I had four days of too much to eat and drink and some really good times. Special thanks to Alma, Kate, Owen, Mardi, Key, Ben, Suan Wee, Alyssa and Patrick for their company and hospitality – you all made Christmas very special.

Now – who else is on the healthy eating and exercise again with me tomorrow?? x

She works at the Vietnamese shop near our condo. And she looks after me and alma and the daily operating hours of 4pm-4am works with our hours of consciousness.

When I broke my wrist I had to eat something before I took one of the prescribed pain killers. Megan and I stopped in on the way back from hospital and of course I ordered the easiest meal to eat single handed – beef noodle soup. Aunty brought it over and proceeded to stir in the sauces and other ingredients for me, telling me about how it is good for my bone healing as the broth is made with bones and marrow stock.

I’ve never asked her name, and she doesn’t know our names either. But she knows were both coke zeros, I’m a Pho Bo and Alma is a stewed beef vermicelli. We know that she is worried about business now that the government aren’t renewing the leases on the Girly bars in the area and the police are doing raids – her Vietnamese working girls and their customers aren’t getting late nights suppers anymore.

She’s great. She’s sporting the same haircut as Alma at the moment so was only too happy to pose for a photo.

The closest I could find to a twin was one of the Vietnamese waitresses – although her colour is closer to my first attempt at going blonde in Singapore.

Anyway, it’s a great restaurant, the food us fabulous and cheap. The staff are lovely and it’s one if geylang’s hidden treasures. I hope it survives.


We had sone food and a catch up there tonight. Started with phil and i, then alma joined us aching from yoga

Martjin came down and bernie arrived for a quick coconut juice too.

Theres only one night til martjin leaves us fie Europe for good – will be sad without him here. I didnt see him very often, but wen i did he always had a story to tell and his company always made for a good night.

Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Well, it is everywhere but here at singapore’s casa del Bañuelos e davis. I’m not feeling christmassy at all. I think the main thing is that this year I dropped home to have a week with my family earlier in December, so as to fit in to the annual leave schedule (left booking time off too late and there were too many people away – the office here doesn’t shut down for the Xmas week, so we need people here). This isn’t so bad, it was great to see everyone, do an early gift exchange, and eat, drink and be generally merry ahead of time. It does make me feel like I’ve “done” Christmas now though.

The other factor may be weather. Of course in Singapore it is reliably 34 degrees with 70-80% humidity like every other day of the year. I know I’m
Australian and used to hot christmasses, but I think now I’ve experienced two uk christmasses I realize whats meant by “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”. I never realized how stupid and nonsensical it was to eat a full meal of roast turkey and ham, with veggies and gravy followed by a generous serving of steaming hot plum pudding swimming in a bowl of freshly microwaved custard IN FORTY DEGREE HEAT! that meal makes soo much more sense in the northern hemisphere winters, with snow and german Christmas markets and the smell of mulled wine in the air. Again, not that I’m complaining, it’s just that my view on southern hemisphere Xmas has adjusted in the last few years.

The other thing that is possibly adding to my non-christmas feeling is I’m not actually doing anything – previously if I wasnt home I was setting off on some exotic adventure, to Egypt or around europe, so Christmas excitement was replaced with pre-holiday excitement which equates roughly to the same thing. I guess even planning to host/contribute to a christmas lunch or dinner would bring that excitement with it. All the feelings you get – excitement, stress, last minute buying, packing, wrapping, getting to that stage where you think “this is too hard, I can’t even be bothered doing this anymore”, and then getting to the day and enjoying it all.

When I say I’m not doing anything, please don’t break out the violins – I am doing something with sone friends – we are heading off to the ritz for lunch with free-flow champagne!! But going somewhere takes away that anticipation and preparedness and stress and excitement. That’s more the point I was trying to make!

Anyway.

There are a couple of long weekends over the holiday season with christmas and new years day. Also, with people away I have the feeling that both work and upcoming social life is going to be quiet for a week or two. So, what’s my solution to filling my ‘need for human contact void’? HOBBIES!!! Who needs love when theres southern comfort and who needs mankind when you have hobbies??

So these are my two holiday projects:

A mad men style retro dress which butterick classify as ‘easy’ in pale yellow and baby blues with a skull pattern. Cost me $95 in materials and I am aware that for $95 I could probably have bought quite a nice summer dress without all the effort of making one, but I think that would be missing the point. Plus about $45 of that expense was buying proper scissors, dressmaking pins, pattern etc. It’s like when you bake a cake in your new place for the first time – you go the the shops to buy the ingredients and walk away having spent $50 because you had to buy things like vanilla essence and cake tins and cooling racks and wooden spoons, etc. The cakes after will be cheaper, hopefully so too will the dresses.

I am a little worried about the idea of me learning to sew though. Everyone who knows me knows I have a very strong inner drag queen and this is kept under control mainly by me only being able to buy what is available in shops which means someone has already deemed it alright for day to day use. If I’m in control of fabric selections, cut choices, trim, sequins, feathers and bedazzling then things could take a turn for the FABULOUS (it’s Lacroix sweetie…) although possible a large step away from the corporate chic I should be striving for.

The other project is working on a classical piece of music on piano – specifically beethovens piano sonata in c minor, second movement, adagio cantabile. I’m going to try and do it on my own to improve my reading, plus there are a few keyboard view renditions of this on YouTube that I can use for fingering ideas (minds out of the gutter, all of you) and to listen to in order to hear the dynamics, tempo, etc. This guy does a beautiful version of it, but his facial expressions are so bad and distracting that I kept wiring for the joke like it was a skit from the fast show.

I first fell in live with this piece when dad and I were preparing music for my grandpa’s funeral, which sounds very morbid. But aside from the very simple but beautiful melody I guess it accompanied all that period of pulling together photos of our family on dads side.

We were always close to all of our family, but see mums side more as they tend to travel in packs and be a lot more outgoing and social! If we were heading to the shopping centre or the beach or the cinema it was likely that nan and pa and/or an aunty, uncle, cousin would also be meeting us there. It’s always great fun to catch up with them, but I guess it tended to be something that happened more often.

Dads side were always a bit more reserved, a bit more for the special occasions – Christmas, their birthdays, our birthdays. Dads parents were older than mums, but aside from the age difference there was definitely also a personality difference. While they were quieter and more easily overwhelmed when the Davis tribe arrived, they were still always genuinely interested in what we were doing, would be happy to see us, proud of us. Shannons toilet roll pirate stayed on display in the living room, michaels paintings/drawings were still on the walls, aunty gils paintings and leadlights were right through the house. They held on to the toys we loved like the old yogurt containers with pegs and those itchy wigs – all of them probably untouched for a good 12 years, but were there just in case. They used to put up with our love of their musical doorbell too, me insisting that we had to press the button until the “happy birthday” tune played if we were visiting for such an occasion. My favorite bit was grandpa’s back room – his haven of serenity. ABC classic fm would always be on quietly, his books were all arranged on the bookshelf in height order, a 3 volume series which made up a picture of a silhouette of a sneaking mam was my favorite. He had a keyboard down there with all the different voices and rhythms and backing tracks and I used to go down and bash out some songs on it and even drag grandpa down to listen to my ‘performance’. He was always very encouraging despite my lack of training or more importantly talent. I remember trying to play along with a cassette on his stereo and informing him that his tape deck was running too fast because the song is playing back a semitone higher than it should be, he investigated and I was right, but there was no way to change the speed setting – I don’t think he listened to tapes again through that stereo.

Anyway, I guess listening to that piece of music now is bittersweet because it was used on a sad day, but also it was the background music to reflecting on happy memories and a special person. I find myself missing grandpa a lot these days, probably more because I’ve found myself interested in many things that he was passionate about – photography, musical theatre, piano. Would have been great to mine his wealth of knowledge and share these things with him as I discover them. Of course I miss grandma too, but it’s grandpa I think of most often.

Ok, personal reflections over, it’s a nice piece of music and sounds pretty easy for the most part. Although I suspect that it may be deceptive and actually quite difficult, it’s a grade 3 piano piece apparently – and considering I havent done any formal formal piano training I might be biting off more than I can chew. It’s worth a shot though, right…?

One thing I might struggle with is not humming along with my playing – Beethoven hates that, DON’T HUM!

Please allow me to introduce to you all the beautiful Ms. Ava Margaret Tobias

Daughter to the dashing Jacob and of course one of my oldest friends, gabriella. Amazing to think my grade 3 buddy is now someones mum! Talk about reality check.

I’m so pleased that little Ava is healthy and happy, and even more pleased she chose not to make headlines by arriving in the stadium seating at the AFL grand final. I was sure that was going to happen!

Congratulations Gabby and Jacob on your new arrival, she is gorgeous and well worth the wait. I can’t wait to meet her.

Alma and I left for the race at 6.45, a full hour before the start, all we had to do was go the few mrt stops and grab a shuttle bus. Easy, and that part went fine, the bus ride was another story. The bus got stuck in traffic resulting from all the road closures due to the run. The race start time came and went as we entertained ourselves on the bus…

We got to the start line and off we went. It was a really hot day, no clouds, no breeze, so the run was a real challenge. I started strong with a good run/walk strategy and the first 2km were past before I even knew it, even getting to the drink station at 6km was quite alright. But at the station I really needed to pee, this overwhelming need, like I was going to wet myself! The line took forever and when I finally got to the tiny portaloo there was hardly anything, other runners – is this typical? Have you experienced this before? It happened again at the finish line too. Weird.

Anyway, gross anatomical things aside, after my pee-break I found it really hard to get back into the previous rhythm/excitement and from the 7km mark til about the 8.5km mark I was really starting to struggle. I dont know if it was the stop or if it was just that this section was pretty exposed to the blazing sun. From 8.5km onward the run was inside the existing changi prison compound and I think shade coupled with the view of the finish line spurred me on, but that last little bit was not too bad. I even managed to run for the last 500m to cross the finish line.

So now, I’m sunburnt, I’m tired, but I’m pretty happy to have made it through!

Let me explain, I am now uber blonde to test the more fun theory. I know I was blondish before, but I’ve fully committed now.

As for the more fun thing, so far no real difference. In fact, I spent my saturday cleaning and reading – which, while lovely – is not typically considered fun.

I went to the hairdressers on my day off on Tuesday determined to go full platinum blonde. Its something I’ve always wanted to do and chickened out of last minute, settling instead for a safer less dramatic head of highlights. I figured that I am trying really hard at the moment to generally improve myself, from diet to fitness to work to love life, maybe it’s time just to be brave and take a chance. Either it will look awesome and I’ll be overjoyed, or it will be awful but at least it’s something crossed off the bucket list.

To assist in my dialogue with the hairdresser I took a couple if sample photos of the colour and cut shape i was after. These are what I had for reference:

(photo credits to whoever took these…)

So after suggesting I go instead for highlights (NO!), my hairdresser set to work…

…

…

(FYI, the gameboy in all those pics is my iPhone case rather than a gameboy I habitually carry with me in case of photo opportunities)

My 11am appointment was complete after 4 applications of bleach and 6.5 hours, and I snapped this minutes before exiting the salon (and it’s free wifi…)

I posted on facebook and got lots of lovely compliments from friends around the world (thanks all!).

But alas, the salon lighting was forgiving and the reality was actually a lot lighter and drier. Here is a closer to the truth pic

It’s not necessarily bad, just very light. I feared I was a little closer to doc from back to the future than I was to lady gaga.

The problem with such a big colour difference from before is that I can’t wear a lot of the colours I was wearing and I need to wear makeup (including foundation to control the red in my skin tone) everyday. This means I’m constantly late when heading out for the day as I have to try on loads of different things and concentrate on getting makeup right. The line between chic and whore is a fine one when it comes to makeup…

I’ve started to try and look at what my fellow blondies are doing for their makeup. Agnyess dean has similar colouring to my hair, so been looking at her pics a bit.

I’m not quite there yet, but am really having fun with the new colours and looks available now. I LOVE that I can now put on any colour lipstick I want (I’m going to do buy some blue and purple shades tomorrow!) and I also love that I can go pretty extreme with eyes too. This was tonights look

Also, this monotone blonde is a great canvas for all my clips and headbands!!! Hurray!

This has been a pretty self indulgent post tonight. Far too many photos of me for one offering. Maybe the egotism is tempered slightly if I do a dougie howser style summary which tells you the lesson I have learned (you’ll have to imagine your own old school computer with blue screen and white 24bit text)

My lesson was, if there is something you’ve always wanted to do or try, and you haven’t because you’ve erred on the side of caution (eg. shave your head, get a piercing, wear leather trousers) I encourage you to just go for it. Try it. Even if it’s just one time in your life. You may be thrilled at the result and its just as good as you imagined. It may turn out different to what you thought but you learn to live with it and eventually embrace the result regardless of it not being like you planned. You might absolutely hate it, but at the end of the day hair grows back, piercings can heal over, trousers come off. Whatever your result, you’ve stepped out of your comfort zone, thrown caution to the wind and done something real and new instead of being an old person one day wishing you’d tried things when you had the chance.

I’m Jerry springer, look after yourself aaaand each other.

The man walks among us.

Bowie has arrived.

Big congratulations to jess and simon on their lovely little boy and lots of hugs to bug brother Jagger.

(Bowie actually arrived a few weeks ago now, but it took me a while to get a photo!!)

My sister is now from “Perth”, she will have to work on her pronounciation if she wants to convince the locals there. Also based in Perth is my soon to be brother-in-law, Brendan.

Jetstar were having a flight sale in February of this year. I had seen Shannon over Christmas, and loved spending time with her, so when I saw the very cheap tickets between Singapore and Perth I got booking. Of course to get the cheap tickets you have to book a long way off, so I selected the weekend after Shannon’s birthday. A surprise visit, first time she would have seen her big sister in 8 months.

When I went to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago to see the rest of the family, who should pull their own surprise visit but Shannon? So my surprise 8 month reunion had quickly become a ‘I saw you the weekend before last’. Talk about disappointment.

But still, Brendan and I kept going with the surprise plan. Might as well, even if it was going to be anticlimactic.

2 days before I was due to jump on a plane to see her, I get a phone call from Shan screaming out “Im Engaged!!!” (see previous post). So now, im excited about the surprise again.

From Perth, august 2011

Brendan picked me up on the Friday night without shannon knowing – claiming to be ‘on call’. Diligently, shannon acted like the loving wife to be and stayed up waiting for her fiance to return safely to her side went to bed. I snuck into the house and suprised the empty living room, and unsatisfied with that, jumped on shan’s bed. She slept talked to me a couple of times (“yeth, yeth..” while patting my hand) then woke up and told me off for surprising her.

In the morning she was happier to see me and after she and Brendan had spent some time gardening and I sat in the sun on the front porch admiring Austrlian Suburbia (for my non-Australian friends, it really is just like it looks on neighbours) I demanded that Shannon and I go and try on her first wedding dress.

We went to the Oxford Rd shops and tried a couple of boutiques. The first one Shannon was in complete denial and walked straight past the white dresses to the coloured bridesmaids ones at the back and started talking cuts and styles. Oh-No, that can wait. Wedding dress, now. The next boutique we visited said that the majority of their dresses were out of the shop, all down at the big bridal fair. We thought ‘oh well’ and went to head out, but the woman at the boutique plead with shannon to go to the fair ‘ its the last one until February!!!’. To appease the lady, and also to buy Brendan some more time to pull together a surprise BBQ for shannon, we set off for the Perth showgrounds.

It was really good fun to hang out with Shan – the two of us were a bit creeped out by the sheer scale of a bridal expo – but glad to have each other there. It was funny to see the first stall as you walked in belonging to fitness first, almost a ‘you are getting married, so lose weight before you even think about choosing a wedding dress’.  We threw ourselves into one stand with four or five dresses – a variety of styles – for Shan to get into. This one ended up firmly on the ‘no’ pile:

From Perth, august 2011

We tried on a number of dresses and got some notes for shan about what she does and doesnt like, and then decided that we were both really completely over it and what we really wanted was a strip-sub combo from Red Rooster.

When we got back to Shannons place, she was surprised to find her backyard over-run with friends. Actually, not surprised, annoyed that Brendan was having a BBQ with them and didnt invite her. Im not sure she caught on that it was supposed to be a surprise for her. Granted, no one yelled ‘Surprise’, so I can understand why the confusion.

But the champagne was on ice and a lovely toast was made by Smorsey (Sp?), then I said some words on behalf of the family. Shannon later admitted to being disappointed that Smorsey and I didnt continue on trying to outdo each others speeches a la the ‘Bridesmaids’ movie, but I dont know any Thai, so I guess there was a limit to that…

From Perth, august 2011

It was nice to sit outside in a backyard and have a BBQ in the sun. Shan and Brendan have some really lovely mates there and have built a real home for themselves.

From Perth, august 2011

After an early morning next-day clean up, we set out to check out Freemantle Gaol. Partly because its interesting, but also because there are no other tourist attractions in Perth.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It was built for the early convicts and used right up until 1991. None of the cells were ever plumbed and a bucket was still used up until closure. Gross.  Certainly not a place I’d like to be spending 20-life in!

From Perth, august 2011

From Perth, august 2011

From Perth, august 2011

because…

MY LITTLE SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED!!!!

Congratulations Shazlick and welcome to the family Champione. Lots of love to you both! xxx

One of the surprises was a very cute black and cream tie-dyed sort of mini-dress with a zipper up the front.

I paired it with a belt and some leggings and strutted my Melbourne chic through the streets and into my office.

A-like so:

all well and good until around lunchtime when my sensitive chest skin started to be irritated by a scratchy bit on my ultra-chic zipper front dress. I had a look down the front in order to identify the irritant only to find…

My ultra-chic zipper front dress was in fact a run of the mill zipper back dress from katies and I just wasnt paying attention when I put it on this morning.

Not one to abide by rules, fashion or otherwise, I continued to rock my ultra-chic zipper front dress. Even if it meant tolerating the scratchy label for the rest of the day.