Wedding!
28 March 2005, 10:26
Our dear friends J&H (they are one, now) got hitched out at Montsalvat yesterday afternoon. Beautiful, casual & intimate, with H mc’ing the whole thing, given their celebrant was apparently a bit of a nutter…
When we first discovered that the wedding was going to be “dry” (and I don’t mean ginger ale), I was a little concerned. How were any of us (read: me) going to have any fun without alcohol, particularly as I didn’t know anyone bar Husband and one other guest?
Post ceremony, most of their friends headed straight to the bar at Montsalvat to down a champers or two, pre-reception. At our table at the reception there were ambiguous whispers of “what does “dry” mean? Can we buy drinks ourselves or are we not supposed to drink? Would it be that bad? Couldn’t we stash a couple of beers under the table and swig silently through the night? What does this all mean????” We started to sound like a bunch of useless alcoholics who couldn’t survive a night without the demon brew. In the end, we decided not to drink out of respect for H’s parents, even though none of us knew them.
I soon discovered that drinking around 2 litres of Coke has roughly the same effect as drinking a bottle of wine anyway.
The shebang turned out to be great fun – we had a middle eastern banquet washed down with lemonade (I woke up sans hangover – v. cool), there were quizzes and fill-in-the-gaps games, both of which our table really should have won, but family politics were victorious in the end (not that we’re sore losers or anything…)
All up, a very unyeeeewshul wedding, but then J&H are certainly not eeeewshul people, which is precisely why we love them! Thanks guys, for a top-shelf party – we do love a good marriage!!!
Permanent Link | Comments [1]Happy Easter!
27 March 2005, 14:30
... from a v. strange little Easter Bunny!
How's the Serenity?
27 March 2005, 11:14
There’s always one. Always one muthalovin’ selfish arsehole who finds it imperative to fill the silence of mutha nature with doof doof music…
Murray River at Sunset
DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF doofdoofdoof DOOF DOOF DOOF
We thought it would only be a brief segue into the lingering sounds of nature by night, but noooooo, 4 hours later we could still hear it and I was getting madder and madder. I was so furious I went hunting around our campsite for the offender but the noise was coming from the next campsite over. What mystified me was that there must have been 15 separate camping families in the next campsite and no-one complained??? It finally stopped about an hour later and I finally got to sleep (after having a minor tantie in the tent which Husband was very pleased about…)
Difficult decisions being made…
Apart from this indiscretion, the camp trip was absolutely stunning – we drove up Thursday afternoon, and came back yesterday evening. In spite of it being Easter Weekend, there were only a smattering of campers at the site. Our Canuck mates had never experienced such an isolated part of Australia and we spent our days very busily eating, preparing to eat and thinking about what we’d eat next.
The wildlife (apart from abundant roadkills and 2 hysterical Canadians (funny hysterical, that is)) was mainly of the avian kind, although we did have a close encounter with a black snake curled up in foot-high grass, which apparently, wasn’t the kind of wildlife the Canadians were hoping for. After minor panic and visions of red-bellied coronaries we made it to safe ground and had something to eat. Just to add some variety to the trip.
Murray mist
We so didn’t want to leave. Husband was devising ways we could spend an extra night, but with no water left, little food, bar a couple of bananas, marshmallows and chocolate, and a wedding to come back to, it couldn’t be done.
So, we finally packed up around 3pm yesterday, stopping off in Echuca for a steam-boat ride in Echuca, a darling little town. V. old-world romantic. Sigh. End of vacation.
**********
I so had to get out of Melbourne – in fact, the moment we hit the ring road into Melbourne yesterday, a massive headache hit, and I noticed how tight my lungs were. I crave wilderness and isolation and places where you don’t have to think about anything and pretend that everyday 9-5 working pressures simply don’t exist…
Click here for more Barmah SP pics
Permanent Link | Comments? [4]I heart DMB
22 March 2005, 21:21
Dave Matthews. Sigh. Undoubtedly one of the most amazing male singers today. And undoubtedly one of the most antipodean-avoidant singers, having made exactly zero trips to Australia before last Sunday.
Husband had waited 8 years to see them live. I’d waited around 5, being a fairly late-bloomer in the Dave Matthews field of dreams. Tickets to last night’s gig sold out in roughly half-an-hour the day they went on sale. We may have been located in the arse-hole of the Palais, but the vista from said arse-hole was v. fine (although, from that distance, the keyboardist looked disturbingly like the lovechild of David Hasselhof & Kamahl and the drummer like Ice T).
The main problem with the Palais is that you can’t really have a decent boogie – it’s all seating, and they sure are nazi about you getting up into the aisles and dancing. “It’s a fire hazard” they whined to us (a few times, as Husband and I have a tendency toward ADD). Didn’t stop us from trying, but we did get into trouble a few times.
It was a great concert, but there were a few extenuating circumstances that stops me from quite raving about it…..
Firstly, I was knackered and had foul headache (which actually got heaps better as the concert wore on – oh the soothing elixir that is DMB). Secondly, the song mix was strange – I have a real soft spot for one of their CDs and they only played one song from it. In fact, I didn’t even know half the songs. I swear I have listened to all their CDs and DM’s solo CD, but I couldn’t really get into the unknown songs.
The highlight of the 2 and a half-hour set was undoubtedly “Cry Freedom” – an absolutely beautiful ballad. They really fucking know their music – there was jamming, sax solos, fiddle solos, an impromptu scat (have been summarily informed that it wasn’t a beatbox rap – ah the ignorance of the vocabularily-challenged!) and the melancholy, but gutsy crooning of DM himself.
The other highlight of the concert was the audience. About half an hour before DMB came on stage, the crowd went certifiably nuts with absolutely no respect for how old that theatre was. I had no clue DMB were so massive here. You never see them on the charts or on Video Hits or anything so it was pretty ^&*(ing awesome to be surrounded by thousands of people with good musical taste (as deemed by moi).
Today I feel chotto crap. And blue. I get the blues every 6 months or so – the black funk I used to call it. Today’s is a little purple, with pink on the inside. At least it’s colourful…
Auction blues
20 March 2005, 08:09
Click to enlarge
Got v. drunk last night and have dastardly hangover. I hate getting drunk – I go all “honest” on people’s arses and now I’m worried I’ve upset my friends, including v. great Husband. Not v. good start to the day, let me say.
The party was in honour of our Friend J, who is flying the coop for the States, erm… when he manages to get a visa. We’ll miss the lad – a good mate and fellow Hitler-child (we have to stick together, you know).
Missed out on a gorgeo house yesterday at Auction, by $2,500. We’re being strong – we have a limit and we’re sticking to it. This other dude wanted the place baaaaaad, and would have pipped us no matter how high he went, so good on him.
It was funny, there were probably 30 people there at auction and really only two serious bidders, us and the other dude. 10 of the onlookers were actually guests at a Hen’s Party going on in the very house being auctioned. There were probably 100 massive pics of David Hasselhof (“The Hof”) in various poses lining the corridor and living room walls for bidders to see. Am sure the agents were v. happy about the interior decoration – in fact, it could have hiked the price up.
In other news, good friends of ours in Japan got engaged! They are v. secretive, so can’t reveal any names, but we’re v. happy for them (they know who they are) – I do love a good East meets West Romance story.
I think that’s enough for me – must go and down a few Beroccas.
Photo Friday "Glow"
18 March 2005, 19:21
Click to enlarge – in fact, click to make the damn thing even visible
You may have noticed that the images on this site have shrunk quite considerably. Poxy, I know, but I truly can’t be arsed making additional thumbnails out of images now Husband has got me on this TextPattern thingo. So… get used to it.
Did anyone else have a crapola Friday? It’s been a weird week, in fact – people around me getting seriously sick, emergency vee-hikkles storming all over the place, crazy dreams (dreamt I met Princess Mary and hosted her Australian wedding in a dilipidated restaurant with 8 other guests – ‘nuf said)... just thankful I have a noice 1999 Pinot to keep me company while Husband galavants with mutual friends in the city. I just couldn’t face company tonight – I’ve been non-stop in meetings et.al all week and if I see another face I have to make pilote (even impolite) conversation with, I may just gouge my eyes out with a swizzle stick. I have social obligations tomorrow night and for now, that’s a fucking ‘nuf.
I hate small-talk – bores me witless, but my job lately seems to have been an endless cycle of keeping the peace and dealing with petty gripes and flattering people’s egos so I can get what I want. I mean, fuck, it works, but I hate listening to my voice when I do it. Sends involuntary shivers down the old spine. Shudder…
So.... what's your sign?
17 March 2005, 19:27
The indefatigable Spreegirl found this gem, Popstrology – the ancient science of predicting one’s personality by the deeeeep lyrics of the song that was top-of-the-charts when you were born.
Turns out I’m born in the year of Carole King under the sign “Joy to the World”. No no, not the Christmas carol, the Two (ahem, Three) Dogs song. Oh yeah, yeah, baby – sing it and weep:
“And (s)he always had some mighty fine wine”
“A straight shootin’ son-of-a-gun”
Uh huh. Uh huh. Sounds like me.
I have issues with my compatibility with Husband, though – how can a child of Carole King possibly get along with that of Rod Stewart born under “50 Ways to Leave your Lover”? Hrmph. Not at all happy about that.
The North Country
16 March 2005, 06:48
I’ve been in a bit of a creative slump lately, don’t got nothin’ original to say so can’t be bothered not saying it. BUT let me tell you a little bit about our long weekend, last weekend…
...McG and I headed out to Wangaratta, about 2 and a half hours north of Melbourne, where friends of ours have a family farm.
Click to enlarge
It was so peaceful out there, quite hot (high 30s) so plenty of swimming opps in the Ovens River, drinking alchoholic ginger beer at the local saloon (shit, that shit’s good shit) and hanging out in the air-conditioned ranch.
On the Sunday we went wine, cheese and olive tasting near Milawa, a lazy day, and started the wine tasting late morning so I got reeeeeeeeaaaaallly drooooowwwsy and had a few nana naps that afternoon. Everyone thought I was up the duff because I was so sleepy all the time. I think I simply needed the rest, ‘cos I’ve been chockers at work and play.
Also on Sunday, I rose at crack of dawn (6.30 am! Incontheivable!) to watch the most beautiful sunrise. The serenity was broken only by “lamby-lamb”, the family lamb bleating pathetically & with stylus broken. Meh.
Great weekend, and we’ve got another long one coming up next weekend! Think we’re overdue for a campin’ trip….
Click here for more North Country Sunrise studies!
Photo Friday "Faces"
12 March 2005, 08:08
Click to enlarge
Another CMS, Another Day
6 March 2005, 22:19
From Blogger to Movable Type, and now to Textpattern. For a bunch of reasons, the clever code behind the scenes at 35 Degrees has changed again.
Some of the formatting isn’t quite right. The categories haven’t been populated yet. Browsing by date is yet to come. The address of the RSS feed has changed. And the older generated pages are all still there, as are the new ones which have been imported. Not quite sure how I’m going to handle that one – it’s all very well to retain URLs for incoming links to prevent link rot, but at what cost?
So we’ve got a bit of house cleaning to do. But basically it’s business as usual. Let us know if you see anything considerably wacky.
Permanent Link | Comments [3]"Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day"
6 March 2005, 17:40
I don’t often check my referrals log on this site, but really ought to do it more often…
According to Google, if you’re looking for red-haired portugese (top listing!); poop & piss; obscured japan movie law, stand-up titties, first night fuckers; or if you hate Bribane (sic – the horror! a speeling mistayke) or want to get fucked for free, then this is the place to do it.
On my forage of dodgy referrers, however, I was most elated to come across SmellyPoop.com. The things you simply don’t know about your own bun fudge!
Photo Friday "Obsession"
5 March 2005, 18:35
An homage to Asian cine-horror
Kudos if you can guess what movie this image is taken from…
I think this is why I like the show “Lost” so much – reminds me of those creepy Japanese Horrors – Lord of the Flies meets Battle Royale with a bit of Kairo thrown in. Class entertainment.
Permanent Link | Comments [4]Wednesday Morning Peak Hour
4 March 2005, 04:42
This is our beloved (rental) suburb on a feisty peak-hour morning and by jimminy, wouldn’t we love to buy here. Alas, even with the ridiculous hiking of interest rates, sellers are very mercenary in these parts. It’s so depressing going to look at a place that is quoted at $A370K and it’s a run-down dump where some poor old duck recently died (nothing to do with the cockroach manure and rat poison I’m sure).
We did bid at auction last week, where the place was quoted $400K+ (by law they have to quote within 10% of the actual value of the property or they get in t.r.o.u.b.l.e. unless you’re John Roberts…) and the place was passed in at $410K – then we found out that the reserve was $A480K – what a frikkin’ waste of time for everyone involved – if you want $480K for your place, surely you’d invite prospective buyers who are going to cough up something near that amount.
Am I fundamentally missing something?
Permanent Link | Comments [3]Redundant Question
1 March 2005, 16:26
If you’d just had a baby, would you really tell your un-childed friends about a woman’s eyes popping out of her sockets during labour?
Yes, so would I.
Permanent Link | Comments [4]
