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

And the hardest part was letting go, not taking part… you really broke my heart…

Wow… can’t lay claim to the mid-20’s for much longer… how the world turns and how the time flies… It’s like I blinked my eye and there went my childhood and my adolescence… happy days, all.

And now here I stand, a young adult… I guess this is kind of the end of another era… my last unmarried birthday… by next year this time, I’ll be someone’s wife… woah… that just feels slightly older than young adult.

Anyhoo (sorry Guitarman :-))… as per my new life outlook, no melancholy about getting older. Instead, I will embrace the fact that I am technically another year wiser… (really, I am)!

So since we last chatted, that weekend didn’t turn out to be quiet as originally thought after all… Fri night was a drinks on the town session, Sat was an all day bbq and beer session (not that I drank) and Sun was quiet recovery. Then the weekend after, again, the Fri night was a drinks on the town session and this one went kinda outta control again what with agua shots and jagerbombs yet again… we need to sooooo stop visiting that bar… the bartender is our new friend and he fully encourages us. I vaguely remember everyone coming back to our place and playing Pink Floyd and Toto and singing at the top of our lungs at 4 in the morning… poor neighbours. That Sat was another wedding dress expedition… I am soooooo over it. Then we hung out in a music store for about 2 hours while the Guitarman purchased a brand new electric guitar and I mused the sad fact that that guitar of mine has just been sitting in it’s stand untouched for almost a year… I really must learn a song or two… let that by my resolution in this new year of my life. Then we went to the bar beside the river of yours truly fame for a couple of beers with a couple of friends. And then we welcomed back Sam newly returned from a trip home and I finished a whole packet of murukus by myself… it was unreal heaven, and the best part was I got to take a packet home with me (not that it lasted long)!!

Finally, last weekend was a trip to some friends’ parents’ house out in country NSW called Grifith. It’s about 5 hours drive and we rented a people mover to take all 7 of us… the car was great… it was roomy and comfy and had 8 cup holders which were incredibly convenient because even the esky so sweetly fit between the front 2 sweets so it was almost tooooo easy to fix drinks the whole way up. And that’s just what we did… it was awesome… we also had great music so we sang a lot and after the stars came out it was just totally surreal to look at the sky, sip my drink and sing along to the songs of my youth and occasionally laugh at something someone else says or something I say myself. I also remember stumbling in to meet the parents and eating the most amazing biriyani we’ve eaten in a while since it was all so wonderfully home cooked. Oh, and who can forget the cutlets… my all-time favourite item.

The Saturday we woke up after very few hours of sleep and after a healthy brunch of idli, dosa, departed on a winery tour since the Region is big on wine and wine making. Tasted about 3 wines and the buzz from the previous night just came rushing back. Met a few cute dogs, took pictures beside a body of water called Lake Wyungan, and then paid a visit to a farm. It was a total Ol’ McDonalds farm with sheep and horses and chickens and dogs and a special little treat… we see kangaroos hanging out in the wild. It was a great experience… we got a crash course in sheep shearing and crop planting and land leveling and we saw first hand the impacts of the drought and water restrictions… so terrible… it really breaks my heart.

The rest of Saturday was a blur with plenty and plenty of alcohol and more cutlets and some mouth watering pork curry, potato and paneer mutter. It was unreal… for real. One by one people dropped like flies until there were only 3 of us left (me, as usual… I can party till the cows come home, man)…

The Sun was truly terrible… the channa bhutoora and chicken chettinad helped ever so slightly. And then it was time to depart back to Melbourne… it was actually a fun drive back considering we were all so f***ed up… we smoked a couple, laughed about the events of the weekend, watched the fingers of God reach out through the sky, I tripped out watching the trees this time, sang even more songs, witnessed a truly insane wind and dust storm, stopped at a 24/7 diner for coffee and a snack only to have the power go out and them telling us to get out… it was spooky… very Texas Chainsaw Massacre like… the wilderness, the storm, the power cut and everything… But we reached Melbourne safely after all. What an awesome trip!!!

It didn’t end there… Mon night, we caught up to eat the leftover food the parents sweetly sent back with us… was even better because we were actually able to remember what we were tasting this time. Also, considering the excesses of the weekend, it was mind boggling that we all had a few drinks that night. I decided to put it in my birthday week quota ;-)

And now we are here in the middle of my birthday week… it’s only getting better… I have the Steely Dan concert tomorrow, not sure what I’ll get up to on the Friday but I have my presents to look forward to at midnight, and then the birthday on Sat with all the exciting overseas phonecalls and finally, the mandatory partaaaaay on Sat night!!! It’s going to be great. I really miss my sister though and wish we could celebrate our birthdays together… it’s hard letting go… it really breaks my heart. Happy birthday baby sister…

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

Happy Anniversary to Me... Happy Anniversary dear So Called Life... Happy Anniversary to Me

I would now like to congratulate myself on one continous year of blogging... even if I have been averaging only about 2 posts per month, at least I have every single month since June last year on record. I look at my 2005 archive and it shows 65 posts... how on earth?! I must've been super freakin' jobless... especially considering the average length of my posts and it was only over a period of 6-7 months. This last year, I haven't even reached half that. Anyway, we have reached the end of one month of winter and it has been horrific... I am ready to kill myself... really... it hasn't been this cold in June the last few years... too depressing!

On the work front, I moved to a different client and project 2.5 weeks ago and that has accounted to my slackness in updating but it has been great working here compared to my old project. Probably another 2.5 weeks here before I move on to the next client.

On the personal front, last time I touched briefly on the citizenship thing so to elaborate, yeah, after two years and some of being permanent residents we were eligible to take up citizenship so we did! I still have to apply for my Australian passport and then I have to get one of them Overseas Citizens of India cards and I believe I have basically lost my right to vote in India which I never gave a shit about anyway but now have to vote here or you get fined and stuff so that'll be rather annoying although I think they have online ballots and all which should be convenient. The ceremony was ok... we took a pledge of committment and then our names were individually called out to receive our certificates and I was on the edge of my seat waiting for my name and of course when it was called, I almost tripped and fell because my heel had gotten tangled in my handbag strap but made it to the stage and off without incident. Then we all sang the National Anthem which is not that hot an anthem and we were given native plants which I have promptly killed with neglect as always. The citizenship interview that we went for before all this ceremony jazz was actually funnier because they just look over your application and you have to mug up these rights and duties of being an Australian citizen and we mugged and mugged on our way there and since we both went in together, we were competing with each other to give the right answers when the officer asked us for them. Anyway, I really don't like at it as a betrayal of the motherland because the motherland will always be home but at the same time, this country in all it's 'bogan'ness (Australian slang for red neck type people) and 1980's atmosphere has taken me into it's warm embrace and for that I will always love it.

Then what else has happened... a good friend has left to work in the UK and travel around Europe for 2 years so that was a bit of a bummer... he's been our friend since our first day in Australia and we've had some fun times. It's not fair that I should bid goodbye to people and move to another country and start from scratch to build something similar to what exists at home and then people should go and ruin it by bidding goodbye themselves. Ah well... we now have accomodation in the UK!

So there were a couple of smashed as farewell parties... at one of them, we booked a karaoke room for 2 hours and they said we could hang out longer since no one else had booked it so we hung out for 4.5 hours in total and sang for all that time. It was really insane... I've never karaoked like that in my life. At the end, the departing couple (she's actually still here for another couple of months) gave prizes to best female and male singers. I won female which if I hadn't, deep down I would've been most upset... haha... but the prizes were these awful naked men and women playing cards. The naked men are sitting on my coffee table... they look super freakin' fake though!

Then, I've been for a couple of shows in the last week... last Sat night, we went to Cirque du Soleil - Varekai... it was unbelievable. Cirque du Soleil is this global company of human circus performing artists and they perform crazy as acrobatic stunts on ground and in the air and tell a story at the same time... some great music too. It was very unique and breathtaking. Then on Tue night, I went to watch a production of the musical Miss Saigon. It's about an American GI who falls in love with a Vietnamese 'woman of the night' just before the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. It was tragically beautiful... some great songs!!

My gig calendar for 2007 has been pretty good so far and I've still got a few shows to go. At the beginning of the year, watched Roger Waters live in concert and Snoop Dogg, Beastie Boys and various other artists and DJs at a music festival. This month was these two shows. In August, I've got Bob Dylan... I hope he plays the songs I know and love. And in September I've got Steely Dan whose music I've got to get more familiar with and a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera which is my favouritest Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

So that's been it pretty much... weekend ahead to look forward to. Oh, also went wedding dress shopping and that was pretty overwhelming. Most are Cinderella type with these fairytale stiff skirts with hundreds of layers and we were joking how my fiance could hide under there at the wedding and light up a spliff and hotbox it... it would also create this fantastic smoke effect of me walking down the aisle! Anyway, I don't think I'm going down that path so will have to keep looking.

Until next time and the next year of blogging, adios!

You’ll say we got nothing in common, no common ground to start from and we’re falling apart. Then I said what about Breakfast at Tiffanys...

Gee whiz… when things happen, they happen all at once. And sometimes nothing happens at all… like I think I was bemoaning nothing happening in like Feb and then suddenly life became hectic in March and we’re already at the end of April? Did time fly so when I was a child? I don’t think so really… what was life after all but a school timetable and weekends… so now its work and weekends but somehow it flies… I guess, cos there is no timetable. Well whatever, I have lots of updating to do on this blog. The real reason I continue to maintain this blog at all (with everyone on the blogroll being so slack at updating) is so I have a record of my life to look back on in one, two, five, ten, thirty years… it’s amazing the little things one forgets that one never expected to forget but forgot anyway, so the blog helps greatly. I wish I’d had a blog before I left India… I mean, I used to write stuff in a journal before I left India but it’s not the same as recording life events on a blog because a blog is public and a journal is private and I got over ‘Dear Diary, I did this and this and that between 3:00 and 5:00 pm today’ by age 12. So this blog is more like a dear diary in the sense of ‘Dear Diary, I went to x parties this weekend and got wasted at x of them…’ and then I can read these entries at some later point in my life when my life isn’t all that happening and then I can feel nostalgic for the good times and may want to kill myself at being reminded of a better time, but who knows… it may indeed only ever get better (but I doubt it).

So if you’re still reading, I left off at the long weekend holiday? The weekend that followed was meant to be really quiet because of the wild holiday weekend but it ended up that a friend and I met for a quiet drink or two at 5:30 pm on a Friday evening at this delightful bar along my one-and-only-close-to-my-heart Yarra river… by 8:00 pm, we had grown to 12 people and maybe 5 rounds down. And of course, that’s when we should’ve stopped and just GONE HOME. But of course we didn’t and of course we partied on and eventually I think we got home at 3:00 am. This is the trouble with Fridays – you always start off so early because it’s straight after work and sometimes it gets out of freaking control. It was an awesome night though – lots of laughs and tram and China Bar incidents! China Bar deserves a post of its own – it’s a mildly dodgy Chinese fast food place that doesn’t have a liquor licence but serves you Victoria Bitter beer anyway and I’m not a fan of Asian food but I don’t mind going to China Bar once in a while and eating the roti channai, which is like roti and chicken curry but I really couldn’t handle the place in my soberness and so most times we go there when we’re smashed and do crazy things like sing the Indian National Anthem. The rest of the weekend should’ve been quiet, but again, it wasn’t! I think I ate off our friend’s bbq for all meals beginning on Sat afternoon until Sun evening because Sat night he brought it over to our place and I actually spent a pleasant quiet evening by myself watching a Poirot whodunit on TV and then Sun afternoon, we had a tiny bbq partaay to watch the Australian Grand Prix on TV. The race was great, except for Ferrari winning of course. But how awesome is that young little Lewis Hamilton??!! So sweetly and talentedly he’s made it to the podium also every race since.

Then there was a week of work as usual but I do believe a few of us went out to dinner to a fancy schmancy Sri Lankan place that Thursday night and I finished almost an entire bottle of wine so was decidedly seedy the next morning at work. I was meant to go lawn bowling that evening with work but decided to give it a miss and went home to rest and I think slept for 12 hours+ that night. The next day I woke up well refreshed to find out India was pretty much out of the World Cup… Mr. Moonlight had stayed up most of the night to watch the match so was decidedly seedy that day and I convinced him to have an afternoon nap since we were going out that evening although at the time I was clueless about the things in store for me later that night. So then I did many household chores being in a domestic mood and expecting houseguests on the Monday and so forgot to wake him up and he was fully panicked about being late to this thing we were going to which was apparently some work friend of his party type thing. I of course never panic because I am never on time to anything ever! So I was done with my shower and hanging out in the bedroom and cutting my nails I think when I hear him on the phone outside trying to make a dinner reservation??!! So when he comes in I’m like, what’s the deal with the dinner reservation, I thought we were going to a party and he’s all, oh what are you talking about… very lame attempt at covering. But so anyway, I sorta fully guessed then that he was going to propose to me that night because well, I don’t know, I just knew. And then we sat in the car and he played a CD he’d burnt that day and the first song was Penny Lane and that was sooo funny and sweet and typical of him and just confirmed it. The rest of the songs were all the other songs we’ve considered our own over the years… there was Sweet Child of Mine, Can’t Help Falling in Love, She, Annie’s Song, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Strangers in the Night, and then he drove us to this stretch of road along the Williamstown beach where the waves dash against the embankment and there’s a lighthouse and everything and then on the way he pretended he was making up this poem and would give me two new lines every two minutes but really he’d composed it earlier and had to improvise anyway since he forgot half of it and it was just really funny and sweet because by now I was fully certain of what was coming. The reason for the beach was because we first met at the beach all those years ago (7 years and some months to be precise) at that wonderful rendezvous of our youth, EC-41… Then once we’d parked he proposed and got out of the car and got down on his knees and put the ring on my finger! Ah, the ring… the most fabulous exciting bit to any engagement and mine is absofuckinglutely stunning… I love it… it’s a half carat diamond in a platinum setting and it’s from Tiffanys cos Audrey Hepburn style, I’m just craaaazay about Tiffanaaays! Tiffanys has a special significance in our relationship because right from the beginning we never had anything in common except partying and drinking and smoking, and then we had a fight in the early days and I think this song just happened to play and it made us smile so since then he only has to play this song when we’re fighting and it makes us laugh. So when we discussed getting married and stuff in recent years, my only wish (well, by only wish, I don’t really mean only wish – I’m a woman, I’m allowed to have million wishes and dreams for my engagement and wedding) was that the ring be from Tiffanys! Here’s a picture for you but it really needs to be seen in the flesh.

So there we were, engaged after all this time and it was a wonderful exciting feeling. We went to dinner and called all our friends in Melbourne and met a few of them after dinner and I finished a whole bottle of wine in excitement/celebration. The next morning we called up our families and spoke to a few friends in India and basked in the glow of moving on to the next step, scary as it may be. We also had shitloads of cleaning to do that day because the next day a friend from Brisbane and a few members of his family arrived in Melbourne to stay with us and there was barely any time to think for all the people around us and overseas phone calls to make and receive! That week was a total blur with friend getting wasted every night and me having to work so only got wasted one night mid-week. Laughed a lot that week but I think one of my favourite nights that week was just a random week night… I wasn’t drinking, friend was already down something like 6 beers, haha, we went to dinner and it was pouring that night and freezing cold but still lovely because it was raining because as you may or may not know, I love a rainy night. Then we took a drive and picked up a couple of other friends and there were 5 of us in this car on this rainy night with nowhere to go but aimlessly drive and it was just a total Madras flashback! So we ended up in some random outer suburb and parked in some random shopping centre parking lot to have a smoke and a spliff in the freezing cold (cos we do not smoke in the car, some things have changed from when we were juvenile, mildly delinquent teenagers) and then drove back into the city :-) Was so simple and fun and non-alcoholic and reminiscent of MADras!

So that weekend was my “fiancé’s” pre-birthday bash… it was at the rooftop bar I mentioned a couple of posts ago and was another crazy, drunken night that ended at 4:00 in the morning. That Saturday night was someone else’s birthday party so couldn’t recover from hangover and went out that night too but didn’t drink on this occasion so got home fairly early. Sunday was a day of relative rest I think but don’t fully remember and then Monday night we had to stay up till midnight to bring in his birthday and give him presents although there was nothing major cos he only wanted cash and then the next day was a stressful day at work and that evening went to Guitarman’s house to celebrate Mr. Moonlight’s birthday and also Big City Dude’s birthday the day after so quiet bbq and drinks AND a boob cake :-) I will have to find and post the pictures of that cake… was unbelievably delicious even! The next day, had another stressful work day and hurriedly packed and flew to Fiji that night, but that’s a whole other tale!

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind, Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time

I just ate about 10 strawberries and was musing on the fact that as a child I was obsessed with strawberry ice cream. And then I remember the day the local ice cream parlour started selling fresh strawberry ice cream i.e. there were little bits of fresh strawberry (but now I wonder, were they really fresh? They must’ve been like dehydrated and frozen and then added to the ice cream like they do with fruit in cereals these days, but anyway) in the strawberry ice cream and my parents got more excited for me than me but it never tasted the same to me again. So now I eat vanilla… it might sound boring but I think vanilla is the most exciting flavour there is… it’s so creamy and milky and tasty… mmm… I also like chocolate and I looooove cookies and cream. I never ever eat strawberry ice cream anymore. But I have become so obsessed with ice cream in the last couple of months… that’s all I want for dessert, ever. Even chocolate doesn’t have the ability to melt my tastebuds anymore… I heart ice cream. I’m not a huge fan of bars and I hate those fruity ice concoctions… what I love is smooth creamy vanilla ice cream (and 97% fat free I might add, the one that I buy from the supermarket) I can scoop into a bowl and add chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles too… that’s what I’d do when I’d have the munchies at home and nothing to wake up for the next morning… I would snack and snack and sometimes it’d be savoury potato chips and ketchup or muruku, but a lot of the times it was sweet sweet vanilla ice cream, Hershey’s chocolate sauce and rainbow sprinkles… oh god, it was to die for. Australia, being somewhat anti-America does not sell Hershey’s… can you imagine (don’t really know if it’s related to anti-Americanism in any way but the point is they don’t)? At least they sell Heinz ketchup… I dislike Australia’s version of tomato sauce most definitely… so their version of chocolate sauce is also most disgusting so I just make do with the plain vanilla ice cream and occasionally add rainbow sprinkles… but believe you me, it is never plain vanilla ice cream to me. Sigh… I want to be home raiding my freezer right about now…

So a quick rundown on the crazy trip to Lorne two weekends ago… it was a great trip… I laughed non-stop and pretty much drank non-stop except for the 6 hours of sleep every night.

Word of the trip – Homo… (not in a prejudiced against gay people manner but simply an innocent Eric Cartman manner… oh darling Cartman, one day I will devote an entire post to the hilarity of you)

Drink of the trip – Mojito… (we’d make like 1 or 2 pitchers of cocktails and then get very tired of muddling the ingredients (I own a very awesome cocktail muddle now) so I’d switch back to Bacardi & Coke)

Joke of the trip – JosA and JosB

View of the trip - The view of the Indian/Southern Ocean in all her glory from the convenience of our terrace


Semi-scariest moment of the trip – Oh my god, what is that orange steadily rising up from the horizon??!! It’s an explosion, run for cover… haha (turned out to be a very orange moon… the amazing thing was we found a pair of binoculars in the house and you could actually see the craters on the top half of the moon… intense… imagine a telescope)


Outdoor moment of the trip – Boogie boarding at the beach

Chick flick moment of the trip – curling each other’s eyelashes (I had no clue about the aesthetic effects of eyelash curling – I need to buy myself an eyelash curler pronto), straightening each other’s hair and eye shadowing each other’s eyes… some of the boys were unwilling participants also


Bird of the trip - Kookaburra sitting on the old gum tree... bird with a very discerning palette... ignored all the bread and wasted no time attacking all the ham we gave him


Pictionary moment of the trip – writing down “air” and whispering “peacock”

Randomest moment of the trip – Having randoms buy us drinks at the “club” on Sat night (I use the word “club” very loosely… it was really just one hell of a dodgy as dive), having our Lorne neighbours recognise us and introduce themselves to us (naturally this “club”, the Lorne Hotel, was the only place any self respecting person in Lorne would go to, so everyone and his uncle who wanted to partaaay that Sat night in Lorne, was there… kinda like Madras in some respects, in the G2, EC-41 days), collectively picking up random Kiwi dude and taking him home with us to dice him up and bury him in the backyard (I jest of course… but we did take him home)

Charade of the trip –

Where are you all from?
Uruguay. Where are you from?
New Zealand
Rubbish, you sound Dutch and/or German and/or Norwegian. Tell us really, where are you from?
New Zealand
Fine, be that way. We are of course super hot chicas from Uruguay in South America. Say, let’s talk soccer, patriotic fans that we are…
So how come Uruguayans are not held in the highest regard by the rest of South America?
What? Nonsense… we are wonderful people. It’s the rest of South America that sucks ass
So you all live in Melbourne?
Yeah, you?
Yeah me too (very disappointedly)
Is there something wrong? Would you prefer it if we were all from Lorne?
Yes… haha… I want you to all have been born in Lorne (hahaha, it made me laugh so much at the time)
--half an hour later—
Ok, so we lied. We’re from India.
What? All of you?
Yeah, all of us (sheepish laughter)
Why would you lie?
Why would you lie about being from New Zealand? Come on now, tell us the truth, where are you really from?
New Zealand (in a “why the hell won’t you believe me” tone)

Still don’t believe him, but we’ll see what happens if we ever run into him again. Why Uruguay? Didn’t know, didn’t ask… I was drunk enough to simply go with the flow.

Exercise of the trip – 1km trek down to the lower Erskine Falls and back… God protected me from having to confront any snakes. Thank you God… let’s keep that trend going for all future bushwalking adventures


Picturesque moment of the trip – automatic timer group pictures… 3 in a row and all so it looks like moving pictures… technology, the wonders…

Fiiiiine dining moment of the trip – seafood restaurant on the pier for dinner after 5 straight meals of bread and meat (and eggs for breakfast) on the BBQ… not that I’m complaining mind… it was just a pleasant change.

Laugh out loud moment of the trip – folder or scruncher survey… ahhh, such burning as(s) issues (pun intended)!


Venue of the trip - 38 Great Ocean Road, Lorne... bye bye house


Hungoverest moment of the trip – Saturday morning, Sunday morning, Monday morning and even Tuesday morning ( I dragged myself to work at 11 am on Tuesday after being alcohol free for almost 36 hours)

I feel there are many moments I have missed out, like singing on the balcony and trying to dance backward up steps… and as always, the scintillatingly funny conversations… although scintillating is quite possible misleading… a lot of the most hilarious conversations always seem to begin and end in the gutter. Good times, good times… can’t wait for the next weekend (summer) holiday whenever it may be!

It's something unpredictable
But in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life.

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.

There’s something wrong with the world today, I don’t know what it is. Something’s wrong with our eyes. We’re seeing things in a different light, and

Bushfires are a way of life in Australia particularly in the dry summer months. So normally you hear about it in the news and you feel sorry for the loss of wildlife and property and sometimes human life but mostly it’s as remote as the monsoon floods in Bombay or the hurricanes in the US. But not this year… this year is looking to be the biggest bushfire season in I’m not sure how many years and they are predicting these fires will go on for the next three months and a few millions of hectares of lands will be destroyed in the process. But what is really really frightening is how the smoke from these fires burning a couple of hundred of kilometres away has been consistently making it to the city at least once a week until the wind changes again. I am looking out my window and literally not able to see beyond a couple of blocks... the smoke has been getting into the ventilation systems of all the buildings and there’s this constant burning smell in the air and sometimes our eyes water… and this is us, sitting here safe and sound in the urban jungle… I can’t even begin to imagine what the fire fighters and other rescue workers are going through on the front lines and all the other affected communities and towns. And everything goes back to climate change and global warming… I remember in class 8 or 9 I wrote a critical composition on global warming and my teacher said it was damn good… I don’t think I chose that topic, it was just given to us but I can’t even remember what I wrote. What on earth could I have known about global warming then? I vaguely remember something about the ozone layer and now at 25, that’s still all I know. And that the big giant hole in it is right above Australia! So as distant as the effects of global warming and climate change are predicted to be, they’re already here. And let me tell you, walking on the streets when its 35 degrees, with the sun being blocked by a grey ash smelling canopy of haze is incredibly eerie. Almost like a ghost town…

But on to cheerier topics… like Christmas… what an incredibly cheery time it is… they call it the silly season and we have been having the silliest times with Christmas and birthday parties galore. At my work one which was an all day thing at the Yarra Valley which is a premier wine district close to Melbourne, we had like a mini Olympics thing all afternoon and me, little ol’ unfit me, managed to scale a 12 metre rock climbing wall. It was insane… like getting off the ground was hard and then I just kept going and suddenly I’d get stuck not knowing where to move my hands or legs next and I’d just hug that freaking wall and say, fuck, what now??!! But eventually I made it to the top and abseiled down and it was just awesome. So…never say never! Then they tried to convince me to join the company’s girl’s team for a triathlon next year which includes a 400m swim, 4km run and 10km bike ride and in the rush of all that adrenalin I said yes. But having had time to reflect and return to my lazy unfit lifestyle, I have completely changed my mind. But anyway, my team which was Team White won pretty much all the activities and so we won the whole thing and we all got little Christmas hamper thingies as presents… they have some awesome presents/events at this new workplace of mine. We got overnight type bags as our Christmas presents and had like two Christmas parties and then we’re constantly being invited to smaller team bbq’s, coffees and lunches. Like today, we had a coffee catch up as part of one team and then I went to a team lunch as part of another team. Good fun it is and tomorrow is my last day before heading off to Christmas break so even better.

Outside of work, attended various other sessions… went to a Christmas party like no other complete with Bad Santa and dirty as Christmas carols… was so funny. I got a lovely Santa hat with lights all around it so with batteries, I was lit up like a Christmas tree. Oh my god, I have so had it with shopping… shopping for people, shopping for the house, even grocery freaking shopping, when will it all end? I have been to the stupid shops pretty much every day in the last two weeks and I am so over it. I hope I don’t have to shop until June next year at least (although we all know I’ll be back at it long before then…)

So aunt and uncle have made it to New Zealand and will be arriving here tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is my last day of work before 10 sweet days of unbridled relaxation and entertainment. The four of us are heading up to Port Douglas on Dec 26 for some sun and sand and a long awaited glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef – so I can cross at least one of the natural wonders of the world off my list then. And then we’ll be back here for New Years… last year Goa, this year Melbourne. Different, but should be good still.

Last year this time I was in Madras and fully revelling in all the food, fun and attention. This year, I feel more remote from Madras than I’ve felt in a long time. There are always periods where I lose complete touch with what’s happening and feel disinclined to make an effort to find out because it’s nice for someone else to make the effort for a change.

The thing is though that home is where the heart is and my heart is still firmly ensconced in the house I grew up in and the room my sister now inhabits, with my parents and my baby sister and the can’t-live-without-‘em four legged friends. I posted a Christmas card to my parents today and when I was picking it, this one said something about thanking them for making Christmas so magical when I was a child and it’s amazing how thoughtful they continue to be even now and oh my god, it was all I could do to fight the tears back being in the crowded store and all (well, a few escaped) because every word was true and I feel guilty sometimes that I just don’t let them know how much they mean to me and take them for granted and even get really annoyed with them when spending long periods of time with them in the same house. So if they read this blog, they would know but of course they don’t so I hope the card will suffice.

Merry Merry Christmas and see you on the other side of 2007.

Can you hear me when I sing… you’re the reason I sing… you’re the reason why the opera is in me…

So November has also passed. I honestly can’t account for how quickly the days are flying by. It seems like just yesterday I was shopping for my trip to India but that was a whole year ago. And this year, there will be no India. There will most likely be no India next year either so that kinda sucks.

The other day was the first day of December. It was also the first official day of summer and at least the last evening in November provided a warm welcome to this season unlike the so-called spring which was really just a horrid extension of winter this year. So that evening at a balmy 30 degrees, we sipped Coronas on the balcony and then took in Borat at the cinema. I don’t know how to comment on this movie… it certainly had its laugh out loud moments but mostly it was just crude and well, if you’ve watched a lot of the Ali G shows with Borat clips, you know exactly what’s coming like when he goes to a formal dinner party and what kind of polaroids he’s going to show of his life back home.

But getting back to November, time really flew because I had way too many things on with the concerts, changing jobs, slacking off at home in between concerts and jobs, etc., etc. So to the concerts, I was left with Pearl Jam and U2. Pearl Jam was awesome in a very oh-my-god-he’s-so-insane kind of way. He started off all normal concert-like but by the end he was not even pretending to be sober anymore and just fully skulling straight from a wine bottle and jumping all over the place and at one point he fell really badly but just jumped right up again. Oh, it was truly entertaining. People say the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are mad to watch on stage but I watched them live in 2002 and they don’t even come close to Eddie. I have Jeremy recorded on my phone from that evening!

Then 1.5 days later, it was time for U2. Numerous die-hard fans began queuing at the venue in the wee hours of Saturday morning. We knew we had no chance of competing with that so we got pretty drunk and stoned instead at my house and only got there about 6:30 pm. We found ourselves a whatever spot (I say, whatever because it was no great shakes and I couldn’t directly see the stage, only the screens, but seriously, as much I enjoy U2 and all, I have no desire to be crushed in by some mad people...) and made some trips to bar/bathroom before Mr. Kanye West got on stage. Of course, everyone sang along loudly to Gold digger and then fully lost interest… haha. In between Kanye and U2, there was some 45 minutes of set up and I went to the bathroom in all this and was in such a tension that I’d miss their opening song which I knew would be City of Blinding Lights but anyway, all was good and I got back well in time. And then they were on…

Fuck, it was awesome! I don’t know what else to say. I just didn’t want it to end… I knew every single song except for one song but the videos for that song were so tripped out, it didn’t even matter. It was such a perfect night – there was U2 singing the bestest songs, all the ones I wanted, and it was a warm night so the dome of the venue was open so I alternated between looking up at the screens and up at the stars… Bono was a dream, The Edge was brilliant, Adam Clayton was the furthest away from me and rather in the background, and there was Larry Mullen Jr. beating away at the drums with a really sweet smile on his face the whole time and with his military cut blond hair looking like a poster child for the Germany Army. He is my current favourite of the band – he has two Labs who he has dedicated albums to… so sweet. So anyway, I had goose bumps most of the way and shed a tear or two here and there and just remembering it now is making me feel all funny… was just so good. Obviously I was very happy with City of Blinding Lights, Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own and One, and then he played With or Without You and I swear there were shivers running down my spine the whole time. The final song was Kite and it was sooooo good… and I knew it was the last song so that made it extra poignant and he kept singing, I know that this is not goodbye… I sure hope it ain’t… come back U2, come back! So, that was that… I have City of Blinding Lights and One recorded on my phone from that evening.

So the next big milestone was that I started my new job and then that weekend we went camping to Wilsons Prom which is the southern most tip of mainland Australia. Never been there before and never been camping before and both were great experiences although our roughing it could hardly have been considered roughing it. Still, we did the whole tent bit and it wasn’t our fault toilets with hot showers are conveniently located 200 metres from all campsites and that Big City Dude brought his beloved bbq along and kept us happily supplied with hot dogs and rissoles for all our meals.

So we also attempted these hikes to some beaches and up some mountains and all. One of these beaches is called Squeaky Beach because the sand allegedly squeaks when you walk on it, and it actually does. It’s awesome! The second day we hiked up some Mount Bishop and a dreadful little black snake crossed the path in front of me… now, it’s hard to fully express how absolutely I detest and abhor all things reptilian but snakes, in particular. And so, it was my greatest fear something like that would happen and of course it had to. So next time, I will say come on out, snake and meet me if you have the guts to and then maybe I won’t have to face it. But on Saturday night, when I was walking back from the toilet with a trusty torchlight in hand, a wombat crossed the path in front of me and that was pretty cool. We spent Sat night singing loudly around the lantern (unfortunately it’s bush fire season and campfires are a strict no no so we had to make do) and then went to bed relatively early cos of exhaustion from previous night drinking and early morning start and wilderness trekking. But the stars that came out that night were a sight to witness… Starry starry night only!

In other news went for a Jamaican themed birthday party last weekend and I have to say I was very hopelessly dressed and looked most un-Jamaican but birthday girl had done much decorating and had some horrid looking dreadlocks for extra measure. But the bestest and funniest part was the batches of special brownies that had been prepared and oh my god, it was hilarious. The thing is we’re used to it and we still got so fucked and laughed so much and there were all these other people who never smoke and went a bit mad (in a hilarious manner) and then apparently there were also people who ate nicely and had no idea they were special. Far out man, haven’t laughed so much like every 2 seconds in so long. So, today is her birthday and since she reads this blog apparently, Happy Birthday Ms. Jamaica and welcome to blogworld… hehe!

This week I decided to take another health and fitness stand and went to my apartment gym for the first time in 3 months and worked out a bit. And then last evening I went rowing, my second time in Oz, and arms and back are feeling slightly fucked and the constant friction from the oar has torn a sizable chunk of skin off my thumb… ouch! But seriously, I compare the Yarra with the Cooum and they’re not that different… perhaps one just smells a bit less than the other.

And finally, a moment to reflect on Christmas which is fast approaching… this year I will be here of course and will have two members of the family with me apart from my boyfriend and it should be really good and I know it’s going to be a bumper year for presents cos my aunt always buys me awesome clothes. And I get to trim the tree again and I’ve gone out and bought lots more Christmassy stuff and I have my work Christmas party on Friday and various other Christmas things planned and it should be great!

Tomorrow I start at a client site so I don’t know when I’ll be back again but I thought I’d better update it before it died on me fully for the year.

I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams

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.

Hey Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me… I’m not sleepy and there ain’t no place I’m going to

This life of debauchery and excess on the weekends is taking its toll on my aging quarter century old body. My weeks suck ass because, did I mention I’m not happy at my job? Yeah, that’s going to be a bit of a recurring theme for a while. But the weekends, oh boy, where do I begin. I left off at my birthday weekend and then two weeks and weekends have passed already? The weeks are a serious haze of recovery from Saturday nights.

So the weekend before, I decided I couldn’t spend money (because have I also mentioned that my new house and furniture have destroyed me financially… me,… who always had thousands of dollars so safely saved up and now only have $50 in liquid cash to last me till the end of Oct) and couldn’t buy a bottle of alcohol (cos no one else in this crowded world drinks Bacardi and I’ve really had it with trying to switch to whiskey… all I get for my efforts is a mild headache instead of a buzz)! So I took stock of leftover booze from my party and the only thing on offer was tequila. So I thought, why not… awesome plan… a few shots and then we hit the bar where the birthday party is and I’m set for the night… also shots, so no coke or anything fucking things up… won’t even need to buy drinks later.

Plan worked brilliantly… some might say too brilliantly. There was me and Mr. Moonlight and Sam and Guitarman and I got them into the shooting spirit too, so it was 4 really wasted individuals who made their way on foot across the river and into the crowded noisy city (was Grand Final Night – Grand Final refers to the finals showdown of Aussie rules football which is bigger than Christmas in Victoria). Smashed as I was, it was a really perfect high… felt on top of the world and in the bestest of spirits… even made a speech for the birthday girl about our school life together and a certain fancy pencil case she had that I was highly envious of in class two (this speech has now been spread far and wide… stupid fuckers). Now, don’t think I just stood on top of a table and said hear ye, hear ye and started reminiscing… far from it… I was “requested” to make a speech… and the tequila helped mightily with the public speaking aspect.

And then at the very early hour of 1 am or so, we chose to leave for our general health and well being… actually I didn’t want to leave but then, I never want to leave if I’m having a good time… and staggered home and had numerous adventures on the way… like, for real… Walking home drunk is awesome… and I love how much I’m saving on cab rides.

Sunday and the week that followed was too dreadful for words. Actually that weekend, on Friday night I stayed up late and practiced guitar scales and chords for many hours and believe I have made a breakthrough (of course, haven’t been near it since)… I can play Last Kiss and Tambourine Man albeit with 5 second pauses every time I need to change chords. Actually it started cos I was just browsing channels late at night and the only thing watchable was this movie A Lot Like Love… and towards the end (I missed the first half hour), Ashton Kutcher serenades this chick with the guitar and he plays I’ll Be There For You by Bon Jovi (and he played it exactly like I’m playing my Last Kiss and Tambourine Man, I might add… but of course, it’s a movie ahd he’s an actor) and suddenly I got all nostalgic for Bon Jovi and his power ballads… I’ll be there for you, these five words I’ll swear to you… and Jon Bon Jovi has always been about living and dying for you and what not and I’ve always known that’s incredibly cheesy but by god, there was something about his voice and the way he sang and his music videos and I guess the way he looked himself, that I just believed him. I believed true love could be suicide and that I’d already cried a thousand rivers (and I was what, 14 or 15?)… and if any boy had come to me and said or even better, sung… baby, you know my hands are dirty, but I wanted to be your valentine, I would’ve forgiven him anything and everything and considered that the single most romantic moment of my life. :-) And the truth is,... baby... you’re all that I need.

So I don’t know… I’d forgotten all about them and at one point I lived and breathed and sang only them. So, now I’m listening to the songs again and they’re sending little tingles down my spine… well this hotel bar hangovers whiskey’s gone dry… tonight I won’t be alone, but you know that don’t mean I’m not lonely… I’ve got nothing to prove for it’s you that I’d die to defend… I’ve made mistakes, I’m just a man… If you told me to die for you I would… What tragedy, what drama and then always hope… We’ll find a place where the sun still shines.

So I didn’t mean to talk about Bon Jovi so much… I guess some memories from another age of listening to Keep The Faith and Crossroads every night before falling asleep (and singing along really loudly too) and every morning while getting dressed, have resurfaced and just needed to be laid down on (electronic) paper. My own personal Bon Jovi teenage angsty anthem from this period was Runaway. Gee, there was no Google then either… all the lyrics had to be painstakingly learnt by heart with the CD on repeat or written down and memorised with pause and play being hit every 5 seconds… I’d like to have that much time on my hands again… :-) It was a great life, a perfect time…

So the desire to be able to play I’ll Be There For You and other such greats as Livin’ on a Prayer got me to pick up the ol’ six string and try my luck… I’ll get there… eventually…

I wanted to tell you about this weekend and the absolutely insane crazy wild Saturday night but I might save it for the next one… besides, I’m still waiting on a lot of pictures… lazy bitches!!!

But one other tiny thing about that weekend… on the Sunday I watched the first three episodes of Star Wars for the first time in my life… I haven’t even watched the original trilogy… I just automatically tuned out anytime anything remotely sci-fi came up in the past (although I did go through a Star Trek phase very briefly but that was only cos I probably needed a break from Bon Jovi and there weren’t all that many options on a Saturday night on our beloved Star Plus). But so, I somehow got into watching the first one and I was riveted… it was a marathon on tv and by the time I got to episode 3, I knew that Anakin was going to become the evil dark lord Darth Vader or whatever but it didn’t make it any less painful to watch his slow downfall. Why Ani, why? Haha… I kinda get it now… the obsession for some people… I don’t think I want to watch 4 to 6 though… the dodgy special effects would just piss me off and I know the story anyway… or maybe I will… who knows…

You know, my Bon Jovi companion was always Aerosmith… it’s amazing… with the blink of an eye you’re 25. At least, I let the right ones in…