Connections

So I have a random story for y’all… See, there’s this girl. I think I first ‘met’ her because I’d been eating a lot at Wagamama, where she works. Then, we started seeing each other at quite a number of gigs. So, a little weird, but nothing outrageous, right?

Well, at Essential Festival on the weekend, I saw her again. Not unusual, because it was already clear we have a similar taste in music. What was odd was that she was there with another girl I know, who is in my Spanish class. So, a bit of an odd link, but again, nothing too much.

But then, tonight at the Dendy (Lizzie had tickets to the preview of German film Baader Meinhof Complex), I came back from the bathroom to discover Lizzie talking to two other girls, one of which was, you guessed it, the girl I keep running into! Apparently she does German with Lizzie.

Is she stalking me? Am I (accidentally) stalking her? Oof.

I would like to draw a graph to represent these connections, but it’s late, and I don’t know that I can be bothered. I wonder what connection I will come across next, though.

Party of DOOM, and No, I Will Not Fix Your Computer

…Unless I really like you and/or you don’t ask much and/or I have a romantic interest in you (mostly the last one, really). More on the reasoning behind this later.

Continuing on from last post, Cal fixed my stereo (after a bit of running around to get parts), and I headed off to visit my sister, Jemma. I met her in the city, where she works, and I got to meet some of her friends while I was at it. They were to be found smoking pot in the park. Nice people though.

We then left them, and went out for dinner at a delighful little place hidden in an alleyway off Lt. Collins St. I’d tell you what it was called, but I don’t know, and I’m not even sure that I’d be able to find it again. Pretty sure it was between Elizabeth and Swanston Sts, but again, don’t quote me on that. It was a nice little Italian place, surprisingly busy (apparently it’s not usually so), and I got served up a delicious Risotto Salmone. Afterwards, we ordered a bowl of fries. Pretty much the biggest bowl of fries I’ve ever seen; no way we could’ve finished it all, despite being quite hungry. It was pretty awesome to sit and chat to Jem; we usually get along really well, and talk easily about whatever, but we don’t often get the chance. Hopefully it’ll happen a bit more frequently now she’s living in Melbourne.

After dinner, we headed to Richmond, to Jemma’s friend Trish’s place, to sit around and watch movies (as had been planned in the park earlier). It was weird being in Richmond, as over the time I’ve been in Sydney the name has become synonymous with out-of-the-way conservative family suburb, of which the Melbourne Richmond is none. It’s more like Newtown, except a bit less lively and alternative (possibly see St. Kilda for that).

Soon after arriving at Trish’s, we got a call from two of the boys from the park, who had caught the wrong tram and had gone way too far, ending up a few suburbs away. We went to pick them up, stopping on the way back at the coolest video store ever. Downstairs they had an extensive (but not unusual) range of DVDs, and upstairs (extending a number of floors), they had thousands upon thousands of old VHS tapes for sale. It was absolutely amazing.

We headed back to Jemma’s apartment in Prahran for the night, where I slept on her housemate’s (who I never met) spare mattress in the lounge room. I must say, she did very well finding such a nice, large apartment for such a reasonable price. She’s less than a block from St. Kilda Road, so it’s easy to get pretty much anywhere via public transport.

Sunday morning we went to Chapel St and spent quite a while exploring the Chapel St Bazaar, which has the most amazing collection of everything ever. Basically a giant op-shop, although with more focus on stuff rather than clothes (although they still had a lot of that, too). So many things I wanted to buy.

We then met up with Cal for (late) breakfast, and headed off to see Grandpa. A combination of Jemma’s directions and me accidentally missing turn-offs ended in us taking one of the most inefficient routes ever from Prahran to Niddrie, but such is life, and we got there eventually (after I made up my own directions, which, as if often the case in Melbourne, turn out just as well if not better as working off a map).

Sadly we were only able to stay a little while at Grandpa’s, but it was nice to see him all the same. Afterwards we visited more relatives, all the way down in Werribee, before I had to leave in order to make it to dinner with friends in Ballarat.

Dinner with friends was nicknamed ‘Party of Doom’ by Mollie and I due to the events of the last party I had involving a similar group of people. But surprisingly enough, it ended up being me plus the three culprits from last time (Mollie, Elaine and Edwin) having coffee and chatting away amicably. It was delightfully nice, although a little strange when somebody mentioned that it was a meeting of ‘the exes’ (being me/Elaine and Edwin/Mollie), which I hadn’t noticed. We also got an interesting visit from Jordan, who we went to high school with. We learned from her that you can get taxies to do pretty much anything in Ballarat, including delivering cigarettes. Interesting girl, that one.

I’m sorry, I keep thinking about how much I’m writing about my trip, and how bored you must be hearing detail like this, but I guess I’m enjoying writing, and remembering, and hey, you can always skip over it. Anyway, so yeah, onto today. I stayed in bed for a few hours after waking up, because Specto decided to join me, so we snuggled (and I sneezed a lot) and it was lovely. I miss him so much when I’m in Sydney, it’s crazy.

Dad then preceded to get me to try and fix everything with his Linux installation, and I came to remember why I switched to Windows, running Ubuntu in a virtual machine when I need to. It’s wonderful for a lot of things, but it’s just so much effort to get up and running properly, and if you want to keep it up-to-date, it’s a lot of maintenance. Blah.

Then we got new tyres (tires?) put on my car, which I was pretty much conned into paying for (fair enough, I guess, it is my car, but I probably would’ve waited until next time I was down, or something). Dad has a way like that. Pretty much he expresses that the car needs tyres (tires?), then mentions that he can’t really pay for them at the moment, then weasels out of me that although I’m trying to save up for Chile, and have just spent $200 of that savings on flights to come and visit him, I’m not exactly broke, so then he gets me to agree that the car probably needs tyres (tires?),  and so books it in, then drops me off at the place, saying something along the lines of “so you’re right to get them and everything?” I don’t know, I guess I’m happy to pay for things my car needs, but it just sucks being boxed into things like that, especially when it’s an enexpected $225. Same thing happened with oil. Thankfully that was only 1/10th of the cost of tyres (tires?). Anyway, enough whingeing about that. Just… Blah, yeah.

Needless to say, this afternoon I really felt like a beer, so I went to the bottle shop and bought a single Golden Ale. Kind of awkward at the cash register, but totally worth it. But then tonight Dad wanted me to fix more stuff with his computer (sound not working in Flash? I don’t care, it works for me!). Oh, and plans for tomorrow? Get up reasonably early, and set up more computer stuff, before going to Melbourne and catching my plane in the afternoon. Seriously, next time I think I’m gonna get him to pay for my flights as a charge for my computer-fixing services. Although then I’d probably feel obligated to do more work. Maybe I’ll just stay with Jem instead? Or Mum, for that matter, considering she’ll probably be home.

Again, sorry for the long post. I had a lot of ranting to get out there.

Heads Down, Thumbs Up

Yesterday was such a lovely day. It almost started off badly, as my alarm failed to go off, but Dad woke me up and I was awake and ready to go by the time Mollie arrived. We had a lovely chat in the car on the way to Melbourne, and arrived in time to meet Nick in the city. Nick took us to a comic book store in the city, which was kind of interesting but a bit too much for Mollie and I to handle; Mollie left to go to a bookstore, and I just wandered around aimlessly, not knowing what was what. We also went to see a movie – The Boat that Rocked – which I really enjoyed. Certainly one of the better movies I’ve seen in recent times. I highly recommend you check it out if you have the means to do so.

After Nick left in a panic because he was afraid of missing Luluc, his desired love affair, somewhere on Lygon St, Mollie and I headed home to Karova to see Tessa & the Typecasts, supported by Falloe. Falloe were pretty okay, pretty country, but nice and easy to listen to. We were probably more interested in chatting more than anything, though. Tessa & the Typecasts were, I believe, a College (ie. Ballarat and Clarendon College) band, and were… Interesting. We only stuck around for two songs, as it was late and Mollie had to drive back to Geelong, but we weren’t terribly enraptured anyway. The lead singer was doing those things… Like vocal hiccups? I don’t know, I can’t remember the name again. But like Regina Spektor does sometimes. Except Regina Spektor does them really quite well, and they are rather endearing. Not so much in this context, but I really can’t say too much as I only saw two songs.

Today has been not quite so good. I’ve just been feeling a bit off, a cross between mopey and upset in a bit of an angry way. I know why this is, so I guess I’ll get over it eventually. It probably hasn’t helped that Dad keeps asking me to fix things on his computer, which I get frustrated with at the best of times. Maybe I just need some time alone, I haven’t really had much since I’ve been here.

That said, Dad and I are also changing the oil and oil filter, among other things, on my car today, which has been interesting, and a nice learning experience. So not all is bad!

I just need Cal to fix my stereo, so that more than one speaker work again. He broke it in the first place.

You Know It’s Disco Biscuit Love

Hrm so I kind of planned to write earlier, so I didn’t have so much to cover, but apparently that was not to be! So yeah, much to cover over the last… Half-week. Eek! (Rhyme, woop).

We usually have client meetings for our Whitsundays project Wednesday nights, as I have class Tuesday nights, but because I am currently on ‘holidays’ from uni (well, don’t have classes), we decided it would be a fun time to do pub trivia and get ’schnitfaced’. Pub trivia involves going to our usual haunt, the Criterion, and playing their Tuesday-night trivia. First time we played, we won and got a $50 bar voucher, but in both subsequent attempts we have failed miserably. What happened? Oh, that’s right, Anthony played. Also they got rid of Beez Neez, and then they ran out of Golden Ale, so we were stuck with not-so-good beer. Blame it on that?

‘Schitfaced’ is a word coined (as far as I know) by Anthony, and involves going to the Bavarian Bier Cafe and taking the giant schnitzel challenge. And drinking lots of delicious German beer, of course. Surprisingly enough, we all finished our schnitzels, and as a result got free schnapps to wash it down. We were joined by Lexie and Anthony’s German friend Sacha, who multiplied the fun even more! Anthony was playing on his iPhone, sending pictures to random people and getting random pictures back using this odd application. We figured about 95% of the patronage was male, especially after getting sent arse and penis. Interesting.

The night was planned to end after the Bavarian (God knows we were already pretty inebriated), but when Steve, Lexie and I got back to Bulga, somehow we ended up in my room doing bourbon shots and talking about all kinds of interesting things. I will not go into details, but it was fun! It was also the most I’ve ever drunk in one night, and as a result I felt very queasy for the next day or two (only just got over it today, really). I don’t plan to do this on a regular basis, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t have an excellent time!

Wednesday night, when I was supposed to be packing and catching up on sleep, Lizzie and I went to see Watchmen, because she hadn’t seen it before. It was interesting seeing it again; I think I reacted more to the violence and gore (it’s really quite bad!), but I got a lot more out of it, and I think I respect it a lot more as a movie. Not that I didn’t enjoy it at first, but I’m glad I saw it again. I think they pulled it off well.

And as of today I am in another state! Like, Victoria. The flight down was odd, in that I was just reading my book (Long Way Round, the motorbike trip one), listening to my ‘Screamish’ playlist (screamish because it’s not actually remotely screamo), and drifting off into the sky around me, and I kept getting all emotional about stuff. Just random things, like events in the book, and thinking about people, and songs, and memories, and I don’t know. Aeroplanes are odd like that, even if the flight is only an hour and twelve minutes long.

When Dad picked me up from the airport, we went to visit Jemma (my sister) at work in the city, and we had lunch with her. This was the first time I’d seen her in just over a year, so I was pretty happy about it. I think we’re catching up again Saturday night in the city, which will be nice.

Tonight I went for a drive around town, as is my custom, and I discovered that Ballarat’s hoon population is growing by the month. There are more and more of them every time I come back. I am lucky in that my car looks fairly unassuming, however it does not sound terribly unassuming, and I have P-plates, which pretty much negates any visual or audio cues anyway. Some idiot tried to tempt me into something, but I was not in the least interested, and left him to speed off into the distance, saving him from a great deal of embarassment in the meantime (wink).

There was a multi-hour gap in between arriving home and driving, which was, of course, filled by my cat, Specto. I went for a nap and to go on the computer, which he helped with. He also helped keep me warm, because it is freezing here. He is so adorable, and I am pretty sure he misses me as much as I miss him. or at least appreciates the attention he gets when I return. The only thing is, I am pretty severly allergic to him, especially as he hasn’t had a shower for a while, so one of my eyes is currently red and itchy, and my nose is pretty blocked. Totally worth it though!

Okay so that is all I am going to write for now. More later? I have to sleep before going to Melbourn with Mollie and Nick tomorrow.

EEK LONG BLOG!

Easter Weekend

First up, I’m going to link you all to an excellent post about our generation on the Bygone Bureau, because I found it interesting, and you should too!

But how about my long weekend? Well, there was the possibility of going to work on both Friday and today, but neither eventuated, which I’m kind of glad about, to be honest. I’ve just been so flat-out the past few weeks, the break has been much appreciated. That said, Steve and I went to Tom’s on both Friday and Saturday to work on Whitsundays stuff, but it’s not really the same as work-work. I’m pretty happy with how it’s coming along, and I’m getting to the point where I can quickly do things in Flex without having to look anything up, or even think about it too much. I really love using it, it’s so nice and easy, and the way it handles XML is so incredibly amazing that I want to write letters to whoever came up with the idea. ‘Cause you all really wanted to know about that.

Saturday night I went out to see Ben Kweller with Lizzie and Steve. I really loved BK, and was surprised how well some of his new stuff came out live. I still much prefer his older albums, though, which were amazing live. The whole experience was made a little interesting by the fact that Steve and Lizzie still aren’t really talking to each other, so the conversation tended to be me talking to one of them, with the other remaining silent. Kind of frustrating, but that’s what you get when people start giving the silent treatment. Hopefully some maturation will occur in the near future.

After BK, I met up with Lexie, who had just been to an Oscar Wilde play. We hung out and drank some Beez Neez, which was fun. Easter Sunday was so incredibly wonderfully lazy, and involved spending most of the day in bed, save for breakfast at Badde Manors, because Well Connected was closed. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to go there again; I took forever to decide what I wanted, because it all sounded so amazingly delicious (and it was!).

Last night and today have been avoid-other-people-at-all-costs times, which I kind of need at the moment. I just sat in front of the tele last night, something which I rarely do, just because I could zone out and not really think about anything. I feel kind of bad because Dave wanted to talk about a girl thing, but I really just wasn’t in the mood, and there’s not much I can do about that.

Still, I should probably find something mildly productive to achieve today. Assignments maybe?

I Close My Eyes, But Then I Miss

I am currently in my longest tantrum streak in as long as I can bother to remember. Yup, two tantrums in two nights. Why? Because my eyes are stupid, that’s why! Or maybe, more precisely, my eyelids are stupid. Last night I got something in my right eye (an eyelash, perhaps?) which refused to go away, no matter how much I rubbed and poked and prodded. Tonight, I have something in not only my right eye, but also something (smaller, thankfully) in my left. After a while I just stop coping, and throw myself around and swear and come close to tears. Eyes will do that to you, though. To not be able to blink and look around and close your eyes as usual is something incredulously frustrating. Tonight I even tried filling a sink with water and sticking my head under for a while with my eyes open. But alas, still no luck!

I think I’ll have to put on a movie so I don’t go too crazy, and invest in some saline drops tomorrow morning.

Pale and Mild, a Modern Girl

I’ve been listening to a fair bit of the Shins recently. Mostly Oh, Inverted World, but right now I’ve got lovely Rita playing Chutes Too Narrow. I don’t know why that’s relevant, but it may give some indication of something. Make of it what you wish.

As much as anything, you could probably read into how I’m feeling today. It’s kind of one of those leave-me-alone-or-I’ll-eventually-snap-and-yell-at-you days, but not really in a bad way. I just have kind of enjoyed being a recluse in order to think about some things, and that is pretty hard with other people around. Hopefully I’ll be alright for tonight (going to see Sparkadia). Don’t see why not!

Last night was the annual Residents’ Dinner, and I had a pretty excellent time for most of it. Well, interesting, anyway. I spent a fair part of it feeling (and acting) like a Year 7, but no harm done. Still have figured out my feelings in that respect, actually. Like, I don’t know whether I’m finally being fairly mature about something, or being more immature than I have been in a long time. It’s a surprisingly fine line.

Bill and Steve helped my night along by forcing encouraging me to ask a certain somebody to dance, which I kind of did in the end via facial expressions and gestures. Also, Bill’s friend Emily has excellent merging skills (thanks!), which helped rectify a slightly problematic situation.

I think the night was destined to turn out pretty well from the start, though. I was really happy with my new shirt, and was gifted with a special ‘guest’ badge and two free beers before we were even let in. Well, everyone got a free drink ticket, but the guy at the bar forgot to take mine (because I had to argue with him to get across the message that being born in 1988 makes me twenty, which happens to be two years over the legal drinking age), so I was able to use it again. Then he forgot to take it yet again, but I wasn’t particularly enthralled with the idea of another beer within five minutes, so I gave it to Rob, who was unable to reclaim it.

Also, Lizzie was drunk before she even arrived, and managed to spill beer all over poor Tim while trying to nod his head. Just sayin’.

So yeah, today… I did kind of plan to get some assignments done, but no such luck. I’m pretty sure I really did need this ‘alone time’ to regain some energy before another night out and work tomorrow. Besides, I got to read some nice blogs!

Hasta luego, amigos.