Sicky

As I predicted on Saturday night after such a huge party I knew I would be sick this week. I thought we all would be because we went too hard for our poor bodies that are getting old. So I wasn't too surprised when I woke up on Tuesday with a sore throat. Slowly this has progressed to a nose that alternates between stuffy and runny, and a head that tends to feel a little full.

I was quite happy to take on these consequences of having such a great weekend and it wasn't until yesterday that I realised it wasn't actually my fault at all. It was Maggie! She had a runny nose all night, and then the two hours of sleep we had I spent with my head right next to her stuffy snoring nose.

So I'm not getting old after all.

What a relief!

Bok Bok

You know it's Spring when the smell of jasmine is in the air.

And all the chickens are out, or in this case.........hens.

Saturday/night was Kate's hens. Beginning at 9 am for some it was a full on day and night on the hottest September day on record. Ok, I may have made that fact up, but it was still 30 degrees at 8 at night. Unheard of!

The girls met B and I at the shop for little bo-peep stylie Bride action,

then eventually on to Edinburgh Gardens for the 'prohibited penis parephernalia' part of the day.

Then preparations for the most beautiful 21 person dinner ever.

Our very own private dining room at Bar Lourinha, upstairs from all the serfs who had to watch us parade through the rest of the bar.

Listening to their hushed whispers of "For my hens do NOT make me wear a veil like that". Hilarious! We were having the best time ever.

From the moment we sat down and tasted the olives we knew we were destined for something great. A seemingly neverending parade of tasty tapas and champagne and wine and then topping it all off with the blood orange crema. It was the most amazingly rich and sweet dessert ever, and I love amazingly rich and sweet but I couldn't even finish half of it.

Luckily I had the chance to dance it off at the tackiest sleaziest bar. Weirdos and sleazeballs aside it was the perfect venue for a trashy, dancey, champagney, singy, girly party.

Then one final stop to bring us back up to an acceptable level of class. A trendy art deco cocktail bar popular with people 'either trendy or gay'.

A few pairs of feet in excruciating pain, a few spinning heads, some very full bellies and a long wait at the taxi rank later and we were tucked away in our slumber party beds ready for a couple hours of sleep before the beginning of a new day.

I am in love!

I am totally in love with these boots.

I was looking at the line up for Meredith this year. It is fantastic. My going to this year was dependent on the line up. (I'm sick of average bands and shit weather.) So when I got the news this morning it was great. Jarvis, Animal Collective, Kitty Daisy and Lewis and Sia. So I checked out a few and got stuck on a youtube trail of Sia, stumbling accross a video of her and Fab Moretti spruicking her craft night for TOMSshoes.

I heard of this idea ages ago in some magazine I can't recall. A good natured tourist in Argentina found kids in deperate need of shoes- to prevent injury and increase the distances they were able to walk. So when he got home he started a company where every pair of shoes sold equals one pair of shoes for these kids.

This is the general style they started off with, but now they have a huge range, including my beloved boots.

OMG!

Omg omg omg omg omg omg omg!

It's really happening!

It's really really happening!

We're going to see Britney!

I had to get in to work early to go online for them.

It did not run smoothly.

First of all I had to wait 2 mins to get on to the site,

Then all the general admission tickets were all sold out,

Then it took ages to get back to the page to choose new tickets,

Then I got the tickets for standing- but my credit card didn't work!!!!!!

Oh my god, I thought I as going to have a heart attack.

I called my mum to get her credit card details- but no answer.

After being charged with the sole responsibility of getting these tickets for us die hard Britney fans I could think of no way I could explain to the girls that we had missed out and would have to pay thousands for tickets from ebay.

But then I remembered I was at work. Quickly I whipped out the work credit card and charged it for 5 tickets.

So we're in and it's really really happening. It's really really happening.

I saw Britney in Sydney in 2001. It was just a promo show and I didn't see her perform, but
I got to see her in the flesh. Now it's time to share the night of our lives with the girls. We'll be rockin it with our dances in the crowd.

I can't wait!!!!

A tour

Yay. I finally did it, not so momentous as moving out, but I put my triple r sticker on my new car!


While I've got the camera why don't I show you around the place?

My favourite rambling roses on the driveway. They smell divine.




Our cosy little bungalow.

The Blue Birds of Welcome on our front door.


Our big backyard from underneath the carport- perfect for outdoor entertaining-complete with the hills hoist for ultimate aussie suburban chic.

It's the cutest street, with kids always riding up and down and even street cricket games and easter egg hunts. We haven't actually participated in any of these, but nice to know they are going on out there- except when they wake you up too early on a Sunday morning.

It took me long enough

The time has finally come.......

The largest Skipper child (in age not size) is finally leaving the nest. With Lena currently in the home of parmesan in Italy, and August long gone, poor mumsy and dadsy can now stretch their wings and have their house to themselves.

Trent, ben and I have found a really cute little Californian Bungalow, all original with dark wood panelling and a lilac bathroom. We move next weekend after Golden Plains.

Let the independence begin!

Hooligans

I witnessed a very funny thing today.

I was working in my studio and looked out the window to see my grandpa and his friend out in the carpark on their mobility scooters. Both of them taking it in turns doing circle work and skids in the gravel.

Proof that no matter how long you have been on this earth- you're only as young as you feel.

Adios

I've been absent from the web waves for quite a while now. A combination of not much exciting going on, and too much excitement to sit still for long enough to blog about it.
But now our dear little mini skips is going out into the big broad world, so it seems like a good time to get back in to it, at least so she has a reference of activities going on back home (and so she can show all her new friends how cool her big sister is).

So have heaps of fun and know that everyone around these parts will miss you heaps, and already can't wait to hear all your fabulous tales of adventures of your own.

Love you heaps, my favourite person in the world!

Oiksta Boiksta

It looks like it's all over.

The phenomenon that is my birth month has fallen short.

Although it did start early on the 30th of September there has been no birthday action since Leaving the Prom on Sunday.

What a way to finish it all off though.








The most brilliantly sunny weekend of food and fun and Bollywood.








Even not bringing a real tent (turned out when I got it out of the bag it was a beach shelter) or my lilo having a giant tear in it (first attempt at patching with flouro gaffer tape didn't go so well) or the migraine I had for more than half the time couldn't put a dampener on it all.





And the sun!

A definite highlight of my actual birthday was Mark's special dove blowing demonstration, the unearthing of a hidden super power.

Also the crepes. MMMMMMMMM Yummy!

inspired by the Colombian Pizza en el Parque the pear, bacon and blue cheese combo blew my mind it was so tasty. So tasty I've got a date tonight with the same thing again.

Thank you to everyone for all my events and happy birthday to everyone else who is sharing in the celebratory times.

Unbelieveable!

On Monday I did the unthinkable.

Something I have never done in my 26 years and 11 months of life.

I went to the gym!

Not only did I go, I joined, and I'm loving it!

I haven't had an assesment yet, nor do I know how to use the machines they have in there, but I've already been twice in three days and plan to continue the pattern.

This could actually be the year that I get fit for summer.


(Status subject to change, I'll get back to you in a month and see if I'm still as enthusiastic.)

Girls' weekend

What a lovely weekend!

I haven't had so much indulgence in a while..... well a few months at least.

A girls weekend away in Daylesford was just the ticket.

A day of spa and massage, surrounded by three nights of cocktails, punch, wine, singstar, love my way , Entourage and piles of fantastic food.

After months of planning and lists, a massive trip to Dan's, allocation of menu options and pretty much booking out Peppers we finally made it Thursday night, and hardly moved until Sunday.

I love my cheepies!

Thanks to B and her lovely, learning work environment we now have chickens.


Little puffy balls of fluff that cheep and poo and fight and steal food from one another.

They're so cute.

One is called Chirpy, Trent has named one Foghorn Leghorn and that leaves one up for grabs.

Any ideas?

Last weekend we had an unconventional Saturday night out- Roller Derby Style!

It was the last bout of the first season of the Victorian Roller Derby League out in the middle of nowhere behind Northland and so much fun! Sitting on the roller rink, just outside of the crash zone, drinking beer and eating dimsims. Watching chicks roll around crashing and smashing into one another.


We met Hippy out the front. (After the first random meeting at the Zombie Shuffle we decided it wasn't chance, but purely good taste.) She informed us that her friend Felicity Scragwell was vice captain for the Toxic Avengers, so that was our team and we rooted loud for them.


After finally getting a grip on the basics of the comp it looked like we were getting well ahead, but by the end of it the champions Dead Ringer Rosies rolled away with a convincing win.

The other freaky occurence of the evening happened when I was waiting for beer/dimsims for ages and ages.

2 random guys (to the guy in front of me): Hey Matcham, how's it going?


Me (before he could answer): Sorry, is your name Matcham? That's a very
unusual name. It's actually my grandfathers
name.


Matcham: Not Matcham Skipper?


Me (baffled): Well, actually, yes.


Matcham: Oh yeah. I was named after him.


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Days are Getting Longer

We've made it!

We passed the half way point and now things can only get better!

Winter Solstice has come and gone for another year, and although it's not going to get warmer any time soon, at least it's a step away from dark on the way to work and dark on the way home.


After building up to a massive pile of wood to burn (David decided it was all about the height) we lit the fire around 6. Just long enough for the sun to have gone down and for it to be getting too cold to be standing around wearing shorts.


It started slow in the patch covered in bamboo, with only the aid of newspaper as an artificial booster.


Soon it was roaring away with the flames licking 10 metres high and bamboo and privet branches happily popping away.



By 7 the fire brigade had already made a visit- even though we had made all efforts to previously alert them- and told us they had been getting calls form all over Eltham. But by 8 it had settled itself down to a nice raging size and allowed us to sit around a bit closer to it.


Entertainment for the evening was provided by one of the sleepers used as a seat being slightly wobbly and this ended up in a game to see who could wobble the other person off. Although possibly not the ultimate champion in the end, Eri's style defininitely was the most memorable effort of the evening.

Hoorah to everyone who made the effort with shorts.

Short shorts

Unfortunately it's not looking good for the gold hot pants. I did look for some lycra while out at lunch from work today, but they had nothing nearly spangly enough for my tastes.

I've gotten rid of a big skip load worth of building site rubbish this week, out there at 7am in the rain, so you can actually get out the back to the fire.

It's pretty massive so we've alerted the appropriate authorities so if our snitchy neighbours decide to get at us we're covered. We've set the fire out in the back paddock so we can really get it roaring (at the moment the pile stands about 9 feet tall with a diameter of 6 metres), but it is a little more exposed than the regular venue of the drum in front of the house on stilts.

We'll put up the marquee for a bit of shelter with a tarp on top so it's water proof, but hopefully all this talk of rain is just hot air.

Bring along an umbrella if you're worried about precipitation, and a delicious platter* if you are so inclined.

See you there in your shortest shorts.











*Only platters of a delicious nature will be considered.

Winter in Melbourne

I'm slowly beginning to remember what I love about being in Melbourne, especially live music. The traditional Winter Solstice party is coming up in a few weeks and at least that means we'll start seeing a bit more light in the days after that. We've been busy building a bonfire, not a little drum fire, to keep us warm through the chilly evening. Now all I have to do is mug the girl I saw at Cut Copy, steal her gold leggings and make them into hotpants!

A post script to the chickens

On what was meant to be our last night in Otovalo, after much searching and conflicting time reports, we managed to make it to the special fiesta edition of the cokfights.

These events happen most Saturdays around 7pm, but because it was the fiesta of Eugenio or some other saint there were two on this day- we caught the late show.

I must admit I was ashamed of my bloodlust. For no other reason than I liked the shape of his tail or somesuch, I chose a rooster and barracked hard. Ai! Ai!

Then we made a friend and figured out how to put money on it. Pretty much just turning to the person next to you and saying "I bet you five bucks the white one will win." We didn´t do too well though. Despite every indication pointing towards our negro having kicked the whiteys arse, apparently ´cos whitey was still trying to fight when the bell rang it was a draw. Then our second bet we lost fair and square. This whole time we were drinking straight whiskey and making Ecuadorian friends. Trent even went so far as to swap a bracelet for his watch with one of his ´brothers´.

We couldn´t get on the bus next morning and had to stay another night.

Chickens

The chickens in Ecuador tend to run free, until they end up roasted in a shop window that is.

We saw boobies!

No not that kind! Get your head out of the gutter! The special bird-like kind.

After finally leaving Montañita we made it to Puerto Lopez and the amazing Machililla National Park. Pretty much the whole of the Pacific Coast up into Central America used to be covered by this dry forest. As it stands 95% of it has been destroyed and this park is all that remains.

Part of the park is also the Isla de la Plata or ´The Poor Man´s Galapogos´. We went on a tour out there and saw sooo many birds.

To tell you the truth I was sick of them by the end.

Before we even got on the boat though we saw sharks, squid, crabs, giant fish, eels and random guts all laying out at the tide line from the fishing boats.

Also on the Island grows an amazing plant called loofah. And yes it grows sponges. While they are green and ripe the fruit holds water which the indigenous people used to drink. When it dries out it leaves a sponge inside a skin which is easy to pick off. I never really thought about where those things came from before.

We decided to get the night bus the supposed 10 hours to Quito from here, even though the Lonely Planet says DO NOT catch night buses in this province. Turns out it was the same company on the same route as which 5 English girls were killed a couple of weeks before, but that was a crash not a highjacking. It was a sort of creepy ride. No lights or movie the whole time, we nearly weren´t allowed on ´cos we had food, it ended up taking just under 12 hours and I had a dream that ET tried to kiss me. All in all I don´t think I´ll be doing the night bus thing again any time soon.

El Castillo

One of Trent's favourite past times since we've been here at the beach is building sandcastles and forts. He can spend hours in the blistering sun making these huge creations and then an intricate defence system against the incoming tides complete with drainage trenches and decorative shell designs.

This particular one was a beauty, we kept on thinking we were finished, but the water was nowhere near destroying it so we had to just keep on building.


Trent would have spent a solid five hours there, but I left once to get drinks and once to pick up our washing.


In the end it was still going to be hours until the tide came up high enough to reach it so, despite our fears of dogs and children as well as errant trucks and motor bikes destroying all the hard work, we abandoned the masterpiece to the mercy of the elements.


But when we came back in the morning it was still intact. The water had made it to the outer defences, but the main wall was still intact. A marvel of modern engineering.



The mistress unfortunately didn't make it-someone stepped on her head, the only human interference with the whole thing.


We stayed and watched the first wave breach the wall and when we came back from a stroll up the beach it had been washed away entirely, with only a pile of shells and stones to remind us of it's former splendour.