be, as it used to be…

Last night I went to a friend’s house for a birthday party… and it was at his house, in his backyard… I can’t even remember how long it’s been since I’ve sat around in someone’s backyard… Backyards fucking ROCK! It was just so nice to sit there in someone’s honest to goodness house… normally it’s someone’s shitty rented apartment… Backyards remind me of house parties in Madras… how many have there been… my own house and its “front yard”… what tales it could tell… my terrace too… well if it came down to it, what tales my dogs could tell also… they’ve been there throughout… and I remember people trying to get my dogs stoned… poor babies… as if I hadn’t tried that already when I used to smoke in my bathroom before going to bed… they were just not into it… smart doggies!!

Today I went to a Cuban Jazz festival at a winery in Melbourne’s famous Yarra Valley… it was much fun, I say… there was dancing and bottles and bottles of wine… there were Salsa lessons that nobody followed really, and there were more bottles of wine… and there were grey skies and blue skies and raindrops on my face and the sun shining brightly… it was surreal... you know, that wine kinda lazy high...

It’s been a weekend of U2 and James Blunt… re-listening to U2 classics like “One” and “With or Without You” and discovering new songs like “Goodbye, My Lover” and “Tears and Rain”…

Well its too late, tonight, to drag the past out into the light… Its really quite something else to be going home again… its like a warm glow you can’t get away from really… Oh shit, working 10 hour days… oh wait, going home in a month and a half… its all OK…

You say goodbye, and I say Hello...

This is to announce the early retirement of this blog. My heart is just not in it anymore and I think I'd like to stop now before I lose the urge to write completely... because that would just be not right. So anyway, I am taking a break and I have to say it was a really fun trip. When my professor introduced us to Blogger in 2003 and went on about blogging being the next big 'community-building' tool, we kinda dismissed it all as geek speak. But he was right and I think he would be terribly impressed with the online community that I felt such a part of in the last few months.

I'm sure I'll be back soon. And I'll be sure to look you all up... Don't go anywhere, you hear ;)

Anyway, don't want to get too senti or anything... For now, its so long, and thanks for all the fish :)

A Day in the Life...

Firstly, thank you all so much... for the comments, the emails and the overall moral support and sympathy. With many of you, I don't even know your real names and it's really very touching to feel your sympathy and compassion across the bits and bytes in such a manner. And Rat and I were chatting on MSN yesterday and she said Appachen is slightly famous in blogworld now. I think he would've liked that :) So anyway, there ended an era...

I played hooky from work today. I wasn't really planning on it and I was even awake at 9:00 in the morning but something inside just cried for some time for myself. Time to think, time to be alone, time to mourn, time to just run errands that I'm always too hungover to run on the weekends...

So I called in sick and spent a rather luxurious morning on the couch watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off on my day off. Believe it or not, I've never watched that teenage classic before. How fucking cute is Matthew Broderick in it? When he was lip synching Twist & Shout at the parade (such a cute scene), I wished I had watched the movie in high school so I could've had a terriby desperate school girl's crush on him. Ah well...

After lunch (Nutella sandwiches) and a shower, I set off for a jaunt around the city. What I miss most about student life is walking around the city in the daytime. Of course, then, I had no money so I could only walk and look. And of course, now, I have no time to do anything. Today was a glorious winter's day. Bright sunshine and no wind, so just the tiniest little nip in the air and really a very pleasant day to walk about in. So I ran a couple of errands and then proceeded to the optometrist for a checkup. God has blessed me with the constitution of an ox but when it comes to my teeth and my eyes, He has always played a rather cruel game with me. Admittedly, I didn't help the situation much by eating chocolate all the time and not brushing twice a day or reading by candlelight when the power went out and never touching carrots, but still... So anyway, visits to the dentist and optometrist are always dreaded although my last visit to the dentist was pretty non-eventful very surprisingly. So anyway, I wear contact lenses and my eyes have been bothering me for a while now... a general irritation and soreness... and after putting my eyes through much torture (this includes those bloody alphabet tests, I HATE THEM, I'm always certain to fail the tiniest letters test) the optometrist says "You're not going to like me" and I'm thinking uh oh and ask "Why" and he's like "You need to stop wearing your lenses for a while. You have a Conjunctivitis allergy". So, I have to wear my horrible glasses continuously for a week or so. I haven't done that since age 14. My glasses don't look horrible but after wearing lenses all the time, going back to wearing glasses is so fucking uncomfortable. And what about when it rains? What then, HUH?? Ok, I'll stop throwing a tantrum like a small child now!

After the depressing visit to the optometrist and wearing my GLASSES instead of my sunglasses, I set off to get my eyebrows done. My regular place was booked out and I tried this tiny Wax & Nail place and the lady said all the professionals were busy so if I wouldn't mind getting it done by a student... I was slightly hesitant but really wanted to get them done so went ahead. So I lay on the bed and closed my eyes and heard much muttering in a foreign language from the two petite Asian "students" attending to my eyebrows. I was rather concerned that it was all going to go horribly wrong but by this point there was nothing I could do. On the whole, it turned out ok. Certainly could've done with more shaping but at least I still have two of them in reasonable shape.

Then I ate an ice-cream (Baskin Robbins Triple Choc... as I am also on weight loss mentality, shouldn't have but what the hell) and spent some time messaging this lazy Rat who informed me that she had taken sickie due to hangover. Tsk tsk... I wish I could've also taken sickie for such a fun reason!

Finally I went into Borders to buy some more books (also on the agenda for today was to join a library but didn't have time in the end)... I'm currently going through books at a highly frantic pace and really need to join a library to curb the spending on books. But I tell you, going into a bookstore for me is like a kid in a candy store or my boyfriend in an electronics store or car accessories store. And always I wish I could just take over the whole store. Oooh, I think maybe one day I should run a bookstore... it will make me very happy! Today I purchased a 4 book compilation of Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot mysteries.

Oh, also dashed into Church real quick. Outstanding Catholic (Catholic who never goes inside Church and always stands outside, joke from some jobless uncles of mine) that I am, its been a really long time and I felt the need as I frequently do when it's been more than a couple of months and also the need to pray for the departed soul of my grandfather and all that. The Church has installed these automatic doors and I was rather alarmed when they swung open almost in my face with a great loud creak... I totally missed the signs that said 'Automatic Doors opening outwards. Stay clear'! Anyway, they proved to be highly distracting with that loud creak even when you were inside the Church.

So now I am home again. Been chatting with Lavi who is making me all homesick for such items as roti and mattar paneer. All I have for dinner is puff pastry which serves as roti when made on the tawa and some rather suspect Dum Murgh I made last night. Well, Dum Murgh is what Sanjeev Kapoor calls it... he is my latest recipe book man... it is really just a glorified chicken curry and actually its not all that bad. Anyway, all this talk of food has made me rather hungry. The rest of my day will involve eating leftovers, watching the season finale of Lost and oooh, almost forgot, I need to pack. I'm heading off to the mountains tomorrow for a ski/snowboard weekend, not that I've ever attempted either. Been to the snow once before though... was quite a chill experience (pun intended)!! And on Monday I go to Sydney on work so I hope to be back in blogworld by Tuesday at the latest ;)

"Its all about world domination"

That’s what the chief protagonists of the game Risk kept telling me last evening when I asked what the game was about as I’d never played before. “So, what’s the game about”, I asked. “It’s all about world domination”, he replied. “So how do you play the game”, I asked. “You try and totally dominate the world”, he replied. Four hours and many defeated armies later I couldn't have put it better myself. Essentially the globe is equitably divided between all the players and you attack other territories and defend your own. And you have little infantry men standing guard on your territories and the image of these little men with their guns pointing upward are strangely chilling (especially when you’re getting ready to attack) even though you know its only a game. Although, some of us playing had difficulty remembering it was just a game… Wives annihilated husbands, friends turned on friends, Egypt declared “jihad” on North America, even my own S very seriously said to me, “If I have to get rid of you, I will… because this is war baby and there ain’t no love here”.

There was no winner… it might’ve turned into a physical fight if we’d continued to battle each other to the death on the board. We tried playing Dumb Charades after but that turned into a shouting match as well because I think we were all still smarting from our global domination efforts and the extra rowdy effect caused by all the beer. I’d forgotten how much of a hangover six bottles of beer can give you. This morning was NOT cool.

The first half of the weekend was also fun. Friday night was the usual piss-up and I met up with a few people I hadn’t seen in a while. There was some drunken Harry Potter discussion also I feel. At home, I felt the urge as I quite frequently do when drunk to call someone and I decided to honour my sister with the call this time but she had her phone switched off. And then I couldn’t stop myself from calling my Mom to find out what was up with that. I sooooo need not stop ringing my parents and/or grandparents when drunk. Surely they must know that I am heavily intoxicated.. the late hour, the slightly higher pitched voice, the extra laughing for things I normally wouldn’t laugh at, always some drunken boys in the background being loud and abusive and sometimes even singing the National Anthem… they were doing that on Friday. My parents were like what the hell is going on and I’m like they’re singing the freaking National Anthem and I have no clue why. But anyway, mostly they also just laugh and don’t bring up the drinking which is very good of them as the next morning I am always incredibly embarrassed about having called them whilst under the influence.

Something they said though just stuck with me the whole weekend. My 15 year old sister was out a friend’s house and they were on their way to pick her up and they said, “It’s almost like we’re alone now. Its like both our daughters have left home”. When I was 15 and treating my house like a hotel, my sister was always at home. But now she’s started leading her own life too and I can’t imagine how that must be for parents, to come home to an empty house all the time.

Anyway, for now, she’s still there on a part-time basis at least. Apparently she’s playing the “You let my older sister go out all the time” card quite often these days and that is such bullshit… I went out quite a bit but she still seems to be doing things a couple of years in advance and the path is just so much easier for her since I’ve done it all before. I think that after fighting with me tooth and nail about my partying lifestyle (okay, that was an exaggeration, they got over it in a few months) and seeing that nothing really happened to me, its easy for them to be mellow and more unconcerned about my sister. Still, they don’t have too much of a clue of what its really like for a teenager these days and I think that that 15 year old kid sister of mine will warrant some watching in the years to come!

Oh we made one another cry

Rat has her song of the week. I have my song connected to a memory thing. Its not a regular weekly thing. Sometimes there will be many songs in one week and sometimes there won’t be songs for many weeks… it’s all up to what iTunes Party Shuffle throws at me and how often I switch it on (as an aside, my boyfriend and housemate think I really should be working for Apple’s iTunes division… they can’t get me to shut up about its virtues over such lesser players as Windows Media and Real Player for example)!

So anyway, today, I heard The Games People Play by Tesla. Like any other 13 year old at the time, I was only familiar with that extremely happy reggae version of The Games People Play by Inner Circle. And then my extremely cool, 18 year old, heavy-metal-listening family friend made me listen to Tesla’s version and he even recorded a tape for me with it and all sorts of cool songs that I liked at the time or which he thought were cool. I remember there was Roxette’s Vulnerable (I looooved that song) on it as well as East 17 (how cool were they at one point)!! Anyway, he was a family friend from the day I was born, he attended all my birthday parties (till I made them exclusive to my friends from school), he had a younger sister around my age and he treated me like one too, he teased us mercilessly when we were growing up, he pinched our cheeks and stole our dolls, we played Red Indians (or was it Cops and Robbers) and Hide and Seek and someone always ended up in tears or with a bloody knee, our families (and a few others) went on picnics and trips and we swam in seas and lakes and swimming pools and we went Christmas Carol singing every year and so the torture continued.

And then he grew up… he still teased us, but in a nice way… his position as chief torturer was taken over by many other more juvenile boys and now we’d just say to him, tell them to leave us alone and he’d tell them to leave us alone and they would actually listen sometimes!! Around this introduction to Tesla time I spent a lot with him and his sister at their house… quite often I’d stay over and we’d stay up all night talking and laughing and listening to music. When I was 13-14, my Mom used to let me go hang out with his sister and him and his friends… I was allowed to go for movies and concerts sometimes… we spent three New Years Eve’s together from ages 13 to 15, him and his sister and a few of their friends and a few of my cousins. So anyway, I’m not sure what my point is anymore or if there was one to begin with. I suppose at the naïve age of 14 or 15 I just thought that him and his sister would be my best friends until the day I died. It didn’t really turn out that way… from ages 16 till now I must’ve met them around 15-20 times. He even got married just last month and obviously I wasn’t there. And I remember their mom once said the test of true friendship is whether you can pick up wherever you left off since the last time you met.

So yeah, maybe they’re not my best friends anymore and maybe I don’t hang out with them all the time anymore, but there are times I remember them (like today) and the fun things we did growing up and there may be times in the future when our own children will play Cops and Robbers together (or more likely, they will battle for supremacy on a PlayStation or Xbox)!

Everyone has these family friends that you spend your whole childhood with and if you’re lucky enough it continues beyond that. Since they knew you from the time you were a cranky baby, there are no pretensions or stereotypes involved in hanging out with them. They bore witness to all your tantrums and fussy habits of eating only curd rice and French fries and they listened without complaint to you singing the same nursery rhyme over and over again (apparently I did this)! They are the closest thing to family (duh, that’s why they call them family friends I suppose) and sometimes they’re dearer than some random members of the family you don’t really care about or see often!

I just remembered something else about this song… when I was listening to it in the car with my grandparents once, they were rather confused about why I was listening to hymns… they only caught the Glory Hallelujah part!

Oh, something else I remembered... Rat had a HUGE crush on him when we were 14.

No Ordinary Day

Today has been different

Item 1:
It is such a warm winter’s day, I cannot express my joy at having had such weather… trust Melbourne to be so out of whack… there have been summer days way colder than today. It was really really pleasant drowsily waiting at the tram stop in the sun… it even became kinda hot after a while but I was too lazy to remove my scarf and winter coat… so that was a pleasant change

Item 2:
There was a very nice tram inspector on board my tram this morning. I do not evade fares (any more). I got away with fare evasion when I was a poor student but made a deal with God (kinda blasphemous but what to do) that if I didn’t get caught and fined during my struggling student days, I would definitely buy a ticket once I started working. So now I buy monthly tickets and the other day the stupid validator on the tram was all crook and completely messed up my ticket. I know that when this happens you’re expected to buy yourself a new ticket and get in touch with the authorities that be to send you a replacement ticket. But there was no way I was spending another $100 the day after I bought the fucking ticket and then mail the old ticket to the authorities, etc… it would just lie on my desk for days on end and I’d be $100 poorer… So I decided to take my chances on travelling with my screwed up ticket and today the tram inspector was very nice about it. He gave me a “permit” to travel for another month (he just took my word for when the ticket was meant to expire) and didn’t fine me or anything. Very nice… normally these fuckers are just dying to do you in!!

Item 3:
My company is introducing performance management for the first time and we had a session on what it all meant. It got me all fired up thinking about career progression and what not but having known my boss for 1.5 years, I find it very hard to imagine actually seriously sitting down with him and planning all this out. That one is going to be a real challenge.

Item 4:
There was an actuary in this session and he decided that since I was from IT (I only work in the department, I’m not actually a developer or anything) I could answer all the questions he’s always wanted to ask about IT and never could! So I patiently answered all his questions about the passwords for different systems and why we couldn’t just have the ONE password for ALL the bloody systems… This didn’t really fit under “what was so different about today” but just thought I’d add it in anyway!

Item 5:
My boyfriend S has been having debilitating back problems off late and today the chiropractor told him to just chill at home for the next few days and not damage his back further by sitting on the uncomfortable chair at work… what a lucky bastard! I mean, yeah, poor fellow, he really is in a lot of pain, but as I’m typing this he’s happily watching DVDs at home while I toil and toil to bring home the bread (hahaha… that only ;))! So anyway, he was around here at lunchtime and we had lunch together which is quite rare since our workplaces are far apart… it was also damn funny because we picked up our housemate as well because S needed something from him and our entire household had lunch together on a week day… cannot remember the last time that happened! It reminds me of the day when I took a sickie from work due to a massive hangover from too much wine the previous night and that just happened to be the hottest day of 2005 so these guys decided to come back home around noon and we then proceeded to the beach and had a very enjoyable time indeed playing hookey from our respective workplaces!

Item 6:
In the midst of all my performance management sessions, lunches with boyfriends, blogging, etc., etc., I have managed to do quite a bit of work today!!

I’m off for the day now… the rest of you’ll in different time zones, happy rest of the day!