Farewell Joel, Jiao & Xi

What's up with China? I'm losing three friends to the ancestral homeland. Joel (honorary Asian) is there to study, and Jiao & Xi (of whom I'm very jealous of) are going to work on a HUGE feature film as translators.

Said goodbye to Jiao at his 21st at Forresters, which was a great birthday party, and I found it weird how the pub shut at 12. Surely they would be making more money after 12 on a Saturday night?

As Jiao is originally a third-year MAP, a lot of third-years were there, and their second favourite activity after drinking/smoking pot/despairing-over-romantic-entanglements is bagging out second-year MAP.

Apparently the major difference between third and second year, is that third-year spent all of first year at The Clare, whereas second-year frequented ... Greenwood. Come on, it was cool at the time!

No, really third-year are all sunshine and bunnies. Spaced-out, drunk little bunnies.

Dave's 20th garden party

Just came back from a nice, chilled arvo at Dave's place celebrating his 20th year of existence. It was a mix of his school friends, UTS people, and UNSW-ians.

Lovely Jemma was there from uni, as was Pete, and I also got to know Michael who is on the Sprocket Exec (why does everyone think he's from Sweden?) Also spoke to this guy, have no idea what his name is from Macq uni, I know he told me but I forget (this always happens to me!) but he was lovely too.

So. much. food. Lamb cutlets, sausages, bean salad, garden salad, tabouli, pasta, soft drink, beer, chips & dip, carrot sticks, celery sticks, crackers, lollies ... both Jemma & I were like - we gotta come over to Dave's more often!

Music was tops too. Jose Gonzales! Magic Numbers! Also thrown in was a Britney Spears medley/mashup, which brought back soooo many memories of high school.

Dave's dog Minty, a cute little white fluffball, didn't like me at first, but soon acceded to a belly rub :)

Jemma offered me a lift back to the station, since it was on the way. After a few wrong turns and missed turnoffs, we got there though. I was just thinking, i'm glad it wasn't me driving in Epping at night, I'd be so freaked!

Unfortunately couldn't stay for poker, but hope you ripped those guys to shreds Dave! Happy 20th!

jeanne arthes' sweet sixteen

I have two bottles of Jeanne Arthes' Sweet Sixteen to give away, that a family friend gave us.

It's a lovely summer fragrance, but I'm struggling to finish Echo Woman by Davidoff, and I don't want these perfumes to go off before I'm able to start using them.

Top notes: Ginger, grapefruit, hibiscus.
Middle notes: Peach, berries, freesia and violet
Base Notes: Cedarwood, musk and vanilla.

Let me know if ya want 'em!

long long day

I smell like drowsy because I just had a nap.

Today, I have no idea why, I spent 7 & 1/2 hours transcribing interviews for Triple J Hack for work. Without a break, because I wanted to go home soon!

I don't know whether it was me, the new equipment I had to use, or the people talking over each other in the programs (argh!), but when it hit five hours, I was like ... this is taking forever!

This was just a one-off for Triple J, I don't know if they want me back after how long I took to transcribe!

I included the pic of the kitty to explain how I feel now, ain't he/she cute?

Recap of Sprocket Trivia can be found on Mary's blog. Wish I could have gone to Oktoberfest as well ... next year!

I love ...

... listening to podcasts on the train and trying to stifle fits of laughter.

blog now IE friendly

I miss my Mac.

Since I've been at my laptop, which has only IE, and not the goodness of Firefox, I've discovered that my blog goes nuts. So I've changed the template, and I hope you like black. Also on IE, my user pic looks like i'm mutated ... so I've gotten rid of that as well.

Didn't buy tix for Big Day Out this year, cause I wasn't totally convinced by the lineup. It seems they've gone quite intense this year and gotten Tool, Muse, and The Killers , whereas I'm looking for the more folksy, laidback, angst-free stuff. The only artist on the bill I'd go see would be Peaches, though she's quite intense too. I guess I'm hanging out for next year's Splendour!

blog on hiatus

As my iMac has gone berko on me (computer functioning fine, screen dead), I hope to be updating as frequently as I have, but can't guarantee anything.

Any tips for a good Mac repair shop? Otherwise I think I'll take it back to the Apple Store and wait precious weeks, maybe even months for it to be fixed! (and my warranty has expired)

Thank goodness for USB sticks and backups, I'd die if I had to write my whole documentary proposal again!

soph's dinner and dinner @ brighton

Dinner at Soph's was excellent - tacos! Everything is better with tacos! Laura made creme caramel, Rena brought chicken nuggets, Leana brought black forest cake, Julia & Tapas looked like they had raided the entire snackfood section of the local IGA, and I brought potato salad (which I can't take credit for - Mum made it)

We hung out, chatted, prepared food - I tried to get everyone into Doctor Who, but the episode on was the second half of the season finale and no-one had a clue what was going on.

Then after Julia & Tapas arrived, we had dinner chatting about fun topics like setting someone's hair on fire. Tapas is lovely Jules, you guys are good together!

Then we did other fun things like watch clips of Japanese game shows, that involve putting guys in hilarious situations, and caning them if they laugh.

The night was a roaring success, especially considering I managed not to crash the car whilst giving Laura or Leana lifts home!

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Dinner at Brighton-Le-Sands with Bianca and Yu-Wen was fantastic. They're primary school friends (yes, we go back that far).

After parking in very close proximity to a police car, we had dinner at a gorgeous little Mod Oz restaurant on the main stretch, and chatted about archaelogical digs, uni, life in general.

Afterwards we went to the Brighton-Le-Sands Ice Creamery, a place which has been there for more than 15-years. This place was such a feature of my childhood it's not funny. And for old times' sake I got my absolutely favourite flavour: Mint Choc-Chip.

Yay for everyone seeing each other again, and I swear since we've survived this long, we'll survive longer!

wardrobe revolution

Who says you don't learn anything from my blog?

Below is the video for the Japanese Shirt-Folding Technique, which is specially handy for those overseas (Luci & Anna!), and those are actually using their summer vacation to go on vacation. This technique is an oldie, but a goodie.

This video comes courtesy of Soph, who demonstrated the method to me whilst waiting for Howling Bells at Placebo.



Still can't do it? Maybe some instructions will help!

I was robbed by two men!

FULL credit goes to Jade for this post, who demonstrated to me & Mel all the moves in this video.

Think of an English language video crossed with a 80s aerobic video, on crack. And you get this...



Take anything you want! Spare me my life! I was robbed by two men!