debbieann

Had a great trip to the US - went to San Diego, Claremont, SLO, and SF - so pretty much covered CA! Saw lots of family and friends and enjoyed american retail and american food.

And now back in Melbourne and back to my regular routine - yoga 4xwk and water aerobics 2xwk, cheap movies on Monday, arthouse films on Weds night. Meditating every morning and the NYT crossword puzzle every day. Plus a bit of art - painting jizos and recently went to a watercolor class at the library.

We are doing some travelling within Australia - will go to Sydney for a week the end of Sept and also probably in Oct and Nov. In Dec and Jan hope to spend a month in Tasmania, maybe doing the 4 day walk on Maria Island and going to the music festival at Mona.

Just finished reading Lab Girl which I really enjoyed and now I am reading The Genius of Birds. I already have more books from the library than I can finish, which means the other books and magazines I have at home end up waiting a long time.

Our household is doing well - one housemate is on a art retreat in Spain! And staying in her room is an american from Austin TX, so that is fun. Our landlords replaced the stove that was falling apart. I roasted cauliflower today. Some of my movie friends are off on travels. Spring has arrived so I am out working in the garden for about an hour a day.

We have lived in the same place for almost a year, and have gotten very attached. It will be hard to get back to the 23 kgs moving weight! I love this house and garden and feel very grounded here. The yoga is close, great bakeries and butchers and greengrocers are close by. Libraries and art museums and arthouse cinema all just blocks away and the rent is cheap - really it has been so very good, but we also dream of driving around Australia and eventually, after we get passports, going on a round the world year long trip, hopefully including Barcelona, where my sister is living, well she is in the outskirts, but close enough for us!

I have watched some great series on SBS - Jordskott, Trapped and just now, Witnesses (Swedish, Icelandic and French, quite a world tour)

Ok time for Fat yoga!

We got SO lucky with this sharehouse situation. First, I love the house and the location. Our bedroom has big built in closets, pergo floors, and 2 big windows. We are at the end of a dead end street, so nobody comes down here unless they live here. Our room is upstairs w a shared bathroom w the other room up there. The stairs up to the room are old and weathered wood. I think they are beautiful. Downstairs there is another bathroom, and open kitchen/dining room w a gas stove/broiler-grill thing and a dining room table - some of the houses we have stayed in do not have a dining room table, and I have found it to be something we really like. There is also a comfy living room w two big couches and a flat screen TV that we can watch netflix and dvds on. The whole house has pergo floors except for the old wooden steps, and when it is clean the house just feels beautiful. The kitchen gets lots of light, one whole wall is made up of two glass doors that slide open, and you look out on to the yard. I love lovelove the yard. It has a huge variety of plants and I love weeding, watering, nurturing.And I get to hang clothing outside on a line, which I also love. It has been ages really since we have been in a real house, and w furnishing that aren't cheap generic rental furnishings. It is a big relief to me that I don't have to buy every little thing. And we will leave lots behind when we move.

And then there are the housemates - the two that are normally here are Nick and Tori. Nick is a music producer and loves a lot of the music we do - from Mali, from India, prepared piano, Gillian Welch - a wide variety. The Necks. Last night he gave us free tickets to Maru Turang - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue5yPW5Y_18 and they were excellent. He is a vegetarian/hippie, happy to work in the garden, work on composting. He is good at fixing things, oh and he also great at finding treasures on large trash night and has a great eye for things made out of wood or steel. I find him very easy to live with. He does have a very nocturnal schedule, but that just means we are never wanting the bathroom at the same time. He is Australian, but sort of Byron Bay/Nimbin kinda guy. I'm guessing late 30s, maybe 40s? has a 19 yr old daughter and an ex-wife.

Tori, our other housemate is away at the moment and has sublet her room, but she will be back mid January. She is from NZ, and very easy to live with. What I love about Tori is that she notices all sorts of details and does little things like squeeze out the kitchen sponge. Actually everyone is good about doing their dishes right away, which I appreciate. We have lived in some really messy shared spaces and didn't like that. In general, this house is pretty uncluttered - nice empty surfaces - so it has a peaceful feeling to it. Tori grew up on a farm in NZ. When we moved in she had just broken up w her girlfriend, so she was sad, but now she has a new boyfriend and seems happy. Tori is also in her 30s, I think the older vibe contributes to people being more thoughtful.

The household is kind to each other, people share food when they have extra, or sometimes we all watch movies together. People don't hide in their rooms. And people are out and about too, so this morning Charles and I have the house to ourselves, which is also relaxing. We have the house to ourselves a lot actually. The funny thing is, I think we would not have chosen these housemates just reading a description, but it turns out this is a easy place to live.

Things have been relatively calm and settled down even. We moved into a sharehouse to sublet a room and it turns out that one of the housemates was moving out just as our sublet ended, so we just moved across the hall into her room. Easiest move ever. I like the house a lot. Two bathrooms w showers, a garden and a yard, a nice open plan kitchen, gas stove, gas grill and even a dishwasher although it isn't working so well right now. We are living w two people right now, one of whom is out of town every other week and the other whom works two jobs and has a rather nocturnal schedule, so often times it is just us at home. I am really enjoying it. It is nice to use all the kitchen things we have. The location is great - close to a really good movie theatre and a nice library and all sorts of markets. I like how Australia still has butchers, fruit and veg stores, and bookstores.

My favorite thing is probably the garden. It is spring here and plants are growing. I planted tomatoes, basil and various lettuces. We do have a snail problem, but I have started figuring out what they don't like. It is very rewarding to plant things and have them grow. It is also nice to live in a house that already has everything we need like a vacuum cleaner, and every cooking pan/utensil you could want. I find the living room very comfy as well and we have apple tv and netflix set up.

We can stay here until at least January 10, and probably longer if we want. Current plan is Tasmania in January, Adelaide in March and the US in August. Our rent is relatively low, so I am probably going to lean towards keeping this place. We even have a comfy bed, not on the floor. We had a storage unit for the few months we were moving around the city, and now it is empty - it would've been way too easy to leave stuff in there forever.

I'm still going to water aerobics 3xwk and socializing w people afterwards on two of the days. I have a tentative art date with a woman I met at water aerobics on some Tuesdays, and Monday is cheap day at our local cinema. This week I saw The Lobster, which was some very funny and very dark humor. Still going to cinematheque every weds night and socializing w people before that starts each week. So, even though I don't feel like I have made lasting friends really, I do feel like there are people I chat w every week, so that is good. Plus now we live with people, so that is plenty of people in my life. I feel like I am starting to get a routine in place which is nice. On Saturdays we often go to farmers markets and out to our favorite local coffee place. Melbourne is an easy city once you sort out work and where to live. There are so many events and movies and festivals going on.

We are still going to work on getting rid of stuff even though it would be so easy to let it all pile up.

I finished book 1 and 6 of The Iliad. I also read book 2. I was originally going to read the whole thing, now I am not so sure.

Meanwhile, I started book 1 of My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgard, many many details in everyday life with many many childhood details added in, but somehow compelling. Six books in the series.

And then because we moved and I had returned all my library books, I also started Elena Ferrante's first book, My Brilliant Friend. Four books in the series.

And then because we are living right across the street from ACMI - art house film central - I am going over there to see films Mon/Tues/Weds of this week and the only reason I am not going on Thursday is that we are seeing the play Betrayal (Pinter). So not enough time for reading.

On the movie front I have seen:

London Road - musical about murders of women in Ipswich
Far From Men- based on the Camus story, The Guest. excellent, but violent.
Pictures of the Old World (1972) - Czech documentary about very old people living in the country

We do have a new place to live until mid-October at least, and maybe longer than that, if we want. Up near Cinema Nova in Carlton. Great location. Nice house, we will see how we go w group living.

I'm going to try something new - there is a free class being offered on the Iliad, which I have never read, so I signed up. Here is what we will be doing:

In this short course we will be reading and talking about four major books of the Iliad (Books 1, 6, 22, and 24 , with reference to other books of course). We will be focusing mostly on the heroic conduct of war as Homer sets it out in the Iliad with special reference to Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector and Paris. Their relationship to the gods will also be dealt with. It is strongly advised that participants read the text in advance (all of it if possible, but certainly the books under discussion each week).

Recommended text: Homer, Iliad, (translated by R Latimore), University of Chicago Press, 2011

Speaker biography

Professor Chris Mackie is Professor of Public Scholarship at La Trobe University. He studied Latin and Greek at the University of Newcastle (NSW), and then wrote his PhD at the University of Glasgow on Vergil's Aeneid. He has written widely on Roman and Greek topics, especially Vergil, Homer and Greek mythology. More recently he has developed interests in the Gallipoli/Dardenelles region through time, and in classical reception studies. After working at the University of New England (NSW) for two years, he was at the University of Melbourne for 24 years. He joined La Trobe University in 2010.

The info is here: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/events/all/homers-Iliad2 - so it isn't really in depth the full Iliad, but more like an Iliad overview, but still at least I will get to know the people involved.

I found a copy at the used bookstore (sadly not at the library), and I am just starting the intro part. Meanwhile I also picked up the book In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman. I read a review, or it won an award, and it was on the shelf at the library.

This Monday I hope to see Best of Enemies, Dope and Wolfpack at Cinema Nova. I also have a lot of dvds from the library AND I still don't know where we will live after Sept 12. Oh and we are going to Brisbane Sept 4-7. So I feel like I'll be pretty busy for the month of Sept. Also tickets to Betrayal and Antigone.

I had forgotten just how all consuming the festival is - just getting the NYT xword puzzle done is a huge challenge
(don't want to break my 40 day streak!). I get to the end of a film and I have to decide which has priority - the bathroom, getting something to drink, getting something to eat, or getting to the next place to get in a queue to get a decent seat, ok, to get my favorite seat, which also happens to be the favorite seat of some other people. You get to know the people that like to sit in the same basic area. I have seen 46 films so far. Some of my current favorites- lots of documentaries

Snow Monkey - a documentary about making a film w the children of Jalalabad, I think George Gittoes
is amazing, must try to see more of his films, and learn more about what he is doing, he is
sort of an artist without borders.

The Pearl Button - about the coastline of Chile, the indigenous people of Chile, the water, the sea, also about modern
Chile history and how the sea was used to bury victims of state murders

Peggy Guggenheim - Art Addict - now I need to go to Venice to visit her museum. What a fascinating woman.
what a great eye she has for art. Married to Max Ernst! lovers w Samuel Beckett. And recognized the art of Jackson Pollack and many others

The Look of Silence - somehow I missed the first film in the theatre (Act of Killing) and this is a companion piece,
but also stands on its own. About the killings in Indonesia of a million "communists" in 1965, about how those men are still in power, about the US involvement in those killings.

Mavis - wow, Mavis Staples, what a woman, what a voice! it was good to have a lighter doc.

In the meantime, I was also looking for housing and we found another temp place, this time until Sept 12. So I can stop looking for a little bit. This time we are at Rathdowne and Park, basically North Carlton. There is a library nearby, though I don't have the right card for it, but I will still go there and read books and newspapers. Melbourne might be about to have a transit strike. We are also still freezing cold. There are a lot of cafes in this town, but it is somehow a challenge to find really warm cafes.

Finished All the Light We Cannot See. It was good. Also read Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast, which was very good. Have been seeing Japanese films on Weds night by Mikio Naruse and on Monday I saw Woman in Gold and Wild Tales. I'm back in my Melbourne routine of 3 water aerobics classes, cheap movies on Monday and art house films on Weds night. And the rest of the time running errands, doing chores and reading books. Saw a NT Live (filmed in London) play - Man and Superman by GB Shaw, I thought it was great and Ralph Fiennes was amazing.

I finally restored my back up of the stolen laptop and the Time Machine backup program worked great. So happy to see all my photos. Charles and I are now sharing one laptop. He is back to going to work on a short term job until October. We have been living in the downtown/cbd/free tram district for a month and on Monday we move to Northcote. Also seeing Jessica Hopper being interviewed Monday night.

Melbourne is still freezing cold. I picked my 40 films for the film festival which starts July 31 and goes until Aug 16.

Had a great time in all three cities. Everything worked out so well. It was great to be w my mom and Dad, it was great to learn my way around two new cities and revisit Budapest and see things I had not seen before. It was great hanging out w my sister and her family - they were so much fun to do new things with. I think we will go to Szechenyi Baths every time we go to Budapest. I also loved the river cruise provided by commuter ferry going up and down the Danube. We ate some fantastic food and all the langos and goose liver I possibly could.

Now we are back in Melbourne and bouncing around airbnbs and apartment sublets. Looking for a house sharing situation, but apparently people in their 20s don't want to live with people in their 50s!! shocking.I am getting to explore new neighborhoods, which is great. We are set until July 20th, but looking for a place takes up quite a bit of time. I haven't quite gotten back to any of my routines except for Weds night films at Cinematheque.

I feel a bit adrift, not sure if we are staying in Melbourne, though we probably are. It was a little hard to come back to winter after the sunlight and warmth of summer.

http://zenhabits.net/the-time/

"Many of us can point to external conditions that get in the way of being present (some problem on our minds), or that get in the way of being happy and content. But actually, the things that are stopping us are all inside us. We can’t let go of problems and be present. We are frustrated with ourselves, with others, with our situation, with the way the world is, and we can’t let go of wishing they were different."

I would just add that you can do things that move you in the direction you want to go, while still being happy and content. It is the difference between wishing the taxes were already done or wishing I didn't have to do them OR saying, ok they aren't done, I will do one step today on the taxes. They are what they are, you can still choose happiness.

I also heard a podcast by a guy who was on the airplane that landed on the Hudson. He said it made everything very clear to him.

In other news we are moving tomorrow and after 6 months in one place I would say we have about 6 boxes of stuff more than we moved in with and it is almost all kitchen stuff. We are moving to an airbnb for a month, then Europe for 3 weeks then we will look for a new apt. So no address for awhile. The post office form said is this move temporary or permanent, isn't everything temporary? Such a deep question really. But if it is temporary, they want an end date, but I don't have that. My email address is more permanent than any place. I will also note the current world does not really accept no phone number as an answer.

Australia takes its holidays seriously - most things will be closed on Good Friday and on something called "Easter Monday", luckily my favorite coffee place is open every single day, so there is always someplace you can go.

Today I went to a free concert in a church, beautiful music including pieces from Jesus Christ Superstar and Eric Clapton. I really enjoyed it - one of the people that likes to sit in the same place during the cinematheque mentioned it to me. It is so nice to have the freedom to just do something without any advance planning. He mentioned it Weds night and then I went on Thurs at 1 pm.

We are watching Melville films at Cinematheque - I just saw Un Flic and Le Silence De La Mer. Melbourne loves films - it was pretty much sold out in a huge movie theater. I also saw Leviathan, which was excellent, but you need a high tolerance for things are bad and then they get worse. I'm seeing Beckett's Endgame tonight and going to a seder tomorrow night. I'm really appreciative that the swim teacher at the city baths guessed that I'm jewish AND invited me to her seder. I do hope it is my family's version of quick and fast seder, but I am happy to be included, such a touching thing to do. I just bought 3 kgs of ocean trout, which Charles is going to cook for the dinner. Hope I'm not the youngest one at the seder!

My mind is swirling with the fact that we are probably moving (still in Melbourne) and our trip to Helsinki and Berlin and Budapest. I'm loving the NYT crossword puzzle app on my ipad. So far I have a 3 day streak, Mon-Tues-Weds, but can't make it through Thurs without help.

We leave tomorrow for Adelaide - every March they have a big art/music/theatre festival and I have always wanted to go, and this is the year. We'll see a Beckett play, 4 days of outdoor music and a Danny Elfman concert. Also probably the Bill Viola installations and the art museum.

These are some of the musicians:

http://www.womadelaide.com.au/program

Over the past couple of months I have been falling in love w Melbourne again. The city baths/gym is a beautiful heritage building a block from my house. I had lots of great books from the library including two art books, one about Adolf Wolfi and another about Dorothy Iannone. I finished H is for Hawk just yesterday so I could return it before leaving. I saw two excellent films - Hard Eight and Boogie Nights last night at Cinematheque, and on Tuesday I went on an art outing to Heide w friends from Cinematheque, to see Arthur Boyd's Bride series:

http://www.heide.com.au/exhibitions/opening-soon/exhibition/arthur-boyd-brides/edate/2014-11-29/eid/593

I see a lot of films - usually two on Monday and one or two on Weds. It is a great city for film.

This is what happens when you stay in one place for awhile. It is very strange. I even have 3 plants, but I am not sure they will survive our absence, we shall see. I can't even remember the last time I have actually owned a plant. There is both comfort and dis-comfort in the not moving. We recently cat/dog sat in a small suburban house, and it was fun for a few days, but it isn't something I crave. Nice pets, happy to give them back.

Tonight we'll go hear kora music by Sidike and Toumani Diabate - we'll probably hear them in Adelaide as well.

It is so much fun to show a visitor a city you love - I had a great time - we went to the Immigration museum, the museum at the State Library, we went to St Ali twice and we went to Supernormal and Cumulus, we went to Proud Mary. Because it was Xmas-Jan6 a few things were closed, but we managed to show off all the joys of Melbourne - the trams, the buses, Vic Market, Emporium. We stayed in Footscray - so we all got to know Footscray better - Plough hotel, 220 bus, Footscray market - for breakfast one morning we had cannoli, vietnamese food and dim sum/yum cha. We had choctops at Cinema Nova. It was great.

Taking care of a three bedroom house, a diabetic cat and an energetic dog is a lot of work! It was a very fair trade though and nice to stay in a space big enough for three people. Plus a place that has everything, and not just two cups, two spoons, like our apartment. I'm glad I tried the Aussie housesitters website. It has been great - fun to try out a new part of the city. Living somewhere is the best way to get to know a place.

This house has a great social kitchen space, good knives and a gas stove.

I finished two books while we were housesitting - I Refuse by Per Petterson, which was pretty good, and Wolf in A White Van, which was interesting, but not ultimately satisfying, but compelling enough to finish. Now I'm reading Lena Dunham's Not That Kind of Girl. I think I enjoyed her tv series more. We tried Black Mirror from BBC tv, but weren't in love with it. The movie we saw was The Imitation Game, which was ok - no surprises, a little to formulaic, but enjoyable, but I'm really sad to hear how much they changed the actual history to fit the Hollywood movie model.

We are coming up on our one year anniversary of being permanent residents of Australia, we're hoping to take the next step soon.

and Brunetti and DOC pizza.

I have 15 books on reserve at the library. I love sitting and reading the weekend book review section and being able to jump online and reserve the book. I'm not even sure I want to read the whole book, I'd just like to browse through it or something. I really do love the library.
Here is my current list:

1. Lighter than my shadow / Katie Green.
2 The plover / Brian Doyle.
3 A bone of fact / David Walsh.
4 Not that kind of girl : a young woman tells you what she's "learned"Dunham.
5 Bad feminist : essays / Roxane Gay.
6 It's not you, geography, it's me / Kristy Chambers.
7 Last day on earth : a portrait of the NIU school shooter / David Vann.
8 What days are for / Robert Dessaix.
9 The unspeakable : and other subjects of discussion / Meghan Daum.
10 Storm Neil Gaiman/Tim Minchin
11 The short and tragic life of Robert Peace : a brilliant young man who left Newark for the Ivy League / Jeff Hobbs.
12 Women in clothes / Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, Leanne Shapton & 639 others ;
13 Wolf in white van / John Darnielle.
14 I refuse / Per Petterson ; translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett.
15 H is for hawk / Helen Macdonald. Active City 6/12/2015

Meanwhile, I still haven't finished Independent People, because I just haven't set aside enough time for reading. Somehow the time just flies by. I'm trying to walk 10k steps a day, which seems to take about 2 hrs. I do really enjoy having the step measuring wristband, mine is jawbone, and it is way more motivating than I ever expected. Once I get a chain of days going, I really hate to break the streak. And I'm still seeing lots of movies. This morning I saw a free documentary about Gaultier - every Weds in Dec the museum is have a free documentary. And then on Monday I saw Pride and Finding Vivian Maier - movies that are usually $18 are only $6 on Mondays - so, such a bargain. And playing scrabble online. And going on free museum tours - last week I was just in time for a tour at the Australian branch of NGV and it turns out I was the only one interested, so I got my own private tour. I might go back tomorrow for a tour of their featured artist Emily Floyd: http://thedesignfiles.net/2014/05/interview-emily-floyd/

Tonight is the last night of Cinematheque until Feb (I think Melbourne closes up over xmas) - last week we saw two very good films directed by Becker - Touchez pas au Grisbi and Le Trou - I recommend them both. This week is another film by Becker about Modigliani, but it'll be hard to be better than last week.

Over xmas and new year I'm going to be cat/dog sitting in Footscray. I'm looking forward to hanging out w the pets and yet having the freedom to just leave when it is over.

well I think a month flew by with trips to Sydney and Perth and endless errands involved with moving into an apartment that is only furnished w the basic pieces of furniture and not the 1000 other things you need.

I'm loving the films in this city. On Monday I saw Winter Sleep and it is long, but worth every minute, esp if you like relationships between flawed people. I've also seen two good Wenders films - Paris, Texas and Kings of the Road.

It isn't too warm here yet, but we are getting daylight until 8 pm, which I love. Hopefully I will get back in the habit of posting here.

There is so much to enjoy in Melbourne. This week I walked across the University of Melbourne campus several times. I went to the Percy Grainger museum, which is small, but fascinating. I also went to the Dax museum which specializes in Art as a process in healing. It has a small library with a collection of books about Art Brut/Art Therapy/Outsider Art. I've been to the North Melbourne library and the City library.

We are planning our next two trips - first in Sept we are taking a train to Adelaide, then the train up to Darwin, sleep there one night, and then take the train back. In October, we'll do the same thing, but going to Perth, stay a night and come back to Adelaide, and then back to Melbourne. So lots and lots of time on a train. Hope I like it.

I'm reading a book I like a lot - it is so good that I want to read it very slowly. here is a quote - if you like this, you might like the book:

"“Shortly afterwards it started raining, very innocently at first, but the sky was packed tight with cloud and gradually the drops grew bigger and heavier, until it was autumn’s dismal rain that was falling—rain that seemed to fill the entire world with its leaden beat, rain suggestive in its dreariness of everlasting waterfalls between the planets, rain that thatched the heavens with drabness and brooded oppressively over the whole countryside, like a disease, strong in the power of its flat, unvarying monotony, its smothering heaviness, its cold, unrelenting cruelty. Smoothly, smoothly it fell, over the whole shire, over the fallen marsh grass, over the troubled lake, the iron-grey gravel flats, the sombre mountain above the croft, smudging out every prospect."

Independent People by Halldor Laxness. I plan on taking it on the train with me and I actually bought a real hold in your hand paper version.

Also coming up in the next few months - Pat Metheny and Joan Armatrading - not together, but we have tickets to see both concerts. And there are all the films that I didn't get to see at the Melb Intl Film Festival. Also we saw some great films by Jan Svankmajer. Also I stopped by the Australian film archive and they set up a vhs tape of Cop It Sweet which I was having a hard time finding anywhere - it is about the police force that works in Redfern. On netflix I watched a documentary about Tomi Ungerer, which was fascinating.

I tried a fitbit out and liked it, and now I'm trying the jawbone up and I like it too, so my mornings are often devoted to getting to 10,000 steps. I walked home from Charles' workplace and it was only 4000 steps! I'm seeing a lot of the city. It has been great to live so close to the victorian market. We've been eating lots of tongue and cauliflower and good eggs poached. I'm trying to get rid of more stuff to try and make moving easier. We don't know yet where we will be living next, though it looks like Melbourne for the next few months.

I loved the film festival, but it really consumed the whole day combined w aqua aerobics and walking, there was not any room for anything else. Several times I was confused about what day it was or where I was suppose to be. It all worked out great. And then the day after the festival was over we moved to the other side of town. I packed everything in the morning, picked up the keys, and then moved suitcase by suitcase in the trams. Takes 2 trams to get to our new place from our old place. I was done by 4 pm - we are up to 6 suitcases now and 2 boxes - must purge.

Now we are in North Melbourne on the 57 tram line. A more interesting neighborhood, but not as good for trams as the last place. We're doing this one through airbnb and the flat has a lot more personality than the corporate apts do. We are also happy to have a gas stove and the apt stays warmer than our last one. I like being able to shop at the Vic Market. Melbourne is such an easy city to walk around. We are busy enjoying all the good coffee Melbourne has to offer - several new places that weren't here 3 years ago. Also coming up in the next couple of months - concerts by Pat Metheny and Joan Armatrading.

I'm trying to read all the magazines I have so I can give them away, but also being distracted by good library books. Film festival ended on Sunday night, and it took until Thursday before I was ready to see a movie again. Hope to see Fell tonight at ACMI. This city is so good for film.

We just moved from Brisbane to Melbourne by campervan and it was a great trip. Everything went really well. We did not have to decide ahead of time where we were going to stop for the night. Around 4 pm every day we found the closest caravan park and paid for an unpowered site which was about $25 - for that you get the use of an open air kitchen, complete w electricity and use of the showers and toilets. It became clear that lots and lots of people caravan around Australia, often pulling a caravan, or driving an RV, or even camping out in tents. I am very happy with our choice - it wasn't too big to drive and it had everything we needed - a little stove, a cooler that you plug in while you drive, plates/utensils/pots/pans. It was a Jucy crib and at night it transforms into a bed inside. We were a little cold the first night, but after that we wore long underwear and we were warm enough. It comes w sheets/blankets/pillows/towels - you really are self sufficient, except you need to stop and use bathrooms, which was fine by me. It has a sink and 10 liters of water. and a dvd player that we didn't use.

http://www.jucy.com.au/vehicles/jucy-crib-long.aspx

We did not drive at night due to kangaroos and I was very happy with that decision. We never hit anything, but two birds flew into the side of the vehicle, one of them a galah. We were sad about that, but there was no avoiding it. They even tell you w kangaroos that you are not suppose to swerve, because things can get much worse, but I was very happy to not have that happen. We slept in Goondiwindi, Dubbo and Hay. We fixed a lunch at a rest stop using leftovers we had from Brisbane, we also went out a lot and actually had some decent meals, though we were both sick of pub food by the end of the trip.

Even though we don't have much stuff, we still had to arrange it just so every night in order to clear out enough space for the bed, but we fit it all in. We are very happy to have our pressure cooker w us, and our first meal at our new place was goat leg, mashed cauliflower and black eyed peas all made in the pressure cooker.

I'm very excited to be in Melbourne. My library card still worked after being gone for 2 years! I've already borrowed 8 books, and been to the library twice - yesterday I just happened on a zine making event and bought a great zine about gentrification in Oakland! who would've guessed I would find that here. And then there was a concert with Javanese singing and instrument playing. I love the City Library. Charles borrowed a beautiful cookbook called Oaxaca al Gusto by Diana Kennedy.

Tonight we are going to a play by Brecht called The Good Person of Szechuan. I'm planning out all my films for the Intl Film Festival. This city is well within our comfort zone.

Now that we are all settled in - great apartment, good location - we are on the move again. Current move date is July 4 - just found out a couple of days ago. Current plan is to rent a vehicle and drive from Brisbane to Melbourne. That way we can take the coffee grinder and the pressure cooker. Maybe even the kimchee and the wok! We could get down to 2 suitcases, but since the move is within Australia, we might as well take the things that we would just buy again, which is a lot of the kitchen stuff, that would never make the weight limit of flying.

Once we get to Melbourne we will probably start looking for our own apartment, probably in Footscray (I've been reading this blog for years - http://footscrayfoodblog.blogspot.com.au/ )

We have found so much wonderful stuff in Brisbane - my favorite bakery: Brewbakers, my favorite movie theatres: Palace cinemas, great movies at the art museum, water aerobics in Spring Hill - so much that I will miss. Also I will miss the great view we have of the river. I had finally sorted out my favorite fruit&veg stand, and a good butcher, and a few fancy grocery stores. And the best beer location. But then again, Melbourne is one of our favorite cities and they have zines, art, great theatre, trams, and really good coffee

Recently I went to a hidden museum - the MacArthur museum. I didn't even know that there were once 100,000 US troops in Brisbane. They landed at Brett's Wharf - the same place Charles gets off the ferry when he takes the ferry to work! I sat and touched the same desk that MacArthur sat at. I learned there were 64 raids on Darwin by the Japanese, 250 deaths.

I'm going to start trying to get ready for the move -purge stuff, finish my library books, reserve a car/campervan, and cancel July plans.

I can tell we are in Melbourne! First day back we went out for a fantastic Sardinian lunch at Da Noi and then that evening we went and heard Herbie Hancock. Also in that same day we stopped at a gourmet chocolate shop and at a store specializing in beer so we could get the 8wired beer that we both like. And we had breakfast at 3 bags full the great cafe in our building.And Charles roasted coffee so we could have coffee at home the next day.

Today I am going to go see the movie Carlos, and then I hope to make a little raven zine - Charles laid out 2 pages of cards, 8 on each page and I hope to print it double sided and cut and staple it into a little zine - we'll see. I have a dentist appt this week and an appt to get a Victorian Drivers license - we'll see how it goes. I hang my art on thurs, opening is on Friday - I'll be surprised if all five panels fit into this show, but I'll take them all over there. We also hope to eat at Attica if they have any available bookings.

This is the show:
http://www.atlargegallery.com/upcoming/freshman-mixer-group-show/

Current Location: Melbourne
Current Music: raven calls

A perfect Melbourne day - riding the trams around town. I went to Sticky and bought lots of
wonderful zines. As soon as I left I sat down and read Kingdom by the Sea all about visiting Janet
Frame's house and the town she lived in. I love Janet Frame, and then I found at the end the zine
is by Vanessa Berry. I have always enjoyed the zines she writes, and it was fun to like this one
even before I knew it was her, like a surprise ending.

Then I read the zine Ladybeard 2 and I liked that one too.I also bought
Brainscan
Love Letters to Monsters
Living in A Dying World
haldana
A Series of Slights
Tick My Box
Invincible Summer
Culture Slut

Then I went to the Anna Schwartz gallery and saw small cast iron figures by Antony Gormley.
I had seen some photos and thought they would be life size, but they are small. They are made of cast
iron, that looks rusty and are made of squares and rectangles and they are people in different
postures and it is amazing how much emotion they convey just in body language!

http://www.annaschwartzgallery.com/works/exhibitions?artist=5&year=&exhibition=367&work=12901&page=1&future=&projects=¤t=1&c=m

Then I went to Brunetti and had a ricotta and sultana cheesecake with a shortbread crust and
an italian arcianta rosso soda. And then came home on the tram.

Current Location: Melbourne

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Entries tagged with melbourne

Travels

sharehouse

Carlton

too many books

movies, books, and the Iliad

Melbourne International Film Festival part2

reading, moving and watching movies

Helsinki/Berlin/Budapest

Moving

moving and travel and holidays

the days go by

the festive season 2014/2015

Melbourne

apartment

Melbourne

Packing and moving without travelling!

moving/travelling

life is change - Brisbane to Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne

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December 2018

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