Miranda July

I would like to present to you Miss Miranda July, who has appeared as a flurry of inspiration in my life this week - just when I needed it! I read about Miranda in a past issue of Frankie Magazine (lovingly kept with all my other precious little Frankies), then her book No One Belongs Here More Than You was recommended by Marieke Hardy on ABC TV's First Tuesday Book Club. She described it as "a little ray of sunshine" or something like that. Marieke usually likes good books. I searched a couple of bookstores to no avail and then came across a copy in Borders, but the white cover was all dirty and the last one. Found it in immaculate shape at Gleebooks (but, of course!) and started reading it the other day. It is quirky and original, light and funny, and oddly sweet. On to her website to learn more and saw that her film (that she wrote, directed and starred in) called Me and You and Everyone We Know won awards at Cannes and Sundance. The trailer is here and I'll be searching it out this week. Miranda has done a number of short films, live performances and is working on her second feature film. So talented. So creative. So makes me want to write more. So hope you can find her inspiring too...

Misty Mountain Hop

I am a true believer in the healing properties of getting the hell out of town and breathing in some Eucalypts and sky. So thanks (?) to the Pope himself having a little meet n greet on the same street as my work I got a day off to do just that.

Leaving home during the hour the chill becomes visible, I ladida'd the whole way up the winding mountain road, hoping the lingering patches of fog on the roadside weren't an indication of a sequel to the valley white-out from one of my last trips up the Blueys. The temperature was dropping the further I ascended but as I drove into Katoomba I felt a thrill in every twiggy-branched bush in every weatherboard yard. Arriving at Echo Point, home of the Three Sisters and the obvious first stop on any sojourn into the area, I jumped out of the car and thrust my hands deep into my pockets while they still had blood flowing through them and wound down to the lookout.

A beautifully serene sight was before me. The valley had a thick layer of fog, yes, but it was neatly snuggled amongst the surrounding mountains. The three sisters were proudly rising out of the white cloud, as was Mount Solitary opposite.

Solo bush walking really is one of the finer things in life. I wandered along the cliff side, meandered through the trees, intermittently looking up and across at zooming birds, the names of which I do not know, or watched brightly plumed Rosella's chew on seeds. I brushed my hand across moss, across rock faces, across Eucalypt and fern trunks, anything with texture unfamiliar. I stopped at every lookout and breathed the valleys deeply in. I put my hand in the waterfall runoff and watched the sparkle of the reflecting sun across it's ripples. I smiled at everybody that walked past and I meant it.

At lunch I took myself to a cafe with blue walls and read The Guardian Weekly. I forced myself, despite my sudden sleepiness, to do another walk in the afternoon and then went and met my mate Jez, a local, at the pub with his workmates for a couple of beers. Next time I will not leave it so long between trips. I love a good day in the mountains :)

Zach returns

...and then Zach de la Rocha released that non-RATM project, seemingly a wafting rumour never realised. The recent touring of RAGE (which I was blessed with a bunch of dance floor tickets at their Sydney show -and at which I learnt the fine art of jumping on crutches) was a further indication that the Zach side-daliance was never to materialise.
But here it is...the outfit is called One Day As A Lion and the debut EP is out worldwide 22nd July - apparently - but I downloaded it already (from iTunes peeps, not on the sly!). One Day As A Lion presents a collaboration between Zach and 'like-conscioused' Jon Theodore on drums. The sound is fierce, the lyrics confronting and the energy is high in a way that we have come to know from de la Rocha. Is it sinful to suggest that it confirms that Zach's departure from Rage took a fair bit of the soul away (I mean, what the fuck was Audioslave, really, if not a disappointing absence of Zach de la Rocha). One Day As A Lion indicates that a fire has been re-lit in the scape of political music and while it may not be burning as boldly as it was in the climax of Viet-now, it may be on it's way. Check em out here and watch this space for more news...

A True American Independent indeed...

The Sydney Film Festival brought 2 great films into my life in the last few weeks, the first being Choke based on the book of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The at times hilarious rehabilitative quest of a sex addict, Choke has the ability and guts to make you squirm and squeal in equal measure. See it if only for a hit of laugh medicine.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson takes you into the carnival of our favourite Doctor of Journalism and on a ride through the 70s and 80s; on the campaign trail, through the barrel of a gun, along the highway of the Hell's Angels and spits you out somewhere different entirely, with the knowledge that the world was a damn sight more interesting for having Hunter a part of it. The American Dream indeed...you must see this film. Click on the above links for the trailers and enjoy the Ibogaine.

Great Escape 2008

Speaking of festivals (I wasn't was I? Anyway...), this morning I went for a bike ride with the old man through bicentennial park and we wound our way down towards Newington Armory. Ah, the site of my festival of festivals, my joy weekend, Gomez and hay fights, beer in cans, old train housing stations playing arthouse doccos, Evan Dando and cabaret, juggling arena and the waterside stage...ooh poffertjes too...mmm. Across the empty site I saw and heard the rumble of it all in my minds eye. This year The Great Escape is on October 4th-5th (Labour Day long weekend) and tickets are on sale Wednesday 19th July. Getting giddy at the thought. If you know what's good for you, get a ticket and I'll seeya there...

Ted.com

Feeling the need to be inspired? Ted.com is such a fantastic website packed with 18 minute video lectures on topics as diverse as science, politics, the environment and the arts. Open yourself up to ideas being discussed by some of the most innovative thinkers out there in the world today. As I starter I recommend this one by Michael Pollan about how plants have evolved to use us as much as we do them. Enjoy!

Melbourne Love

Two trips to Melbourne last month and every time I go I find more reasons to fall in love with this city (though in the Melbourne vs Sydney rivalry, my toes are dug in the BEACH of course:). With so many amazing places to eat - MoVida, Cookie (a new fav you must check out for dinner or drinks), Misty (bar on Hosier lane next door to MoVida - funky cavernous place), Gin Palace (a dim establishment with lavish and comfy furnishings), Electric Ladyland in Praram, The Carni which holds warehouse style parties, Soul Mamas vegetarian restaurant in St Kilda, quirky fashion (Quick Brown Fox, Kinki Gerlinki etc), fuck it I'm not stopping - Brunswick Street, grafitti, and of course my favourite spot in Melbs - DEGRAEVES LANE. There's alot of love...

Why reading?

So working in publishing and being an ex-bookstore employee - it is no surprise that I am an avid reader. But I often wonder why I chose this profession (or it chose me?), and where this inclination to bury my head in literary la la land comes from. I think there are two main reasons - the first being that language is a tool which we can use to chip away at the meaning of all that is around us. It is a vast and deep sea of options (I mean, do you realise how many species down there we have come up with names for?) that can be playfully and bluntly and artfully and sinuously...(see?) spun into an all but endless array of expressions. Language's craftsman are a bunch of metaphor magicians who conjure up sentences and whip them into stories that take us on a journey to god knows where and depending on the individual's skill will take us on a bumpy journey, a spiritual one or (as Tom Robbins is quite fond of) all the way to Timbuktu.

Which brings me to the second main reason that I love to read - I spend all damn day and night in my own world and I interpret what I see in my own way, so it is refreshing to skip Kate-town for an hour or so a day to take a mental dive into someone else's swimming pool. I love that I can let Isabelle Allende introduce me to people who have drunk so much Amazon juice that their hearts beat to the rhythm of the Incas, or Hunter S. Thompson take me on a rum-fuelled row-boat ride to Cuba to escape a dead pigs head in a toilet (to make me realise that life is not so ordinary for everybody), or Henry David Thoreau take me into the woods for a couple of years. There is an earth full of people out there having adventures and experiences so very unlike my own and I want a ticket on their written express. And I especially want to go wherever the hell Kilgor Trout or Pan and Alobar wish to take me.

A Matador's Kitchen...

MoVida is a simmering treat from the moment you meander into Hosier Lane (Melbourne) and see the bold girl graffiti the colour of bubblegum and the sea, sprawled across the walls opposite. Although the alleyway is packed full of trendy caricatures vying for your attention, the star of the hall, matador of the arena is certainly the bar de tapas - MoVida.

The restaurant as a whole is nowhere near as showy as the overhanging lamps are large, and as we wait for those to arrive (or not arrive….ahem) we easily relax into the casual surrounds. Our petite waitress explains the way things work – there are tapas and raciones. Tapas serve one and raciones are larger plates that can be shared amongst three so you each get a taste. She then proceeds to calmly explain the specials which leave us slyly wiping the creases of our chin.

The tapas arrive in a flurry – fried silky croquette flavoured with mushrooms, half shell scallop oven baked with jamon and potato foam, or roasted lamb cutlet encased in a Catalan pork & paprika pate to name a few. The moans are getting embarrassing already and the eyes are sparking in delight. And this is only the beginning. On comes the raciones - octopus cooked in the Galician menner, with kiphler potatoes and paprika, air cured wagyu beef thinly sliced with a truffle foam and poached egg, oven roasted portabello mushrooms finished with sherry vinegar and you get the picture.

For my friends I was dining with and for myself, this was a whole new species of restaurant where truffle foam was king. And don’t get me started on dessert, OK, some parts that come to mind are goats cheese ice cream, crème brule, pear and brandy ice-cream and of course what Spanish experience would be completa without churros and it’s doghnutty goodness?

MoVida is definitely worth the month long wait to get in and my hat is off to head chef Frank Camorra, and all the Spanish cooking Gods that obviously influenced him.

...Ode to Tom Robbins...

Ok, maybe not quite an ode, as a great quote-fest. When trying to choose a 'literary quote of the week', I went for Tom Robbins - the fact it took me three weeks to get there was my iron willpower...ahem. I love Tom Robbins as an author so very much. He once explained that he likes to take an incredibly crazy idea or scenario and write himself out of it, like squeezing out of a sticky situation. He is my favourite because he can take you on such a wild ride whilst making clearer sense of the universe. I found it real hard to decide which quote to use so I thought I would share a few of my favourites:

She had never paid much attention to the Middle Eastern situation, per se, and now she knew why. It was an overload of craziness. It was a seventy piece orchestra rehearsing a funeral dirge and a wedding march simultaneously in a broom closet. FROM 'SKINNY LEGS AND ALL'

If spirit is the electrical system that illuminates the house, then soul is the smoky fireplace, the fragrant oven, the dusty wine cellar, the strange creaks we hear in the floorboards late at night. FROM 'VILLA INCOGNITO'

He returned to his Bible, meditating on the verse about how the lilies of the field don't bother to flip burgers or climb the corporate ladder. FROM 'VILLA INCOGNITO'

perhaps the most terrible (or wonderful)thing that can happen to an imaginative youth, aside from the curse (or blessing) of imagination itself, is to be exposed without preparation to the life outside his or her own sphere - the sudden revelation that there is a there out there. FROM 'JITTERBUG PERFUME'

Our individuality is all, all, that we have. There are those who barter it for security, those who repress it for what they believe is the betterment of the whole society, but blessed in the twinkle of the morning star is the one who nurtures it and rides it, in grace and love and wit, from peculiar station to peculiar station along life's bittersweet route. FROM 'JITTERBUG PERFUME'

Anyway, I really better stop or I won't have any more quotes of the week.

Autumn

A brief intermission today from the incessant rain of late has me reflecting on the beauty of the seasons. Leaves the colour of burnt oranges with coffee stains. Cool mornings, blustery coat-wearing days. Summer was quite the non-event this year and winter is all blue skies (albeit cool) these days...and some say we are not screwing with the weather!?

So enjoy it while it lasts, Sydney folk...make a pot of tea, grab your cardi and go read in that little corner of sun in the courtyard. Next week anything could happen...

The Travel Wars (in my head)

Uh-oh...the bug got into my blood again and now I am in turmoil. It is pumping into my brain (even my dreams for gods sake!) at regular intervals, it is causing me to buy Get Lost and Travel & Leisure magazines, scour sites like Intrepid and Lonely Planet, place In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah at the head of my (very large) reading pile, not to mention playing The Motorcycle Diaries Soundtrack in my car, stealing moments to close my eyes at the lights and just...
If you are anything like me (god help you), once you get locked into a travel fixation, anywhere will do and next week will be perfect. Every new idea I get is incredibly valid (if I can't go to India till December, maybe I could head to Cambodia in August...after all, Jetstar has that deal) and all other priorities in my life become a distraction the equivalent of a fly (August may be busy as hell at work, but September is Ramadan in Morocco so I really don't have a choice).
If I happen to locate this so-called bug, it is being cut out with a pitch fork, but I think the f*%k#*ng thing is breeding!

Warning for Kevin Rudd...

The questioned/ing? vegetarian

I set up an interview for my food editor at work with ABC radio, who were doing a special on vegetarianism. The lovely food editor was up for it, but mentioned that she of course is not a vego. "I am" I informed her. "Great. Do you mind if we schedule in a chat before the interview so I can ge a better idea of why people become vegetarians?".
When we had a chance to sit down for our little 'chat', and Jane started asking why vego? when vego? how vego? why fish and not meat? etc, I realised that I have been a non-meat eater for about 9 years. So, it was 9 years ago that I was reading up about animal cruelty, abattoirs, battery farms and the other bloody and passion inciting topics -and it was hard to use these wafting memories (and lets face it, my memory already sucks at 28) as justification for a choice that affects my life daily. I've always proclaimed that I am a vegetarian because in the society that we live in, we can get all the nutrients we need for a healthy diet in foods other than meat. I absolutely still believe that this is the case and this is the basis of my choice. After a fair bit of umming and arrring however, I left the talk realising that maybe it was time that I actively became re informed about some of the nasties of the food industry...after all, alot can change in 9 years.

Ani, where ya been?

I have been wondering lately where Ani Difranco has been. A best of album? A live album? Hmmm...then the other night my lovely brother showed up with a new Ani DVD for me titled Live at Babeville and all my queries were laid to rest. I had known from a previous DVD that she has been on a quest to save an old church building in her home town of Buffalo, NY. After almost 10 years, that quest has been fulfilled, and the result is Babeville, the new amazing music venue and headquarters for Righteous Babe Records (Ani's label).

But that's not all Ani's been up to. She has also, well, lost the dredz for one (Ani got her dredz about the same time as I did and seems we both got rid of them at the same time - just a weird coincidence), and secondly she has gotten back with her hubby...and they had a baby! The baby was born on Jan 20th last year...I bet she's really cool:)

Anywho, Difranco has started touring again so my fingers and toes are crossed in hope that she will head down under, and judging from the great new songs she played in Live at Babeville, I'm guessing a new album is in the works too.

Bolivians and the coca leaf...

I was angered when I read yesterday in the Guardian Weekly that a UN body has decided to outlaw the chewing of the coca leaf along with it's use in products. This is another instance of the first world projecting it's uninformed values onto an age old culture. If you have been to South America, or Bolivia itself, like I have, you would see that the coca leaf performs many functions in society - as medicine, as aid against altitude sickness, and as a hunger suppressant, which can sadly be necessary in the poorest country in all of South America. If you want to read it from a coca farmer's perspective, go here. This will be an interesting drama to watch play out. Who will come to Evo Morales' side to stand up against the UN? I have dibs on Venezuela.

Enchanted Childrens Books

I worked for many years in bookstores and along that journey I had a couple of postings as Children's Book Buyer. Upon being given this role I was thinking 'Geeeez...children's books? Are they f$#%ing kidding?' but it turned out to be a bit of a blessing (Dr. Suess party aside....that was a nightmare). For one it was a way for me to gain knowledge on my weakest category (OK, automobiles, gardening, sport and military are definitely up there) but it was also a way to remember how to get lost in the wonderment that can be found in fairy tales and the world of the imagination.

It was not just the stories that captured me, but also the illustrations (uuh...does this one have pictures?). So I wanted to share with you two of my favourite children's illustrators - Wayne Anderson (above left) and Jane Ray (below). Whilst looking for some of their illustrations online I discovered that illustrators keep their images bolted so as we can see but not touch so although these are not my favourites, they were all i could get. Click on their names if you wish to see more. I own a little set of fairy tales illustrated by Jane Ray and a book called Moon Dog by Anderson. I do encourage you though, to not always stay away from the children's section as you may just be depriving yourself of some wonderful treasures.

Soundclash High...

And what a great gig it was. The audience was pumped, the energy was high and Bedouin Soundclash were visably excited to be in Sydney for the first time, playing to a packed house at the Annandale. As my mate Mel put it quite nicely...they mix rock and reggae well, or something to that effect. Singer Jay Malinowski's vocals were a scratchy delight (and c'mon, I'm a girl and his sex appeal is mesmerising). Playing mostly songs from their 2004 record Sounding a Mosaic, with the crowd pleasing 1259 Lullaby and finishing with an all-in When the Night Feels My Song, nobody went home dissappointed.

I urge you all to see this band if you are ever lucky enough to get the chance.

Feast Bazaar

Apologies for the shameless plug but I really do love this cookbook. Over Easter I had the rare pleasure of a full afternoon free to cook up a massive storm...and the thought of Moroccan food was making my mouth water. I started with Beetroot and Yoghurt Dip (actually from Syria), then made Tchoutchouka Salad (yeah I'm not kidding) which involves roasting red, yellow and green capsicums and further cooking them in chilli powder, paprika, cumin and garlic. This creates a spicy warm salad. I topped it all off with a Moroccan Tomato and Cucumber Salad and we ate it with hummus, warm lebanese bread and heated marinated kalamatta olives. Even after devouring the leftovers today I am still salivating thinking about it. I got the recipes from Feast Bazaar by Barry Vera, Murdoch Books, RRP $39.95. The television series this book is based on keeps eluding me but I hope to catch it one day soon. This is my kind of food. It is exotic, fragrant and conjures snake charmers and dusty market stalls in my mind. I must get to Morocco sometime soon!

Earth Hour 2008

Last year in my lovely lil (big) home town of Sydney, 2.2million peeps and 2,100 businesses turned their lights off for one hour. The result was the equivalent of taking 48,616 cars off the road.

This year the movement is going global. I urge you to please turn off all the lights in your home or wherever you are from 8-9pm this Saturday 29th March. It's a way we can all do something for this most beautiful environment of ours. last year some friends and I went up onto the hill at Sydney park where crowds had gathered to watch the lights dim and it was a great uniting community event. Following that we went to a local bar and had a beer by candlelight. For more info, check out the Earth Hour website and please do sign up to show your support.

Poll

Oh yeah...and cast your vote at the bottom of this page for the best Johnny Depp film of all time...how to choose?

Bedouin Soundclash hit Aussie shores

Sitting in my buddy Shane’s car in Vancouver a couple of years ago, a song came on the radio that made me near wet myself with glee. The announcer didn’t say what song it was. Dammit! Needless to say the radio stayed on and ears stayed pricked. Two days later its shiny goodness fell on me once more. As the song faded I was in purgatory please say it please say it I telepathically begged the DJ. ‘That was When the Night Feels My Song by Bedouin Soundclash from Ontario’. The CD was mine that day.
Fast forward two years, a third album, ‘Best New Group or Solo Artist’ Award at the Canadian Radio Music Awards and ‘New Group of the Year’ Award at the Junos, and still not so much as a bar here in Aus – until now. Bedouin Soundclash are down under for Bluesfest in Byron Bay and to my absolute approval are playing The Annadale this Wednesday night. Tickets are $20 and I’m going so feel free to come along (and comment below if I will be seeing ya there). You can have a listen here. The sound is an infusion of rock, punk, fun, soul and –you guessed it - Reggae

Trashbags 101

What I am about to point out to you is completely obvious and you probably already know it but here you go...there are a few things of which I am a serial offender when I go out to have a few drinks and I am starting to think that maybe if I put them in writing I wont make these mistakes again (hehe...as if). On a big night out:
DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR NUMBER - You take their number. This way you can avoid awkward phone calls with people you are not sure you even remember that you met, let alone acted keen for.
STOP SPEAKING TO YOUR EX AFTER ABOUT THREE BEERS - This is crucial! You will make out you still give a crap about them when normally you don't. You will waste all the effort you put into your awesome outfit that was designed to show them that they're missing out big time by turning into a drunken fool that will remind them why they broke up with you in the first place.
DO NOT HAVE A BENDER ON SUNDAY NIGHT - As if Monday's aren't painful enough!
DO NOT HAVE TEQUILA SHOTS OR LONG ISLAND ICE TEA'S AT THE END OF THE NIGHT - unless you enjoy your head spinning when you finally lay your disgraceful head on the pillow at some ridiculous time in the morning.

There that feels much better ;) I hope you all heed my advice (if only I would!). If anyone would like to add to this list please feel welcome...

Move over Facebook

Are you getting sick of checking Facebook 15 times a day at work? Do you need a distraction every now and then but are you tired of nothing really going on to inspire you online? If so, next time you need a mental break at work or have time to while away at home, jump on to Mindfood.com to browse all sorts of topics - from news, travel, photography, food, the environment, culture, fashion, music or brainteasers - the list is endless. There is also a magazine, of which the first has just hit stands in Aus & NZ, a numerous selection of podcasts on various subjects, as well as even Mindfood TV! Yeah...so basically there is plenty to look at and read. Go check it out.

Life in the Woods

Speaking of films...I recently was incredibly moved by the film Into the Wild. It kinda messed me up because there is part of me that yearns to run away, to reject this complex, conforming society and live simpler, live amongst the wind and stars -free of it all. It was just a few months back that I was reading Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums which stirred up the same kind of freewheeler thoughts and impulses that I have lying below the surface somewhere. I guess being quite confined as I am at the moment has heightened this need to be outdoors and unrestrained. The movie has had me daydreaming about having a little cabin somewhere well out of mobile range, at last to escape to on weekends. So a few days after seeing the film I went to Gleebooks and bought Walden: Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau which was one of the books our hero was reading in the film. I just wanted to share with you all a little piece of it's wisdom:

"I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for those are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labour in."

Michel Gondry returns...

I am eagerly anticipating Be Kind Rewind, the newest film by director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) starring Jack Black and Mos Def. The trailer looks hilarious and you can see it here. The story goes that Mike (Def) is distressed after his friend Jerry (Black) accidently erases all the videos in the video store he works in. To ensure that they don't lose their most loyal customer, they set about to re-create various classic films themselves. The plot seems quite simple, which is an interesting move for the usually surreal style of Gondry. I guess we shall see the result when the movie opens in Aus March 20th (and for all those overseas who have seen it already...shut the #%$^ up!).

Archibald Prize 2008

Well there you go. Last week I published a blog entry on my favourite artist, Del Kathryn Barton and on Friday she was announced as the winner of one of Australia's premier art competitions - The Archibald Prize 2008. She won for her work titled You are what is so beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arella (pictured). She received $50,000 for her efforts and I am very stoked for her. I guess this means I will definitely never afford any of her works. Oh well. You can read more about it here. Congratulations Del Kathryn!

Oodles of time...

It is rare that one faces a long period of time literally sitting on one's arse. Since having an operation on my knee at the start of last week I have been faced with such a scenario. It's amazing how, despite all the optimistic planning and intentions of writing articles and finishing books, one can get incredibly bored pretty darn quick. I've discovered that there really is only so much Miami Ink, Gordon Ramsey (?), Globe Trekker, Family Guy and Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou one can watch. Who woulda thought?

Let me pre-empt this by saying it is not cold. It is only a week into autumn and I am still in singlets and (well, lets not go there...I ain't dressing up). It was therefore pure, unfathomable boredom that has driven me to get the knitting needles out early this year. Too impatient for scarves and keen to learn something new, I have been taught (thanks Stitch n' Bitch) how to make the above mobile phone and iPod holders. They can be made in a few (ahem) hours. How gratifying! And how lucky you all are that you will be getting one for your birthdays this year!

Del Kathryn Barton does fashion...

I was lucky enough to catch an art exhibition last year in Paddington's Kaliman Gallery of works by Del Kathryn Barton. I was truly blown away by her whimsical and wild pieces. They were feminine and gutsy, colourful and peculiar. I have never found an artist that I adore more. Recently, Del Kathryn collaborated on a project with fashion label Romance Was Born and produced a truly original collection. Have a peek here and keep an eye out for this Australian treasure. Oh and did I mention she grew up on an alpaca farm outside Sydney?

Heartbeat at the Hospital

It was my first ever surgery and I was calm as hell.
"How do you feel?" my Dad asked as he was driving me to the hospital at 6am
"Fine. Like I'm going for a big sleep to wake up with a sore leg".

So that is how it went, only when I woke up from the anesthetic sleep my whole leg from hip joint to ankle was in incredible pain. The nurse saw me stir and smiled "hello there". I was not smiling back.
"I'm in pain...bad...please give me something for it. Please!" I cried.

So here I am coming out of a drug stupor, asking for more drugs. And that is what I got...a huge clear needle full. In recollection I am hearing Benicio del Toro in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas "too much man, too much too much". My brain was reeling. I couldn't focus and my heart started to beat rapidly...

Hours later my head was much clearer but I still felt quite wired and anxious. I mentioned this to the nurse, who advised "you should just try to calm down". I looked around to see if there was a used bed pan I could throw at her.

Maybe being so calm before surgery ain't such a great thing...

I love my city of Sydney...

It took me a long time to fall in love with Sydney. I resisted it for many years. I went travelling, I came back. I moved to Fremantle, I came back. I went travelling again...this time my journey was more nomadic and exhilarating and in turn more exhausting. I was ready to come home when I did and I was longing for it to the point where I built it up as being an amazing place in my head. Only when I came home, for the first time I did see Sydney as the incredible place that it is and have been singing it's praise ever since (of course except when I am stuck in traffic...then I'm thinking it blows).
I am constantly discovering new things in this town. Wednesday night I finally went to The Red Lantern (http://www.redlantern.com.au/), an acclaimed Vietnamese restaurant in Surry Hills that I have been blabbing about for months. What a fantastic place. Atmospheric, delicious and friendly.
This week I read about a Guatemalan coffee house on Danks Street called Mayan Coffee on Danks (http://www.mayancoffee.com.au/) so I met some friends there today and enjoyed some organic drinking chocolate with chilli and cinnamon. It was yummy and warming. I also lapped up the potato tortilla. The tastes were really reminiscent of time spent in Mexico. The venue itself appealed to my inner hippie (c'mon we all have it!), with world music, brightly woven tablecloths and central american art for sale.
And did I mention the sun is shining...see...what's not to love?

Beginnings...

Welcome to my new blog of musings, writings, inspirations, reviews, travels and photographs. Lilykoi is Hawaiian for passion fruit and was the name of my first car, a 1971 Superbug...rest it's little soul.