Better than Cheesecake

Japan weekend #19 - animals and Autumn festivals

2011-11-29T11:30:00.000+11:00

Japan has so many public holidays! Last weekend started early on Wednesday with yet another day off, this time for Labour Thanksgiving day. We visited the cute animals at the Wakayama Animal Welfare Centre and had a lovely long lunch at my good-bread-haven, Dooshel Bakery Cafe, keeping warm in the cafe to avoid the chill outside. I love that people can go and pat the dogs and see the animals at the animal welfare centre. It made me really happy and I wanted to take a dog home! One day when I'm more settled I'll have a dog of my own.

A bunny! Wakayama Animal Welfare Centre, Kimino

Baby goat, Wakayama Animal Welfare Centre, Kimino

Set lunch at Dooshel Bakery Cafe, Kimino

View from Dooshel Bakery Cafe, Kimino

On Saturday Andrew and I went to a local festival at Negoro-ji, a set of Buddhist temples in Iwade, a nearby town. Negoro-ji is famous because the temple housed Negoro-gumi back in the 16th century, an order of monks who were skilled in the use of firearms and other weapons. Rifle-firing Buddhist monks, who knew? The festival had a demonstration of old-style rifle firing, which we heard but didn't see, and lots of great Japanese crafts to try such as weaving wreaths and painting lacquerware.

At Negoro-ji, Iwade

Beautiful trees, Negoro-ji, Iwade

Saturday night was spent at a yakiniku or 'grilled meat' restaurant for the birthday of the other Aussie JET in the prefecture, Jon. There were 25 of us there and it was yum! For about $A35 you get all the meat, vegies, salad, and tofu you can eat.

Yakiniku (grilled meat) Restaurant, Yuasa, Japan

On Sunday I actually had to go to work as the parents were all coming to watch the classes in period five, so we did a normal full day and then the school was closed on Monday. I've never heard of that happening in Australia, but it seems like a nice idea to actually get to see your kid in action in the classroom... and see the teachers at work. It was a little bit weird to be teaching a class (in conjunction with a Japanese teacher) while the parents watched at the back of the classroom and from the hallway, but it was fine.

Sometimes here on JET I feel like I'm learning as much about America as I am about Japan since the overwhelming number of JETs in my area are from the States. There's roughly forty Americans, four Kiwis, three Canadians, two Aussies, and two Brits here in Wakayama prefecture. And in good American tradition, on Sunday night we celebrated Thanksgiving with the other JETs in my 'city', Kinokawa. I had jambalaya for the first time with cornbread, and Andrew made sweet potato pie with an Australian twist - an Anzac biscuit base!

I can't believe next weekend I'll be in Australia for a friend's wedding! I can't wait!

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10 things I love

2011-11-25T09:12:00.000+11:00

Happy Friday! I'm looking forward to a Thanksgiving celebration on Sunday and visiting Melbourne in a week's time!

1. How good are these calendars? Japanese style depicted as by Australian artists, love it! I've placed my order already.

Happy New Year Japan calendar by Ask Alice Stationary

2. $US10 tees at Threadless until the 28th of November.

Threadless Voyages over Edinburgh tee

3. The Pencil Vs Camera! set on Flickr. Surreal.

Via Ben Heine

4. I found the article Pre-occupied: the origins and future of Occupy Wall Street fascinating; how the social movement grew so quickly and the challenges of how to organise and run a non-hierarchical movement.

Via SeattleRepresents

5. I love this! Bring it on Australia!

6. Elsie's blog A Beautiful Mess. What a creative, stylish and inspiring person!

Via A Beautiful Mess

7. It's great to see that our Pacific Island neighbours Papua New Guinea will markedly increase female participation in their parliament from one to twenty two. Hopefully this will be a step towards reducing violence against women in the Pacific.

Via The Age

8. Disclaimer - I would never drink Starbucks in Melbourne! But here in rural Japan, these Starbucks coffees from the conbini are keeping me going.

9. I am really keen to see The Orator, the first ever Samoan-language feature film.

10. The Top 10 Photographs of 2011, as chosen by National Geographic.

Via National Geographic

Japan weekend #18 - swing dancing, ferris wheels and free museums in Osaka

2011-11-22T10:47:00.001+11:00

Firstly, it is getting COLD here in Japan, and it isn't even winter yet! I am already beginning to hibernate/live underneath the best Japanese invention ever - the kotatsu. A kotatsu is a table frame with a heat source underneath, which you place a blanket over, and then the table top, keeping your legs toasty and warm.

Via sakura_chihaya+

This weekend was actually a fairly routine one for my time in Japan. It's quite a nice feeling to have a routine happening in a new country.

On Thursday night I made the long train journey to Osaka for the monthly FEW Kansai meeting. I love getting together with such an interesting group of women every month and enjoying a swish three course meal at the Osaka Hilton.

On Friday night, we met with our local Japanese friends who speak English. Hiro-san wanted to know how we celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia. Our answer was short; "we don't!" However, if you Google "Thanksgiving in Australia", the first result would suggest that we do. A group called the Australian Prayer Network has created the National Day of Thanksgiving. According to the website, "The National Day of Thanksgiving is a unique opportunity for Australians to celebrate and give thanks for our God given heritage as a nation and to demonstrate the God given values of honour, respect, thankfulness and gratitude towards our fellow man that have made us the great nation we are." It's a clever piece of propaganda. It suggests to anyone wondering if Australia celebrates Thanksgiving that our nation celebrates Thanksgiving as a religious holiday, which we most certainly do not. It's almost as preposterous as the Urban Dictionary definition for Australian Thanksgiving.

Saturday was definitely a kotatsu-day, cold and rainy. We only ventured outside once for curry rice and to visit my favourite local bakery.

Chestnut tart at Fleurir Boulangerie, Momoyama

Sunday was a great day. It's culture week (month?) in Kansai, and so lots of museums were free on the weekend, and we checked out two in Osaka.

The Modern Transportation Museum was... ok. I hadn't realised that shinkansen (bullet trains) had been around since as far back as 1964. If you really like trains, and kids, you will like this museum. Lots of trains; lots and lots of kids. If you only moderately like trains, or children, I wouldn't bother.

Shinkansen ticket from 1964, Modern Transportation Museum, Osaka

The Osaka Museum of Housing and Living, however, was awesome! I would have paid to go there! The entire eight floor of the building is a model of an 1830s Osaka neighbourhood and it's really very impressive. When we arrived the 'sky' (roof) changed from day to night and the floats of the parade lit up. You can walk through houses and streets and explore everything. One of the volunteer guides spoke English, and gave me a little origami box he'd made, with a paper crane inside. What a kind gesture. I'd definitely recommend the museum if you're visiting Osaka.

Andrew at the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living

If you're visiting Osaka, I'd also recommend the Hep Five Ferris Wheel, which is perched on top of a big shopping and entertainment building. We went at twilight and the city looks very pretty from the top.

Hep Five Ferris Wheel

On the Hep Five Ferris Wheel, Osaka

We finished the weekend at a swing dance party with lots of food, fun dancing and a performance by international teachers Patrick and Natasha. Patrick and Natasha are fun dancers - they are very good, but somehow not intimidating. I like the Osaka swing dance scene - it's small, but nice and friendly.

The band at A day at the SWING!

Dancers at A day at the SWING! Closing party

30 things to do before 30

2011-11-21T12:34:00.000+11:00

Recently, I turned twenty nine years old. I am officially an old lady! So I'm making a list of things I'd like to do before I'm thirty. As I'm living in Japan at the moment, quite a few of these are things I'd like to do before I leave Japan.

1. Find a taiko club, learn taiko drumming and perform somewhere

Via Express Monorail

2. Take more photos and get better at photography

Via my lovely life through a lens

3. Stay in a love hotel

Via freida's other projects

4. Do some of the assignments from Learning to love you more

Via Domy Books

5. Watch a baseball game in Japan


Via troutfactory

6. Visit Okinawa (or Hokkaido)

Via ippei + janine

7. Make a will

Via Isabella Perry

8. Be able to have simple conversations in Japanese and read Hiragana and Katakana scripts

Via tokyolas

9. Travel by bullet train

Via Takechan-400

10. Stay at the Chiiori house on Shikoku that Alex Kerr wrote about in Lost Japan

Via Eden and Josh

11. Spend the day at Spa World

Via Little Crumbs

12. Climb Mount Fuji

Via Steve-kun

13. Finish saving a deposit for an apartment (or a house)

Via Travis LoDolce

14. Enter my thirties fit and healthy

Via lulemon athletica

15. Start making videos

Via Melatron :)

16. Milk a cow

Via JuanJ

17. Take more care with my appearance and develop my personal style

Via naughty shorts

18. Attend a sumo tournament

Via antonioperezrio

19. Blog and write my journal regularly; find inspiration from other bloggers

Via avrilstylo

20. Reconnect with old friends and connect with new ones

Via estranxerio

21. Catch a fish

Via carf

22. Improve my cooking skills

Via dwinning

23. Write something that gets published

Via gracelikeriver

24. Learn guitar and ukulele

Via utter otter

25. Be more creative and crafty

Via miso funky

26.Write letters and postcards by hand

Via dinesh_75000

27. Spend more time outdoors

Via ippei + janine

28. Volunteer more

Via christi lou

29. Say yes to every opportunity

Via tooeasyduzzit

30. Decide what to do and where to live post-Japan!

Via pixelpiexel

Looking for inspiration for your own list? I love Joy the Baker's 30 things for 30 years.

Japan weekend #17 - Koya-san!

2011-11-15T10:37:00.000+11:00

If you ever visit Japan, make sure a temple stay at Koya-san is on your itinerary. Koya-san is that idealised Japan of your dreams - stunning scenery, fresh mountain air, living history, rock gardens, beautiful temples and architecture, peacefulness, rich red and orange autumn leaves - everything that a lot of modern Japan is not!

What a wonderful weekend! We had our first house guest stay on Friday, the lovely Allison, who lives all the way down the bottom of Wakayama prefecture in Shingu. It was a great excuse to go shopping for new sheets and pillows at Nitori, and stop by Uniqlo while we were there. I love Uniqlo for it's inexpensive yet fashionable clothes. I just wish they'd make their sizes a bit more Westerner-friendly! We took Allison to dinner at a local okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancake) place, where you choose the okonomiyaki you want, they bring you a bowl with the ingredients, and you fry it yourself on the table. Fun, easy and so tasty!

Saturday was a really wonderful day, one of the best I've had in Japan so far. Our first stop was Dooshel bakery cafe, a gorgeous bakery cafe in the mountains of Kimino. I'm so grateful to have a cafe with good bread nearby, as supermarket bread here in Japan is invariably white and sugary.

Brunch at Dooshel

Brunch at Dooshel Cafe, Kimino

Flowers at Dooshel cafe, Kimino

Brunch at Dooshel cafe, Kimino

Next up was Fleurir Boulangerie for macarons and fruit bread. I'm so happy to have found this place, too!

Fleurir boulangerie, Momoyama

We picked up our friend Quincy and drove to Koya-san. I don't know how our tiny little car made it up the mountain with the four of us and our luggage, but it did.

Koya-san is just stunningly beautiful, particularly this time of year with the leaves turning bright orange and red. My point and shoot camera doesn't do it justice.

Autumn leaves, Koya-san

We toured the central temple complex with our English speaking guide, learning about how Koya-san became the home of Shingon Japanese Buddhism in the year 819, established by the monk Kobo Daishi. He chose the spot well. The place is serene. Visiting Koya-san is also a common way to begin or end the 88 temple Shikoku Pilgrimage Lisa Dempster wrote about in Neon Pilgrim, so you see lots of mainly older Japanese people there wearing their white robes. There are lots of small rituals to try at Koya too, such as lifting up this really heavy rock. I could only lift it a little bit. Apparently if you are pure of heart (or something like that) it should be light as a feather. Felt pretty heavy to me!

Our tour guide, Koya-san

Tea and a sweet rice cracker, Koya-san

Rock garden, Koya-san

Monks, Koya-san

Mochi, Koya-san

Next we went for a hike near the daimon (big gate) and looked across the mountains.

Hiking near the big gate, Koya-san

Hiking, Koya-san

View from the top of our hike, Koya-san

The Wakayama JET girls, Koya-san

Our accomodation for the evening was at the beautiful Regenjoin Temple. It was just lovely and a quintessential Japanese experience. Tatami mat rooms, comfortable futons, kotatsu (low tables with a heat source underneath) to keep us warm, robes to wear, onsen, Japanese gardens.

Beautiful Rengojoin Temple, Koya-san

Rengejoin Temple offers mediation sessions, and I attended one in the late afternoon. I certainly didn't achieve enlightenment! It wasn't easy to sit cross-legged on the floor for close to an hour, and I couldn't stop thinking about things and just be. I tried again at six am in the morning the next day and found it a bit easier second time around.

Dinner was vegetarian, and we heard from a 91 year old lady about her life pre-war, when she learnt English in Tokyo, which was later known as the 'enemy language' during war time, and how she then became very useful as an English translator when visitors started coming back to Koya-san following the war.

Vegetarian dinner, Rengejoin Temple, Koya-san

After dinner we took a night walk in the cemetery, then I soaked in the hot bath, which felt so nice after a long day of walking. Luckily the thirty people in our group had a separate wing of the temple, as we stayed up late, drinking, eating and talking.

Sunday breakfast was my first traditional Japanese breakfast. Rice for breakfast!

Traditional Japanese vegetarian breakfast, Rengejoin Temple, Koya-san

We then toured the cemetery, which is pretty fascinating and has lots of great things to see, and watched the monks take Kobo Daishi his lunch. It is believed that Kobo Daishi didn't die, but has been meditating for the last 1200 years, so they still bring him breakfast and lunch every single day.

Cemetery, Koya-san

Memorial for babies who died prematurely, Koya-san

I love Koya-san, and want to go back again when it's snowing. I'd never heard of Koya-san before coming here, and it's one of the best things I've done in Japan so far. Make sure it goes on your to-do-in-Japan list!

Japan weekend #16 - A very Japanese weekend

2011-11-10T17:56:00.000+11:00

Weekend #15 was one of the most Japanese weekends I've experienced here so far, and also one of the best. And I didn't have to go much further than my home town and the surrounding areas to enjoy it. It's taken me a while, but I'm beginning to appreciate the benefits of living in the countryside. The sense of community here, the fresh air, the mountains. I also love discovering surprisingly good new places to eat that few other Westerners will visit!

On Friday night we had dinner with the JETs in our local area at Curry House CoCo Ichibanya and sang Karaoke. Ry turned out to be a good singer and even managed to sing 'Surf's up' by Brian Wilson well, which is not an easy feat.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the 'ALT Exchange Party' that our English-speaking friends in the area had set up, but it turned out to be heaps of fun and a perfect opportunity to learn about and experience Japanese culture - tea ceremony, flower arranging, pottery, calligraphy and fruit picking. The exchange part was that eight (very lucky) JETs who got placements in Osaka city were visiting our town for the weekend.

After attending a local cultural festival on Saturday morning, we started the afternoon with ikebana (flower arranging), which I don't think I was very good at! But I did have this moment when Andrew took a photo of me doing ikebana that I realised that I was exactly where I had wanted to be a year ago when I wrote my application to come to Japan - I wanted to experience Japanese culture and life, and I've been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to do that.

Learning how to do ikebana (flower arranging), Kinokawa, Japan

Andrew ponders the meaning of his ikebana arrangement

Next we experienced a short tea ceremony. Like many of the arts we learnt about on the weekend, our hostess had been learning tea ceremony for ten years, and still considered her a student. She told us her mother had been learning tea ceremony for thirty years, yet still considered herself a student, too. I am impressed by how many Japanese people spend literally decades perfecting their art, be it ikebana, tea ceremony, or martial arts.

Tea ceremony, Kinokawa

Our tea ceremony hostess

Andrew experiencing tea ceremony, Kinokawa

A traditional tea ceremony sweet

Our next activity was pottery. I hadn't tried pottery since high school! Below is Mr Ito, who taught us pottery and hosted the party in his home. He's a very accomplished man who is still climbing mountains and travelling the world even as he nears his 80th birthday.

Mr Ito shows us how it's done

Dinner was simple and yummy - take a nori sheet, place rice, vegies, fish, etc. on the nori, wrap it up, and eat!

Dinner

After dinner we sang English songs for children and adults, which seems a bit quaint, but I know I enjoyed it! Many friends of Mr Ito had arrived by then, kids, adults, and older people, making for quite a full house! We sang kids' songs such as 'London Bridge is falling down' and 'Heads and shoulders, knees and toes', and adults' songs such as 'Oh Danny Boy'.

Next was wine tasting with Whitney, an ex-JET who now lives in Osaka and works in the wine business. I like the occasional wine, but I still can't really distinguish hints and overtones of flavours in the wine well. I'll just have to keep practicing!

Whitney conducts the wine tasting

The wines we tried. I liked the one of the left the best.

Sunday was actually my 29th birthday, but I didn't tell anyone as I wanted to keep it low key. The day started with a fig and mandarin tart from a local boulangerie I've been meaning to try, the Fleurir boulangerie. So good! And so nice to find local places like this.

Fleurir Boulangerie, Kinokawa

Fruit tarts, Fleurir Boulangerie, Kinokawa

Macarons, Fleurir Boulangerie, Kinokawa

Day two of the 'ALT Exchange Party' consisted of learning Japanese calligraphy and black ink painting, and then going fruit picking!

Mr Ito shows us black ink painting

I've mentioned it before, but the fruit here in Wakayama is amazing. So fresh and tasty. It's mikan (mandarin) and kaki (persimmon) season and we could eat as much as we wanted for free, and take home a bag of fruit we'd picked ourselves for 600 yen. Oishii! (Delicious!) I think it might have been the first time I'd ever been fruit picking, too, as far as I can remember.

Osaka JETs and friends ready for fruit picking

Fruit picking

After the fruit picking the most amazing thing happened - you won't understand the scale of it unless you've lived in country Japan after coming from the coffee snob city that is Melbourne, Australia. We found a place that makes great coffee, possibly the best coffee I've had in Japan. It's called Centro and it's a pizza and pasta place in Iwade. Amazing!

Good coffee, Centro, Iwade

So kawaii! Great cappucino, Centro, Iwade

Andrew and I then went shopping at Aeon Mall. I am determined to perfect my yama girl look and bought a cute yama girl jumper from Uniqlo. We saw a movie, in English, and had dinner at a place that unexpectedly had all you can eat pizza with their dinner set! It was a really good birthday and a great weekend.

Friday clip of the week #8 - 25 ways to tie a scarf in 4.5 minutes!

2011-10-28T17:03:00.000+11:00

Love this!

Japan weekend #11 - I love Kobe!

2011-10-12T13:42:00.000+11:00

I found the place I'd like to live in Japan if I'd had a choice in the matter - Kobe! It's a small city, so not as overwhelming as Osaka, and it seems like there's lots going on there. Kyoto and Osaka are nearby, and I even found a decent coffee there.

Where I live in Kishigawa is quite nice, it's just so damn quiet. The good parts are that it's only five minutes bike ride to work, the air is fresh and clean, and there's a great buffet restaurant down the road called Hachi ju hachi. The region is known for it's fruit, and it is really good. The fruit is so fresh and flavoursome that it makes fruit at home in Australia seem like an imitation of the real thing. On the other side, I haven't found much to do on the weeknights, so have been watching more movies and television than I have in ages through Hulu Japan. It's also a little hard to make friends when I don't speak much Japanese, particularly friends near my own age.

So I spend a lot of time travelling on the weekends, but it is so worth it! Living where I do in the inaka (countryside), everything is far.

I had a fabulous night on Thursday, making the trip into Osaka for my second FEW Kansai event, that little haven of Western women, many of whom are married to Japanese men. Every month they hold a dinner at the Hilton Hotel. God I was underdressed. Must remember to put on some make-up next time! The theme was 'To travel is to live', and three of the women spoke about their recent travel experiences in Vietnam, Canada and Naoshima Island. Naoshima Island is now on my list of places to go in Japan. It's known as the 'art island' and it's halfway between Osaka and Hiroshima. I'm really enjoying the FEW Kansai nights. It's so good to interact with interesting women and enjoy a delicious meal in the centre of Osaka.

For dinner on Friday night Andrew and I found a cheap-but-good udon place in Iwade where they served up the udon as you requested it. I asked for 'udon', which is like going to McDonalds and asking for 'burger'. Luckily they had a picture menu and we figured it out. Thank god for picture menus!

On Saturday I drove down to Arida to the beautiful Rub Luck Cafe to see a friend's band play. It's gorgeous there, looking over the water, and is quite a trendy place. I've got to remind myself that there are good things in the inaka as well as in the city. I wish I'd stayed for the whole concert. Instead, I drove to Wakayama city for another friend's birthday at an 'Irish pub', but I couldn't find the place for ages. My mistake was looking for something that looked like an Irish pub! In Japan, you can never be sure that something you expect to be like something (Doritos, western food) will be like what you expect.

Sunset over Arida

Inaka Sunset play at Rub Luck Cafe

Sunday was a great, great day spent in Kobe for the Swing Jazz Cruise. Funnily enough, it was not a cruise. It was a free jazz festival on the waterfront and surrounds. It takes a couple of hours to get there to Kobe train, but, again, so worth it!

There were dozens of jazz bands playing through the day, a main area with food stalls and second hand clothing stalls, and even bebop dancers:

We had such a good day dancing and listening to music and drinking coffee, finishing up with yummy dumplings in Chinatown. Kobe has funky shops, nice cafes and restaurants, good music, everything I like in a city. I love Kobe!

Japan weekend #10 - looking for the right balance

2011-10-05T16:07:00.000+11:00

Peach Fanta - currently rocking my world

I think I'm starting to go a little bit crazy here in countryside Japan. Not in a bad way, just in a still-adjusting-to-a-different-life-and-culture way.

To say work is cruisy is an overstatement - I sometime go for two or three days without teaching any classes, and don't have any real responsibilities besides teaching. Perhaps they are easing me into things very, very slowly. Perhaps not. So being here still feels like a holiday. A big, long holiday. Which is... kind of great! But it does get old after a while. I would like to be more productive and useful here.

The dilemma of living in the countryside in Japan is that while it is beautiful and peaceful here, with clean air and mountains, all the action is in the cities. I remain too lazy to really commit to studying Japanese, meaning I can only participate in my local community to a certain extent. Going to the city is expensive; but staying home can be boring. I'm still trying to find a good balance.

I know I want to see as much of this beautiful country as I can in the year or two I am here. I know from my year in Samoa that I should have spent more weekends at the stunning beaches there, rather than hanging out in Apia. I know that time flies, especially when overseas.

We spent this weekend exploring our local Kinokawa area a bit more, heading south to Arida for a barbeque, and north to Osaka for swing dancing.

On Thursday we had friends over for dinner. We managed to find lasagne sheets at the Okuwa supermarket and Andrew made a great lasagne. Kazumi and Kumi have been such good friends to me here and both had invited me over for dinner before so it was good to return the favour. They both brought yummy cakes - homemade sweet potato cake and banana cake. As they say in Japan, oishii! (delicious!)

Dooshel Bakery Cafe, Kimino

Friday was a public holiday for the autumnal equinox - celebrating the change from summer to autumn. They have holidays for everything here, it's great! Following the recent destructive typhoons, seemingly overnight, the weather has cooled down beautifully to become cardigan weather. I've got a favourite local cafe now - it's called Dooshel and it's up in the mountains in the next-door town of Kimino, about 15 or 20 minutes drive from my house. It was such a nice morning and everyone had the same idea as us of brunch at Dooshel - families, motorbike riders out for the day, a young lady with her dog. Dooshel is good for nice bread (the stuff at the supermarket is invariably white and sugary) and they do a great lunch set. Like most places I've been to in Japan, the coffee is average at best. I miss Melbourne coffee. The setting is beautiful, looking over mountains towards Kainan.

Lunch at Dooshel Bakery Cafe, Kimino

After brunch we found a cute park just below Dooshel with the Wakayama Animal Welfare Centre, a golf course, camping area, picnic area, children's playground and cafe.

Sign for the big park in Kimino - golf, camping, animals, you name it!

It was such nice weather and so nice to see all the families and friends enjoying their day off. You can wander around and see all the animals for free and enjoy the atmosphere.

Goat at the Wakayama Animal Welfare Centre, Kimino

Birds at the Wakayma Animal Rescue Centre, Kimino

Big park in the Kimino mountains

Swedish(?) playground, Kimino

Saturday was even lazier, I read and napped and had a great ramen and beer lunch set at Raguman.

Ramen and beer at Kishigawa's finest ramen place - Raguman!

Sunday was a big day. We drove for an hour or so south to Arida to meet friends for a barbeque. Unfortunately the route we chose took us over a big mountain and I got freaked out and made Andrew drive. It was actually really beautiful up there - verdant and cool - but the thin, windy roads with seemingly only room for one car even though it was a two-way road made me a bit shaky. I sometimes have an irrational fear that a car I'm driving will start rolling backwards, so driving up a mountain is not a lot of fun for me!

Japan is such a stunningly beautiful place, except for all the modern buildings, which are horrible. I'm starting to understand Alex Kerr's Lost Japan more now.

The barbeque was fun! It was a nice mix of gaijin (foreigners) and Japanese, and everyone was nice and friendly. From my huge sample size of two barbeques, it seems like the culture of barbeques here is a bit different to Australia. In Australia, you bring meat or vegie burgers and maybe a salad, and drinks to contribute. In Japan, you contribute some money to the host, and the host looks after all the food and soft drinks. You could still bring your own beer if you wanted to drink.

Bridge in Arida

Barbeque in Arida, Japan

We then trekked all the way up to Osaka for a night of swing dancing - the Speakeasy Swingin' Ball - at a tiny little place near the main Osaka station. I like the Osaka swing dance scene - it's small and friendly and I'm looking forward to their lindy exchange soon!


Speakeasy Swingin' Ball, Osaka

Speakeasy Swingin' Ball, Osaka

Life

2011-10-04T17:46:00.001+11:00

Image via breezy mary

Quote of the day, via Yes and Yes:

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.

-Benjamin Franklin

Friday video clip of the week #7 - Marcel the shell with shoes on

2011-09-30T00:54:00.000+10:00

I found out about Marcel by reading Bust Magazine! I just got a digital subscription and I love it. This clip is adorable.

Japan weekend #9 - Long weekend of jazz, Kishiwada Danjiri festival and Nara

2011-09-20T14:00:00.000+10:00

Deer at Nara Park

Nara Park actually has deer roaming around freely everywhere! And it's just a few minutes from the centre of the town. Amazing!

Weekend #8 in Japan was another full one, the first of two three-day weekends in a row. Thank you Japan!

On Thursday night we saw a jazz pianist from Tokyo at a bar in Wakayama city, playing originals and covers. It was good to see live music locally. Wakayama-shi is a city of 400,000 about 15 kilometres from where I live. I think I've been too quick to dismiss Wakayama city as boring. When the bright lights of Osaka are calling an hour or two north, Wakayama seems rather quiet and dull, but there's probably more to it than I've realised.

Heading home after seeing a Jazz pianist in Wakayama-shi

On Friday there was a cultural festival at my Junior High school, with music performances by students in the morning, and by professional Taiko drummers in the afternoon. I didn't realise Taiko was so... cool. The band members were young guys in their twenties, the drumming part is actually quite athletic, and the music was a lot more modern than I expected. Here's a short video from the day:

Friday night was fun too, spending the evening with some older members of the local community who speak English well and meet regularly to converse in English.

Saturday was another big day, spent in Kishiwada for their massive danjiri festival. The danjiri festival is a cart-pulling festival, where a big group of people pull carts shaped as shrines or temples through the streets really fast. It's quite hard to explain! This blog entry explains it well.

Osaka and surrounding JETs dressed in Happi coats at the Kishiwada Danjiri Festival

Big crowds get ready to pull and push the danjiri

A danjiri

Nice hairstyles at the Kishiwada Danjiri Festival

A danjiri


A less traditional danjiri than most

Running after the danjiri

The danjiri is a big spectacle and worth going too, but it does get a bit repetitive after a while! Luckily there's lots of yummy festival food to try!

Festival food

On Sunday we drove to Nara, which I didn't know much about beyond that it's Japanese city with a lot of traditional temples and architecture, like Kyoto, but on a smaller scale. I like Nara! It's a compact little place, easy to navigate, and has some great features, like the deer that roam free around Nara Park.

Deer at Nara Park

More deer

Nara mascot

If you're heading to Nara, I'd highly recommend staying at the Guesthouse Nara Komachi. It's cheap for Japan and is lovely and new and comfortable.

Unfortunately while in Nara we had to make a trip to the hospital for an injured foot. This was quite a daunting task with such limited Japanese language skills, but it turned out fine. The man we spoke to at the general hospital didn't just direct us to the hospital nearby we needed to go to, he actually hopped in my car and came to the other hospital down the road with us, explained the situation, then walked back to his hospital. Despite being a public holiday, there was an English speaking doctor on staff, the wait was short, and the cost was very reasonable. Thank you Japan!

Friday video clip of the week #6 - Improv Everywhere in Say Something Nice

2011-09-16T13:11:00.000+10:00

Beautiful!

Japan weekend #8 - Indian food, trip to Osaka, suprise local concert!

2011-09-13T17:05:00.000+10:00

Pothole cover, Osaka

Seven weeks in, Japan is still pretty great! I'm spending too much money, loving the hint of cooler weather, and my work life continues to be very cruisy.

After a fun week of a home-made dinner with Japanese friends, ramen with gaijin friends, and going for walks with my boyfriend, on Friday I quite happily drove an hour and a half each way to see JET friends who live in the south of the prefecture for a couple of birthdays at an Indian restaurant. The invitaiton said, "Dinner will be at an Indian restaurant with actual Indians cooking". In Melbourne, and a lot of other places, you would expect that an Indian restaurant would have Indians cooking. In my experience of Japan so far though, Western food such as 'Italian' food will more than likely be cooked by Japanese staff rather than Italian staff, and is often a Japanese interpretation of Italian food, rather than something I might find in Lygon Street. There are exceptions, however, such as the wonderful Tom Sawyer restaurant in Kainan. The Japanese staff at Tom Sawyer cook delicious pizzas, pastas and salads, and I really want to go there again, if I can find it! The Indian-restaurant-with-actual-Indians-cooking was pretty good. Great big servings of yummy naan, curries, raita and salad. Someone told me when I first arrived in Japan that the JETs tend to travel in packs, and Friday was no exception - there were about twenty of us there and we packed out the restaurant!

Me on Friday night, ready for the long drive to Tanabe for Indian food and to see friends

Andrew's first full weekend in Japan!

On Saturday we made another long-but-so-worth-it journey, the two hour train trip north to Osaka. Our first stop was one of the many expensive department stores in Japan - Daimaru.

I want these! Cute teapots at Osaka Daimaru

Love the colours of these scarves at Osaka Daimaru

I am still scratching the surface of this great city and feel a bit naked without my Lonely Planet Japan, which I lost the other day, but we managed to find a good spot for an okonmiyaki (Japanese savoury 'pancake') and beer lunch. I'd eaten okonomiyaki before in Australia, but only from a Japanese take-away place in a food court! Here in Japan there are restaurants just for okonomiyaki, with lots of different flavours, and a hotplate at your table to keep them warm. I ordered a vegie one with asparagus, cheese and other vegies. Oishii! I'd hardly called okonomiyaki 'healthy' though!

Okonomiyaki, Osaka style!

After a nap at our hostel, at sunset we took a nice long walk to Shinsaibashi, one of the main shopping districts in Osaka. It's a huge long mall with thousands of people shopping for the latest styles, drinking coffee at Starbucks, and hanging out. It's covered over, and well-lit, so you can't tell if it's day or night, and there were still hundreds (thousands?) of people shopping in the early evening. I'm not a huge fan of Japanese fashion so far, and being a normal Western-size lady, a lot of it isn't designed for my body type anyway, but I do quite like G.U and got a cute checked shirt there for less than $A10! I'm also glad there's H&M here and Zara, for their Western sizes and styles, but they're more pricey.

Dinner was takoyaki, octopus dumplings, at Dotonburi, which is the nightlife area at the end of Shinsaibashi. Dotonburi is what you think of when you think of Japan - huge neon signs, tons of people, seedy looking establishments, and great food!

Takoyaki, octopus dumplings!

On Sunday we were walking to the Umeda Sky Building when we found a Melbourne-style cafe! I noticed it because of the picture of the espresso maching on the sandwich board. My lunch set was a foccacia, a small chocolate cake, and a very kawaii cappucino. It was only the second place I've been to in Japan that gave me that Melbourne cafe feeling that is so familiar to me. The other is the lovely Cafe Bibliotic Hello! in Kyoto.

Cafe Largo, Osaka

Kawaii lunch set at Cafe Largo, Osaka

Sandwich lunch set at Cafe Largo, Osaka

The Umeda Sky Building had awesome views of Osaka, and an interesting exhibition about post-war Japan. People made homes from converted tram cars, for example.


View from the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka


View from the Umeda Sky Building, note the tunnel for cars going through the building in the middle

The Umeda Sky Building has a place for couples to get a love heart shaped lock engraved with their names and the date, which is then locked to a special area on the top floor.

Creepy Mickey and Minnie

Downstairs at the Umeda Sky Building was a Japanese 'Oktoberfest', complete with overpriced alcohol - $A30 for a one litre stein - and a Japanese polka band in lederhosen playing Bavarian drinking songs.

'Oktoberfest' in Osaka

After the Umeda Sky Building, we headed back towards Osaka station, struggled to find a cheap meal, finally settling on curry rice, and headed back to Kishigawa. Once again, it was great to leave the city and head home. Osaka is not an attractive city, and it is great to leave miles and miles of ugly, grey crowded buildings behind for the green rice paddies of Wakayama.

Monkey bun, Osaka station

Back in the quiet, sleepy town of Kishigawa, I heard music playing just before we arrived home. In seven weeks here, I've never heard loud music in Kishi. My town is usually so quiet at night the only thing I hear is the train going by. Andrew thought it might be a band practicing. I thought it might be music pumped from the loudspeakers for some reason. Turns out it was a live concert by the lake behind my apartment! We followed the music and found a band playing surf music, followed by a wind orchestra. Things happen in Kishigawa after all!

Surf music band, Kishigawa Lake

Friday Video Clip of the Week #5 - Kimbra in Settle Down

2011-09-09T13:36:00.001+10:00

How amazing is Kimbra? God New Zealand has a lot of talent.

Japan weekend #7 - A weekend of firsts - first izakaya, first sushi train in Japan, first typhoon

2011-09-06T10:03:00.038+10:00

Last weekend was one of the quieter ones I've had in Japan so far, but was still full of new experiences - my first izakaya, my first sushi train in Japan, and my first typhoon.

I spent all of Friday in Wakayama city for our new JET orientation session.

Getting a re-entry permit was my first experience of overly beauracratic Japan. You couldn't just pay for the re-entry permit at the immigration office, you had to go to this little store first and buy a $A70 stamp and put that on your application. Then when filling out the form for the re-entry permit, you have to write something down for what countries you will be visiting when you next leave the country, and the expected dates of travel. So if you haven't planned any trips, you just make something up, and put this on the official form.

I'd expected Japan to be really overly beauracratic after I read Atomic Sushi, but this was the first real red tape I'd experienced in my six weeks here. Of course, I may just be oblivious to it as I don't understand what's going on a lot of the time!

Friday lunch was at a Japanese sushi train restaurant. I loved the salmon and cheese sushi, the salmon and basil sushi and the sweet potato chips. It was cheap too, about $A8 for a filling lunch. There's a lot of really reasonably priced Japanese food here, whereas Western food can be really expensive - a take-away pizza place was charging nearly $A50 for a large pizza!

After orientation, I hit the foreign food section of the department store and spent way too much money on Danish blue cheese and Australian cheddar. I'm so happy to have a source of blue cheese and am happy to pay through the nose for it! My local supermarket does have cheese, but it's mainly camembert, soft cheese and 'plastic' cheese.

Dinner was with the other JETs at a local izakaya called Otoko wa Tsurai yo - 'It's tough being a man', which was named after a Japanese film series. I'd never been to an izakaya before. We paid about $A35 for an hour and a half of all-you-can-drink and a lot of food - sashimi, endame, noodles, salad, dessert tofu and more.

As is often the case when hanging out with the other JETs, we then went to Karaoke. I don't mind Karaoke in small doses. It's kind of expensive for what it is though. Next time I'll try to get more into the spirit of things. Espeically as my prefecture has it's own song - the Wakayama love song!

The rain that lasted and lasted and was setting in when I caught the last train home. I was lucky - many JETs living further south had their trains cancelled due to the typhoon.

On Saturday the storms continued all day long, so I stayed inside the whole day, and watched Bridesmaids and Whip It. I love seeing strong female characters in female-driven movies. I loved that Bridesmaids had so many funny women in it as the main characters, not the girlfriends. And I loved that in Whip It the boyfriend storyline was just a sideline to the main one of Bliss's journey towards independence and finding herself.

The typhoon here was pretty bad further south. Dozens died, and there were mudslides and flooding, collapsed bridges and overflowing rivers. My town is in the north of the region and thankfully we just had heavy rains and winds.

On Sunday I enjoyed my last day living by myself before my boyfriend arrived in the evening. I'm glad he's here. Things seem somehow easier to handle with someone else to figure them out with!

Swing in Osaka - 5th Wednesday Hawaiian Swingin' Night

2011-09-04T10:33:00.010+10:00

Swing dancing in Osaka is fun! Wednesday night marked what I'm sure will be the first of many nights of dancing while I'm living in Japan.

I live way south of Osaka, but it's so worth the trip to get to go dancing!

I was a bit concerned early on when there were only six of us there for the lesson and the other half of the dance studio was filled up with hip hop students and their music, but a lot more people turned up later, many in Hawaiian theme.

As is often the case in swing, there were more girls than guys, but it's not too badly skewed, and it means a lot of girls can lead.

It's a friendly scene, and it was great to meet some more locals and foreigners. I felt so inaka (country) though saying I lived in Wakayama!

There was another guy from Melbourne there, who in a very Melbourne way, asked where I had gone to school. Melbourne may be a city of four million, but this guy knew one of my high school teachers and two girls a few years ahead of me. Small world!

I had lots of fun dances with people ranging from beginner to pretty good and I felt really happy to be dancing again.

When I started swing dancing a few years ago I was quite shy and didn't always find it easy to communicate in words. I liked that if I couldn't think of anything to talk to someone about, I could ask them for a dance.

Now I'm in Japan I'm a lot more confident, but a different communication barrier exists - I only know a little Japanese. I'm glad that with swing I can communicate with the person I'm dancing with without words.

The Hawaiian-themed night culminated in a welcome dance, a Jack and Jill competition, a traditional Hawaiian dance and a ukulele performance. The girls doing the Hawaiian dance in particular were great - Polynesian dancing is not easy and these girls had the graceful hands and the shaking hips down pat!

Here's a little video I took of the Jack and Jill competition:

Friday Video Clip of the Week #4 - Girls' Generation 少女時代 in Mr Taxi

2011-09-02T23:26:00.000+10:00

I've got three music channels on my television here in Japan and I sometimes find myself mesmerised by the k-pop and j-pop girl groups. So many members! So many midriffs!

Girls' Generation from Korea are one of the better groups I've come across so far. The members all look over 18. The song is catchy and fun.

The j-pop groups seem more extreme - younger girls, more members, highly sexualised. The most extravagant of these is AKB48, which currently has 60 girls in the band, divided into 4 teams. They range in age from 16 up to 25, with trainee members as young as 13.

The AKB48 girls seem almost interchangeable, quite literally in the case of one of the band members Aimi Eguchi - she's a computer generated composite of six other girls in the band.

Japan is a strange place.

I'm going swing dancing tonight!

2011-08-31T12:13:00.008+10:00

I'm planning on going swing dancing in Osaka tonight! It's been over a month since I last went dancing (in Tokyo) and I'm missing it, even though for some weird reason I didn't dance that much in the last year in Melbourne. And being Melbourne, I could have gone dancing every night if I'd wanted to!

Here's a few great dancing clips friends have shared recently that I love:

100 YEARS / STYLE / EAST LONDON. Not strictly swing, but how amazing is this clip? It reminds me of the 1960 film of The Time Machine where he goes forward in the future and you see the shop changing fashions.

ILHC 2011 - Team - Swinging Air Force. I like this one because it uses the group dynamic so well.

I Charleston Berlin. I love the way Berlin is captured in this clip. I want to go there!!

Japan weekend #6 - City/country weekend - Sushi and Wine Masterclass in Osaka and a Beach Party in Shirahama

2011-08-30T11:00:00.029+10:00

I feel so fortunate to be living in Japan. To be experiencing different things, having adventures, making new friends.

This weekend was a pretty perfect contrast of Japanese city life and country life.

I am very much still adjusting to living in the country coming from the wonderful city that is Melbourne, Australia. But I know it's just an adjustment period, and that when I lived in Samoa I found island life quite difficult at first, then grew to really love it.

Luckily, I live within reasonable distance of three great cities - Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, so it's not too hard to spend the night in the city and stay at a hostel for the evening. Osaka is about one and a half to two hours away by train, and it's a comfortable journey.

So on Friday after heading to the airport to pick up the latest foreigner to join our little community in the 'city' of Kinokawa (currently foreign population = three), I headed to Osaka, dropped my bag at the hostel and walked through Osaka to find a group of women I'd never met before for an introducing wine and sushi masterclass.

The masterclass was in held an area of Osaka called Honmachi, which seemed like a great little area of boutique shops, cafes and a park where women would bring their tiny, kawaii dogs for a catch up and gossip. I'd love to explore Honmachi more and Osaka generally. Oh, city life!

'Masterclass' was a bit of an overstatement for what was a really fun evening of drinking lots of wine and eating lots of sushi. I can't say I learnt much about matching sushi and wine though, beyond that most sushi goes well with white!

The sushi was beautifully fresh and tasty. The sushi was made with wine vinegar and olive oil rather than rice vinegar to better complement the wines, and after dinner our sensei serenaded the group with 'O Sole Mio'.

Mr Takaya Fukuda of A&W Art and Wine in Honmachi, Osaka sings 'O Sole Mio' from Susanne Newton on Vimeo.

I'm really glad I found the FEW Kansai group so early on in the piece. I'm hardly a 'Foreign Executive Woman' but luckily it's quite an open group and I felt really welcomed and loved getting to meet women from a range of countries and backgrounds who've found their way to Japan.

Quite a few of the women had Japanese husbands, which seems to be the exception rather than the rule here. Japanese women with foreign husbands seems way more common. I'm quite fascinated by this and with the role of Japanese women generally and I hope to learn a lot more about women in Japan in my time here.

On Saturday I made another long train trip down to Shirahama beach to meet the Wakayamaa JET community. Shirahama is one of the busiest beaches I've ever been to, with white sand imported all the way from Australia!

Photo by Danny Porter

There are almost fifty JETs spread out across Wakayama prefecture and they're a good group of people. Many have lived overseas before in places like Egypt and Brazil. Most are American, but there's also one other Aussie, three Kiwis, a Scot, and a guy from Trinidad. I'm looking forward to getting to know all these different people over the next year or two.

After the day at the beach we went to an onsen, an outdoor hot bath segregated by sex. I quite like onsen, and I'm sure I'll like them even more when it gets colder. The way it works is that the guys and girls go into different areas of the onsen, and then you take off all your clothes, have quite a long shower and get clean, and then soak in the shared hot bath until you get too hot. I'm not very used to being naked with a group of other women, but I guess an easy way of getting to know people quickly is to get naked with them!!

Dinner was yummy ramen, followed by a great party back at one of the JET's houses. There was a local festival in his town with fireworks and food.

A late breakfast the next morning at a great all you can eat place in Tanabe with healthy, diverse food topped off one of my best weekends in Japan so far.

A funny thing happened on the train on the way back home. I sat next to a rather drunk Japanese lady who was about thirty years old. She offered me a beer, which I politely declined (this was about 2pm in the afternoon). She then offered to give me a One Piece toy from her mobile phone, and talked to me in Japanese for quite a lot of the trip. I don't speak Japanese. I was reading the International Herald Tribune. She took this out of my hands, got me and the friend I was travelling with to sign the newspaper, and put it away in her suitcase. I hadn't even finished reading it!

Friday Video Clip of the Week #3 - Vivian Girls in Take It As It Comes

2011-08-26T18:03:00.021+10:00

Great, catchy song. Ironic eighties style. All-girl band from Brooklyn. What more do you want?

Katy Goodman is so pretty!

Bob Katter's brother talks about homophobia

2011-08-24T09:58:00.007+10:00

I thought Bob Katter was just ignorant when he said he would ''walk to Bourke backwards if the poof population of North Queensland is any more than 0.001 per cent''. Turns out he's just bigoted.

Twelve days...

2011-08-23T23:20:00.006+10:00

...until my boyfriend arrives in Japan! He will single-handedly double the population of foreigners living in this little town of Kishigawa from one, to two!

No Australian Literature subject available at Melbourne Uni

2011-08-22T23:10:00.002+10:00

Uni brought to book for snub to local literature

This saddens me greatly. How on earth can one of Australia's best universities not offer students an Australian Literature subject?

I studied English Literature at Melbourne Uni, graduating in 2006, and while it took me a while to get going, I grew to love studying English Lit (and politics) and earned my first first high distinction ever in my Australian Literature class.

I absolutely loved studying the poetry of Judith Wright. I loved her female voice, her connection to the landscape, her sensuality and love for her partner. Despite being an English major, I'd always avoided poetry, putting it in the too hard basket. But the effort was worth it for me to write about Judith Wright.

Image: Neil Duncan

I also fell in love with Helen Garner's fiction in that class and I'm still a fan. I studied Monkey Grip and loved hearing the raw, autobiographical voice of a young Melburnian woman. The film is great too, seeing urban Melbourne from an early-eighties perspective. For some reason the fact that Noni Hazelhurst had hair on her underarms stood out to me - you so rarely see underarm hair on women in films these days!

Image: Rennie Ellis

There is something so valuable about reading stories and seeing films set in your city. Learning that your stories are valuable, that literature doesn't have to come from a male voice or from somewhere far away. That the urban, female experience can represent Australia as much as the Henry Lawsons.

I also find the fact that no English department in Australia has asked Eliot Perlman to speak quite shocking. Students should be learning from writers like Perlman, Christos Tsiolkas and Richard Flanagan. When will Australia start valuing its writers?

Woman to Man by Judith Wright

The eyeless labourer in the night,
the selfless, shapeless seed I hold,
builds for its resurrection day---
silent and swift and deep from sight
foresees the unimagined light.

This is no child with a child's face;
this has no name to name it by;
yet you and I have known it well.
This is our hunter and our chase,
the third who lay in our embrace.

This is the strength that your arm knows,
the arc of flesh that is my breast,
the precise crystals of our eyes.
This is the blood's wild tree that grows
the intricate and folded rose.

This is the maker and the made;
this is the question and reply;
the blind head butting at the dark,
the blaze of light along the blade.
Oh hold me, for I am afraid.

Japan weekend #5 - Learning to cook, Japanese style

2011-08-21T22:55:00.009+10:00

Things are good in Japan now. I'm feeling a lot more settled and adjusted, making new friends and exploring the place.

A goal of mine while I'm here is to get good at cooking, so when the offer of a Japanese cooking class with Todd and Hiro came up, I jumped at the chance.

I love Japanese food* and especially here in Wakayama there's great fresh fruit and vegies to discover and enjoy.

My friend Joseph and I drove from Kinokawa down to Tanabe and joined the others for a supermarket tour where we were introduced to new foods and ingredients. When you don't speak Japanese, even going to the supermarket can be a daunting experience, so it was really helpful to have someone show us around.

We then headed to a lovely cooking school for the cooking (and eating!) part.

We learnt to make:

Cold tofu salad
Miso soup from scratch
Vegetables with homemade teriyaki sauce
Oyakadon: chicken, egg and vegetable donburi (Oyakadon means 'parent and child' bowl as both the egg and chicken is used)

As a new gaijin in Japan, learning to cook some basic Japanese dishes was so incredibly useful. I felt a bit uncoordinated at times, especially as one of the other learners was a chef, but it was fine. My next challenge will be re-creating the dishes!

Let's eat!

The food was great - fresh, healthy, with some ingredients and flavours that were new to me - and it was rewarding to eat because we made it!

After the cooking class we went to see some dolphins. For $A5 or so you could see two dolphins in a sort of fenced off part of the ocean quite close to the shore (and for $A10 or so you could touch a dolphin). I went along with the group but I'm feeling really uncomfortable about having dolphins in captivity generally after watching The Cove just before I came to Japan. There just such amazing, smart creatures.

Next was a long buffet dinner in Tanabe with new gaijin friends. Something that's so valuable about living overseas is meeting people from different countries and backgrounds and getting to know them, and I've really enjoyed that in the last week particularly as I've met lots of great people.

Today, Sunday, was beautifully lazy, reading The Help, going for a walk around my town and going to my first Japanese barbecue! I ate tongue; I think for the first time. Like yesterday's cooking class, there was a big focus on vegies and fruit at the barbecue as well as meat. More so than I usually see in Australia. I'm so grateful to my new friend Kazumi who's been showing me around and introducing me to life here.

*Although I'm still getting used to the Japanese versions of Western food - very hit or miss!

Friday Video Clip of the Week #2 - Nikki Lane in Gone, Gone, Gone

2011-08-19T03:20:00.012+10:00

I discovered this Nikki Lane clip through my Bust magazine newsletter and I like it!

So American! So retro! Check it out!

My Japanese vocabulary

2011-08-15T23:36:00.043+10:00

I am so very daunted by the Japanese language. I am also living in Japan. In the countryside.

Right now I can't imagine being able to hold a conversation in Japanese. Or even being able to read signs.

It is a strange and limiting feeling not to be able to identify what sort of shop or food something is, and to suddenly be so dependent on others to help me through my daily life. The simplest tasks are beyond me such as reading my mail or being able to answer simple questions (e.g. 'Do you want chopsticks with that?' I don't know the word for chopsticks!). Yet somehow I am muddling through and managing to figure things out.

I wonder how much I will know in a year? Realistically, I'd like to be able to carry on simple conversations and read hiragana and katakana scripts. Muzukashii!!

This is my current Japanese vocabulary - barely 60 words! I've even included Japanese words used in English.

1. Hai - yes
2. Iie - no
3. Konichiwa - good afternoon
4. Konbanwa - good evening
5. Ohayo gozaimasu - good morning
6. Atsui! - hot
7. Watashi wa Susanne-desu - my name is Susanne
8. Ketai - mobile phone
9. Shaken - expensive car check that occurs every two years
10. Tempura - seafood or vegies fried in batter
11. Sashimi - raw fish sliced thinly
12. Sushi - you know what sushi is!
13. Densha - train
14. Shinkansen - bullet train
15. Karaoke - literally "empty orchestra"
16. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu - no direct English translation, 'please be good to me', 'nice to meet you', etc.
17. ... wa doko deska? - where is...? E.g. toiru wa doko deska? Where is the toilet?
18. So desu ka - is that so?
19. So des ne - it is, isn't it? (agreeing)
20. Sensei - teacher, master
21. Nippon - Japan
22. Onsen - hot springs / bath
23. Ryokan - traditional Japanese hotel
24. Tatami mat - traditional Japanese flooring material
25. Futon - Japanese bed
26. Ramen - Japanese noodles in broth
27. Arigato gozaimasu - thank you
28. Kendo - Japanese martial art of sword-fighting
29. Matsuri - festival
30. Obon - event honouring one's ancestors
31. Muzukashii! - difficult!
32. Geisha - traditional female Japanese entertainers
33. Yukata - summer kimono
34. Kimono - traditional Japanese garment
35. Momo - peach
36. Danjiri - large wooden carts
37. Okonomiyaki - Japanese 'pancake'
38. Matcha - green tea
39. Maiko - apprentice geisha
40. Enkai - drunken work party
41. Shisho - librarian
42. Daimonji - giant bonfire celebrating Obon
43. -san - said after someone's name, e.g. 'Kamoto-san'
44. Osotoraria jin des - I am Australian
45. Yakuza - Japanese mafia!
63. Taiko - drum
47. Bachan - granny
48. Udon - Japanese noodles
49. Soba - thinner Japanese noodles
50. Shinto - traditional Japanese religion
51. Natto - a food only Japanese people like
52. Shamisen - three-stringed instrument
53. Samurai - military nobility of pre-industrial Japan
54. Ganbatte! - good luck! do your best!
55. Kawaii! - cute!
56. Sumimasen - excuse me
57. Sumo - Japanese wrestling
58. O genki deska? - how are you?
59. Wasabi - Japanese horseradish
60. Sake - rice-based alcohol
61. Biiru - beer
62. Oishii! - delicious! (pop-culture usage: Oishii cola in Angry Boys)
63. Ikebana - Japanese flower arranging
64. Gaijin - foreigner
65. Pachinko - Japanese form of gambling

Friday Video Clip of the Week #1 - Jaleel White in Cee Lo Green's Cry Baby

2011-08-12T12:26:00.020+10:00

I've got a feeling this may become the new "it's not you, it's me":

"We're two trains passing, baby, that's what we are. I'm going left and you're going right."

"I want to go left with you, I just feel like we could..."

"You can't, we're on separate journeys."

I love this video! I like the vintage Pleasantville style, the song itself, and that Jaleel White is in it, having clearly grown up more Stefan Urquelle than Steve Urquel. Check out the bemused girlfriend as the musical number begins.

And then of course there's Cee Lo's massive hit Fuck You. Absolutely one of the best singles of the last couple of years.

Japan - the first twenty days

2011-08-12T01:34:00.023+10:00

I live in Japan now! Crazy.

I have a sweet apartment in a little town surrounded by rice paddies and a pretty lake two minutes away with birds, ducks and turtles. There are also quite a lot of spiders.

The heat and humidity is oppressive during the day, but perfect for a twilight walk or bicycle ride.

Osaka is two hours away by train, which is far, but not too far for weekend trips and the odd big night out.

I haven't really had to do any work yet, which is pretty great. It actually feels like the first time in ages I've had time to myself to think, read, find new music I like and relax.

I'll admit I've been hiding out in my apartment quite a bit because the world out there is a little scary. Things that would be easy to do at home in Australia are proving difficult here, such as unlocking a bike lock, putting out the rubbish, or ordering food at a restaurant.

The language barrier is immense. I feel more foreign than I ever have before. But I know it's just a period of adjustment, and that coming here was the right decision.

A year of adventures awaits!

Marriage proposal hidden in a book at the State Library of Victoria

2011-08-04T15:42:00.008+10:00

I love this story from Steph at Read in a single sitting of a marriage proposal hidden in a book at the State Library of Victoria.

JET Programme Farewell Reception, Melbourne, 2011

2011-08-02T14:17:00.011+10:00

JET Programme Farewell Reception

A farewell reception was held in honour of the departure of the participants of the 2011 JET Programme at the Consul-General’s official residence on Thursday 21 July.

The reception was well attended by many supporters of the JET Programme including the Co-Chairs of the Victorian Parliamentary Friends of Japan, Mr Brad Battin MP and Mr Steve Herbet MP; Japanese business leaders and members of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. The reception was also attended by several participants of the Assistants to Teachers of Japanese (ATJ) Programme and many former JET Programme participants.

The Acting Consul-General of Japan, Mr Yasufumi Kotake, wished the participants well over the next twelve months and encouraged them to be actively involved in their local communities and assist in promoting the relationship between Japan and Australia.

Thirty-eight JET Programme participants departed from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania on Saturday 23 July to commence their 12-month contracts in Japan as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) or Coordinators for International Relations (CIRs).

Article courtesy of Japan in Melbourne

20 sleeps ' til Tokyo!

2011-07-03T20:26:00.014+10:00

My departure date for Japan is approaching fast. 20 sleeps 'til Tokyo!

My Melbourne JET induction yesterday covered travel arrangements, culture shock management, team teaching, sessions with former JETs and a massive Korean lunch. I was relieved to see that the other 32 Melbourne JETs weren't as young as I was expecting, and there seemed to be quite a few in their late twenties and early thirties.

I feel quite lucky that that I didn't have to make the difficult decision that four Melbourne JETs had to make to take a placement fairly close to Fukushima. I met two people who are placed just over 100 kilometres from the power plant. Scary stuff. I'd like to think if I'd been placed there I still would have gone.

Heading to Japan feels like the right decision. I am concerned about the language factor, and I don't think I've given enough thought to the actual job part, but I'm really excited about the opportunities for travel and experiencing life in a different culture.

My other slight concern is that my life is a bit aimless! But I always wanted to travel and live overseas in my twenties, which is what I am doing. There's also some vague grand scheme have a fabulous, interesting international career, and Japan will be excellent cross-cultural experience.

I'm happy and excited to be heading off. I know Melbourne and my old friends will be here when I get back.

Books

2011-06-17T19:52:00.011+10:00

1. The book I’m currently reading:

Signs of life by Natalie Taylor

2. The last book I finished:

The day I ate whatever I wanted by Elizabeth Berg

3. The next book I want to read:

Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro because I adored the film.

4. The last book I bought:

Lonely Planet Japan, for obvious reasons

5. The last book I was given:

70 Japanese gestures Thanks boyfriend! xx

Kinokawa, Japan

2011-06-15T20:12:00.015+10:00

Looks like I'm officially heading to Kinokawa, Japan on the JET programme. Kinokawa is a town in Wakayama, south of Osaka, and is famous for good strawberries and Tama, the station master cat.

What the hell I am doing? At 28, I'm probably far too old to be packing up my life in Melbourne and moving to Japan to teach English for a year or two. But it's now or never, so why not?

Want to know more about life in Kinokawa? Check out Pearls of Truth, by Kaila.

Some things I would like to learn

2011-06-14T22:15:00.009+10:00

1. French

2. Japanese

3. How to take pretty pictures

4. Guitar

5. How to cook well

6. Ukulele

7. How to be more positive and less negative/cynical

8. How to make movies

9. How to sail

10. How to ride a motorcycle

LOL

2011-06-10T19:25:00.002+10:00

Thanks to A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette for this:

Can you tell I'm struggling to blog every day in June?

Beautiful Kindle Covers from Etsy

2011-06-09T19:47:00.023+10:00

Kindle has arrived! Waiting for it load so I can play! If I like it I want to get an iPad next.

Now, to find a cover on Etsy! So much amazing creativity!

I like:

CW creations by dobeeubags:

Glam Baby by GlamBaby:

Britgal designs:

I'm deciding between the first and second cover pictured. Thoughts?

Public Service Announcement

2011-06-08T22:55:00.003+10:00

The This American Life podcast enriches my life a little each time I listen to it.

I recommend it to everyone.

Shhhh

2011-06-07T22:04:00.008+10:00

I can't tell you about today. You may ask me again in about three years time, if you like.

Photo from Kel-Z

Melbourne love

2011-06-06T21:54:00.006+10:00

5pm, Monday evening. Free jazz at Federation Square. Band: The Shuffle Club

Melbourne, why is it only now that I'm really appreciating your awesomeness again? Because I'm leaving you!

How to enjoy a lazy winter Sunday morning in Melbourne

2011-06-05T22:47:00.019+10:00

Step 1: Sleep in with electric blanket turned up.

Step 2: Read The Age in bed. Laugh at streetseen. Blush at about last night. Analyse winter fashion trends.

Step 3: Put on thermal top, tights, skirt, shirt, cropped jacket, big jacket. Layers, people, layers.

Step 4: Let the smell of coffee lead you to your local hipster cafe. How to identify hispter cafe? Look for clever use of op-shop items. This morning's cafe featured retro saucepan lids stuck to the wall. Other signs? Low-fi aesthetic. Good coffee. Menu written on blackboard. Good vegetarian selection. Staff who dress more fashionably than you ever did at 20.

Step 5: Coffee!!!!! Step 5 is very important.

Step 6: Free range poached eggs with fava baked beans, avocado and goats cheese. Review: Nice combination of fresh ingredients. Could have used a little more oomph though... some extra flavouring or spice wouldn't have gone astray.

Step 7: Eat half, swap other half for half of your boyfriend's meal.

Step 8: Catch tram to your next destination.

This morning's cafe:

Little Byrd Cafe
160 Union Street, Ascot Vale
9375 1793

New toy!

2011-06-04T20:16:00.008+10:00

I just bought my first e-reader! Hello to the future of reading.

Review of I Carusi Pizza in Brunswick - would it be wrong to call it the rich man's Bimbo Deluxe? Yes, yes it would.

2011-06-03T13:09:00.023+10:00

When I move to Japan in seven weeks time, I'm sure I will miss Melbourne's amazing food.

One of the best parts of my hometown is the diverse range of food and restaurants available, reflecting our varied, multicultural society. Having lived in London, a city full of chain restaurants and wilted vegetables, I appreciate Melbourne's generally outstanding coffee and food.

Living in Samoa, I occasionally missed luxuries like Thai food and berries, but the amazing fresh fish and local dishes I grew to love - oka, palusami - more than made up for that. My mouth is watering thinking of the piles of sashimi or juicy, tender yellowfin tuna steak the the yacht club would serve for about $A10.

Dinner last night at I Carusi, Brunswick, represented all that is good about eating out in Melbourne - a warm, cosy atmosphere away from the cold winter chill, efficient and friendly service, reasonable prices, and great pizza. It's well worth the tram journey to just past the end of Lygon Street.

While I played it safe with their pizza for a friend with lots of my favourite pizza toppings - pumpkin, pine nuts, goats cheese and rocket, my boyfriend's broccoli pizza with a touch of chilli was tastier.
The dessert pizza of quality dark chocolate and pear was sublime. So simple, yet so good!

Is I Carusi the best pizza place in Melbourne? There's probably better places out there, but for a reasonably priced, lazy weeknight dinner out, it was ideal.

I Carusi Pizza
46a Holmes Street, Brunswick
9386 5522

Doomed!

2011-06-02T16:59:00.003+10:00

Yes, I work in an inherently daggy profession.

But if this is really the best in library branding, we're doomed!

I'm off to Japan on the JET Programme!

2011-06-01T23:07:00.007+10:00

In 53 days time, I'll be in Tokyo, Japan, ready to start the JET programme.

I can't wait to start my next adventure.

Where in Japan? It's not official yet, so all I can offer is this picture of a cat wearing a tiny hat. Any ideas?

Disclaimer: I may have been inspired to blog today by the blog every day in June thing all the kids are talking about, but for me, this is more likely to end up being 'blog one time in June'.

JET Interview

2011-02-20T20:56:00.018+11:00

On February 17, 2010, I left my home of one year, the beautiful island of Upolu, Samoa, to return to my home town of Melbourne, via a long trip to New Zealand.

The year back in Melbourne has been mixed; up and down.

A period of unemployment. My first ever.

The humbling experience of going from being one of a handful of qualified librarians in an entire country, knowing my skills were useful, to being unable to find anything more than casual work for four long months back in Australia.

Things improved when I was offered an internship with the International Department of the Australian Red Cross, writing a history of where the Australian Red Cross worked internationally prior to the 1990s (all over the place, actually).

I found a librarian job soon after that. Things are better now.

Yet I still crave travel and adventure.

On February 17, 2011, I had my interview for the JET Programme, and, if I'm accepted, will spend at least a year in Japan.

I'd done my research:

Suited up:

And I think the interview went fine!

Here's what I was asked:

-Why do you want to do the JET program?

-You would like to have an international career?

-Why do you want to teach in Japan and not China or Korea?

-What three items would you take with you from Australia to show Australian culture?

-Would you really take Vegemite?

-What would you do if students asked you about inappropriate things?

-What do you know about the Japanese school system?

-What do you imagine the Japanese classroom to be like?

-Will your partner be coming with you?

-What would you say when people said negative things about Australia? E.g. Australia is a racist country?

-Why have you preferenced Osaka?

-You have an honours degree in English Literature, yet you'll be teaching middle school students. Do you think you'll get bored?

-What things do you know about Japan? What about negative things like whaling?

-What do you tell people in the libary when they ask about Japan? (Bet I was the only person who was asked that question!)

And now I play the waiting game...

On returning 'home' to Melbourne after twelve months in Samoa.

2010-04-20T00:58:00.011+10:00

Twelve months in Samoa.

One month in New Zealand.

Six weeks now, back ‘home’ in Melbourne.

Twelve months in Samoa. Twelve months of heat, sweat, endless humidity, mosquitoes, Vailima beer, white sand beaches, coconuts, palm trees, Aggie Grey’s, Mt Vaea, waterfalls, packs of dogs, Apia Hash House Harriers, lava lavas (sarongs), hammocks, tropical fruit, rain lasting for days, thongs, island time, Pisikoa, breakfasts of French toast and cappuccinos at the Sydneyside Café, salsa classes, yoga, outrigger canoeing each Wednesday followed by beers and fish burgers at the Yacht Club, six tala ($3AU) movies at the Magic Cinema, fa’a Samoa (the Samoan way), seki a (cool), fa’afafine (men who live as women), taro, to’onai (big Sunday lunch), Miss Samoa, Pretty Little Teine, the tsunami, the road switch, high tea at Plantation House, Samoan Christianity, giant churches, CCK.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s home at Vailima, small cats, reclaimed land, Chinese development, frangipanis, teuila, fresh or fake flowers behind the ear, pulatasi (traditional formal wear for women), icepops, kava ceremonies, no anonymity, sturdy cars kept going by resourceful owners, potholes, Savaii, blowholes, plain lassis and pumpkin wraps at the Curry House, UN interns, the Australian volunteer community, slow internet, ultimate Frisbee, soccer, snorkeling, scuba diving, wine-fueled functions put on by the High Commission, nightclubs, Y-Not bar, Paddles, SaMoana, mojitos at Koko Banana, the sublime four part harmonies of songs sung in Samoan.

Harmless come-ons from school boys, taxi drivers and young men (“Hi baby!”, “Are you married?” “I want to sex you”), stunning Polynesian young men, Rugby, romance, community, buckets of KFC brought home on the half-hour small plane flight from American Samoa, colour and beauty everywhere, ugliness underneath – incest, domestic abuse – small, happy children in bright school uniforms, weekend road trips, unique wooden buses with Samoan pop and R'n'B music blasting, On the Rocks, my beautiful and feisty Samoan cousin Mele, frustrations, friends of different nationalities and backgrounds, brought closer together on this small island by necessity, locality, and choice, dress-up parties, incredible acts of generosity, and alofa (love) expressed in so many different ways.

One month in New Zealand. Wellington, Taupo, Rotorua. Lindy hop, cafés where they ask if you want chocolate or cinnamon on your cappuccino, Che Fu, completing the Tongariro Alpine Crossing day hike with hundreds of travelers and locals, the Art Deco festival in Napier, Petone, Wellington (my own mini Melbourne!), exploring Te Papa, nearly in tears at the Samoan and Pacifika exhibitions, kindness, café culture, Kiwiana such as The land of the long white cloud, Monteith’s Cider.

Six weeks now, back ‘home’ in Melbourne. Old friends, family, the beautiful late summer, early Autumn climate soon to become the don’t-want-to-get-out-of-bed winter chill, a tough job market, a new guy, Lord of the Fries, my red cruiser bicycle, literary events, the comedy festival, busyness, 'alone time', ever further out of reach property prices, jumpers, refugee panic, Lygon Street, multicultural faces all around me, the city crowds, the teenagers in their awful early nineties retro, the urban sprawl, iPhones, superb coffee, the public shaming of Lara Bingle and Christine Nixon, the Saturday Age that takes me all day to read, the abundance, the consumerism.

I am changed.

I am the same.

I don’t know what comes next.

This scares me.

And excites me.

After the earthquake and tsunami in Samoa...

2009-11-25T08:40:00.004+11:00

I'm going to live in Samoa for twelve months!

2008-11-30T14:15:00.005+11:00

I'm very excited! I just found out I'm going to live and work in Samoa for twelve months next year as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development. I can't believe I got chosen to go.

I'll be a Library Management Officer at the National University of Samoa library.

I can't wait to live overseas again (I lived in London for six months when I was 21).

The timing is ideal. I can leave my Brunswick share house pretty easily and store my stuff with my folks; I'm recently single, which does make it a lot easier to leave Melbourne; I've just finished my masters; and I haven't found a really plum, permanent librarian job here yet.

I actually applied for Samoa the day before I was dumped out of the blue by my boyfriend-of-a-year. I don't know if I believe in fate, but it feels like there's an element of it here.

So look out for Better than Cheesecake becoming a travel blog from March next year!

My life at 26 years old

2008-11-17T18:37:00.007+11:00

Since I last wrote in my blog:

I turned 25... and 26.

I qualified as a librarian and completed a masters degree.

I started a job in a public library as a cataloguer. Stereotypically, we're even nerdier than your average librarian! We know the Dewey Decimal System intimately and speak in code, such as: "Would you add a 246 to that record?"

I like having a profession. It makes the "So, what do you do?" question easy to answer. When I was studying politics, people asked if I wanted to be the first female Prime Minister. When I was studying English Lit, people would ask if I wanted to write the Great Australian Novel. Now, as a librarian, I typically get two responses - "Oh, that's so cool! I wanted to be a librarian when I was little!" or people think it's boring, and we talk about something else.

I am still head over heels in love with swing dancing, and had a million swing dances with a million lovely leads, dancing to the music I love in Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart. This is me on my 26th birthday, dancing with my friend Phil.

I had a boyfriend for one year, hereby to be known as the biker. It was a good year. I plan to be over him soon.

I read some fantastic books. Of particular note are:

In cold blood by Truman Capote. Capote made me empathise with a cold blooded killer. An incredible book.

The autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley. I am absolutely fascinated by the man. Lindy Hopper, small-time crim, drug addict, Black Muslim. He knew he destined to die young.

The complete Maus by Art Spiegelman. Art Spiegelman's father's story of surviving the Holocaust, with Jews represented as mice and Germans as cats.

Brave new world by Aldous Huxley. A classic. Reminiscent of 1984. Written in 1932, it remains fresh, relevant, and as scary as ever.

Breath by Tim Winton. I think it can safely be called a Great Australian Novel. It's about risk, passion, and masculinity. I couldn't stop reading it.

The Spare Room by Helen Garner. I love the domestic, everyday nature of her fiction writing. As always, I can't help but read her 'fiction' as autobiographical. I hope the dodgy cancer clinic man gets the karma that is coming to him.

The Great Gatsby: a graphic adaptation by Nikki Greenberg. I read Fitzgerald's version as a teenager, and didn't really get it. Greenberg's adaptation helps, and I adore the way she visualises it.

Naked by David Sedaris. How is it that I have only discovered this irreverent, witty writer this year??

Princesses and pornstars by Emily Maguire. I think it's an important, grounded postfeminist text.

The collected Dorothy Parker by Dorothey "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses" Parker. I love her.

I watched every single episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even season seven. The only saving grace of that series was the Anya episode where she sings. I'm now making my way through The Gilmore Girls (I love all the film and literary references). And I am crushing on both Bret and Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords. First Tuesday Book Club is about the only show I watch on the tele.

I am more positive about the world under Rudd and Obama's leadership.

I ride my shiny red bike everywhere.

I am comfortable in my body and like my curves.

I like my life. I go out a lot, and am less shy then I used to be. I blogged more back then when I was shyer. I needed it as a communication outlet.

I think I'm ready to write again. I hope so.

Weird American Traditions #1: Halloween

2007-10-31T15:51:00.000+11:00

"Happy Halloween y'all!"

...is what I'd be saying if I was American.

As I'm an Aussie, Halloween usually slips by without me even noticing it.

We just don't do Halloween here.

While pretty much every other aspect of our culture is Americanised, trick-or-treaters we ain't.

The only American tradition more foreign to me is Thanksgiving. At least I understand the Halloween concept. All I know about Thanksgiving is that it involves turkeys and cranberry sauce... and maybe pilgrims. Does it involve pilgrims?

When I was a wee lassie* my friends and I made a couple of half-arsed attempts at trick-or-treating. If we bothered to dress up at all, it wasn't particularly inspired. I seem to remember wetting a green m-and-m and using it like a lipstick, which turned us into 'witches'. When we trawled the Mont Albert streets door-knocking, every single house we visited was unaware it was Halloween. So we scored:

a) nothing
b) muesli bars, or
c) money!

The latter was pretty sweet. Gold coins go a long way when you're eleven.

This year, the only indication I've had that All Hallows Eve is upon up is a small, hastily-put-together stand in my local supermarket with some masks and fake teeth. It was far outshadowed by the Christmas display anyway. Which is so necessary in October.

The only reason I remembered it was Halloween today is because there was a lady on my morning tram dressed entirely in black wearing an enormous black witches hat. I have to admire her dedication to the cause. If I had been off to an early-morning Halloween party(?) I think I would have carried my hat with me, not worn it.
That said, she did get off at the Royal Children's Hospital stop, so perhaps her everyday job is to dress up as a witch and scare the little kiddies! At least that's what I thought in my early morning daze.**

Anyhoo, here's a picture of Jake Gyllenhaal in my favourite movie-featuring-a-Halloween-scene Donnie Darko. (Second favourite: Meet Me In St. Louis.) You can come to my 'Halloween party' anytime, Jakey.

*And Scottish, apparently!

** OK, so it was 10am. But I'm a full-time student in the middle of the exam period. 10am is like the middle of the night to me.

Hot guys 3: smart, nerdy Jewish guys.

2007-07-21T14:06:00.000+10:00

I'm still getting requests for more of these posts. It might have to become a regular feature!

I've got a bit of a thing for smart, nerdy, slightly neurotic Jewish guys of the Woody Allen variety.

I'm not sure why. It could relate back to high school, where my favourite teacher was a smart Jewish guy. I wouldn't say he was 'hot' though. If I remember correctly, he was a Rabbi, and he reminded me more of Teyve from Fiddler on the Roof than Woody Allen.

All together now:

If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
If I were a biddy biddy rich,
Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man.

Maybe it's because through my knowledge of pop culture, I link smart, nerdy Jewish guys to New York City, which is the place I'd like to visit the most in the entire world.

Or perhaps it's because I see this type of guy as unattainable. I'm a shiksa - a non-Jewish woman - and traditionally, children have to have a Jewish mother to be considered Jewish. Which is quite a strong reason for Jewish men to marry Jewish women.

I haven't completely given up hope though. Kristina Grish has written a whole book about shiksas dating Jewish guys, Boy Vey! The Shiksa's Guide to Dating Jewish Men.

Anyway, enough about my idiosyncrasies, on to the pictures!

Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated. That first picture is great; he looks like he could be a librarian! And then I could work with him... And then we could find a quite corner of the history stacks...

Sorry, I'm getting off track.

Danny Katz. Danny Katz is hilarious. I love his columns in The Age and when he answers the reader questions in the Good Weekend. His columns often make mention of his beloved, whom I believe is a shiksa. There's hope for me yet!

John Safran. I like how outspoken and opinionated he is. The interplay between him and Father Bob Maguire on shows like Sunday Night Safran is gold.

Woody Allen. There's just something about him.

Thinking about this type of guy, it's probably their intelligence that makes them sexy, rather than their looks. Which is probably a downfall for a largely pictorial blog entry.

Still, as a single girl who is in a period of exploring what and whom I find attractive, I have to admit these guys do it for me.

Intelligence is a very sexy quality.

Link: Jewlicious

*Update*

For Stef:

David Krumholtz. Hot Damn!

Would the penalty have been as harsh if he'd been a white Australian? It's doubtful.

2007-07-17T19:38:00.000+10:00

The culture of fear is alive and well in Australia.

Not only is the Sydney Lord Mayor advocating residents prepare an emergency kit for any potential terrorist attacks, a man will be placed in a detention centre, then eventually deported because he gave his SIM card to his cousin. The cousin was then involved in the recent terrorist activity in London.

There had better be more to it than that. If all he did was hand his cousin a SIM card, we're probably all potential terrorists.

As Ron Hyndman wrote in today's letters to the editor in The Age:

OK, I confess. I recklessly loaned my phone to someone I didn't know well. I also recklessly stopped to help a woman whose car had broken down. Then I recklessly paid for a man's lunch when he couldn't do so himself. Any one of them could have been a terrorist. I plead guilty.
Please lock me up. I'm a danger to society. I'd rather die in prison for reckless acts of kindness than live a free man in a country where love, mercy and compassion are outlawed.

*Update* There is a great opinion piece about the issue by Julian Burnside here.

P.S. Like Burnside's style? Come join us at the Facebook group, Julian Burnside is the thinking woman's crumpet.

P.P.S. Not interested in the Burnside group? Alternatively, let me bite you on Facebook and turn you into a zombie!

Link: Let's get ready Sydney!

A new direction for BTC?

2007-07-14T12:22:00.002+10:00

I'm on Myspace, Facebook, and I keep a blog (obviously). Much as I love the social interactivity and the creative space of the internet, sometimes I wonder about my increasing dependence on it. I feel the need to check my email every single day, even though I don't have a computer at home. Myspace is slowly becoming one of my primary methods of communication with people.

For the most part, I think the internet is a positive development. Social networking through Myspace and blogging can increase links with people in your immediate circle of friends and across the world. Yet sometimes I question the pull I feel to 'exist' online. Why do I feel the need to have my name come up when 'Susanne Newton' is entered in Google?

I enjoy blogging because I like to write, and to create something that is of interest to other people. I like the way words can be constructed and edited before they are put out into the world, in a way that can't be done with face-to-face communication. How the words you write are kept there in print; rather than being lost in face-to-face conversation. Recorded for prosperity.

In internet communication, there is a distance between the writer and the reader; a screen between us. Yet there is also a closeness and intimacy that can be reached through blogging, a cerebral element. I have never met many of the people whose blogs I read, and who read this blog, yet I know what they think about, what they are interested in. Perhaps the distance of the screen allows bloggers to be personal and intimate in a way that might not come so easily face-to-face.

These days I'm more confident than I used to be, and more of my communication is direct, face-to-face. Perhaps I don't need to blog as much as I used to.

For the most part, I shy away from getting too personal on this blog. I use my real name, and real-life friends read it. Strangely, if the blog was anonymous, I would be more open in my writing. From now on, I will try to put a bit more of my self into this blog. What have I got to lose?

Hot guys 2: the sampler box

2007-06-29T17:10:00.000+10:00

The Cheesecake readers have called for more Beefcake!

So, ladies (and gentlemen of a certain persuasion), I present Hot guys 2: the sampler box.

Due to the perceived homogeneity of the last lot, I've aimed for a wider variety of hotness, and responded to reader requests, which were mainly for pictures of the hotness that is Christian Bale.

Here you go kids:

As requested by Stef, Sharnee and Audrey, Christian Bale:

As requested by Rosanna, Colin Firth

As requested by Audrey, Jeffrey Dean Morgan:

I'm not sure who this guy is, but I like his beard.

And, as chosen by moi:

Ryan Reynolds. I don't usually go for blonde guys, but I'll make an exception here.

Oh. My. God. He should like, never wear a shirt.

Beyond being the epitome of hotness, Reynolds is also very funny, and a blogger who uses words like "mental temerity". I'm also impressed by the fact that he dated Alanis Morissette rather than some vapid Hollywood starlet. Le sigh.

More to come next week...

Hot guys!

2007-06-20T20:07:00.000+10:00

Enjoy.

James Franco. I used to be a Tobey Maguire girl, but James Franco is looking so damn good these days, I'm going over to the dark side.

Milo Ventimiglia

Chris Carrabba from Dashboard Confessional.

Jake Gyllenhaal

Jon Cryer as Duckie Dale. I'm a sucker for a boy in unrequited love.

Clive Owen. I love a strong jawline.

The Swingers Boys. There are so many cute swing boys in this movie. I have to watch it again. Vince Vaughn is pretty sexy, but I've always been a Mikey girl (unrequited love, remember?)

Mark Ruffalo. He looks extra cute in glasses in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Hot chicks!

2007-06-12T20:27:00.000+10:00

AfterEllen.com has just put out a great list of 100 girls that chicks find hot, to counter the dominant Maxim Hot 100 style listings. To make the list, it helped immensely if you starred on The L Word, or if you were a woman that other women "admire as well as desire".

Here's a few of my favourite ladies from their Hot 100 list:

11. Eliza Dushku

The hotter Vampire Slayer to Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy; the hotter cheerleader to Kirsten Dunst's Torrance, Eliza Dushku is just plain hot. She was even hot as Tru in the rather odd "I see dead people" television show Tru Calling. Check her out in a catsuit in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and tell me you wouldn't turn for her.

32. Lauren Graham

Ok, I confess, The Gilmore Girls is one of my all-time favourite television shows, and Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore definitely fits the criteria of being someone I'd like to be like (as well as being a total MILF).

38. Jessica Alba

Sin City. No further explanation needed.

42. Drew Barrymore

She's cute and she looks like she'd be great to hang out with. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure she's at least a little bit bi, too.

45. Maggie Gyllenhaal

Is it wrong to lust after both her and Jake Gyllenhaal? My god they're a hot family.

56. Kristen Bell

I don't know if I'd actually want to be Veronica Mars. I admire her sassiness, but I don't know if I could be bothered being a straight-A student, solving crimes and being generally disliked by most people I interacted with. Still, I think Kristen Bell plays the role really well, I like her clothes, and she's a vegetarian to boot.

58. Rachel McAdams

She's just so damn cute in The Notebook.

71. Stockard Channing

I'm probably more of a Sandy Olsen type (blonde, blue eyes, people are surprised when I swear...), but I always wanted to be a Rizzo. Effortlessly sexy.

80. Sara Ramirez

So much hotter than skinny Ellen Pompeo on Grey's. Those curves!

95. Susan Sarandon

I just re-watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show recently, and while Dr Frank-N-Furter is sex in that movie, Susan Sarandon's Janet Weiss is gorgeous as well. She's still really pretty all these years later:

You can access the full set of pictures here.

Le sigh.

Thought for the day, aka more Paul Bowles goodness

2007-05-21T10:21:00.001+10:00

For Audrey. My condolences, lovely girl.

Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.

-Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky

Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

2007-05-18T15:23:00.000+10:00

Going more slowly, he continued. He had brought with him some figs, which he now pulled out and devoured. When he had followed the river's complete turning, he found himself facing the sun in the west, looking up a small valley that lay between two gently graded, bare hills. At the end was a steeper hill, reddish in colour, and in the side of the hill was a dark aperture. He liked caves, and was tempted to set out for it. But distances here were deceptive, and there might not be time before dark; besides, he did not feel the necessary energy inside him. 'Tomorrow I'll come earlier and go up,' he said to himself. He stood looking up the valley a little wistfully, his tongue seeking the fig seeds between his teeth, with the small tenacious flies for ever returning to crawl along his face. And it occurred to him that a walk through the countryside was a sort of epitome of the passage through life itself. One never took the time to savour the details; one said: another day, but always with the hidden knowledge that each day was unique and final, that there never would be a return, another time.

-Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky

Today I've been taking life slowly and savouring the details. Savouring the rain that may help stave off stage four water restrictions in our drought-ravaged city. Walking from my house to Sydney Road and spending the whole morning op-shopping. Slowly making my way through the culinary delights of Brunswick: this morning it was El-Faiha sweets; last time it was cannoli ricotta from Pasticceria Italia (my first cannoli ever!).

I may not have a lot of money, but when you can walk home with a bag full of op-shop gems and Lebanese treats from Sydney Road, with change from your twenty dollar note left in your pocket, who needs it?

Logies 2007 Fashion Wrap-Up

2007-05-09T15:34:00.000+10:00

This year's batch of Logies frocks in one word: uninspiring.

Ah, the Logies. Australian television's night of nights; or, should I say, the night when Australia's top c-grade celebrities and a couple of imported f-grade American celebrities come together to celebrate the remnants of the Australian television industry: McLeod's Daughters, Rove Live and a couple of soapies and lifestyle shows.

If the Logies is anything to go by, the Australian television industry is remarkably homogenous. So many thin blonde women. So many young starlets who I can barely tell the difference between since I don't watch Home and Away or Neighbours.

Case in point: apparently the person on the left of the above shot, 'Pippa Black', is a different person to the 'Eliza Taylor-Cotter' of the next shot. Can you tell the difference between then? I'm certainly struggling.

Jessica Alba looked pretty, but the girl could look stunning in a paper bag.

Avril Lavigne was her typical monosyllabic, underdressed self.

Green seemed to be the colour of the night. I wasn't particularly impressed by any of the dresses though.

Natalie Blair

Kate Ritchie

Catriona Rowntree

The award for worst dressed of the night wasn't a hard decision. I'm singling out Nicky Whelan for this hideous floral ensemble. It doesn't look that bad from this angle, but trust me, it is that bad.

Michala Banas had an equally horrible dress on, but I seem to locate a photo of it. Perhaps all the photographers were too horrified to click their cameras when they saw her outfit.

Runner up for worst dressed is Natalie Saleeba. She looks a bit like a tiered wedding cake.

As for the best dressed of the night, it's a tough call. There were plenty of nice frocks out there, but they were all kind of boring.

So just because they dressed a little differently, I'm giving props to Tania Zaetta for wearing a sari...

... and to Jeanne Little for being her own crazy self in a boring television world. Forget the Gold Amercian Express dress, here's the next big thing: Frill-neck lizard stylin's, brought to you by Mix FM.

The I-have-no-idea-what-to-say-about-this award goes to Sandra Sully. Anyone want to help me out here? I can't decide if I hate it or like it. Maybe she thought the night had a Strictly Ballroom theme?

The WTF award goes to Megan Gale and Andy Lee for being the odd couple of the century. He looks ok in this picture, but really, how on earth did this man score Megan Gale?

.

I. Just. Don't. Get. It.

You've got to feel a little sorry for Anna Jennings-Edquist, girlfriend of Hamish Blake. She looked nice, but standing next to the Amazon that is Megan Gale she just looked... really short.

On a final note, I think ~~Sally~~ Kate Ritchie looks really pretty here, and deserves congratulations for winning the Gold Logie. Australia's little girl is all grown up!

Til next year! Well, if there are any Australian shows left by then.

Metablogging.

2007-05-01T20:06:00.000+10:00

Toothpaste for Dinner

It is kind of amazing when you think about it. How we can cross international borders so easily and peek into each other's lives from across the screen.

I'm back! Anyone still here? Tumbleweed blows through the ghost town that is Better than Cheesecake

2007-04-27T14:32:00.000+10:00

So tell me, dear reader, does absence make the heart grow fonder? Have you missed me?

Actually, don't answer that. Back when I was blogging regularly I found it exceedingly frustrating when a favourite blog had the same old entry sitting up there for ages. I know regular updates are absolutely essential to a good blog, and are a big part of what makes blogs like Perez Hilton and Reasons You Will Hate Me so successful.

So, once again, my apologies for the length between drinks.

Remember the last post? Where I wrote about how I felt like my whole life was up in the air? Well I've been busy sorting it all out. For the better.

And I'm really happy with where I'm at.

Thailand was amazing. I trekked through the hills of Northern Thailand with Intrepid Travel, staying with local hill tribes in their villages. While most of the journey was on foot, we also travelled by elephant, and by bamboo raft along the river. I felt in my element throughout the trek, managing to keep pace with the boys and carrying my load without complaint.

The only time I felt out of my element was when we returned to Chiang Mai and visited a local nightclub. I had forgotten how much I loathe nightclubs. The pounding music, the strobe lights, the sleaziness... Give me the jungle any day.

The other girls in my group felt the opposite way. On the trek they made the guides carry their packs, and fretted about how they looked without make-up. They were in their element back at the nightclub, with their high heels, their 'bling', their solarium tans.

I think I'm more girly then I used to be. I wear red lipstick sometimes, and I like dresses and skirts and stockings, but I'm also proudly not a girly-girl. It's not something I notice so much in my urban existence, but being out in the wild brings it back home.

Since returning to Melbourne, everything has been falling into place.

Things ended with the boy I was seeing about as amiably as you could ask for about a month ago. Girls, here's a life lesson that took me about five months to figure out:

If he doesn't want to be your boyfriend, you can't make him want to be your boyfriend.

It's been a while since I've been properly single. I'm pretty fine with it though. I've been busy going out lots, and...

...moving to Brunswick! I really like it there so far. You can still rent there quite cheaply too. As my waiter at the lovely El Mirage cafe (pictured right) mentioned recently, a lot of younger people are moving here now that they can't afford Fitzroy.

And I'm in good company- I just read that Labor-Party-Great-Hope Julia Gillard lived in a share house in Brunswick when she first moved to Melbourne.

As for the 'what to do after an Arts degree' dilemma, I've decided to become a librarian! It feels like the right choice. I wanted a professional career, but I didn't want to teach, and it relates to my undergraduate major of English lit. I'll be qualified by the end of the year.

So that's my life. Sorted.

Thanks so much for sticking with this blog guys, even while it's been so sporadic. All 20,000 of you!

Surely you're not still reading this thing?

2007-02-07T21:36:00.000+11:00

Why hello there dear reader. How are you? Happy New Year to you! What's that you say? It's February already? Oh. Never mind.

Despite the seeming evidence to the contrary, I am still alive.

I suppose the reason I haven't felt the blogging urge in the last month or two is because I feel like my entire life is up in the air at the moment.

I have absolutely no idea where I'll end up this year.

Since it's already February, you'd think I'd have some idea by now, but I don't.

My love life, my home life, my work life... all up in the air.

So what's my solution?

I'm escaping. I'm leaving the country!

Ok, so I'm heading to Thailand for a couple of weeks. That counts, right?

I don't know what to do about so many things.

I don't know what to do about the new boy. Sometimes it's really, really good between us; sometimes it's just ok. And while I like him a lot, I'm not sure how he really feels about me.

I don't know what to do about work. I'm not really interested in the jobs that are out there, and I am now at the point of having to face what I've avoided thinking about for a very long time- that an Arts degree is virtually useless in the job market.

I don't know if I should remain vegetarian. I still agree with vegetarianism is principle, but if I have to take iron tablets to remain healthy, is it really worth it?

I don't even heart The O.C. anymore! It's going downhill fast. I couldn't even sit through the whole episode last night. At least Veronica Mars is still good. Although I have no idea how Veronica manages to hold down a job, do really well at school, have various boyfriends and solve all the crimes in Neptune without being a superhero.

I don't know if I'll keep blogging. I plan to. I do love it, you know. Even if I have been away for a while.

So that's what's happening with me at the moment.

Nothing.

Everything.

I might end up on the dole. I might leave Melbourne and go teach English in Japan.

Who knows?

I suppose it'll all work out as it's supposed to. I think I'll just let this year happen and see where it takes me.

I don't really know what else I can do.

I heart The O.C.

2006-12-03T19:25:00.000+11:00

It's been over two weeks since I posted already?

Where have I disappeared to, you ask?

Well, without revealing too much, there might just be a new love interest keeping me busy. It's all very new and still very early days, but I think it's going really well so far. He is lovely.

But this post isn't about him. This post is about a different relationship altogether...

Dear O.C.,

I remember when we first met. You were on Channel Nine then, buried away in the summer season. You struggled to find an audience back then. But then moved to your spiritual home, Channel Ten, and became a cultural phenomenon. They gave you a good timeslot. Supre started selling "I Love Seth" t-shirts.

Since then, we've had our ups and downs. I'd almost given up on you, you know. I thought you might have jumped the shark when Mischa Barton jumped ship. Could you survive the loss of Marissa? Could you survive the greatest challenge any teen show faces- what to do when the main characters graduate high school? Even Rachel Bilson didn't think so:

I just feel like the show is over. I'm so happy for everything it brought me, and it's been such a great experience, but I think we're all ready to move on.

Your first three episodes this season were terrible. You've always been melodramatic, but ironically melodramatic. Where was the wit? Where was the intertextuality? Why was Summer's character completely different to the first three seasons? Would all the Cohens really follow Volchek all the way to Mexico? Could Taylor really work as a lead character?

The only saving grace in these episodes was when a homeless guy called Sandy "crazy eyebrow man".

I really thought it was over for you and I, O.C.

But this week, you won me back.

I'm yours again.

This episode had everything.

There was an explanation for Summer's complete change of personality. (She was, like, so upset about the death of Marissa she decided to become a hippy!)

There were good lines:

Julie Cooper: "Two women spending Saturday night at home together, I love it. How very Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

There was the so-wrong-it's-right Taylor-Ryan match, complete with hot kiss and innuendo about peaches.* Somehow the seemingly lame French husband storyline managed to work. The Seth-Summer kiss at the airport was great too.

It played up the ridiculously-young-looking-mum angle by having Julie and daughter Kaitlin cross paths at the same nightclub. I'm warming to mini-Marissa now.

Welcome home, O.C. Just keep on doing what you do best- teen melodrama with more than a hint of irony and winks to the viewers- and we'll be just fine.

Love,

Susanne

*I always considered myself to be a Seth girl, but lately that's changed. Seth is so whiny and boyish. Ryan is a man. Team Ryan!

*Update*

Pink is the New Blog is reporting that Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson have called it quits. This makes me a bit sad. They are so cute together!

As for last night's O.C., I'm definitely warming to Kaitlin's character, and I think Autumn Reeser is doing a great job with Taylor. Keep up the good work, Schwartz.

Spring Racing Carnival 2006 Fashion Wrap-Up

2006-11-16T10:45:00.000+11:00

Now I'd hardly consider myself a fashionista.

I don't buy Cleo or Cosmo, I didn't attend the Spring Racing Carnival, and I've never had my nails done in my life.

Rather, I'm a poor student who buys most of her clothes from Valley Girl, and at this very moment I'm wearing trackpants, ugg boots and a hoodie.

But I don't think that's any reason not to judge other people's spring racing carnival outfits, is it?

I like to think of fashion the way I think of art: I don't know much about it, but I know what I like.*

First up is the obligatory 'celebrities'.

Kate 'another one bites the dust' Bosworth. Kate has gotten way too skinny lately. And what it that thing on her head?

Look how fit and healthy she was in Blue Crush a couple of years ago:

It's sad to see how thin and frail she looks now.

One thing Kate does have going for her, however, is that she is a bona fide celebrity. The other main overseas celebrity shipped in this year was Andrea Bowen, aka Teri Hatcher's daughter on Desperate Housewives. Australia, is this really the best you can do?

She looks cute enough here, but she's not even old enough to drink or bet on the races- she's sixteen- and is hardly what I'd call a 'star'. Try harder next year guys.

As for the Australian Posh and Becks, Bec and Leight, I'm in two minds about Bec's outfit. She caused a stir by wearing shorts in what is a traditionally a me-Tarzan, you-Jane sort of atmosphere, where the men wear suits and the women wear dresses.

I don't mind the shorts. I love long shorts, and I think they look quite cute on her. I would expect to see copycats next year. There's a fine line between being a trendsetter and committing a fashion faux pas though, and I don't like the bra-style top at all. It's too trashy for what is supposed to be a classy event.

Alex Dimitriades looked dapper. He was judging the fashions on the field after all.

Jennifer Hawkins always looks good, but I think this outfit is way to cutesy for her. She's sexy, not cute, and if I was dressing her I'd play up the sexy side of her.

As for the non-celebs, I love all the colour and effort people go to with their outfits, such as Ruth Jackman, who is wearing a Linda Gorringe outfit:

Jess Soldani, who must have been freezing in this outfit on cup day:

and Christolyn Raj:

I love all the elaborate hats too, but some of them just look so heavy.

Livia Leone and Sara Nicotera:

Effi Cliff:

Chantal Waters:

I don't know how she did it, but I'm very impressed with Anneliese Seubert here, for pulling off a white outfit with pale skin. Lovely.

Rebecca Twigley caused a fuss with her outfit, as per usual, but I find it rather bland myself:

And the back:

This is Sarah Schofield, who won the fashions on the field contest. Good on her for sticking with the racing theme, and for putting the outfit together on a miniscule budget.

Overall, I think the spring racing carnival fashion is improving as years go on. I look forward to next year's crop. Maybe one day I'll even get all dressed up myself.

*And when I like something I tend to stick to it. I've been wearing black Converse high tops since I was twelve and still wear them to this day, half a lifetime later.

I'm also seriously considering making a two-hour round trip this morning just to pick up a couple of the last precious pairs of Love Kylie Hollywood Hold-Ups left in Melbourne.

They're the best fishnet stay-ups around. They're sexy as, have a seam up the back and they actually stay up. That's it, I'm going...

The emancipation of Susie (apologies, Mariah) or: two months down; happiness prevails

2006-11-05T23:46:00.000+11:00

People don't complete us. We complete ourselves.

-Erica Jong, Fear of Flying*

Hello my lovely readers.

How are you all?

Well, I hope.

Please excuse my absence from the blogosphere of late.

It's been necessary for me to take some time out, away from the computer. To spend some time in the sun. To spend some time in the company of real, live people. To stop taking myself so goddman seriously. In short, to make myself happy.**

And it's worked.

I'm feeling much better about things. What I've been realising is that you can't defer your happiness until, say, you finish uni or you have more money or whatever it is you're waiting for- you have to live in the present and appreciate the things that make you happy everyday.

Lots of things have been making me happy lately. Things like seeing what may well be my favourite band ever, Less than Jake, in concert and reliving my teenage years by moshing, skanking, and going in the circle-pit with the boys; the good things about being single, like staying out really late with your friends and dancing the night away, the sense of freedom and possibility that comes with singledom; jogging farther than you thought you could and getting the adrenaline rush that comes with it; music; my lovely friends.

I've been consciously 'putting myself back out there' too, slowly. I've been meeting lots of boys and practicing my flirting technique. It's pretty fun, and it's definitely helping me get over a certain someone. I haven't met anyone I really like yet, but I did kiss a boy who wasn't the boy last weekend, for the first time in a long time.

I don't know how I found the guts to do it, but somehow I managed to pick him up. He was kind of a bad boy, with lots of tatts and piercings, yet I still felt pretty confident flirting with him. It was cool. I feel more comfortable with that sexy side of myself now than I did a couple of years ago. It's a good feeling.

Besides, meeting a new boy and hanging out with him all night until the sun rises has got to be one of my favourite pastimes ever.

For a moment there I considered getting his number, but he wasn't from Melbourne, and while I thought he was awfully pretty (and a damn good kisser), we didn't have that much to talk about, and when I was honest with myself I knew he was just another step in getting over the ex. It was an awesome night though, and it was fun to play 'the boy', and call the shots.

It's good to be back blogging.

I promise not to leave it so long between posts next time.

I'm working cup day (gah!), so I'll be checking out all your lovely blogs then.

* That's not the only lesson I learnt from Fear of Flying. It's helped my dancing too:

"Dancing is like fucking," I said, "it doesn't matter how you look-just concentrate on how you feel." Wasn't I the brazen one? What was with this woman-of-the-world act anyway? I was half crazed with fear.

I closed my eyes and gyrated inside the music. I bumped and ground and undulated. Somewhere back in the ancient days of the Twist, it had suddenly occurred to me that nobody knew how to do these dances- so why feel self conscious? In social dancing, as in social life, chutzpah is all. From then on I became a "good dancer," or at least I enjoyed it. It was like fucking- all rhythm and sweat.

** Well, that and the fact that I'm not working that much at the moment, and I usually blog at work. The above reason's more romantic though.

Backpacking through Europe or joining the army. Tough choice, hey kids?

2006-10-17T10:12:00.000+10:00

Brendan Nelson, Australia's Federal Defence Minister recently suggested that school leavers should spend their gap year between high school and university in the army, rather than travelling overseas:

"The gap-year proposal makes our army, air force and navy life a highly desirable option for young people looking for an experience for that year," Dr Nelson said.

"Why should our young people be teaching rugby in the United Kingdom, or backpacking or working in pubs instead of taking up the chance to wear the Australian uniform for a year?"

There are so many things wrong with this suggestion I hardly know where to begin.

The most concerning part of it for me is how it devalues overseas travel experience and suggests it would be more valuable for young Australians to stay in the country and train to defend Australia.

Overseas travel experience is incredibly important for getting a sense of what it means to be an Australian (If there is such a thing- I think the 'Aussie values' debate shows how hard it is to pin this down). I do think there is a certain sense of reflection and perspective that only comes from spending time outside your country.

This is especially the case for a country like Australia, which is quite isolated. I think there is a danger of becoming quite insular and inward-looking here, as the current climate of fear surrounding Muslims and Asylum Seekers shows.

I think we should be encouraging our young people to see the world; to live in other countries; to become world citizens. If they decide to join the army after that, fine.

How can our eighteen year olds be expected to train to defend Australia without experiencing other cultures and getting a sense of what it is they're defending?

(Brendan Nelson, inexplicably, on a motorcycle:)

Realistically, Nelson's comments may have been an attempt to recruit more people to the army, airforce and navy rather than any real dismissal of overseas travel.

Still, the fallout has brought about even stronger claims, such as calls for conscription from a group of former soldiers.

Mitchell Benson of Woy Woy, wrote to The Age on October 17th, saying:

MILITARY service would produce discipline, self-belief, confidence, initiative, and teamwork, which are sorely missing these days. Wouldn't that be so much better than learning how to skol a stein at Oktoberfest?

I'm sure the army does produce teamwork, discipline and other skills. I'm not arguing against that. But there are also a variety of skills such as independence, tolerance of other cultures, and perspective that come from overseas travel, which shouldn't be devalued.

In response to Mitchell, yes, on my overseas travels I learnt to skol a stein at Oktoberfest. But I also visited a concentration camp in Austria. Partying was only one side of it.

Of course, there is the possibility of overseas travel within the army. As Noel Howard wrote to The Age on the same day:

AS DEFENCE Minister Nelson stated, school leavers need not go backpacking to see the world. Join an army and you'll see the sights of Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, North Korea, and the Gaza Strip, etc.

A blissful night of Karaoke at the dodgiest venue in the world: Charltons.

2006-10-14T19:13:00.000+10:00

Last night I sang. In public. For the first time in a long time. It was great.

It was at Charltons, which is about the dodgiest pool hall/ karaoke venue you can find in our fair city.

To get there you have to go down a dirty alley that also contains a Club X, turn left, and go up three floors in a lift.* You then enter another world, with decor from at least twenty years ago. My boss informed me that twenty odd years ago, Charltons was the place to be. That's hard to imagine now.

But you know what? It's a great venue. Definitely of the so-bad-it's-good variety. It's cheap, it's dodgy, and it was the perfect after work venue for getting a bit trashed and having a good time. There are no pretensions at Charltons.

Gin and Tonics and Thai food on the company budget helped things along too.

Somehow I plucked up the courage to sing two songs all by myself- 'Killing Me Softly' by The Fugees and 'I Say A Little Prayer' by Dionne Warwick.

It was exhilarating. I'm kind of shy, but singing is different to talking. My workmates helped by cheering me on and singing along.

Back in high school I was a big time choir chick. We were quite good actually. We even won an interstate competition once. How Sister Act 2 of us. Except with less dancing. And more white people.

I really love to sing. I was a bit rusty, but I think I pulled it off.

Afterwards I got complemented, which is always nice. An older guy came up to me and said, "Your diction was impeccable, and you didn't drop a note". A couple of other guys said I did a good job, and bought me a couple of drinks.

One of them asked me if I'd like to go for coffee sometime. I declined the offer.

I guess I'm going to have to start saying yes sometime soon though. That's a scary thought.

...

I really like the Karaoke scene in Lost In Translation. That whole movie is so aesthetically appealing.

You know, I think that movie transported Scarlett Johansson from dorky sidekick in Ghost World to Hollywood It Girl in one spectacular butt-shot:

*If you're in Melbourne and would like to go up a lift to a more classy establishment, I highly recommend Madame Brussels. It's like, the anti-Charltons.

School shootings, the 'copycat effect' and gun control

2006-10-12T00:18:00.000+10:00

Of the succession of school shootings that have occurred recently, the Amish school shooting where five young girls died was surely one of the most tragic.

For Loren Coleman, author of The Copycat Effect, the Amish shooting was one of a pattern of school shootings where the murderers had been influenced by the media coverage of past shootings. He argues that the media should be more responsible in the way they report these events. For instance, he thinks they should provide contact numbers for helplines alongside news reports, and that the media shouldn't sensationalise the events.

On his website he predicted that the 11th of October was a dangerous "hot window" for more school shootings. He was scarily close- on the 9th a thirteen year old boy would probably have killed classmates if his gun hadn't jammed.

What can be done? The media following Coleman's recommendations for covering these events could help, as could greater gun control.

Greater gun control is hard to achieve in America, however, as their constitution states that individuals have the right to bear arms.

Also, many conservatives such as Elisabeth Hasselbeck defend this right strongly, arguing that perhaps it would have been useful if the Amish schoolteachers had been able to defend themselves with guns(!):

If you don't have time to watch it, this clip shows Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View debating the issue- Rosie argues for more gun control; Elisabeth argues against it on the grounds that many people use guns to defend themselves.

Personally, I'm glad I live in a country that has comparatively strict gun controls in place. I think one of the best things John Howard has done while in power has been taking a strong stance on gun control following the Port Arthur Massacre, passing legislation that "included mandatory gun licenses and registration of all firearms, and a near-complete ban on all semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, and all pump-action shotguns."

I think this had made Australia a safer place.

On the other side, however, gun control alone that will not stop people harming others. Even the Amish culture has its problems. David E. Yoder's comprehensive Amish Abuse website outlines many cases of Amish physical and sexual abuse within the culture. An ex-Amish himself, David outlines the difficulties and frustrations he has with both the Amish and the 'English' as he tries to get justice for a family of children abused by their parents.

I wish that we could eradicate all the bad from the world. That may be an impossible task, but stricter gun control and a more responsible media would be a start.

Update:

I just received an email from Loren Coleman(!), male author of The Copycat Effect.

He notes that: "It is intriguing you should mention the Port Arthur Massacre. The Port Arthur mass shooting was a copycat of the Dunblane, Scotland school shooting."

He wrote a blog about this, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", which can be found here.

Fashion tip of the week

2006-10-08T10:47:00.000+10:00

Ladies, ladies, ladies.

Following a big night out with two lovely girlfriends where much dancing and observing (read: bitching about) what other people were wearing took place, this morning I feel compelled to issue the following advice to certain dedicated followers of fahion out there:

At least six of you were at the Cherry Bar last night, dressed in the exact same outfit, with only the smallest of variations between you. The outfit was this: flat shoes, leggings of various lengths, a printed dress and a waist-belt:

I didn't see any of you wearing a headband, but it wouldn't have surprised me.

I'm all for having fun with fashion. I love all the cute flats that are out at the moment. You've got to make the most of those rare instances when fashion and comfort combine.

But please, please, don't dress in the latest trends from head to toe.

If you must follow the trends, make them work for you. Find that which suits you, and own it. You don't have to blindly follow what Cosmopolitan tells you is cool.

And as for leggings, listen to the Fug girls. They were warning against the trend way back in October 2004:

Here's the thing. Leggings under a dress are never good. Cold legs? Meet tights. Or pants. Or, my personal choice, suffering.

It's not that I don't appreciate, you know, High Fashion. I have a subscription to W, for goodness sake. I just don't think that "edgy" absolutely has to equal "ugly."

I mean....leggings, people. Leggings. We can not go back to a time when it is okay to wear leggings out of the house. I don't even want to go back to time when it is okay to wear leggings inside the house. We decide that leggings under a dress is okay, and it's just one small, slippery step toward leggings on their own, and then leggings paired with a giant tee shirt. A giant tee shirt emblazoned with an iron-on of the Nelson twins. And then, the next thing you know, we're all in algebra class again, and no one wants that.

Fight the leggings, hipsters. Fight them. I know they are comfortable. I know that. But so are tights. And tights don't make you look like you've just escaped from the wardrobe wagon of Just One of the Guys. Please. Stay strong. Stay leggings free.

Words to live by.

Over it, moving on, nothing to see here...

2006-10-02T01:55:00.000+10:00

Since you guys seemed to dig the little foray into my post-break-up melancholy, I thought I'd give you an update on the situation.

I'm getting there.

After allowing myself a month to be sad, I'm moving on. Because life is far too short to spend time wallowing over someone who doesn't want to be with you anyway. ~~At least that's what I'm telling myself.~~

For helping me get through the month, I'd like to thank the good people at Arnotts for making these delicious biscuits:

I also felt a hell of a lot better after reading It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy

This book made me realise that it's not necessarily all about you, and what you may or may not have done wrong, but rather that something in the relationship wasn't working. There's a lot of common sense advice in there that you sometimes can't see yourself when your emotions are getting in the way.

Regular exercise helps too, as does Swing Dancing, which I've gotten back into. I think I'm getting addicted to it. It's just so much fun.

Now that I'm feeling a bit more together, I'm looking at this experience as a way of thinking about what I really want out of life, and making the necessary changes to get there.

The next big challenge for me is to make it through the next few crucial weeks of uni. I'm trying to buckle down, but I'm sure I'll get around to checking all your blogs at some point. That's what work is for isn't it?

Brownlow 2006 Fashion Wrap-Up

2006-09-26T16:26:00.000+10:00

Biggest surprise of the night? There wasn't any absolute shockers.

The girls are getting better at the red carpet arrivals. I'll admit that.

But there's still a lot of room for improvement.

For my international readers (all three of you), the Brownlow is Aussie Rules football's night of nights, where the beefcake footy players and their tanned, toned and titilating partners strut their stuff on the red carpet before heading into Crown Casino for a long, drawn out vote count until one finally wins the Brownlow medal, an award for the best and fairest player of the season.

As you may have guessed, I have very little interest in football itself, but I love to critique the red carpet fashions.

The good:

This is Chris Judd's partner Rebecca Twigley.

What I really like about this outfit is that the hair and the understated dress complement and highlight the girl herself, rather then having a fabulous dress that shines brighter then its wearer. Very impressive.

I like Stephanie McIntosh. This dress isn't the most amazing thing I've ever seen, but I think she's cute, and is getting much better at the fashion side of things. This style flatters her figure well too.

The bad:

Amber 'I'm famous solely for being Princess Mary's bridesmaid' Petty.

I have no words. Anyone want to help me out here?

What about 'give the girl a feather duster and she's a French Maid in purple'?

The ugly:

Adelaide's Andrew McLeod and wife Rachel

There's always one isn't there? It's not as bad as Tanya Buckley and the g-banger of 2003 but this sort of thing is just so tacky. Tacky, tacky, tacky.

This is St Kilda's Jason Gram and Kaite Williams. Sorry Kaite, but you epitomise the Brownlow trophy-girlfriend stereotype. It's not that bad I guess, just a bit too blonde, a bit too busty, a bit too Barbie for my liking.

The doubles:

Sydney's Adam Goodes (who won the Brownlow apparently) and Mara Rotheraine

Sydney's Jude Bolton with Lynnette Carroll

I know that a red dress is a no-brainer to match those lovely red and white ties, but surely these girls should have checked what the other one was wearing before showing up in such similar outfits. Apparently not.

Or maybe they got a two-for-one discount? You never know.

And the thank god for double-sided tape award goes to:

Fiona Darmody

And Rachael, wife of Warren Tredrea.

And finally, the weird:

Alan Didak and Cassie Lane.

Cassie Lane kind of reminds me of a Grecian urn.

As for the guys, there's not much to say really. The AFL was stricter with the 'black tie' code for the fellas this year, so we didn't get the metrosexual Brodie Holland stylings of last year:

I quite like Brodie's look here actually. He's a good looking guy and he pulls it off. Still, I think the decision of the AFL to go for a more classy look this year was a good idea.

What would I like to see at next years event? I'd like to see an AFL player come out and bring his male partner. I can't believe that there aren't any gay players in the whole league.

I have to admit, I feel a little guilty for not being into footy. I was born and bred in Melbourne, so it's like, my birthright to be into AFL. Maybe I'll get into it next year... or when the AFL, in an attempt to attract women viewers to the sport, gets the guys to play shirtless:

That would be sweet.

Late night musings.

2006-09-18T01:36:00.000+10:00

On this day two years ago I visited the beautiful Isle of Capri in Italy.

The sea there really is as blue as in this photo.

I was halfway through the trip-of-a-lifetime through Western Europe. I had just been to Rome, and had seen the absolute highlight of my trip, the Sistine Chapel.

Next up would be Venice:

I was 21, and life was exciting.

On this day one year ago the boy and I were sending long I-miss-you emails to each other while he was in Germany and I was in Melbourne. I was 22, and falling in love with someone for the first time.

Now at 23, I'm putting most of my energy into studying. (Hence the late night).

There's less than two months to go now until I finish my honours year.

I wonder where I'll be this time next year, or the year after?

I guess I just hope I'll be happy.

lonelygirl15

2006-09-14T08:11:00.000+10:00

So the first YouTube imposter has been outed. It turns out 'lonelygirl15' is a hoax created by two guys and a hired nineteen year old actress who plays a sixteen year old.

A Seattle Times article reports that:

The short videos began appearing on the Web sites YouTube and MySpace in June. The creators said Tuesday that they never intended to stage a hoax or trick people into believing their characters were real.

"We never wanted to lie to people," Beckett said.

"Our job from the beginning was not to trick people. It was to create a character that was believable," Flinders said.

If this was really the case, however, they should have made it public that the videos were fictional from the get go.

Having checked out a couple of the videos, it seems quite obvious that this isn't your typical YouTuber- the girl is very pretty, and the videos are highly stylised- but that's easy to say in hindsight. I can see how people would have fallen for it.

Her videos can be found here.

If nothing else, they're a fascinating example of how quickly a new, supposedly grass-roots internet medium can become bastardised.

Two weeks into singledom; a long way to go towards happiness.

2006-09-11T23:01:00.000+10:00

A note: So I had planned to write a comprehensive 'In defence of Germaine' post following the events of last week, but I'm not feeling up to any critical analysis at the moment. I may still write it; I may not. Instead, I have made a list. This is about all I feel capable of at the moment. I do hope to return to a regular blogging schedule sometime soon.

Good things about being broken up:

- More time to read and watch movies. I've recently seen Clerks II (loved it), Thank You for Smoking (meh), Harold and Kumar go to White Castle (lots of fun), Girls on Top 2 (it's just as good as the first one) and Dirty Dancing, and I've read Nick Hornby's latest book A Long Way Down, Lynda Curnyn's Confessions of an Ex-girlfriend and a great break-up guide called Get Over It! by Sue Ostler.

- I've lost a couple of kilos since I didn't feel like eating anything for about ten days. (This is not however, a 'diet' I would recommend. I'd choose to be more voluptuous and happy over slightly thinner and heartbroken any day. Still, I'm taking what I can get.)

- In theory at least, I have more time to focus on uni. Probably should be doing that now actually.

- More time for my friends.

- I've managed not to get really, really depressed about it all. That's something, I guess.

- It's a good chance to think about who I am and what I want to do in the future.

- And I quite like spending time by myself. I think I'm kind of a loner at heart.

Bad things about being broken up:

- I miss him terribly.

- The thoughts of 'what did I do wrong?' and 'what could I have done differently?' that enter your head, even though you know you can't change the past.

- That it's only now, two weeks in, that I've started crying about it.

- Being alone in my bed, especially on the weekend. I miss the affection.

- The knowledge that the person you care for most doesn't feel the same way, and that the person who once loved you now doesn't.

Wow, that became quite the depressing post didn't it? My apologies for still writing about the same old topic, I'm sure you're all sick of my love life (or lack thereof) by now.

From here on in, then, I give you my oath that this blog will contain nothing more about my love life until there is actually some kind of love life to write about.

Monday Meme.

2006-09-04T22:57:00.000+10:00

Disclaimer: I'm not sure if anyone is actually interested in my answers to this thing, but I've been tagged by not only Susanna, but Chai as well, so a meme-ing I go.

1. Three things that scare me:

Death.

Having no idea what I'm going to do after I graduate (which is happening scarily soon).

The possibility of failing uni.

2. Three people that make me laugh:

Kevin Smith.

Deb.

~~Quinn~~.

3. Three things I hate the most:

Cockroaches.

The current government's position on Asylum Seekers.

Racism.

4. Three things I don't understand:

Pretty much all science-related stuff.

Sport.

Guys.

5. Three things I'm doing right now:

Studying.

Hanging out with my new dog (He's tiny. He's sitting on my lap right now.)

Drinking tea.

6. Three things I want to do before I die:

Visit New York.

Bungee Jump or Sky Dive.

Have a happy, interesting and fulfilling life with great people around me.

7. Three things I can do:

Sing.

Skull beer really, really, really fast.

Write. I've been keeping a journal fairly regularly for over two years now.

8. Three ways to describe my personality:

Introverted.

Cynical.

Irreverent.

9. Three things I can't do:

Water ski. I tried once but I couldn't for the life of me stand up. How female of me.

Change a tyre. How female of me.

I pretty much suck at rock climbing. I don't have much (ok, any) upper body strength. How female of me.

10. Three things I think you should listen to:

I.

Don't.

Know.

11. Three things you should never listen to:

The negative voice in your head that tells you you're not good enough.

Other people who reinforce this negativity.

And that Russian pop group with the faux-lesbians. Tatu.

12. Three things I'd like to learn:

I'd like to be a good dancer. I might start going to Swing Dancing classes again since I have more free time now, being single and all.

I'd like to stick with my Italian classes and be able to speak it fluently.

I'd like to learn to cook. Since I'm the only vegetarian in my household I don't bother making really nice meals just for myself.

13. Three favourite foods:

Cheesecake (duh).
Pizza.
Chai tea.

14. Three beverages I drink regularly:

Tea.
Tea.
Tea.

15. Three shows I watched as a kid:

Degrassi Junior High

How good was Degrassi? I must have been eleven or twelve when I used to watch it, and I learnt so much from that show about wet dreams, and caffeine pills, and suicide.

I had a bit of a crush on Joey Jeremiah:

And I thought it was so cool how Stephanie got changed into slutty clothes when she went to school.

Her slogan when she wanted to be, I don't know, class president or something was:

All the way with Stephanie Kaye.

Gold.

Round the Twist.

Have you ever, ever felt like this...

Round the Twist was probably the best Aussie kids show ever. The books were nice and gross too.

The Secret World of Alex Mack.

I loved this show so much. Alex was my hero. She had powers, man. I always thought that she should have hooked up with her best friend Ray, but I think that an interracial teen romance was a bit forward for Nickelodeon so they introduced a white boy for her to date.

16. Three people I'm tagging:

I don't tag. Anyone who wants to do this meme is welcome to it.

Spring cleaning my life... oh, and the Friday Five #6: Surviving a Break Up

2006-09-03T10:50:00.000+10:00

So I'm doing ok.

Following the break up, something in me has kicked into survival mode, and I'm putting my energy into self-preservation- going to bed at a reasonable hour; exercising every day and not stressing about uni. I've slowed things down and am taking time to think everything through. I'm not into mantras, but if I was, it'd be something like: 'I'm strong, I'll get through this'.

The biggest side effect so far has been no appetite whatsoever.

I couldn't say these are five things that have made me happy, but five things that have helped me get through this week are:

1. The fact that it's spring. Being out in the sunshine helps immensely.

2. Spending a whole hour in a hot bath with the latest issue of Frankie.

3. Cleaning my room and throwing out stuff I don't need, a symbolic 'new start'.

4. The support of a certain friend who is also having a really shitty week.

5. All the comments on the last post. To my real-life friends Paul, Stef, Amy, Kat, Jess and Chelsea, and all my lovely blog friends Cibby, Pubman, Pomgirl, Qatar Cat, Jen, Susanna, Boysenberry, Chai, Rowena, PC, Russell (you can be surprisingly sweet Russ), Jade, Chickybabe, Yublocka, TopCat, Enny, Audrey, Steph and Catherine, you guys all rock and have really helped.

...

The Friday Five topic this week is surprise, surprise, surviving a break up. Quite a narrow topic I know, but there's not much else on my mind at the moment. ~~Well, except the boy, of course.~~

So after thoroughly researching the topic (read: googling 'surviving a break up'), I recommend:

1. On My Own: Surviving a Break Up This useful little post at Happygrrls has a list of things you should and shouldn't do when going through a break up. It recommends things like changing your environment, taking things day by day and not contacting your ex too soon.

2. Recover from a Breakup... Quickly. I love AskMen.com. I think heaps of their advice can be applied to women, or at least give us chicks some insights into the male mind. Curt's advice for getting over a relationship quickly is to stop feeling sorry for yourself; get rid of the things that remind you of the person; spend time with your family; get fit; and be successful.

3. Pharrah13 recommends: "accept[ing] your hurt as normal and expected. Confront it honestly and openly, but in small, manageable doses."

She also recommends keeping yourself occupied and exercising, the latter which can help you sleep.

4. The DUMPED! Survival Guide. This one has advice for getting through the first month, such as taking care of your appearance, going out dancing and pampering yourself. There are more healing after a break up links here.

5. Surviving relationship break up. I found this one especially useful. It's from the ANU counselling centre so they know their what they're taking about. An example:

A serious romantic relationship is just that - serious - but not the only one you will have in your life. You are now learning more about yourself and what love and loving relationships are best for you in future.

I like that.

P.S. Hope this post wasn't too self-indulgent.

P.P.S. Actually, no I don't. Self-indulgence is like, what blogs are for. :)

Would you believe I didn't even see it coming?

2006-08-30T13:41:00.000+10:00

A note: While I tend to keep this blog fairly light rather than writing about my personal life, there's a little bit of it in today's post. I don't know how comfortable I am with putting this kind of stuff out into the public sphere, so I suppose I'm testing the waters. Still, I think it might be useful for me to put it out there rather than internalising things, as I am apt to do.

The post I had planned to write on Monday:

So things are pretty good with me at the moment.

I had a very nice weekend, the highlights including an old friend's birthday party, hanging out with the boy, fitting into my skinny jeans and dancing with Kat to Dolly Parton at the Cherry bar.

As for uni, I'm in a bit of an I-don't-care-anymore stage, which has its good parts, in that I'm not freaking out about it; and its bad parts, in that I'm not getting any thesis writing done.

I avoided studying on the weekend by reading The Year of Yes, which is a true story about a young woman's adventures when she spends a year saying yes to every date she gets asked out on. It's a great read, and I'm quite jealous of how many people ask her out and the fact that she lives in New York. I would love to live in New York. My only criticism of the book is that I found her I'm-an-extremely-well-read-drama-major-at-NYU schtick a bit tedious, but the great stories and the way she writes makes up for it.

Things are good with the boy. After a bit of a rough patch things are starting to get good again. I think the time I'm happiest is just after we have this amazing sex and everything feels right with the world.

The post I write today instead:

All of the above seems kind of irrelevant today.

It seems I've been dumped.

And I'm not quite sure what to do, or what to say.

Friday Five #5: Blog Nerds Unite!

2006-08-26T12:01:00.000+10:00

Since most of my readers are fellow bloggers, I thought you guys might find these blog-related links handy. Enjoy!

1. The Australian Index.

Can't be bothered going through your blogroll to see who's updated? The Australian Index is the answer.

The main page of the site lists which Australian blogs have been recently updated, the popular topics of conversation on Australian blogs, and picks out a few posts worth checking out. I'd definitely recommend listing your blog if it isn't there yet.

2. Blogher. As the name suggests, this is a website and network for women bloggers.

I was going to say I really liked their tagline "Blogs are conversations", which I think is true- the community aspect of blogging is one of my favourite parts of it- but they've just changed it to "Websites are conversations", which I don't think is necessarily the case. When I use internet banking I'm not having a conversation with anyone.

Anyway, I'm particularly partial to Blogher as they've mentioned me a couple of times on the site under The Power of Optimism* and Surfs Up, ANZO Style: Dropping in on the Melbourne bloggers, and it's always exciting to be 'sighted'.

Even without the sightings though, anything that empowers women is a good thing in my eyes.

3. Technorati. I'd say Technorati is the metablogging website. They keep track of over fifty two million blogs now, which is pretty incredible considering as recently as 1997 there were only about one hundred blogs in existence.

I mainly use Technorati for finding out who is linking me, and I quite like their list of the top 100 blogs in the blogosphere too.

4. Blog in Space. I don't really understand the concept of Blog in Space. Maybe someone can explain it to me? I've listed my blog there and they email me certificates like this announcing that my blog has been 'transmitted' into space:

But who in 'space' would read blogs? Astronauts? Wouldn't they be busy doing astronaut stuff?

5. My Death Space. This week's number five is quite unrelated to the topic, but it's the site I've been most fascinated with this week, so I think it deserves a mention. My Death Space is similar to Find a Death, but instead of dead celebrities it's about dead MySpace members.

I know it's in quite bad taste, but I find the combination of official obituaries and links to the everyday MySpace profiles of the mainly young victims morbidly fascinating.

Thanks to Derelict for the link.

One last thing...

Who says blogging doesn't get you anywhere?

Remember this post? About these tampons and their cute packaging?

Well guess who got in touch to say thanks and send freebies? Mia from Moxie, that's who.

And for anyone who's interested, she told me that 'Moxie' is "an American word that was used a lot in the 30s and 40s, and means cheekyness, sassy-ness, confidence - it was used in classic movies to describe spunky women!"

Well there you go.

*I find it quite hilarious that I've been sighted in an article about optimism. As anyone who knows me in real life will be aware of, I'm very much the-glass-is-half-empty type. Still, I suppose I do try and fight against my type as best I can!

Lily Allen- 'real' girl makes it big or marketer's wet dream? Probably a little of column a, a little of column b.

2006-08-21T08:05:00.000+10:00

Behold, the long-awaited Lily Allen post.

My apologies for the delay in getting this post out there. After a long, cold winter spent mainly inside, I've emerged from the house, blinking, to spend some time outside reading and enjoying the winter sunshine. It's actually been gorgeous in Melbourne lately. Still a bit chilly, sure, but we Melburnians get excited about that first hint of t-shirt weather.

For the uninitiated, Lily Allen is a sassy young London pop star who sings catchy, summery songs about things like not being able to get a mortgage, or wanting to eat spaghetti bolognese "and not feel bad about it for days and days and days." This is her song "LDN":

The MySpace darling was in town recently for a whirlwind tour of Sydney and Melbourne. As one of those who missed out on tickets to the ridiculously small shows, my main beef here is with the politics of hype creation by the promoters. Take this month's hottest and most-talked about artist, put her in one of the smallest venues in Melbourne (St Jeromes), sell tickets at the door only, allow five hundred people to line up on a cold winter's night and let them wait around, only to then announce that only one hundred tickets are being made available to the public, which have now been sold, and stir. Instant hype.

So while in the media she's portrayed as having this DIY ethos, making it big from the ground up through outlets such as MySpace, there's clearly some major hype-making forces going on behind the scenes too.

In an Age article for instance, Web-wise pop star leads a virtual revolution, we have Lily Allen saying "The internet has enabled kids to find music that they want to listen to rather than just buying what they are being fed by the music hype machine." Fair enough, but later in the article, Donovan says of the St Jeromes show, "Organisers underestimated her appeal, as by 7pm more than 500 fans had queued to snap up tickets." I'd say, however, that the organisers were well aware of what they were doing by placing her in such a small venue- creating exactly this kind of hype.

It's all seems suspiciously sophisticated doesn't it?

So where does the truth lie? Is she 'authentic' or just one more cog in the music hype machine? It's probably a bit of both. Can you even be 'authentic' in this day and age?

So here's an attempt to sort out some of the facts of the Lily Allen phenomenon. Of course, I'm well aware that in writing this post I'm adding to the hype as much as being critical of it. Oh well.

On the MySpace thing:

In a recent Time Out interview, she says that while she loves MySpace, she's "not a poster girl for them." She also notes that "as much as newspapers like to say I got signed because of MySpace, I actually signed my deal in September last year and I set up my MySpace page in November."

Her Wikipedia entry still upholds the groundswell idea however, saying that after signing to Regal Records in late 2005:

Despite (alleged) resistance from the label who wanted to send her off to "hit factories" to record her album, she uploaded the tracks she had written (songs that had her signed in the first place) to community website MySpace in November 2005, regularly updating the growing number of visitors with the latest developments in her life. More and more people discovered her profile with links to her tracks being e-mailed around universities and offices eventually reaching UK music publication NME, reviews site musicOMH.com and online music blog Popjustice.

That's right kids, she's a blogger. Well, a MySpace blogger anyway. Here's a sample:

Hi everyone , sorry for being rubbish at blogging , I've been well busy .
So I'll start with last Sunday , I went to do T4 on the beach , which I was petrified of doing . If you saw it on the tele , then you may have noticed that I was slightly out of tune and looked a bit funny . Well as this was my 7th ever gig and for 30,000 people, I was pissing myself with nerves so I thought it would be a good idea to get absolutely plastered . I was on at 11.45 or something so i was pissed by 10 am ( not a good look ) . I got sent home by management at 1pm for being loud and obnoxious . To be fair I couldve [sic] really really embarassed [sic] myself if I'd stayed much longer . So I went back to london [sic] in a floor length ballgown , and fell asleep in the car all the way back . Upon arrival , I found I was locked out of my house , my mum had gone to a wedding and wouldnt [sic] be back for a couple of hours . then [sic] my phone ran out of batteries so I couldnt call anyone for help . I sat on my doorstep lookin like a mental patient on their afternoon out , in a golden princess ballgown , fuckloads of green eye-makeup in the sun , on the pavement in islington [sic]. NICE .

Source.

What about the working class thing? Is it for real?

Not really. She's from firmly middle class stock. Of the many schools she attended before finally dropping out at 15, one of them was Beadles, which is apparently one of the five most expensive schools in the UK. She explains her cockney, or rather 'mockney' singing voice by saying:

I live in East London, which is where cockneys come from. People like to think that I am posh, but I left school when I was 15 and worked in bars and restaurants like everybody else.

Source.

What about her suffering from depression?

That bit's true actually:

I had a very miserable time in 2003. I had met the boy who I thought was the love of my life, but he dumped me.

I started to get depressed and anyone who suffers from depression knows that it can soon get so bad that you can't get out of bed.

It was then that I checked into The Priory. That was really tough as I was an emotional mess.

And when I came out of there it took me a while to get my life back on track. I even tried to get back with the same boyfriend, which just shows how stupid we can all be.

When I started writing music, Smile was the first thing I ever wrote. I always thought you should write about what you know, and this guy had taken up so much of my time and my emotions that the words just came pouring out.

Female First

What's been said about her:

Ms. Allen is one of the oddest female artists to emerge in years. She is obsessed with black music, from rock-steady to Jay-Z, but she seems blithely unconcerned with issues of authenticity and appropriation. She sings of shoving girls around at clubs, but has pictures of cute puppies on her blog....

...But Ms. Allen does capture a sense of universal teenage angst with her cinematic tales of bad breakups, club spats and backstabbing friends. She symbolizes a new blogging-age, middle-class girl: cockily ambitious, skeptical yet enthusiastic, technically savvy, musically open, obsessed with public expression and ready to fight back.

Sia Michel, New York Times

Lily on being called the "female Streets":

I think that listening to Mike Skinner's first album really opened my eyes to how a song can be written." She admits "I realised that it's almost as if the more mundane a lyric is the more somebody can relate to it. At the end of the day people live very mundane lives," she chuckles, "and the people that live mundane lives are the people that buy records.

Tune Tribe Interview

I'll leave it up to you to make up your mind on Lily. For me, despite all the hype and contradictions- the cockney accent with the middle-class upbringing, for instance- what it comes down to is that I like her music. It's witty, catchy and fresh. And that's what counts.

Want a more scathing account of Lily and her album? This one's a gem.

Five things that made me happy today

2006-08-11T02:00:00.000+10:00

1. The girl on the tram who offered me tissues and strepsils when I was sniffling and tissue-less. You made my day.

2. Randomly bumping into an old friend at the supermarket.

3. Noticing that the cherry blossom trees are starting to flower, a sure sign that spring is on its way.

4. Being at that perfect stage at uni three weeks in when you're feeling more confident about speaking up in class, are actually really interested in your classes, and it's still too early to start the assignments.

5. Sleeping in and waking up with the boy.

In lieu of the Friday Five this week, you can expect a post about Lily Allen.

Til then.