Listening… Triple J at work.
Reading… I just read a STACK of books on my holiday, but most of them were trashy. I am halfway through E. M. Forster’s “A Passage to India” which is hard going, but fascinating.
Watching… Season two of True Blood and a stack of movies I bought home from Bali, including St Trinian’s 2, which is uber trashy, but features David Tennant and Colin Firth! Swoon. And David Tennant is the bad guy! Double swoon.
Buying… Oh God, NOTHING. I cant believe I went on holidays when I have NO MONEY! I will be paying for that for the rest of the year! But having said that…. I may have recently purchased my Meredith ticket. WIN!!!
Wanting… Last month I said a holiday and I got that! Wow. Maybe here I should say that I am wanting to win lotto… hmmm. No, I am wanting a very exciting opportunity that has come across my radar in the last week or so and its extremely challenging and tempting… stay tuned! Will post details in October sometime.
Trying… to get my health back on track.
Loving… Hearing how passionate people are on twitter these last two days about the 63rd Annual UN Department of Public Information NGO Conference and seeing how committee people still are to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Go team!
Planning… on a crazy savings plan!
Writing… well… this update! Not much else. My laptop has died a painful, water related death, so until that is fixed/replaced, I am not writing anything! Except for my Simple Diary!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
A week in Bali...
Prepare to be jealous...
For some reason, this year's winter has seemed to drag on for months longer than usual. And its been freezing! Each cold snap leaves me thinking “Surely that’s the last of the really cold weather” and each week I am disappointed to find Melbourne still serving up another freezing week of icy winds and rain. I’ve been lucky since I started my job 3 years ago (3 years! When did that happen!?) that I’ve been overseas each year for a really long break of 3 or 4 weeks at a time. But I was not expecting to go anywhere this year – I need to start saving for a potential trip to the States and UK next year.
So it’s a lucky day when a friend of mine invited me to share a week in Bali with her – and as she works for an airline, we got cheap flights. Really cheap flights. Like under $250 return flights. Which meant I got a lovely week away from the very chilly Melbourne weather which was quite unexpected and amazing.
I stayed in Bali for 7 nights and its been 11 years since I last visited. The areas I visited were much more touristy these days. Back when I visited, Legian was considered a ‘village’, whereas these days its hard to find a line between where Kuta ends and Legian begins. Lots of people stay in Seminyak, which is a bit further along and a little less busy than Legian, but not by much.
Why you would want to stay in Kuta is beyond me – its dirty and crowded and expensive. Legian is 5 minutes down the beach and Seminyak another 5 minutes after that and this is where we stayed for our first 2 nights in Bali.
We had booked a lovely little room in a mansion home in a quiet and secluded part of Seminyak. Its called Casa Artista and was the best start to our holiday!
We had a nice spacious 2 bed room here with great air conditioning, outdoor bathroom (obviously private!) and a huge balcony overlooking the pool and wider Seminyak area, where we ate breakfast each morning. It was so beautiful! Included in our stay was a ‘fit and healthy’ breakfast each morning (I don’t normally say this but… lol) and a few spa treatments, so I was also able to enjoy a lovely massage in the outdoor treatment rooms (again, obviously private!)
The only downside to the hotel was the construction work that was happening next door which meant we had quite a few hours of drilling each day. But it wasn’t enough to really disturb you and we both managed to spend a few days by the pool reading and relaxing in the sun!
After two nights we moved onto the Seri Suites, which had been recommended to me from a few different people. We stayed her for 5 nights and it was amazing, with one exception which I will warn you about first in case anyone out there in internet land is planning on staying here… The ROOSTER!!!
There was a bunch of roosters in the farm behind our first room. While the hotel is set in a lovely, village type setting surrounded by rice paddy fields, there were also roosters. So our first morning, come 4am, off they went, every 5 seconds or so, until around 11am. A nightmare and impossible to sleep through. Not exactly a relaxing start to our stay!
It must be an ongoing occurrence at this hotel, because when we complained the following morning they offered to move us straight away. But because we needed a twin room, we ended up having a mattress on the floor of the room we ended up in. Not ideal, but it was fine as we loved the room and the views and were right next to the pool!
And so began 6 very relaxing days lounging by the pool, enjoying beautiful massages and eating yummy food. We had a few dinners over at Jimbaran Bay, which I highly recommend, even though it’s a bit more expensive. Our more expensive of the two dinners was around $40 each, including tip, which is really not that bad considering the huge amounts of fresh seafood we ate, plus beers, plus the car trip there and back (one hour round trip) and the incredible views from the sandy beach across the bay! Amazing.
The shopping was not as great as I remember, but I did come away with some beautiful homewares and lots of jewellery. Food and taxis are uber cheap (around $3 for a taxi back to the hotel from Seminyak/Legian, which was around 10-15 minutes) and the weather was perfect. We even had a few raining mornings which makes the place feel even more beautiful, as you sit in your outdoor lounge room watching the rain wash everything away. So peaceful.
So it’s a place I can highly recommend. I would love to visit again sometime, maybe with a group of friends? A little slice of paradise only 6 hours from Melbourne!
For some reason, this year's winter has seemed to drag on for months longer than usual. And its been freezing! Each cold snap leaves me thinking “Surely that’s the last of the really cold weather” and each week I am disappointed to find Melbourne still serving up another freezing week of icy winds and rain. I’ve been lucky since I started my job 3 years ago (3 years! When did that happen!?) that I’ve been overseas each year for a really long break of 3 or 4 weeks at a time. But I was not expecting to go anywhere this year – I need to start saving for a potential trip to the States and UK next year.
So it’s a lucky day when a friend of mine invited me to share a week in Bali with her – and as she works for an airline, we got cheap flights. Really cheap flights. Like under $250 return flights. Which meant I got a lovely week away from the very chilly Melbourne weather which was quite unexpected and amazing.
I stayed in Bali for 7 nights and its been 11 years since I last visited. The areas I visited were much more touristy these days. Back when I visited, Legian was considered a ‘village’, whereas these days its hard to find a line between where Kuta ends and Legian begins. Lots of people stay in Seminyak, which is a bit further along and a little less busy than Legian, but not by much.
Why you would want to stay in Kuta is beyond me – its dirty and crowded and expensive. Legian is 5 minutes down the beach and Seminyak another 5 minutes after that and this is where we stayed for our first 2 nights in Bali.
We had booked a lovely little room in a mansion home in a quiet and secluded part of Seminyak. Its called Casa Artista and was the best start to our holiday!
We had a nice spacious 2 bed room here with great air conditioning, outdoor bathroom (obviously private!) and a huge balcony overlooking the pool and wider Seminyak area, where we ate breakfast each morning. It was so beautiful! Included in our stay was a ‘fit and healthy’ breakfast each morning (I don’t normally say this but… lol) and a few spa treatments, so I was also able to enjoy a lovely massage in the outdoor treatment rooms (again, obviously private!)
The only downside to the hotel was the construction work that was happening next door which meant we had quite a few hours of drilling each day. But it wasn’t enough to really disturb you and we both managed to spend a few days by the pool reading and relaxing in the sun!
After two nights we moved onto the Seri Suites, which had been recommended to me from a few different people. We stayed her for 5 nights and it was amazing, with one exception which I will warn you about first in case anyone out there in internet land is planning on staying here… The ROOSTER!!!
There was a bunch of roosters in the farm behind our first room. While the hotel is set in a lovely, village type setting surrounded by rice paddy fields, there were also roosters. So our first morning, come 4am, off they went, every 5 seconds or so, until around 11am. A nightmare and impossible to sleep through. Not exactly a relaxing start to our stay!It must be an ongoing occurrence at this hotel, because when we complained the following morning they offered to move us straight away. But because we needed a twin room, we ended up having a mattress on the floor of the room we ended up in. Not ideal, but it was fine as we loved the room and the views and were right next to the pool!
And so began 6 very relaxing days lounging by the pool, enjoying beautiful massages and eating yummy food. We had a few dinners over at Jimbaran Bay, which I highly recommend, even though it’s a bit more expensive. Our more expensive of the two dinners was around $40 each, including tip, which is really not that bad considering the huge amounts of fresh seafood we ate, plus beers, plus the car trip there and back (one hour round trip) and the incredible views from the sandy beach across the bay! Amazing.
The shopping was not as great as I remember, but I did come away with some beautiful homewares and lots of jewellery. Food and taxis are uber cheap (around $3 for a taxi back to the hotel from Seminyak/Legian, which was around 10-15 minutes) and the weather was perfect. We even had a few raining mornings which makes the place feel even more beautiful, as you sit in your outdoor lounge room watching the rain wash everything away. So peaceful.
So it’s a place I can highly recommend. I would love to visit again sometime, maybe with a group of friends? A little slice of paradise only 6 hours from Melbourne!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Stolen ideas...
I totally stole this idea from Briony. But its a cool idea when nothing else exciting has been happening in my life...
Listening… to my iPod and the various playlists I've been working on. Plus Transference and Them Crooked Vultures in my car.
Reading… I just finished Ethan Frome (remember that from high school! SUPER depressing) and Frankenstein (I kept waiting for the happy ending - what part of Gothic horror story did I not understand?) and a Catcher in the Rye (I think I missed something... I HATED Holden's character). And on the side I read my new favorite trashy novel, Blue Bloods, which is a combination of Twilight and Gossip Girl, only heaps more trashy. I loved it.
Watching… Just finished Studio 60, which I adore. And I've seen a bunch of movies in the last fortnight including Eclipse (twice now!), A-Team, Prince of Persia and Get Him to Greek (but that was only because I was mega hungover in Sydney and it was the only place I could go to sleep and recover).
Buying… Not much - my funds have pretty much dried up as I've realised that I still owe $10k on my HECS. Damn you, higher education. But I did spend $96.30 on dry cleaning yesterday, which disturbed me greatly.
Wanting… A holiday. Badly. A new job. Badly. And world peace. Of course.
Trying… To pull myself out of this depressing rut I've gotten myself into. To find a new challenge. To get up off my arse and go to the gym.
Loving… ABC2 and Graeme Norton and Q1 (thanks Briony!)
Planning… on where to go next on holidays! What I'm going to wear to work tomorrow.
Writing… in my simple diary as usual, as well and my book journal! A new social media policy for my workplace, plus a bunch of papers for our Executive Management Team at work. Less exciting, but its what I'm writing!
Listening… to my iPod and the various playlists I've been working on. Plus Transference and Them Crooked Vultures in my car.
Reading… I just finished Ethan Frome (remember that from high school! SUPER depressing) and Frankenstein (I kept waiting for the happy ending - what part of Gothic horror story did I not understand?) and a Catcher in the Rye (I think I missed something... I HATED Holden's character). And on the side I read my new favorite trashy novel, Blue Bloods, which is a combination of Twilight and Gossip Girl, only heaps more trashy. I loved it.
Watching… Just finished Studio 60, which I adore. And I've seen a bunch of movies in the last fortnight including Eclipse (twice now!), A-Team, Prince of Persia and Get Him to Greek (but that was only because I was mega hungover in Sydney and it was the only place I could go to sleep and recover).
Buying… Not much - my funds have pretty much dried up as I've realised that I still owe $10k on my HECS. Damn you, higher education. But I did spend $96.30 on dry cleaning yesterday, which disturbed me greatly.
Wanting… A holiday. Badly. A new job. Badly. And world peace. Of course.
Trying… To pull myself out of this depressing rut I've gotten myself into. To find a new challenge. To get up off my arse and go to the gym.
Loving… ABC2 and Graeme Norton and Q1 (thanks Briony!)
Planning… on where to go next on holidays! What I'm going to wear to work tomorrow.
Writing… in my simple diary as usual, as well and my book journal! A new social media policy for my workplace, plus a bunch of papers for our Executive Management Team at work. Less exciting, but its what I'm writing!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Spoon@Billboards April 30
Ok, so this was a gig that was very eagerly anticipated for me. I adore Spoon, they are one of my favorite bands and they certainly did not disappoint. I had listened to them pretty much non stop for several weeks before the gig and could not wait to see them in such a great venue - its big enough to host international bands, yet intimate enough that you don't get lost in the crowd. I went with a few friends and ended up standing next to Phil from Grinspoon for most of the gig. Interesting as they were halfway through their Groove in the Moo roadtrip... anyway! To the gig! Playlist below:
Before Destruction
Nobody Gets Me But You
Small Stakes
Rhythm and Soul
The Beast and Dragon, adorer
Me and the Bean
The Ghost of you Lingers
Is Love Forever?
The Underdog
A Wolf Parade song I didn't know :)
Stay don't go
Don't you Evah
Don't Make me a Target
I Turn my Camera on
Eddie's Ragga
I Summon You
Got Nuffin
Trouble Comes Running
Black Like Me
Encore
Anything You Want
You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
Written in Reverse
This was probably one of the best live shows I've ever been to. Their sounds is unbelievably haunting and yet incredibly simple and flawless. They've been playing together for so long that they seem to mimic each other and can pull together Britt's self indulgent wanderings (which I normally never tolerate - I have a soft spot for Spoon) into a concise tune that moves right through you.
I really should have put down my thoughts right after the show. Listening to the songs now it's hard to remember that chilling feeling you get as the sound travels around the room - and that's what it feels like at a Spoon gig... during The Ghost of you Lingers, it felt like the sound was moving from one side of the room to another, rather than blasting out of the speakers in a traditional way. And then just as you get the shivers wondering how they make sound work like that, they move seamlessly into a classic pop tune like Trouble Comes Running. Lots of fun.
Their material has evolved over the years to such a standard that even amazing pieces like Finer Feelings and The Way we Get By are not included in their live sets -they didn't play and of their 'hits' the following day at Groove in the Moo in Bendigo either.
I felt they probably could have played a bit longer, but there is no denying that it was a solid set. I sometimes got a bit fed up when a 3 minute pop classic extended out to 10 minutes because of their faffing around, but they did keep this to a minimum compared to other times I've seen them play, so all in all, I was pretty happy for a few days following.
With the exception of Groove in the Moo, probably the worst festival in the history of the world, but that's another story.
Some photos:
And the best photo of all...
I chased him down at Groove in the Moo the next day and had a chat. Swoon!
Before Destruction
Nobody Gets Me But You
Small Stakes
Rhythm and Soul
The Beast and Dragon, adorer
Me and the Bean
The Ghost of you Lingers
Is Love Forever?
The Underdog
A Wolf Parade song I didn't know :)
Stay don't go
Don't you Evah
Don't Make me a Target
I Turn my Camera on
Eddie's Ragga
I Summon You
Got Nuffin
Trouble Comes Running
Black Like Me
Encore
Anything You Want
You Got Yr Cherry Bomb
Written in Reverse
This was probably one of the best live shows I've ever been to. Their sounds is unbelievably haunting and yet incredibly simple and flawless. They've been playing together for so long that they seem to mimic each other and can pull together Britt's self indulgent wanderings (which I normally never tolerate - I have a soft spot for Spoon) into a concise tune that moves right through you.
I really should have put down my thoughts right after the show. Listening to the songs now it's hard to remember that chilling feeling you get as the sound travels around the room - and that's what it feels like at a Spoon gig... during The Ghost of you Lingers, it felt like the sound was moving from one side of the room to another, rather than blasting out of the speakers in a traditional way. And then just as you get the shivers wondering how they make sound work like that, they move seamlessly into a classic pop tune like Trouble Comes Running. Lots of fun.
Their material has evolved over the years to such a standard that even amazing pieces like Finer Feelings and The Way we Get By are not included in their live sets -they didn't play and of their 'hits' the following day at Groove in the Moo in Bendigo either.
I felt they probably could have played a bit longer, but there is no denying that it was a solid set. I sometimes got a bit fed up when a 3 minute pop classic extended out to 10 minutes because of their faffing around, but they did keep this to a minimum compared to other times I've seen them play, so all in all, I was pretty happy for a few days following.
With the exception of Groove in the Moo, probably the worst festival in the history of the world, but that's another story.
Some photos:
And the best photo of all...
I chased him down at Groove in the Moo the next day and had a chat. Swoon!
terrible... I know
I know its a terrible excuse... but I've been super busy. Prepare for some updates this afternoon. Stay tuned!
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