a particular late evening in Northcote on one 28th of Sept, 2005
Now I'm not saying alcohol was involved, and I'm not saying it wasn't, but....
Ahh, the endless entertainment of taking lotsa pictures of ourselves
We were at the Northcote Social club/Bar 303 to see May's play. May would be the guilty-looking one. Why is may looking guilty? Because the show got over-sold for opening night, and we arrived right at the start time - which translates to: You can't come in. No seats. Come back another time.
Yes, the wizard couldn't see us that day, and we'd have to spend another day in Oz. It actually worked out just fine because we (me, Christine, Alae, Hamish, Ali, Sarah, and Eric) hung out at the bar and for a few hours. Then after the play ended, a jazz quintet played for a while. We (the 4 in the photos) pooped out around midnight.
***
Ali, Sarah, Christine, and I had spent the better part of the day together. We went to the National Gallery Victoria to see the
Dutch Mastersexhibit. We hit rush hour on the trains. We picked up purdy flowers. We had dinner at a Sri Lankan place. We ran through traffic to get to the show. We got to the show and drank in a bar for four hours. We took stupid pictures of ourselves. Okay, fine.
I took most of the stupid pictures. When they are used against me in a court of law, I can only blame myself.
sometimes a comment is just dead on...
Christine turns off the tv.HALLEY: Wait! No!
ERIC as HALLEY: (
in Wicked Witch voice) I'm melllllll-tinnnnnng!
Word of the day: aardappel
So for dinner tonight, I stopped at a vegetarian fast food place. How awesome is that? That not only are there are ton of vegetarian places, but that there is a vegetarian
fast food place? I love Melbourne. (Actually, it was in Fitzroy, but whatever.) It's called Pronto Bronto's. I'm not sure if it's a Flintstones reference (bronto burgers), but either way, it was good.
They had a menu of different burgers (veggie patty, tofu patty, soy, tempeh, fake burger flavor) with all kinds of acoutrements. They have veggie and vegan pretty desserts. They have random fast food-ish items. Best of all, they have fried potato products. Now, I love potatoes in many forms. ~Adoro la papa. Amo la patata. Ik houd van de aardappel*.~ I enjoy a potato baked, tater-tot'ed, au'gratined, as steak fries, as straw fries, latked, hash browned, pancaked --- starchy heaven.
The problem is, though, in most restaurants and fish'n'chip shops, the oil the potato product is deep-fried in is the same vat of oil they deep all the meat and fish and animal-y things in. Ew. So if I choose volunary blindness and get them anyway, there is the familiar feeling in my stomach of greasy cow/pig/chicken/grouper carcass. But here, we know it's all veggie goodness in that vat of grease. Yay!
I got an avocado wrap.
The place had posters and flyers for plays and performance pieces going on at the Fringe Festival now. I got a postcard for national vegan day, or something to that effect. And the people sitting at the table had a nice spread of the community newspapers.
Actually, I was coming from a quickie show I had just gone to, down the street, for the festival. It was at a bar/lounge called Kent St, with the requisite funky paint colors, and art on the walls, and used couches, and people dressed like they just roll out of bed with cool hair but really spent ages crafting "the look." But there were also some encouraging scuzzy folk up at the bar. A comfortable mix.
The show was upstairs, made to look like a small studio apartment. It was called, [Insert Name Here], the ticket was a tea bag, and we all drank tea together (an interesting mix with the vodka tonic from the bar I got waiting to go up). I received some mail there
^. Yep, a Post woman gave out a few letters, because when you move, sometimes your mail finds you, right? They got my details from the booking info... but still, I was a little sketched out to see my Chicago address handed to me on an envelop. By a stranger. Upstairs. On the third floor. Of a random bar halfway down Smith St in Fitzroy Victoria Australia.
***
*Of course 'aard-appel' is the Dutch word for potato... ahhh, those Dutch...
^No, not real mail. A letter from the show, but with my details on the front of the envelop. There was a whole other part to the show, with the main character, but it also dealt with senses of home, and what finds us where, and how we create that kind of space, what we bring with us, etc. And it was nice and quick.
Don't you love a post with footnotes?
uhhh, I'm uncomfortable with the cheese....
On the tram yesterday, I see an ad for a children's cartoon series. The ad says, "Who lives in deepest darkest Africa? Kimba the Brave White Lion." Anyone remember that song in South Pacific, You've got to be carefully taught...
We also have White Lady Funerals - funerals run/officiated by women, "with a woman's touch," all dressed in purest white. But still. It doesn't sound so good...
And the best one: Coon Cheese. Yes, coon cheese. When we first saw it at the supermarket, we gave each other the "ohhhh myyyyy" look, but thought, okay, clearly 'coon' doesn't mean the same thing here. Then in my class, I mentioned it to some people at a break. And guess what. Coon is the same offensive slang word here as it is at home. But they still market the cheese. Super.
***
Other products that wouldn't translate to the US market:
Columbine Tights and Nylons
Schwarzkopf Hair Care products --- Yes, Stormin' Norman is here for all your styling and coloring needs.
Doritos --- Okay. I know there are Doritos in the US. And I'm not voting no on this one based on the name alone. The regular nacho cheese Doritos here just don't have that genuine "traffic-cone orange" flavor. We were at Ali's apartment and I put one of these so-called Doritos in my mouth and immediately asked no one, "What the heck is this???" and had Christine try one of these things, too. She concurred with my assessment - these are not the Doritos of my people. I think they tried to flavor it like real cheese. Silly Aussies, don't they know the Dorito-y goodness lies in its "cheese-like product" flavor?
Last night, I went to one of the opening night shows of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/ It was at a dark cocktail bar with a pressed tin ceiling, and the show invovled those bigbig lego blocks for kids. I have another show tonight, with the roomies. Poor me, my academic work requires that I go see all this stuff...
The night before was Carnivale at Ali's. The big jerk won't tell me what's going to happen. I keep making really good guesses, too. (I should note that I mean the HBO series, not some bacchic revelry at her apt.)
The two nights before were much typing for my meeting with the advisor the next day.
The night before was spent with Israelis translating/sub-titling a movie in hebrew for me (as the movie was going), in Balaclava.
The night before was the Postgrad Ball at the Aquarium. We looked delicious in our formal wear. (yes, photos. eventually. get off my back already. jeeez....)
Be excellent to each other
I have a very large desk in my room right now. It is five feet long and three feet deep. It is for conducting business of the official and monkey varieties. We had to manipulate it to get it down the hallway to my room. We used reverse psychology and told it, "we don't want you in my room. Please, stay out of my room."
Luckily, Christine and I have moved each others' tons of crap several times before. Unluckily, we think the same things are funny and usually end up laughing at inopportune times in the movement of large, heavy pieces. (See TV Debaucle of '02, cross-referenced with "oh gawd! oh gawd! I'm dropping it!" "Shit, me too!" Bwah-HAHAHHAHHAHAHH! "Oh gawd, I'm trapped underneath!" AHHH-hahahahahahah!)
In other news, we have the movies from last weekend's totally 80s sleepover. Tonight we watched "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." What happened to the days when you could do a school report and have it fully blocked on stage with lights, sounds, and curtains, and Jane Wiedlin (of the Go-Gos and the singing telegram in Clue) would stop by to play Joan of Arc to your idiot teenager? I swear I would've done more homework if I thought there was a chance of that happening. And my projects never included an adoring civilization of people from the future. Bogus, dude.
(...Although, in tenth grade, my friend and I were doing this scripted game show/play on the
Grapes of Wrath, complete with commercials. We had one for Sam 'n' Ella's Pie Shop (We got banana cream, chocolate cream, apple, blueberry custard...) for those sweet-tooth needs of Okies on the go. But the best one was at the end of the show. We did a commercial for "Milk: It does a body good." If you're not sure why this is in particularly bad taste, please refer back to the end of the novel, with the scene in the barn... Yep, that won us quite a few adoring fans, as well. Excellent.)
Molasses in January
It is a testament to our level of focus that we ever got to the Post on Thursday. And I don't necessarily mean a
high level...
Sarah and I needed to go pick up tea and go to the Post. These were the only things on the list. We figure, it's early enough in the afternoon that we can make it to the Post after we get the tea. So we get it. After stopping in a store that sells cute tchotchkies. And has a very, very cute little white dog. Who gives high five. And lets you know when you're finished petting her. Which is never. We leave for the Post.
And stop at the vegetarian restaurant there on Smith St on the way back to the post. It's next to the vegetarian/organic/hippy/crunchy market, and has tables on the sidewalk. Oh, the random assortment of people... And can I just say how nice it is to be able to order anything off the menu? I had a pumpkin-okopita and Sarah had a spicy korma-phyllo dough thing. She got a berry smootie thing. I ordered a chai iced tea. The guy had no idea what I was talking about. Now, they had hot chai tea on the menu. I figure they must have the iced version somewhere also, right? Ummm, no. But we prayed to the tea gods and divine inspiration struck and voila, chai iced tea. (Actually, no. We were halfway finished with our food by the time the drinks came. So not quite "voila" - more like, "No worries, mate. The drinks will come whenever the drinks come...") We peruse the movie listings poster, we sip our drinks, we watch the fashion show on the street. And leave for the Post.
And stop at a clothing store with a cute dress in the window. And then leave for the Post.
And stop at the flower store where we got these lovely heavy-headed renunculas. (You know in
The Hours, the first time Meryl Streep goes into the flower shop, and comes out with armfuls of those flowers? Those are renunculas.
what they look like after they're open I love them with tight blooms even more.) I discuss the movie with the woman inside. And then we leave for the Post.
We almost stop into another clothing store, but the Post is going to close in like, three minutes. So we go to the Post. Directly.
We get in and the women inside were very nice, and ask me to take my slow ass home and address the package there, "So you're not so rushed, dear." Okay. Fine. We leave the Post, with a packing bag, the customs form, and the stuff I was going to send at the Post that day. And our leftovers from lunch. And the tea. And the movie schedule poster. And the flowers. And a loaf of bread.
Did I forget the bakery we stopped at?
Help the ASPCA
The ASPCA has rescue teams out in the disaster areas and has set up stations for help for displaced animals (and reunions with the parents), but is also working with other organizations in the disaster areas and in Texas (where pets are being brought) to help care for the animals here, who were often left behind.
Click on the banner to the left and/or read more about rescue stories, updates, and efforts on their website.
http://www.aspca.orgThere are photo albums, too, of their work in the coliseum, reunions, and resources.
Great Ocean Road
This past weekend, we drove a good chunk of the Great Ocean Road, along the southern central coast of Australia. We hiked and beached and ooohed and aaahed all weekend. I'll post about the trip soon, but for now, here are the photos:
http://aussiehalley.shutterfly.comPreviews, anyone?
Airley's Inlet
Sea Cherries? at the beach
looking down -at the Otway Rainforest Fly walk
And in other news, I burned my finger tonight, pulling the oven rack out, partly missing the pot holder and grabbing the metal rack. Only my middle finger got burned really, though. Now I'll never be able to flick people off in photos again...
quotidian, routine, run-of-the-mill, usual, vanilla, white bread
some new photos. mostly snapped walking around, not terribly far from the apt.
http://aussiehalley.shutterfly.com/(also, there's a link on the right to the photo albums on shutterfly)
