last night i had lukey and i's going away coles dinner. the final hurrah. quite a good turnout, there must have been a little more than 20 people. the owners got pissed at us though because not everyone turned up, and apparently they had been turning other customers away. fuck that. anyway, it was a great night. the seafood risotto i had was so delicious, possibly the best one i've ever eaten. and i consider myself to be a bit of a risotto savant. i got extremely emotional near the end, saying goodbye to everyone. i've made such amazing friends there. pardon the cliche, but they truly are friends for life.

on sunday night i went to the sigur ros concert with andy and his friends shaun and isaac. upon leaving the concert i was absolutely speechless. no words i will say can possibly do justice to how good the show was. but i'll at least have a go at describing how i felt. when they were playing i think i actually forgot to breathe. i was so paralysed, i hardly moved from the position in my seat. i couldn't take my eyes off the stage for even a moment. i had tears in my eyes dammit! the show moved me to tears. the buildups were poetic and the climaxes were monumental. even the silences - when they would stop playing mid song for about 10 seconds -were extremely suspensful and moving. gee whiz, i just read back that description and it's so lame. see, a journalist lost for words. that's how good sigur ros was.

last news to report on is my bizzo at the west. everything's going great guns. i get along with most of the peeps really well (albiet pretty much all of the sub editors around me are old enough to be my parents and/or grandparents). hence i try and schmooze in with the journalists or the copy boys because they are closer to my age. anyway, everything is going great there.

yeah life is pretty cool at the moment.

P.S. i love my andy :)

HAVEN'T UPDATED FOR A WHILE... WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING WITH ME? I QUIT COLES... FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FEEL SO FREE. I'VE ONLY GOT TWO MORE SHIFTS LEFT TO COMPLETE BEFORE I'M OUTTA THERE. I'M REALLY REALLY GOING TO MISS EVERYONE THERE, THOUGH. I GOT A CASUAL JOB AT THE WEST DOING PIC BENDING (HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH EDITING PICS)... ANYWAY... I'M SO HAPPY TO BE OUT OF COLES.

FLY BUYS CAN KISS MY ASS.

P.S. C.B.F. PRESSING THE CAPS LOCK BUTTON

yesterday i went to the good vibes festival. what an incredibly awesome day! the vibe was so much better than that of the big day out. "good" vibrations is a slight understatement if you ask me. belvoir ampitheatre is a beautiful place for concerts. i'd love to see a play there.

talib kweli was pretty great in my opinion, although i heard a few whispers from people who weren't too impressed with his performance. but the real suprise for me was an appearance by supernatural in z-trip's set. oh my lordy lordy lord. you have no idea how utterly shocked i was to see him! he didn't appear on the good vibes line-up at all. what an incredible suprise and honour it was to see THE GREATEST freestyle rapper in the world. i'm still beaming!

on a slightly more depressing note, uni starts next week. sigh. don't get me wrong, i love my course, but i love being relaxed even more. i would say i've had an amazing summer. i really think i've made the most of it, even considering my 4 weeks out of action due to infection of the lung. ahhh, such is life.

I went to my very first big day out on sunday. The vibe was pretty awesome. main bands I saw were franz ferdinand, mars volta, wolfmother, hilltop hoods, M.I.A., magic numbers, sleater-kinney and a tiny bit of mudvayne. I missed white stripes because I wasn't feeling too good. My favourite shows were the volta (absolutely INSANE!) and M.I.A. (that girl can really shake it). Definitely hoping to go to the next few B.D.O.'s.

While on the topic of concerts, I've got a few hip hop concerts which I absolutely can't wait to see.

Talib Kweli @ Good Vibes at the end of Feb
De La Soul @ Metros March 31
Public Enemy @ the Blues and Roots fest a week or so after De La
Mos Def @ Metros sometime in April

AWESOME.

What else has been happening? Oh yeah... I might be doing my industry placement at the West Australian. So much for not selling out, eh?! Chubbie and Samwise have both advised me to bring them down from the inside. Hah! Can someone say "career suicide"??? Perhaps once I've actually established myself I'll be able to f&*k the establishent over.

i'm not normally partial to gushing over boyfriends in public arenas like the internet. i think there's often a thin line between excessive displays of positive sentiment and well... boasting.

but in this case, because i feel so very grateful and blessed for someone coming into my life and make me exorbitantly happy, (just this once) i'm going to gush.

this morning andy came to my door with flowers, apologising for any of his behaviour that may have caused me embarrassment during a drunken spree the previous australia day. i didn't find any of his behaviour embarrassing. nevertheless, i was so impressed that he cared enough to attempt to right his wrongs -- wrongs that he couldn't even recall, and which he didn't even technically wrong in the first place (does that make sense to you? because it does to me). that consideration of how i may have felt, really meant a lot to me.

on top of making me feel like a princess, i'm in awe of his unselfishness. he plays it down and denies it - but i can see altruism written all over him! it really warms my heart to see someone who cares so much about the wellbeing of other people, especially those less fortunate than us.


[i hope that wasn't too cringeworthy for those of you with hearts of stone!!! :) ]

hell yes! out of the house, out and about, how amazing it feels! i feel like a new person. i still have chest pains when i cough, but the pain is nowhere near as nasty as it was a couple of weeks ago. woe is no longer me!

in other news... andy's moved into his new house with six (or five?) other crazy lads. i've been spending a fair amount of time there. the guys are great, such a fun bunch. they've nicknamed their house, "palais de reno argentini" after an old italian man (perhaps deceased, rest his soul) who used to live there. in the process of the move they've unconvered many of reno's deep, dark secrets (for example, his weed smoking habit after finding his stash in the garage, an extensive collection of teatowels from across the globe which the boys have developed into a wall shrine to reno in the daggy seventies kitchen, his history of taking antidepressants, and foot problems due to some old x-rays lying around) who would've thought sharehouses could be so fun? it makes me want to move out. maybe i can scrounge together six other girls and create an abode to rival the "palais de reno argentini". we can call it, "palais de six hot asian chicks". ahhh, good times.

ahhh just got a call from midas. my car is in for a service. bloody shit man! i have spent so much dough fixing up my stupid excel since i bought it... money which i reckon i could have spent on a new car, a lifetime supply of caramels, or even a fair few magna doodles. the guy said my brakes are stuffed (about $860), coolant is leaking (about $200-$350 min), oil leaking on fanbelt ($200), something wrong with wheel cylinders and my back tyres need replacing. what a joke. i hope these midas men aren't taking me for a ride. i hate car servo places that take advantage of the lack of knowledge young women generally have concerning cars. that really gets my goat.

i'm thinking about enrolling in a part time tafe course this semester in mandarin or japanese. just so i can expand my knowledge base and maybe make me more employable overseas. hopefully before my 21st birthday i'll be trilingual! what a feat.

anyway, i'm off to listen to some michel thomas (a.k.a. my spanish tutor on CD).

adiós usted cabras magníficas

i'm bored.

so i'm going to make a list of things that i want at this precise moment (or anytime before i die...)

1. for all religious and racial conflicts to be solved
2. to make poverty history (thanks oxfam)
3. to be multilingual (a minimum of 3 languages bar english)
4. the OC to be back on
5. a pug
6. to not put on weight via eating chocolate
7. to be able to fit comfortably back into my tsubi skinny legs
8. a packet of jaffas
9. to go to moon cafe (haven't been there in soooo long by my standards. i miss it)
10. gael garcia bernal
11. to be as stylish as kate moss, sarah jessica parker, daria werbowy, mischa barton, maggie gyllenhaal, bridgette bardot, gwen stefani and nicole richie combined.
12. to have a singing voice as heavenly as jill scott
13. to be able to play an instrument. whatever i don't care. oboe, cello, tuba... bring it on. (ok, if i had to choose, it would be something slightly more graceful like the violin or piano. well, nevermind)
14. a magna doodle - andrea, i'm jealous
15. never to see a song by an australian idol winner or contestant make it into the charts ever again (especially you lee harding... WTF. why are you singing about a green japansese paste?)
16. all ads in magazines and on TV advertising mobile phone ringtones, background themes, pictures and anything else of a similar vein, to be banished to the depths of hell forever and ever amen
17. to be at the very least, a moderately successful journalist who has some sort of positive influence on society
18. money so i can achieve number 19.
19. to travel. i am BUSTING to high tail it outta here.
20. to one day publish a book that doesn't fail dismally
21. a body like one of the victoria secret models
22. a chloe bag or balenciaga motorcycle bag
23. a baby blue or sea green vespa
24. a baby goat. it would be cute don't you think?
25. to retire one day and open a winery
26. to be an amazing photographer (i think i have the eye and a grasp for the aesthetics, however i am totally crap with the technical side)
27. to be able to produce incredible art of whatever genre
28. a big bag of caramels
29. a pair of old school adidas originals high tops... might as well throw a tracksuit in there too
30. to be able to cook really well
31. the power to be invisible

gosh i feel like veruca salt from charlie and the chocolate factory... "i want it! i want it now!"

ahhh another quiet saturday night at home. now before you cough *loser* under your breath, spare a thought for my severely sore torso, which feels like it's been stabbed ferociously 30 times by a dangerously sharp machete. yes, yes. i am not exaggerating my friend.

if i can't complain and whinge and whine on here... then where can i?

everytime i cough i need to brace myself. i need to breathe short, quick breaths, in and out - like i'm having contractions. this is probably how it feels to be in labour. if it is... then i'm adopting a cute asian baby like maddox.

so due to this immense pain, going out and partying is simply not feasible.

i is woe, woe is i.

actually, i is not entirely woe. staying in on saturday night is not that bad. especially when you've got the house to yourself. no... i don't walk around naked. although i was thinking about busting into the old tom cruise from top gun - white shirt, white undies, white socks, sunnies, a can of deoderant as my microphone, crooning to the "ol time rock and roll" song, sliding along our polished timber floors. haha, good times. i may take a raincheck on that little skit due to my physical impairment.

anyway, let's move onto more biting issues - like the fact that i'm slowly gaining weight due to lazing around in bed all day like a sloth and eating a million mung bean cakes. i would do something about it, but i have to wait for the pneumonia induced pain to subside before i start the pilates. alas, for now i'll have to deal with a slightly fatter ass.

for those of you of un-asian descent, you probably don't know what a mung bean cake is. well, i'll give you enough credit to realise that it's some sort of cake comprised of mung bean. ok... so that's basically what a mung bean cake is. but... it doesn't look like a traditional western cake. you were picturing, a chocolate or cheesecake slice, right? nah-uh, my friend. the mung bean cake is not your average dessert. in fact it's very much a maverick in the wide world of cakes. it is this small round individual portion, about the circumference of a wagon wheel, but thicker in height and has some sort of edible chinese symbol on top. i ate about six today. i highly rate them. you have not lived until you have tried the holy grail of asian sweets. so in the words of molly meldrum "do yourselves a favour" and pop down to your local asian grocer and pick yourselves up some mung bean cakes - aka BANHPIA - (hint hint, Ton Sian Grocery, 155 Palmerston St Perth, makes THE BEST).

holy goats.. promoting sweets from the east? this is the most asian i've ever felt in my life.

must talk about something un-asian...

errr, the one day-er is on tomorrow, mate. 11am from the GABBA v. the south afrikaans. i can't wait to see andrew symonds hit some sixers.

ahh dear. see what my australian boyfriend has done to me? he has taught me about cricket of all things! a half asian bantering on about cricket? that's unheard of in my circles. blasphemy it is. despite this, i thank him for this knowledge. otherwise i would've had nothing australiana to segue into, from talk of mung beans.

i jest, i jest. i know more about australia than asia. my slightly slanty eyes and black hair does not negate the aussie blood running through my veins. i hardly know asian food names. i just say flat noodles, egg noodles and rice noodles. furthermore, my ability to tolerate huge amounts of alcohol (for a girl) is by no means inherited from the asian side.

oh the perils of being a half-caste. i've got such racial identity issues, it's not even funny.

panadeine forte is an amazing drug.

i'm listening to an album by a group called explosions in the sky and i'm actually seeing explosions in the sky. it's brilliant man (both the band and the panadeine). what a wonderful combination.

i'm on top of the world.

prescription drugs are cool.

2006 brings us the year of the goat. I've always been partial to goats. Why? Many reasons. Maybe because they're so sturdy and robust. They're also not afraid to eat glue off a can's label (or so urban myth will have it). Have you ever seen a baby goat? I've never seen a real one, but I'd imagine they'd be pretty damn cute. On a slight tangent, what noise does a goat make? It's not a "baaaa" is it?

I've been drugged up for the past week, can't you tell?

[EDITED TO ADD: Since typing this entry, I have discovered that it is not the year of the goat. Why did I think this? Maybe it was the panadeine forte. Sorry to disappoint. 2006 is in fact year of the dog. Furthermore, the goat doesn't even register on the Chinese Year calender. There is no such thing as a goat year. Trust me, the accurate journalist that I am, to get my facts wrong on such a googleable topic. Do not trust me when I write for the New York Times about a suicide bombing in Iraq. I will most likely report that goats were responsible and not islamic extremists. Albiet, dogs are simply not as fun to mock as goats are, so I shall keep the above entry snippet at risk of looking like a dillhole. I shall maintain that 2006 will be the year of the goat-dog. Or goag. Or Doat. Whatever floats your goat)


For the last fortnight I've been coughing like I've caught pneumonia or something... Funny I should mention that because... I've damnwell got PNEUMONIA!

But don't you worry kids, good news is that I will survive the ordeal.

It sounds like such an old school disease, like shingles or syphillis or something. An ailment which only fifteenth century sailors on the high seas or victims of the Black Death should get. Not in the 21st century. Not with all this technological medical know-how and what not (I don't know exactly what I just meant by that, but you know technology is pretty damn advanced these days. They can perform surgery by remote control dammit!). Anyway, for those of you unfamiliar of the clinical or even colloquial definition of pneumonia, dictionary.com defines it as:

PNEUMONIA

- An acute or chronic disease marked by inflammation of the lungs and caused by viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms and sometimes by physical and chemical irritants.

- Respiratory disease characterized by inflammation of the lung parenchyma (excluding the bronchi) with congestion caused by viruses or bacteria or irritants.

Ooooh this is awkward. I don't like the fact that this may have been caused by "irritants". Methinks I should lay off said "irritants" from this point onwards.

Basically I have a lung infection. But the word "pneumonia" just sound so much more fancy. I'll stick with that. Besides, silent letters are the shit.

So, I've been coughing, weezing, struggling for breath and spluttering for nearly two weeks now. It's been no walk in the park my friend. I now have about a minimum of five medications to keep me hopped up for the next week or so.

On account of this disease I have spent New Years Eve 2006 in bed, and had a slightly decreased amount of fun at Southbound. Having said this, Southbound was pretty damn good. And I'm glad I didn't get diagnosed with this debilitating condition prior to embarking on the Busselton roadtrip, because my mama would never have let me go!

What else has been cracking in the Cross camp since my last entry? I went to the Ozomatli concert. Third time I've seen them play. I've never, ever been disappointed. I think I will see them everytime they visit Perth for the rest of my life. Best show ever. I also got a hug from the white guy who dances like a black guy. He's super cool.

Anyway, I think it's time for me to go watch the 20/20 match. Oh dear. Who would've thought the c-train would ever be interested in cricket? For shame, c-train. For shame.