Seems I’ve caught this place after exactly a long lazy month. Funny, that. None too pleased that it’s taken me this long, but I suppose late is usually better than never so will just go with that!
I hope that everyone had a lovely Easter! Mine, as it usually is, was spent with family and we had a wonderful weekend. Easter is generally around my favourite time of the year so am happy to say this year was no different. The fam and I topped up Easter Weekend with dinner at Hog’s Breath Café (one of my favourite restaurants, despite that rather blegh sounding name) where it turned out my friend, Ally, was waitressing her last night and thus planning on getting very drunk at shift’s end. A few of us have wanted her to slow down the work for ages, so was very glad to find that out. She already has a full time job in a law firm in the city and her time at Hog’s was just flattening her out. Granted, rent is a bitch, but she was barely home because of work and at home, all she did was sleep because she was exhausted. Time for a rest, she seems to have realised, while the rest of us breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, what’s been happening? Round up:
* Katherine’s birthday dinner was loverly. We Yum Cha’d it and later, ran into some old friends as well. Am STILL waiting on pictures from the others. That night, Kim stayed over at my place because Shane had just begun renovating their house and she needed to be out of there for a couple weeks. It was funny though, because my mom took one look at her and wanted to know if she and Shane had split up or had a fight or something… I was choking down the laughter while trying to tell her that he was just renovating! She stayed the rest of the time with her family and the work was finished last Monday. Good thing, too. She was missing him badly while she was away and they were barely getting to see one another the whole two weeks.
* Ange has now joined the ‘23’club. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to her Luna Park gig that Friday because I was at a weekend retreat at Bargo, so she and I chilled it up at her place on her actual birthday (which was the Thursday). Sounds like LP was good though, Ange now branded forever as the Chick who threw up on the Rotor. I must say, though, I HATE that ride. Hate. I was so sure I was going to die when I went on it… eepers.
* The retreat was great, especially being during Lent, and I came home pretty nicely refreshed even after Katherine and I got completely lost on the way home and ended up driving all the way out to the airport. It ended nicely though because we had a major ‘kindness of strangers’ moment trying to find our way home. In fact, I’m currently working on the piece to submit to RD for their ‘Kindness of Strangers’ section :P Sure, it was just really nice people helping us find a route home, but it was so out of the blue and nowhere and kindness is kindness as strangers are strangers and if they read it, we’ll at least have gotten a chance to say thank you :D
* Got to watch the Bell Shakespeare company’s Macbeth at the Opera House with Mel and Ryan. It was AMAZING. The acting, the set, the lighting… Lady Macbeth was really good, the star, without a doubt. Macbeth was good too, but at times, he really needed to tone down his performance.
* Thanks to Mench, Aissy, Marlina and Sanna, I’ve finally gotten to see the new Pancakes on the Rocks restaurant near Parra. Nice little place, though I still find it so odd that it’s still called Pancakes on the Rocks when it’s nowhere near The Rocks. I dunno, just seems silly to me.
* Friday, went to see Becoming Jane with Nicole and actually really enjoyed it (even though I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it). I actually liked Anne Hathaway in it… and loved James McAvoy. I liked the story and I knew it was largely fictional so I didn’t have any need to be pedantic about accuracy. Rather depressing at times (both Nicole and I kept looking at one another at points and asking if we reckoned it was time to ditch our pens and quit writing considering the hardships involved :P), but overall, it was a good watch.
Meanwhile, coming up, seems another stay at the Westin’s in order for the weekend. Mench’s friend is having a birthday do in the city so most likely there will be clubbing, which I’ve actually wanted to do for a while. Works for me. A good part of me, however, is looking forward to Sunday morning. Martin Place, early morning on the weekend, is so calm and peaceful especially in contrast to the bustling place it is during the week, with everyone rushing to work. It kind of weirds me out to think I used to be one of those people… no regrets though. I just really like getting to see Martin Place like that. Still. Quiet. No people.
Anzac Day weekend approaches, along with Mel’s birthday so a bunch of us are heading to her place to give her new Wii a go. Considering the effort needed to play that thing, I’m guessing we’re all going to look like right asses by the end of the day! And hurrah, finally seeing the Manga Exhibit at the Art Gallery the Saturday after! I’ve been wanting to go to that for ages.
At the moment, I'm hoping that all this can come through as the health has been rather up and down over the last couple weeks. Overall, I should be ok, but have been fighting the rather flarey skin and the flu lately.
Bookswise, I've just finished Written on Glass by Judith Lennox. Took me a month, but LOVED it. The story and the characters are so well written. I'm now on One True Thing by Anna Quindlen, which from all I've heard, is very good.
Musicwise, maybe it's just the after effect of going to my first ever concert alongside the nostalgia associated with them, but I'm very into Westlife at the moment... or at least, revisiting some of the songs I remember from the end of high school and around firstyear. So very funny, considering how reluctant I was to go in the first place. I've snagged a couple albums and DVDs and I'm really liking them. Also liking that they don't hide from the fact that they are more performers than songwriters. Sure, they're cheesy and all, but damned if their hiding that fact.
Along with that, have fallen in love with Imogen Heap.
At work, I'm doing something different for a while. I'm up at Policy Management again, doing copyright work, again. Variety is nice, but admittedly, the work is rather deadening. Thankfully, I'm doing more research than anything else and I've been able to come across some pretty interesting info (and not just about copyright :P) and that's because I'm looking at a lot of journals and snooping around the different faculty sites. The School of Physics site has some really cool stuff on it and it feeds the physics geek in me, so hurrah! :D
Moving away from the work side of things, I've been producing a lot more outside lately and that is fabulous. I've been stretching a bit, creatively... drawing more, playing more... I've been punching out a really basic tune on the piano... the chords, I'm having issues with, but I do like how it sounds so far. It's my third composition, ever, and considering I've been playing for 13 years, I hope I can do a few more at least. For now, however, I'll see how this one pans out. I've also been exercising the voice a lot more and hurrah! My range is wider than it's ever been. I'm hitting notes I never thought I could sing with more ease... my breathing, however, requires a good amount of improvement.
At the moment, I'm working on a couple of stories, one in particular that I'm enjoying watching evolve as I write it. No, I don't have any plans to send this out... it's more a personal achievement at the moment, considering how dead my writing has been for so long. I'm simply enjoying the process of creating these characters, learning more about them and teasing out their stories bit by bit and I'm loving the fact that I can do it. It's been a rather recent development, this acceptance of what I want to do and its ability to live alongside my attempting to be financially independent (which most others do not see), and I couldn't be happier about that.
So I guess the point of this extremely long entry is that life is good :)
