thursday night drama

looks like i'll be home by next weekend. 

last night we went out for dinner with jeff stuart and everything was fine, i was being a bit dull cause i'd spent the whole day walking up and down soho looking for restaurants we haven't noticed yet to review and being screwed around by pr people. so i was sitting there feeling sorry for my sore legs but other than that it was fine. 

everyone had a couple of drinks and then all of a sudden dad was going on about good parenting and bringing up things that i had told him about people he doesn't even know and talking about it with jeff who does. so i was really angry that he thinks he has the right to talk about things that i tell him in confidence. so i was being rude and telling him he has no idea. then he said something about people more interested in money than their children and i said that that isn't exactly fair considering he lives in Hong Kong. not saying that he cares more about money but that you can't make that judgement from the outside. eugh, so the dinner ended abruptly and we didnt speak the whole way home in the taxi. 

at home in the lift he says i have no respect for him and if i hold him in such contempt then what am i doing living here with him. it was so ridiculous. so apparently i have to be gone by next weekend. hello melbourne? eugh. so childish. not that coming home wouldn't be nice but this is so stupid.  

so now he has gone away for the long weekend without me on the boat. left me $500 and i have no idea when he'll come back. 

if i don't get a letter of recommendation cause i have to bail so early i'll be so angry. and to be honest as much as i want to come home i also want to see this through. drinks are in order tonight, lots of them. yasmine you'd better not being locking yourself up with your tiisis all night!

monday excitement

well i don't have too much to say, just that the goal of my life has been achieved: if you type my name into google it now comes up with things i've written. i've done what i set out to do so now i'm actually feeling a bit lost. 

i'm finishing my internship at the end of june and dad wants me to come home then and settle back in before second semester. which is tragically lame... i'll have to think about what i want to do. i suppose with yasmine gone i wont have friends really so it might make sense unless someone wants to come to beijing with me (rosie? flick?) but even then he keeps going on about saving my money for something better ie exchange next year. actually i would be happy to go to beijing on my own. i really want to go. 

for the last issue we did a feature on cakes for mother's day. i think im now having withdrawal symptoms from a lack of cakeygoodness. this issue we are doing breakfast and the next one is going to be food at theme parks (disney land here i come!)

sorry to all who had to read my psycho ranting email, there is more to add after today but i'll give you all a breather. long weekend this weekend so guess what - i'm going sailing with dad. when did i get so cool? 

just to throw it in there i would like to quote yasmine from last week. wing and i were innocently standing next to her at the lights when we hear mutter in delight 'mm asian men in uniform' as we crossed the street and a police man in tight pants (they all have tight pants here) crossed paths with us. you should all feel very sorry for her, all my usual teasing that normally gets spread quite nicely between cazz, micha, stobey and kate is all being directed at one person who wasnt even given the change to build stamina. she should be commended, almost no outbursts of rage or frustration except perhaps when i mimmic her accent especially when she talks about her 'tisis' 

anyway, x

all sorts of delicacies

i feel grounded after watching Anastasia on tellie and getting back to my russki roots. 

After a week i am convienced that the new intern - Wing - is not a spy sent my 'management' to trick yasmine and i into telling deepest and darkest secrets. no, actually she is great so all is good on that front. we are a strong and united team - no im serious, its (passive aggressive) war building within the four walls of this particular publication. 

Tomorrow night im going to see Equus with Yasmine which will be good, you all know how i cant resist a bit of thee ay ter. and also next saturday we're going to see cosi which is even more exciting - LOVE IT! 

i also forgot to say anything about craig david. biggest dissapointmetn ever. yasmine and i only went to see whats your flava and we missed it casue we were late. eugh - so dissapointed. then we had to stay to take photos for the section where there are all the photos of events. 

but honestly, i havent even been here half the time im going to be and yet you can already see the different - im steadily gaining my 'winter' layers although were going into summer here. im talking cakes. this issue the food feature is cakes for mothers day. and we cant stop eating. to be honest i have a perfectly good excuse - journalist extraordinaire leaves no rock unturned or cake uneaten - it is all in the name of good honest research but i don't think anyone will be dying to seduce me at the rate i am going.  

nixy i have continued my overseas culinary experimentations  - this time eating fish stomach spring rolls and cow liver. wing is a vegatarian so limited in how many food reviews she can write and yasmine seems quite impressed with my ability to eat anything. she did then try the fish stomach... clearly not the machine i am... spycam in action captures the moment. 

as you can probably tell, wing doesn't look too impressed either. Fish stomach really isn't her thing. 

that was on friday at a chinese restaurant that started off as a bakery that sells chinese wedding cakes. we were there for our cake feature but they surprised us with some local dim sum as a special treat. just a bit of excitement for my friday night. to be honest that's as exciting as it gets. but along with our plans to stick it to the man we have been deciding to be far trashier and to get the job that we should be doing done and that is being the seedy dutch, belgian, australian trashbags that we should be, no more of this work nonsense.

anyway, this thursday we are going to the opening of the vodka festival that will be running for the next month.... so there is a start. all these events make it hard in a way cause it turns it all into work. oh well, i will have to embrace a proper 'clubscene' work ethic. 

oh tasman - an update on free shit. two passess to defiance and the baader meinhof comlex that can be used where ever whenever as shakira would say. as i've said yasmine and i have tickets to Equus and Cosi (looking forward to the afterparty) and im about to demand tickets to the macau fringe fest so i can see hofesh shechter (pretty much the new love of my life - google away its worth it) 

for all my bookish friends (most of you i'm guessing) there is the most fabulous second hand book shop under the escalator - when i have more time i am going back in with a list of my lit books from now until i finish uni (i'd say another five years assuming phd? - highly ineffective waste of time by any standards a phd in lit...)  

i've turned into a sick crime reader. i cant stop. i hope it doesn't turn me into a murderer because that would be inconvenient but the addiction is starting to get in my way of my social and work life. im always thinking about what will happen next. very distracting when im meant to be researching panda enclosures. 

yahanns and rosie i would like to hear more from you so im planning on writing you both an email this week. and i expect lovely replies from both of you within a week from when you recieve it. or i will cry. i really want photos of you all in my room. it hasn't happened - at the moment i only have that one of us aim in the back of tnels' childboozeproviding van. we don't have wireless, getting it tomorrow, so once that happens i will get my act together and look at your hideous faces everymorning and everynight.and i keep having the most bizarre dreams about all of you - probably best not to share them online but all very strange.  

yasmine is looking for romance (in case you didn't notice it used to say love but she made me change it), there is french jt on the cards who we met at the karen millen party but he has been away for the last few weeks so i cant wait to tease her about whatever happens next. but more excitingly at teh restaurant we went to tonight there was the most divine chef in the world yasmine couldnt stop this huge grin from taking over her whole face when he came over and i thought something exciting had happened but no - she was just overwhelmed by his absoloute babeness ( i really need an angus thongs quote here but cant think of one) anyway she is already planning when we will next be going back and since the food was great and he was beautiful i am happy to comply. oh, and her last night in hk is apparently being spent there too (i wonder what she has in mind... yasmine isn't really sneaky at all and im a bit envious of her uncalculating, upfront ways.)

the restuarant is on the 31st floor and has a rooftop lounge - tres tres chic. 

anyway, feast on all the details i've drowned you in. 

kisses and shit, xo

ps. ed i took your camera in today- im amazing i know

easter imprisonment

after a torturous week at work, trying to get things done before everyone we needed photos and info from went away for the long weekend, there was more fun to look forward to. 

the nine of us were going away on the yacht! normally 46ft is big enough for everyone to have some space and hide away when you're about to murder everyone else on board but now that it wasnt only mum, dad, bell and me - there would also be my untie my uncle and my three little cousins - a tense few days were to be expected. 

dad forgot to mention to us all that he had once again (repeat of last year) decided that we were going to sail through what is called 'the washing machine' at this tim

e of year. so naturally there were a few spewers. mum gracefully over the edge and into the sea. timmy, not so graceful. all over the floor (a nice chips and sprite concoction) and all over his dad! of course that had me gagging for a good few minutes. but luckily no munting from me. 

There are three cabins on the yacht - one for mum and dad, one for my auntie and uncle and one left over for the kids. There are also the couchyseats in the middle of the boat where we eat and stuff. the first night i slept in the third cabin with bell and georgina who is twelve. it was horrible, we topped and tailed. i went the opposite way to the others because they get up earlier than me and also the other two (henry and tim) would be up at the crack of dawn (every morning - seriously.) So i had their feet in my hair and it was discustingly hot. after hours of feeling sorry for myself i tried sleeping on the little couch (there is one big one that the other two were sleeping on and one small deformed one that has arm rests jutting out of it) needless to say wasnt any better than the cabin. so then i went upstairs and had a nice angry (loz style) cry. oh and i was really sick as well. just one of those horrible coughs. which made the whole thing more frustrating. 

at least with all the little cousins around there were lots of easter eggs, mmmmmmmm. anyway bell and and mum left on thursday and the cousins all left last night. dad and i (emie also who has been working like a mad thing while everyone took over the house) are in shock having such a quiet house now. i mean apartment. being the weekend we're off to the boat for the day (i will eagerly read my books for next semesters literature) so dad can nuture it back to life after last weekends adventures. this means lots of annoying jobs for me probably -luckily we have the walkie talkies for when he is up the mast!! 

 

a month, two weeks and two days

so i've been gone a while and it is distressing to see that the more time passes the more i forget to write. 

at the moments it looks like im going to finish my internship at the end of june after working on 8 issues of the magazine. after that im thinking about spending a month in beijing, spending almost no money, living off rice and beans, cycling around town and staying in a seedy backpackers. 

the third intern came today, she is really nice which is a relief as we had been worried that she might ruin our habits but she was happy to comply with both sushi and cream infested ice coffees today which is a good sign. 

i know im being really shit with emails and stuff, im just so tired at the end of the day and now my little cousins are sleeping in the study (they're here until the end of the week) so even when i have some energy theryre already asleep in here by the time i get home (they're at disneyland tonight but im quite drunk so going over every words' typos is going to tire me out very soon! 

im sure i will have to be rolled home im getting larger by the day, its all these food reviews and little to no exercise. im going to start running once my cousins leave. i promise. haha. 

the most exciting work news is that one of the articles that i wrote last issue is the cover image...which means that i unknowingly had the cover story! crazy stuff... 

also a good moment was when the new intern didnt realise that i was also an intern.... she assumed i was a staff writer (who knows why but a nice ego boost anyway) 

i've got some cool play tickets to some wacky thesbian things coming up. this issue im writing about Cosi, the Russian community in the area and the clubscene section. 

anyway, this was just a quick post to let you know that i have lots to write about that i have let slide since being inundated with guests over the last two weeks (torture, im sharing my room with bell!!) still missing everyone at home x

a bit of a backtrack: twentyfourth of march

im home alone tonight since dad is away on business (gambling?...) and emie has gone to visit her birthday celebrating boyfriend. So im watching 28days on tellie. I love viggo mortensen. Dad and I have been watching lord of the rings, I actually need to go out and buy the third one cause I love Aragorn. He is in this movie although not as attractive with his blonde hair. 

Today for the food review section i had to go to this american chain store salad bar. I had to interview an American psycho who was probably on speed talking a million miles an hour about how freaking fabulous his American salad company on its path to world domination was. I don’t think ive ever been called dude so many times in my life. Yasmine (the lovely intern from Belgium) was sick today so I was on my own in the office with my boss who winds me up a lot but he is giving me a lot of responsibility which will hopefully end up with me getting to write at least one feature or something else that deserves a by-line. If not at least a fabulous letter for my cv. for this issue of the magazine im in charge of one of the pages at the back.

 so im writing about 1000 words all together on some festivals and popstars that are coming in the next few weeks. i'm also doing a few short food reviews and the listings which are torture, they're all the performing arts and film events going on in the whole city! it takes almost two days and its the most tedious thing ever! thankgoodness for triple  j online streaming, its the only thing that gets me through those days. 

The same night as the salad guy i had to interview this actor/producer/director allroundthesbian for a feature in the next issue. he chose that we should meet up in mcCafe which is freaking hysterical if you ask me. he is putting on equus, you know the play with harrypotter nude with a horse. i had plenty of very immature questions to ask but struggled to think of much that i could actually put down in writing for the next issue. i was also a bit nervous because it was my first facetoface interview and apparently he is always frustrated that no one asks him good enough questions and its all 'surface level' but i think i passed the test as he offered me free tickets (something he doesn't usually do, apparently) and wanted to continue discussing literature. all in all, a success i think.   

Reviewing restaurants is probably my calling in life. Yasmine and I have been going to them all lately and sampling the best this big city has to offer. Tomorrow night we’re out for tapas and cocktails. including the tapas and the saladbar, this week were also going to thai, a winebar and a finnish restaurant. mmmmmmmmmmm. loz i can feel your envy! 

oh, this is from last friday night... gary is the one in the ears. 

This thursday karen millen (british designer, dont know her but i think she might have been at fashion week aim, loz) is throwing an instore cocktailparty and yasmine and i are going. mmm free alcohol, everyone says you get sick of all the events and the drinking but i think im a long way off! we're planning on staying out all night and stumbling into work on deadline day to wreak havoc... haha nah we'lll have to pull it together but im looking forward to it. 

i keep complaining about sailing with dad. well last weekend was torture! we had to sail all freaking weekend and when we finally got to the marina we were staying at for the night he wanted me to hoist him up to teh top of the mast on a series of complicated ropes and reel up buckets and stuff so he could clean the freaking mast!

i haven't met anyone too fabulous for any seedy romances. i have met three perfect weirdos, all off limits for different reasons. im not sure if there is anyone as retarded as i am when it comes to their gender of choice. trying not to play any mind games. still writing in my journal although less often. amanda you wouldnt be proud. actually i will have a bath and do that now. well soon. 

what's going on back home, no one seems to be seeing anyone. although i nkow im probbly just out of the loop it seems like youre all doing very different things. griff have you been wallowed up by rmit yet? has she bundle? bundle and rose i hope melbourne isnt being too irritating or having an even bigger pole up its arse. 

im going crazy with such a limited wardrobe, even with half of mums things it is very restrictive. h&m here i come i think. my toe is making quite a good recovery. i can walk without limping much at all now which saves me some dignity. 

i've been watching skins and gossip girl religiously, its very fabulous! 

mum and bell and my baby cousins are coming up for easter which will be really nice although stressful in our three room apartment. i cant believe how shit ive been with photos (and cameras, sorry ed!) 

well i really dont have anything interesting to say this time around, hopefully wasnt too boring a read. 

miss you all tremendously. stobes, need to freaking talk to you. lots and lots of love to all. langice im yet to recieve any rambling emails. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooo0ooooxxxxxxxoooxoxoxoxooxoxi