Wouldn't it be nice to live together in the kind of world where we belong

You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But let's talk about it
Wouldn't it be nice

Dear Penny Lane

So, the other night, us Fort Knox alumni got together for our monthly poker night. The usual bottle of Jack was cracked open and beef tasting nibbles were passed around and good ol’ Fudge, he had a great treat for us… special brownies… yeah, that’s right, don’t look so surprised… talk about being baaad assss!!! Gosh, I remember how you used to smoke it in your bathroom. I’d be all fast asleep in the comfort of your bed and you’d go do your thang and then come back to bed and annoy the crap out of me. I mean, what’d a dog have to do to get some sleep around that joint? So anyway, Chocolate, Fudge and me, we were just shooting the breeze and to be completely honest, we had gotten rather giggly thanks to the brownies, when who should show up but young Ginger. I tell you, I was pretty darn shocked she had the nerve to show up after all the nasty rumours she’d been spreading about Fudge and Teddy all over Dogtown. But we didn’t turn her out because well, you know, she’s a young un’… never had anyone to show her the way really what with her arriving here so young and all and she always had a bit of a tail on her, that she did! So then she broke down with everyone glaring at her and apologised for making up all those lies and it was hard not to melt, that look in her eyes. Next thing we know, we’re all high pawing each other and look up to see Teddy shuffling in in his trademark purple coat, sunglasses and carrying his walking stick. There was a bit of an awkward moment while he took in the scene in front of him but he caught on in no time and enveloped Ginger in a warm hug. Good ol’ Teddy… you don’t live to 90 and become elected the Head of the Underground Society of Dogs Against The Adoption of Cats as Household Pets and not get wise to a few things. We don’t keep these catch ups exclusive to Fort Knox you know… we like to keep in touch with the family dogs too. So sure enough, Max and Dinky joined us and Dinky brought along that grumpy smelly sourpuss Gizmo. I know he’s family and all and that’s why we tolerate him, but really that doesn’t mean I have to like him.

By now, we’d started playing and we were well into the brownies… I’m telling you girl, it was insaaane in the membrane! I should’ve joined you when I had the chance… can you imagine me and you rolling around the bathroom floor in giggle fits!! It would’ve been da bomb. By the way, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but my vocab has gotten way better since I moved here… I know I could just about manage Woowoowoo when I was with you but these dawgs sure know how to teach a beyatch a word or two. My main man is this cat named Snoop Dogg and he has us chanting all sorts of fun stuff like bow wow wow yippee yo yippee yay…

But anyway, back to our poker night. We were playing Texas Hold ‘Em and I was doing alright… even stevens really… so were Max, Dinky and Gizmo. Ginger was down pretty bad, so were Fudge and Chocolate… Teddy was just raking it in as usual. It was a stormy night and it was coming down something fierce when suddenly the door flies open and who should run in soaking wet but Biscuit. Ginger nearly fell off her chair because he cut a most dashing figure with his dark eyes and chocolate fur, engaged in the act of shaking the water off himself. They’ve never met of course… he having lived with you in the early 90s and Ginger only in 2004. It was puppy love at first sight… I felt so very wistful watching them… god knows how different things might’ve been if Scooby from down the road hadn’t been so goddamn obnoxious… I mean, that is what attracted me to him in the beginning but towards the end it just got so tiresome our whole barking-madly-at-each-other-through-the-gate routine. I’ve heard on the grapevine that he’s taken up with a black Lab from down near the supermarket. All I can say is good luck to her.

So that’s really all the news from our end. Things might’ve gotten slightly nasty that poker night when Gizmo and Teddy faced off for all or nothing but luckily Dinky was way past his alcohol tolerance level and chose that moment to return from relieving himself, completely miscalculated where his chair was, and fell flat on his tiny bottom! We were all on the floor laughing after that. Chocolate sends her love as always. How are things going with you? How’s baby sister? How’re mama and papa Lane? Is mama Lane still sadly under the delusion she has any kind of control over the canines she lives with? Ah well, we must leave her with some hope to hold on to, harmless thing that she is. I routinely call Rusty on his mobile to tell him to give ‘er hell and sometimes text him fun ways to make mischief! And what about you then? Still missing me? I know you are. I looked at all those photos of all of us with you the other day. I don’t know if you felt my paw on your shoulder but I was there.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you… I ran into my old man Crispy on the street the other day. He is one good looking mo fo… now I know where I get my drop dead gorgeous looks from. He’s doing alright and invited me to a meal next week. I can’t wait to look at more baby pictures of myself.

And oh, oh, met up with Appachen when he visited Dogtown on a daytrip. I told him I'd be writing to you so he said a big Hi.

That’s it I guess. Write soon and I’m attaching a pic of us from the other night.

Miss you and love you as much as the day I left you.

Holly xoxoxo



Wouldn’t it be nice if they were all living it up like so? Wouldn’t it be nicer if they still remembered us? Wouldn’t it be nicest if they hadn’t had to leave us at all?

Down the way where the nights are gay and the sun shines daily on the mountain top...

Fiji was freaking awesome. We did absolutely nothing and still every night I’d pass out like a ton of bricks and have a huge issue waking up the next morning which caused my lover no end of grief because breakfast was included in our resort package but well, I just couldn’t motivate myself even at the thought of having paid for it already but somehow forced myself to go at least three of the five mornings after constant wake up calls. Anyway, that was breakfast. We developed a nice routine for the rest of the days and nights too. After breakfast, we’d go back to our room and gather our belongings for the day which would be a book, a sarong, the room key, and the all important towel pass. The towel passes were awesome because whenever you felt like you could get fresh beach towels for the pool and beach so never had to deal with any of those tedious non-5-star-resort issues like sandy towels in the toilet at the end of the day and having to dry them for the next day, having to carry the same towel around with you the whole day, etc. etc. So some days we’d start by jumping in one of the pools or sometimes we’d head straight for the beach. There were three pools – the Coral Pool, Takali Pool and Main Pool. The main pool we stayed well clear of because it was always packed to the brim with easily excitable, screaming, swimming children. The Coral Pool was right below our room and had an awesome view of the coral lagoon just beyond and was quite far away from the main pool so was never very crowded and quite pleasant. Our favourite though was the Takali Pool because it had great sunset views and it was strictly adults only so was most peaceful. We ended most of our evenings here, sipping on drinks and watching the sun set. So in between breakfast and sunset, we’d alternate with swimming in pools, the beach, lying on deck chairs, reading in the hammock, nibbling on lunch, drinking (having our drinks brought wherever we wanted because of the great bar and food service), snorkelling, jet skiing, kayaking (uh yeah, this tired us out fairly quickly every time so we’d kayak for all of 10 minutes) and then our main activity for the day – sailing the catamaran. This became a great cause for excitement as we played sailors with tacking and tightening and what not. We became rather good (well, it certainly ain’t rocket science) but each day made our man more confident and took me closer and closer to that dreaded wave break, you know, where the real ocean starts after the lagoon… the sight of that always terrifies me. Maybe because it reminds me of the outer Great Barrier Reef when we were all playing around in 12 metres or so and a few metres away, the break ominously fell to something like 200 metres apparently. But anyway, we went closer and closer each time until this one time we had the perfect wind in our sails and it was really choppy suddenly in that area and we were coasting faster and faster and suddenly I notice that his side of the catamaran is completely out of the water and in the freaking air and my side is ready to be submerged any second and oh my god, I lost it. I haven’t been so terrified since I’m not sure when… probably since the snake. Anyway, somehow we slowed down and the catamaran returned to its upright position and I insisted we turn around and head back to sweet safe land which we did. Was great fun though, the catamaran… What else did we do… well, the swimming in the lagoon was an experience in itself… the water is incredibly clear and the fish swim all around you in incredibly shallow water, its crazy! The first afternoon we decided to be very adventurous and walk in the water from our side of the resort to the main lagoon beach… this involves crossing many rocks and such and sometimes there’s no beach to walk on so you have to walk in the water and that’s of course when I met the eel. I was extremely terrified to go any further because I really wouldn’t have been keen to meet its friend, the sea snake but somehow made it out of there. I took the inland route on all future occasions and I only had to contend with creepy garden lizards… oh god, and there were regular wall lizards as well... ugggg… creepy bastards! One day we were different and went on a tour to a completely different island… caught a boat down a river which took us to the Robinson Crusoe island, went on a jet boat ride, snorkelled, made some random tour friends, watched some traditional Fiji customs (in photos later) and drank the most potent rum I have ever drunk in my life. It’s called Bounty Rum and it beats even Jamaican Coruba Rum… I had to refill it with more soft drink and it was still incredibly foul and it got me incredibly buzzed. Now, everyone knows I am the last thing from a one-drink-buzz girl so you have to believe me when I tell you how strong it was. So our days were happily spent…

In the evenings, after our poolside drinks and sunset we’d head back to shower and we’d drink our duty free alcohol and listen to music and get quite buzzed, make a ready mix for the 5 minute walk to the restaurants and head for dinner. There were 3 main restaurants open for dinner and of course we tried them all. One of them was the Black Marlin Bar which also served as the resort’s nightclub. God, it was painfully hilarious. The DJ would play everything from Madonna to Harry Belafonte, from the 80s to the 00s, and people would dance. We did our usual jive thing for a couple of songs and beat a hasty retreat. We’d then wander the beach drinking from our ready mix until we were ready to hit the sack. The other two restaurants were Kalevu and Takali and we liked Takali so much we went back there for dinner on our last night. After dinner, we headed to the Black Marlin Bar in expectation of an 80s night, as promised by a poster, but there were all of 5 people and no one seemed particularly into the 80s, so the DJ didn’t even play the 80s and played some horrendous music some guests provided him. But anyway, it was our last night so we made friends with some of the staff and got suitably smashed before retiring. The next day we left the bright blue and green tropics to return to cold, dreary Melbourne. The nicest souvenir from the trip is my awesome golden brown tan that will keep me in the island spirit throughout the paling, non-sunny winter. That, in a nutshell, was our trip and here are some photos…

The ocean view from our room... you can see the "break"... it was low tide so all that brown stuff is coral

The Coral Pool below our room

The beautiful lagoon and main beach... we met the eel somewhere down here when we were walking in the water

Oh god, the EEL in all its creepiness... that's water if you can believe it... it's so freaking clear

Bright blue starfish such as this one were scattered everywhere in the water... again, that's in water

Robinson Crusoe Island where we went daytripping

Traditional Fiji style of cooking on coals in pits... called 'lovo'

Firewalking

Firedancing

Every day they have crab races like this... number the shells of some poor crabs and assign numbers to guests and the first crab to cross the circle wins!

You can't really see, but look closely and you might see the faint glowing blue... at night, the coral was lit and we'd get ocean side dinner tables on the terrace and it was really most lovely

Sunset as viewed from the Takali Pool... it was a slightly cloudy evening though

But I'm sad to say,
I'm on my way,
won't be back for many a day

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!

Your love is better than ice cream, better than anything I’ve ever tried. And your love is better than ice cream…

I wanted to write this really long post about the love of my life who very recently (read, 2 days after my last post) asked me to marry him (we can now refer to each other with the “f”iance word) and I said Yes of course and it was completely insane for the next few days with calling and talking to people and then we had houseguests and then we had his birthday party on the weekend and did so many other things on the weekend and today is his birthday and today is also the day work decided to put me in a panic by having to get something done by 2:00 pm and tonight is another little do for his birthday and tomorrow night we leave for Fiji and that made me realise this morning I must absolutely do laundry TODAY if I am to have any underwear for the trip and so many little things to finish before we leave tomorrow night and so on and so forth… but the point is, I love you babe and let’s have a blast together this evening since the day turned out to be such a washout thanks to both our jobs. And the post on how we got engaged and pictures of the stunning ring on my finger will be published next week once I get back from Fiji. Until then, Happy Easter and Happy Birthday love!

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.

And time goes by so slowly… and time can do so much… I need your love!

I am so bored bored bored! This blog is also going to die on me but I’ve been feeling too bored to write even. I was so bored today I went and queued up for some time at this place called The Hub at my alma mater to try and get my long overdue Masters degree certificate even though I knew it wouldn’t be available at The Hub. The Hub was supposed to be this central hub of all student activity but I went there once to register, get my student card, one other time to get an extension for my student card and then maybe one or two other times to look at the bulletin board of stuff for sale… or maybe I did that in the same student card renewal time. I bought one item off that bulletin board – a chest of drawers advertised for $10 by someone named Eddie in Southbank. Oh boy, Eddie… he must’ve spent that $10 texting and calling me to coordinate picking it up and how to get to his house and what not… it was so funny… I’ll never forget Eddie… I had at least 20 messages from him on my phone and I didn’t even get to meet him cos I didn’t go on the actual pick up ride. And then Eddie threw in a computer table worth at least $40 for $5. I guess Eddie just wanted to feel good about making $15 even if he’d spent $10 of it already. I would’ve just thrown it all away. I believe I did throw the computer table away. The chest of drawers I still have but it’s hidden in a wardrobe and stores many papers and things.

But as always, I digress… what I meant to say was, walking through that university courtyard with all the cliques of kids hanging out and soaking in the sun made me feel incredibly wistful for student days long gone by. I wish someone would pay me what they pay me now to just go and attend class a couple of times a week and write a paper now and then… cos that was the only thing missing then… I was dirt poor… how I had to carefully budget things like meals out, haircuts, movies, clothes, and well I’m really fuzzy on the alcohol intake now… can’t remember how often I was able to do it but I’m fairly certain I wasn’t a poster child for teetotalism or anything. Ah, school, college and university… what a lazy race in the sun. But so on the one hand, I miss all of this and would love to go back to being 15, 16, 18, anything but mid-20’s if you like, but also realise it is quite impossible to ever go back. So then I think about the other side of the coin, right, getting older… and I think about this a lot because I have a lot of time to think on my 30 minute trek to work and back each day… man, it better be shaping my calf muscles and ass good cos it ain’t fun leaving work at 7 pm sometimes and having 30 long minutes in front of you before home even though home is barely 2 km away. But again, I digress… so yeah, getting older… you know how people do the whole moan and groan I am so old, I don’t want to celebrate my birthday business (and I have been one of those people on numerous occasions, except for the birthday celebration bit)… well I’m just not buying into it anymore and am consciously going to welcome each passing year until I reach oh, I don’t know, 37! Then I will return to moaning and groaning about how old I am getting particularly as I struggle to keep up with my rambunctious puppies and babies… note, how I say puppies before babies… I’m in no hurry to have a kid but I don’t know how much longer I can hold out against getting a puppy… so many obstacles such as time, space and money (to buy more space) stand in the way. Well that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

So as I was saying about my new aging process outlook… I just feel it’s a bit ridiculous to be calling myself old when I am always the youngest person in any meeting room and sometimes by at least 20 years and even with my current crew I am one of the younger ones at a sprightly 25. One of my favourite phrases for getting old is something like… well, I won’t be a spring chicken forever will I? Quite possibly not, but for here and now, I am most certainly a spring chicken and so proud to be one! Until I compare myself with my 8-years-younger-than-me sister and her peeps but I’m going to try not to dwell on that no more.

So that’s that. What else is happening? Nothing terribly exciting… I guess one of the reasons for why I am so bored bored bored… the weather has been too kind in the last couple of months and now a great foreboding has been instilled in my heart for the ferocity of the upcoming winter. Summer days went by too quickly and funly… But on the topic of seasons, Melbourne weather being as “dependable” as it is, apart from my love for the warmth of the sun and heat and humidity in the air, my favourite season really has to be Fall (or Autumn as it is more traditionally called but I really like calling it Fall better). Why, you ask? Purely because of the multitudes of brown leaves that fall from the trees and line the sidewalks in crisp earthy piles just inviting me to step on them and hear for myself that delicious crackling sound of my foot on a dry leaf. I don’t know what or why… it just makes me so happy and I make it a point to walk on as many leaves as I can… sigh… so great, I have that to look forward to. God, I am slowly going insane.

One other tiny point to make… people in Madras suck! I could be wasting away here of a depressive sadness and loneliness and they wouldn’t even know or care! How hard is it really to drop a 5 line email?! I understand now why both my aunts just went off to the US and never looked back except to their immediate family… can you imagine anyone ever keeping in touch via snail mail? I mean, it happened, and sometimes we did but so sporadically. And only in recent years they’ve gotten back in touch with a lot of people because of email. But what’s my generation’s excuse huh? Could it be any easier than email? Oh wait, yeah, instant messaging! So now there’s no going back to email since IM is no longer available. Shame on my so called friends… I am so pissed off and feeling so unloved from that quarter!

I think I am going to go home now and finish with this painfully boring week at work. Oh I didn’t write about the various concerts of 2007… there’ve been 2 already which is cool. I actually wrote an incredibly drunken 10 page thing about Roger Waters but didn’t end up posting it and I think I will soberly edit it and post it later. I am so glad Feb is such a short month… only 7 more months until September which is when the year generally becomes exciting again.

I have this version of Unchained Melody by U2 – it fucking rocks! Bono just sings I need your love very coolly. Why is he such a cool rocker for such an old one? What am I talking about… all the cool rockers I like are old. So I guess the question is why are there no cool young rockers?! I just remembered that Sista T and I sang this once at college... it was sooooo lame, unlike our I Will Survive of the previous year... Well, you can't win 'em all! But you can certainly try...

I don't quite know, how to say, how I feel

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

Those three words
I've said too much
But not enough

Oh my god, this is one of them songs… I haven’t had one of these songs for a while… you know, one of them songs you listen to over and over one night… I don’t know man, I have these songs once ever so often and then for a long time, I completely lose interest pretty much in music all together and suddenly that song comes along that brings it all back… So tonight is one of them nights, and this is one of them songs. It’s called Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol and I’ve heard it on tv/radio/in the stores for the last I don’t know how many months but never had it but tonight I’m just like, I have to have it and so I downloaded it and right now its on iTunes repeat and I guess it will be on repeat until I finish this post… and I imagine that’s gonna take a while. Unfortunately this is the same song that was the finale for Grey’s freaking Anatomy this year in Oz (oh, sorry, 2006, last year it seems) but I hate the freaking show so it hurts that I like the song so much but it’s ok, I’ll adjust for tonight…

Oh right, so first off, Happy Birthday dear friend Rael… we missed you over Christmas and New Years and I guess it’s going to be a while before you’re back again after your jettsetting global adventures… So anyway, I’m just back after many drinks at his birthday party and I thought now is a good time as any to update blog… haha, it’s taking twice as long to spell right, but anyhow…

Where the hell do I begin??? I guess I could begin with the first couple of nights that they got into town (they being Rita and Phil aka auntie and uncle but never wanting to be introduced as such)… oh man, it was the most awesome time ever… they’re the coolest people I know… on par with my baby sister and my baby cousins… and none of them are babies no more… oh god, I miss my family!!! It just went by so quick…

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

So anyhow, there was Christmas prep with the tree and presents and shit and then there was Christmas Eve where I forced everyone to stay up pretty much and so we tried to go to Crown Casino and stuff and the whole world tried to convince me not to go to Midnight Mass, but I went anyway, by myself, I might add… It was good though, I sang carols soulfully and missed my parents and sister like no tomorrow and then the next day my mom refuses to even believe I went to Church… geez, I’m a devil, but not that much of a devil that I’d lie about going to Christmas Mass… But anyway, I got home and we all wished each other and then exchanged the few hundred presents we had for each other and it was so good. I got so many cool clothes… I’ve pretty much worn all of them this whole little holiday of mine… Christmas is awesome!!!

Christmas Day was insane in its own little way… I’d had about 4 hours of sleep and then we went to this lunch where everyone was gathering at and oh my god, I drank like 3 drinks of Old Monk which was on offer and then it finished so I went back to Bacardi but basically we were all there from 1 pm until about 7 pm and who even knows what happened in between… This sweetheart was one of the highlights of my Christmas… no other dogs in my life at this point… there’s Rusty of course, but he’s so freaking far away!!!! Don’t worry though Holly, I still think of you evey fucking day… why? Why? Why were you taken away from me?

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things
Will never change for us at all

Then I had about one good night’s sleep after 5 days and Boxing Day I conscioulsy said I would not even take a sip of alcohol and I didn’t and that night we flew to Cairns and got to Port Douglas really late but it was sooooo good to be back in tropical climates… guess what, so called summer in Melbourne, it freaking hailed on Christmas Day… too depressing! The only thing I don’t miss about tropical climates is freaking lizards… gross as “pallis”… gross man, they creep the shit out of me… But anyway, we chilled on the beach, we ate some awesome meals and then we went on a tour to one of the outer reef areas… I tried scuba diving and unfortunately for me it didn’t go so well :-( The water just went fully into my nose everytime I tried so I didn’t do it eventually and went snorkelling instead and went on some strange ocean walk where they put this space type helmet on my head and I walked about 6 metres down the ocean floor and it was just quite mad… it was stupid man, I was just like, what the fuck is this shit… but I got to touch some fish… haha, don’t know if I ever wanted to touch fish… anyhow, the Great Barrier Reef is awesome… and the warm water is unbelievable… the last day we went on some Rainforest tour and went on a cable car ride a couple of thousand metres high and it was pretty fucking scary! And then we took some scenic railway and I think I saw some Aboriginals in Australia after 4.5 years finally! The trip was soooo good… I’m sooo going back and I’m so getting certified to go diving so I’ll have more time to get used to the breathing underwater crap!



Then we got back to Melbourne and had a whole other kind of trip… haha, I so don’t want to talk about it… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… there are some trips better left unsaid!!! All I am willing to say is how much sense Penny Lane by the Beatles makes now!!! And I am sooo Penny Lane!!!



If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Then there was New Years Eve… I suppose it could be considered rather tame compared to various other years… but it was great… all our near and dear ones in this city were around us! I had a great time… one of the best moments was talking to baby sister dear when we were almost going to bed at 5:30 am and it was just her midnight then. Man, I don’t know how she’s going to grow up without me around… I don’t know if I’m a positive influence, but I’m certainly her older fucking sister and that has to count for something… well, I’m not around either way, so I just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best!

And then there was New Years Day where I walked around in a daze and we went to Mexican Margarita dinner and then we went to a drive in movie and I freaking slept and I don’t think I’ve ever slept at a movie before, drive in or otherwise, so believe me when I say I was fucking done to have done that! And then there was their last day where we went to the wildlife sanctuary and I finally got to see a freaking kangaroo after 4.5 years… I don’t quite know how to say how much it meant to be able to finally see one… and they are so freaking adorable!! And then we got fucking wasted that night and then they left :-(…

All that I am
All that I ever was
It’s here in your perfect eyes
They're all I can see

I so don’t enjoy being at work right now :-( Life sucks when you nothing and no one to look forward to!!

Man, it’s 2007… we can’t even pretend to be little kids anymore even though that’s all I’ll ever be at heart… what’s up with this shit that we have to pretend to be responsible adults… and I don’t even mind being a responsible adult… but, it just sucks when your age and the year kinda dictates that you have to be one… 18 til I die baby…

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

This song makes me so sad though… I don’t quite know why… it just reminds me of a time when it wasn’t like this… of course, at the time, I wasn’t satisfied at all… all I wanted was to get away… I guess, just forget the world… but it was that same time that so many amazing things happened… I remember some days, I’m not sure what we did but I know we laughed a lot and the hours just went by so quick and we thought it was never ever going to get any better and maybe it hasn’t… and I remember some nights, the first few times we went out, we went to dinner each time and then we’d buy a quart of Old Monk rum each and get fucking wasted on that one little quart… and then we’d pick up some friends who’d we give some more quarts to, haha, and then we’d go to EC-41 and we’d both get in for free because we were cool that way… that’s a whole other story, how I got a lifetime free membership to EC-41… it’s a brilliant story, but not tonight… so then we’d be in EC-41 and most nights most everyone else was there… but there were some nights that it was pouring down rain and hardly anyone’d be there… but we were there… and we’d dance and we’d sing and we’d drink and we’d smoke and we’d laugh our asses off… so it isn’t as easy as that anymore… nobody does the same shit anymore… there isn’t the one place to go to anymore, the one place that is guaranteed to get you into a good time…

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me your garden that's bursting into life

I don’t know what’s going to become of us… I mean, at one point in your life you’re so used to having a certain group of people around all the time and then one day that just doesn’t happen no more and maybe you get a different group of people and that’s also just wonderful but what about that first group of people? How do you get them back into the groove? Because you miss them and love them like you did when you were 18-20??!! But perhaps they don’t remember it like you do, and it’s as stupid as chasing cars to them to even imagine that it could ever happen again! I’ve been having these dreams these last couple of weeks, all filled with old times and old people… such good times… and this is at a time in my life where I’m completely enjoying my current life (apart from work of course)! I don’t know, I wake up highly disturbed because I feel like something’s gone terrribly wrong in my hometown and there’s nothing I can do to make it ok. I swear, it feel so real I honestly wonder what happened that I should dream of all of them so vividly… these kinda dreams haven’t happened since the first time I left India all those years ago.

I guess right now I’m sorta just hoping for good things whenever it is I get to go back again… I mean it’s always good, everytime I go back, but sometimes it just fucking kills you… I mean, it can only kill you when you’ve been away… but it fucking kills you anyway… but I love them all… and I miss them all… and that’s my utopian dream… that they could all be here with me…

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don’t quite know how to say how I feel… I’m still listening to the stupid song and it’s daylight now so that’s freaking great… I guess I will try to just not sleep until later tonight I think cos I gotta go to work early tomorrow morning anyway… But so, I was just flipping through the few hundred photos from the last 10 days and it just has to make you smile doesn’t it… the way people look in them… so happy… maybe they were drunk at the time, and sometimes they weren’t, believe it or not… but we all look so freaking happy… and a lot of the New Years Eve ones, we’re just kinda sticking our hands up in the air with the Christmas tree in the background and lots of crazy light effects happening because the fancy ass camera wasn’t on auto focus and it’s just funny… it’s just a perfect reflection of how people feel/felt/will feel… I hope it’s a good year… for everyone I know and love… something tells me it has the potential to be… the year a lot of things change for a lot of people in a good way… we’re getting old man, and there’s no denying that! I’m no longer early 20’s, I’m mid-20’s, my boyfriend will be “late” 20’s after his birthday this year, poor guy… but it’s ok… I think we’re entering a completely new exciting phase of all our lives… Happy 2007!!!

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

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