Fiestas, Cocktails and Polish Festivals...

Was lucky enough to have my very own Judges Associate visit for the weekend.

She flew in on Saturday and after a morning tea of canoli we decided to hit Brunswick St. Much to our surprise half of Johnston St was close doff for a Spanish Fiesta - I have never seen so much paella in my life! We settled down to share a plate of paella behind some bins in the gutter (there were no seats anywhere and you can't share paella standing up!) and consequently ended up with saffron fingers. Because we were planning some nice boutique visits we thought it best to wash our hands. Unfortunately the pub had no soap, but water was better than nothing.

I had some success though - sepite having been up Brunswick St only five days prior I actually managed to buy some Christmas presents! So I'm feeling very good and polishing my halo as we speak. Or write. Or read. Whatever.

So the whole afternoon was spent looking at beautiful things, marvelling at the crazy Melbourne weather (hot, cold, raining) and wishing we had thousand sof dollars to spend on ourselves.

We went home and had a little lemoncello to prepared ourselves for a tram trip back to Brunswick St to go to a cocktail bar. I can never choose what to have so the bar staff picked for me. Four hits and one miss (I hate cherry flavour). Several lovely drinkies, a proscuitto and rockmelon pizza later we tottered back home on the tram.

Talk of school days for some reason inspired the dreaded 'bringing out of the year books'. I seem to have been a slightly twisted and possibly bitter young woman - it was the scribble on the sporting pages saying 'Death to all netballers' and the scrawl across the Rock Eisteddfod page saying 'That was shit, utter shit' that worried me most of all.

Husband arrived home from games conference mildly squiffy, the three of us talked shit for another hour or so and then went to bed. An hour later Buster freaked about the storms that was brewing and made her unease felt by woofing and crying at our door then breaking into the spare room to frighten the life (and sleep) out of our guest.

The next day opened with rain -lots of rain. I was higly dubious of the predicted 30 degree day - more fool me. Of course, I'm in Melbourne, so I only had to wait an hour and it was boiling bloody hot!

We decided to check out South Bank - we parked at Fed Square and as we were heading toward the bridge, the Judges Associate noticed a guy at a market stal with a Polish flag on his hat. Being of a Polish persuasion she wanted to check it out. Suddenly we realised we were in the middle of a Polish Festival! Where else could you accidentally stumble across two festivals?

We enjoyed the sea of red and white clothes, made some purchases at the stall and made our way on to South Bank, where we found ourselves in a craft market. So many market stalls had launched themselves upon us poor innocents! But we survived... with ice cream from Trampoline mostly. I had peanut nutter and white choc raspberry. Yummy!

I dropped my Judges Associate at her hotel and we are hoping to catch up again before she flies back to Sydney and I fly up to the Berra.

Have jsut had a small Singing Office rehearsal, have another on Wednesday. We are on the telly this Sunday!!!

Getting nervous...

I'm getting strangely nervous about visiting Old Work next week. It wouldn't be too bad if I was just going for a catch up, but I'm going in a professional capacity.

I think part of the weirdness will be that everything will be the same at Old Work, whereas I've been away, had adventures, changed and don't regret leaving.

Not actually worried about the content of my presentation, which in itself is a worry! Hmmm, perhaps I should focus on this first?

Is it wrong to feel weird about going back to Old Work?

Christmas Uninspirationness

I was getting myself geared up to do some Christmas shopping today, but it hasn't really gone to plan. I was going to come back today with loads of presents and inspiration and ideas for what I would like for myself.

BUT

I came home with wrapping paper (good start, at least it is for Christmas) and rugs for home from Ikea, Swedish beer also from Ikea, a $1 hot dog (good old Ikea), rope toys for the dogs (go team Reject Shop!), some pumpkin and potatoes. I also came home with an overwhelming feeling of dread and total uninspirationness (so totally a word).

I think the problem lay in the fact that I was shopping in a mall - not the most inspiring of places when it comes to buying unique gifts.

And I couldn't help but go to Ikea - I was in Richmond and kind of accidentally tripped over and my car fell into a parking spot at Ikea and then I felt sort of obliged to go in...

Tomorrow I shall adventure beyond the mall and head into Fitzroy I think.

The difficulty this Christmas is that everything will need to fit into a suitcase to fly to Berra, and all of my millions of presents (hint hint) will need to go back in same suitcase. So be prepared to receive small, flat items this year people!

On another note - I also came home with pamphlets and an appointment at the bank for tomorrow about home loans. So that is exciting. But also worrying.

Where did the year go?

The other day a had that little thought one has about this time every year - "I should really start my Christmas shopping early this year."

I then felt good about myself for remembering to think that.

A few days later, when of course I hadn't yet started my shopping, I realised that in all likelihood this wasn't going to happen. I looked at what remaining weekends were left of the year and what I'd be doing on those weekends and found that I probably won't have time to shop until mid-December. So not really the 'early' I was hoping for.

I'm working this weekend, so might be a good girl and shop on Monday and Tuesday. Although how am I going to get presents to Canberra? I might have to borrow a large suitcase and fill it with pressies, leaving room for only my swimmers and maybe a spare pair of undies.

Where the hell has the year gone? And why is the rest of it quickly evaporating?

Suddenly husband and I were celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary with two bottles of Moet (we figure it should be one for each year, we may need help when we get to our 5th year). Lovely meal of Cafe La again as per last year (why break with tradition?) followed by cocktails in the Atrium Bar. I was so drunk I was speaking in a French accent, but had a marvellous time!

This week I did a segment for a kids science show on Ten called Scope. So watch out at 4pm on New Years Eve and watch me crap on about what a solar year is. It was a lot of fun actually. The cameraman said he was impressed that I could remember a whole sentence. Apparently weathermen and reporters can't. Not really sure how challenging it could possibly be, but then I suppose I'm used to learning science shows.

Rehearsals are going to start picking up for the Singing Office finals, so I've got These Boots stuck in my head again. Can I get a suee? Can I get a yeehah? Have got QKC girls dropping in for the finals weekend and a certain Brisvegans birthday.

Have got my very own Judges Associate coming to stay next weekend and have commiseratory (is that a word?) drinks over a boy, possibly go to the Speigl Tent for a burlesque show.

Husband is MC-ing the Games Connect conference again this year, although it is in Melbs so no free trip to Brisvegas for us this year.

Will be having a flying visit to the Berra for work and for a certain little brother's Emo themed birthday in a couple of weeks. Slightly scared about going back to Q. Feeling very weird about it, but not sure why.

Anyways, gotta turn on the Planetarium before the punters arrive...