so long, farewell

Well, I've got all of my priority 1 policies finished, my last specific advice has been done, and I've discussed it all with my colleague so he can handle any queries while I'm away. I'm feeling very proud of myself. Can you tell?

So now I'm off for a week's holiday in Melbourne. Most excited. I probably won't get the chance to update this while I'm away, but I'll be sure to fill you in on all of my exploits and adventures when I get back. That's assuming I have some exploits and adventures... if nothing else, you'll hear about where I went and who I saw.

Listening to: the sound of my feet tapping in anticipation of leaving...

Some random thoughts

I've saved a bunch of news stories over the past few months and thought it was about time that I actually put them up here rather than just keep saving them to put up here (that, and I got a heap of work done yesterday and am allowing myself to take 15 min for morning tea this morning).

This blog post is an interesting addition to my blog post about kids. Sua Sponte's friends all seem to have either given up their careers or "outsourced" their child rearing. Personally, I think it's a matter of degree. I think my cousin in Melbourne has it about right - she works 3 days a week and the kids go to child care on those days. So she stays in touch with her children's childhood, but also maintains her career and her mind in the meantime. I'm yet to see if it can work in the legal world, but with the public service award rights (four weeks paid maternity leave, one year unpaid maternity leave, and then a year at part-time) it shouldn't be too bad.

I loved this story about Aussie slang. I never realised how much slang I use in my every day speech until I found myself in Europe having to explain every second sentence to the locals. Some slang is obviously slang, like Seppo (an American) - you would never think that that's a common phrase in other countries, coming as it does from the Aussie love of rhyme coupled with our love of shortening things and adding an "o" or a "y" to the end. Other phrases have been around since my grandparents were kids (usually from advertising) and have become such every day sayings that you think they're normal and used everywhere. Ever tried to explain to someone the exact meaning and usage of the word "dodgy"? And that we wear thongs on our feet over here?

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest also caught my fancy. I reckon I should enter some of my Grade 11 and 12 English essays into that. I did one where we had to describe a scene and I described a recent murder scene in vivid colour, including "the stench of the decaying body was so strong it echoed in my mouth as the taste of bile". I was a bit dark in high school.

And then there's the businessman, Crazy John. You could perhaps think that him wanting to build a building shaped like a mobile phone is a little odd, but I think him paying AU$75,000 for a painting by his daughter's kindergarten class makes him certifiable. Well named in any event.

Oh - and I want a man pillow. They look great

Listening to: Shifter - Waking Up Late

too much to do!

As per usual, despite not going out all weekend, I didn't get half of what I wanted to get done actually done on the weekend. So now I'm working my butt off today, trying to get my work done before I leave for Melbourne, and I still have a heap to do to get ready for that too. Eeek!

I am mostly packed though and I have a clean apartment and clean clothes for the next week and a half. I've got my mp3 cds for the car as I drive around the Great Ocean Road. And I've decided that some of my planning can wait until I'm down there and I don't have to be that organised before I go.

Just as well - tonight I've got one of my volunteer jobs after work, so I probably won't get home until about 9pm, which won't give me much time to get anything done. And tomorrow night I'll be trying to get to sleep early, because I just found out that my bus out to the airport leaves at 4am on Wed morning. I'm going to be so dead... maybe I'll actually sleep on the plane this way though.

Listening to: Dave McCormack - The Truth About Love

Damien Rice

So excited! Damien Rice is coming to Australia!!! *bounces around the room in happiness to the amazement of work colleagues* He's one of my favourite musos from Dublin and I just love his stuff. I think he's a cross between Jeff Buckley and Glenn Richards (from Augie March).

Thank god he's not playing at the Arena. I might have had to go interstate to see him, or maybe even *shock, horror* have broken my boycott... actually no, I wouldn't do that - I want to enjoy this gig and the Arena is unfortunately a non-enjoyment zone due to the nazi-like management and neanderthal bouncers. I'd rather spend a fortune to go to a decent venue interstate than go to the Arena.

Anyway, he's playing:-

October 2004 - AUSTRALIAN SOLO TOUR

9 Oct - Perth - The Civic Hotel
14 Oct - Eumundi - Joe's Waterhole
15 Oct - Brisbane - The Tivoli
16 Oct - Bangalow - A&I Hall
19 Oct - Sydney - Metro Theatre
21 Oct - Melbourne - Prince of Wales

The Tivoli is a brilliant venue - one of my favourite in Brisbane. Tickets go on sale today and I'm going to run down at lunchtime to grab them. Unfortunately, they're only being sold at Ticketek, which is a bit of a bugger - I usually like to support local businesses by buying at Skinnys or Rockinghorse, but even The Tivoli itself is not selling tickets for this one.

If any of my readers want more info on Damien or his Aussie gigs - go here - there's also a link to his website down the bottom of that page.

This weekend

I actually have no plans for this weekend. Well... no plans with other people anyway. Basically, I'm hoping to have a quiet one and catch up on some work I need to get done and finish planning my trip to Melbourne next Wednesday. I probably should pack this weekend as well - next week is likely to be busy. And I really should get into the markets and try to find some birthday presents for all the b'days I've got coming up soon.

I'm really looking forward to this trip! I got cheap flights so I leave at some ungodly hour next Wednesday morning and get back at some ungodly hour the following Tuesday night. I've hired a car and will head off straight from the airport to drive around the Great Ocean Road and Grampians for the first three days - I'm planning to spend Wednesday night at Port Campbell and Thursday night at Halls Gap, getting back to Melbourne Friday afternoon. Then I'm catching up with friends and family on Friday night and over the weekend. I might catch a gig on Saturday and Sunday nights if there's anything on. I'd like to go to see the Impressionists exhibition either Monday or Tuesday and I'll spend the other day shopping at the Victoria Markets and around Fitzroy (where I'm staying).

Listening to: The Frames - Setlist

So, what do you know?

"More than I did on Monday", is the answer. Having just spent the last two days in a conference/training on the government's buck, so it should be.

I'm not sure that anything I learnt is actually that useful in my current job, but some of the speakers were very interesting, including a District Court judge, and a local uni lecturer. Some of the presentations were completely outside my area of expertise, and I do like to learn new things. For example, I learnt that it's not a good idea to sit at a small table at lunch. If you sit at a large table, you might look like a nigel for a little while, but complete strangers are more likely to join you and that way you actually meet people at the conference. I got 10 business cards in two days - not bad for a girl who didn't have any to give back (I did promise to email them as soon as I got back to the office with my details though).

But what I really learnt, or maybe re-learnt, was how lucky I am to be out of private practice. From my networking conversations and observations:-

1. I was the one person that everyone else wanted to meet - I'm a government lawyer, so not in competition with them, and I'm in a section of government that they thing might be useful... despite the fact that I'd be more likely to be against their clients than for them in any dispute.

2. I was one of the few that didn't immediately check their messages or call in to the office during each break. Many also ducked out in between presentations to do the same thing.

3. I knew, and had either appeared before or briefed, the keynote speakers. This meant that I could walk up to them during the breaks and have an intelligent conversation with them and look important. I'm not actually important of course, because I'm only a government lawyer. ;o)

4. One lawyer I met had to list her hobbies for a presentation. Her reaction? I don't have any, I work 14 hours a day and spend the weekend either working, doing housework, or with my husband when he's not away. Occasionally I try to grow plants, but they mostly die because I don't have time to water them.

5. Another lawyer I met is actually required to do her masters while she is with her firm. It's a condition of her employment. Her firm pays the fees, but if she leaves them before she completes it (or, I think within one year of doing so?), she has to pay them back. So they retain a hold over her to ensure that she stays there for the next 3 or 4 years at least. I always said that you couldn't pay me to go back to uni, but I guess if I was at that firm...

6. And a third had to miss the only presentation he was actually interested in because he had to go back to the office (an hour's drive away) on the first afternoon because the partner looking after his files decided he couldn't write a letter. He was back again the next day because the same partner said that he was not to waste the firm's money by not attending the full 2 day conference. So he sat through a day and a half of stuff he wasn't interested in for the sake of one presentation that he didn't even get to see.

There were more, the solicitor who has to bill 8 hours a day, the firm that requires all of it's professional staff to start at 7:30am regardless of what time they finish, the associate who still doesn't run his own files, but they all added up to the same thing - there may be frustrations where I am now, but I can't see myself returning to private practice... EVER!

In other news...

I really like the new navbar - I chose black because it fits in best with my background. I nearly chose silver because it matches my toolbar for IE and is easily ignored, but figured I'd do the thing which will work best on most computers. Aren't I a nice person?

I had dinner with the Nymph, her boy (D) and her flatmate (sounds like a foreign film) on Tuesday night. We had Tibetan (on my recommendation) and ended up with extra food because D knew the restaurant owners or something. Gotta love that! Poor D though - we spent most of the night talking about guys and their foibles and our "types". I'm a little concerned - I think D might be thinking of setting me up with one of his friends. Not that I particularly mind that, I'm just worried D doesn't know me well enough to be able to "fix me up" and that I'll rock on up to something with him and the Nymph and there'll be this guy there that I'm supposed to hang out with for the rest of the night. I don't mind blind dates, but I do like to have a little warning about them, and these two aren't real great on the "warning" side of things! Ah well, they'll learn after the first time! ;o)

I had my 2nd review at the gym last night. I'm not very happy. My weight hasn't changed at all, my measurements are about the same, except that I've lost about 5cm off my waist & upper hips and put on a couple of cms in my lower thigh. The part about my waist is not terribly exciting, I'd kind of figured that out by the fact that all of my jeans and work pants now sit lower on my hips. My waist is little to begin with, so this just makes my wardrobe choices even more difficult. I'm disappointed that my weight hasn't gone down, but the fitness instructor said that's normal because muscle weighs more than fat and I've put on a lot of muscle. And it's exactly that that I'm not really happy with. I put on muscle easily, especially on my legs. I've made this clear every time they've changed my weights/reps, but I've still managed to get this massive jutty-out muscle happening above my knee. Anyway, I've talked to the instructor about it and she's changed a couple of my weights and the way I do them so that I'm using my butt muscles more than my leg muscles. This will hopefully solve the problem.

And on a completely different note, I recently came across this entry in Notes from the (Legal) Underground. What I find disturbing is:-

(a) My briefcase does have all the "stuff" from Part I (but my calculator is on my mobile phone and my digital camera is because I like to take weird, arty photos of things I see, not accident sites).

(b) I not only got the "graduation" briefcase (in my case, one which was bought when I started my articles), it has been thrown around long enough that it now fits the perfect briefcase in Part II. I also have a trial case (a pilot's case) which is large, scuffed and, when full, prompts Australian men to offer to carry it for me (yep, it's that heavy). I managed to inherit it when one of the other lawyers in my section got himself a new fancy one with wheels and pockets, so the scuff marks aren't even all mine.

(c) While my trial case doesn't have evidence of my secret other life (I keep that in a locked box at home *g*) like the others in Part III, it often contains original evidence that I'm transporting to trial or hearing in another part of the state, so it's always my carry-on for planes. My clothes, toiletteries etc go on the plane so I'd be relatively screwed if it was lost (particularly in country towns where nothing is open outside of court hours), but at least I could send Counsel along to court with the right documents while I gave the credit card a beating as the doors open on the nearest department store.

(d) But most disturbingly, I could probably actually complete part IV and tell you which briefcase will match the occasion. I'm a girl, it's an accessory - you do the math!

/self justification

Listening to: Radiohead - Live Warrington UK tent show 9/00 (another bootleg from Alex)

Naylor's Canberra

I should be working, but I'm not. Instead, I've been caught up with reading Naylor's Canberra an online novel in blog format, which I found by following some links from sarni's site. So far, I'm up to pages 136 - 139 and I'm finding it almost impossible to stop reading. And I'm really enjoying it. But feeling guilty. True, it's now 6pm and I'm reading it on my own time, but I have a heap of stuff to get done this week and I'm off on a course tomorrow and Wednesday so I won't be in the office. Nice course... good course... gets me out of the office for two whole days. And it's closer to where I live than the office so I have a very valid reason for not coming in here first. *pats course on the head*

I probably should leave now.

Listening to: the sound of the vacuum cleaner down the hall

sick of feeling so sick

So - it's been a while. Wednesday was a public holiday. Thursday and Friday I was off sick - I thought I might have had food poisoning initially, but once the aches and chills and sneezing started, I think it was probably a given that it was the bloody 'flu. Again. Argh!

Anyway, lunch with the Nymph on Wednesday was good. The burgers I cooked were delicious and we sat and listened to music and chatted until she headed off to meet her date at the Ekka. She also gave me my sample bag, which I was a very happy chappy about. Between seeing the fireworks every night, getting a sample bag, smelling the Ekka from my place, and now getting the Ekka 'flu, I feel like I was actually there!

Wednesday afternoon, I was full of energy (WAY too much energy) and feeling a little lonely, so I invited the Dendy guy around for dinner (the left-over burgers) that night. He brought the beer, I provided the food. It was nice - very relaxed and companionable and stuff, but he's definitely in danger of entering the "friend zone". I'm a hugger, so I actually have more bodily contact with my friends (yep, even the male ones) that I do with this guy. It's a bit of a worry. Anyway, I've made a decision - I won't call/contact him again until he's called/contacted me. That way if it fizzles, I'm guessing it's because he's just not that interested and I don't feel like I'm putting in all the effort.

Wednesday night around midnight was when I started regretting the beer and burgers. I don't eat a lot of meat and I hardly ever cook it, so I seriously thought I had food poisoning. I certainly hadn't drunk enough beer to feel this bad (only 2 bottles over a couple of hours). So I called in sick on Thursday.

I also called Genie and told her that I didn't think I'd make it to Xavier Rudd that night. She managed to find someone else to take the ticket and keep her company, so that was a very good thing. I was feeling kind of guilty about that. I probably could have made it through the night (was feeling a bit better by then), but I doubt I would have enjoyed it and I probably would have been sicker on Friday than I actually was.

Friday was when the aches and fever and sneezing started. I actually made it as far as getting dressed and eating breakfast before I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to manage a day at work. I called in sick and then crawled into bed still dressed for work and slept until mid-afternoon.

Friday night was the Tall Guy's birthday party. I got there early-ish on the basis that I'd probably just stay for dinner and then head off. I actually lasted until nearly 10pm with the help of 2 large glasses of wine and great company (Genie, TG's sister and one of TG's oldest friends) - I haven't laughed so much in a long time.

The Tall Guy seemed to like my present - I got him one of those travelling shirts that's supposed to keep sweat away from the skin. Genie calls it the shirt with built-in air-conditioning. ;o)

I didn't talk to the Fairy or her boyfriend much. They were initially sitting at the opposite end of the table from me and when I ended up sitting next to her for 5 minutes she made it pretty clear that I wasn't welcome (she was talking to the "one of TG's oldest friends" I mentioned above), so I moved on. I actually ended up talking to the Ex for a while, which was nice, but still a little weird. We started talking one on one and then a couple of the other guys joined into the conversation - all up, I was talking to that little group for maybe 1/2 hour. And I enjoyed it.

As I left, I got not one, but TWO hugs from the Tall Guy. ;o)

Saturday morning, I headed up to the folks place as planned. I figured that I would probably have a quiet weekend and eat better if I was there than if I stayed home and driving 1 1/2 hours seems a small price to pay for a little TLC from Mum. We spent most of the weekend sitting in the lounge room watching the Olympics. I was very proud that Sunday night when they published the medal tally to date that:

(a) Australia was coming second to China; and
(b) I could actually name the medal winners and I'd watched their medal-winning performances as they were televised. Well, except for Thorpy and Grant Hackett's gold/siver win in the 400m - it was televised at 2:30am here and I saw that first thing on Sunday.

Sunday night we all had dinner at B&S's place to celebrate my brother's new job. My sister-in-law ran around like a mad thing trying to get everything done and managed to stuff up half of it. My niece threw a tantrum because we were watching the Olympics so she couldn't watch her DVD and still wasn't talking to me when we left. My nephew spent most of the evening showing off for me and grabbing my hand to take me places. A typical family dinner for my family! ;o)

But just what the doctor ordered. I'm feeling much better today.

Listening to: Radiohead - Hail to the Thief (bootleg from Alex)

it was inevitable

Yep. I've changed the look of my blog again. I think I like this one. I played with a few different things with pictures and margins and stuff to get it looking the way I wanted it to. It didn't even take that long (maybe an hour?).

The only problem is that I can't get rid of the "About Me" in the profile - or at least change its colour and move it across with the rest of the text. Does anyone have any ideas on how to do that? I really don't like the way it's sitting in the middle of the moon. He he - "that's not Mum. That's the moon!" - I told you I'd get hours of fun out of that...

Listening to: Damien Rice - O (again)

busy busy busy

I have lots of work to do this week and tomorrow is a public holiday for the Ekka, so I don't even have a full week to do it in.

But I'm still wasting time reading blogs and writing my own. I brought in my lunch today (I actually cooked last night after I got home from the gym!) so I can waste time on this in my lunch-hour... well, actually I'm wasting time on it now, but I'll be reading through a 60 page policy which is about as interesting as watching paint dry (and produces the same sort of headache) during the afternoon, so I thought I'd eat while doing that and not take a lunch hour.

One of the blogs I started reading last week is this one - I started reading it because it had a post on medical ethics, which I'm interested in. Now I read it because I'm amazed that someone who uses (presumably) his real name and (presumably) a photo of himself is so honest on his blog. I'm also assuming that he's being honest of course, but he doesn't come across as a particularly sympathetic character, so I think it's a fair assumption to make. I'm pretty honest on this one, but only because I know that only people who already know me would have a hope in hell of working out who I am - and my close friends and family haven't been given the address. They know about it, but I've told them they shouldn't read it for their own protection.

Oh, and that cool photo I took on Sunday that I was going to use for my internet dating? They rejected it! I still don't know why. I suspect it was for the exact same reason why I liked it - it wasn't a really clear photo of my face. Not that I don't like my face, I do. I just don't like strangers recognising it too easily. Considering you can put up a profile without a photo at all, why should it matter to them whether it's a clear shot of my face or not? Maybe I should try wearing a heap of make-up which completely changes the way I look and then take a photo. Or I could take a distance photo so that you really can't see what I look like anyway like most of the guys up there! That'll learn 'em! Ah well. At least I haven't spent any money with it.

Listening to: Custard - Goodbye Cruel World

the monday blues

I had a good weekend. Ran around being annoyingly happy from Friday night to Sunday night and now I'm back for another week of work and a complete lack of social interaction. Thankfully, it's the Ekka holiday here on Wednesday, so I'm going on a date tomorrow night which will break up the week. And I have a meeting this morning - I'll actually have to talk to someone for more than 5 minutes! Scary!

I hate my job today. Can you tell? I'll probably be over it tomorrow, but I hate it today.

Anyway, to summarise my weekend:

Friday

I got a call Friday afternoon from the 'flu guy to say that he couldn't make it to Jebediah. I've been very patient, considerate even, but now I'm jacked off. That's the third time! I can understand not wanting to go on a first date with someone when you've got the 'flu, but this time it was because he thought he'd be too tired after work... something he probably should have worked out before he took me up on my offer! Pfeh!

Anyway, it ended up working out well - I was already going to dinner with the Dendy guy and he came to Jebediah with me as well. We had a really nice night. Dinner at the Tibetan Kitchen - good food, good wine, good company. I drank most of the wine and he also bought me drinks at The Zoo, so I was relatively smashed. Which isn't particularly a bad thing - I'm very happy and chirpy when I'm tipsy. It's just that I am curious and overly honest at the best of times and I'm worse when I've been drinking... so I ask inappropriate questions and tell people more about myself than I probably should. But he seemed to survive - at times I thought he may have even enjoyed my probing and inquisitive questions... you never know!

Anyway, we left about halfway through Jebediah's set (more on that below) and headed over to The Depot to "dance to guitars" - $7 cover and we only stayed for maybe an hour. We did dance a bit, but not for long, the mix wasn't too brilliant. I was expecting it to be like Super Deluxe, but there was an awful lot of 80's music being played and not much non-top 40 stuff. So not overly impressed.

But anyway, I walked him home (he lives on the way to my place) and we did a bit of a hug and a little kiss before I headed off. It was nice. He'd already said earlier that night that he liked to take things slowly (not specifically in relation to me, but a general comment) and he didn't pounce after the little kiss, which was a little disappointing, but I'm guessing that's progress for him. It's still very slow for me - 4 dates and we haven't slept together yet? - but I'm happy to go at his pace as long as I know there is something happening.

And I think I like him. I get that butterfly thing happening when I think about the hug and kiss... ;o)

Anyway, back to the bands. First up was The Fuzz, a five-piece from WA. From memory, their line-up was lead, rhythm, bass & drums, with a girl lead singer. They were alright. Not brilliant, but alright. Unfortunately, most of their songs were so similar to each other that it was more like one 30 min song than a set and the lead singer shouts more than she sings. Ah well.

The second support were The City Lights, a Sydney four-piece. These guys were better - they had a couple of songs I knew, but I don't know where from, and their sort of pop-punk sound meshed better with Jebediah's as a support I thought. Their songs were catchy and easy to dance to. I predict that they will do well.

Then Jebediah hit the stage. More professional in look and sound than the last time I saw them (though that was years ago), they had the place jumping pretty quickly. I was enjoying their set, but not the crowd, so after I'd heard my favourites (all the old school stuff - I don't have the latest album), we headed. The rest I've already told you about above.

Saturday

Despite the fact that I didn't get home until about 3am and haven't been sleeping well lately, I still expected to be up with the birds. This is usual for me - I wake up at my usual alarm time of 7am (or 5:30am lately with the construction noise) and stay up for a couple of hours before the lack of sleep catches up with me and I crash again in the late morning to early afternoon. So I was both amazed and very proud of myself that I actually slept in until after midday!

Considering I'd already lost half the day, I trashed the idea of heading to the markets or doing housework and slothed for the rest of the day as well. Well, I did do my washing and tidy the house a bit, but that was all.

I joined the K couple and a couple of others for some beers and a meal before we all headed off to see Ben Kweller at The Zoo (they're going to start recognising me there again if I'm not careful!). Unfortunately, one of the girls was indulging in my pet hate of table thumping - she's not particularly loud or obnoxious, but she insists on banging her hand on the table whenever she wanted to make a point - and I jumped and winced every time, so I ended up feeling a bit worn out and headachy by the time we left there.

Even though we got there not long after doors opened, there was actually a line up to get into The Zoo. I haven't seen that in a long time. So all the girls headed straight to the front of the stage where we would be able to see once the place filled up.

Two strange little incidents occured:-

1. I saw this guy who looked like my freak of an ex-flatmate. Basically, this guy is the reason why I only live with people that are friends of friends now. I figure if my friends know a friend of theirs, then at least I can be sure that they DO have friends and hopefully aren't as whacked out as this guy was. He was completely obsessional about some things - he actually washed his sheets 3 times in the space of one morning because the edges got a little dirty when they dragged on the tiles of the balcony with the wind. Not only that, but he returned the sheets out the balcony after the first time he'd washed them. And then did the same thing a couple of weekends later! Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over again and expecting a different outcome? In that case, this guy was definitely insane. He'd already freaked my friends out a couple of times, but crunch time came when I accidentally hit him with the duster as I was flailing my arms around (I'm very italian when I'm angry) arguing with him about why HE hadn't done the dusting when I'd specifically asked him to (he did bugger all housework). So he goes to the cops and reports me for assault. Yep, assault. With a duster. By a short female on a much taller and stronger guy. The cops called me while he was there and it was resolved that he would move out within the next week or so. After he'd left, the cop called me back and suggested that I might want to leave the house and stay with friends until he'd moved out for my own safety. Even the cops thought it was weird. So anyway, you can see why me seeing a guy at the gig that I thought was him was a little freaky for me. After a few nervous seconds though I figured it probably wasn't him and I couldn't see him anymore anyway, so I settled in to enjoy the gig.

2. I actually saw the Genie get really ticked off. There was this girl that pushed in in front of us while we were standing waiting for the support band to start - that's annoying, but she then proceded to shove us aside on a regular basis while she moved around talking to various different people and dance wildly in a bruise-causing manner in between times. I nicknamed her "the mole" because, well, she was one, but also she kept on burrowing in between people without seeming to think about the effect on the people around her. She was really pissing Genie off! So Genie, who is quite tall, just basically starts to lean a bit whenever this girl (who is quite short) is around her. But the thing that really got me was that, once she worked out that I wasn't going to move by her pushing me around (I just plant my feet and become an immovable object! *g*), she then tried hitting on me to make me feel uncomfortable so I'd move. Bad move honey! That sort of thing really annoys me - I have a lot of gay friends and I don't believe in using sexuality to make someone uncomfortable. I've had gay girls hit on me before - it doesn't usually bother me. I just explain that I'm straight and I'm more interested in the hunky guy two rows over. So anyway, I asked the girl politely to remove her hand, which was rubbing my lower back while she smiled at me suggestively. She didn't, but started moving her hand lower, so I told her that I was a cop, what she was doing was sexual assault and that if she didn't remove her hand I'd have her charged. She left. But then she came back! And told me she was straight but asked me to dance! My answer: "No. And don't touch me." Apparently it was said with some force because the girls all fell around laughing at my "direct response".

So anyway, the bands. The support band were Iron On who I had heard good things about. Unfortunately, they disappointed. They're a four-piece of girl drummer, guy bass, and a guy and girl who both played guitar and sang (sometimes in turn, sometimes together). The comparisons to Spiderbait were obvious - rocky music with a skinny, blonde chick who couldn't sing on vocals. They were also a bit Magic Dirt/Placebo. Anyway, they rated betwee 3 and 4 out of 10 in our group - not so bad that we walked out, but we wouldn't pay to see them or buy the CD.

But Ben Kweller and band more than made up for it. All of the boys were wearing tight blue jeans a la 70's and early 80's. It was an unusual sight on the music scene were baggy blue's or trousers are more the norm. Anyway, that's just an aside. They were a pleasure to watch and a pleasure to listen to. Ben Kweller certainly has a lot of professional charisma for one so young and his stage banter was spot on. The Tall Guy thought that they sounded too like the album for his liking (a little too polished maybe), but I quite liked that - they had a lot of energy on stage and if the sound was a little too perfect... well, at least Ben stuffed up the lyrics once or twice! ;o) I danced my butt off and had to apologise to the girls beside and behind me once or twice when my enthusiasm took over a little. Thankfully, they didn't seem to mind and at least I did apologise and tried not to continue the bad gigiquette.

After the gig was over, we all headed over to the Royal George where one of the girls was meeting up with her cousin or something. We hung around there for maybe half an hour chatting and then headed to Fat Boys for a hot chocolate. Yummmm. Good way to end the night.

Sunday

Sunday my usual routine imposed itself again and I was up at my usual ungodly hour. I possed around the house for a few hours and then ended up on the lounge reading my book and listening to CDs around midday. It was nice in the sun and I fell asleep for a little while there. And then I thought about being asleep on the couch and so I grabbed my camera and took some photos of myself "asleep" - the contrast of my skin and dark clothing against the bright red of the couch were pretty cool (in my not-so-humble opinion), so I took some more. I also took photos of my hands and feet with the couch as backdrop and using the light and shade of the sun to get some cool effects. I generally use myself as a model - basically no-one else is quite so prepared to have their hands and feet photographed constantly (I have a thing about hands and feet - I think anyone who can draw them is a genius!). I got some great photos and I've decided to use one of them for my profile with the internet dating. It's a bit different and arty and not so obvious what I look like so that to get to the stage where you really see what I look like you have to see my backstage photos - and I have to give you a password for that! Should improve my paranoia levels immensely! ;o)

I didn't end up going to Guy Webster last night - I was feeling all lazy and contented (like a purring cat), so I stayed in bed and enjoyed the moment instead.

Listening to: Damien Rice - O

Jeans for Genes Day

It's Jeans for Genes Day today and none of my co-workers are wearing their jeans. I'm wearing the only pair of denim jeans that I own - my other casual bottoms are mostly cords and thai fisherman's pants. Considering I dress fairly professionally for work (suit & heels), my casual clothes tend to be very casual - hence the difficulty in finding something to wear to the races. Of course, there's also the question of my tattoo - to show or not to show. I always hide it for work (after all, I work with a bunch of middle-aged engineers who are known for their conservative attitudes), but I usually make the effort for it to be on show when I go out. After all, what's the point in getting a tattoo if no-one ever gets to see it?

Now, for my weekly summary of my plans for the weekend. Tonight I'm having dinner with one date (the Dendy guy) and then going to Jebediah at The Zoo with another (the 'flu guy - we actually get to meet each other finally!). Saturday I'm thinking of heading in to the markets for a while, but I might just laze around home... or do the housework, seeing as my flatmate is away for a couple of weeks and it will actually stay looking good for a while! Saturday night, I'm having dinner and drinks with the K couple and then heading in to see Ben Kweller with them at The Zoo. Sunday night I'm thinking of heading in to see Guy Webster at The Bowery, but that will depend on how much energy I have by then. Half my workmates are sick at the moment, so I don't want to push it.

And guess what? I didn't have any weird dreams last night!

Listening to: Ben Kweller - On my way

yet another dream

I had another weird dream last night - this time, my brother had joined a band. The band were like a mix of Doch and The Gin Club and were all in their teens or early 20's (so a lot younger than him). And they were sort of friends of mine. I really resented him for invading my life like that, because he's never been interested in music the way I am - and they all really liked him and he was really good. And I mean really good. Which is weird because in real life he can't even play the recorder. And we have completely seperate lives and very different interests. But at least it wasn't about a high performance car being damaged! ;o)

This is the most dreaming I've done in a very long time. Or maybe just the most I've remembered. This could be because of the bloody loud cement mixer they're insisting on starting at 5am right across the street from us, which is waking me up well before I should be waking up. Not happy Jan!

Despite this, I'm actually feeling pretty cheerful today. I've got my weekend all planned with 2 dates and 2 gigs (will write more on this tomorrow), the Nymph is going to get me a showbag from the Ekka and I think I know what I'm going to get the Tall Guy for his birthday. Life is looking good.

And by the way, I like this cartoon - Trogdor the Burninator - I think it's funny. Completely unrelated to anything else I've written about today, but funny.

Listening to: Machine Gun Fellatio - Paging Mr Strike

it got me thinking

Since I started this thing, I've started reading a fair few blogs of other people. Almost all of these I came across reading other people's blogs or comments to their blogs. All but one have no idea who I am. Weird, huh?

So anyway, they're all listed in my favourites at work, but I can never remember which ones they are when I'm at home, so I've now linked them in the sidebar here... after all, I can always remember the address for my own blog. If any of you are linked and don't wish to be, let me know and I'll take you down (it's pretty easy, I just put a couple of -- and a ! in there and it's in there as a comment in my template HTML rather than actually linked so I can still find it, but it's not on my page).

Dinner

Just as I'm about to head home yesterday I got a call from the Nymph asking if I wanted to come round to her place for dinner that night. I had no plans, and lunch had consisted of a salad and a packet of lollies, so it sounded like a bloody good idea to me.

So she picked me up from work, and we go shopping for food. We end up with up with vegtable pasta and a tomatoey sauce for dinner, with cheese and crackers for starters. And red wine throughout. It was good.

And it got me thinking - we should do this more often.

Dream

Perhaps it was the red wine, but I had another strange dream last night. I had been to a car dealer to test drive a porsche and was driving it too fast down a semi-industrial yet suburban street when I side-swiped another car which was parked on the street. Anyway, I saw some people go over to the car I'd hit and turn to watch me, so I approached them and asked if they had pen and paper so I could leave the car's owner a note. They didn't with them, but they lived nearby and we went to their place for me to get pen and paper. They kept on chatting to me and sort of keeping me in their house although I was desperate to get back to the street and return the porsche to the dealership before 5pm (which was rapidly approaching). I eventually returned to the street just after 5pm and the porsche was gone. I freaked. I thought maybe the Ex (who was still my boyfriend in the dream) had somehow returned it and hadn't told me and I tried ringing his mobile but it was turned off. I tried ringing the dealership but they were closed. I woke up from my dream as I was walking down the street wondering how everything had gone so wrong.

So it got me thinking - why am I dreaming about people damaging beautiful and high-performance cars by doing something stupid with them? Maybe I need to find a dream interpreter.

Oooh! I found one here. Apparently, to dream about cars in the context of my dream could mean:

To dream that you are driving a car, denotes your ambition, your drive and your ability to navigate from one stage of your life to another. Consider how smooth or rough the car ride is. Whether you are driving the car or a passenger, is indicative of of your active role or passive role in your life. Overall, this dream symbol is an indication of your dependence and degree of control you have on your life.

To dream that your car is overheating, suggests that you are expending too much energy and need to slow down or run the risk of becoming burnt out. You may be taking on more than you can handle. It is time to take a breather.

To see a parked car in your dream, suggests that you need to turn your efforts and energies elsewhere. You may be needlessly spending your energy in a fruitless endeavor. Alternatively, a parked car my symbolize your need to stop and enjoy life.

To dream that you are almost hit by a car, suggests that your lifestyle, beliefs or goals may be in conflict with another's. It may also be symbolic of a jolting experience or injured pride.

So does that mean that this dream shows I'm independant but losing control of my life (hence the crash)? Does the crash mean that conflict is burning me out and injuring my pride? Does hitting a parked car mean that I need to let go of the conflict?

But then what does it all mean in context with the other one?

Another site says that "The condition of the vehicle might give you an idea of your health" - so beautiful cars that get damaged might mean that my health is good now, but I worried that it will be damaged by myself or someone I'm close to?

Hmmm... curiouser and curiouser.

Categories of Australians

This entry on the Uncivil Litigator's blog got me thinking about Aussies and broad generalisations that can be made on the basis of location, like:

Melbourne - pretentious, arty
Sydney - self-important, flashy
Gold Coast - pretentious, self-important and flashy
Adelaide - conservative, over-educated
Darwin - rough, down to earth
Hobart - friendly, small town hospitality

Of course, my friends from these places don't fit in with that, but that's the impression I get of these places from either visiting there, reading about the place or meeting people from there.

The only problem is that I can't generalise Brisbane like that - I've lived here too long. And I can't think of a way to describe Perth, despite the fact that I've read up a lot about the place and met heaps of Westies when I was travelling. But I've been told that Perth is very like Brisbane, so maybe that's why I'm having trouble.

I've always said that Brisbane is a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit here. In many ways, Brisbane is like an overgrown country town - we have a slower pace of life than most cities of this size, we have an overzealous pride in our natives who achieve, we are not particularly split by suburb in terms of city-wide character. And we don't really have any tourist attractions. The tourists tend to go to the Gold Coast.

But I think that's why I like the place.

Listening to: Augie March - Strange Bird

it was a little weird

A couple of things happened yesterday.

Wit

I got a comment on this blog entry from the director of the play I went to. He thanked me for my comments. Which is very nice, but I'm a little freaked out that someone actually read my blog who lives here. Actually, I'm a little freaked out that anyone reads my blog. Even though I kind of started this to share my thoughts and feelings. But still, it was a little weird.

The optometrist

I went to the optometrist today to get my eyes checked for the first time in about 2 years. It's degenerated a little in one eye so I'm getting new glasses. I also got a marriage proposal. But he wasn't being serious. Shame. He's kind of cute. And funny. And I'd get free eyewear for life. But he only mentioned marrying me because we were talking about working overseas and I said I can't go again because I'm too old for a working visa now - he's got European parents so he has an EU passport, so he said that we could get married so I could work overseas. We then fell around laughing imagining me telling my Mum "Oh I got new glasses today. And by the way I'm getting married and moving to Europe". It was funny, but it was a little weird.

Photos

The Nymph sent over the photos of us from the races. The first one was taken not long after we arrived and the last about 6pm in the cab on the way to Caxton St. I look progressively more smashed as the day goes on. Actually, I look smashed in all of the photos, but it's a matter of degree. I haven't seen photos of myself drunk since my brother's wedding, which was more than 5 years ago, so it was a little weird.

The Fairy

I got an email from the Fairy thanking me for the card and CD I'd sent her for her birthday. It's probably the friendliest she's sounded by email since I went overseas. And of course, comes at a time when I've finally resolved myself to the fact that we're no longer going to be good friends (based on the vibe from her), so it was a little weird.

The Dream

I had this dream last night that my Dad was putting these puffy-looking tyres on his high-performance racing car (it was like a V8 or something), but he was being really impatient and taking shortcuts and he kept on stuffing it up. He eventually burst one of the tyres and I was really upset with him because they cost a fortune. Considering I can't imagine my Dad ever owning a high-performance racing car, and if he did, he'd probably treat it with kid gloves and not bust something so expensive as these tyres by doing something so stupid and careless, it was a little weird.

Augie March

Check out this link. You can listen to 3 Augie March songs and also see a couple of their videos. Their videos are weird and so is the "about" blurb, but in a good way.

Listening to: Augie March - Sunset Studies

I think I'm still hungover

What a weekend! It combined all of the elements of an unusual weekend for me - no gigs, a foreign film, socialising with yuppies, a sporting event, and dinner with friends at their house where I didn't fall asleep in front of the tv afterwards... ;o)

Friday night

I went to see Falling Angels on Friday night with the Law Student.

I was a little disappointed with the organisation - it wasn't obvious where you had to go to pick up tickets when you'd pre-paid and I had thought that having priority seats meant that you had seat numbers, where actually you just have an area which is dedicated to the priority seat ticket holders, but there's nothing once you're in there to show that you are a priority seat ticket holder, and it's not the best seating in the cinema... so spending that extra couple of dollars per ticket was a bit of a waste of money actually.

Anyway, the BIFF films have a short before the main feature - the short we saw was Catalina View, a rather depressing American short about a toll booth operator's marriage breakup with what I suspected was supposed to be light relief in his fellow toll booth operators' obsession with keeping score of how many famous people go through their lane. Unfortunately, the famous people score just came across as being a little pathetic and no-one in the audience seemed to be laughing. It wasn't a bad film, just a bit one-dimensional.

But Falling Angels was great - I really enjoyed it. It follows three sisters, their alcoholic mother and their seriously deranged dad over a period of time in the late 60's (I think it's set in 1969). I've never seen the Dad before, but the Mum was played by Miranda Richardson and all of the sisters looked familiar, but I didn't know their names. The scene's between the ditsy youngest sister and her sleazy boyfriend just had me killing myself laughing - I think everyone's met guys like that, but most of us have enough intelligence to stay well away! And the scene's of the middle daughter's experiments with drugs were also a classic - the quotable line of the movie "that's not Mum, that's the moon!" - is only really funny in context, but it kept the Law Student and I very amused. And probably will when we see each other well into the future.

Saturday

Well... the outfit went well. I didn't feel horribly out of place and the Nymph told me I looked "gorgeous" - as have those that have seen the photos.

Unusually for me, I wore make-up. This is really what my version of dressing up is - a little eyeliner, mascara and lipstick and I think I've made a HUGE effort. Add to that the fact that I was wearing heels, this was a big-time dressed up version of the OLS. And I was showing some cleavage as well. No wonder the boys were impressed. ;o)

I had thought that the Nymph was going to know a heap of people, but it was actually just her and her boy and me who went together. It didn't really matter though - one of the organisers of the charity event introduced us to a heap of people and we met a bunch of others through a series of misadventures (like turning up to the wrong event initially).

My favourites of the day were:-

1. The "arty" lady who I talked to for ages about art, relationships, societal expectations, volunteer work and just about everything else you can imagine. We both decided that we are "friendly but shy" so we got along very well.

2. The physio who doesn't believe in living together before you're married. He was a little weird, but then, I like weird and we talked quite a lot about a range of stuff. I thought he was a little naive (not everyone can be a cynical bitch like me), but sweet. He was sort of cute too... I probably would have gone home with him if he'd asked. Copious amounts of alcohol sort of does that to me. *g*

3. The physio's friend who I also chatted to for a while. We agreed on a lot of stuff (including that you should live together before marriage) and she had a great sense of humour.

The day started with me drinking a couple of glasses of wine at the Nymph's place, moving onto champagne at the races, and ending at Caxton Street downing water in the hopes that the headache I'd developed would go away. Unfortunately, it didn't. So by 11pm I was heading home to nurse the inevitable hangover.

I also managed to have someone knock a chair onto the back of my leg at the end of the night and I'm currently sporting a massive bruise behind my knee - it's going to make yoga very interesting this week, considering I can't bend it at all! Ah well, hopefully it will have bruised up properly and not still be hurting by then.

Anyway, despite the fact that I wouldn't want to do something like this every week, I was surprised that I'd enjoyed myself as much as I did.

Sunday

I spent the morning downing painkillers then sleeping them off as my headache continued through until about lunchtime. That was the only negative effect I experienced though, so I consider myself lucky given that I must have had about half a bottle of wine and maybe 2 bottles of champagne throughout the afternoon - I was drunk enough to bum cigarettes and I gave up 5 years ago, so that only happens when I'm very pissed.

By mid-afternoon I was feeling pretty good - I cooked up my version of macaroni and cheese (pasta with diced tomatoes, to which I add a bunch of spices, cover in grated cheese and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until it all goes brown and crispy... yum!) and ate about half of it in one sitting.

Headed over to T&S's place that night for pizza and a catch up. Their bub is getting so big! I got a giggle and a heap of smiles out of him, and he happily chattered on for a while as well. Such a lovely kid... mind you, apparently he'd been crying and screaming all day (he's cutting his first teeth, so he's grumpy), so I definitely saw the good side!

And, though I stretched out on their couch for a while watching Australian Idol, I didn't fall asleep after tea. Quite a feat for me - they've become quite accustomed to the idea of inviting me over to their place for a chat, dinner and nap!

But instead, I packed myself up before it got too late and headed home to sleep in my own bed.

Listening to: Ben Kweller - On my way