housemates

So I have some interesting news for all you subarashii fanzzz. My dear Josh is moving out soon to go live in/near the city to concentrate on his final year of studies. He is studying to be a teacher :D This has been brewing for a while, but it is actually happening very soon. I will miss having him around heaps, but he is going to be working in the same street as me so i will see him on lunch breaks i hope hehe! Plus it will be cool to experience the inner city lifestyle vicariously through him! Sleepoverrrrrr!

So in order to not become all lonely (and of course to keep paying my mortgage) i have recruited 2 housemates, who are already our friends, to move in NEXT WEEK! Josh will still be there when they come so it will be a full house and lots of fun! Just like a little family!

Ok, so with the nicest photos i could find...

Introducing Housemate #1: HAYDEN

Full Name: Hayden (???) Cronin
Nicknames: Gazedo (phone dictionary), H-dizzle, my Vegan Friend, H-unit etc.
Background: Dutch Australian
How we became friends: Friends with Josh's older brother Bradd with two D's
Interests: Veganism, Power Lifting, gaining weight, playing bass - mostly slap bass when i am around, music, wearing dresses (i imagine)
Potential Quirks which start off as endearing but become fatal: liberating animals from abbatoirs and bringing them all home.


Introducing Housemate #2: Maki

Full Name: Ryan James Maki

Nicknames: Maki, Mak-dawg, Mak-daddy, Mak-attack, Mak-tastic, Mak-tacular, Makintosh, Makarena, Makaroni, Easy Mak...the list goes on...

Background: Finnish Australian

How we became friends: Josh's best friend since 1999, met them all at Schoolies in Lorne in 2004. It became official when he gave me a bob the builder invite to his 18th bday a few months later.

Interests: Music, not eating red meat, Dr. Pepper, climbing on roofs, having 1.5 eyes closed in most photos
Potential Quirks which start off as endearing but become fatal: falling off the roof and seriously injuring himself. that, or setting the house on fire.

So yes, now you know them. I'm sure if you stay tuned, you will gain an insight into their lives whether they like it or not. muaha. it sure will be an interesting experience to go from a couple living together to a housemate dynamic. Stay tuned ~~~~~~~

more japan stories

I thought i would share a few more stories from Japan. Let's hope they turn out accurate as this was over a year ago and i have the shittest memory ever.


Picciture 1:
ah yes, our first night in Japan...
So the story goes that we had a 6am flight out of Melbourne and a few of the guys thought it would be a good idea not to sleep the night before the flight so that they would be able to sleep the whole way there on the plane. In theory I suppose it is a valid idea, but it didn't really work like that as i had anticipated. I think they couldn't sleep sitting up, try as they might, and were getting frustrated and grumpy and still dead tired. It was kiiiind of funny but also really bad.

We flew into Osaka airport and got a train from the airport station (best thing ever) into the city where we were all super excited at everything we saw. Think "Oh my god, look at those lights!", "Omg, we're in Japan!", "Oh man, i want to come back here and look at this shop tomorrow!!". We wanted to walk to our hotel cos we didnt want to blow money on taxis and plus we wanted to take it all in. i had the lonely planet guide map open trying to navigate to our accommodation. One thing i have found about those maps is that they are sooooo not accurate. Only the main roads have street names, sometimes. All the little alleys, which in Japan are...well... EVERYWHERE, are not named. Plus the scale is all whack, you think you still have like 5 minutes of straight walking until you reach a street, and all of a sudden you realise you walked past it already. I remember walking along a main 4 lane road wondering where we were on the map. I think we got lost inside this undercover shopping arcade, it was like a black hole and we came out somewhere totally different than where we thought we were. The guys couldn't figure it out either.

we eventually stopped and asked a Japanese guy for directions who was the owner of this buffet restaurant. He was a funny character. He had an American English accent and was trying to use his GPS on his phone to help us find the address. He was telling us to come back the next day for lunch and explained that "soft drinks... all FREE" in this heavy american accent. so strange. Anyway he sent us back the way we had come. After a while we worked up the courage to ask this other Japanese guy to help us with directions, he was a hippie and we thought he looked nice and friendly. Cos a lot of Japanese people get scared off when you start talking to them or try to get their attention. Anyway we asked him to look at the map and asked if we were close to the hotel and he shook his head and laughed and indicated that we were way off. None of us could believe how lost we were and how no-one could help us cos our map was in English. So yeah then we got in 2 taxis and asked the drivers to take us to the address and they said they didn't really go to that part of the city, they only knew the other part of the city. Weird.

We eventually got to the hotel like hours after we got to the city and wouldn't you know it.... they didn't have our reservation and were fully booked. 6 people, little sleep, tensions running high, no place to sleep. I showed them the email that they had sent me which said "thankyou for your reservation" but apparently by saying "thankyou for your reservation" they actually needed me to reply confirming again that yes, ontop of the last email with all of our details and credit card details, i would AGAIN like to say that i would like to book. I wanted to blow myself up and take everyone down with me. So after much conversation we discovered that they had a sister hotel on the other side of the city and we managed to get a suite for all 6 of us. Then we had to get cabs again over there and the poor night guy had to stay back and wait for us before he closed up for the night audit. We crashed hard after laying out the futons on the ground - which is what is happening in the picture above. I was so embarrassed and angry at myself cos i was meant to be the Japan expert and first night i looked like the biggest dick head. It was a pretty shit night but also really funny at times and we were all joking about things we saw and Stevenz was imitating the American accent of the Japanese guy for the next week, it was hilarious.

Piccy-ture 2:

This isn't a story per se, but i like the picture. That flower I stole from the entrance of a Pachinko Parlour. I would link to a description of Pachinko, but i could just give it: it is a gambling machine similar to the pokies. you put all these little ball bearings balls in the top and they clatter down and somehow you win money. like that carnival game where you have to get the ball in the clown's mouth. Pachinko is massive in Japan. They have gigantic buildings dedicated to it. People sit in rows and it is a sensoral RAPE when you walk in the doors. You are accosted with a wall of deafening techno/j-pop music trying to rise above the noise of billions of ball bearing balls clattering all over the place. And as in Japan you are allowed to smoke indoors the building is so thick with smoke you feel like you are in a nightmare club. anyway for some reason they all go overboard with the fake flowers to decorate the entrances.

Pici-ture 3:

this was after a big night of drinking - maybe after our little episode at Club Pure in Shibuya i think (someone correct me if i'm wrong as we seemed to be hungover a lot). We had to check out the next morning and we were all pretty devoid of happiness or life. We caught a train to harajuku and locked our big bags away so that we might be free to roam around a little. On the map we saw there was a park near the station called Yoyogi Park so we stumbled over there hoping for a bit of peace and quiet. We all had a little nap on some benches - hobo stylllle. It was so relaxing. Eventually we were awoken by a strange smelling smoke that wafted our way but were too chicken to investigate it's origin. We watched the rockabilly dancers for a while before heading off into the gigantic park for a stroll. It was the end of autumn so the leaves were falling so delicately and serenely from the trees, i have never seen anything like it before. it was like a dreamscape! We eventually came upon a big dog pen where everyone put their dogs so they can play off the lead. We stood looking at those dogs for hours... i think they saved our lives a little bit. I'm pretty sure that at some point we were plotting the dognapping of a few of our favourites. I didn't like the ones in clothes. A lot of them were wearing clothes. It was intense.


Piccyture 4:

This was a poster at the train station, trying to reinforce the Japanese peoples love for peace and quiet on trains. The man who is disapproving of the behaviour looks so freaky. His eyes are dead. I think the poster should read "this party is a zombie free zone" and the poor zombie is left out *cry*. The most rowdy behaviour i saw on a train there was at night... this one Japanese guy was on his was home from a night of drinking, and he was falling asleep but was leaning on the girl next to him and he dropped his phone. He was trying so hard to stay awake, and trying to appear normal....but everyone was like *DANGER DANGER* and cleared out the carriage. It was bizzare! Here i have seen people "nodding off" on the trian but not because they are sleepy but because they are needle junkies. I have seen people take pills in unicen on the train, seen a few people smoking and a lot of people drinking, see a few fights, seen a near stabbing... yeah different worlds.

kevin bacon: celeb frenemy

I was watching a bit of TV last night and flicked onto a movie called "Picture Perfect" starring Jennifer Anniston and Kevin Bacon. And what I don't get, like in many of his films, is HOW IS HE THE LOVE INTEREST?! HE IS CREEPY AND GROSS!!!!!!!! I came into the movie in the scene where jen and kev are mauling eachother and about to have sex. yeah. wtf. i don't know what it is but i hate/love him. I have to admit... I own Footloose on DVD. Not because i think it is good, but because it was like $5 and i was trying to learn the dance for some reason and also its one of my favourite 80's songs. I think he is so groooooosssss and dumb and i dont see how people find him attractive. But i am compelled to watch him in all his movies. go figure.

yucky! Josh and i once had a Kevin Bacon marathon like 5 years ago or so, and we watched a few of his movies and ate only bacon products. Cheese and bacon shapes were plentiful. I also dated a guy when i was about 14 or 15 whose nickname was bacon because he looked so much like Kevin Bacon. What the fuck was wrong with me? I shudder to remember. anywayyyy i just had to express that. ok, no more bacon talk

*oink*

muerta: the fallen

well. this is a bit of a huge post. not so much in the way of length or awesomeness, but more in the way of curse breaking. let me explain...

Lately, my most beloved possessions (only the ones i blog about) have been under attack from the forces of death- the very ones, i suspect, that were at play in the tragic real life story "Final Destination". I don't know what i have done to deserve this dark cloud of death to be hanging over my homestead. Either someone out there has some seriously misguided grudge against me and has laid a curse upon me, or the ancient Greek Gods have cursed me for being so subarashii and having an interesting B-LoG. Probably the latter.

I hope that by commemorating the fallen, I will in effect reverse the curse (lol rhyme) and save everything else i blog about from dying too. Here it goes...

UNO
Oh sushi cup, how i loved thee. I didn't mean to kick you off the footstool and shatter you into a million pieces. I do not regret immediately burying my face into a pillow and fighting the impending tears while Josh disposed of your body. You must understand I just couldn't deal with the carnage. I will never forget how you could hold the perfect cup of tea in your streamlined handle-less form, and how every time i even looked at you a smile would spread across my face. Thank you for being the most awesome cup in the whole cup shop in Osaka and for being so affordable. We had some good times hey? I have seen other sushi cups online but it just wouldn't be the same as you. I might just drink from Josh's similar cup with weird Japanese faces on it, until i can find a suitable replacement in my heart - if that could ever happen.

PS. I'm sorry I blamed Chester for smashing you, it was clearly my fault. Chester wasn't even inside..

DUO

Bento Box, Bento Box.... although I owned you for almost a year before you broke, and only used you twice.... i still loved you. It was a shame that your latch broke, and that you would fall apart when i tried to carry you. You still held up OK when i wrapped rubber bands around you to keep you together but who was I kidding- you had died, and the stench of your death dispersed into my food and spoiled the taste. I still would like another bento box and because we weren't so close i think i can get away with ordering a cute one online. RIP

-

TRES

Oh Tweedle-Dee... I have already blogged about your demise but again I am sorry that our house doesn't have cooling and that you got blanched to death in the heat wave last week. You were a good fish for all those years, you were very understanding and strong. On the first night i owned you and your brother Tweedle-Dum, someone at the party put a sausage in your bowl to feed you. It sat there for hours until my brother saw it and removed it in disgust. That didn't bother you guys though, you took what you could from it - perhaps it was good for you even, because you lasted 3.5 years. Your brother was not so lucky though - dying shortly after. Even when Chester started trying to attack you in the bowl you didn't give in, you gave him a run for his money. Eventually after we trained him not to want to eat you, you still had enough trust in your heart to let him share your water every day. You also were very understanding if i forgot to clean your bowl and it was so green that we couldn't actually see you. And if i forgot to feed you for a week you stayed strong and got by on whatever you could - you probably ate your own poo to stay alive, who knows? I thank you for your friendship and hope you are in a better place.

-

QUATTRO

Oh little fish who was tentatively named Ron Weasley or Frank, how ashamed I am that you only lived for less than 24 hours in my home. I cleaned the bowl after Tweedle-Dee had gone, and had it all fresh for you. You even didn't mind Chester sharing your water. Who knows what killed you... the bacteria still present from Tweedle-Dee, the shock from pond to bowl, or the heat of your water which I suspect was the case. I feel very guilty about your death and I want you to know that I was hoping you would outlast Tweedle-Dee and also that I bought you an aerator so you could have bubbles, and some new vitamin-rich fish food. None of which you liced to enjoy.

Perhaps one day I will get another fish, but until that day I will remember both of you fondly.

~

Well, I think that was pretty good. Let's hope this curse has been lifted now and that it doesn't go after Chester or any of the humans i talk about :s (touch wood)

east brunswick club & night frisbee

howdy doodie! firstly an update... the new fish is dead. After less than 24 hours it died. So i have decided no more fish in this hot weather *cry*

Ok, so last night we caught up with our friend Hayden (the vegan) for dinner. He recommended we try out the East Brunswick Club on Lygon Street and said that they have a vegan menu and do a great vegan parma! SOLD!

We all got the small size vegan parma for $12 which took about 3 years to come to the table, and this is what it looks like:

i thought that it would be like a vegie pattie type filling but it was mock chicken. It was really really yummy - and it definately did NOT taste like chicken.

We also got dessert for $8. I got cookies and cream vegan cheesecake:

Josh got vegan berry pudding:

Hayden got Choc mint vegan cheesecake:

They were all super delicious and we were feeling very full by the time we left. We then went back to Hayden's place to get the NIGHT FRISBEE so we could play for a while in the park. It glowed red and was pretty fun, despite my lack of hand-eye coordination. I broke 2 nails and saw 1 bat fly overhead. I eventually got the hang of throwing it, but still had issues with catching. Here is a pretty poor quality picture of hayden holding the frisbeeeeee

jade out...

so long and thanks for all the fish

HIGH! Monday again... weeeee! The title of this post does not denote me writing a final post before disappearing into oblivion, rather it is just a homage to the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy books which i love so dearly. Glad we cleared that up, now we can move on... So the past week has been pretty interesting i suppose. I saw some cool things, namely Exhibit A through D....

Exhibit A) Roof people:

These people live on roofs (rooves?) just like you would live indoors. I startled this particular roofie (lol) as i think he was going to the toilet at the time. my bad!

Exhibit B) Mascot Bear:

This bear is the mascot of my friend's house. After a quick google search i find it is called RILAKKUMA which apparently is a combination of Relax (in japanese pronounced RILAKUSU) and bear (Kuma). While it is pretty cute, it doesn't look as though it is relaxing. It looks more like it is standing guard, monitoring the room through its robot eye room-scan device. I can just picture it detecting movement of a spider across the room and springing to life... jumping down to the ground and taking tiny measured robotic steps forward toward its target, walking right through anything in its path -even the couch - until it reaches its target wherupon it raises its tiny arm and shoots a laser at the spider - incinerating it into oblivion. Totally.

~

Exhibit C) A Door with a handle in the centre:

I was told that the lock mechanism is custom made and is the length of half the door because it has to reach the doorframe. One question.. why? It is really awkward to open and close as the door is heavy, and it is a strange place to be pushing the weight from. Well, if i were an engineer or architect, maybe i could have given some different advice. But i'm not, so my words are pathetic nothings on the breeze. Oh well, i will just enjoy my door with the handle on the side.

~

Exhibit D) John Lemon

I found this in my dad's car on Saturday. He was sitting in the passenger seat and I had to move him when i got in. I got this creepy "survivor" Wilson vibe from it... i didn't know my dad had such trouble making friends. The thing i hate most about him is the dead look in his eyes...well in his Tek Screws. Dad said one of the guys that works for him made it and named it. Sure Dad, sure.

~

~~

Oh, sad news on the weekend... on Saturday my fish Tweedle-Dee Died at the ripe old age of 3.5 years :(

Just after I unveiled him to the world on my blog, along with the new blue rocks and plant, he left me. The fame got to him I guess... life in the spotlight perhaps was a little too hot. Secretly I think it was the drugs, i even once saw him wrapping the fake plant around his neck in what i can only assume is his wardrobe. It was pretty devastating cos I had to flush him, and i couldn't deal with cleaning out his bowl so soon after he was floating in it. I just covered the opening with a tissue box, but Chester was confused as to why he couldn't access his drinking bowl. He eventually outsmarted me and pushed the tissue box off with his nose and went to have a drink of the DEAD FISH WATER. I ran across the room and grabbed him and tipped the water down the sink as he watched me in outrage. He promptly jumped on the bench to where i had left the empty bowl sitting, and tried sticking his head in it to get some water which made me get pretty emotional. He refused to drink water from his ACTUAL water bowl next to his food, and i was worried he would dehydrate. I had friends over on Saturday night and Chester showed them all his heart-wrenching display of loss and longing for his full fishbowl. I think it pulled many a heart-string. Damn that ginger cat.

~

On Sunday Josh decided that we should probably get another fish to restore the balance in the house. We were at his dad's place and they said we could take one of the fish from their pond. We went out and sat by the pond in the sunshine watching the fish for probably half an hour or so. Apparently all the fish in there, and i'm guessing there are about 50, are all related. They bought a few from the pet-shop and every year they just keep breeding so now there are fish of every description swimming around! They named one Hitler because it has a little black moustache and a little black patch on its head for hair. Also one is called Mick Jagger because it has big red lips. Another one is called Sinker because it has a problem with its "swim bladder" and when it stops swimming it just sinks to the bottom. Interesting.

So i picked a little one and took it home and this is him/her:

I wanted to call it Ron Weasley because it has a red head, but Josh isn't cool with that, maybe because i had a crush on Rupert Grint for a few months recently heh. He said "Ron" might be ok, but wants to brainstorm a list of better names. He suggested Frank which i like, but we'll see how we go. Here is Chester having a loooong drink from the renewed fish bowl, notice the fish's face hahaha it looks like he is screaming:

Well the dog drinks from the pond where the fish used to live, so he is ok with the cat. Today i have to go the the pet store near my work and get a new tube for the aerator that Josh's dad gave me. I have never used one before, but i really want to try and get this little guy to live longer than Tweedle-Dee. Could be a little tough. I wonder how old this fish is... or even how old Tweedle-dee was when i got him. Maybe he was already like 50 years old! Nah. The more i think about it, I dont think fish are meant to be kept in bowls, they last so much longer in ponds and grow so big. I want a pond now. But first i will be concentrating on my chicken plan. I plan to build a coop and have some cute chooks :) hooraaaahhh

anyway, i have lots more to say but i will save it for a new post as this one is getting quite long! Toorah lovies!

update on jadelyf 2.0

first of all, check me and my new 'do out on NYE, poloroid style:

awww yeah! I'm loving the pink! Also i found this other cool pic that some jerk took after we had a picnic a while ago...

so an update on my life... hmm. Well i took about a week or so off work for Christmas and New Years and basically as soon as Christmas was over i did sweet sweet nothing for the whole week. mmmm, it was good. although now back at work it was very very hard to wake up at 6.30am today when i was used to more like 10am or 11am... rrrrr..

So apart from my new hairdo, i did some massively interesting things. For example i cleaned my fish bowl and bought him some new blue rocks and a plant. Little Tweedle-Dee is 3.5 years old now, and he had the same hot pink rocks that whole time. It was my Christmas present to him i guess.. more like the ONLY present i have ever given him :S

Also I have been tending my vegie patch with my now GIGANTIC pumpkin plant and mystery tree, oh and the passionfruit has now grown ABOVE the fence line. Rivetting stuff folks...

Yes and poor Josh has been working every day lately except Christmas so Chester has been my company, or SHADOW more like it...

I have growing fears that I actually am a crazy cat lady. I was at a friends place and he has 2 beautiful Burman cats called Tashi and Mira. Mira is actually a psycho and attacks everyone, but she likes me among a select few. When i was there, Mira was curled up asleep on my lap while Tashi was alseep on my FEET. Yeah i know, wtf. cat lady! does someone smell an old hermit rotting alone in her house??

Also, I have made like 4 cobb dips in the last week. There is something a bit excessive about that I think, but i mean it was Christmas, then New Years, and then one friend in particular liked the cobb dip so much he swore i laced it with crack (crack/lsd... potato/potarrrto) so i made one for his birthday 2 days ago. I also made tomato chutney, and fresh pasta, and pesto... oh and this amazing fish wrapped in proscuitto mmmm! now tonight i HAVE to cook something good hehe.

i didnt really take any good pics of all this food though. crap. too lazy to snapshot/blog. how bad! Well i promise i will get back with something a little more interesting next time!

3 nights of note in Nippon

hell-oooo all you subarashii people :) i have recently been looking back on my time in Japan with fondness. Like, oh my god, like, when am I NOT!? so anyway I thought I would share a few stories with you guyzzz. You must realise my words are precious and like a gift wrapped in the finest silk known to man... so this is a reward for my "Followers" and a little something to entice my other blog stalkers to become followers... so i may see who you are. It's like this chant they used to have back in 'Nam: "Come out come out wherever you are..." yeah i dunno creepy... ANYWHO, what the fuck am i talking about...

STORY 1) MARCH 2008

So, Joshuella and I went to Japan Land for a wee holiday in March 2008. We realised after we booked that we would be there at the time of our 3 year anniversary. How convenient! So we flew Melbourne - Nagoya and stayed overnight then headed up into the Japanese Alps to stay in Nagano for a few days. (BEST PLACE EVERRRR!) Then it was on to good ole Tokyo for a bit of fun! The plan was to go out in Roppongi on the Eve of our Anniversary, then the next day travel from Tokyo - Kyoto on the bullet train and check in to out lovely romantic accommodation at : Yachio Ryokan.

So we were staying in the next "suburb" to Roppongi called Akasaka, and we set off to find some delicious dinner. Only 2 blocks away we found this cool restaurant called "Uoshin Restaurant" in Roppongi. It's part of a chain I think, but we were immediately drawn to it, as it was a really unique looking place - different to many of the places we had eaten already. It had a cool al fresco part to it which was undercover and people were laughing and drinking and loud punk music was playing. How could we resist, right? So we go in and the place is PACKED and there is fish hanging from the roof, and on ice and on grills and EVERYWHEREEEEEEE!! So they sit us at the bench so the chefs are right infront of us, then hand me this menu which is entirely in KANJI (like chinese characters) and i was like "uh... sorry babe, I'm not really sure what this says...". They noticed the horrified and slightly starving look in my eye and asked if i wanted an English menu. YES PLEASE! So everything was cheap and the drinks list was long and also cheap! We ordered what seemed like one of everything, and chowed down while watching the chefs at work. We noticed after a while that this punk music was playing that we had been hearing everywhere so far. We had heard it in a shoe shop in Nagano and I asked the guy what it was, so he wrote it down for me in Katakana alphabet: Makishimamu za horumon - yeah i had no idea what that meant, i just knew it was meant to be English. Turns out it's MAXIMUM THE HORMONE! and they are awesome. So we said to the chef we liked the music and she was like "yeah we love it too, we are in a tribute band..." i thought she was joking. No sir. The manager of that amazing establishment (pictured below with the headband) promptly came out from behind the grill and started playing videos of them rocking out in live venues. Incredible! The whole staff were in a tribute punk band.

The Manager recommended we drink this spirit called Shochu, and that we should have it on the rocks. I asked what it was, like if it was similar to Vodka or Sake or something, and he explained that it is similar to Sake and that apparently they used it in the War to disinfect wounds. Josh was hooked so we ordered 2 of those, and 2 more steins of Kirin Beer. That's about where things started to go downhill for me as we had already has a few steins each. The more i drank, the better my Japanese flowed, but they of course were trying to speak English so i didn't have to translate for Josh. We didn't have a camera on us, so Josh ran back to the hotel to get one so we could take some pictures.

While he was gone I got talking to the manager who was telling me his life story and said that it is his dream to go to Australia and go surfing. He then said he was a model, and got this magazine catalogue thing out which was all about chef supplies and uniforms, and he flicked through it showing me all the pictures of himself and his wife and baby daughter modelling clothes. Very cute!

Josh comes back with the camera and suddenly everyone wants to pose for us! It was sick. I really wish i stopped drinking but i had taught Josh how to say "2 more of the same please" in Japanese so he just kept ordering 2 more when we hadn't even finished our current drinks. We were having so much fun i guess i didn't realise how much i was drinking and didn't care that i was mixing beer with shochu and some lychee concoction that Josh kept ordering.

That is a picture of 2 of the chefs. They were sickkkk! The girl's name was Midori but Ican't remember the guys name as it was so long ago (oops). Holy shit i just realised she is holding a big 'thing' of OKONAMI sauce, my favourite. I don't think i had discovered okonamiyaki at that point. omg primate. Anyway, below is the Manager showing us how to play the traditional Japanese game Kendama. Basically Japanese Ball in a Cup.

He was fucking unbeleivable. Probably some sort of Kendama champion. So you let the ball dangle then you have to flick it up onto the cup it's on in the picture, then around onto the other side, then onto the cup on the base - near his wrist, then onto the spike! He did it deftly as a kendama ninja! I don't have access to youtube but if you look up kendama champion you will be shocked. Or maybe i was just drunk and easily impressed...? most likely...

Anyway Josh was going nuts with obsession for it, and got the hang of it straight away. Everyone was cheering him on, it was great! So at some point we realised that the whole place was empty except for us and that they wanted to close up for the night! Awkwarddddd! So i went to the toilet and when i came back Josh had paid (I found out later he had used my money though haha) and we left promising to send them pictures and stuff. I don't really remember much of the rest of the night except that we stopped at a CONBINII (Convenience store) and got some Japanese Pringles and fried chicken - i only know this because i found it the next morning in our room :s

Fun fact about me: when I am drunk i cant sleep because i feel too ill. i toss and turn holding my stomach and cant "sleep it off" like many lucky chumps out there. So i had a broken sleep and got up at 7am to vomit. When i came back to bed i saw josh cuddling a bottle of water and the USB cord for the camera... haha, oh Josh! Yes so i spent pretty much the rest of the morning vomitting and not letting Josh in the bathroom. Actually i think i let him in once but i nervously paced outside the door as I was going to vomit AGAIN. probably the most after-grog bodily expulsion i have ever experienced. It was disgusting. So Josh was trying to hurry me up as we had to check out. Working in Hotels i know you dont have to check out RIGHT on time. There is a bit of leeway, especially if you are going to vomit all over the reception desk if you arent ready to come out of the bathroom. But he gave me a plastic bag to hold JUST IN CASE and we set off for the day. It was possibly the worst day of my life. Did i mention it was our anniversary? Yep.

We checked out and stumbled through CRAZY CROWDS to the local station and got a local train to the big Station, then had to try and organise tickets for the Bullet Train, and find what platform it was on etc. For anyone who has been hungover - Japan is the worst place to spend your hangover day. People and noise everywhere, and as your brain also got vomitted out, it's pretty hard to remember how to speak Japanese. My patience was so low for everything and everyone that I wanted to either kill myself or kill Josh each time he spoke. Poor Josh. Eventually we got to Kyoto and got another train to our accommodation and walked there and checked in, and just lay on the floor. We went out at 4pm to get some breakfast. haha. Josh wanted spaghetti bolognaise (i am not even joking) so we went to look for some and eventually found it and devoured it and felt slightly better. happy anniversaryyyyy........! oh well, it was at least memorable to stand the test of time and remain in my limited memory bank!


STORY 2) NOVEMBER 2008

So I went back to Japan again later that year - crazy now that I think about it. I think there were some mega cheap flights so I jumped on it. Yeah i got a flight $189 from Melbourne to Osaka! why wouldn't you...? So anyway, this time i went with 5 boys who are friends of josh and mine: Evan, Stevens, Trav, Nash & Corey. So pretty much everyone just wanted to drink heaps and party in Tokyo which is fair enough. So we went out to Shibuya to look for a good place, and atfer a few tries, eventually came across CLUB PURE! Basically guys and girls pay a different flat rate and you get a wristband and a cup. You can fill that cup with anything you want from the bar all night. I think entrance was like $50...? or a bit less. BUT as you can imagine, everyone just goes crazy! All the guys were trying to talk to Japanese girls but because of the language barrier, I was called in to translate. I think they were more interested in me to be honest, and they were telling me i was SUPER CUTE! Everyone likes to hear that :D

So after a few too many apple drinks Evan started to lose his shirt - quite literally....

And pretty soon he passed out at the table....

BUT Japan being the interesting place that it is, you are actually allowed to sleep in clubs and the security guards don't hassle you at all. So he was fine. We were just sitting around chatting to some Swedish people, and his head was drooping in the direction of my lap. I kept pushing him away as i didn't want him to vomit on my lap. I got up to go to the toilet eventually and on my way back i passed my friends dragging Evan to the toilets with vomit still dribbling from his mouth. PERFECT TIMING! I got back to the table and everyone was freaking out about having vomit on their clothes, it was hilarious - as i wasn't involved of course! When Ev came back he was sober again and started to drink again and party the night away. Meanwhile, here is a great photo of Myself, Corey and this Swedish guy who likes blue chewing gum...

Oh it was pretty funy, the next day we were confused because we could smell vomit everywhere we went then eventually we found the stain on someone's pants. I think it was Nash's pants. Dried up vom, yuckkk!

Story 3 ) ALSO NOVEMBER 2008

So after Evan, Stevens and Nash went home it was just me, Corey and Trav knockin about in Japan. When we were in Hiroshima, we decided to get a ferry across to Miyajima Island and go for a hike up Misen (the big mountain on the island) one afternoon. So we got a tram for almost an hour, then a ferry to the island, then went to look for the cable car to the summit...

great views from the cable car, great views!

once on the summit, we were surrounded by monkeys. The signs said to put your belongings in lockers otherwise the monkeys will maul you for food. Hmmm, no thanks!

So yes, it was raining and I suddenly regretted my eagerness to climb or descend a mountain. Corey led us to this path swearing it was to the summit, but we were going downhill. So yeah after about 10 mins he agreed that we were probably going the wrong way so we went back uphill and started towards the summit. I started to lose it, like i am convinced i was having an asthma attack but i have never been tested for asthma so don't know if it was, or even what it was. I took off my jacket and jumper and was just in a t-shirt in the rain and wintery weather. I was wheezing and kept asking the guys to stop. my face was like beetroot red and i couldn't catch my breath at all. I was so embarrassed as only Josh had seen me lose it like this before, and they didnt seem to even have broken a sweat. The thought of taking one more step made me want to cry so i took the room key and went allllllll the way back alone in the rain and impending darkness. In the cable car the only other people were this lesbian couple who were making out and feeling each other up, while i was shaking and coughing in the corner. I got back to the room frozen to the bone and had a hot shower and snuggled up on the futon mattress with the blankets and turned on Japanese TV for some company. I started to get really worried cos the guys were now running down a mountain in the darkness and the time was ticking by... but eventually they came back drenched and we had a nice little futon picnic of snacks and drinks and of course Corey's weird Korean concoction of Yakult and Soju shots. That was another memorable day.

Now that i think about it, I have so many more stories I would love to write about! Like Yoyogi Park in Harajuku! I'll save it for another day my friends!

the accidental vegie patch & anthony's song (movin' out)

kudos to those who got the BJ (billy joel) joke in the title. oh i am quite clever aren't i... wait you don't know what this post is about yet so it's hard to get the joke. fuck. ok whateverrrr

So Josh sursprised me with his return on Friday when i got home all hung over from the work xmas party. He was waiting in the bedroom after getting an overnight bus, train, and taxi home. I think he had a nap and i got home at around 3pm. He freaked me out cos i walked through the house into the kitchen and he eventually creaked open the bedroom door in the supposedly empty house and jumped out! aaah! good to have him back though! he is now i think obsessed with boats. He is talking about buying one. ah the boating life :)

so anyway he may or may not have accidentally deleted every single photo from my camera haha. he was showing me his pictures and tried to delete the very last picture and accidentally wiped everything. so yeah now we are trying to locate picture recovery software...

anyway i was hanging out bad to take pics of our accidental vegie patch! Basically i made a vegie patch area and planted my passionfruit there which didn't really take off... i guess you could use the word LAZY to describe me and my gardening, haha. i would love to be a great gardener and grow my own organis fruit and veg... but we just don't gel at the moment. Maybe when i am a bit older and more settled....?

anyway we used to chuck our kitchen scraps in the soil to keep lots of nutrients in there, and after a while we experienced this weird summer rain period and since then EVERYTHING in the garden that had been laying dormant sprang to life! We now have quite the vegie patch but we don't know what's actually growing....

below i think is perhaps some sort of bean or stone fruit...

and i have been told that this is a pumpkin... and there are about 4 plants like this in there :D

oh and yes here is the passionfruittttt

anyway Saturday we were helping some friends move out into a rental. Here is Josh and Stevens posing next to Evan's dad's new MG... awwww yeah. His dad Graeme (sp?) said that he WOULD take me for a drive in it but because of our age difference he would look like a pedo. nooooooo!

Here are a few shots of the day!

below is Stevens opening out housewarming present. Yes, fridge letters!!

All day we were discussing how he should buy cutlery but it never eventuated, then somehow we forgot about the whole cutlery thing when we ordered take away curry for dinner there. I have never used a salad server to eat curry before, and chances are i probably never will again. But it was pretty fun and i shall always remember it. yep.

Clockwise from Left:

Jade's Yummy Lamb Rogan Josh, Josh's demolished Potato/pea curry, Stevens' Veg korma.

Delicious.

domestic disturbance

so i went to my dad's place last night and was watching tv with my brothers. I kept hearing this loud banging noise and kept asking "What WAS that?!" and they were all *shrug* so i forgot about it. Then it happened again and again, then we heard some shouting above the TV. We pushed mute and peeked out the window to see the couple across the court having a FULL ON DOMESTIC on the front lawn. They both looked way feral, but the guy had a pole and was bashing the fuck out of his wheelie bin and she was crying and screaming. He then started bashing the trees and was threatening to hit her with the pole, then tossed the pole and was raising his fists and walking toward her. It was really scary. I saw their next door neighbour come out to his car, get something, and go back in... i thought "Why aren't you doing anything!?!?" but then i thought what would i do? Some alcoholic psycho is happy to beat up his wife in the street, imagine what he would do to me for getting in the way. It's so bad but.... whatever...

My brother called the cops and soon enough 2 cop cars came with 4 cops. The couple had already gone inside and i was freaking out imagining what was happening in there. The cops got her out of the house and were talking to her for like half an hour but the guy was still inside. I think they tried to talk to him but obviously it wasnt going well. I was freaking out that she would be like "oh yeah, everything's cool... thanks anyway" and then the REAL punishment would come. But one cop left and soon enough came back with a Divvy Van and another cop. So 5 cops went in with mace and were in there for a while then dragged him out and he was kicking and punching them so they tripped him, slammed him to the ground and cuffed him. Then off he went in the back of the divvy van. I got the sensation that every single neighbour in the court was peeping through the blinds just as we were. As he was being lead away, my brother did the clapping part to "you're going home in the back of a divvy van" really loud and i saw one of the cops look in our direction haha fuck.

The whole time my litte brother was taking pictures of the whole thing with his massive zoom lense. so bad.... but yeah if i can get a photo i will totally put it on here... and maybe i'll blur the face just in case.

So yeah looks like my dad lives in the ghetto after all. apparently this crazy guy was screaming at his wife the night before and said he would slit her throat. what the fuck!?! i shudder to think whats going to happen when he gets let out of the lockup. people are fucked. seriously.