The phone call

What do you do when the only thing you really want to do on new years is hang out with your best friend... who is on the other side of the world and who is probably depressed and won't talk to you?
You accept this assignment is what you do!




Sat: Hi! It’s me.
Me: Hi! Where have you been? I haven’t heard from you in over a month. Are you okay?
Sat: I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been busy... riding horses... and learning to love me more.
Me. Really? You have? Is it working?
Sat: Yeah, I think it is. I’ve learnt to forgive and accept me. I’ve learnt to embrace my true self, and not be held back by fear and negative thoughts. I’ve learnt to connect with my creativity and find self-expression. And best of all I've found peace of mind.
Me: Wow. That’s so good... I’m so happy for you, Sat.
Sat: I can teach you how, too.
Me: Really? I’d love that.
Sat: Also, I’m going to take you up on your offer and meet you for a holiday in Bali.
Me: You are? Oh that's wonderful!
Sat: Yeah, I can’t wait! It will be so much fun. Maybe we can also talk about starting up on online interactive community arts project together.
Me: Okay!

Snowmen be gone

While I'm not exactly a xmas fanatic, I do enjoy the festive season, especially family traditions as such decorating the tree and partaking in marathon eating sessions involving meats, cherries and chocolate. However I despise the commercialisation and needless consumerism that's inevitable with every holiday nowadays. And I really, really wish Australia would get some new xmas imagery. Snowmen (or snowpeople), snowflakes, sleighs, reindeer holly, ivy and mistletoe etc are all irrelevant to our climate... or hasn't anyone noticed? Do you all think we live in the northern hemisphere people? This isn't Europe, nor is it America. It's time to let go of this colonial mentality, and curb the continual Americanisation going on around here. We need to start creating our own Christmas iconography. Things that involve sunshine, maybe some kangaroos or koalas, and a few native plants. If we all work really hard and dedicate ourselves to the cause, then maybe one day the sandman will indeed replace the snowman.

Linguistical elements

We have a crazy Siamese cat whose official name is Hanuman, chosen because of his monkey-like nature and looks.
Over the months he has come to acquire numerous nicknames, including but not limited to: Hans, Hanku, Hankuman, Hanku Boy, Hanku B. Boy, Unku Hankuman, Harrington, The Character, Carrie and most recently Diseased Maggot. The last one arose yesterday after he killed a giant rat AND a bird, munched a bit on them, then came inside and vomited on the kitchen floor. Gross. What a little Diseased Maggot!

Speaking of language, it is truly a sad, sad day when you start hearing yourself uttering sentences like 'What's for din dins?' and 'We've run out of toily paper!' I don't know how or why, but somehow baby talk has crept into our venacular and doesn't want to leave. It's completely embarrasing and quite weird. Perhaps it comforts our inner-child, or maybe it's just plain immaturity. Whatever, the fact is we are adults not toddlers, so let's stop this! The running joke is that it was in fact our baby talk that made Hans sick, and I wouldn't be surprised.

Where to live or not to live

This whole issue of when and where to move is driving both me and Muz a little bit nuts. Stay? Go? Go Where? and When? Aaaahh!
The only thing we can agree on is that we definitely don't want to stay in Adelaide much longer. And there's really only two options for us in our profession (and also for maintaining our sanity) and that is Melbourne or Sydney. While I prefer Melbourne he prefers Sydney. This presents a bit of a problem.

Let's start with Sydney and my reasons against it:
1. We've lived there already, during a particularly bad and traumatic period in our lives, and thus I have many bad and traumatic memories associated with the city.
2. Although we know some cool people there, everything and everyone is always soooo busy, and driving places is not practical at all, but then public transport means it takes ages to get anywhere.
3. It's expensive.

His reasons for Sydney:
1. The weather and the beaches are rockin.
2. So many interesting people and loads of cool stuff to do.
3. We could live in Marrickville which is a wicked melting pot of a suburb.

My reasons for Melbourne:
1. Interesting people and loads of cool stuff to do.
2. Have friends and also family there.
3. Once you know the streets its pretty easy to get around, and trams rock.
4. We can live in East Brunswick or St Kilda which are groovy suburbs.

His reasons against Melbourne:
1. The weather completely sucks.
2. People there all think Melbourne is the best place in the world.
3. The streets are confusing.

See? My reasons are way more valid (except for the weather thing, but hey we can deal).
But it's all okay cos I have a sneaky Convince Muz that Melbourne is The One kind of plan, hehe. It involves an extended holiday to Melbourne of course, and lots of exploring of the city. Yay!

Confession Friday

Confession #1: I would rather stay home on a Friday night and watch a DVD than go out drinking.

Confession #2: I edited the last post at least ten times.

At Long Last

Yipeee! My very own little blog.
After months of loitering around other people's, I just couldn't help myself any longer.
Because, you know, I just didn't feel like the internet really knew me, the real me. Oh, you liked it that way did you internet? Well, too bad!

So.... here goes.

Something that has been bothering me: The mold in my bathroom is pink, which is weird but kinda cool. At least it doesn't look gross. I've never experienced pink mold before. Perhaps it's of the 4-year-old girl variety, or maybe it's gay mould!

I was in Melbourne again this past weekend, which seems to be a regular thing with me lately. Not all work though, I got to hang out with some friends and walk around in some smoke. What fun.
Massive bushfires at the beginning of summer? Alert! Government! Another climate change disaster!
Thus Melbourne was like a very polluted Asian capital city, only hotter. Yuck.

Whilst in Melbourne I went to a dinner party which was in fact a baby-fest. That is, everyone else was there with their new baby, talking about their new baby, holding their new baby, trying to get their new baby to sleep etc. The whole thing was very adult and mature with place mats and wine glasses and nibbles. I guess you'd expect that from people with babies. It wasn't the adult thing that irked me, cos I like dinner parties, it was the conservative thing. The hosts showed us a picture of their baby with Peter Costello, signed by Peter Costello. PETER COSTELLO. That's like having a signed picture of your baby with the Devil.

I want to go to radical, exotic, baby-free, opium-filled dinner parties!

The weekend was also a wheat-fest. It included the Best Pizza Ever at The Alderman, average pasta at the dinner party, and toast at brunch with Eza. Of course I suffered extreme brain-damaged exhaustion for days afterwards, but life (in Australia) can be pretty tough without the gluten.
Because sometimes, you know, you've just got to go with the gluten flow.