Melbourne was made for me...

I've just spent one of the best weeks of my life in one of my favourite cities with two of my favourite boys... and haven't we had a blast! We have honestly spent every minute of every day shopping, festival-going, skateboarding, eating, gazing and marvelling. Its been outstanding. And now we're down to our last day; we fly out tomorrow at 3:00pm.

I now own: $100 cash, a credit card bill and the heaviest bag you can imagine - full of new dresses, coats, stockings, scarves, books and magazines, shoes and knick-knacks. I have found some of the coolest things on the planet! Lucky I've two boys to help me carry it home. My poor bag is straining at the seams: I brought way too many things with me to start with - possibly owing to the fact that I was drunk as a skunk when I packed my bags. But that's alright - at least I didn't run out of clothing like the boys. By the end of this week they were lining their t-shirts up on the couch and systematically spraying them over with a deoderant can. I think even turned themselves off. So I acted as Personal Shopper and helped them find some new, bobbin, clean threads to pour themselves into. Must say we ended up with some pretty stylin pieces!

The weather has been purely delicious, despite Tuesday - Big Day Out - hitting the high thirties in the sun. I swear that, when we sat down in the shade, we shivered from the fresh, chilly breeze that wafted through the grounds. It was great. They also had misty sprinklers drifting over the mosh pits, which made them quite pleasant, and almost un-mosh-pitty! Lovely. Flemington Racecourse loved it. They had the BEST food there. I ate: 2 hotdogs (with onion, ketchup and mustard oh my goodness they were amazing), 1 buttered and salted full corn cob, 1 cup of hot chips and an orange. And a FANTA. Its been forever since I drank Fanta.

The bands were full-on fabulous, too. Kasabian rocked, Rise Against kicked arse, Jet smashed it, Lily Allen was delicous, Powderfinger were tops and MUSE absolutley blew the show out of the water. They just finished the day off perfectly and I can't think when I last had a more exciting one. It was smashing. Caught up with my cousin, Jess, and wore my gumboots - Glastonbury style. I got comments!

Anyway, I'm going to find the boys. I just needed to update with all the fabulous details. I wish I could have been on here more this week so I could write down everything that we did, because we had the most insane days. It doesn't get dark until 9:30pm here so you can really pack them full. I'm going to put up a list of my favourite haunts too, so keep your pretty eyes open.

CIAO see you soon.

xx OTIG

Oh! And by the way, I fulfilled tradition and found a skull scarf. This one is my favourite yet! It's grey and has pink, blue, grey, green, black and white skulls peppered all over it. Stella!

I love this place... sigh.

My Ultimate Icon

As I was talking with my brother the other morning about books and stories we used to read, I had an epiphany. Could it be that my ultimate style icon has, all this time, been Milly-Molly-Mandy? It makes sense - I have subconsiously been searching for the perfect simple little frock, and the perfect little pair of brown ruddy boots for longer than I can remember; and our soft-back, pink and white covered collection of Milly-Molly-Mandy stories was, and still is, my favourite book of all time.

Millicent Margaret Amanda was a simple character, but by no means boring or brainless (take, for example, her name - which was changed to Milly-Molly-Mandy for convenience sake). The adventures she had were rivetting and exciting, and so well written that even adults secretly enjoy them. She lived out my dream life - residing the Nice White Cottage with the Thatched Roof with Muvver and Farver and Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle and Aunty: she had her entire family right there, all day, every day. She had two best friends, a boy and a girl, and they were Billy Blunt and Little Friend Susan respectively. And every day she was doing something interesting - tad-poling with Billy Blunt, furnishing the perfect treehouse with Little Friend Susan, camping in the field with tents fashioned from chairs and sheets, running errands and making profits, and going carolling at Christmas. There were so many stories I can't even remember them all - and they were all the stuff of a great genious. Joyce Lankester Brisley, the author, had the right idea... write stories about everything you did, or wish you did when you were little. Add security (the heroine always wears the same thing - a little pink-and-white striped cotton frock); family and friends; the healthy morals and standards of the 1930's and a little bit of humour, and those stories will last forever, imprinted on the minds of those who ever read them. I always wanted to be Milly-Molly-Mandy, nay, I was : every single time I picked up that book.

The Age - on Milly-Molly-Mandy and her lifestyle

So, if MMM is my style icon, or indeed my life icon, how do I live?

Well, I already have a best boy and best girl friend, thats easy - Tom and Meg (Little Friend Meggie heh heh!). They've always been that. Next, the hair. Believe it if you will, but I had a little, dark bob for almost my entire life, well, until my muvver ceased to control that area of my being. And, as mentioned before, I have always been in search for the perfect little frock and pair of brown boots, but have never found The Ones. I really hope that one day we will be united (I'm sure that when we are, they will be my uniform). You already know that my family is one of the most important aspects of my life, and I think this is reflected in MMM's as well. Of course it is! She lives with every single one of them. And they all have the biggest influence on her life as she grows up. My Grandma and Grandpa actually only lived across the creek when we were growing up - so we were pretty lucky as well. I feel really sad for people who don't have their family close.

Finally, the biggest thing in common I would wish to have is her personality. MMM is the nicest, sweetest, most genuine person you will ever come across. She helps animals; she loves her family and friends and would do absolutely anything for any of them; she doesn't worry about the little things and always comes up with a solution; she always does a good job and doesn't give up til she's finished something properly; she shares everything; she helps when she can; and she always puts others before herself. Everybody loves Milly-Molly-Mandy, and that's the reason why. I think she makes for a very good Ultimate Life Icon.

xx OTIG

In retrospect

So, luckily, the crazyiness and insolence of Christmas and New Years 09/10 is over and gone, leaving us now to return to normal and view the possibilities of 2010 - minus the gel colour filters of alchohol, too much food, drunken tears, late night phone calls and doggy-scaring fireworks.

I spent the countdown in a low, dark park on the edge of town, sitting on a picnic table with my legs pulled up in front, two dogs circling around sniffing and eyeing me suspiciously. Presently the dogs disappeared into the night and as the clock neared twelve, I could hear little parties all around and above me errupting into cheers of congratulations and celebrations, echoing off into the night. It wasn't the worst way to spend New Years.

But as I said before - its all behind again now for another annum, and we can now look ahead with bated breath. What are you hoping for this year? I intend to get closer again to owning my little dream shop - through saving, learning and scrounging. I want to learn as much as possible, read lots of books and spend enormous amounts of time with family. And I want to become nicer, and stop thinking about myself as much. These aren't new year's resolutions, or anything silly like that. These are just courses of action that will get me closer to where I want to be and what I want to be. I hope you have the best year, with even better to come :)

xx OTIG