The sea, the moon, the music

I saw the sea from a city building again today. The sea and much more besides, since I was on the 42nd floor this time. I could see tiny people kicking a ball around on the grassy flat in Birrarung Marr, lines of cars glinting like mica in the midday sun as they stretched into the distance and a wee yacht on the bay near the St Kilda pier. Oh, and my house. At least I thought I could pick out the tiled roof of my building anyway. I will never tire of saying, "I can see my house from here. No, really!".

A girl serving me in a shop told me she liked my glasses (I was wearing my new purple specs).

When I was walking home in the twilight I looked up and the full moon hit my eye like a big pizza pie. Very light rain started to fall as I walked along the river. I liked it. AAMI Park sparkled like a very large jewel.

I have downloaded two new albums (new to me). The John Steel Singers' LP The Beagle and The Dove, which is great,  and also...Lisa Mitchell's debut Wonder. I hesitated there because, as Aussies reading this might know, Lisa was a contestant on Australian Idol a few years back. I'd not paid her debut album much attention due to music snobbery, but really, there's a reason why she's not being held back by the Idol stigma. Her album of sweet, quirky, catchy folk tunes is truly lovely. It's a nice surprise when you discover your preconceived ideas were ill-founded. Opening your mind rarely ends badly.

It's hard to pick a favourite, but here's one that has whistling in it:

My irrepressible snowball of happiness

I discovered something on Thursday night that I expected would leave my recent fabulous mood all squashed and gasping for air...but it didn't! Woooh!

I found out my ex boyfriend (the on-off dude) is seeing someone else already, despite insisting for months he didn't want to be in a relationship with anyone. The old "it's not you, it's me" line. Not that I believed it, but discovering he has moved on so quickly did knock the wind out of me for a bit.

I was furious at first and my ego is still a little bruised, but...WHATEVER! I'm still happy - and I didn't even need to gather up my thoughts and whip them into a positive frenzy to get there. They did it by themselves.

And that makes me even happier. It's a snowball of happy. It is irrepressible!

Blogger drinks

The drinks on Friday night were fun. It's surreal, in a good way, to finally meet people in the flesh after reading so much about their personal lives and opinions online. I even drank beer and liked it! It was a beer hall, so I thought "when in Rome..." (well, after I discovered they didn't serve spirits I thought that).

It pleases me when I think I don't like something and then I discover that I don't actually dislike all of it afterall. That's how it was with hip hop/rap music. It used to be in my "nup, don't like it" basket, but then I heard some songs by Aussie bands The Herd and the Hilltop Hoods that I enjoyed.

It's good to keep an open mind. It's a quality I find very appealing in other people.

Decluttering pt 1

Phase 1 of my Big Clean Out is complete. With the help of a friend with a car, I took a bunch of unwanted household chemicals to a council depot on Saturday and it felt good to be rid of them. Afterwards we had a nice lunch in the sun on the deck of the Maribyrnong boat house, overlooking the river.

Good, but not grate

Saturday was a warm day and it was beautifully balmy walking into the city to meet my friend before The Grates' gig (I took the pic above on the way). Families barbecued their dinner beside the river and little girls in summer dresses did cartwheels in the park.

Anthony and I then ate too many dumplings at the Shanghai Dumpling House to the accompaniment of Englebert Humperdink's Please Release Me and other cheesy music. Despite our full tummies, we had Trampoline sorbet for dessert - I had lemon, pineapple and passionfruit and it was deliciously refreshing. As we sat on the footpath eating our sorbet, two guys sauntered past wearing nothing but boxer shorts! Hmmm. The city is a strange place sometimes.

The Grates gig was good, although it didn't live up to the high expectations I had after seeing them in 2006. I confess, however, we watched it from the seated comfort of the upstairs bar which probably didn't do the show justice. We were both feeling worn out and couldn't face standing for hours in the sweaty crush of the crowd. Gah! We're old! We were among the oldest there and before The Grates came on stage, we amused ourselves spotting people older than us, of which there were...several. Apparently I have um...youthful taste in music.

The joy of absentmindedness

I keep forgetting that I don't have to go to work tomorrow. Every time I remember I get a little buzz of joy. Wheeee! Holidays!

Did you have a good weekend?