misc stuff

tomorrow is big day out, an entire day of music including beastie boys, chemical brothers, the donnas & little birdy & the nude rodeo.

this past week i watched a lot of tennis. was at the venus vs alica molik match & then watched lots on tv. last week i went once & saw henman.

just saw this – just fucking google it… very cute.

not much to say … feeling a little brain tired…

brown bits be gone…

THIS is toooooo funny. the banana bunker to keep bruising at bay.

new zealand fares

for travel march – may, about U$1k from LA or SF to auckland. and for like U$50 per stopover, you can stay on a south pacific island. and it’s just a short(ish) plane ride to AU.

at last! something interesting!

one of the complaints i have about melbourne (yeah, i’m stuck on this subject) is the lack of excitement. there’s no buzz in the air. no energy. and particularly, no freaks. at least very few & far between (i can think of 2 stories and next month ill have been here 2 years!).

this afternoon’s tram ride will probably prevent me from ever seeing a freak in melb again. after work i wanted to go to borders (one of the very few shops open after 5pm on a sunday afternoon). i’ve never taken the href=”http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/timetables/timetable_options.php?type=tram&id=MTM079″>
79 tram before. and was surprised when one of the really old ones showed up. they’re called the ‘class w’ trams and most people find them quite nostalgic. they’re also slow, small & noisy.

i got on, faced towards the front of the tram & wondered what in the world was going on.

there was a normal looking girl sitting there reading. on the same bench seat was a herion addict if i’ve ever seen one. insanely skinny, scuffed up legs. she was drinking a can of JD & Coke with a straw. when she went to get off the tram she picked a fight with sunglasses dude (see below).

on the opposite side of the aisle was a fairly rough looking guy with tats, in a yellow & green (AU colors) footy jersey & silver parachute type pants. next to him was someone who at first glance i thought was probably homeless. older guy, 60s, with a mass of grey hair & beard. long hair & a very long beard (though not as long as zztop). it wasnt til i saw him pull out small oval purple shaded expensive looking sunglasses that i figured he probably wasn’t homeless.

in the back of the tram i could hear some mom yelling at her kid telling the kid to behave or they ‘wouldn’t get’ whatever it was ‘for the rest of the tram ride’.

and finally the sunglasses dude. while we were stopped at a lite i saw him strolling towards us. 50s, bright red face like he’d had too much to drink, sunglasses that had flames painted on the sides, smoking, wearing a funky looking black & grey shirt, black TIGHT jeans, funky hat & a black vest (think 3 piece suit) over top. shortly after climbing on the tram he started talking to a 20something couple about the class W tram. apparently it’s the newer of the Ws, not the classics. his voice was that deep grasby sort you’d expect. later after borders i saw him at a bar. he had taken the shirt off & was wearing the vest. his entire torso was bright red.

oh… and one more… 30something guy dressed very normal in a polo shirt & jeans wearing thongs/flip flips. til i realised his toe nails were painted the same blue of the shirt and there were red hearts painted in the middle.

another reason melbourne is ok with me

at 1am monday morning it’s 63 F / 17 C and feels like 63F / 17C. not bad. sunny & warm & blue skies today.

it’s also 9am sunday morning in nyc & it’s 18F /-8 C and it feels like 1F /-16 C with snow & gusting winds. up to 18 inches of snow. (actually i’d like to be there for that. i love snow).

the pix look fantastic though. good ones at wired new york and the earthcam cams.

melbourne isnt THAT bad

i went out drinking with the girls tonite. one of their friends came along later & i found myself having the most bizarre conversation with him.

he’s from melb but lived in nyc for about 6 years. while living there he had to come home for a bit & he hated being here. went bk to nyc & then decided to move back. he loves being back, of course. why? cause he surfs 2-3x a week, because he kite boards, blah blah @ some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. what does he miss about nyc? mexican food, the energy, the convieience of everything, the jazz scene.

he finds out i dont surf & i dont like nature & starts to counsel me. tell me how i should move bk to nyc as soon as i get the MBA done. that he can tell i’m a city girl & why live anywhere else than nyc if ur a city person.

and i found myself defending melbourne. but i was also wondering why i would want to stay here.

one thing that i think is probably a new york cultural thing is bitching about everything but not meaning it in a very negative way. on several occasions i’ve made statements about not liking something. how something sucks. whatever it is… london, a certain food, a bar. but that doesnt mean i hate london or whatever it is. and people that aren’t from nyc take that complaint to mean i HATE the place.

i started feeling like that tonite. that i had to defend my non-hatred of melbourne. weird.

maybe i need a list in my wallet that i can refer to for this sort of thing….

- the weather. it never gets too cold & if i want snow i can drive 2 hours & have it. there could be a few more sunny warm days though (see… there i go. nothing can be ‘good’ w/o having some sort of BUT to it).

- public art. there are a lot of sculptures & other public art in the city. randomly strew around. it’s pretty cool.

- the coffee. its sort of hard to get a bad cup of coffee here. possible but odds are you’ll get a good if not great one. they take coffee very seriously

ok. that’s it. bedtime.

i would like to

do this. any takers here in melbourne? classes run til feb 6. or SOMEONE use the cheap qantas fares & come over & try this with me!!!!

doctors, insurance & thesis

this morning i had a doctors appt. i had a whole list of items to talk to him about. rather, i had a whole mind map. when he saw the map, he was scared. it was a good appointment though… i thought i has having some bizarre symptoms of something but everything on my list was very normal (and in fact boring to him).

the lump ive noticed in my earlobe is a cyst. only if its giving a problem do they do anything about it. he said normally earrings cause it. but i havent been wearing any. i cant even remember the last time i’ve worn some. of course then it hit me. i got new headphones for xmas.

the beauty mark/mole thing on my arms that i scratched & is now puffy & red & nasty looking is fine as long as it’s not still like that in 2-3 wks.

the constant itchiness that can spring up at any moment on any part of my body seems to be a new symptom of my allergies / hay fever. it would seem that this year in melb has been awful for seasonal allergies. AND people are having new & different symptoms than they have before. this is one of them. and since my body is already on high alert & freaking out b/c of the mass of spores & pollen & etc, i’m super sensitive to everything. the last few months when i unpack the fruit & veg from the delivery at the juice bar, i get raised red itchy eruptions on my arms. it’s def an allergy to something … ‘contact dermititus’ . this overall allergy is causing this other allergy. great. so now i have this nose spray that’s supposed to be great for allergies. takes about 3 days to take effect though.

and finally i had a weird thing happen the other nite. monday nite i was home watching tv. all of a sudden something was weird. to say the tv was fuzzy is wrong but something weird was happening w my vision. taking the contacts out didnt fix it. maybe 20 min later i got a txt msg & when i went to reply i was having problems seeing. okaaay. few min later i got up to write some emails. this is when it got bad. i was having a very hard time focusing. and when i could there seemed to be some sort of disconnect btwn my eyes & my brain. i’d have to read a word letter by letter & then put it together – it wasnt instantanous. and after i did that for like 4 words, i couldnt remember what i had read. it was scary. very scary. it didnt last long though.

turns out i had a migrane. it seems the public & the media has transformed the world ‘migrane’ from its medical meaning to the public perception of just having a headache (and yeah, i did start to get a small headache during this time). the doc said i basically told him a textbook case study of a migrane. lovely. since this is the only time this has occured & it might never again, there’s no drugs. but damn, i wish i knew what set that off.

so i’m going to live.

i was talking to a fellow nyc-er the other day about insurance so ill give today’s experience as an example. i have special private student health insurance, not the state healthcare that every AU citizen has. the pricing of my insurance is very reasonable – i think i pay something like A$350 for a year. (roughly U$500). this doesnt cover everything but so far it has covered a fair amount. today my doctor bill was A$82. thats for 1/2 an hour as opposed to when i go to the uni doctor & they’ve set aside 10 min to see me. at the pharmacy i paid A$48 for the allergy meds. then i took both receipts over to the insurance company.

i got back A$49 out of the 82 for the doctor. this doc charges over the prescribed amt (prescribed by the state healthcare sys) so i dont get it all back. there’s some other reason that she explained but i didn’t understand. i didnt think the prescription would be covered but turns out it is. i can get back up to A$150 a year in prescription costs. the weird thing is…. u can only get back what the state would pay for the same prescription. so what i paid A$48, the govt pays A$19 & change (which is what i was given).

the more i talked to the woman at the counter about this, the more i got confused. but i ended paying about 70 for 130 worth of services. about half. not bad. especially if you consider what i would have paid at home for this. (and btw, had i gone to the uni doctor i wouldnt have paid at all for the visit . but i dont think they’re that great & i would have had 10 min to discuss my mind map).

so now its 4pm & i havent done crap for the thesis. do i start writing or do i go to pilates… hmm….

dog food ads you’d never see in the states

check these out. it’s an ad campaign for dog food (at least i think so… i don’t know the company). i’ve been told it’s a NZ company.

interesting …. i work at a kiwi company & am the only non-kiwi employee. they have told me how aussies are a lot more conservative. i dont think i’ve mentioned what type of company it is but i’ll just say it’s dealing with a topic that can be scary and exciting and make you blush and we deal with the general public. while i have seen the kiwi openness somewhat, i’ve more often seen the aussie timidness. i’m not sure if you’d see these dog food ads here…. very cute though.

my wk so far

just a quick one… busy week i’m having. friday nite i went out drinking with some friends. worked sat & saw ‘the incredibles’ (very funny!). slept and laid on the couch sunday. worked all day monday. some weird thing with my eyes not being able to focus monday nite. worked today & went to the tennis tonite (saw a little bit of henman but mainly sat around & drank & chatted). time for bed very sooooooooon.