Little Bit of Gorillaz Love. Because I'm so loving them at the moment... sorry!

Feel th Funk

It's the day after Halloween and I'm sitting just inside the door of my flat, feeling softs wisps of summer breeze brush past me and watching little finches as they play in my garden. As they flutter around, their tiny wings dash and send yellow flowers into a scatter, but when they are still for a moment they regard me suspiciously from black gleaming eyes.

I've been trying to write for about two hours now, but again, it is one of those days when everything that comes from my brain sounds shit when I actually extract and write it out. I'm a bit deflated. I have lost all inspiration and even when I find others to inspire me, it won't carry over into what I would like to do or write that day. I am going on like a robot. The only way I can keep on without losing it is to prepare excitedly for my move in May. I am so excited, but apart from my general dislike of moving, a part of me is also worried that I may not regain my mojo by moving to a new city. I have to remind myself that I will, of course. There will be new things, new people and new places. Change is going to take care of itself and wrap me up in throes of inspiration and deluges of happy sentiments! Then my poor little blog won't know what hit it. I will be able to blog every day, because I will actually have something to blog about!

Until then, though, I am going to continue to tack and paste stuff here, because I don't want there to be a blank spot in my life, and I'm hopeless at keeping a journal. This will be an important chunk of time leading up to one of the biggest, most exciting changes of my young life so far, it would be ridiculous to leave it out. So forgive me if I seem shallow for the next six months. Hopefully I'll regain my extensive vocabulary and writer's sense soon. 

So lets listen to the Gorillaz and have a peek at Kelly O's delicious Derby Day outfit (what a hero! She flies in from America, dives right into the Melbourne shopping, gets all done up for the races, has a fabulous time and is back home in LA for breakfast the next morning!). I'm off to get ready for another big night in the kitchen, cheffing away for every extra dollar to go towards my move.

xx

IT Crowd Season Four

Its only one of the greatest shows to happen, ever. And its only part way through screening! Can't wait for episode 3.

Wild Weather!

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but Szohr just never fades. I love it when NYLON pops her in, and I'm sad to say this last issue is the first one I've bought for quite a time. They cost a lot in our town, and I'm a woman on a budget! Suffice to say, I got my little surge of joy from this issue on my trip home from holidays.

I am one happy chicken this week. Having just returned from my city of love, Melbourne, I am refreshed and excited at new prospects and hopes for the next 12 months. My plans are these: to have a monster garage sale with some friends in February 2011. Then, when my next lease comes up at the end of April I will be ready to pack what belongings I have left into boxes for an impending move. Said move, as of this last week, is now strongly headed in a determined direction. So I'm feeling a little more purpose filled than usual, because this time I really believe that I can do this, and that it is the right time. Nothing inspires like a little purpose!

Steering away from the norm, I shall give a quick recap of my doings on vacation in bullet point format:

1. Saw Powderfinger live, performing their last tour - Sunsets - in Rockhampton on Thursday
2. Purchased my dream, life-changing wrap-around dress from Sportsgirl on Friday
3. Saw 'Tomorrow When the War Began' with Barb. It was good, didn't disappoint.
4. Flew to Brisbane and caught the train right to Bop's 21st venue to help decorate on Saturday
5. Partied the night away, danced to a live funk band, made a new friend and got ridiculously drunk in the process of celebrating, rainy
6. Recovered on Sunday (and attended a bbq with my second family), rainy
7. Flew to Melbourne and caught the bus, then the train straight to my cousins', on Monday
8. Went to Chadstone on Tuesday (biggest shopping centre in Australia)
9. Saw 'Eat Love Pray' with J and S (also had bad, bad mexican for dinner), rainy
10. Met Barb at the bus stop on Wednesday, rainy
11. Saw Paramore live (great), supported by Jury and the Saints, and Reliant K (who weren't so great), rainy
12. Met up with Mumma on Thursday, trawled Fitzroy for quirks (rainy) and 'did' Chapel St
13. Queen Victoria Markets on Friday - Hot Chocolate, Salami, Cheese and fresh Turkish Bread for brunch, RAINY!
14. Afternoon in bed trying to kill a bad cold, brought on by all the rain
15. Dinner at Grandma Funk's
16. Bridge Rd on Saturday following a long brunch at Tweek
17. Flew home Saturday afternoon - met by our loving Bfs at the airport (kisses all round)
18. Recovered all day Sunday (spent the whole day in bed)

And those, friends, were my holidays. I am still trying to ward off the cold a week on, but it was totally worth it! I had a fabulous time. One of the highlights was Bop's birthday party, god that was a fun night. I got up to all kinds of mischief and danced until my feet couldn't feel anymore. I got two hours sleep.

This trip really kicked off my plans. I want to move to Richmond. It is perfect for me - just on the outskirts of the City with public transport coming out it's ears, and the home to a number of my favourite haunts; Tweek, Grandma Funk's, Bridge Rd, Chapel St and the river. As an added incentive, the Australian Institute of Fitness has a campus literally just down the road from where I hope to live. I have been considering studying with them for about 6 months now, but didn't want to do it via distance ed. Maybe its the solution to my studying dramas.

Bring on the Garage Sale plans! xx OTIG

Some of Dylan Moran's Best...

The First of October.

If I lived in Brisbane, I would be going here tonight ^. Instead, I'm going to a Hypnotist/Illusionist show and dinner at our local club.

A few changes have come about in the last week or so at work. I'm no longer the manager of my little coffee shop :( however, I've been promoted to a full time chef's position in the kitchen. This means split shifts every day, and working most weekends still, but it also means a lot less stress and the chance to learn heaps of new skills - another notch on my now rather extensive resume. Upon hearing the news, my 12 year old brother was rather impressed - 'Wow, she's really going somewhere with her life! She can do everything!' This made me feel a bit better. I must say, that coffee shop was my baby, but its time to move on.

I go on holiday in 5-6 days!

xx B

I want to live here.

Thank God for the Salvos!

Starting October, The Salvation Army has a new challenge - buy nothing new for the whole month, excluding food, drink, hygiene etc. Reduce pressure on your purse, and the size of your carbon footprint, by swapping, second-handing and lending for the whole of October. Sounds like an excellent excuse for an Op-shopping adventure to me! Pledge here loves.

It takes courage to grow up/Splendour Report

Well, hasn't it been a time and a half? I have officially been 21 for just over one month, and so far - so good. I took those previously mentioned two weeks off at my birthday, went to Agnes Waters and had a ball. Ate so much amazing food, fished and boated, listened to 50's style jazz floating out the doorway and down into the garden of our beach house at breakfast time, laughed a lot, played in the sand and drank Jagermiester. The whole weekend blends into itself in my memories, and I can only remember good things. What only made it sweeter was the pre-weekend surprise party my Boy threw for me on the Wednesday of my birthday. I've always wanted to know what a surprise party was like, but I always thought I was too nosy to ever get a proper one. He pulled it off! I was very amazed, almost bursting into tears and laughing at the same time.

We travelled home on Monday tired and sandy, but I was filled with glee when everyone else had to go back to work on Tuesday and I was still on holidays. On Thursday morning, bright and early, I was up and packed to leave on our Splendour-bender with my darling friend Wickers. I went over and found her in a state - nothing packed, none of her tickets printed, cash strewn all over her bed, and her self downstairs smoking cigarettes in the garden. Needless to say, we left a little later than planned, but we had the most smashing time. We met Harvey and P in Woodford at around 7pm; one bottle of wine and half an hour after that we joined the line for the festival entrance which is 1.5km from town. We got into the festival 5 hours later, and by sheer luck nabbed possibly the best campsite in the history of earth. We couldn't believe it. We beat 20,000 people to it, set up the tent in pitch darkness, and so began the Best Weekend of my Life.

I'm not going to lie. I don't have one photo from the whole 4 days. All I know is that it was amazing fun, and I wouldn't swap the memories I have for one million dollars and a season pass to the Dodgers. We'd wake up in the morning to my cousin crawling through the tent flaps loaded up with coffee, then we'd get up, brush our teeth in the bushes behind the car, and chill out with the guys from the next campsite until the first good band. All our phones died on that first night so we didn't really seperate the whole weekend, but we still managed to catch up with Wickers and J once a day. Mother Nature was an absolute daaaahling about the whole thing, each day presenting us with the clearest, crispest weather - even though we were camping in the depths of winter. Coffee, Vodka Redbulls and Cinnamon Suger Langos breads were the order of the day, along with numerous sessions in a very smoky car, otherwise referred to as the Woodfire Pizza Oven. And then, we would dance. And run around the giant festival trying to catch as many acts and go to the toilet as many times as we could. FUN!

On Monday morning, when everyone had fillled up on coffee and our very last Nutella rations, we piled back into the car to join another line, this time to exit. Driving back towards Brisbane through the rolling hills, Florence and the Machine blaring through the speakers and the windows down, was the meaning of elation in a teacup.

The rest of my holidays were spent visiting my Nan and Pa and my two best friends from high school. My cousin and I also went up to West End to scrounge op-shops and secondhand bookshops, and pay a visit to Happy High Herbs. I acquired a pipe and a set of Bohemian Lifestyle Cards, and a white cardigan with large skulls peppered across it.

The next morning, Wednesday, was time for home. I had the windows down on the freeway til Maryborough, which is where I met up with Wickers. She spent the last two days in Hervey Bay with her boyfriend and brother. And that's how our bender ended. We had the most amazing time, and there is no way I am not going back next year. Winter festivals are the shiz!

All my love, OTIG

Waters off 1770, my 21st birthday weekend, Toadfish. Awesome day! xx OTIG

Winter Festival Connotations

Countdown to my birthday is 5 days. Countdown til my holidays start is 6 days. Countdown to Splendour is 13 days! I can't wait for winter, festivally goodness!

I can't believe how much I've missed out on writing up here due to a lack of time in the blogging department. I've been busy working, training, cleaning my house and hanging out with new people. Oh, and a lot of time watching re-runs of How I Met Your Mother.

My new favourite dinner is Baked Potatoes Covered With Lots of Delicious Toppings and Microwaved Until All the Cheese Dumped on Top Melts. Take one large, clean, farm potato. Cut it in half and prick the insides twice with a fork. Place face down on a plate and microwave for 4 minutes. Then microwave face up for 3 minutes. Take potato out of the microwave and proceed to dump toppings of choice on the faces of the potato. I'm digging Diced Bacon, roughly diced Onion, Salami, Tomato (fresh or sundried) and truckloads of Tasty Cheese. Let the toppings fall off the side a bit, it doesn't matter, just make sure there's lots. of. cheese. Microwave the whole lot for another 3 minutes, then bravo, chop it all up, season with salt and pepper and you're done. That is the best food for just after you get home from the gym! (Health can get screwed!)

Updators.

I booked my tickets to Paramore last Friday night, and my best friend Barb will be accompanying me which will be really great - I've been spouting love lust for this city to her for months, and now I can show her what all my fuss is about. So have a look at the wonderful things Lonely Planet has to say about my Melbs:

"Sophisticated and slick, edgy and rough, Melbourne’s physical and cultural landscape is shaped by a dynamic population, ever-ravenous for a bite of global culture. The result is Australia’s most accessible multiculturalism. Ornate Victorian-era architecture and leafy, established boulevards reflect the city’s history, and cutting-edge developments such as Federation Sq exemplify its enigmatic contemporary style. But, Melburnians still keep their urban frenzy to a deliciously sedate pace. Trams lumber back and forth on routes radiating out like spokes from central Melbourne, and cycling is a common way to get from A to Z."

"Character-filled neighbourhoods, such as Fitzroy, St Kilda and Carlton, hum with life and the city produces some of the best art, music, cuisine, fashion, performance, design and ideas in the world. Melbournians are also devoted to their sport and they go ballistic around the Australian Football League (AFL; ‘footy’ to the locals) finals and during Spring Racing Carnival. They love to shop, eat and attend the myriad festivals that the city offers. You’ll even find them defending the city’s temperamental weather, and if you’ve ever experienced Melbourne’s inclination to plummet from searing heat to drizzling rain in the space of an hour, you’ll understand that this must be the true definition of unconditional love."

Some places I want to try out this time include:

The Bell Jar, 656 Smith St, Collingwood +61 410 336 019

Journal, Shop 1/235 Flinders Lane, Melbourne ph: 9650 4399

My boyfriend got an iPhone yesterday, jolly menace he is. I still have to wait a month and a half til my old contract runs out, and he sneaks in before me just to make sure he is always just a little bit cooler. I will have one in my hot little hands soon enough. He bought me shoes last week, mind you, they were $20.00, and it was only because he accidentally spewed on my face the night before. But that's another story for another time.

xx OTIG

Harriet the Spy

I love the idea of being properly prepared, the whole package, ready to go out into the world. I am snug, dressed in stockings, frock, coat, scarf and boots. I have a bag, and in it I have all the tools I might need - nail file, face wipes, phone charger, make-up, bottle of water, hair spray, disposable camera, notebook and pen, map, money, toothbrush, spare pair of undies, ribbon and safety pins. With these on my person I can survive any situation I encounter. I am leaving my base, my cave, which holds everything I own, and I'm setting out for the whole day with only the essentials.

This is a lazy Sunday afternoon of blogging. OTIG

Shoes, Snooze and Tattoos

I'd give anything to be able to wear anything I want, anyway I want, to my job every day. I can't wait to work for myself.