Wednesday, August 29, 2007

from tassie with love.

ok, ok. so it's not paris, but it is my little peice of heaven. tomorrow ben and i leave all behind (including little magstar) to leap water to tasmania. i'm hoping i will have time to read. to sleep. to talk. to walk. i wanna see so much and i am so happy that ben and i will have this week to just 'be' together. we havent had a holiday (just us) since halls gap nearly two years ago. it was right after the fires had raged through that area of victoria and all we saw was soot!

so onto chapter two. tasmania - green trees, small roads, strange locals and good beer. i will be back with itchy blog fingers in about a week. until then. happy surfing...

Thursday, August 23, 2007

in melbourne tonight.

in melbourne tonight i will eat great tapas at Hairy Canary and drink from their delightful wine list. i will probably engage in conversation with my sister, liz, too. we've been close ever since she tried to come into this world on the same day i was born.

in melbourne tonight i will see a band called johnny get your gun. liz told me about them a few months ago and we have been eagerly waiting for them to arrange a gig on a night we like. they play at the hi fi bar - good venue - and with any luck will warn the bar and ensure there's enough beer to handle TWO irish people in one night.

in melbourne tonight i will cuddle my kelpie puppy maggie. she got the mange on her head and is feeling poorly from all the medicine. we just thought she might be going a little bald in her early months, but no, apparently she has mites eating at her skin and trying to make their way through the rest of her body. i feel bad for not helping her sooner.

in melbourne tonight i will hold hands with ben. its been awhile (with all the crazy partying with irish jenny) since we had some good old 'us' time. i wanna talk, talk talk and laugh. ben is very good at making me smile. i wanna just hang out and be with him.

in melbourne tonight i will rest soundly. perhaps even like that of a dead person. this has been a massive week. both personally and professionally. a run in with a work colleague did not help matters either. i eagerly await our little trip to tasmania next week. walks. drinks. good food. perhaps it will make the intensity of the last working week dissipate.

in melbourne tongiht i will bid you adieu...

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

in overlocker love.

well, i turned 30 some weeks ago now. i thought it would hurt. like, my head. i thought my ego would be bruised and battered and find it difficult to recover. i thought ben might trade me in for a younger model. but really, it passed without much drama. what i did find is that in my wiser years, stranger things delight me. there was a time when a short skirt (that once lived a life as a headband) would arouse excitement. or a set of earrings with 46 fake diamonds too many. or even a cocktail that glowed in that dark, was too big too hold and contained a ridiculous amount of straws for one set of lips. nowdays? it's the overlockers that get my vote.

with jenny over from ireland i didnt have much time to set her up and start to play. but this weekend all that changed. we ventured down to the beach house and i managed to find more than enough hours to experiment. it was such fun. can i say that without sounding 60? me? overlocking on the weekend? such a change from 'getting locked' huh?

I promised jen i would make her a bag and i did. i used some fabric i fell upon in an op shop in rye and some that i ordered in the z & s sale. it's very 'blair gowrie' inspired and even has a pocket for jen's mobile phone - her most prized possession. what do you think?








here she is. cute huh? I was making some tea towels when this one was taken. and the result?



needless to say, i am officially back in the sewing game. *sigh* being 30 really aint that bad :)


Sunday, August 19, 2007

death of an oobee.

it's offical. maggie has committed her first murder. the victim? a beautiful onegirl creation, oobee. Bought as a gift for a family friend who have welcomed into the world their second son, we left oobee sitting quietly on the window sill of our south caulfield home.

at approximately 11:23pm we walked through the door after being at a bob dylan concert (that's a whole other crime) and noticed maggie acting a little peculiar, well behaved even. i walked up and gave her a big cuddle because i had been feeling bad about leaving her home alone for so long. that's when i saw him. bits of his delicately sewn together body scattered across our hardwood floors. oobee was no more.

official police photos below:





note the slightly angled tear on the onegirl tag. as if torn in a hurry. it's believed she made this final frantic move as we rounded the street corner and drove into the driveway.



in a brutal, heartless move, the likes of which have not been seen since van gogh went 'loco loco', maggie ripped the ear off oobee, giving his once cute half moon eyes, a somewhat morbid feel.

it's probably a good time to mention that oobee woozel was also subjected to maggie's inner rage on friday night. however, as the tag suggests, it takes more than a baby's teeth, or a dog's for that matter, to break the unbreakable oobee woozel. dog has been seriously reprimanded for the aforementioned indiscretions and sentenced to fewer 'good girls!' and a complete eradication of treats.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

one fat lady*

right, thank you onegirl for making me do this. as if i dont have enough to do, what with my great dress making career and my incessant training with maggie so we can one day be 'best in show'. here are 8 things you didnt know about me.



one.
i have a bent middle finger on each hand. strange, but true. they kinda lean away from the index finger. when i was little i thought if i taped those two fingers together it might 'learn' to go the other way. no such luck. i suffer greatly from this condition. whenever i give my friend jackie the bird, she mockingly screams (movie style) 'oh god no. not the crooked finger!'

two.
when i was little i wanted to be a nun. hay. dont laugh. it's the irish catholic upbringing ok? when i was seven i got a short stint as an alter girl at my local church. i thought i had a calling. that was until, when taking the bowl containing the 'body of christ' up to the priest, i tripped and spilled the entire contents on the sacred carpet. you should have seen the faces of the congregation as they lined up to take eurcharist that had grazed the ground. priceless.

three.
i know a little italian. his name is mario. sto scherzando. (i'm joking) i spent a few great months at the CIS in carlton reciting verbs and learning how to give out my phone number to bello rigazzo.

four.
when i was 19 i was crowned 'melbourne rose'. this meant that i won a free flight back to my homeland of ireland to compete in the annual 'rose of tralee'. i didnt win, before you ask. instead i spent 10 long days riding floats, donning hats and beating of desperate farmers dressed up as irish suitors. noice.

five.
love to write. write, write, write. i've kinda written a mini book and am about to send it into a publisher. wish me luck.

six.
i'd addicted to reality tv. my boyfriend ben detests this quality in me. he prefers good SBS docos and ABC dramas. but i reckon there's nothing like a good scrag fight on national television. 'get her in the eyes!'

seven.
i'm finding this harder than it seems. talking about me and not around me is not a strong point (except in the book) i've learnt to be a little bit private in my old age. it suits me better, but makes my writing a little less interesting.

eight.
i havent done my tax in two years. can i write that? i will though. in october. i hope the government isnt reading this. i'm no christopher skase, i'm just god damn lazy. aint a lot of money to return any old who.

so that's me. i think it might be lou's turn. go girl!

* one fat lady. number 8.

Friday, August 10, 2007

over the water

well it would be true to say that I am offically over alcohol. my gawd. i just cant believe the amount of vino it takes to keep up with my irish friend jenny. not that we are alcos or anything. i mean we have done other things, like taking long walks....home from the pub. spending an afternoon reading....the drinks list at the Rye RSL, and lots of long girly chats....'will you go get the next round, or should i?'.

seriously though, it has been great to see jen after all these years. we worked together in dublin for a stint back in 01'. we didnt really speak much when we first met. jen was very shy and i was devoid of a personality :) we realised quickly though that we had one very important thing in common. we both love the feeling of beer surging down our bejewelled throats. we immediately became friends.

now here we sit in sydney. we are tucked away in an apartment that casts its modern eye over the bluest, clearest water. one last weekend away before jen boards her stuffy plane back to dublin. last night was another proud moment on the tiles. we walked down to the local for a 'quiet' meal and ended up skuttered playing pool and fending off potetially disasterious men for jen. ah how i will miss her.

by tuesday i will be back in the warmth of my cosy life. ben and i shall talk movies, books and poetry once more. i might even get a chance to try my beautiful new overlocker while my kelpie maggie sits lovingly at my feet. perhaps, and i say this tentiatively as i have a hangover, perhaps we might even have a glass of shiraz in jens honor. goodbye lovely friend, i shall recharge my liver, save a few dollars and attempt to get my arse over to some dusty pub in drimnagh to see you again real soon.