I'm outta here!

Yes, sod you bloody Melbourne lot with your reported 32 degree NYE, today we're off to where the sun don't shine. Hobart.

Our friends Andrew and Kathleen are braving the Tassie "Summer" and hitching themselves to the Marriage Wagon on Sunday. Brave, brave people indeed.

And when you're sinking your third martini tonight, reminiscing about what a great year you've had (even if you haven't - alcohol is a truly wonderful thing...), please make a donation to any of the great causes providing relief to the Tsunami-hit regions. We donated to the Red Cross, but lots of others- Oxfam, Doctors without Borders and World Vision also do awesome jobs.

Oh, and George W, while you're filling your presidential spa with ill-got oil (said to be very good for the complexion) why don't you channel some more of your country's money into Tsunami relief? $35million? Australia's given $27M, Canada $32M, for countries mere economic shadows of your great nation.

Oh, sorry, George, I forgot - there's no oil to be had in Indonesia or Sri Lanka or India... I guess you can start 2005 with a clear conscience then...

Happy New Year to everyone else!

Moment Capturer's Anonymous

Maslin's Beach. Not the nuddy bit

I have a sickness. One cannot put a camera in my hand for one minute without me snapping something. Anything. Everything. I am obsessed with capturing every. single. moment. You know, just in case I kill all my braincells in a single bender and forget everything I did. I need help.

Some say this condition prevents one from enjoying the moment, but at least I have photographic evidence of the moment, even if I am fart-arsing around with focus and composition.

I took about 300 shots when we drove back to Adelaide for Chrissy (to visit the in-laws/out-laws). 300 shots in 5 days.

We Three Kings of Glenelg, are...

We had a brill Chrissie - spent Christmas Eve wine-tasting in Maclaren Vale and frolicking in the ocean at Maslins Beach. Maslins is apparently v. famous as get-your-kit-off-and-prance-around-in-your-nuddy-wares, but we didn't go quite that far. Matt did go for a "jog" up there (to get some exercise, so he reckons) and all he saw were gravity-challenged Greek men prancing (though not holding hands, much to my disappointment).

Sun and alcohol never were a good match for Kinki

Christmas Day we had to wait until 11am to open pressies. 11am??? Would have been blasphemous in my family, being a bunch of early-rising sickos, but we had to wait for McG's Nanna Joyce to get out of bed, finish smoking her pack of ciggies and pop in the shower before we could pick her up. Good. Old. Nanna.

Christmas Lunch was at Husband's Brother's Fiancee's Folks place - got soused on champers and Cooper's Vintage Ale, doused in the pool and much to my excitement, Jude broke out her new pressie - Playstation karaoke Singstar. Oh. My. God. Was I in drunken heaven or what???? Spent the arvo going to head-to-head with Husband in Singstar battle mode and polishing off several large helpings of homemade chrissie pudding (made with a few bottles of brandy), brandy butter and brandy cream. Lordy. No wonder I managed to pass out around 7pm and not rouse til the next morning. And stack on 10kgs overnight.

On Boxing Day we took the car over to Kangaroo Island, one helluva unique place. We saw quite a bit of wildlife, most of it roadkill, but I fit in sightings of a few kangaroos, fairy penguins, New Zealand Fur Seals...

"Dud ya put ma fush in the chulli-bun?""

...and a strange-lookin' super-hero, Cape YoungHusband, unique to grottos around Cape YoungHusband on the south coast of K.I...

A rare sighting of the indigenous Cape YoungHusband

The only shot I didn't get, which would have been priceless, was my saving an echidna from becoming roadkill (seems Husband is not similarly afflicted with capturing the moment)...

We were driving back to our B&B from Penneshaw around 10pm, when McG spotted a fat little echidna stepping onto the highway. He braked about 2 metres from it, and I got out and tried to shoo it back into the bush. The interaction went something like this:

Kinki: Go-orn! Git! Git then!
Echidna: [grunt. waddles a couple of feet]
Kinki: GO-ORN!
Echidna: [grunt. waddles a couple of more feet]
Kinki: GO-ORN![waddles behind it until it scampers into the bush]

It did finally disappear into the scrub, no doubt to become roadkill for another lucky camper. Never been so close to those funky creatures, though - very special and highlight of the trip.

Penneshaw shows us her pink bits

Not so great was watching footage of the Tsunami on the ferry back to Cape Jervis, particularly worrying about our buds Kat and Daz, who were getting marriaged in Thailand over New Year's. Thankfully they are OK! I will never complain about bad weather ever ever again. I swear.

More photos of Kangaroo Island (from 200 photos down to a mere 21!)
More photos of Christmas in Adelaide

Weekend in Pictures

Georgia reprises Little Drummer Girl for the masses...

The Boulevard Christmas Lights in Ivanhoe were a (bumper-to-bumper) sight to behold, but alas, a difficult one to photograph...

Kinki finally sends her felt flower pin to Evonne in L.A. If you're reading this Evonne, sorry I spoilt the surprise. Surprise!

Photo Friday "Tacky"

Tittie Purin, Tokyo

Flip-side

Bagged and tagged gifts for the Smith Family Christmas Appeal yesterday.

It was a well ordered affair - around 30 volunteers came, some from anOther Bank, who shall remain nameless (although they've had some nasty affairs of their own to deal with this year) which made for some interesting banter.

We set up in the top floor of a warehouse, with tables scattered around the edges, each table for a different age-group. Donations were unwrapped, sorted into age-groups, then bagged - one "big" toy, 3 smaller toys/novelties, and 1 book.

Lots of things couldn't go into bags - religious toys, table tennis sets (likelihood of v. poor family having table tennis table being v. slim) and really big/expensive toys - gift envy is still rife out there (hey, didn't you compare your gifts with your brothers/sisters gifts when you were kid? I almost whipped out my calculator for Christmas analysis during the troubled-teen years...)

My anal-retentive nazi side kicked into 5th gear when I saw bags with 5 books in them. What were these volunteers thinking? I mean, how pissed would you be if you were a kid and you got 5 books, when your neighbour got a Spiderman suit, Incredible Hulk action toy and Formula One leggo set? I soon got a rep as a bossy boots which was not my intention, but at least things got done right.

It did amaze me the gifts people donated - x-boxes, bikes, cd players... those gifts are used for special cases throughout the year, not as part of the Christmas Appeal. For example, if a mum or dad has cancer and a small army of kids, they will give the kids an x-box while the folks are in hospital. Their neighbours would hardly have gift-envy of super-gift, given the situation.

On the flip side of this generosity are the scumbag(s) who stole $17,000 worth of donations from the Starlight Foundation. What sort of mother-^&*$%#@ assholes would do something like that? Shit, go rob a Bank with a truckload of robbery insurance. Oh that's right, it's easier for cowards to steal from a charity than a big armour-guarded bank.

I'd like to think the altruistic contingent is bigger than the asshole one. I think that culturally, it's quite different in Japan, where probably fewer people give to charities/do something to help the homeless or poor, but at the same time, would never steal from a charity. I think the extremes are more defined in Australia. The Japanese seem to be very generous (tied to obligation? I'm not sure) amongst their "own"/their "superiors" etc. but the stigma of being poor or helpless or homeless is still very real and the current of volunteerism is still a bit retarded (although getting better, I understand).

Am I off the mark here?

Festivities

There's something about barfing up half a lung that renders you unable to write. Anything. Or even speak properly. Hence the absence of posts. Or it could be I've had nothing interesting to say... such is Life in the Comfort Zone.

So what's happened in the last week?

Well, first-up, two of our fab friends from Japan, Kat and Daz got legally married in Tokyo last week. Read all about it.

Our department Xmas Party was ON last night - downed a few champers with 320 fellow revellers and felt all the better for it. Wondered why people were giving me a wide berth most of the night, though. Oh yeah, must have been the spittle frothing forth from my hacked-up bronchial tubes.

One thing that amazed me about the party, though, was that it was held at Queens Warehouse at Docklands, in and around the most outrageously decadent and expensive car collection I've ever seen (because, you know, I make it my business to visit car collections). People were chug-a-lugging next to $200,000 collectible cars and if I know Xmas parties the way I know Xmas parties, there would have been quite a few stains in and around the cars by the end of the evening (maybe even a reprise of Rose and Jack's Titanic love-romp).

Snog-fest anyone?

Didn't stay long enough to see all that, though - I headed home to watch "The Apprentice"...

Today is Day of Wrapping pressies for the Smith Family. Am not nursing mother-futsuka-yoi this morning (contrare to the number of champers downed last night in weakened state), so should be fun.

Have been feeling all natsukashii about Japan this week. I have the fondest memories of our Orphans Xmas Parties in Tokyo, getting blotto, stumbling down frigid, frosty streets and into karaoke bars in the wee hours, and recovering with a CoCos curry the next day. There was always a feeling of solidarity amongst those of us left in Tokyo without family to spend the festive season with.

Husband and I haven't spent Chrissie in Australia for the past 3 years, so it's all a bit strange. Will definitely miss the crowd we used to spend time with in Tokyo. All our friends here have their own family to spend time with, so in a lot of ways, people without family would probably feel lonelier here than they would in the same situation in Japan.

End of reflection.

Aren't you happy about that?

Photo Friday "Abandoned"

A-Bomb Dome, Hiroshima, Japan

Eye suck

Husband dragged me out of the house today while he went to get an eye test and I decided to get one, too. It had been 12 years since my last one, so I thought it was probably about time.

Plus, I've had 5 days of being cooped up here, barfing up a lung, watching crap day-time TV (not even "Degrassi the Next Generation" could save me) and was getting serious cabin-fever. I even bawled my eyes out yesterday when some chick won the $100,000 showcase on Price is Right. I knew I had to get out.

Matt went in first, so I had time to browse the spec frames. I fell in love with a couple of funky oblong frames with thick(ish) black rims - I flounced in front of the mirror getting all a bit too Diana Prince for the staff's liking, I'm sure. Cabin fever, you know.

I was pumped, I was excited at my new career as a bespectacled temptress.

Husband came out and I went in. The test seemed to be going well until I sealed my fate.

Opt: Can you read the bottom line?
Kink: No. Oh wait, I'll give it a shot. I can see something, E, something, T.
Opt: (stunned silence) Thats, erm, really really good. Amazing actually.

The final verdict?

Opt: You don't need glasses.
Kink: (What? WHAAAAAATTTT?) Huh? Are you sure, not even for reading?
Opt: No. You have excellent vision.

Ah, crap. So while husband picked up a nice pair of super show-off frames, I could only take pride in the Optometrist telling him I kicked his arse.

But I did take a longing last backward-glance at my gorgeous frames...

Flu

I have it and I'm not happy about it. I haven't had the flu for.... well, I can't even remember the last time. I didn't even succumb to it in the malady-ridden-vaccum of Tokyo.

I feel like someone's jammed my nose, ears, mouth and lungs with wet toilet paper, doused me with turpentine, set me alight and run me down with a semi-trailer.

I have been off work all week and not going back in any sort of hurry.

And it came out of nowhere - usually these little angels give you some warning, a tickle here and there, a day or two of "offness", but nooooo. Saturday night (in the great wilderness that is the Cathedral Ranges) I was feeling ticketyboo, downing tokay around the campfire, the following morning around 3 as I stumbled out of my tent to address the call of nature, I felt like a pile of doggy-do.

In spite of feeling like shit on the Sunday, our camping trip was rather fab, shit notwithstanding. Juliette and Dave brought their little girl, Stella for a teddy-bear's picnic on Saturday and it was Rin's birthday the next day so we ate Birthday Melon, quaffed tokay and stuffed ourselves rather stupid.

Stellllaaaaa!

Birthday Melon

Our fellow campers, Nick, Rin, Danes and Adventure Boy have become very close buddies since we got back from Japan. Not that we weren't great friends before, but McG and I are finding ourselves rather drawn to spending time with them over other friends who were closer to us before we left for the orient. Marino I didn't know that well, but he's a top-shelf bloke and the lot of 'em are low maintenance.

Go ahead, Pop my Cherry

I have no witty way to end this blog, so why don't you just go and have a look at some of the other pics of the Cathedral Ranges, then?

You can Bank on it

One thing I do love about The Bank is the Volunteer Leave. That's right, you get to take one day a year out of work to volunteer for an approved charity and get paid for it! OK, so it's hardly the point to get a paid day for doing something ahem, altruistic, but it's a great initiative.

So I'm gonna work at The Smith Family wrapping chrissie presents on the 17th December with some guys from work I don't know. Yet.

Does it sound like I'm becoming a Company (wo)Man??? I'm not. I sure as hell am not. I went to a presentation the other day where we were told about all the sweet products The Bank has and the direction The Bank is taking and how so much better Our Bank is than all the Other Banks. We even had to boo when a logo for any of the Other Banks came up on the screen. I think that bit was meant to be tongue in cheek. It felt like I'd showed up for a cult brainwashing, nevertheless.

All Banks are the same. A Bank is a Bank. They will never be cool. They will always do what's right for them, and not the customer. I am officially working for the Devil's Syndicate.

But you better believe that Real Estate Agents stop hassling to take out their dodgy mortgage-schemes when they find out you work for a Bank...