Guilty Pleasures

One my more favoured weekend activities is shacking up with my love at a 5 star hotel for a random weekend. This is what we did on Saturday night.

Most of my friends don't understand why I shell out the dosh just to stay in a flash room, in my own city when I have a perfectly decent flat, complete with a particularly needy resident cat, right here.
For me , there is nothing that really compares to the feeling of being wrapped in a fluffy complimentary bathrobe, laying back on a clean, springy bed, watching some cheesy in-house movie and scoffing room service meals. (what is a better concept than having fine food DELIVERED to your bedside and then all the post feed action required its to leave the tray outside the front door!) Not to mention the amped up , freezing airconditioning, luring me into a false sense of climate and allowing me to believe I live in some kind of reasonably temperate part of the country. This, to me my friends, is heavenly perfection.

This is how glorious Saturday and Sunday morning was spent - before we were flung back into the 30 degree, 85% humidity reality. And faced with one pissed off and hungry kitty kat.
I can't wait to do it again.

Blah Blah Blah

All I can say about the weekend just gone is that if I hear the name Makybe Diva one more time I am going to kill myself.
I am avoiding all contact with radio and television until November 2.
Over it!

Out of the cubicle and into the...other cubicle

I have a new job. I am leaving my little plexiglass fronted box of joy and moving about 20 metres to my right to spread my wings and expand my horizons.
As excited as I am about finally doing something vaguely different, I am sad to leave this little biodome we have going on. My luverlly colleague and I (probably just "I" actually) have been so fortunate to work together. Being as isolated as we are, I am so lucky to have had to share this confined space with someone who shares my taste in radio station, yet has enough of a differing taste in music to keep our dialogue interesting, Shares my politics - making for a very interesting couple of election campaign commentaries and shares my lack of tolerance for twits - giving us endless hours of malicious entertainment, sharing cynical stories of people far more stupid than us. (or so we like to think) She has also never demonstrated any form of flatulence problems which we really need to be grateful for , existing as we do in a 5m sq room (and which is also more than I can say for myself sometimes)

So wish me luck in my new endeavour. I hope to inject a little more enthusiasm into my work day as a result , but it is a sad parting as I will indeed miss my little mate and miss my little room.

Kodak the Wonder Puss

I have just checked on of my favourite daily blogs and the blogger was explaining how her cat had been diagnosed with a terminal illnes and the effect that this is having on her.
I love our Kodak and can't think of anything worse happening. Therefore I felt the immediate urge to post a photo of her. She's The Best and completely dominates my life and times. See how much she loves me too...

Birthday Shenanigans

Sunday was Pauls birthday. So as you could imagine it has been quite a mental weekend.
We had a Sunday afternoon bbq in our ridiculously small back garden (made even smaller by the presence of a rather large inflatable pool, with luke warm water due to the soaring temperature and humidity level- making for a heating rather than a cooling experience when submerged)
Nonetheless it was buckets of fun - the champagne and mexican beer flowed. Much hullaballoo was made over the excellent bbq'ing skills of the beautiful Paul and salad concoctions of mine (much to our pleasure it was in fact Christo that did most of the work , however was happy to receive no acclaim as it was not up to his perfectionist public standards)We cracked the first bottle of bubbles at about 12.00pm and the last guest was turfed out about 12 hours later.
Hopefully Paul had half as much fun as everyone else did - I have been receiving emails all day (now that all are sufficiently recovered) full of praise and grateful sentiments for an ace afternoon.

I love you Paul and Happy Birthday!

us and neighbour Rob - unfortunately all photos were taken at the end of the day and these are the only ones fit for public consumption.

Boondocks

Here is an excerpt from an article publishedin the Guardian Weekly regarding the Falconio case.

Media, mangoes and murder
Andrew Clark
Friday October 21, 2005
The Guardian
Each morning this week in the sleepy harbour city of Darwin at the
tropical "top end" of Australia, a dark Ford sedan with black-tinted
windows has swept up outside the courthouse. The doors open and
Joanne Lees climbs out into the sweltering 90F heat. She is escorted
up the steps by five burly policemen in desert camouflage, sporting
wrap-around sunglasses and prominent revolvers; cameras flash,
reporters fruitlessly shout questions and curious bystanders in
shorts and thongs edge closer for a better look. It is an entrance
worthy of a minor royal and Darwin has never seen anything like it.
Best known as a staging post for backpackers en route to Kakadu
national park, the city has pulled out all the stops for the murder
trial of Bradley Murdoch - the outback drifter accused of killing
Lees' boyfriend, Peter Falconio. Darwin is the capital of the
Northern Territory, which has a land mass larger than France but a
population of 200,000 - roughly the same as that of Brighton and
Hove. In the Northern Territory News, the case gets four pages a
day. The week's second biggest story was a study concluding that
most victims of attacks by saltwater crocodiles are drunk.

It goes on along the same line but I didn't include the whole thing for space reasons.

Crikey! We're not that parochial. For once I am stirred with some form of patriotism and anger at this blatantly simplified and comedic view of our home.
It seems that the rest of the world are still stuck on the image the Territory projected during the Chamberlain case - which was a fair representation considering what a shermozzle that turned out to be - however it was over 20 fucking years ago!! We have matured and developed considerably since then - so snap out of it - stop being so judgemental and see Darwin for what it is. A dynamic and beautiful tropical harbour city, culturally tolerant and diverse with rapid economic growth and all sorts of opportunities and things to offer locals and visitors alike.

Got to admit , the weather sure is shit though.

Teeth

I have just returned from a trip to the dentist.
It has taken me approx 7 years to garner the courage to go to the dentist - simply to find out that everything is fine. No holes , no crowding, wisdom teeth are coming through as they are supposed to and I received no lectures for not flossing.

This information has given me a new lease on life! Today, I drink my coffee with impunity. Tonight I will go home and have a bacardi and coke with no fear of enamel corrosion. I will brush my teeth before bed tonight with little concern that I haven't reached far enough and that leftover piece of corn I am sure I can feel up there is going to create a hideous infection that will cause my head to expand like the elephant man.

Hopefully this new positivity will prompt me to actually show up to my next GP appoinment. We'll see how long it lasts.

Ben Lee Bites

Well the weekend has again been and gone. I know you're all absolutely bursting to hear about what happened. You know you are...

On Friday evening , after finishing work at about 6.30 , Brother Brett met me for a beer or two before we were to head down to the Botanic Gardens for the Ben Lee and Missy Higgins concert.
I have decided that if I am ever forced to go into the city for a bevvie again ( I have been actively avoiding it for the past two years) the time to go is definitely before dark on a Friday afternoon. No wankers , no teenagers and no pissed and aggro a.j.'s or footballers.

After some fortifying beverages and a bit of a chat ( the first one I believe I have had with my bro, sans Matilda for a long long time) we headed down to the Gardens to get ready to groove the night away.

The first dissapointment was the stupendously long queue. "The queue?!" I hear you shout in alarm "There are no queues in Darwin - It's Darwin for christs sake- and you are going to see a couple of quasi independent Australian singer songwriters - It's not Barnsie or The Angels!..."
Well , I can assure you that is exactly what I was thinking. However my eyes did not decieve me and we did indeed have to queue for close to 40 mins to even get in the gate.

The queue was a pretty good indicator of what we were to find inside. The place was packed. Jam packed. I have never seen anything like it at a Darwin venue before. A sea of blankets, hippies, camp chairs , teenagers , grandmas , yuppies, prams and discarded shoes was what we had to cross in order to to get to a clear spot behind the sound tent ( The only spot I could envisge us occupying if we were to prevent me from having some kind of agrophobic panic attack)After being abused by some old coot who though Brett was being a cheeky whippersnapper by trying to squeeze past him and his wife's fat asses, we finally reached our destination. Upon arrival, the realisation dawned on us that there was no way we going to be able to obtain a beer. (Beer Tent queue even scarier than entry queue) Resigned to that sad fact we took a seat on the wet lawn , in a position where the entire stage was blocked by the combination of the sound tent in front of us and the gaggle of teenage girls hanging from it (since when did dorky Ben Lee become some sort of Heart throb ) and we waited for the good times to roll. Wacky frickin doo..




Here we are at the concert - looking like we are on Ecstasy - which most unfortunately we weren't. It certainly would have improved the experience.

Ben Lee finally took the stage - as you may or may not be aware I am a pretty big Ben Lee fan. Even in the days when he was a precocious teenage twat. I have never had the chance to see him live (mainly I guess due to him living in the US for the last million years)
Well basically, little Ben sucked.
It's not that he was out of tune, or the band were lame or that he acted like a dismissive arrogant prat (Hello Tim Rogers), he was just boring. Every song was identical to the recordings on the albums, he could of been lip synching if it wasn't for the sacharrine psuedo spiritual comments between verses telling us all to love one another.
We lasted through the set , chain smoking and pissing off the herbal yuppies that were seated next to us. It wasn't a hard decision to take off across the road to the Casino for a pee and refreshing alcoholic bevvie in airconditioned comfort.

The night wasn't a complete loss - Brett won $250 from $10 on the pokies, and I got pleasantly squiffy while watching crazy people gamble their life savings away.

Apparently Missy Higgins rocked , but somehow I am finding that pretty hard to believe.

Blogmania

This blogging thing is very contagious. After having advised y'all about this blog (and hopefully as a result it has led to you to be reading it right now) I have also discovered that alot of my friends either have existing blogs or have established them as a response to this.

One of my new faves - and a trip down memory lane is my old mate Shayne - check it out
http://shaynerocks.blogspot.com/

He is an erudite and charming writer - hours of entertainment will come of his venture into the cyber community.

Wicked Witch of the West

An email conversation I had today with my beautiful and charming sister sister who lives in Kalgoorlie, WA;

L-M: Hey , you should checkout my new blog. You can see what's going on while you are away. Here is a pic of Matilda Paul took today. How cute is she!!

WW: She looks like a man.

Have you got my beads and bangle I left in Darwin last time? Can you send them to me?

L-M: She doesn't look like a man!! You look like a man. Meanie. Now have you checked my blog??

WW: Yes I checked out your stupid blog. You mention Mum, Dad , Matilda, Kalinda Brett and Paul about 200 times, but what about me?? Don't I exist??
And hurry up and send me my beads and bangle

L-M: Of course. But so far I have only been mentioning things as they happen - You haven't been happening. Do something interesting and I'll mention you.

WW: Just send me my fricking beads man.

So here is your mention Danielle. And I'll send you your frickin beads man.

I have been discussing it with my lovely workmate Cara and we are pretty convinced that I need glasses. Cara and I work in a little office , underneath searing fluorescent lighting and pretty much stare at a computer screen of small numbers all day long. Recently I have noticed that after working solidly for half an hour my vision starts to blur. My eyes start to sting and feel really tired. I am putting it down to strain and the lighting in our environment. Do you think management would let us get away with some dusky lamps , a few incense sticks and thick velvet drapes over the windows? Maybe some scented candles and a lava lamp? Not only would it be more ambient, it would also be conducive to productivity due to the glowy good feelings we will be vibing out on...Or not.
Alternatively , it's off to the optometrist and possibly a bit of a 'sexy academic' look makeover for me! I am trying out Cara's now and I think I could really rock this look....Or not.

and this is why we choose to live here...

http://www.ntnews.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,16880275%255E13569,00.html

Thats Hot.

The family came over last night. Unfortunately Kalinda had to go to work but Brett and Matilda hung out. Christo dropped over for a couple of bevvies and a chat as well. Really nothing eventful happened - it was an average backyard evening - with wine and delicious Ming Court seafood and garlic pizza - I am really just posting for an excuse to show this piccy of these 3 beautiful people. They rock.

Weekend Wrap Up

I am immensely proud of myself. I have proven this weekend that it is possible for me to be a relatively sober and somewhat productive member of the community.

Friday evening saw me stick to my plans of NOT going "after work drinks" nutso. A few wines in the back yard with Aaron and Paul provided me sufficient interaction and stimulation to not desire more from elsewhere (ie , endlesss text messages inviting every Tom, Dick and Harry to join us, hence creating a massive party that would last until I puked , passed out or yelled at everyone to piss off!) There was alot of deep and philosophical insights on all sorts of terribly important things that I fail to recall just at theis moment...We had the requisite drunken and emotionally charged moments, but we still managed to have a delightful evening and have it all over and done with by 10.30pm.

Saturday morning was an early rising. Paul doing general housey duties while I got out in the garden before it got too hot. Before lunch we were over at Mandorah - taking advantage of the Villa Stones while the parents are away - we felt like teenagers again, parents are away so it's time to break out the party pants.
But being 30something and kinda grumpy these days , it wasn't as risque and cheeky as we may have expected. In fact there wasn't anything we did or wanted to do that we wouldn't have if the parents were around anyway!. Kinda disappointing really.

Here Matilda and I demonstrate excellent road safety as neither of us are restrained in the moving vehicle that is transporting us from the ferry to the home front. Luckily I was sitting BEHIND Brett so that he didn't witness this gross irresponsibility on my part.

Upon arrival at the Villa Stones, Brett and Kalinda whipped up a delicios and not too "Bush Hippie" lunch for us. This was followed closely by a whole lot of lazing around , reading and playing with Matilda for the rest of the day. Man, that kid is simply the cutest baby in Australia.

The arrival of the Shortus Clan off of the 5.00pm ferry put paid to any further rest and quiet reflection - although this was a welcome relief as it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep my eyes open.
As usual, much hilarity and good times ensued. Fed the kids, got too pissed to feed ourselves until Matt recalled some prawns he had brought over. Delicious. More yakking , laughing and carry ons , culminating in a moving rendition of "Living On A Prayer" by Tracey and I. Let me tell you , there is not alot on this planet more liberating than knowing you can belt out some Bon Jovi glory without pissing off the neighbours.

So a weekend combining household duties, family responsibilities, existential examination, friendship counselling and partying to Bon Jovi. What else could a girl ask for?

Tropical Paradise...sometimes

Occasionally , through my constant bitching and moaning about our climate , a little ray of pleasure punches it's way through and makes me realise that I am actually pretty fortunate to be living in such a beautiful part of the world.

This morning riding to work was awesome. The tide was just at the perfect level. Not too high , but high enough to create a breeze and to fill Rapid Creek. Coming across the footbridge that goes over the mouth of the creek, I actually had to stop for a moment and take it in. Behind me I had the eerie stillness of the mangroves and in front ,the limitless vista of the Arafura Sea. The current below me was moving so rapidly I could see the fish swimming out with it. It was hypnotic.

I don't know how many mornings I can get away with that kind of loitering without turning into a puddle of sweat and steam - but today it certainly was a timely reminder of how stunning this northern crapola hole can be.

Weekend here again!

Well here I am at another Friday. I love it!
For a public servant like me this is the best day of the week.
Unfortunately I have commited to 2 days of sobriety (this being the second day) so I have to find some form of activity that will keep me distracted from the irresistable Friday after work drink urge.

Dunno what will eventuate this weekend. The parents have hit the high road so the Mandorah Villa is available for some beachside rocking out.
Last weekend was a hoot , with the Spanish party going off a treat. Luckily for me Paul discarded hiis plans to go as Don Quixote and instead went as his favourite artist..



No prizes for guessing who.
So I guess by rights we should take it easy this weekend - the remainder of October shaping up to be quite massive ( Emmas birthday, Missy and Ben Lee concert, Pauls birthday ...) but I am sure none of my precautionary measures will have any effect and I will be as hungover on this Monday as any other.

Tash in Wonderland (or not)

The beautiful boy Paul, has a beautiful sister Tash. Lovely Tash , having recently been royally shafted by "he who will not be named" is currently marooned in a skanky eastern state town (which will also remain nameless) that Tash has henceforth titled "Suckzone"
Unfortunately Suckzone and Tash will remain connected until January next year. It is our job as her loved ones to attempt to keep her spirits up (and her mental health stable) in this trying time. Suckzone is making it very difficult for us to do this.
Those of you familiar with the smaller and more inland locales of our sunny eastern neighbour can envision the pain our Tash is going through. They had a freaking duststorm the other day! A duststorm! This is only supposed to happen on episodes of Carnivale - not in modern day Australia. We won't even start to describe the delightful citizens of that region of our fair country , suffice to say they don't have a great deal in common with our heroine.
Tash our hearts and minds are with you - hang in there for now and hurry up and come home.

Pretty Pictures in Paul

I have just discovered the ease with which I can post pictures! So I have with utmost vanity decided to post a nice piccy of my beautiful boy and I , for no reason other than I can.

So there we are, mostly sober, eerily smiley and all for your delighted visual joy.

Build It Up..

I had the day off work yesterday. Conveniently it happened to be the hottest day we've had since November last year. It was also the hottest October day that we have had since 1991.
Why I chose to swap sitting in my airconditioned box all day , until such time that the sun is sufficiently low in the sky and the clock indicates a time that is socially acceptable to crack that first bottle of sauvignon blanc - for sweltering in the ridiculously fetid bleaurgh that constitutes weather in this tropical paradise - I don't know.
The worst part about it is the humidity was only at 45%. As my wise and highly irritatingly correct old Dad keeps telling me "don't complain now you big girlyskirt, in 2 months it's only gonna get shitloads worse".
I need a pool , hard core oscillating fan and endless supply of long cool G&Ts to get through this build up I am sure.

Plague of doubts....

Its so crazy - Every time I attempt to compose an entry to this blog I am afflicted with a serious case of stage fright.
It's obscenely ridiculous and self absorbed... and I can't seem to prevent it.

I have been a serious lurker of many blogs for a long time now. I have my favourites as everybody does - the ones that are checked each day as soon as the computer is logged on at work. The gossip blogs, the satirical and the educational. My favourites are the people just blogging about random events in their everyday lives.

Am I trying to emulate this? If this is the case then that explains the self consciouness and insecurity blackouts. I could never be as witty and endearing as some or be able to construct such enthralling prose as others (of which will all remain nameless at this stage in case they google themselves, find this blog and laugh and point all the way home!) However I don't think this was my initial intention anyhoo.
I love the format and accessability of a blog and apart from wanting to contribute to this ever growing form of expression (I know, I know, I'm a bit late to get on the boat. I always was a late bloomer) I can also see it as a wonderful way to keep friends all over Australia and the world updated on my sometimes mundane, sometimes hilarious, always slightly ludicrous , rapidly ageing life.

So here goes - lose the baggage dorko and get into it!