You haven't lived til you've been attacked at the Exeter & have diamonds in your hair

It's been a difficult couple of weeks.
If it's not one thing, it's another - or to be more specific, one person or another.
Adelaide feels more and more claustrophobic as I struggle to do anything or go anywhere that isn't likely to lead to bumping into someone who currently hasn't got an issue with me or something of that nature.

A bright spot on the landscape was a belated and unexpected present in the form of a parcel from Japan from my good friend Ryoko. A cute little summer top. I miss her and yet taking the time out to sit at the computer and correspond seems to get me down so . . . . catch 22.

Friday turned out far more eventful than I had dared/feared to imagine.
I had the pleasure of unexpectedly bumping into Naoko and Chris - but separately. We went to Sumo Station for dinner - and amazingly the entire party turned up within minutes of each other. It was an enjoyable evening and Jess and I enjoyed a hearty number of ume-shus (typically translated as 'plum wine' but better described as plum liquor). We were pleasantly surprised to have Naoko waiting on us - hadn't seen her in an age.
Then we all pottered over to the Exeter to see some friends wouldn't not been in A-town for a goodly deal of time. It was at this point that my night became more interesting as I was squeezed into a corner, and happily got to chat and catch up with Chris, but then ended too soon as he suddenly jumped up and said to me in Japanese that he was leaving because the girl on his other side was scary. If only I had paid more heed to this statement, my night would have been different.
I was then accosted by this complete random who started to demand who it was at the table that I was or would like to be involved with. Then this developed into her demanding information about the personal relationship history of a male friend of our party. Quite rightly, I thought, I politely refused to divulge any such details (as it's very little of my business let alone her's!) but she just wouldn't stop her insistent and increasingly rude pestering to the point that my other neighbour leaned across and told her to get real and stop bugging us; to stop even talking to us. This culminated in her continuing to interrogate me and then in a sudden frenzy she started to punch me. I was completely shocked. When I said that she had in fact hurt me she justified her actions by saying that she just really wanted me to tell her.
WHAT ??
This was the first of two instances over the weekend in which people, whom I feel should be bound by the social formalities which are dictated by the ties of mild acquaintance, have overstepped the boundaries to behave in a manner which I would deem abominably juvenile.
When I don't really know you I just don't expect you to behave like a petulant younger sibling trying to berate details out of me or score points over obscure knowledge.
Jeez. Fucking grow up.
Needless to say, things got a bit uglier from there and through a misunderstanding two of friends got a bit narky with their fingers before the situation regarding Psycho Punching Girl was resolved and we resumed our seats minus her and continued to chat.
Jess was then mildly affronted when she discovered that Sarah had thought she was the Psycho Punching Girl, this may have been the result of far too many tequilas (on Jess' part not Sarah's)

We then moseyed over to Urtext, in the guise of a posse of protection . . . things kind of quietened down for me from there. I found the music boring but I had a pleasant chat to Simon Gray (about zine plans) and to Matt pinball, fame, the nature of Adelaide and about nothing in particular. Then I decided it far too cold and early in the morning for riding home so we left the party and Jess and her crazy rampage of drink-nicking and ex-bumping-into and went and drank hot chocolate and watched tv before crawling into bed at some silly hour.

Sunday I felt a little the worse for wear, so I leisurely pottered over to the market to meet Karenski for a mid-morning coffee which started the landslide of emotionally draining tran-wreck weekends to end all such weekends.
Karenski was great, even if the weather was a bit below par in our estimation.
John was a great ear in the wee small hours - I do apologise for the craziness.
Kate and I lushed it up on Sunday arvo and I devoutly avoided study and she recovered. It was fabulous to spend so much time catching up after all these years.
To all the others I variously saw, I'm sure you know exactly how I feel about you, thanks.

Monday continued my bender of failed study and emotional turmoil.
Thank god for JessJess, Jess, Cathy of Goulburn & Alice of Perth.
Pips and I also went for a nice wander in the streets of Unley Park and bitched about the rising number of 'Bore Water In Use' signs and what we'd like to do to them and the inhabitants of these richie suburbs who're so sanctimoniously stealing everyone's water.

SareB and I had a lovely dinner and walk and talk together - she rocks - I think it must be in the genes~!

So, I've reached the decision that I need to go away again. This idea was consolidated through talks with Pippa and Jess. Millinery in London ?
Ahhh . . today I had my elbow lanced, I got lots of study done in the morning but not nearly enough and it was cold but Jess & I enjoyed some fabulous coffees and mooching about town.
Oh the beautiful dresses I could buy if I didn't think that spending anything above $50ish on about one item of clothing is rather obscene.
But yes, leaving again - I'm not sure it's advisable, but then I never thought that returning was such a flash idea and look where that got me . . . well, that's precisely the point!
Organising writer's weeks, young writer's groups and attending meetings about politics and art ventures have been great additions to my schedule.
There have been some great things to come out of what has been almost a year back in the country but there have also some clearly super shitty things that I'd just rather not have had to go through.
Who wants to be stronger anyway ???

Oo! OOoo!! Got my hair coloured the other day & though I may never sport liberty spikes I do now have diamonds in my hair~!

Does anyone know of anything Kalgoorlie is famous for other than its brothels ?
Help me to see the positives here.

So, it's been recommended I post something to demonstrate that I still exist.
I blog therefore I am ?

I note that another friend most cleverly ended his old blog upon his return to Auslandia and I wonder if I oughtn't to have done the same . . . Ahh well . . . It's coming up for a year to the day that I returned to A-town so maybe I could have a memorial service and make a clean break. But me and clean breaks . . .

Soooo . . . tonight it's off to birthday dinner.

Uni's been getting busier but I've been ignoring that and focusing on coffee and lunch dates which are much more enjoyable especially now that Spring has appeared on the scene.
Have been transfered back to Norwood - thus there has been increase in the number of anal, pretentious people I have to deal with.

Thanks to the following peeps for being yayness to hang out with . . .
Kara
Olivia
John
Wiz
SareB
Beenz
Jude (for her tshirt enthusiasm)
Kate F (in advance)
Jess (all varieties)

Ooops- better go or we'll be late~!

June, July and August in Uber-brief mode

Em visited and coerced us into a ridiculously early brekky on a chill Sunday morning in June.

I made a snap decision to go to Sydney for a week in June and had a brilliant time acquiring dresses, gorging on vegan Yum Cha with Soph and have a massive chin-wag and also spending some quality time with JessJess (the girl so nice they named her twice!)

Don't blink or you'll miss it - Geet and I working our metal chopstick magic at MAPO for my birthday~! I'm officially unyouthful!

Family resemblances ? Is you blind ?

The well-attended Tea and Scones opening of T-works for SALA.

Thank you to everyone who came - I sold/got a huge number of orders and then spent a week sick in bed so I've been going great guns in the studio printing this week! It was quite validating to get such a hugely positive response to my work.

A special mention to Gordon who managed to work out which were mine
("Wearing one ? Never!")

Thank goodness today was the last day and I'm finally done printing . . Well, almost . . I got another order today when someone came to pick up their purchase and liked one of my tank tops so much they decided to buy one of them too (You're most welcome, Phili!)

A hellish month

I suppose if I'd studied like mad all semester things would be easier now but even so I think, yet again, I just bit off more than I could chew. For those who've managed to catch a glimour of me or 2 minutes of my time, it's been great to see you but really, when catch-ups consist of mutual walks/dashes to the other side of the city you know things have gone slightly pear shaped.

The only reason I'm feeling it's okay to break from study with blogging is because I have had a few comments lately about the lack of posts and I've got a migraine - just woke up with the beginnings of one when I really needed to be feeling okay enough to get ready and rush off to a photo shoot. Lack of cars had me paranoidly making my way, half-blind, to the cafe by bike, buffeted by the strong winds of late. Almost stacked it once - I've been really nervy since I randomly heard at the bike shop that Geet got taken out by a car last week and ended up in Flinders - have yet to have time to go see her but she's not in a good way. I suppose it's just likely it wasn't worse and I'm not down a friend.

Study is, as always, stimulating, but I'm getting to the point of over-stimulation and just want a holiday!
Had a tute presentation yesterday and a full day of classes so for once I decided to give myself a break and had the evening off. It was well worth it - we went to Wah Hing, all slightly sodden from our various rides across town in the early evening showers and then spent the rest of the night lounging, chatting and in the fine company of Haighs dark chocolate peppermint frogs. Come to think of it, some of the nicest moments in this past month have been when I've managed to take some time out of study stress-land and spend quality time various of my peeps - was great to shop with Sair lately; spend a pre-Eurovision hour or so with Pippa debriefing; having dinner with Wiz and J; waffling with Nicholas & Kate; lounging with J; catching up with Phili, Sal and Alice on occasions; early Sunday morning mochas with Jess, Amber and J; fun and mild inebriation at house of aforementioned crew; dairy and gluten-free chocolate muffins with a pre-David Michele and Ange; carrying on and chatting away with Beenz.

Only one tute paper and 4 major essays away from study freedom . . in the next 3 weeks - how terrifying!! And the question most on my mind presently is, that now I'm most likely not to be heading to Japan again anytime soon or to Canberra, do I do one more semester at Uni or do I just quit now while I'm ahead ?? And then what ????????????

WRITE oN! is over!!!!

It's been interesting but incredibly tiring!
I don't think I've slept for 12 hours straight in a very long time but I did Wednesday night.
Umpossible!

I'm looking forward to the weekend which oughtn't to be too tiring, and if it is it'll only be in the name of fun and not lousy arts event wages.

We had good turn outs to the seminars and workshops throughout the week and have had a good number of submissions for the anthology already.
But I don't have to worry about that for a few weeks . . .
It's back to the terror of a mamoth workload for uni that I just can't see myself surmounting.

Ahhhhh but it's friday night so I might go and do an Easybeats and have fun in the city . . . even if my pretty girl is not.

A restful busy weekend

I find I'm not sleeping very well at the moment.
Things have been messed up since my crazy essay writing stint.
Last night I recall waking up partway through the night, having imperceptibly drifted off, and asking what is was we'd been doing - looking at photos ? .... weird.
I was pretty tired after the day's sailing - slacker! And had to pike early during karaoke and go home before the room got any more spinny than it was.

We had a lovely time sailing with the fantastic Mikeyg and Wizard . . . I got to change the backstays and even steer until the boys got fed up and wanted a go themselves. I was wayyyy great. With a little trickery we even managed to get all the way to Hallet Cove for a late lunch. It probably rates as the most saily sailing trip I've been on so far . . . Last time was just great for the laughs it provided with Beenz.

It was nice to finally get to the end on my busy busy week and meet Brenda (Mr James' sister)and get a chance to hang out with her. She's uber lovely and fun and we share similar allergies which makes life unusual - people with crazy dietary requirements finally in the majority! - almost! On friday we went to the markets for dinner and I had a great Tom Yum noodle soup which proved popular all round. Then we popped out to the Wheaty to hear Running with Horses and Little Ice Age. I also got to give Sair my present to her for her b'day (She's such a cradle snatcher! \(o-<)/) It took a fair bit of running around and a lot of fiddling but I'm glad that she seemed to like it and that many a giggle was had at piccy of Aidan and her cross dressing night at Karenski's exs party.

Brenda all rugged up as it got a bit chilly in the wind . . .

Kara, Sair and Megan are an annoyingly yuppy coffee place I'm sure we all know on Gouger before we made our way next for karaoke of the dodgey Adelaide variety. All topping off a great start to the night at Wah Hing with a beautiful meal and lots of chatty chatting.

But Kara has me terrified about the upcoming/current workload for the course we're both taking. I'm really staring to freak out about how I've bitten off more than I can chew this term in an effort to finish up in the first semester but also do lots of interesting and beneficial classes.

Ohhhhh dear . . . It'll be nothing but study from here until the end of June for me!!

Shoot me now.

Work today was dumb - really really slow all morning and afternoon until about 4pmish when everyone came in to make sure I couldn't possibly get out on time.

But then Mr J and I made a city . . . spazville (yes, all lower case!) Powered entirely by wind!
We have a lot of power problems - but just wait til we get our solar energy plant going!

Tomorrow is the first day WRITE oN! at the Unley Library - fingers crossed!!

As promised!

My linguistics essay is done and handed up. Just in the nick of time, or a little bit after.
So I can now post more photos of Easter mayhem . . .

Eggly creations.....

The eggs go up on display and the degree of embarassment that should be intrinsically associated with doing such Easter activities without children present as an excuse was discussed.
I hold Kana up as a perfectly legitimate explanation for our activities - it's not like we actually enjoyed ourselves or anything ~

A random (though given the camera angle, clearly not a work of the moment) image of The Kids making pizzas. Nothing better than Gourmet Vego Pita bread Pizzas!
I am captured consuming more than creating.

Further Easter Activities.....

We had a 'family dinner' of a whole Salmon which was accompanied by a Saga that involved me and it's procurement. I made amazingly fantastic salads! The newest creation is something I shall dub 'Walnut Japanese Special' for lack a more fitting title. It rocks!

Kana really got into the spirit of Easter once we'd explained that it was all about reincarnation and people wafting up into the sky. Plus the abundance of chocolate made this addicted J-kid very very happy - I worry her mum might blame us for her daughter getting to whale-like proportions ..... They eat whale you know! Could be a health hazard in more ways than one!
I found an aptly Australiana themed chocolate koala for her too! Soooo rock!

I'm desperately in need of sleep but still so many errands to run!

Have to finalise my RPG's birthday present - Running with Horses and Little Ice Age are playing at the Wheaty tonight which should be a lovely gig to attend.

Despite fatigue I had to get up earlyish this morning for a photoshoot and then an interview on radio to promote Write On! that's happening next week. Don't forget to bring your biros and come check it out if you have time ~~ Open seminars by local writers from 10am and 1pm daily at the Unley Library - at the best price there is - FREE!!