3, 2, 1 Action!

The earphones go in. Song is selected. Volume turned up.

In my mind I am in the opening credits of my own movie. Today I am in a romantic comedy, Dolly Parton is singing 9 to 5 and I am strutting down Elizabeth St with a dorky smile on my face. I am smiling at everyone. The sun is shining, everyone around me seems to feel that this is my movie day and is co-operating by being happy little extras with no lines.

Some days I am in an altnerative adult drama and Radiohead are playing.....

Coming Home

Sometimes you are what you dislike in others. Mostly I hate it when I have one of those moments but really they are invaluable to me as a marker of why I strive to be better, why I reflect on my motivations and actions.

Today I judged someone based on their appearance/age. I could blame it on fear of having someone do the same to me. I could blame it on my low self esteem. None of that matters because I did it and then the person proved what an asshole I was, by being one of the better/nicer people I have met in years.

This person has ignited a little spark of hope in me.

The island of the Long White Cloud

It is Rugby World Cup 2011 time in New Zealand, and it is also the time that my boss says yes to me taking a trip to the Auckland office. Exciting right. Yep, I think so too and I am sticking with that.

My usual routine for a city that I have never travelled before and I am lucky enough to land the night before I have to start work is: I check into my hotel and check out the facilities available (I mainly mean wifi or other means of communicating with strangers and looking at photos of cats or other cute small animals), I then go walking.

The walking bit is great. I love wandering the streets and looking into shops/cafes/pubs and trying to pluck up the courage to enter. When I was younger and a smoker I was quite the extrovert. I know you see it too, don't you, underneath the chubby layers.....it has become dormant and I now struggle a little with the whole being on my own, surrounded by groups of friends and couples. But that is not to say I let it get stop me from going out and making an effort to experience what I can.

Tonight I wandered down to the waterfront area, Quay St. They have a boat show on at the moment and some additional shops specifically for the RWC tourists. I hear strains of Crowded House coming from an Irish pub and I know that I have found my venue for the evening. Comforting in its standard decoration in the vein of all Irish pubs, I make my way to the bar and buy a pint of Tui Blonde (don't hold it against me - I sometimes order beer by sentimental reasonings more so than taste). I find a booth and settle in for an evening of live music from a mediocre guitar playing solo singing rough neck and some rugby on the tv.

It is 5 mins until the game starts and suddenly the crowds pour in. I am now sharing my booth with 2 different friend groups who are all eyeing me off wondering what I am doing taking up space that means some of their friends can't sit down. The singer is going from bad to worse; Oasis is followed by Bon Jovi. It is not even 21:00! The crowd sing along in a swaying mass of drunkeness ".....I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride....."

It then occurs to me that these people have been drinking since the first game of the day at around 15:00 (if not before). They have many hours of intoxication under their belts and it is glaringly obvious to me that I am the only sober person in the bar excepting the staff. I then concluded I had to get drunk very fast and join in the revelry or perhaps it was time to take my leave....

I chose the boring option. And as the door closes behind me I hear the first few bars of Guns n Roses and I keep walking wishing that I had stayed for just one more song.

Friends of the Zoo

The Geek and I have become friends of the Zoo. This enables us to flash our membership cards at any Victorian Zoo and gain entry, discounts on the twilight concerts and other fun stuff.

We decided to hit up Werribee Zoo on the weekend. Being Father's Day it was a little too crowded with children for my liking but I think all zoos are generally anyway. The day could not have started any better than with me spotting a tiny tiny tiny! field mouse running for its life through the car park. It was so very small and quick.

The rest of the day was spent oohing and ahhhing over the animals and enjoying the fact that we both love spending time doing dorky stuff like this.

We only had my tiny point + shoot camera so the pics are not as great as I wanted them to be and the rain and hail kind of got in the way at times....

The music

There are a couple of songs that will always take me back to a certain place and time.

All that you can't leave behind by U2 - will always remind me of the halfway house in Hammersmith, UK and dying of Glandular Fever.

Empire state of mind by Alicia Keys - will always remind me of the loft apartment in Barcelona, where the geek and I spent a week of fun and mayhem.

Shipbuilding by Suede - will always remind me of the morning after the Jeff Buckley concert in Tweed Heads and hitting up McDonalds in Coolangatta with my best friend at 6am.

Molokai Woman by (unknown) - will always remind me of Molokai and my first Island holiday with my mum and twin. Driving a huge people mover around a tiny island on the wrong side of the road :)

Easy by Faith No More - reminds of the geeks room at his parents house, with street signs on the walls, a computer rack and the constant whirring of computers.


And any song by Dire Straights reminds me of my childhood home and my Dad.

Snow Angel

The long weekend arrvied so my twin and I rented an inappropriate car and headed to the snow mountain of Falls Creek for opening weekend of the snow season.

What prompted our destination was a voucher.....never a good start in my experience but I instigated it anyway. My mum had been given a "Australian Getaway" reward voucher for $5000.00. Sweet you think. No. The very limited amount of properties listed on the site have either a buy one night using real money and use getaway dollars for the second night or a meal obligation clause, where you have to spend a certain amount of money in the onsite restaurant.

We book a cute looking swiss style chalet. The pictures on the website are just gorgeous and although it did live up to the exterior vision, nothing could prepare us for the tacky overdone interior.

A 5 hour drive in a Hyundai Getz and a toilet stop at a roadside truckstop were not the only hardships we faced. Our special deal came with a meal obligation in the hotel restaurant.

I am not even sure how to describe the lack of food quality and the expense. I paid $35.00 for a reheated frozen schnitzel and a handful of undercooked chips. The restaurant was so bad that my twin and I were both dreading having to fufil the second nights obligation. Until we worked out that the bar tab was included in :). So the second night we drank cocktails and counted the number of times the microwave bell went off. Another French martini please, now!

We had one full day of exploration where I tested out my newly purchased snow boots. I was very happy that they lived up to the hype of the sale pitch. I trampled in snow, buried the toes of my boots in snow and all the while my feets were toasty warm. We had a very lacklustre snowball fight, which consisted of me begging my sister to be ok with me throwing one at her and then having to endure one being thrown back at me. Realisation that it hurt and offered very little enjoyment occured and we moved on to making a snow angel....the standy up kind.

My first experience in a Ski Resort type place has made me realise that I don't like them. I love the snow and the cold etc. But best just plonk me in a charming town for a snowfall than have me seconded in a resort with over priced food and no pub full of a colardo cabin atmosphere.

Familiarity breeds boredom and disregard

Molokai, Hawaii, USA

A week of relaxtion, swimming on a deserted beach and consuming a stupid amount of Pina Coladas.

Molokai is a small, rural and relatively untouched island compared the the rest of the inhabited islands of Hawaii. Only one hotel on the island and no traffic lights - it was just amazing.

The people we encountered we all very lovely and friendly. So welcoming to us "Haoles". Lots of signs up protesting against any more development on the island, which I thought might indicate that they were not too happy with tourists, but we had the best time and only experienced the "Aloha" of the islands with all our encounters.

Our hotel was exactly what I would have hoped it to be (and a little noiser than expected). The bar/restaurant and pool were all by the oceanfront of the property. They had local entertainment every night. Relaxing and lovely time with loads of food and the best Pina Coladas we had during the whole trip.

Loved spending some quality time with mum and my twin.

Mum having a fun time in the Hula Shores Restaurant

Performers at the Germaine Luau in Honolulu

View of Kalaupapa from the lookout

View of the south east side of Molokai from the plane tour

The sacred site and rock formation called Phallic Rock - A site for...you guessed it fertility!

My twin, Amanda enjoying a Mangorita


Murphey's beach on Molokai

Watching the sunset at Hula Shores restaurant (our hotel)

The aforementioned sunset

The rooms of the hotel Molokai

Spiegeltent and Paul Capsis

The Spiegeltent is exactly what I wanted it to be.

Embued with the charm of theatre, burlesque and vaudeville mixed up into a cute venue with severly overpriced drinks.

We arrived early to make use of the tram bar, both of us bemoaning the fact that you can't easily get croque monsieur in Melbourne, we instead nibbled on a ham tomato cheese toastie from the Art Centre cafe while drinking our pre-show beer and wine.

These are the nights that remind me why I moved state and fell in love with this small and sometimes pretentious city.

Cheese cheese & more cheese

Another Melbourne Wine and Food Festival event!

King Island Dairy got together with Libertine restaurant and put on a night of decadence for the cheese lover.

There was a black label cheese tasting hosted by the "cheese whisperer" from King Island Diary Mr Ueli Berger, followed by a 5 course dinner with cheese as the 'hero' matched with wines from Stonier.

Some very nice cheese and meals were eaten. I am slowly developing an appreciation for that MOULDY stuff. I think my future mother-in-law is happy about that and perhaps will like me more if I do end up liking the stuff :)

The Geek and I are engaged!

Spain vs Victoria

My Christmas present from GB was the Spain vs Victoria event of the Melbourne Wine and Food Festival.
It was a tasting of Spanish Vino, Jamon and queso pitted against Victorian wine, ham and cheese.

The Swedish Chef and the Korean Sommelier put all their passion and enthusiasm into the night and made it a fun and interesting experience. It was a fantastic night.

Superbikes 2011

The World Superbikes were on at Phillip Island this weekend....and I went! This meant I got to see Checa win both races, I got to see my best friend for the first time in over 2 years AND we both got to ride in a a helicopter for the first time ever.

As weekends go, you will be hard pressed to beat something like that.

Phillip Island is such a great track. The riders like it and the spectators are afforded views like no other:



I loved our helicopter ride. Thrilling. Looking forward to the next time I can do it. Even looked up how much it would be to get my licence today ($20 - 45k waaah *sadface*)



The weekend was nicely ended with a dinner with GB at our favourite Tapas bar Lulo.