nip it in the bud.

I would say I have been ‘living the average lifestyle’ recently. This I understand as making a living, saving money, spending a little on things you like, seeing out the rainy season, and accepting that most daily excitement comes in the form of the emerging signs of spring. But this also means I have passed the ‘3 month time period’ without travelling ANYWHERE outside of the UK, congratulations?! Nothing’s even booked, although Ibiza is on the cards for June, which is some consolidation. BUT, who needs a foreign expedition when the first rays beam down through the clouds in an english back-garden, surely this is the most deserved & wholly appreciated instance of patriotic morale in the world! We slogged through 7 months, battling the elements for that warm, (wouldn't go as far as hot yet) ambient light! The daffodil’s came out, the clocks changed, and British summertime nipped this feeling in the bud.

To keep the brain ticking over, I have been to a couple of exhibitions. The first was Taylor Wessing- Photographic Portrait Prize of 2010 at the NPG in january. This showcased the work of the best young & amateur photographers alongside professional’s work. In the Pub over a beer discussing the expo after viewing the gallery, Ted & I decided collections like that always have a certain number of raw images that are guaranteed to be there; The transvestite, the tainted adolescent teenager, the country girl, the nude, the gay man, the obese, the abused woman, the elderly portrait, an ethnical study shot, the black man, the working tradesman and probably something deceased somewhere in context. This is “exploring a range of themes in contemporary societies” Some of the images were beautifully taken, but can we find a new idea to document now? It was hard to get excited over this prize set of imagery. I also went to ‘Photographic Typologies’ at Tate Modern the other week that explored topics using photography to create multiple images of similar subjects, pioneered by the German photographer August Sander. This is a clever display created by ordering a series of work with either similar or contrasting subjects, which could then be read by themselves or together as a related group or story. A group of friends and I tried to go to the Rankin Live exhibition in Kentish Town too but it wasn’t open on the weekend, please open up, this is a must see! A weekday venture it will have to be. http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/rankin-exhibition-london-article-9464.html

I got myself invited to the Institute of Travel Management charity Ball in Bristol this February which was a nice little surprise. I went to visit my friend Gemma, explored the city abit and later slipped into our best ball dresses & headed to a posh-as-you-like hotel! We were treated to a 4course dinner, drinks, dancing and won a free weekend at the Hilton in Cardiff!! The next day we thought we would carry on a good thing and went for a full roast dinner at the Hilton, Bristol. I think I made the sensible decision to go on a weeks detox after that.

Work has been pretty interesting recently as I’ve been trained up to do more work with magazine promotions which I’m enjoying. I also had another event to organize, which was the catwalk final of a competition we run at the studio with Model’s Plus, London. There were 50 models, and so I absolutely relied on the Choreographer to kick them into shape before the evening show, Lisa was amazing! We also had help from Anna Watts (Miss London) and Stevie the model agency director. We had a full house at the venue for the show, the DJ created a really good atmosphere, everything went to plan, but I didn’t let go of my clipboard and was very glad I wore flat boots as I ran a lot that day! Looking forward now to our winner’s photoshoot coming up in the studio, we have had a big refurb in the building adding more sets, including a full size retired London taxi cab, so that’s going to look pretty cool.

Whilst waiting for this year to wake up, I’ve been exploring a few of the city’s social hubs. To name some favourite places; The Piano Bar, book a table & then get serenaded by various super talented pianists on a big grand glass-top piano. Dogstar, Brixton, a pub-like venue that suddenly switches, packs out, and gets dub-tastic through the night! Fabric Club, Charterhouse Street, BIG guest DJ’s. Buena Vista, aka ‘The Rum Bar’, Clapham, a small intimate place decorated in Cuban/ Spanish décor, with amazing bar staff and cocktails. The Kensington Rooftop Gardens, so pretty its worth a peak www.roofgardens.virgin.com/en/the_roof_gardens/the_club . The Hospital Club, Covent Garden, a lift upto a Maze of rooms and members only cinema screen viewings. Soho House London, a snug of a venue where your bound to spot a celebrity or two.

To eat; St Christopher’s Place, fine dining and cafés between Selfridges and Bond Street so you know its good! ‘Windmill on the Common’ Clapham, lovely for a Sunday lunch with mates, best muscles in town. Bar Italia, Frith Street, opposite the famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. Pumping out smooth coffee & loud tunes until the early hours of the morning, very busy place with a special formula.

And for something alternative; Night out at the Dogs! Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, makes great fun out of your spare change ☺

I think I might go and plan a holiday now, or make a daisy chain...

the big freeze et moi.

Bonjour. this post is in homage to my recent trip to Paris, which was travelled before this brand new year came upon us. But aswel as that little escapade, there are a few other wintery mentions i would like to make.

For me, the realisation that christmas is approaching cannot be missed or misheard, as the excited beginnings of the season colourfully explode in the air right before my eyes on fireworks night. This year I pushed my way into the London crowds to meet the girls at Clapham Common for their free annual display, this was our first time and we hadn't put a second thought to the city's population, but oh my, how naive we were! I've never seen crowds like it, i managed to find Amy, but the others...no sign, mobile networks were jammed, we cut our losses and headed for the display. After 30minutes of constant beauty, it was quite obvious why it was such a popular display. pyrotechnical genius! After, we nudged our way into a pub, finally found the others who had been stuck on the Tube in the commotion and got festive with Früli Strawberry beer & Hummingbird bakery firework cupcakes. and then i let myself get excited about christmas for the first time.

This season I went to an expo at the V&A called 'Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography'. This features images of five contemporary artists who have been capturing photography without the use of a camera. Using the effects of light and science they have managed to create some imagery which I looked at and thought, no way, surely they used a camera? really? no camera? no? wow. Some amazing stuff, but other parts of the exhibition are pretty surreal & abstract so if you don't like that kind of thing then maybe not as impressive. It mainly reminded me nicely of the Pin-hole photography days back at college.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/shadow-catchers-camera-less-photography/exhibition/index.html

Mes amis, Julianne Bell, who I worked (basically partied) with in Melbourne is currently at the university of SciencesPo. in Paris for a study year and lives centrally in the parisian city. This was my que to jump on the eurostar... I was met the other end of the channel at Paris Nord station, a short walk from her apartment & after much catching up, discovered we were going out for Les Nuits Capitals that night, which translates as the capital clubbing festival! Firstly we went to Claire's apartment in another part of town, where I found myself making friends whilst hiding on the floor for a surprise birthday entrance that was about to happen (two people smacked their heads on the sloped ceiling for the actual 'surprise', i tried not to laugh). Of corse we were drinking Vino, then later metro'd to the Moulin Rouge, followed by Club Chez Moune on Rue Pigalle. We were with a band by then called Jolie Cherie who were not shy with their Vodka, so free shots & great music shaped the rest of the evening.

The following afternoon, we went to one of my favourite film's famous sets, Amelie's Café des Deux Moulins for late lunch, with her picture hung behind the coffee bar. We also went to Montmartre hill, home of the artists & the wall of love, which has 'I Love You' scratched and written in every language from around the world into its pretty blue tiles. Later we passed through a photography exhibition, hired out a film, 'Je Vais Bien Ne T'en Fais Pas' (carefully making sure it had english subtitles) and had a night in with a feast of french bread & cheese.

Monday, I went shopping! when in rome and all that. On the way through though i managed to be educational by going to the oldest church in Paris followed by a service in the Notre Dame, then scaled the shops in the trendy part of Le Marais. I had to go to the Centre Pompidou, Museum of National Modern Art too, I literally saw all the original arts that I idolised and studied when I was younger, probably good I was on my own as I was a little speechless. By nightfall i went to see Jules at her Uni, we searched the mac's for an address for a recommended restaurant and once found, met friends for the best meal of my life. Good company, aperitifs, snails, steak beouf, creme brulee, wine, cheese, wow. Jules & I had to walk it all off later and decided on the Champs Elysées as they had just turned on the holiday lights and it was lined in markets, another chic hot day.

The following day we got freshly cooked nutella and banana crepe's for breakfast and did some vintage shopping in the backstreets. I ended up with a handsome pair of little boots to set me up for winter and a Longchamp bag & Jules went all out on her student loan! Coffee & goodbyes left me heading back to the train station, but what a great weekend break, i only hope i can offer the same service in London when Julianne pop's this way, merci mademoiselle!

The weekend after Pairs, I had a long hard challenge to face at work with Fresh Academy. I had organised the Clothes Show Live event, and suddenly it was here, 6 days of fashion, photography, media, modelling and from my memory, running around on your feet for hours on end. It was actually really good fun, but very tiring, thankfully we were staying at the Hilton hotel next to the NEC in Birmingham so room service got abused many times after a long day! Gok Wan was at our hotel, so Claire kept making us change outfits for his gok-proval, personally I don't think he cared much, but the dresses got us into a charity ball one night so that was a good fashion blag! I worked with Miss & Mr England for parts of the event, a lovely pair & kept sending them off to obtain free stuff! finishing off a week à la mode, I watched the main Fashion Show, which was a collaboration of dance, film, catwalk & fashion, and all cleverly themed within movie genres. my Olympus PEN E-P1 also loved it.

(after this i got the english flu, bah humbug) Upon recovery I met up with the girls again in the city, this time for Somerset House Ice Skating, hello winter. picture a romantically set rink, with four girls in a row clinging onto eachother, breaking couples as we slipped & skimmed across the frozen pool below our feet. Well actually im not going to lie, im not a bad skater, so we had a little support, and everyone got their skate leg's in the end, but most importantly, i bloody loved it!! and to finish...bailey's hot chocolates :) Not long after this, we spent another evening together at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. This is London's biggest German Market & Winter Cirque. http://www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com There is stall upon stall of delicious foods such as classic bratwurst sausage, churos, roasted chestnuts & freshly cooked crepes, washed down with warm mulled wine or spiced apple cider. The park is dotted with fairy lights & festive attractions, live music & bustling bars, we even went reindeer riding! I think it's fair to say we were pretty hyped for santa by this point.

Now, in my last post i said at the very end that i was dreaming of a white christmas, and they do say a girl always gets what she wants; along came what the news dubbed 'the big freeze'. six inches of snow, and utter chaos all over england, but no matter how much people protested, i could not keep the smile off of my face. It stayed until all the presents were exchanged and all the turkey had been eaten. a lovely christmas was had back with my family after two years away in australia & a merry toast made to the new year ahead, cheers to twenty eleven.

fresh faced.

flicking through the pages of iCal since holiday, realized that it was probably time to write up a diary entry, so here goes;

Firstly and most obvious to me in general life at the moment, is that I am now one of those 'nine-fivers, yearly salary, tax paying, living for the weekend types'. It's funny how quickly you fall into it as you approach the near mid-twenties, something I would have laughed at a year or so ago when i was swanning around the world still taking advantage of the free student overdraft halifax stupidly allowed me. Even more surprising to me, is that it's not actually that shoddy, you always know you have money coming into the bank, you've got a role & purpose, and best of all, the weekends are all yours. However, i'm at the start of the game, im up the ladder at the moment, waiting to land on that snake.

a little while ago I re-united with tate modern and went to an exhibition called 'Exposed' Voyeurism, Surveillance & the Camera. This was a brilliant look through history surveying & documenting how the camera has been used to show the desire to know what is hidden. Most images had been taken without the subjects knowledge by the unseen photographer or surveillance camera, many crossing the lines of privacy. My own dissertation for uni was based on polaroid photography which i loved researching & writing, and alot of the photographers i studied featured in this show so it was nice to revise over! My favorite piece was the old gentleman's shoe which had a sly camera lens fashioned into its heel. people don't forget the forbidden images.

my original aussie friend that is sarah sweeney has been living over in london, she works mainly for sporting events & not long ago she did The Tour of Britain cycling event. Coincidentally our mutual friend Paddy Kelly aka rockstar in the making was playing at the event, so we went to the day of the final stage in the race at the docklands, london. We donned our corporate suite wristbands and enjoyed a day serenaded by paddy and looked after by sweens, free alcohol & food all in. of course I had no clue about cycling itself, couldn't tell you who won, but do remember an excitable commentator proclaiming "hup hup hup" whenever the bikes flew past and the sun shone beautifully for the last i saw of the english summer. not long after the event my dear sweeney was to leave us to go back to oz for the warm season (smart girl). I went to her flat the following week for a send-off & to consume the ridiculous amounts of free wine she had left from the tour. basically it was me, and about 15 australian girls that had come out of london's woodworks and congregated in a lounge in clapham, loved it! great night, followed by a very entertaining morning as we got up at 6am not long after falling asleep to wonder the streets & find a pub that was showing the AFL grand final game. because of the time difference not many pubs got involved, but we finally arrived at The Clapham Grand apparently 'late' at 7.30 in the morning and sat amongst, which i can only believe, was ALL of the aussie population that possibly could have been in the city and cheered on our team, St.Kilda. unfortunately it was a draw and both teams would have to play all over again next week! "WTF?" was exclaimed a great deal, probably trended on twitter.

i saw so much live music when i was away that i started to get withdrawal symptoms recently, so my mate Ted suggested we go to the Underbelly in Hoxton Square to see a canadian band called Brasstronaut, who were on their first european tour. I've literally never seen so many & such an unusual array of instruments all played together simultaneously, but they sounded amazing so fairplay! We verbalized our love to the lead singer before they scuttled off to sleep with jet lag on their first night in london.

A blog wouldn't be valid now im home, without a little mention of southampton. Sophie edwards, one of our girls in our sixsome has just got her own gorgeous little flat in southy, so we went down to christen it. We went back to the original Junk Club that we used to drink & skank in (think dance move not drug move) back in the day. It was actually a weekend of the past, as I also went out the following eve for my friends birthday & all of us who used to live in uni hall's of res together to Unit. definitely missed team90 wilton avenue, mad to see the originals and cant wait for the next sesh. a second visit was also made back to soph's more recently for a party in the ocean village flats with a load of crazy rum-drinking sailors who are the 'Mersea lot' and i fail to have a bad night in their company. Its actually the first time i've arrived on a night out via boat as we crossed the river solent by ferry to get there! each and every visit to soton is always finished by a big sunday roast with mates in a local pub and each and every time i don't want to leave very much.

This weekend just gone I worked with my company, Fresh Academy, at Britain's Next Top Model Live @the Excel. It was the first year that they had run the event so we weren't really sure what to expect, but the turn out was great & it was really busy. The girl who came 4th and was the public's favorite in the competition, Charlotte Holmes, launched her career through our studio so it was pretty good exposure for us & she popped over to our stand as much as she could without getting mobbed on her journey over! We will be working at the Clothes Show Live @the NEC for the full week in early december so looking forward to that. We had the BBC filming in the studio the other week too for a series that's being broadcasted early next year so I enjoyed hanging around with the team watching the cuts for that. I am now on the 11th of 12 straight working days, so yeah working hard!

Last night I popped to Oxford Street with the girls to buy a winter coat, which i haven't needed in a couple of years so it was quite the occasion! I found all my scarf's, gloves, mitten's and all things warm tucked up in the loft, moved them into my wardrobe and now i'm ready & dreaming of a white christmas, if you please santa x

you tube.

This is a visual summary that compliments my wording in 'the red light district of Ramadan' created by anna aka Carrie Bradshaw en vacances



We should have gone to Ibiza! Morocco 2010! by Anna Celeste Walters.

the red light district of Ramadan.

once upon a time there were four girls, and they were called Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte & Samantha and they went on holiday.

Wait. start again. that’s what we would like to think, but once upon this time there were four girls called Amy, Anna, Kate and Samantha, and they really were the best of friends, and they really did go on holiday (not just in a film). We went to Marrakech, the aladdin’s cave of Morocco, Africa. the reason why I mention sex and the city, is because basically it couldn’t have been any more ‘SATC’ if we had thought wonderful sunshine chic thoughts up in our damsel minds, filmed it on camera and narrated it ourselves.

I spent the London airport procedure in silent bursts of giggles as the girls got searched, body screened, drug tested, and I walked through as free as a bird. This, until karma of course, slapped me round the face with a lost bag at the other end of the runway. Meanwhile though, before realising this dark fact, still happy in the air, I had made some friends from Tokyo and we were busy eating dates and snapping the camera. peace! Also around this time the girls had created the saying ‘should have gone to Ibiza’ which we used at every opportunity, for example when flying on an old old wooden plane they called moroc airways and drinking the awful complimentary tea. However, Tonka toy plane-time over we landed and my bag ceased to come out of the black flaps of doom and onto the carousel where everyone else’s bags were trundling along. it turned out someone (who I can only describe as an idiot) got confused and took my bag. ‘Harding’ I hope you read this by fluke and reimburse me in some way for the taxi money I then had to pay to go back to the airport the following day after you realised you made an idiotic mistake! This part of the holiday was not so SATC but created great banter.

Cue Marrakech. We were staying in the beautiful Park and Spa http://www.marrakechryadsparc.com or as pronounced “Peiirk and Speearr” which was just out of the city and had the most amazing grounds, pools, bedrooms and importantly, food. EVERYONE spoke French, we were literally the only English in the whole resort, Kate and I pulled out our GCSE francais skills as much as we could, Anna got out her French App on the iPhone and Amy said ‘we should have gone to Ibiza’, but still in english. We mainly swanned around in maxi-dresses & large eclectic dangling earings and took delight in the buffet, chatted to the staff (who basically all loved us & did loads for us because apparently they said all the French residents they have are grumpy and are generally not four girls in their early 20’s, and probably because they wanted a British passport at the end of the day). However we loved them back, to mention names, Muhummad, Mustafa, Wetboy, Admin, Deano, Acrobat Boy, Sam aka greasy spoon, Fouad, our waiter, and last but not least, Tito. The latter spoiled us wit stories of London, offered free lunch, serenaded us with Mariah Carey and taught us Tito’s lessons in love which I have to pass on to the world; Number 1, 'we have the communication', Number 2, 'you make the sex', Number 3, 'concessions' (which translated is sacrifices) and Number 4, 'you have the trust'. Which all of us girls are sure not to forget and will maybe even live by forevermore.

We had a pool spot… classic brits on tour… which was a little palm tree planted island we of course called ‘Ibiza’ that we shot-gunned sunloungers on everyday to bask upon. We also had a table ready for us in the evening with the wine that we liked to drink and additional drinks that they knowingly knew we drunk in preparation of our arrival, whatever time that may have been, after we had finished beautifying ourselves in our gorgeous moroccan- styled bathroom. There were the most offbeat, unpredictably magnificent shows in the evening, which I will never have the skills to explain but, can compare it to the notions of falling in love with something that you really know you shouldn’t, but there is just something about it that just grips you… that was ‘the show’ and we will never see anything like it again and we literally lived for it, laughed all through, and they will never be thought of in our memories as anything but special. Calalay Pom Pom. Shortly after discovering the evening entertainment, as if a party stalk arrived one evening, we wondered down to the ‘boudoir’, the resident club, which we imagined much likea school disco hall, but turned out to be a luxury bar and dance floor with BANGING tunes. We had quickly turned our phrase from ‘should have gone to Ibiza’ to ‘you wouldn’t get this in Ibiza’ as these two gems came into our lives, the show & the boudoir, where we spent sweaty nights raving to the likes of Pitbull, Stromae & Shakira. because this is Africa!

Cue the red light district of Ramadan. True to the film-type sketches that were naturally occurring on our holiday, we found ourselves one evening being lead down to the staff quarters of the hotel and towards a door & room illuminated by a single red light bulb. This is where four girls sat on a bed, their perturbed faces staring opposite at a Ramadan feast, engulfed in cigarette smoke, and put to the sounds of an crazed Arabic film on a tiny TV set. Awkwardly, we left as soon as we thought polite and despite their kind gesture to let us experience their lifestyles, are not sure to this day who was more disturbed, ourselves the spectators, or themselves, having four white girls watch them desperately eat after a starved day. Still, the calamari was nice.

A must-do in Morocco, which I personally have always been enchanted by, is the tradition of camel riding. There are many all over Marrakech, scattered at road sides, free to jump onto on a whim, but we wanted to go further out into desert-land, so that we did. We trekked across partly barren land, in full Arabic costume as a string-brigade of camels, along with a free roaming baby camel, named ‘baby’, and a dog (who looked much like a dingo, so this is what he was named), lead by a extremely tanned French guy, we also liked to call ‘dick!’ (excuse MY french) This is because he told us happily that he can speak English but he thinks “it is ‘orrible” and didn’t really want to so basically he didn’t. The ride itself though, I really enjoyed, especially going through a poorer working village and being bundled by a load of gorgeously exited kids, which I proceeded to persuade all do the peace sign for one of my favourite images to date!

Last but by far least, in fabulous conclusion to our cultural recess, are the famous souks (markets) of the city. We travelled for some traditional north african shopping to the main souk, Djemaa el Fna, known as ‘the square’ to most visiting. The first time we went, I promptly got squared up by an Arabic shop keeper & was shouted at for not purchasing something I took interest in, proclaiming nervously “I haven’t got a price, I haven’t got a price” as he continued to shout and swear, the girls swiftly pulled me away and he was left laughing amongst other stall holders! Classic. On our second visit, we arrived in style in a horse carriage and dived into the thick of the market with more confidence than our first timid outing. It is a colourful maze of leather bags, spices, lanterns, clothes, rugs, paintings, cushions and shoes for everyone! We had also learnt some Arabic by now too so that we could converse, mainly to say ‘la, la, la’ which translates as ‘no, no, no’ as we were bombarded by their favourites “I give you good price”... ”this is a gift for you”... but all in all they are lovely people, you just need to get used to their barter- loving mannerisms, and my, we did play their game and barter. shukran ☺

On our final evening we found a little sanctuary, up high above the hustle & bustle of the markets below, lead from a stairway to the rooftops of the red city, Café Arabe
http://www.cafearabe.com. This terrace bar had stunning views & was furnished with stylish booths, lanterns, draped with fabric and had a genius cooling system of mist that was released from the ceiling at intervals, now this was sex and the city. We sat with cocktails and watched the sun go down on beautiful Marrakech. Before the night was over we experienced the food markets that were in full swing as we descended from café arabe heaven (where Jamie Oliver had recently filmed part of a food series), and met two arabic born & bred guys with THE best cockney accents in town who incidentally had a picture with the pukka chef himself on their mobile phone! Our final mise-en-scene, was the humbling sight of a sea of citizens bowing down at the mosque as the call of prayer sung out over the city night.

Much to our surprise Tito arrived at the airport to say his goodbyes just as we were going through security, and amy, bless her heart, conveyed all of our sadness about leaving this magical place by sobbing through take-off. It was then at this moment that an anonymous lady behind us, you would not believe asked us how our holiday was, to which we all courteously replied ‘amazing thank you’ and then I kid you not she said “Oh good, its just I was sat behind you on the way out and I thought you said you should have gone to Ibiza!”

one month back.

The last month can be defined by the saying ‘swings and roundabouts’. This said in the sense that I have been swinging to and fro many visits to friends & family back in the blighty and at the same time, have experienced roundabout all the colours in a rainbow of emotions; from the fulfilled & happy reunions to the reality and sadness for what I have left behind & miss down under. One of the hardest things I ever had to do was to leave that place, and it took a while to realise, but being in the hustle of London again made me remember why i did! London always brings me back home.

Getting home is the first story. I had to transfer at Doha in the Middle East, literally we landed in what looked like a desert with some form of a runway. Imagine barbed wire and scattered shrapnel on a deserted stretch of land with a half-hearted tarmac strip and your not far off from the picture. I couldn’t get back onto the next plane for a re-heated plastic dinner pack and a new movie release quick enough.

I was very strict with my jet-lag when I got settled back and wouldn’t let it confuse my already warped mind. I remember all I kept thinking and proclaiming was “everything is so grreeenn!”, I just couldn’t stop saying it. And of course the money was a shock, I didn’t get over how big the £20 note seamed for a while, so weird. Dad spent a lot of his time laughing at me those first few days. I hardly knew any of the music on the radio, I kept taking pictures of anything ‘London Red’… a post box… a telephone box… a bus. A tourist in my own country.

I had some great opportunities to meet up with both sides of my whole family when I returned as we had a big affair for my Grandma and Papa’s 50^th Wedding Anniversary, we had my cousin’s 21^st Birthday and of course the main reason for my flight back, my dad and step-mum’s wedding at the end of June. which by the way was totally worth coming back for! We had the best time going to dress-fittings, shopping in Birmingham, London & doing all things bridal. Then the actual day itself was beautiful, one of my favourite parts being the five of us children and Dad & Mel all letting off a ‘chinese fire lantern’ each into the night to symbolize the seven of us and the seven years they had been together as a couple.

This month back wouldn’t have been complete without catching up for lost time with my girls aka ‘boys’, Anna Walters, Kate George, Amy Loudon, Sophie Edwards and Alex Sinclair (however Sinclair is still in Melbourne so she’s excused). We have spent a weekend in central London together, another in Watford where I am currently living, and are just on our way to Clapham for another weekend of cocktail drinking, shopping & eating out, with the standard consumption of tea & cake to fill in all the gaps! and best of all, the banter is free.

after alot of searching i have found a new job too. I am now labelled ‘marketing assistant’ in a Photography Academy, which i’m really liking. Its not a role that I’ve exactly done before but im always up for a new challenge and the role differs everyday which is a big plus in my book! So that’s going to be my little baby for quite a while now I expect. I haven’t completely given up the travel-bug though, I’m off on a holiday to Morocco in africa with the girls next week, somewhere ive always wanted to go. It’s going to be hot & colourful and a little pinch of heaven, the photographic opportunities... unbelievable.

One month back, there was no need for p.t.s.d (post travel stress disorder) Things go on and life is good!

bittersweet aviation.

i am writing this from england. so yes, i bit the bullet and took flight from beautiful melbourne. in my thoughts and feelings, words cant describe the time i've had down under in my ten month residency, but I guess a few fitting adjectives would be AMAZING because apparently pommy's always say that, or it could be just me, AWESOME because this is australia and 'when in rome', and ADORE because it starts with A and i think the city actually has a little bit of my heart & soul.

But before I spread my wings, I had a few more things to do up my sleeve which i'll let you know about now. Firstly I went to a club called Revolver aka 'Revs' followed by someone proclaiming 'aww noo not reevvss!' basically it is a not so posh club that opens until not only the very early hours of the next day, but about about 11am the next morning, or sometimes not closing at all and simply carrying on until the next night through. http://www.revolverupstairs.com.au. absolute. must. experience. its pretty famous with the melburian locals. so off i went and partied and met new friends dancing away at 9am. You will be warned away from this venue but good things come out of revs... my new found friend, angus edward, pretty much had a freakish amount in common with myself and so we followed this mitten-dancing rampage with a cultural day trip of photography and gallery viewing. We went to the NGV (national gallery of victoria) to see an exhibition called 'Timelines' which was a beautiful fuse of photography & time and then wondered through more engaging australian modern and historic artwork. We met up many more times and still talk today, the moral being, revs brought me friendship, fun, art & photography so it cant be that bad can it :)

Soon after it was time for the Melbourne Masquerade Ball. This was set up and run by my friend Ryan Gray who I went to Falls Festival with earlier in the year, and his close friend Samuel Hawkins who sadly lost their mothers to cancer. They created this yearly event to raise money for the Cancer Council of Victoria. I purposely didn't fly home before this event as i know how much it meant to all friends involved and i wanted to support the cause too. It was a sold out event and held at the elegant Melbourne Town Hall, raising a fantastic $25,000 this year. everyone got their tux's and ball gowns out, donned the masks and had a great night. well done guys, you've created something very special!

Before I left i wanted to break into another state, this time South Australia. Lisa, who i went road-tripping with to Sydney suggested we jumped back in the car again and headed for Adelaide, or more familiarly named, RADelaide. We got our mate Meagan on board, packed a bag and all headed out for a 5day adventure. Our first stop that evening was at Warrnambool (which i couldn't pronounce for the life of myself) where we checked in at a corny motel, splashed around at beach in the dark and visited Cheeseworld, yes, Cheeseworld! it does exactly what it says on the tin. I actually really liked this little bizarre place. Driving onwards, we refreshed in a delightful english tearooms in Port Fairy, i think i might have persuaded that detour! Next stop was Mount Gambier, home to the bluest of blue lakes and lots of pretty sink-holes, we got very wet here, mount gambier liked raining that day. We stayed that night in the 'caravan of courage', an awesome retro little caravan in some bogan park, very cosy. Then headed off through Robe, famous for its seafood, hence, we dined on fish and chips and walked it off along the picturesque seafront. A long voyage later along a single road that goes on and on and on into the horizon with nothing but road kill and little australian farm windmills to amuse & charm the mind, we got to adelaide. That night, due to a convenient advert we had seen on the ancient caravan television the night previous, we got a cheeky deal to stay in the Stanford Plaza Hotel in the heart of the city (obviously we had to sneak an extra person into the room though on the sly to meet the deal- requirements), i did say that it was cheeky. We had a night of luxury, food & drinks in the room, a Spa, Sauna and then headed out in the city to some pubs & bars. Some advise: never go to the 'hindley' street end, no, no, we we alerted to avoid this end and thought what the hell it cant be that bad, we were practically running back up, in a holding-hands-scared-for-our-lives-type-manner within 10mins of venturing down. its scary! stick to the 'Rundle' street end of the strip, much nicer. The next day we had to sadly vacate the Plaza for the opposite side of the accommodation scale, a campsite in the bush, we took a tent with intent to use it one night, so we did. It was actually really charming and relaxing (after we put one tent up, took it down, and then put another tent up) we were right by a stream which we followed and found a Koala in the tree, we did a little song+dance for it, but didn't share our enthusiasm. After finishing playing & climbing over lakes, trees, getting in contact with mother nature, etc, we scrubbed up and went out in Glenelg which happened to be 'the Queens Birthday' public holiday. Glenelg is Adelaide's seafront so we went for the sunset, walked the pier, snap, snap snap. That eve we wound up at the Beachouse, which offered us attractions in the form of a horse-carousel and a colourful ferris wheel, thanks to the adolescent teenager for the free rides! The single night in the tent was absolutely freeeeeezing, and we woke to an equally frozen and classic camper battery-flat car which we had to call road assistance out to repair, mainly because we couldn't work out how to open the bonnet. This marked the end of another flippant & fantastical venture into some more of Australia's diverse land, oh yeah, then we had to drive ten hours back to melbourne in one day, that was a 'strewth' situation!

I did one more photoshoot before my time was over, this time for Toni&Guy. It was for the new 2010 hairstyle collection which has recently been launched, they closed down one of their salons and got the models in. They were totally recut-styled-and coloured, put through make-up and styling and I then had to photograph head & full body shots for one male and eight female models. That evening they got boozed-up and strutted their new do's down the catwalk in a bar at the afterparty and i was their clicking away at the camera there too. great day.

I had a memorable night for my leaving affair, gathering people met and befriended from across my time in the city for dinner and drinks. Eventually we ended up as planned at the Croft Institute, http://thecroftinstitute.net. A surreal, kooky & deranged concept of a place based around an asylum, psychiatric hospital venue/ come bar which you have to search through the graffitied alleys and between the bins of chinatown to find. Shots are done out of syringes, the toilets are dubbed 'department of hygiene', and such and such. A great unconventional place your sure not to forget anytime soon, which is why i chose it, Melbourne is to be not forgotten in my mind. It will forever stay with me and i'm sure i'll escape the clouds of england once more to re-visit all the wonderful things I came to love in that city; the people, places, culture, and its creativity all under an australian sunkissed glow, you are accepted and loved with open arms and there truly are 'no worries'. I would not hesitate for one second to encourage someone to experience it for themselves, whether it be down under or anywhere else you are destined to travel, go. take your daydream and live it.

melbourne was my muse, now its my memory.

winter to winter, guns to cream.

June, and the beginning of winter. I arrived last winter in late august, so the seasonal circle is complete, and my time here is near to an end, but rarely squandered. since the previous post I have been cramming experiences ontop of events to squeeze the last of Melbourne's juices into my already full cup with angst that I will get home and regret a missed opportunity.

as you know I have been dabbling in bar work for a little while which has been pretty fun on the social side of life. We've had some sweet nights out, and I cant fault the team i work with :) We had a spirit training night, which involved the 'Bartender of the Year' in Melb from Black Pearl Bar, Brunswick St, giving us the low-down on how to make pure spirit distillations from beer which I thought was pretty damn cool! We also went to a beer launch the other week at the Little Creatures Lounge, Brunswick, for White Rabbit White Ale- delicious. Both these events involved ample free beers and pizza which i think you'd agree in saying you cant really go wrong with hey.

I have a friend of a friend of a boyfriend who is in the Army and recently graduated up in the Puckapunyal Military area who was holding a party...you know the drill...this was the Royal Australian Army Corps Cocktail party. Of corse, all these army corps were guys, so what did they do? Invite heaps of girls up to join the party and even out the ratios! So off me and a couple of car loads of my girl friends went to the little town of Pucka to stay in the barracks and enjoy a complimentary night of champagne, cocktails, dancing, and even a fry-up on the barbie in the morning. The memories in photographs are mainly draped over huge barrel guns. classy.

I had my twenty third birthday down under this year, my first birthday abroad i believe. My gorgeous friend Dee brought me a ticket to Creamfields festival AU, the first time the event has come to Australia, as it fell on the weekend of my birthday, lucky thing :) It had a majestic circus theme but was alot quieter than we imagined as i guess it still needs some more awareness within the country, but still had THE best time. highlights being, DJ Generic, Oh Snap, and then of corse, The Bloody Beetroots headlining in the finale. We followed the afterparty to Brown Alley in the city but our hard-partied feet didnt last long! On the actual eve of my birthday I had a relaxed night out to dinner and drinks at the pub called the Great Britain in Richmond which has a huge open fireplace and a kooky vibe to the place. happy birthday to me.

I cant not mention that its AFL footie season at the moment, and it is addictive. I went to Etihad Stadium to watch 'the saints', St Kilda vs 'the bommers', Essendon, which was a winning experience, despite my team unfortunately losing (this being st kilda, due to the fact I promised the first photographer i worked for in melbs i would support them!). Loaded with your beer and classic match pie, watching extremely fit young males running around in the smallest kits you can think up, whats to lose really? so based on these reasons my boss at the bar got me some tickets to another game at the famous MCG for a big game rival coming up between Collingwood and the Geelong Cats. The footie is fast-paced, the atmosphere is impassioned and exciting, im personally completely converted to ozzy rules. sorry england, you can have your soccer mate! we do footie tipping every week, and im slowly getting better, hopefully I can squeeze another game in before my departure...oh when the saints go marching in.

MELBOURNE video memories.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/v/s5MJGHzTfYM&hl=en_US&fs=1&

A collection of memories: video clips & photographs I've taken over my time in the four seasons of Melbourne, and my home the other side of the world.

Abacus Birdcage Gramophone Lamp.

One of the biggest comedy festivals in the world has dominated events in Melbourne over the last couple of weeks, It would have been rude not to sample its delights so off I went into the city & sampled a few evenings of comic genius and giggles. I initially went for a UK act, which admittedly was very nationalistic and ‘flag-waving’ of me as although I love this county, I had the impression that I didn’t really connect with or ‘get’ Australian humour. This show, Russel Kane- Human Dressage, was so funny I was very close to tears, he has been nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award three times and is very witty at describing the attributes, emotions and cultures of people and nations, all whilst wearing, and pulling off may I add, a male pair of leggings, very impressive! Later in the festival, feeling bad for my previous patriot choice, I went to see Melbourne’s own comedy duet, Anyone for Tennis? This show named ‘Abacus Birdcage Gramophone Lamp’ is a completely random collection of sketches, music, theatre and humour based around these four objects. The words original, innovative, insane and quirky come to mind when trying to describe their act but still do not do justice to the bizarrely odd, BUT HILAREOUS things they performed in that hour! Compared to the duet Flight of the Concords, I think these two will go far in this new-age peculiar comedy field too. Oh and yes, they did wear old-school tennis outfits & headbands throughout…and in the finale, yes they do try to blow up the audience with a homemade bomb! Lets not to mention the slight nudity.

I’ve recently quit the gym in an aim to start saving some money for London and so have been walking ‘The Kokoda Trial’ with friends as much as possible. This is a very steep track, also called the ‘1000 steps’ in Ferntree Gully which depicts & replicates the trial which was walked and took lives of those Australian soldiers who fought and died on the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea in World War II. It is a walk through thick tree ferns, gum tress, surrounded by wet forest & sounds of wildlife, although exhausting I love it, its a beautiful place, just mind the spiders! Whilst on the sombre subject of War, on the 25^th April, just a couple of days ago, fell the annual public holiday of ANZAC day (Australian New Zealand Army Corps). This, a recognised day to honour and remember both nations loses to wars across the decades, originated from those who died at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. I went to the ‘Dawn Service’ at 5am, starting in dark and ending at sunrise, at the huge Shine of Remembrance along with thousands of others on the Sunday morning of anzac. It was a traditional service of firing guns, speech by veterans and song, and although not Australian and had to stand silent whilst everyone sang the national anthems, I still felt right being there as the British flag flew alongside the their own, many soldiers having had English backgrounds. We all wore our poppies with pride.

Im assuming its because it has been getting colder recently that I’ve been having cravings for home-comforts, which probably I should have ignored, but instead I indulged in! My little Welsh friend Dee, and I walked past the sweetest Tea-Rooms last week tucked away in the city, and couldn’t resist (www.threethousand.com.au/eat-drink/hopetoun-tea-rooms) …four cups of tea and two cakes each later we were fully satisfied. However, it didn’t stop there, soon after we found a shop called ‘Treats from Home’ (www.treatsfromhome.com.au) on Collins street which stocks all British brand name-food and goodies, a little saviour, and purchased some Galaxy chocolate, it tastes even better after eight months of not passing the lips! To put and end to the pommy- yearning I cooked a giant traditional roast dinner & apple crumble last Sunday for ten of my housemates and Australian friends with plenty of left-overs. Now content and gratified, it’s back to the ozzy lifestyle, I solemnly swear to carry on wearing my thongs and singlet throughout the autumn months!

melbourne is my oyster.

Autumn in Oz, and seasonal affective disorder is defiantly no worries over these parts, there is still plenty of sunshine despite colder evenings and always more to do & see. I had a cheeky long weekend free a couple of weeks back and jumped at the chance to go on a good old fashioned road trip with my friend Lisa who was traveling up to Newcastle to visit a mate. We left early on the Friday morning and firstly traveled out of Victoria and through the national disaster bush-fire area that was affected in 2009; despite the still black-burnt vegetation you can still see how beautiful the area is & was great to encounter. It was a 10 hour drive up the Hume highway but we finally arrived in Sydney to stop for a drink with a friend, Adam, in the city and grabbed some dinner in the Kings Cross area. Despite tiredness setting in we set off again fuelled with Red-Bull and a Live Coldplay album and sang our way 2hours north to reach Aimee’s place in Newcastle in the early hours of saturday morning. The following day we hired a big car with a group of Aimee’s mates and toured the Hunter Valley Winery Region. The vineyards were pretty as a picture, we tested sip after gulp of free wine and filled in the gaps with ample free cheese and olive samples, to any wine drinkers this is such a great day, got to love a freebie. The following day we were headed to the beach but there were announcements all over by the government that a high risk Tsunami warning had been issued due to the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, so we headed to the high cliffs overlooking the waters for safety & fish and chips :) Monday morning we left our nest to start making our way back home, firstly back through Sydney for some playful snaps of the main attractions and a stop for coffee at the Sydney Dance Café in Darling Harbor (owned by two of my friends who I traveled with in America last year but unfortunately weren’t in that afternoon, my poor planning!). The next stop was Australia’s Capital Territory, Canberra, to stay with some of Aimee’s Army mates & to visit the Parliament House. We all had a little bit to much to drink that night due to sampling the delights of our purchases in Hunter Valley, very funny night, will look forward to seeing you all at the Royal Aust. Artillery Corp Cocktail Party in May boys, cheers for putting us up! Our final long stretch home on tuesday back to Melbourne went smoothly after a quick Macca’s breakfast hangover cure, Bon Voyage Lisa what a great trip, thank you so much your a legend.

The long awaited Australian F1 Grand Prix was on the weekend just gone and I can't tell you how exciting it all was, it felt as if I had been drip fed a concoction red bull, no doze and espresso, from begging to end I was on a high! I had already sorted out a job position with REP models and I was over the moon to find out a week before that I had been assigned to work in the Paddock Club, the grand prix's most exclusive VIP Corporate area, flamin oath! I worked thursday- sunday on 12hour shifts with the AGPC hosts in suite 11, the perks of the job as follows; being able to walk down in the pits, amazing skydeck & panoramic views of the main straight, able watch the drivers early morning wheel change practices and engineering throughout the day, working around the likes of John Travolta, Richard Branson, Dannii Minogue, Holly Valance, the Neighbours Crew, a whole lot of TV personalities/ AFL players/ models...not to mention the biggest bonus of seeing the drivers & even more importantly Lewis Hamilton and the gorgeous Jenson Button! We got to go to the after race concerts too with our passes, so sat night we had a rave to ozzy band Powderfinger which had great stage graphics and visuals. My dad and brothers are huge fans of Formula 1 so I managed to get Jenson's signature for them, would have loved you to have been there too boys. The race itself was such an adrenaline rush, I ditched the earplugs and you could literally ‘feel the energy’ right through you, unfortunately ozzy-hope Weber crashed into Lewis during the 2nd to last lap and ruined any hopes of Hamilton getting a poll position, but our champion Button was always out in front and him winning really put the icing on top of the cake of my time in Melbourne. It was an experience I'll never ever forget and I'm definitely going to try get a ticket to Silverstone 2010 which is on just after my return to the homeland...Steve from the F1 Mclaren Merc GB team I'll return your sharpie pen there, o and thanks for the sausage rolls & HP sauce guys!

Also in the world of work, I assisted a photoshoot recently for a menswear brand called P O BOX with navi. It was for there autumn/ winter collection and we had male model Julian for the day on location & in the studio. It was a pretty funny shoot as the client/ stylist and model were both gay and had me and the make-up artist in giggles as they ran around screaming and complaining about bee's on set! I have earnt the money for my flight ticket home now from the Prix and extra’s so next stop this week is STA for a booking back to London which I’m going to make for late June. Plenty more time to explore in the next 3months…comedy festival starts this week and im defiantly going to get out for some laughs in the city, happy days!

not a no no, it's a na na

So kids and elders, I made a new years/ end of january resolution to stop the festival & social frenzy and get back to some serious work but unfortunately I have failed and have done much of the same this month! ah well I’ve been having lots of good fun and making the most of the last of summer, (which I have nearly survived somehow in the heat) here are a few things I've been doing recently in the amazing city of Melbourne…

Lets start with some watersports. my housemates and I left at the crack of dawn to go and meet some family friends & their speed boat packed with sporting goodies. We went to a huge man-made lake called Hazelwood which is primarily part of a water cooling system for the 1600MW Hazlewood power station, because of this the water is beautifully warm & has also been allowed for sports. We rode the ‘extreme biscuit’, wake- boarded, kneel-boarded & I tried my first go at waterskiing, all resulting in cuts, bruises and full body work-outs. We took a picnic, the brilliant Aussie Bush Kettle and spent the whole day in the water and relaxing on the bank. The following day we were left very sore & sunburnt but hell it was worth it.

In relation to my broken resolution, we partied firstly to celebrate my housemate, Bubsy’s 23^rd birthday, a simple but always sterling bbq at our place. Lots of food and company, drinks & music, finished with Junior getting egged/ flour-bombed by every guest due to a lost bet. City- wise I have been to some more of the CBD’s finest, a couple of favorites have been the bars E Fifty Five, www.efiftyfive.com, La La Land, www.lalaland.com.au, Horse Bazzar, www.horsebazaar.com.au/?page_id=3 and a raving Dubstep night at Mercat Cross. I also went to the pre-opening night of Tinning Street’s new photographic gallery, www.tinningstreet.blogspot.com, free wine and great photography, lots of trendy Brunswick guys & gals and a chat with the artist made a great event. After we grabbed some delicious Turkish food in an authentic restaurant, went to a Shisha bar for a smoke and tea and then onto a little bar called Black Pearl on Brunswick st for pear cider, you really can’t beat melber’s culture.

My FAVOUITE day of this month, surprisingly as I am a single lady, was actually Valentines day. This fell on a Sunday, and more importantly, St Kilda Festival Day. The two main streets, Ackland & Fitzroy in St Kilda, and the entire beach-vibed southern city spot was closed off from traffic along with the waterfront & was transformed into a mighty festival destination. My friends Ally and Rosie have a flat right in the heart of it all so they had a bbq for a group of us before we headed down to the masses below. There were Stages set up left, right and center, music coming out of every bar in the area, people, people, people, sunshine, stalls, beer and more people. All the music acts were local bands and artists, so I wasn’t too familiar, but no one else seemed to be either, and no one cared. The weather was perfect and so was the day, who needs a man aye! My love went to Australia that day.

It was that yummy day, Shrove Tuesday recently too, and so I joined in the feasting and made pancakes with the girls Dee & Jamie at their huge house in an old bakery which was fitting! We have given up Arnott’s products for Lent because they are all naughty. I also went with Jamie the other night to a ‘Black Night’ aboriginal film evening at an open air cinema in Treasury Gardens. These aim to bring together the white and indigenous cultures together through the art medium of film. With a ginger beer in hand & fruit bats flying above as the sun set, it was an ethnic experience and really interesting to watch.

Seriously now, I really am getting back to work now, a solid three months at least of saving is ahead of me starting next week. Back to the photography focus aswel, I’ve still been snapping away, more social than professional. However I have a new Olympus Pen DSLR so I have been playing around with the flash, lens’s and filters on that, will post some new images soon via linked facebook page. I have a planned road- trip to Newcastle via Hunter Valley & Sydney coming up too so im sure I’ll get my snap on then. I’ve been here 6 months now, and had originally planned to be home roughly around that mark, but there is too much to leave at the moment and I’m not quite done with this buzzing place just yet.

oh what's occuurrinnn.

Well well well, January has been a little diva of a month, I've seen more bands & artists in one month than i probably have in my entire life. Everyone just seems to want to play in Melbourne, there are so many events you could quit your job and be a full-time festival goer, the music scene here is far from quiet, and where they are my camera follows!

From working at Zest Marketing I have met alot of british people, having been living with aussie's and all my friends australian with the exception of fellow STApom jamey t, it has been quite the novelty to hang out for beers with brits again. A few of us went to an Andy C drum & bass gig @ THE HI-FI (http://www.thehifi.com.au) which was a dancing clammy spectacle of a night, topped with 'japanese slipper' cocktails at 'Hollywood' karaoke bar. With Zest we also spent a night with food & music at the late night Victoria Market, spent evenings drinking at Fed Square at Transport & in the city at The Curtain House building. There is alot of competition setting in the time spent together, one of which I unfortunately lost. This resulted in me having a carton of milk poured all over my back and neck in the morning before having to work the rest of the day by Nath my comp partner, who may i add just scraped a win & enjoyed a beer at my expense :) Another loser Dan, had his arm waxed by his partner and Sin had to eat a whole onion (yes he was sick) among other forfeits across the teams. Ledge company! I've learnt alot of marketing skills and great attitude & new confidence which can be applied to many area's of work, since having left uni, it has also been nice to be in a educational environment again. Im not going to lie, i'm abit of a geek and love a good inspirational lecture!

As you have probably noticed, the Australian Open Tennis is on at the moment and its causing quite a buzz in the city. I went along last week with some friends from work and scouted some free tickets off people leaving to get into the grounds...what, i'm not a backpacker as such, but I still need to look after the cents! We went firstly see Ladyhawke perform on the Heineken stage and then took a pick at one of the smaller courts for some doubles action. Later we went to the Tsonga (french) vs Almagro (spanish) match in a larger stadium, you could say this game took my tennis virginity as it was the first big game i'd watched. The atmosphere was amazing and it really surprised me how interactive the crowd were, i loved it, I later saw mine and Ally's little smiling faces several times on a playback of the match on Channel 7 Sport on the TV at home! As i have been writing this I have been watching the mens Grand Slam final and unfortunately our GB hope Murray just lost to Federer, winning his 16th Major.. urm greedy comes to mind, you could have given us one Rodger mate!

Last Tuesday 26th Jan held the yearly celebrated Australia Day, a day that the nation gets off work to celebrate Australia and all things Australian. We celebrated at our house with a classic barbecue with friends and listened to Triple J radio station's top 100 countdown of songs from 2009. The only tedious thing about this is that whilst listening, you are not allowed to exclaim that you 'love this song!!' or any similar comment otherwise down your drink goes -skull, skull. Later in the evening I went to Federation Square to meet with Jamey to watch the Murray vs Nadal game in the Atrium on the big screen & then to see the fireworks set off to a huge admiring crowd in the square. During the whole day I had to wear an australian flag at all times to make up for the fact I wasn't an australian (whatever that is, aren't they all pom's originally anyway?!) It was another of those days when you just think, god Oz is good.

The very last thing I did was the fabulous Melbourne 'Laneway' festival yesterday (http://melbourne.lanewayfestival.com.au). This tours many cities across Australia, and as the name suggests, constructs various stages & takes over lanes in the city for a day of leading a new music. My luuvely welsh friend Dee lives on the chosen location for this years Melbourne Laneway festival in Footscray, so she managed to get us some free Residents passes for the event, ledge! It was perfectly hot, and during the day I saw Mumford & Sons, The XX, Midnight Juggernauts, Dappled Cities & Florence and the Machine, who all equally rocked full stop. However this music malarky has got to stop, no matter how much fun ive been having, it's been a great start to 2010 but I need to do more work now to save for an Ayres rock/ middle australia trip I want to plan. I have just applied to work at the Melbourne Grand Prix which is in march & cross fingers and toes I get a position as I'm a Prix fan & we have an all English car & driver team this year, so we may not have the Tennis but bring on the F1!

use your flippers to get down.

Deciding I deserved a little more time off post-december work frenzy I took my friend, Ingrid, up on an offer to holiday at Phillip Island with her, Bubsy and her family for a long weekend. Phillip Island is only approx 90 minutes drive from Melbourne and is an island of coastal scenery, wildlife & surfing beaches. It's actually based on our very own Isle of Wight, originally named 'Snapper Island' when founded by George Bass and eventually named after captain Arthur Phillip. Commander Cox thought the island resembled the Isle of Wight in England and gave it's towns similar names such as 'Cowes'. Me and the girls at home are regulars to the annual Cowes sailing events on the island so I was quite interested in its history & found it was strange but special to be able visit Cowes the other side of the world!

Staying at Ingrid's beach holiday home we enjoyed a huge BBQ when we first arrived and then took off down to Summerland beach for the famous Penguin Parade at sunset. The 'Fairy Penguins', now politically corrected to the name 'Little Penguins' due to homosexual references... can you believe it... emerge from the sea as the sun sets and waddle ashore to their sand-dune burrows! It was an adorable experience, and i brought an equally charming bobble hat decorated with penguins to remember my evening & wear back in chilly britain. I actually found out that the night after we visited, Miley Cyrus went to the very same parade as she was also holidaying on the isle, 'party in the P.I!'

The following day we drove to Cowes for ice- cream and to get a tourist snap of the Isle of Wight pub, where we later went for beers. During the day we went out on Ingrid's dads speed boat for abit of a thrill ride and some sea fishing, we caught nothing but someone else's fishing line! Unwinding with a barbie and a beer became the way of life for the days spent there, which I felt was much needed for essential falls festival-recovery. We also took advantage of the surf and caught some waves in the warming sea, this being after someone had showed me a picture of the biggest shark caught in the world in the same waters, so as you can imagine I was a little apprehensive but still keen to practice! Refreshed & relaxed we headed home back to Melbourne, feeling like I was ready to get back into the rat race & to make a start 2010.

Since being back I have picked up some new work with Zest Marketing Concepts, the team is awesome (not to mention very english) and its nice to be doing something slightly different for the time being. I have also had some of the best nights out in recent weeks, on Chapel St in the area of Prahran at 'Electric Lady Lounge' and Bar 'HooHaa', also at an alternative bar called 'Nevermind' in Hawthorn and the clubs 'Eurotrash' and 'Korova' in the city. I also joined a great gym that my housemate works at so despite the partying i have been keeping fit and healthy mum! Money is getting tight now after the christmas and new year splash, so im holding out for payday then I promise to have some more adventures to blog about...I hope you are enjoying, keep up the new year's resolutions beauties.

I ♥ marmite, engagements and falls.

We finally got the tree! My housemate Bubsy's parents had arrived for the big day and immediately starting making the house feel like christmas; decorations, the smells of home-cooking and the sounds of traditional carols, I could have nearly mistaken it as an english chrissy until walking outside to 4O 0c heat...dreaming of a white christmas, no chance shelia! Festivities were good, I had alot to open on christmas morning as I had a fair few parcels delivered from home, boxes of stoking gifts including beloved Marmite and presents from Harrods, london :) I spent the day with Bubsy's family at his aunties, for dinner we had a cold meat feast with roasted pumpkin, salads, veggies and stuffing & enjoyed the arvo drinking and playing wii game classics like who wants to be a millionaire (english version so pressure was 0n me to answer correctly!) In the early eve Kenny, my other house-bud came and picked me up and drove us round to her family's round the corner. Dinner: round two, her auntie felt bad that I had a cold lunch before being a pom and all, so heated up some roast pot's and veg finished by xmas pud and custard to satisfy old-age traditions! Full-bellied and sleepy from pink champagne I tumbled into bed after a long day and only awoke for a lazy boxing day & to skype all the family who were still merry in christmas day activities. This was when I found out the romantic news that my Dad had proposed to his partner of many years, Mel, that same day, I was so excited i had to go for a walk to calm down! I defiantly have an excuse to go back to England in 2010 now...dare i say possibly for bridesmaid duties? probably more like photographic duties!

The next party on the agenda was one I have been looking forward to and had a ticket for since I arrived in Oz, the music and arts Falls Festival 09-10 (www.fallsfestival.com.au). Its held from the 29th- 1st Jan each year at a large clearing in the beautiful Otway rainforest above the Great Ocean Road, Lorne. We left on the 28th & firstly took road-tip up the Great Ocean to reach Lorne and Bubsy's family-friend's seafront holiday home, with a balcony and view to die for! Bub's, Junior, Tim, Gray and Myself were staying overnight so that we could get an early start the following day to set up camp. Whilst the boys went for a run and swim in the sea, the girls that lived there and I took a stunning walk along the beach before all meeting back for a bbq, nice chook & haloumi skewers boys! Before bed we went through the tedious task of attempting to hide alcohol in the car due to the strict no BYO at falls...but obv everyone does anyway you just need to be clever with it. After much deliberation we ended up taking the inside casing of the back left door off and stashing it in there before replacing it, better to be safe!

We left early, stopped at Deans Marsh for brekkie and met a few more cars of friends so that we could convoy the rest of the way to Falls. Heading deep into the rainforest we started to trail along dusty tracks and eventually came to a holt for a long wait whilst security checks proceeded ahead at the gates. Alcohol sneaked through without a bat of an eyelid we got directed to our camping spot, on a hill as steep as you could possibly get before being declared as uninhabitable. We all used muscles in our feet that we didn't even know existed to try and keep ourselves upright and started pitching up tents & a constructing a central gazebo which would be home for three days. Happy with our wonky work we wandered off to investigate the main arena, grabbed some beers and enjoyed The Beards, followed by Whitley (the later I had not heard of but were amazing and are getting straight on my download list!). On the money-save everyone piled back under our gazebo for drinks, in the excitement of it all booze-o-clock started a little too early in hindsight! That evening we danced and sang our way through Sarah Blasko, Datarock, Wolfmother and DJ Yoda finishing in the early hours.

The next morning we woke up half way out of our tents from sliding down the hill in boiling heat with fuzzy heads. Today our friend who we where camping with, Tash, was performing on the local-music stage so we hid out of the heat and listened to her gorgeous performance; afterwards me and two of the boys ran off to catch the last of the Chairlift set. During this time I missed The View on the mainstage which was a little gutting but no worries! Later that day we saw Little Red- brilliant, The Temper Trap- incredible, Editors, Midnight Juggernauts, Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Karen O is literally a performance Queen! Major Lazer Soundsystem- to say I was a little excited is a HUGE understatement, never danced so much in my life!! Finished by a set by Andy Murphy & Chardy in the Grand Theatre Tent until 4am, and thank god it stopped then as my little feet were crying out for me to stop jumping and jiving :)

Everyone had been pretty sensible with the alcohol-situ that night so we were all feeling fine and dandy the next day, bar a few, so me and Ash went off to see KidSam who I love love loved, and then Philadelphia Grand Jury, who were insane and had the funniest drummer to watch. I then Missed Dappled Cities from escaping the heat under the little shade back at camp which i now regret, c'est la vie, the sunburn will thank me. Next on the main Valley Stage was Art Vs Science who shined and clearly loved every minute they were up there, as did the audience, followed by Little Birdy whom I wasn't too familiar with but adored. Today was of corse New Years Eve so the line up was looking good for the evening, however the weather had another thing on its mind and a big storm was brewing & on its way. Just as we had pinned down the last tent as tight & secure as we could, winds whipped up out of the heat and fat drops fell from the sky, utterly soaked through to the skin in seconds we huddled around warming up by passing around bottle of Jagermeister to sip then traipsed off through the mud, soggy, but in high spirits. Whilst the rain continued to fall we saw Jamie T & the Pacemakers (I was overwhelmed by his english accent!) and Xavier Rudd & Izintaba, an awesome twist of modern band-meets aboriginal world music with didgeridoo's, guitarists and vocals. One outfit change later, and we were dressed fit to enter the next decade, starting it off with a killer set by Moby, and entered the New Year with a short and sweet countdown during the Hilltop Hoods performance. Singing and swaying with sparklers my mind was not in the right place, with thoughts of home I didn't stay out long that night and woke up only to listen to the Playing with Knives DJ set from the campsite at 4.30-6am.

The festival brought new friends, new music and a great end to another fantastic year, 2009 will not be forgotten and will be a hard year to beat, but 2010's prospects of london & love will make a different but exciting year to come and im looking forward to it so much already ♥.

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