Friday, December 31, 2010

another one bites the dust... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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* today's the last day of 2010... how the years seem to fly by, each year quicker than the last! 2010 seems to have passed like the batter of an eyelash, though when i think about it, so much has happened...

i saw in 2010 in the snowy ski resort of Åre in sweden, working at nova cocktail bar with jerry. at midnight we skipped out from behind the bar to see the fireworks over the pretty white town square while the snow fell on our faces....

i did the winter season in that ski town, lived with four swedish boys, served sushi and steak by day and cocktails by night, became a coyote ugly, tried to ski (and gave up)....
mid-season we had our australian visa application denied by the heartless robots at immigration, and i suffered the devastation of the possibility that i'd never be allowed to move back home... nevertheless, i picked myself up and got over that bridge and even managed a quick visit back to oz to be the maid of honour at my beloved cousin donna's wedding and enjoyed two weeks of the hot australian summer. when i returned to snowy sweden, my sweetheart asked me to marry him (and he'd planned to even before id caught the bouquet!)...and i said yes of course.

at the end of the season jerry took me on a romantic holiday to the islands of thailand where we thawed our bones and chose our wedding venue.

we then packed up our lives into four suitcases and moved to london, the land of opportunities and the centre of the world, along with the world's tallest man (and one of jerry's best friends). i fell in love with the city instantly...not only because they speak my language instead of the hurdy gurdy, but because i knew straight away that this is where you can find anything and do anything, including (and most especially) following your dreams.

we found a lovely apartment in islington, i got a job in a pub which i quit after a month and we then discovered the club, where we all got jobs we love with people we love.
i became a nanny on the side, started taking classes in the hurdy gurdy (swedish for those of you who didn't watch sesame street); i organised a suprise birthday party in stockholm for jerry's 30th; visited brighton, celebrated the first anniversary of this, my blog; bought a new scooter, won a best actors award; started belly dancing again; life-modelling again; snuck into an exclusive fashion week party with a stolen invitation; got hit on by prince harry; worked on two movie sets as an extra and an assistant production designer, met some extraordinary people and got accepted into a british reality show called the house of grazia, all the meanwhile planning (and saving for) a big destination wedding.

it's been an eventful year.....
but somehow i think that 2011 will be even bigger.....

to you, my loyal readers, thank you for sharing my highs and lows. the yellow brick road has been fun to keep and i hope you'll continue the ride through 2011 and beyond.
lots of love to you all........ and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
xx me
:o)

Monday, December 27, 2010

christmas coccyx jollyness

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❅ christmas never feels quite like christmas unless i'm home with my family, though we had a lovely double christmas here in london.... we celebrated christmas eve at our friends angela & nelson's bed and breakfast, where angela and her mum had been to a huge effort cooking all day for the feast! some other friends including sophie from work and her boyfriend came too and we spent the evening eating, drinking, playing trivial pursuit and being jolly.

jerry got shit-faced drunk and entertained us all with his vulgar humour and idiotic jokes, sophie cheated her way through the board game while we laughed our arses off at nelson, who was dressed up like a 1950's immigrant and made sure everyone knew he was 'pure blood portuguese' while everyone else at the table was a mix of this and that.... one of the trivia questions was 'where's the coccyx?' and nelson answered 'on the hip bone, at the end of the arse!' which was a funny answer already, but made even funnier because jerry thought the question was 'where's the cock sit?' and was astonished that nelson had been given the green chip for his answer! we were all in pain from laughing so hard on stomachs full of christmas food and liquor.

because of our hangovers, we were late for christmas lunch the next day at my cousin dale's house, but in time for desserts, drinking games and secret santa...:o) my uncle, aunty and cousins were there as well as all their housemates and friends and for most of the day jerry was the only non-australian there. we stayed all day and night, eating, drinking and playing games and it was lovely! 

i remember as a kid i would lay out all my new christmas presents on my bed, and leave them there for several days, just to admire them all. i decided to do the same this year with the lovely pressies i received: a faux-fur jacket from mum & dad, a sequined dress that jerry chose himself, some lacey pijamas from my cousin hannah, a perfumed candle from the family of miss A, rose room perfume and hand cream from sophie, an eyeshadow kit from angela and a fruity bath set from secret santa....

merry christmas to everyone! i hope you all ate too much, drank too much, laughed too much and received lots of lovely presents...
xxx

Sunday, December 19, 2010

snow, snow, snow!

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❅ london's totally snowed under and its so pretty! much better than the usual gray gloomy wretchedness... i'm so hoping for a white christmas!

while trekking through the snow on my way to belly dance class, 3 young boys in the park attacked me with snowballs. one hit me in the head and i was so outraged and furious that i cursed at them, then had to calm myself down, remembering what an evil brat i'd been at their age...

jerry and i ventured to ikea today, way out in the suburbs, to stock up on swedish goodies for christmas lunch; the salmon and the dill sauces, lingonberry, swedish meatballs, marabou chocolate and my favourite; pepparkakor (gingerbread snapps)... for some reason they didnt have any glög (the warm spiced wine) so tomorrow we have to make a trip to the swedish shop for that.

we're spending christmas day with my uncle, aunt and cousins, (who happen to be stuck at a swedish airport because of the snow!) but since christmas for jerry is the 24th, he insisted we celebrate that as well, so we're heading to our our friends angela and nelson's house for a christmas eve feast with board games... some people are too cool for board games and i'm so glad angela and nelson are not because i adore playing board games! i've counted down more than one new year in the middle of a heated game of monopoly, trivial pursuit or balderdash... seriously! ....i'm actually quite fiercely competetive when it comes to such games, but i'll try to control my demons this time since its christmas, just to keep the spirit ;o)

Friday, December 17, 2010

dear heart

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Fannie Schiavoni

❅ last night we had dinner at the charming turkish restaurant 'galipoli', with our friend gio from work and his lovely wife fannie (who we were meeting for the first time) and our good old friend abas (who also works there) joined us later on.
we had such a nice time! the food was scrumptious as usual, and we completely stuffed ourselves with it.

abas is love-struck with a girl he's forbidden to date, who happens to be a psychologist of the crazy paranoid kind, who keeps psycho-analysing him and accusing him of recording their conversations to blackmail her with! its all quite amusing. even more amusing was gio with his razor sharp-wit, especially when his jokes were at abas's expense! i was roaring with laughter all evening!
and fannie is the sweetest loveliest thing, a gorgeous swedish blonde who happens to be the most talented jewellery designer! her jewellery is sold by dolce & gabbana (among others) and worn by celebrities like rhianna and lady gaga, who she follows around the world on tour to do their costume design. for all her success, she's the most humble and sweet girl! how much i admire and envy people like her who manage to make such a successful career out of their hobbies and passions.

i received a message last night that my mum's unwell. her heart problems have come back again, despite the stents and the medication and the healthy lifestyle and diet and loads of natural medicine that she doses up on daily. the doctors put it down to genetic weakness. how unfair that seems, to be so powerless in it.
i just can't bare my mum being ill, and even worse being so far away from her when she's ill. i dreamt all night of being home again, and couldn't help crying to jerry, who sweetly offered to send me home to visit her, although she protests it's not necessary to spend the money.

ive been told i should start getting my heart checked as soon as i turn 30 because there's a high likelihood mine will be similarly weak.... i never really believed it to be honest.
What a strange concept- the human heart...we refer to it constantly and link all our most amazing feelings and experiences to it; but how bizarre to actually imagine your own!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

christmas cards

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❅ i had the idea to send out christmas cards this year, something i never do... after the fifth one, i gave up, exhausted.. surely it's not worth it, since they'll end up in the rubbish directly after christmas anyway...
yesterday i did my christmas shopping in one sitting on ebay- so much easier, but much less in the spirit of things, isnt it?! jerry and i will do a westfields shopping day to buy for each other. im forcing jerry to choose something for me himself so that its a surprise. if he's chosen it it'll be so much more special, and ill wear it anyway, even if i dont like it, just because of that. of course the only useful thing we can get each other is clothes, since we're such bloody nomad gypsies. i look through the magazines with the 'gift suggestion' pages- kooky tea-towells and wall hangings, beautiful throw rugs, interesting coffee table books, retro vases....wow, thats such a different world to me... how nice it would be to own a house to decorate and pour your love and creative flair into.... is it too much to wish for a house for christmas?

london looks so pretty with all the christmas lights and decorations, especially in the rich neighbourhoods where i work, where people can be bothered spending money on lights and hanging them up... chelsea is quite spectacular! ...down our end in kings cross, people are not as festive. we dont even have a tree. jerry asked me if we should do a christmas eve dinner in our apartment for some friends. 'everyone's going home for christmas except us!' i replied. he then listed off a bunch of names of people who are not going home, which was all our muslim friends from work. 'yeah, we can do a muslim christmas, why not?!' ...that'd be pretty quirky actually!

i so miss christmases back home in oz, and i promised myself that next year i'm going home for christmas no matter what...
my brother, who's been living in costa rica the last four years (ever since we moved there to open the cocktail bar) has just received the wonderful news that his wife's visa is finally approved and they're moving back home on the 1st of january! i'm SO overjoyed for them! i think this new year holds some surprises and adventures for all of us....

:o)

Sunday, December 12, 2010

the slap

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photo by Jan Saudek

❅ the weekend was so busy at work! we were running around like mad hatters but it was a fun crowd and it was nice to have some excitement and madness.

i had a table of mexican boys who were very charming slash sleazy, trying to salsa with me each time i walked past, begging me to have a drink with them and showering me with spanish flattery. then they got drunk and a little less charming. one said to me out of the blue 'youre beautiful, but you're not the most beautiful woman i've ever seen.' ....okay, thanks for that ..? back-handed compliment of the week!

in the middle of the rush of pumping out cocktails, jerry got his face slapped across the bar by an angry customer. all i saw was the scuffle as sandy, our boss held jerry back, and in the next second nelson, one of our hosts, grabbed the guy by the scruff and dragged him kicking and screaming through the crowd. he even came back to kick out the guy's brother as well! after jerry got over the outrage and shock, he seemed quite amused. i so wish id seen the slap!

back on the home-front i had a questionnaire from the house of grazia to fill out... questions like: describe your ultimate night in/ describe your ultimate night out, what's your idea of being pampered? who's your favourite designer? where do you buy your clothes from? is there anything beauty-wise that you've always wanted to do? if you could have one fashion item what would it be?.... i started to get excited! ....not only by the thrilling suggestion of freebies (!!!) but that it sounds like i'm going to get pampered, made over, and let loose out on the town on an all inclusive with a new outfit!!! how much fun!!!

describing my ultimate night out was quite hard.. what would you say?!... i mean how far should i go? shall i bring private yachts into it?... the caribbean? ...a trip to vegas? no, surely i can do better than that!... of course no matter what, it has to end with me in a casino winning on roulette...
what would i do beauty-wise? well firstly, i'd have that 'heroin-chic' bleached-tipped hair look that ive always liked but that jerry hates, and then..... here's the chance (maybe, finally) ........... for botox!!!! ;o)

wish me luck!

:o)

Thursday, December 9, 2010

winter wonderland

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❅ we finally made it to winter wonderland in hyde park.
i love the vibe at carnivals like that... all the coloured lights, the smell of fairy floss, sugary donuts and sausages all mixed in together, peoples happy faces as they stroll around snacking and spending money on rigged games that they never win, the intermittent sounds of gleeful screaming as the roller coaster carriages whizz past, the young couples holding hands as they skate the ice together, the carnies (that always have that same look) calling out to you, tempting you to gamble your money away, the old fashioned saloon style stalls wafting smoke from roasted chestnuts..... jerry and i bought a paper cone full of chestnuts and some hot mulled wine and wandered around enjoying the sights until we couldn't bare the cold anymore...
if it was summer i would've begged jerry to go on all the scary rides with me.

i used to love doing photo-shoots at amusement parks. i dressed my cousin up in vintage once and did a fashion shoot at the 'melbourne show' and we had a ball.
in fact, my whole childhood is filled with wonderful memories of 'the show'. in the beginning it was all about the show-bags full of junk food, the toy prizes; enormous blow-up baseball bats, headbands with the glittery stars on springs, kaleidoscope glasses, how many rides you could squeeze out of your saved-up pocket money, 'tasting' all the free samples in the dairy pavilion, begging mum and dad for a coloured baby chicken from the animal tent and crying when they refused.

then in high school it was about dressing up in your best outfit, sneaking in without paying, kissing boys in the dark part of the ghost train, stealing show-bags, smoking cigarettes for everyone to see how cool you were, getting into fights with the town bullies and spending the rest of the day running away from them, trying to steal one of those coloured baby chickens...

i had friends who weren't allowed to go to the show... i pitied them enormously, and i still pity them, that they don't have all the memories that i do.

and i still want one of those coloured baby chickens.

:o)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

one small cloud can't conceal a sky full of stars

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❆ winter wonderland in hyde park sounds so lovely. jerry and i keep planning to go, but its so icy cold outside that we just cant bring ourselves to leave the house unless we absolutely have to.
with this miserable weather and nothing fun going on in our lives right now, we had begun feeling glum and boring.
what i really need, apart from some sunshine (which is unlikely), is a new project... something to aim towards and look forward to...

i sat on the sofa today at my nanny job, put postman pat on TV for miss A, and opened a fashion magazine to the horoscope section.... 'this month's motto for capricorn: one small cloud can't conceal a sky full of stars'.... that small sentence was like a slap in the face. here i am letting london weather get me down when i should be putting my energy into counting my blessings... at the mention of stars, i havent seen any in months! that's so sad! either i'm not looking up or there's too much smog in london skies for stars to shine through. either is quite possible.

as miss A and i arrived at peggy porschen's parlour for our regular soy latte/babyccino, my phone rang. it was the phone-call i'd been hoping for, praying for, meditating on, dreaming about.... yes..... 
the house of grazia!!!!! they were informing me that i'd made the casting, that the producers loved my interview, and that i was invited to stage 2: the psychological examination and police check.
i was so happy i wished i'd had a bottle of champagne to pop. instead i ordered a lemon chiffon cupcake and scoffed it with glee.

i'd done the interview at the house of grazia headquarters 12 days earlier and felt like it had gone well. it was a long interview and the whole thing was filmed, which i was fine with, but they put me on the spot with some very personal questions. they really grilled me on past relationship infidelities and messy breakups. i'd tried to brush off the first question with 'we broke up because he was untrustworthy', but the interviewer wouldn't stop 'til she'd squeezed out the juicy details; that he'd cheated (though i excluded the story of the twenty taiwanese girls), that he'd been a compulsive liar and a drug addict. the real story could fill a short novel, or more like a whole season of some trashy soap opera like 'days of our lives'... i didn't think house of grazia were quite ready for it...
i was honest and open with the rest of the questions they asked me and left with the impression that they'd liked me...

im still not exaclty sure on all the details. all i know is ill be spending five days, with four other women, in a retreat in the country called 'the house of grazia' where a team of people will help me get my career on track and film the whole thing to make into a reality TV show.
...just the type of project i need!
:o)

  

Thursday, December 2, 2010

the kissing series

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photo by holger pooten

❆ london is totally snowed under. it's as bad as sweden out there! apparently its the earliest that snow has hit london in 50 years... back home in melbourne, the summer is wet, steamy-hot and tropical. it seems the weather's screwed up everywhere, thanks to global warming! 

i was so glad i had the day off so i could admire the pretty white streets from the warmth of my centrally heated lounge-room, while browsing gumtree for something fun to do... there was nothing very interesting going on though, except a fine-arts photographer working on a 'kissing' series and looking for couples to pose for him in public london locations. he was specifically searching for 'passionate kissers with a certain aura'.... i liked that idea. and i loved the photo he posted with the ad, so i convinced a very unwilling jerry to let me volunteer us... the photographer offers £40 and a print of your kissing photo! ...what a beautiful art-piece and keepsake!

this weather has turned me soft-hearted and soppy! after finishing the wonderful 'downton abbey' TV series, today i tracked down and began downloading all the english period dramas that i haven't seen... i just love period flicks: the piano, pride & prejudice, dangerous liaisons, atonement, brideshead revisited.... its not just the history that fascinates me, its the rolling hills, the forbidden romance, the wonderful dresses, the strapping young men galloping around on horses...

since i was in such a romantic mood, i nagged jerry into helping me with our wedding invitation wording. we want it to be casual and quirky and to somehow make reference to the sea and the beach, since that's where we met and that's where we're marrying... it proved very tricky and of course ended in an argument and me announcing that i would create the wording with the help of my mum and that it would reflect my personality, and probably not his.
 
the wedding countdown has hit the six-month point and i'm realising i haven't organised anything! i'm sort of hoping it all just falls into place of its own accord really....
that would be nice anyway.

:o)
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