Thank god for nyal paracetemol. The Vat Christmas party last night. Ripper. I really got into the party spirit this time. The idea was to come dressed as a song. I absoloutely squeezed myself into "If you were to ask me....", but noone did, so i didn't. I did drink a lot of champagne though, danced it up and had midnight swims. Then i had to walk home at 2 and work all day today. It wasn't a problem until I started to sober up around 12 noon. Then it was across the road and to the medicinal aisle for the nyal- cheap and effective, fish and chips for lunch and a coffee.

I've just put up a whole lot of photos- thanks Ev- including Spicks and Specks and Meredith, you should go check them out.

Crush

I have a giant celebrity crush. Oh Hamish! Not enough to actuall bother finding out his last name mind you, just enough to go ga ga whenever I see him. Oh yeah. He's so hot. And everything he says is absoloute gold, much funnier than that Rove guy. I stumbled across this blog the other day and it's all about this girls fascination with Rove. I think she's from England and when she was in Australia she must have gone to a taping. Loco.

Speaking of tapings that's what has reawakened my celbrity crush. I went to see the Christmas Special of Spicks and Specks with B's brother Steve and his friends Emma and Simon.
Anyway, back to fun things. Lots of celebrity guests and what not. But Hamish is definitly the highlight. It's showing on Sunday night ABC. So watch it. I'm the one up the back with a Christmas hat on, slightly "coloured" from my weekend in the sun. Lats time we went it was odd to watch it on the tv 'cos it was so heavily edited. This time will be even worse. It's an hour long special so it was always going to take a bit longer, but who'd have known it would take 4 1/2 hours. B called me at 4.15 saying Steve had some tix, so I postponed my shopping expedition and headed over to Steve's then the studio. By 10.30 we got out of there, so hot and thirsty and hungry (scungy ABC) and it was freezing, pissing down with rain and the only food we could get was macca's. But I got to touch him. Oh yeah. I touched Hamish. He is hot. I have a crush. -As I'm typing that bit my body involuntarily swings side to side in a sing song manner- Oh yeah a crush. Ra ra ra.

Meredith

As anticipated Meredith was kick ass. My marquee really made it I think. Although there were other marquee style structures around mine was clearly the supreme being. The one thing i forgot to take with me though was my camera, so everyone has to forward me all their photos so I can post them and share the joy that is Meredith with the world.
My brain is still a big pile of mush, so I'll try and post about some actual events when I remeber them.

Clubbing it

What a ripper. I’ve finished all my work for the year. Wahoo! Why, you may then ask, am I still up early enough to be posting before 9 am ? Well working isn’t my entire life. Although at times you’d be forgiven for thinking so. Today consists mainly of shopping plans, Christmas party this weekend, then banking and cleaning up my studio from the crazy amount of work been going on in there. Zoe’s dress is all finished and looks amazing, if I do say so myself. I’ve taken some photos so hopefully Ill put them up after the wedding next weekend. By that time I should have a whole stack of exciting photos and stories post rrr ob and Meredith.
My marquee arrived this week and man is it sweet. It’s gonna be so kick-ass.

I’ve set up the marquee in my backyard for a test run. Very nice. Four people put it up in about 20 mins. So at Meredith 10 inebriated people should be able to achieve the same effect.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

You are cordially invited to a marquee Christmas party. In the tradition of Shay and Small ( Rhiannon)’s Christmas parties of old I’m having a shindig on the 23rd of December. The punch will be flowing and the turkey basted. Except I don’t actually know what that is. But I’ll try my best.
So come along bring a plate- preferably with food on it and a little kris kringle present to put under the tree.

December 23rd from 7.30 pm
See you under the big top

You get a prize if you are visitor 100.

People

FAMILY FIRST
Britney Spears and Kevin Federline snuggle with baby Sean Preston (born Sept. 14) at their Malibu home in an exclusive portrait for PEOPLE. The new mom's favorite time of the day with her 11-week-old son? "Taking an afternoon nap in the bed with him," - People magazine

Blasko-ed

Last night I went to see Sarah Blasko, I mean Julia Sheckleton, no Sarah Blasko. The highlight of my evening though, was musicall unrelated. While standing near the bar Heath handed me his drink to hold while he went to the 'bathroom', after a while I realised he had come back and was standing behind me..........drinking another drink. No, he hadn't forgotten he already had one and bought another, he hadn't been given another by soemone else........he had picked up someone elses drink from the bar! Eeew! I must admit I had drunk form a glass previously that wasn't so clean, but that was not my own doing. Hilarious!

Stubbsy is turning into a good fabric nerd. The first thing he noticed about the show was Sarah's dress. Not impressed.

Befor the gig we went to Chinta Blues, behind The Prince, for seafood laksa. (I hope that doesn't make you too homesick Joey.) I don't think I've been there for over a year and boy, I'd forgotten how good it was- and how filling. Could hardly move after it, and I didn't even get through it all.

Party Gazeebo

Alright! I've got a marquee! Woo hoo! Confirmed and paid for on ebay. Yes. So excited! Ebay makes any sort of purchase more exciting. Now we'll be the toast of Meredith.

Email to Mel

Morning!

I've been ever so busy the last month that it wouldn't have made much difference if you were around right at the moment, but now that some of that pressure is off all I want to do is sit around with you guys, cold beer and a bbq. I'm looking at buying a marqee on ebay for all the summer adventures we'll have together when you get back. I think it's the same sort of one that Rhett had at his 21st. The idea is to get it for Meredith, which is in only three weeks! So we can say "Oh, yeah. We're up in the marquee" and we can have exclusive passes and vip access. Should be heaps of fun. Heath and I have tix to the BDO as well, so we'll have to come back from the prom for a day for that. Gee. It's a tough life. The date's you've told Kate you're likely to come back is just when we get back from the prom for our two week break, but then we'll just have to head on back there so you guys can get a taste.
I saw your parents at the cafe at The Vat a couple of weeks ago, having a coffee with Jan and Mack. They're so cute and all such good friends, I'm glad to see it is possible to keep that fantastic friendship even when you get over the gossipy stage that I think we're still at. Or maybe gossiping is even more fun when you get older.
Was at the Wells' place this weekend for a big deckbuild-athon. They're redoing their deck all classy like with two levels and extending the top level all the way around the front of the windows in the long room. I'd say it would be done before you get back, but you never know if these guys will see their idea through in the estimated time allocated. Nah only joking. They're pretty good at getting stuff done. My life at this stage just has no time to set myself up with a project even one tenth that ambitious. I'm very impressed by that in them.

Make sure you get lots of sunshine on your travels and always take the path that will lead to the most adventures.

Skips

I sure suckered them in, and without any effort at all. After a dinner of bugs and crabs and a hard day of work for the men and watching them by me, after dinner entertainment turned to the box and who else but Kylie. And everyone neded up watching, without even knowing it they had been lured into my world of pop. I feel totally vindicated ( hop that's the right word). By the cover story in the eg this week. You should all learn that pop is no lesser deserving of your attentions. I know sometimes I go way past the point and do love some truly bad music. But not all pop is to be scorned.

The Drought

I've just downloaded all the photos from my camera and realised that I have been doing some great things, and some not so great, since my lapse in blogging. There was the spring racing carnival for one.
A huge day/night of proceedings involving Liz (and we all know what that means) happened on Cup Eve. It all started innocently enough with a fabric nerd adventure with my newest recruit Stubbsy, which lead to beers at the Swan, which lead to drinking airconditioning cooled Smirnoff blacks in the car, which lead to the TAB, which lead to beers at Eltham pub, which lead to Bar Open and the Hoodangers, which lead to things I'm not prepared to share with you here. Which lead to Ev and Pete's on Tuesday (Cup Day) with a fridge full of keg and a bbq. Jesus. Just remembering it all gives me a headache.

Then on the Thursday we went to Oaks. Loathe as I was to start drinking champagne at 9am. I managed without too much trouble and by the time we made it to Flemington I was pretty happy. This was my first experience of oaks day as a punter and not a totalizator, so I was determined to make the most of it and not go near a bookie. This mission was a chieved quite easily with the distraction of cheap and nasty champagne for exorbitant prices, and the little black book of trashbags.

I am, you are, we are Australian

I'm an Aussie. Oh yeah. And I love soccer. Man that game was sooooo good. Hilarious though, that our traditional girls night was dominated by sports. After Liz, Lena and I made ourself at home at Kate and Ad's the girls came back from netball. They lost the game, but are still in the finals of the lower half. Then it was time for the big game. So much tension, man. They may be able to play for 2 hours, buthey are such pussies. What with all their rolling on the ground clutching their shins or their heads it's a wonder they manage to get th eone goal per game. Our indoor soccer on the other hand is hard and fast and furious and rough, all girls even more so I'd say. I miss playing. So when you guys get back, you know who you are, you'd better be up for the next season. I was hoping that acombination of bad back and shouting myself hoarse over the game would make for no work for me today, but I had to soldier on, not so hot. Hayley fixed my back tonight though. She's just finished up a Thai massage course and three weeks in Byron. Until now I hadn't realised how white my feet were. I have to get out into the sun, or just grab some 'brown in a bottle'. That's the end of my very random thoughts for the moment.

yesiree

This counter thing isn't working out too badly. At least I've found out it's not just me who likes to catch up with what I've been doing. Turns out maybe I should put some effort in, maybe write about something that is actually interesting. Unfortunately I'm not very interesting at the moment, but that's all about to change. Mwehahah!!! Everyone has to watch the soccer tonight-GO AUSSIE GO!. Not that we neccessarily have a chance of winning, but soccer is cool and it might motivate you to come play out int he park with me some time. Heath you'll have to come and sort out this net/goal situation for me so that when the weather kicks in for real we can wheel that out for our kick about.

I'm back

I've got my computer back now, so There should be a few more update shere. Unfortunately I'm going through a busy patch with work though, so I don't have much to say at this point. Save to say I've realised I have absoloutely zero social skills. I guess that's why I like blogging, out there in he web world of nerds with the same problem.
Ah let's see.... the exhibition went well, still up this weekend for a last chance look for anyone who hasn't seen it. I went to the speigletent. Yay! It always takes me so long to get there, but I love it so much. We went to see Dennis and Hamish do a spot at the Swizzle club, and now they're getting in on some La Clique action. Hopefully we can get some tickets, 'cos as far as we can tell the whole thing is sold out already. The show is meant to be really good though. I hope we get to see it. I've got tix to the Cat Empire on the 2nd and hope to get there a few other random nights before it packs up and heads out of town. If anyone wants to go, especially those who haven't been before, I'll be more than happy to chaperone. Just don't let me drink myself stupid. Oh wait. Too late.

revenge of the kankle

Goddamnit! I've been in hibernation preparing for this show at the 'vat, plus all the other work I've had on, and just when there's finally an oportunity to go out again I screw up my ankle- again! So now I'm stuck on the couch, at least I have Will & Grace to keep me company, no rollerskating and no dancing. This time I will do everything possible to help it repair as quick as possible. So lots of icing, he he tasty, and elevation and rest, which you may know is not my forte. Bo-o-ring!

Art

Today. Could have been the second worst day ever. Following closely behind the day after Grand Final and Jessie's birthday. The opening last night was a smashing success. I felt like a real "artist". I was doing well and everything was going quite fine, till down in the kitchen Dan gave me a shot of what I can only expect was ouzo. And it all went down hill from there.
After much no sleep I had to go to work in "The 'Hoe" all day. So hung over. I thought I was doing ok 'till I got out of my car. And those of you who know me well will know what went on from there. So all day I was feeling like absoloute crap, making frequent trips to the bathroom, and doing everything else very, very slowly. Luckily I have four days before I have to go back there, so plenty of time to recover, get some work done at The Vat and hit it again.

The Montsalvat Trust has pleasure in presenting
The Young Montsalvat Artists
a collaborative exhibition of new works by
Nic George, Amy, August ,
Kate Connolly, Raphael Kilpatrick,
Lydia Wegner, Saxon Jörgensen, Lachlan Rose,
Anna-Lisa Unkuri, Damien
Opening 6pm Wednesday 19th October
until Sun 6th November
at
Montsalvat, 7 Hillcrest Ave Eltham, Victoria

It's Gold!

Thanks to everyone who came to The Prom last weekend for making my birthday so fun. You are all hilarious. And thanks for the blessing father Mark, and also to Lachie for the communion "gingerbread men".I still can't get over how good the weather was, especially after this week. Hot then cold, then warm, then freezing. To get two days of beautiful warm sunshine must have really been the gods smiling down at me. (And of course it's all about me.) It was the first time I've been down since the fire thoug, so it was amazing to see the damage it had done, but also the life that's coming back already. We always say we want a fire to sweep through making it impossible for us to leave at the end of our holiday, but this one came so close to the camp. It would have been really scary. Oberon looks like Mordor and the Loo-ern track doesn't exist anymore. Before it turns green again we absouloutly have to climb Oberon, and Ramsey for that matter, but to be able to see the other side of that mountain in this state would be amazing. Unfortunately booze and laziness always seem to catch up with me down there, and all I got to do on that front was drive to the carparka nd get out and have a look around. Next time I promise.
To extend my birthday celebrations Dalmy stylee I'm going to the soccer on Monday night to see the Melbourne Victory take on the NZ Knights. I think all The Jones' should come along, and anyone else who's interested. I've never been to a real sports event just as a spectator before, so I'm very excited. I still don't really understand this whole off side rule, and I've got no idea who any of the players are, but we're working on that. So get on down to Olympic park Monday night!

Pheoow.

What can be said about this past weekend? Maybe Happy Birthday Jessie, Happy Birthday Pete, Goodbye Soak and Hello to a world of drunkeness. I think that will suffice.

arrgh!