what do you do?

1 may 2008

feel stressed. wake up late and tired and have lots of - argh! - work to do. this afternoon (”arvo”) gem asks me to make myself scarce as a nervous client is coming round. am glad  - it forces me to rest and chill out a bit. after being in holiday mode for three weeks, my to-do list is getting long again. turns out you can only hide out from the world for so long before it comes knocking at your door and dragging you out to play - or rather work - again.

calling my to-do list a “ta-da!” list isn’t making me feel as whimsical as i’d hoped, either.

2 may 2008

try to find somewhere that can make a  vegan meal at a local quay, hillary’s (where there are restaurants and shops etc) but we’re thwarted. end up at a restaurant called soda instead, where i have fish and chips and a nice hot choc. scribble a few postcards at home then get ready for bed. tomorrow will be my first foray into perth city centre, and i don’t know what to expect.

3 may 2008

my dad and i go into perth today. play “spot the multinova” - what they call speed cameras here, they have them somewhere different every weekend - and i WIN! woo. see a very impressive collection of year 12 (17/18-year olds) artwork at the art gallery of WA. some of it is so thought-provoking and humbling. the youth of today might actually be okay…

buy a catalogue to show my appreciation, plus a book called isms, which explains the different art movements and how they’re connected.

have lunch in perth library’s cafe and look in their secondhand shop. get yet another book, this one about the history of women in rock.

then we head across the bridge for a little look at the actual city. it’s another gorgeous sunny day, mid-to-high 20s, and people are wandering around or eating in outdoor cafes. it’s pretty, and not overcrowded. we go to a big borders bookshop, which i love, and i take photos of the books i most covet, some of which aren’t out in england.  i decide to come back and investigate the shopping options further on my own one day soon.

8 may 2008

go into perth on my own. i nearly miss the bus - go for an accidentally epic ramble and end up hell knows where. career round the corner to the bus stop about five seconds before the bus does, and manage to catch my connecting train.

i go back to borders and have a snack at their gloria jeans cafe. when the woman serving asks my name (so she knows who to call out - coffee shops don’t do this in the UK, by the way, they just yell “soy macchiato and a muffin!” or whatever, we’re too private to let strangers know our names) she thinks i say “claire”, and i can’t be bothered to correct her. i splurge on a couple of books, including candy girl. then i head to dymocks and buy another one. oops.

at a bag shop, i’m subjected to the customer service bordering on harassment that gem and my dad have warned me abut - i’m practically chased around the store and needless to say, i do not purchase a thing. i do eye up a kathy van zeeland i rarther like, though. i see sex and the city, the movie, is coming here on 5th june, and vow to come back then.

i’ve walked and walked and i completely knacker myself, but it’s a good day out, and nice to have struck out on my own (just like a proper traveller!) i sleep well.

27 april 2008

what a day! lovely, animal themed fun and one of the best times i’ve had in my entire life, ev-er.

first, an alpaca fiesta (ole!) where we got to pet an alpaca and watch a baby being fed - and learnt that alpaca wool is tubular rather than… something else, like sheep. (that bit was less interesting).

then we went to guildford (not the one in surrey, england…) and to a posh cafe for the most delicious meal. i had chicken and a stack of red peppers (or capsicum as aussies insist on saying) and pumpkin with lightly sauteed spinach and puy lentils. it was faaaaaaaaabulous. while eating, i look at a map i picked up earlier. i see the most wonderful sight: a place called swan valley cuddly animal farm. squee!

my stepmum gem looks at the map, understands how to get there, and it is agreed: we must go! while my dad, um… sits in the car, gem and i spend the happiest two hours of our lives bonding with lambs, baby goats, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs, chicks and best of all, two little piglets who are mad on gem’s shoes and my bag (le sportsac from new york city, thank you very much), which they attack with their noses.

my bag ends up upside down, contents spilling out as the pigs grunt excitedly and run around squealing in a frenzy and gem and i laugh until we hurt. to my dad’s delight (< < sarcasm alert) we talk pigs, lambs, rabbits, goats and sheep the whole way home.

29 april 2008

off to the salvos (salvation army charity shop, always called “salvos” here) this afternoon, where i pick up a couple of cheap books (paul reiser and meg cabot) and a fluffy pink scarf (for when i get home; it’s hot and sunny today). then we go to gloria jean’s, west australia’s aswer to starbucks (they don’t have starbucks here!) followed by a chain bookshop, angus and robertson, where i get the new marian keyes in paperback and a bar of “chockie” - cadbury’s, of course… made in tasmania. then to a book exchange (why don’t we have these back home?) where you can bring the books back for credit to spend on more - genius. i buy a book about an australian “journo” who moved to new york. next up: woolworths, the same company as in the UK, but they only do supermarkets here. discover sheets and towels are called “manchester” and wonder why.

it doesn’t sound like much, but a day off, gorming around and looking at books? plus sunshine? this counts as one of my very best days in oz.

i can’t believe my time here is coming to an end. i have less than a day left at my dad’s - somewhere i’m rather sad to leave - and just a month left until i’m back at work. (okay, that’s quite a while, i know!) i haven’t got as far ahead with my ‘travel log’ blogs as i’d hoped, but look out for two more to pop up (as if by magic) while i’m away.

you can also, if you’re that way inclined, read a couple of things i’ve written recently…

i’m a bit late with this but here’s a review i did for trashionista: i like you - hospitality under the influence.

also, my feature on the resurgence of crafts (yes, another one) is in this month’s prima, out now! or you can read it here, here and here… it’s a bit long.

my plan now is to spend as little time online as possible over the next four weeks, and to do NO.WORK.WHATSOEVER. for the rest of my time in oz. i can’t quite believe i just typed that…

today has not been good, to say the least. i need to deal with some stuff that’s stressful and not conducive to a happy holiday, and i’ve felt anxious and tearful. in fact, i’ve had to keep reminding myself of my favourite mantra: “no-one has died… no-one’s going to prison”.

so i’ve been in need of inspiration, to say the least. thanks to my friend keris, i have it. through her blog, i found alex beauchamp’s sites (there are many, going back many years, to peruse - for an online girl like me, this is as good as finding your favourite new author’s back catalogue available free).

today i found the perfect piece of writing to comfort me on alex’s girl at play blog. it’s not about what i’m going through today, but it is about something i can relate to. i’ve experienced the fear and self-doubt she describes, and worried i wasn’t talented or healthy enough to move forward with my life.

i’ve sometimes done things wrong, to protect myself. i’ve pretended i was okay when i wasn’t, tried to fool myself that i wanted things i didn’t, used the wrong techniques to motivate myself, and lived in fear of failure. often i still do.

none of this is relevant to my problems today - and yet it is all relevant. i can’t help feeling that being really clear about your goals, trusting the universe to provide and believing in yourself brings good into your life. whereas living like everything will always end in disaster - aka: my modus operandi - doesn’t. i rarely feel happy; instead i feel smug when things go as badly as i’d predicted. it’s a comfort, but a very small one.

so i’m forced - no, i choose - to ask myself the hard questions from now on. for me, the hard questions are: what do i want to do? (never mind what people think); what is right for me? (never mind what people think) and what will make me feel good? (never mind what people think).

i wonder what might happen if instead of expecting the worst, i expected the best.

what if i do the things i really want to do, go after the things i really want from life, refuse to take on projects that bore me or aren’t worthy of me? (that was hard to type, but it’s true: some things - and even some people - are not worthy of my time, and the better stuff will never come my way if i don’t stand up, speak out and move on).

i’ve always known this, but now i have an example. in alex, i have proof that following your heart, refusing to compromise on happiness, and being true to your creativity can be the best move you could ever make.

in the darkness, i see a chink of light.

i smell hope.

i feel inspired.

20 april 2008

busybusy day. up before 9 AM for the first time since i arrived. still too late to catch the parentals, who had left before 8.30. my stepmum does more before midday than most people do before midnight, and more than i do all week. this morning for example, she has made three dishes, plus rice, for seven people, washed and blow-dried blossom the cat, been for a walk, done some shopping, cleaned the house and… i don’t know, invented a new method of harvesting energy from the sun, or something.

today my stepbrother (who i’ve never met before) and his girlfriend (ditto) come round for lunch, as do some friends of my dad and stepmum: everyone is lovely, although i didn’t feel at my most sociable. have realised i hate meeting people, but i like having met them: bit of a dichotomy, really.

everyone leaves around 3, and i’m really tired but in a way that goes past the need for sleep; i’m wired.

we drive out to two rocks, a town - and by town i mean two shops and a pub - named for (yes!) the two rocks you can see out to sea. we eat chip butties in a deserted cafe and the rain pours down outside. just like england.

thankfully, we spot some kangaroos on the way home and i am reassured i am still in australia.

21 april 2008

another day of socialising - i’ve met more people in two days than i had in the previous year! (i’m exaggerating, but only slightly). my stepmum’s workmates from taiwan, who are soon leaving the state and then the country, come round for a cup of tea. they are both lovely. one of them used to be a journalist (for a tabloid-y paper back home) but wants to do something else in future.

later, my dad lays out the options for his post-retirement life as he sees them: building his own home, or joining the circus. it must be quite the hallucinogenic cocktail in his brain…

24 april 2008

lovely weather today. i have lunch al fresco. blossom looks like joining me but demurs at the last minute.

my stepmum and i go to burns beach, take in some lovely sea air, and have a drink. when we get back blossom has pooed on the bed.

i have a lie down on my bed with the fan on because it is too darn hot!

then i get ready for a meal at the local indian restaurant, masala, which is delicious.

just before we head off, i get a stress-filled email from a magazine wanting me to phone an interviewee about something really last-minute. as i’m due to head out in five minutes, and in australia, i have to decline, but email madly before setting off. i’m a bit stressed as i eat, but when i get home later it’s all resolved. phew.

25 april 2008

go to a bookshop in north perth, which sells second-hand stuff at rather high mark-ups. we all load up our arms nonetheless: the shop is piled so full of books in waist-high piles on the floor as well as on shelves. it’s like a maze and you feel you deserve some kind of reward for navigating it. the manager talks at length about theft and bad karma and how he moved here from new york to be a teacher but hated the schools. finally we escape and eat at a lovely balkan cafe.

then we head for some serious roo-spotting, to pinneroo memorial park. yes, the cemetery is where all the roos hang out. and they don’t seem to mind us snapping hundreds of pics of them. the people who’ve left flowers for their buried loved ones might be a bit miffed at the way the kangas are decimating them, though.

more animal spotting later: we go to joondalup lake, which is beautiful, a popular picnic spot, and i can see why. it’s incredibly hot and sunny for “autumn”, at least 28C, and we take some great pictures of the flocks of cockatiels. i think that’s what they are… at one point they have a mad squawking fit and hundreds of them fly close over our heads. it’s an incredible spectacle.

later, i mess around online and an internet quiz asks me if i embark upon adventures when i’m in emotional pain. er… no comment.

26 april 2008

another gorgeous day. start off feeling exhausted and dizzy, as i’m still so tired and jetlagged.

i had been promised a trip to “manor” all week - some posh cafe, i assumed. it turns out to be manna, an unassuming mostly veggie place. that makes more sense.

then it’s shopping time! gem and i attack e-sheds markets at fremantle with gusto. my dad sits and reads a book. and the paper. (we’re gone a while).

there are some great souvenir shops and stuff to see, including a lot of hello kitty merch, which is always good. i buy a koala (not a real one), a kangaroo keychain and some postcards. (tourist, much?)

on the way back, we head to a cafe for coffee (hot “chockie” in my case). it’s sunny and beautiful and the cafe view (a tiny beach on the waterfront) is gorgeous. the service however, is perfunctory at best. we drink up and take photos, including one of me sitting in a tree. no reason.

15 april 2008

after a five hour flight that feels 15 times longer, we arrive in australia just after midnight. i’m in the country of my birth for the first time in 29 years. as we drive the dark and empty highways home, i can’t quite believe i’m here, that i was born here, and that i’ll be staying here until the end of june.

we’re met by my stepmum and blossom the cat, and my guest room here is lovely. (i have my own bathroom, too). i notice there’s one of those annoying “natural sounds” CDs playing in my room, with cicadas, crickets or similar chirping away. i look around to turn it off but discover it’s no CD - it’s nature!

i shove my earplugs in deep, and crash out.

am in a very bad mood on waking, as so horribly jet-lagged. also, my dad wakes me from a very deep sleep and starts telling me what to do in quite some detail. after a heated discussion and a good cry, i think he sees my point of view: that this is a holiday, that i can’t do as much as a “well” person… and that that’s okay.

after that upheaval, i change my mind about not wanting to go out, and we head off with my stepmum to fremantle and a lovely veggie cafe* called juicy beetroot, where i have a delicious lentil dahl and rice. i also get two second-hand books from a big charity shop, including asta’s book, which keris keeps saying is good. (i’d better like it!)

we get take-away coffees/hot chocolate and sit by the waves at cottersloe beach, watching the people and dogs running up and down. i fall asleep in the car on the way home.

the day ends with me checking the net, but studiously avoiding my main email accounts so as not to be drawn back into the world of work: have declared this a week off.

the day also ends with blossom leaving a poo in the laundry room. i like to think she’s saying “welcome to australia, diane”.

16 april 2008

you just can’t keep me away: i log onto all my emails today. thankfully, there’s nothing too traumatic to contend with, but people are still contacting me about a feature i wrapped up 8 days ago.

i can’t believe that this time last week i was in the air, the trauma of my airport fiasco still heavy on my mind. it’s that bit harder to adjust when the start of a journey goes badly, especially for someone like me, who always finds it hard to adjust to anything.

i realise i’m really going to miss my ipod speakers as i tidy my room sans sound effects. i unpack everything with great haste, and then leave it languishing on my bed while i talk to my stepmum when she gets home from work (she works part-time in a nursery - plants, not kids, getting home at lunchtime). she bemoans the lack of good, bargainous clothes shopping in oz.

i take the stuff off my bed and pile it on the floor, neatly this time. putting some more stiff away i discover my dad’s secret stash in a drawer.

not what you’re thinking, unless what you’re thinking is ear plugs. more ear plugs than i’ve ever seen in one place - more than have ever been seen in one place.

“well, i’ll need them for the rest of my life,” he tells me.

19 april 2008

we go to a lavender tearoom in the hills of perth, about an hour’s drive. there are imposing signs about highly poisonous tiger snakes everywhere but “we’ve only seen one once” my dad ?reassures? me. i need to use the (outdoor) toilet and do so vairy cautiously… then i sample some lavender scone but settle on lavender ice cream and a “ginger crunch”. yum.  we see some aussie magpies (much bigger than the british version - i later find out they are two different birds, no relation) making off with leftovers as soon as people leave their tables.

we also see some galahs, like pink and grey parrots (brett had one in neighbours, he gave it to libby. or susan - remember?) they’re very pretty and full of character:

on the way back, we stop at kallamunda, which my dad’s mentioned having been to a few times. i expected a big town, but it’s a really small place, just a few shops on two or three streets, the end.

we go into a second-hand bookshop and my dad comments on the owner’s glass-enclosed catcher in the rye. the owner says salinger is hard to come by, so has to be kept pristine.

 ”most of what they turn out is rubbish, but he’s one of very few yanks who actually can write,” he tells us. i’m too jetlagged and agog to ask where his reading habits have been for the last 50 years.

later, we watch year of the dog, a film starring molly shannon and john c reilly which i wouldn’t recommend. “no, it wasn’t very good… was that your pick?” my dad asks.

*my dad is veggie; my stepmum vegan, so i’ll be having a low-meat couple of months…

it might be an oddly threatening letter from five years ago.

too funny!

obama declares himself the democratic candidate.

please give up now, hillary. (and please choose someone, anyone, else for the ticket, barack).

14 april 2008

our last day in singapore. (i know, finally, right?!)

we get up, have a delish breakfast (cheese and pepper omelette, made to order, and a huge pile of noodles - the perfect blend of east and west!), finish packing and check out, leaving our cases to collect later.

then we set off to look at the merlion, the symbol of singapore: basically a big lion/mermaid hybrid.

we take lots of pictures of the new, larger version and look at the smaller original.

there are loads of tourists, and a man from thailand sits down next to my dad and snaps a picture of the pair of them together. we have no idea why.

then we walk along to boat quay — or was it clark quay? one of the two quays, anyway –and look around. as we walk along the quay, we are hassled at every turn by restaurateurs trying to lure us in. “you want food madam?” no thank you. “drink? we have tea, coffee?” no. i am hungry but i’m more concerned that somewhere in the last few years i have become a “madam”… this hard sell approach is everywhere in singapore, part of the bartering culture and a little odd considering how polite everyone is here. there is just no taboo against aggressively trying to sell something, but for a reserved brit it’s hard to take in. in my culture, polite = leave me alone. here, polite = be nice at all times… but still try to SELL.

perhaps weirdly, we decide to eat lunch in o’brien’s, an irish sandwich bar we have in the UK. i have a fishfinger and cheese sandwich with ketchup, one of the oddest things i’ve ever ordered. (made a few, but never had one made for me). nice though!

we only have a couple of hours left now, so we decide to do the one thing that’s been missing from the trip (at least from my perspective): a visit to sim lim square, home of everything electronic, electrical and technological. we go by underground, and are overwhelmed by the size and scope of the place.

this one huge mall has to have the biggest selection of technology available in one place, ever. somehow i restrain myself from getting a mini-PC (they have a lot of asus eePCs, which are so tiny), an ipod nano and a tiny-looking 1TB external hard drive.

on the down side, this mall has the worst toilets i’ve ever seen/used (enough said), and the most off-putting food court:

(speaking of shopping, i forgot to mention it in one of my previous posts, because i can’t remember which day we went, but i feel i must give a mention to a store called mustafa. just down the road from our hotel in little india, it’s like wilkinson’s on steroids. you wouldn’t believe the choice: you can change money, book a holiday, buy luggage, clothes, cameras, toiletries, basically everything you could ever want. it’s open 24 hours a day and continually heaving. it’s a tourist attraction in itself: a must-see).

finally, it’s time to head back to the hotel, buy a little budda in the gift shop, and head to the airport.

australia ahoy!