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...
THIS is toooooo funny. the banana bunker to keep bruising at bay.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!!
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....
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.
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.
< sing >u dont win friends w salad. u dont win friends w salad. u dont win friends w salad. u dont win friends w salad. u dont win friends w salad. u dont win friends w salad. < / sing >
i haven't seen this episode of the simpsons in a long time & had forgotten this little song. its the eposide when lisa decides to become veggie just as homer decides to have a neighborhood bbq and just as she decides maybe it's not worth being veggie, she meets linda & paul mccarthy. funny.
it's sunday morning here & i'm hanging out in the robe, having my coffee, watching the cricket. yeah, not kidding. am trying to figure out how you score & what's really an 'out' and what an 'over' is. will head out to the south melb market soon (like union sq but bigger) & get some veggies.
that aussie lang cd i mentioned the other day is TOOO funny. check out the barbie bit. and make sure you turn on the international subtitles (the blue subtitle selection option @ the bottom). i'm finding this cd very very funny. i'm definitely buying it.
and before you ask... no, i don't sound like this. ;)
to continue the melbourne insect thread, there was a column in the herald sun about mozzies (aka mosquitos) the other day. think humourous like bill bryson but no where near his level.
i bring this up b/c last nite we went out for thai food and sat outside to eat b/c it was a lovely nite. by the time we left (maybe 9ish), i had one huge swollen bite on my finger. another on my knee. a really itchy bit on my thigh that didnt swell up. mozzies have always loved me. no matter what country i'm in.
what was interesting about the article is the citation of research in tokyo that said mozzies like 'type o blood marinated in a good wine, slightly aged & warmed in the sun'. i thought that was slightly unny. it also said mozzies use your DNA to make their eggs so there's 'little bazza & shazza mozzies out there that look a little like you, without the bloodshot eyes'. (change that to michael & jennifer bk in the states).
doing a bit of google rsh, i found out that the mosquito's saliva aids in her sucking blood (stops our blood from clotting) & its the saliva that makes ur bite itch. great. pretty gross.
but last nite, i was told a new remedy i've never heard before and i hate to admit it but it worked. when u get bitten, put some of ur saliva on the bite. it stops the itching. i tried it last nite & again this am & it works. amazing.
can i mention you're just fucking insane if you don't come visit me with this deal???
qantas is offering U$964 from the east coast & U$757 from the west coast. travel feb & march but book by feb 10.
feb & march in melbourne is SUMMER. and usually the warmer bits of summer. aren't they forecasting snow & mid 20s in nyc right about now? :)
and you can check out cool things like this
argh. i HATE it when my computer crashes when i haven't posted something i've been writing. like what happened last nite.
so... to recreate...
if you feel the need to learn some australian, check out the the aussie english cd. it just seems tooooo funny. i might have to buy a copy.
check out the barbie cooking game. on level 1 i scored 92/100 which means i'm a 'dinkum aussie'. level 2, i got 59/100 so i 'must be a kiwi'. and level 3, 48/100 and i 'must be a pommy'.
the other day i had to call the states & talk to a customer service person. it's the first time i had to remind myself to say 'zee' and not 'zed' when i gave them my email address. in london i always had to remind myself and i have here too. but its starting to be natural.
this summer there have been a LOT of moths in melbourne. i didn't notice this during past summers. perhaps b/c this year i'm in an apartment w/o A/C so the window & balcony door are open more often. pretty much once every nite i spot a moth in the flat. i am OVERJOYED by this.
i'm told it's a seasonal thing. fingers crossed it ends soon....
the last wk or so i've started reading a lot more blogs. and wandering off to far fetched places. like these i shirts.
here in melbourne, if you don't have cable, there are 6 tv channels. one of them is a community station that airs lots of news programs in a lot of different languages. for argument's (and entertainment) sake, there's really only 5 channels. last nite 3 of the 5 aired a
today's news is how the concert raised A$20 million. i find this amazing. there are only 20 million people in this country.
we decided on seeing team america but when we got to the theatre, it was sold out. ok, fine, 2 to the incredibles please. that theatre is filling up fast. i can put you in the 4th row. um.... so no movie.
there's a borders right there so i picked up the xmas issue of new york time out. reading that at work today helped my 'this tiny pissy country sucks' mood. the weather should be better this week so that might help (yes... slightly above freezing in nyc right now).
i know this chocolate liquid heart attack won't make it to AU starbucks anytime soon.
pix from boxing day, dec 26, in tassie here
ok, i'm a bit late in finding out about this but i'm still annoyed.
ONLY THREE SHOWS - ALL in one city for ALL OF AUSTRALIA.
and with a look in ebay, cracker & craigslist, there is 1 pair of tix on ebay for almost $500.
i came across this site tonite. i love how they have the reader submitted pizza reviews (with pix!!). had i known, i would have done this with the brisbane pizza. (i'd need more than just that 1 pix...)
make sure you read the review of the pizza in the ny, ny hotel in vegas. this quote reminds me of my convo w the pizza guy here in melb:
The pizza lived up to every clich� in the book: crust like cardboard, sauce like ketchup, cheese like rubber.
the reviewer guy ends up catching a cab w a guy from nyc who proclaims:
On a good slice, the cheese runs and burns the tip of your mouth, he said. "You have to catch it. When you fold it, the tip does not bend."
UMMMMM. i think i can feel another bout of homesickness coming on.
the entire time i was in tassie, i didnt have a chance to post. 3 of the 4 hotels / b&b we stayed in DIDNT have a phone in the room. my mobile didn't work most of the time.
i will be updating using the dates things happened. so you'll see posts starting on the 24th appearing soon.
here's a handy tidbit i'll use if anyone ever gives me shit about not being hitched. Brainy girls have marriage handicap. seems the smarter girls are, the less chance they'll get married. a great quote from the article is smart women 'are finding that men are just not interesting enough.'
btw, smart men don't have this problem according to the study, they like dumb women. ;)
i was just reading a friend's blog. she promised to update on a more regular schedule & she has. she's also just reminded me why i hate melbourne & must return to nyc.
here's the quote:
New Year's Resolution: Go Out
I had a feeling that I should have tried to head to Pianos last night for Tinkle. I ended up missing special musical guest Wilco perform one of the last secret shows of 2004.
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GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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wilco!!! at a 70 person show for $6.
fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck
the best secret show you'd get in melbourne would be something like john farham or kylie. i wouldn't pay $6 for either of them.
here's some pix & video
btw, if anyone is looking to get me a belated bday present, this book will do.
arrrrrggggghhh. hate this place. have i mentioned how melb's public transport sucks? and they just raised the fares on the 1st.
btw, earthcam has streaming video of times square as well as their normal times sq placed cams.
an hour to go til new years. what is up with this countdown every hour???!!!! i dont remember that before. they just counted down to 11pm. weird.
first time that dick isnt there in 35 years. how weird. and regis just said this is the 100th anniv of doing the times square nye thing.
happy new year folks!!!
last nite we went out to see the fireworks (15 min worth but quite lame). they didnt even do a countdown... there was just fireworks & i looked at my watch & realised it was midnite. then i went dancing but didnt dance too much b/c i wore stupid shoes (w heels) and my back was sort of hurting. we got home about 430a, talked til about 5 & then slept til about noon. but i've now had 1 1/2 cups of coffee & a banana smoothie (the absolute best for hangovers & late nites) so i'm pretty good.
doing some blog scanning and found some interesting / funny stuff.
in the meantime, gallup sez george is the most admired man in 2004