Party buses

Y’know how when you’re waiting for a bus you can sometimes wait for ages and then three will come along at once? Well last night was one of those nights for parties. Luckily parties go on for longer than bus journies – so managed to make them all and check out the first films of Res-Fest.

Yep, ResFest has started, all four days of it. First up was a series of films showing different aspects of going around the world – pretty interesting, with the best being ‘The Other Final’, a story about the two worst ranking international football teams playing each other on the same day as the ‘real’ World Cup Final. The match was Bhutan versus Montserrat, one a mountainous outcrop just north of India, the other a volcanic island in the Caribbean. Great idea and a lovely film which I won’t spoil by telling you who won.

Next up was the first set of short films. Wide range of styles and topics covered, some with stories, some just weird. Best movie though (so far – another three days to go yet…) was called ‘Fast Film’. This Austrian guy has printed out lots of scenes from his favourite movies and animated them to make a new movie. Bizarre. You have bits like plane chases where the planes are all paper aeroplanes ‘folded’ out of different movies. Definately worth checking out if you get a chance.

I skipped the last movie of the day (Stoked) to go catch up with Rod and Shareen at the White Photography christmas bash down in St Kilda. The building is a huge studio space (oddly enough) that acts as offices for eight photographers. More importantly though it was free booze – huzah!

Next stop was Gretta’s party just up north of my house. Big thanks to Shareen for driving us over there, and stopping off for the quick guided tour of Rod’s huge workshop on the way. The house party was slightly more raucous than the photo party but no free booze – which was probably a good thing by that stage in the night. Lots of nice folk and bouncey music.

Finally staggered off to bed around 4am… feel a bit the worse for wear this morning but up anyway ‘cos there’s more res-festing to do – huzah!

Wet

Hmm. The Melbourne erratic weather outdid itself yesterday. I was sitting happily eating Bimbo’s pizza in their courtyard, baking in the amazing heat when suddenly it started to rain. At first it was that strange, tropical rain where it’s still sunny and warm and the smell of fresh rain is refreshing – but by the third hour it was starting to get a bit boring.

Then it stopped again. Then it started again. Then it stopped and started and started again (possibly because even the clouds were confused as to whether it had really started to rain already themselves). Then it stopped.

But then around midnight an almighty storm kicked in – rain lashing the windows, lightning flashing, hail, the whole kaboodle. There was supposedly around $5 million of hail damage last night as golf ball sized hail lashed the northern city. Cool! Well, it was cool until the water started coming in under the door and had to batton down the hatches with a towel.. little bit worrying but no major damage and everything seems to have dried out now. Had a few flashbacks to my Williamsburg loft with its leaky roof though.

Anyway – today it’s gorgeous and sunny today, although very humid as the rain dries out from the ground. Not too fussed though as bought tickets to res-fest so I’ll be indoors most of the weekend anyway watching the latest in electronic film making. Luverley.

Baked

Wow – what an amazingly hot weekend! Every day’s just gotten hotter and hotter with this crazy heat that stays in the air and with no breeze to cool you off. Doing great things for my tan – huzah! Strange thought that it’s not that long till Christmas and I’m sunbathing…

The barby was a great success – huhroo! Cooked much meat and the whole back garden was full of lovely folk enjoying themselves. Made a barbecue out of an old flower planter and the oven grills and that worked just fine – so definately going to do more of those. Next time I might just not buy quite so much food though.. got a bit over excited down at Vic market apparently. Ah well, lots of food in the freezer for a while.

One down side was revealed the next night went over to Matt and Denis’ old place to watch the European MTV awards (with dinner courtesy of the lovely Emma and Emmett). Turned out Matt had been bitten by white tailed spiders on both his ankles, which were are now swollen like balloons. Hmm. Strangely another guy at the party had been bitten by one a few weeks ago and was showing the lovely pustlating hole in the back of his calf – yeuch, bloomin’ Aussie animals.

Saturday was a much more chilled out affair ending in a major clubbing session down the Hairy Canary (which did not really live up to the hype – although was a very nice bar) followed by Bonds for some proper dancey dance type antics. Good fun. This left Sunday to recover and also to, randomly, buy a new acoustic guitar as I realised I was missing having one around a bit too much. Cheap and cheerful but I’ve been twanging away happily ever since… mmm. Other good Sunday news was finally met up with my ‘step-cousin’ Simon, over dinner at Nig and Stevie’s. Really nice to see him finally! It had been about 15 or 20 years since we last met I think, and both of us were a little bit taller.

Oh, and according to Nigel all the bites that had been evident over the weekend were not due to white tailed spiders! Apparently everyone has been blaming the little buggers for years but there’s a lot of new evidence indicating that their bite has no real effect. Trouble is noone knows what really is biting people… not sure which thought I find more scary but I’m keeping next door’s cat away from my legs just in case.

Aussie Traditions

Well since it’s coming up to Christmas and beautifully hot and sunny I’ve decided to have a barbie tonight chez 31 Freeman St. Yay! So busy day of shopping ahead down at Vic markets followed by some hectic construction work to make our multi-purpose metal box with legs into something resembling a barbecue… Luckily the Chrises have been on a mad chopping rampage over the last few days and we have a pile of wood the size of a small car in the back garden, the remains of an evil table and cupboard.

Also a bit of a strange day as paying final month’s rent on this place.. which means it’s only just over a month before I have to leave the country (my visa runs out mid-Jan sometime, better check when exactly!) Argh! Time just flies when you’re having fun. Can’t believe it’s almost time to go! Need to try and squeeze in a few scuba dives to see the local underwater flora and fauna for a start – there are some cool seahorse colonies near here that are supposed to be awesome so fingers crossed Vera and I will get out diving boots back on for a bit, and maybe squeeze in some surfing as well back on the Great Ocean Road.

Oh, and had fun night out in St Kilda last night replete with cheapo curry in a box for $10. Ended up in this strange place called the Library Bar where all the tables are made to look like huge books. Very odd.

New arrival

Well it’s been a year of big events in family life and this weekend was no exception… Oliver and Alena’s first child – Daisy Kathryn Giselle Green – was born on Monday 24th weighing 4lbs 13oz!!! She’s very keen to come see the world as she was due in 3/4 weeks time, so let’s make her feel very welcome indeed.

Ps, for those observant people who read my site regularly you may have noticed a slight name change since earlier… My father was a little bit sleepy when he heard the news so the text I got was slightly different. Hee hee.

Mr strangelove – ed sikov. A new biography on the life of Peter Sellars that caught my eye one day in the Brunswick Street Bookshop. Sellars died quite a few years ago now but he’s still a fascinating character. Like many people I know him mostly from his Clouseau work but he was a prolific actor, starring in fifty or so movies throughout his life. The biography is very readable and constructs a view of Sellars as a troubled genius, creating amazing characters on screen but lacking much of his own character. Very good read at the start then tails off a bit at the end.

Post by Matt Hobbs

Adelaideeooo

Phew. Been a busy couple of days here in Adelaide so feeling pretty knackered. This is probably not being helped by being in a dorm again for the first time in aaaaaaages and dealing with other people’s sleeping noises and creaky beds. Last time I was in a dorm was slightly more fun back at the Nunnery for a night, where I learned the useful technique of hanging sheets to make a curtain (amongst other things). That aside the Cannon St Backbackers is pretty nice, and even lets you borrow DVDs to watch so saw Ice Age yesterday (sorry Dom, still think Monsters Inc is better).

Anyway, back to Adelaide itself…

Adelaide feels like many of the small towns I passed through back up the east coast in terms of size and layout. The main difference is that arts scene, pretty much everyone seems to be involved with it in some way or other. The town is pretty low down and spread out with the central business area being pretty compact and walkable. Most of the bars I’ve hung out in so far are around Light Square and Hindley Street, although today’s treat was Latze (meat and noodle soup) in the chinatown/market area to the south of the hostel with Lisa and Richard.

First evening was here went to the opening cinema show for the Fuse festival. Lots of music videos made for up and coming artists, some of which were outstanding. Then next door to Isobar for a few bands and beers, then onto the Grace Emily hotel to hang out with Holly and her mates a bit before heading back to the hostel to crash. Good fun, and lots of names to remember (or try to remember anyway given my general lack of ability in that area).

Yesterday wandered round the Adelaide museums and art galleries (as well as shops) before hitting the opening night Fuse gig at Garage. Hadn’t quite realised this was a guestlist only event but managed to wander in anyway (thanks guys!) to find it was a free booze do. Huzah! Few lovely bands and awards and vinos later found myself hanging out with some of the organisers who are a very luverly bunch indeed and mostly from Melbourne strangely enough. Quite fun to be at an ‘industry’ do for the first time in a while and managed to chat briefly to photographer Tony Mott and get some hints on portraiture (ta for that). Then staggered off to see Fruit – who are a great Adelaide five piece with awesome harmonies and an amazing lighting show. Well worth checking out if you get the chance. Ended up in bed around 1am completely exhausted. Good evening indeed…

Rainy days

Woo-ee! Another crazy Melbourne weather experience. All day it’s been bakingly hot to the level where I ran once round the park before almost collapsing, and then repeated the experience carrying my washing a few minutes down the road. The heat comes straight from the air into your lungs, sweet. Luckily our house has this great way of holding cool air in the southern part if you remember to keep the kitchen door closed. Yep, that is southern part of the house which threw me at first but then I remembered we’re in the southern hemisphere, so the sun’s in the north (duh).

Then tonight the heat was staying with us for a change. Normally it has been going really suddenly cold in the evenings as a sea breeze comes in which is pretty nice for sleeping. Was over at Vee and Dom’s (and now Matt and Denis’) for dinner watching this amazing lightning on the horizon from the 26th floor. Reminded me of the storms I sometimes used to see from the top of the world trade tower – they have the same clear line of sight well above city level. Awesome stuff. Except of course when you’re getting soaked by tropical rain on the way to the tram ‘cos you forgot your brolly. Oops.

Ah well. Off to Adelaide tomorrow to see Holly play in the Fuze festival and catch up with some other folk. Looong coach journey with an 8am start so I should probably be getting to bed. Bonsoir…

Hot in the city

Wow. Summer has, finally or yet again – guess we’ll find out soon, settled upon Melbourne. It’s heading towards 35 degrees today and not in a nice fluffy way. The heat bakes right through you and the breeze doesn’t cool but just brings more heat straight from an oven. Esh!

Yesterday the heat was slightly more sane – about 30 degrees, so I eventually managed to get myself down to St Kilda beach for some sun and swimming. Pretty busy even for a Friday and lots of local accents surprisingly – thought it would of been mostly travellers out at that time of day. Nice to be back down the beach, and even got myself in for a swim for a brief moment which just reminded me how cold the sea is round Melbourne! It’s not exactly the tropical warmth of the sea north of Byron Bay.. more like when you’ve (most likely drunkenly) decided that swimming in Brighton England is a good idea… Brrr.

In the evening we all hung around in St Kilda enjoying the balmy summer breeze on Ackland Street. This turned out to be disturbingly like being back travelling up north again – with the palm trees, open bars, warm weather and thousands of drunk people wandering up and down the street looking for the next bar to slake their thirst in. Oh no wait, that was us! Very strange feeling to be back amongst that again after so long away from it.

Oh, and also bumped into an old friend from England and her boyfriend next to Luna Park! Very strange coincidence indeed as she now lives out of Melbourne. What made it even stranger was that just before I bumped into her I thought I saw someone else I knew from ages ago but wasn’t sure it was her, so I was actually thinking about how cool it would have been to bump into her when I bumped straight into someone else. How weird is that? Ooooo….