Adelaide, my old friend!

Adelaide is a little bit like our cousin to the west who we visit sometimes. They are cool to visit for short periods of time, and you have some amazing times, but sometimes you notice they don't have things at their place that you really enjoy and take for granted back home. It's not until you're hung over and hungry on a Sunday morning in Adelaide that you realise how much you love going out for breakfast in the city. Hell, back home you did it all the... well... maybe twice a year if the mood strikes. After you've passed your fourth "Closed" sign on a cafe door... you start to feel that "I wan't my muuu-uum!" tantrum rising up inside you, like it did on Day 1 of school. Year 7 was daunting, what can I say? If you know how to have fun, or know a local who does... then Adelaide is actually a great little getaway. You still have most of the city comforts (unless skyscrapers are your 'thing') but with the added bonus of less people, less traffic, less noise and lots of unspoilt natural views.

Luckily for me, I know how to have fun, and so does my cousin Bec who lives in Adelaide. For those of you who haven't followed this blog for long, I should point out that this latest Adelaide Adventure is just one of my countless trips to the S of A. I haven't really gone THAT many times but I have already lost count which must say something. On second thought, I think all it really says is that I'm not very good at counting to 10...

I realised that it had been about a year since my last visit, which Bec and I both agreed was far too long. I also realised with horror that I had been away for so long that I didn't know 2 of her new housemates and had to make new friends and good impressions!! (Just like Peter Pan *sob*) I have a feeling that Bec might talk me up to her friends privately, so I felt a definate need to perform for these 2 new housemates and prove that our family aren't all a bunch of liars.

This time around I chose to fly as I didn't fancy an eight hour solo car trip. Either I would have picked up a serious caffeine addiction, fallen asleep at the wheel, wrapped my car around the giant Koala's left nut, or worse... run out of This American Life podcasts to listen to on the way back home, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Anyway, I had some reading to do, and I'm not very good at reading and driving. Just kidding, mum and dad! So, reliable old Dad dropped me at Avalon Airport and I was quite amazed to see some of the improvements inside since my last visit. There was even a 10-minute massage lady there who I never worked up the courage to approach. I thought about asking her to work on my right shoulder where some absent-minded guy had just elbowed me while putting his arm around his girlfriend, not realising that I had been sitting behind him for at least half an hour reading. Well, I should say trying to read... as their conversation and neccessary eavesdropping was so distracting! It took me some time to work out that I wasn't sitting behind John Saffran. I've never heard the word Anti-Semitist used in day to day life before. I guess I must hang out in the wrong circles. Don't get me wrong, I'm not playing B-ball with Edward Norton in prison or anything, I'm waaaaay far from that scene. I'm usually jealous of anyone with a bit of cultural background - these cats were Jewish-Australian and were talking about the meal, nay BANQUET, they would be eating for dinner in Adelaide. I was trying to work the names of the dishes but I'm not well versed on Jewish cuisine. Sadly, in more ways than one, all I know about Jewish cuisine is learnt from The Nanny or The Big Bang Theory.

Anyway, upon arrival at Bec's place, we started off our weekend (Thursday afternoon) with a drink and some cheese. It seemed like a divine idea at the time!!

It wasn't long until her first foreign-to-me housemate got home from work with an arm-full of tie-dye accessories. Here's what I know about Matt. He's in a band called "Isle of Vision", is really chilled in a hippie surfie way, has big fuzzy brown hair, is funny and loves to tie-dye. Dislikes: being called "Dad" by cheeky girls from Melbourne. I may be missing several key personality points, but what can I say, I'm just a lovable scamp and my pretty pictures can detract from the lack of information. While we tie-dyed we listened to some mood-setting CD's selected by Matt. My favourite was a band called "LOVE".. if they weren't off their chops when they wrote that albumn, then I'm a deep sea cucumber. Here's a tip I'd like to share: The first rule of tie-dye is usually PUT ON GLOVES, so heed the advice. But rules are meant to be broken right? Well we all had blue fingers later that night. Bec and I were heading out to the Garden of Un-Earthly Delights as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival to see some shows. Unfortunately we had already consumed 2 bottles of champagne before leaving her house and, as if by divine intervention, as soon as we stepped off the bus in the city we were handed a "ladies night" coupon for a free vodka. It was a sign. We must get messy. Here is me just after the vodka, showing my blue fingers... and full bosom. I must have been a little tipsy if I'm looking through the viewfinder of a digital camera....

We arrived at the Garden (Rundle Park on East Terrace) and as it was a Thursday night we had room to move and be silly and take pictures.

Do you see what I see?......

Scream Mask, oh yeah! So let's just say we had lots of fun from what we can remember, and the following afternoon after I had finished feeding her front lawn and had re-gained the use of my legs, we went to inspect our tie-dye handy-work! Pretty neat-o huh?

Here is housemate Matt and his band in the Local Paper... They got one of the guys names wrong and it became a house joke :)

It was on this Friday that we heard news of the Tsunami and earthquakes in Japan, and we followed the news story while I tried not to worry too much about Shiho. She is fine, in case you are wondering, but she dropped out of contact for a few weeks! Stress!! Speaking of stress, we came home on Saturday afternoon to find two birds in the kitchen, slamming into walls and furniture in their panic to get out. They throught if they hit the walls hard enough they might penetrate it and end up outside I think. It wasn't until Bec rescued them and set them free (while i stood flat against the furthest wall) that she told me about the last time it happened and pointed out the blood on the roof to prove it. Yucck!

So, Bec's housemate Megan was jealous of our awesome Tie-dye and wanted a turn, so we arranged for another session. Check out the one I made - I'm wearing it... and notice I am wearing gloves too!!

Sadly, it wasn't my t-shirt, I just used one of the housemate's spares to work my magic on. My own results the second time around were not as impressive! I didn't even take pictures... that's really saying something for me :) This is Bec's... I love how much white there is! It reminds me of 90's acid wash or something...

Saturday night I got to visit "Good Life" Organic Pizza store. There is one in Glenelg and one in the City - that's the one we went to! I got an amazing mushroom pizza with aioli, and Bec got a roast veggie pizza - complete with roast beetroot. The Hessian Sack swag and tail curtains in the bay window were simply adorable!

We went back to the garden to catch up with some more Adelaide crew - including Tom, an avid home cook and youtube chef who has his own wood fire pizza oven at his house!!! Next time we are going to arrange a pizza cook-up! Saturday night we saw "Cantina" - a Spanish acrobatic show in the Speigel Tent (sp?) which blew my mind! The tent was gorgeous, and the acrobats had so much multi-faceted talent, and I even saw a guy naked. Value for money: I think yes! Sunday, my last day, was beautiful weather. My aunty Christine and her husband Dennis came to pick us up and take us to the Barrossa Valley! I love going places with them, I feel like a little kid again!! They pack us chilled water and snacks in the back of the 4WD and we sit in the back giggling like we would have around age 10 :)

In particular, we visited MAGGIE BEER'S FARM!! I don't know if you know, but I love Maggie Beer! She is a South Australian cook, who has released some cook books, has a supermarket line of preserves and products made from Barrossa produce, and is on the show "The Cook and the Chef". I love her, I wish she was an aunty or grandma of mine :) *sigh* look how happy i was to be at her cute little pheasant farm/shop/cafe....

I spent a fair bit of money there, but it was worth it. I wanted to buy more! My lovely aunty bought me a product I have covetted for months now: Verjuice. She also bought me a book written by Maggie on how to cook with Verjuice! Luckkkyy!! I also picked up some Pomegranate and rasberry jam, some tomato, basil, olive and rocket sugo, and some Barrossa tomato sauce!

As always on my trips to Adelaide, I come back with way more than I went with. I had such a good time and can't wait to get back there! Next Fringe Festival, here i come!!

how much fun can you have with a hair extension or two?

THIS MUCH!

I wanted to know what i'd look like with long hair as i'm thinking of growing it (OMG), so my cousin Nikki and I were mucking around with her extensions. We remenisced about her Grade Prep photo with the awesome fringe and decided to recapture the moment...

So silly.. my stomach hurt from laughter. good times!

mum and her managerie

Progress on mum's place.... 

And some of her crazy pets....



mother ducker's house

Wassup pimps? For those of you who know me or my blog, by now you probably know about my mum's burnt out house. If you live around my neck of the woods you have probably seen the front but not the back. I was there the other day and took some pictures of the progress. Here is a before shot (just after the fire) and a shot of how it looks now....

it has been over a year now. Her partner is re-building it/extending but it is the slowest build i have ever seen. Mum must be dying to move in. The plan is that he is going to Africa around mid-September and the majority will be finished so that mum can take over the internal renovations. Her birthday is tomorrow and she said she doesn't want a present, she just wants us to help with the house. Pretty fair deal if you ask me. I'd love to pick up some more skills so i can renovate my own bombshell one day :) I have a dream house slowly materialising in my mind and one day i will have it.

~-*-~the sound of wonder~-*-~

ohmygosh! Last night I got home from work and checked the letterbox for bills or other stupid letters, and to my ultimate supreeze (Count Olaf) there was a little letter in there for me from OVERSEAS! YAY! I love getting personal mail! This one turned out to be from my family in England. My uncle was transfered there for work early this year and they are having a blast! My 2 cousins are attending Primary School there, and they have been travelling all over Europe every chance they get. Amazing opportunity, nay? Here's my birthday card:

After I got all excited about getting this card I said to Maki that I was expecting a package from my cousin Andrew too and was worried nobody would be here to collect it. That's when he pointed out that it was sitting on the table and I had totally overlooked it. I was like double triple a billion excited! OK, I want to explain about my cousin! So, my dad's side of the family is HA-YUUUUGE! He is the youngest of 8, and he is nearly 51! My nana was/is a good Catholic woman and swears that each child was an immaculate conception. Ah-huh, sure thing sweet cheeks! So Andrew is a bit older than me and we didn't really grow up together. As soon as he was old enough he was out in the world travelling and having fun with his camera skillz - and i guess i was still in school so in a total different place!

Anyway so I can probably count the amount of times I've talked to him on my fingers, but it's cool cos he's awesome and it's not awkward at all when we do. Except for this one time about mmm 5 years ago haha! i was seeing the "Ramones: End of the Century" documentary in the city with some friends - and I was fresh out of high school in my tight black jeans, chuck taylors, purple/black hair and probably a Ramones t-shirt for the occasion. After the movie we were leaving the building when i saw him (on a date?) entering the building to see the next session. I was like "ANDREW!!?" and he spun around with a smile on his face, expecting to see a dear aquaintence, which faded ever so slowly as he failed to recognise who I was. He looked pretty confused, so I explained "It's Jade!.....(nothing).... your cousin!" then he clicked and was all apologies! He explained later that it had been years since he'd last seen me and I look way older and super different to what he expected. I think he feels pretty bad about it though, especially since at my Birthday dinner last week Josh told him that I still go on and on about that Ramones day, and Andrew kinda belived him a little i think. I was trying to disprove Josh's cheeky antics... hopefully he doesn't think I'm hung up on it. To be honest I had forgotten all about it until he brought it up at dinner. On my card he wrote something along the lines of "If you have received this card and gift it means I recognise you. You are my cousin. Jade." which i totally didn't get and he had to remind me! haha!

So anywayyyy he has been travelling the world and works as a photographer and has some cool pictures and lots of stories! Some of which are about India as he spent 3 months there one time! I am dyiiinnngggg to go to India - possibly late next year - so he said I should read this book called "Holy Cow". He said "I'll post it to you!" and he did. I am discovering that he is an action man:

And he also included this CD he was telling me about called "The Sound of Wonder" which is a compilation of the best 60's and 70's tracks from Pakistani Lollywood films:

I put it on last night and was blown away. I only wish there was someone with me to experience it too. Maybe tonight I will play it for Josh and dance a little? It is soooo trippy and crazy and awesome. I cannot explain, you will just have to hear it for yourself...

I made that lame little track listing there for my own reference. When I listen to it again i can pick out my faves. I remember track 3 having a really strange beginning where the guy was making lots of bonkers noises with his mouth! So anyway, I am thankful to my Random Action Man cousin (RAM) {ramalamadingdong} for sending me those gifts. I'll have to figure out what to do with the book cos he is going overseas soon to hang out with my other cousin who lives in New York with her photographer husband Keate Barker (who is by the way apparently a big deal these days). I'll keep it safe until his return :) YAY for snail mail!!

home movies

Readers, I have to tell you something huge. I saw myself get born last night... and when i say 'get born' I am not talking about the debut album of australian rock outfit "Jet". I actually watched myself messily exit my mother's vagina. I was not, as you may wonder, involved in a psychadelic hallucination but rather I dug out some family home movies and borrowed a VCR in order to view them. Let me explain why I did this.

Yesterday morning, I sat down on the train and started listening to a previously unheard This American Life podcast entitled "Home Movies". To put it simply: I was moved. There was a lady speaking about how she has maybe 10 seconds of film from when she was a baby, and thinks the lady in the footage is her natural mother. As she is adopted, she has no way of knowing except to compare posture and physical characteristics of her own to the mystery woman on film. It is so sad that she has nothing to look back on. My mum has a brother and a sister who were both adopted from seperate families. My auntie has reunited with her birth mother but my uncle has not had such luck. I think my nana has some footage of my mum and her siblings as kids but nobody has ever seen them due to... family issues i suppose you could call it. I am so excited to watch this footage one day, and I'm sure my mum, aunty and uncle are too - even more so. I really hope it is a possibility one day.

~ This American Life host Ira Glass (awesome) ~

On the podcast, another person spoke about how strange it is to see people as they were years ago, before divorce or any other major life changes affected them, perhaps back in the days when they could be described as 'happy'. It got me thinking about what things I could learn about myself and my family, or even what things had escaped my memory. I remembered that my dad has about 12 VHS tapes (spanning 1-2 hours each) of our family, and I couldn't believe how much gold that would contain. Even though as kids we watched these tapes quite regularly, it was not that interesting or shocking as we were so close to the age from the footage, and we usually just fast-forwarded to 'funny things' that we said or did. I now have little recollection of the contents of the tape, so I was quite excited.

I set it all up yesterday and inserted tape #1. The start of the tape was my mum in hospital in 1986 holding my older brother Brendan. My mum is roughly my age in this tape, and she hasn't changed much since, except for ditching the perm. I saw relatives who appeared younger than I had ever known them, even relatives who are now deceased. Shortly into the footage my dad's brother Steven (now deceased) and his wife and young baby come to visit the hospital room. They began talking about how they felt when their son was born. My Nana interjected to say that Steven was 'blinded with joy' when his son was born. Uncle Steven said "Yeah, and I was working on getting blinded in another sense." Nobody laughed. Maybe at this point it was already apparent that he was an alcoholic, which is sadly how I always knew him. He was an alcoholic (to the doctors protests) until the day he died. It was a strange sensation watching these old conversations, it was as though I was a time travelling fly on the wall. I was never meant to hear those words at that time, but through the magic of film I can. It was strange listening to my mum talk at my age, she sounded so naiive like she had so much to learn still, and so many life experiences ahead. She was always the one to teach me, and here she still hadn't learnt yet. The rest of the tape was conversations with other family friends and relatives which I watched for a while, but then curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to watch myself... my tapes.

I found tape 3 entitled "Baby #2" so I figured that's where I must come into the picture. I rewound the tape (it took forever - where was the scene selection function?) and pushed play. I instantly remembered finding this tape when I was a kid looking for footage of myself. The start of my tape is, well.. my birth. I freaked out of course and pushed stop/fast forward, then I realised that I could watch my first SECOND of life in the outside world. I pushed play and watched in semi-horror at the last 20 seconds of mum's labour and then my entrance into the world. I felt pretty ill watching it, but somehwere I felt lucky that I could actually see it - even if this is the only time. It is such a trip to watch yourself be born, I cannot fully explain. When i was a kid and found the tape I got scared and turned off the TV and went outside to play and repress repress repress the image of my mum's vag. I have no recollection of being born, or most of my first 4 or so years for that matter - so everything is new to me. I fast-forwarded all the hospital stuff cos my dad left the camera rolling while they cut the umbilical cord and pulled out the placenta etc etc. I couldn't stomach that stuff - it was way worse.

The next scene was me at a few days old. I was having a bath in the sink and my brother was sitting next to me dipping a turkey baster into the bubbles and getting crazily excited. My mum tried to take it from him after he poked me with it and then he tried to out-cry me. It was funny. Next I was in a basinette thing on the ground and my brother was patting me like a dog. You know how kids pat dogs with their palms open wide, fingers splayed and they kind of gently hit repeatedly...? that's what he was doing. my parents kept filming and laughing, and threw in the occasional "poor jade!". Then next they were encouraging him to "take the baby for a walk" around the kitchen, so he started pushing the basinette like a pram and when they screamed "READY SET GOOOO" in unison he would run and slam me into a wall or cupboard. Oh how they laughed. The only time he got into trouble was when he slammed me into the fridge. My parents were worried he would hurt the fridge.

Anyway, I have so much more to watch and learn about my past. All the things I know about my parents secret lives NOW... it makes me wonder if I can sense anything from the tapes. It is weird enough seeing my parents still together on the tapes (as they divorced maybe 4 years ago) not to mention actually happy. I know that sounds a bit depressing but it's true. Maybe they will be happy again soon. According to filmmaker Alan Berliner who spoke on the Home Movie podcast, usually the home movies stop around age 12 or so- whenever the kids are becoming teenagers and start being all surly and private. I'm not sure when our tapes stopped - I havent gotten that far, but I do remember covering my face alot in the later years because i was embarrassed to be filmed. Looking back now, I wish I hadn't done that. It must have upset my dad, who was trying to make a time capsule and can be heard on the tapes saying "One day you will want to look back on this..." to which I'm sure in the later years I would have rolled my eyes.

PS. I just donated $20 towards the continuation of 'This American Life' which I have been meaning to do ever since I listened to my first podcast. I feel good. :)

tokyo drift

OK so last week I mentioned I'd be going to that drifting night, remember? Well I did. This was the invite, i love the colourfulnessity of it :)

So my little bro DK came to meet me in the city, and we went for a stroll to Chinatown to get some eats...

We had to stop for this photo-op...

No joke, that was the name of the restaurant! We then got to Shanghai Dumpling house in Tattersalls Lane, and had to wait maybe 5 mins for a seat and this was around 6pm. We ordered 15 steamed pork dumplings (accidentally...we actually asked for 8) and 8 fried chicken/prawn dumplings, as well as some chinese broccoli with oyster sauce and some noodles...

The last dumpling. We were seriously about to BURST! But my god, that place is amazing. The plate of 15 Pork dumplings was $5.80 or something! There was a line snaking up the street when we left! People were placing their orders in the line, it was bazonkers! Then we went for a walk around Chinatown and the city while we waited for Escobar to open. DK took some shots with his PROPER camera, not the old Brownie. He had said he was bringing his photobox on the night so naturally I assumed he was bringing the old box camera... silly silly. Here are some pics he took:

and one I took with his camera:

Yah so eventually we got inside and duuude, I was the biggest 'odd one out' everr! It was 95% guys, and everyone was dressed like my brother (baggy clothes, big shoes, caps...) plus nobody seemed to be very suave or conversational so when they came up to my brother they didn't even look at me wondering who I was or anything and just pretended I wasnt there. It was massive awkward. Sometimes DK introduced me though haha. Yeah but the video was amazing! Lots of cool music tracks, lots of silly shenanigans, lots of pretty camera work! My favourite parts were when the cars drifted in formation around corners. That. Is. Bonkers. I could never trust my driving and the driving of 2 other people enough to do that! But yes now I really want to drive my brothers car! Even though it is Turbo, thus illegal for me to drive... and for him to drive as well *tsk tsk tsk* but he is full of crazy ideas. I wont go into them all, but I really want to share the latest 'plan' he had...

Over dinner at the dumpling house he said "You know Jade, I was looking online at ways to make more money... and I got a good idea!". I said hesitantly "Oh yeah...? What is it?" to which he replied "You know those, like, buskers..?... Well they're not called buskers, but they have a cup and a cardboard sign...". To my shock and horror I realised he meant homeless beggars! He claimed that if he moved to Sydney or Brisbane he wouldn't know anyone and could happily beg his way into wealth. My.... God! Daniel, I still can't beleive it. I started laughing because I imagined the look on Josh's face when I would tell him later on. Silly Daniel, always keeping us entertained!

well, he already uses a shoelace for a belt so he's not far off the "beggar" look. haha...

new moon party and drifting

Pating, patong, patangatong! Hey Hop-a-long Cassidy! I had a really fun night last night at the NEW MOON screening at Maslin's house. Sure, it may sound lame to many of you, but who cares? Not meeeeee, that's who! I got to make all the lame jokes I could muster up - quickly followed by my own giggles and a few incredulous shakes of the head from around the table. Maslin* made an awesome lasagna for dinner, and of course I couldn't help myself and had to make reference to the quote "we're making italiano for you bella" from the first movie, and then I had to ask if anyone got my joke. They did.

*The lasagna was made by Maslin's mum - so technically a maslin did make it...

While we were waiting for dinner Michelle played the role of beatnik using my new 'beatnick cigarette holder'.



Very Audrey Hepburn, even though I really doubt hepburn was actually a beatnik. She just happened to have one in Breakfast at Tiffany's which was filmed around the time of the beatnik hype. And I don't associate those cigarette holders with beatnik culture anyway, i thought they were more like 1920's kinda scene. I don't really know.

Anyway, I also managed to get a DOUBLE edward photo. Pretty good.

Nobody wanted to get in a photo cuddling up to the poster cos they knew that photo would end up right here. Clever girls. There were even 2 boys there "much to their protest"... but they watched the whole thing with very little complaint. I'm onto you boys...

It was a night full of food and snacks, sighs, laughter, comparisons of whose face is stranger out of R-patz and taylor lautner, and hatred of k-stew- what more could I ask for? On my way out, I had to turn my car around so I started to execute a perfect 3 point turn utilising one of Maslin's neighbour's driveways. I kicked 'er into reverse, and was slowly releasing the clutch and slightly accelerating (as you do) when I almost stalled because of THIS! RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES!!!

Um, Maslin, were you aware that your neighbour is actually a vampire? I was not aware that a car dealership existed called "Blood Toyota"... maybe it's one of those exclusive motoring clubs just for vampeeries... in which case I wonder why they flaunt it on their cars? Probably just to rub my nose in it. Rrrrr!

Anywho.. tonight I am going to be having a rather unusual evening. It is perfectly normal, although it is not a sequence of activities I could have forseen myself partaking in. I like it. First, my little brother is coming to the city to meet me after work. This has never happened before. Then he and I are going to have dinner at Shanghai Dumpling House. Again, I don't know if we've ever gone out to dinner together before. THEN, my friends, THEN... we are going to the following event:

Now, I wouldn't say that cars are of particular interest to me. However, my brother DK happens to LOVE them. He has his mad skyline (pictured) which he is very proud of:

At one point he had a facebook album called "at the carwash" with about 90+ photos of his car at the car wash. It's kinda cute, but I still made jokes. He no longer has that album, I must ask him why :P Anyway he asked me to go with him so I though "why the hell not?". So tonight I will be rubbing shoulders with a bunch of rev-heads who I probably have nothing in common with. Well, I do know one guy in the movie. I used to work with him at my old job at the ZOO, and he has red hair and his name is Luke - more affectionately known as "Ginga". Poor guy. I ran into him when I was out one night and he told me that my mum (who now works at the zoo with him) gave him a Christmas card that said "Dear Ginga..." how embarrassing, I was mortified!

Anyway I'm sort of looking forward to this movie, as it's filmed in Japan and i think one of the Japanese crew will be there. I remember Luke telling me about his trip to Japan with his drifting crew, and he said that they bought cheap cars, drove them around until they were trashed, and then shipped the salvaged parts back home, oh and filmed this movie there of course. They stayed in the homes of Japanese drifter friends, and from the sounds of it had an amazing time! I might wake up tomorrow with a new found appreciation of fast cars. Although I'm sure a little part of me will still die when I'm in DK's car and it goes "tsu-tsu-tsu-tsuuuu" as he changes gears. Daniel said he will bring his camera tonight, but he doesn't mean his good one, i think he means this one:

hahaha will report back tomorrow!!

PS. Thanks for the Redskins Maslin, I'm eating one now, and it blasted me back to the canteen line at Primary School. Then i started thinking about Toffee Apple lollies :) mmmm