Grinding Halt

This was yesterday:




I ran errands, went to school and was conscious of my health. I bought stationary (the green with birds is a note book) and then used it. I take one of the little blue pills every day around dinner time for cholesterol and had to add the yellow last night for some back pain that developed while I was doing my usual hour+ on the exercise bike.

Today, more errands.

Easy does it

It was the first day back at school today after over a month off, though that time couldn't be called a holiday considering the rigours of the period. It was actually rather a relief to get back into a routine and receive the next round of assignments.

As of today, I'm in my final semester of a Graduate Diploma of Media Studies, though I believe I take mostly Journalism units. The course is only a year long and I felt it a fitting conclusion to my undergrad work (a BA in English and History), as it has enabled me to hone certain skills I had already developed; such as writing non-fiction with some semblance of style and panache. This semester's assessments will consist of some rudimentary coding (CSS and HTML), blogging and reviews and a couple of essays, so I am quite looking forward to working. I'm hoping this portion of the year won't be plagued with the same stress and issues I had to contend with earlier, if only so that I can get my grade average back up!

Inspired by the weather; teetering on the cusp of Winter and Spring as it is, I decided to transseason-ify a Summer favourite and regretted it later when I found myself sitting on cold metal with no insulating layers!


(I felt a little like foliage!)

I wore:
Dress: recued from Savers
Skivvy: Katies
Boots: Novo
Purple Socks: Equip

because: The dress was for convenience, the skivvy for warmth and the boots for walking (to and from school; so that I can make sure I get time to exercise even when I'm too busy for my usual hour on the exercise bike).

While I have always felt perfectly comfortable in this dress, I have found myself increasingly moving away from loud prints on synthetics (my signature) over the past 7 months and contemplating getting rid of all my old clothes. I think I hold on because of the patterns, though, and uncertainty over how to dress comfortably and stylishly while not looking about 72! That's clearly a question for another blog post, though.

Needles and Pins

I had a quiet day today- reading and cleaning mostly, in anticipation of the start of a new semester of school tomorrow, though I did watch a little TV and do some mending.

I've been a great one for mending since I was a restless 15 or 16 and used to collect my stepfather's work clothes and socks and my younger brothers' jumpers and t-shirts to very crudely patch and darn on cold weekends. It has always seemed to me to be a skill everyone, whether male or female, should have and I have enjoyed watching my stitches become more even and invisible over the years as well as my instictive abiltiy to size up a garment's flaws and fix them improve. Recently, I have started filling in a rather sizeable hole in a pair of my boyfriend's jeans with black velvet.

I picked up my l33t mending abilities during a crafty phase- I had the obligatory knitting week (that never produced much other than a small, roughly triangular thing that was the result of letting others have a go and forgetting to count loops), I made piles of beaded bracelets, customized clothes by ripping or hacking off bits I didn't like and cross-stitched when I had the patience. I think the crafting was born more out of frustration with my situation and impatience to get on with my adult life (those old teenage chestnuts!) than real desire to create, but being able to sew a decent anchoring stitch has stood me in good stead; especially as my collection of vintage clothing and lingerie grew and needed loving maintenance.


I had to replace one internal button and tighten another on this coat (my current favourite; a lovely, warm 80s gem I got for $8 from an op shop) and I plan to accumulate some large, decorative silver ones with coats of arms etc for the front.

I've also been making and burning playlists in the past few hours- another thing I spent considerable time doing as a teenager. A hangover from my OCD and obsessive listing and organising, I've probably made a playlist for every occasion that typically included most of the same songs.

Today's playlist:

Cry For Love- Iggy Pop
Cracked Actor- David Bowie
Moving In Stereo- The Cars
Telephone Lines- ELO
I Want You- KISS
I'm Affected- Ramones
Same Old Scene- Roxy Music
Don't You Give Me No Lip, Child- Sex Pistols
No Feeling (Bootleg)- Sex Pistols
Token of My Love- T.Rex
Psycho Killer ('Stop Making Sense' Version)- Talking Heads
Alternative Ulster- Stiff Little Fingers

Bye Bye Baby

Last night, my boyfriend and I officially farewelled our friend Maggie, who is leaving for Poland in a few days and will probably be leaving Australia for good. Andrew hadn't planned much, but I felt that Maggie's last hours with us should be memorable and decided we should go to Little Creatures Dining Hall - the awesome local HQ for Aussie beer makers Little Creatures - for dinner.

To be quite honest, I've been obsessed with the Dining Hall since I went there for dinner last week and have been planning and scheming to go back as soon as, so hanging out with Maggie for the last time (only for a while, hopefully) seemed a perfect excuse to visit.

As we were coming from Geelong; an hour or so out of Melbourne, we took the train down to spare Andrew the pain of abstaining from one of his favourite beers and consequently, we were able to pick up a ton of American/'foreign' candy on arrival at the station. I must say that I didn't like Twizzlers all that much and Three Musketeers chocolate bars are like our Milky Ways, but I adored Tex bars.

We arrived at Little Creatures hopped up on the imported sugar, only to discover 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' was being projected onto the huge front wall. An ensuing conversation revealed that Andrew and I both had a thing for Willy Wonka a.k.a Gene Wilder: not precisely the sort of thing you want- or expect- to have in common with your boyfriend.

We ate:


Beetroot and feta dip with flat bread and olives (not me, though) and washed it down with Little Creatures Pale Ale (Andrew and Maggie) and Phoenix Organic Cola.


Unbelievably awesome potato, rosemary and mozzarella pizza.


Proscuitto-wrapped prawns (NOM NOM NOM)


Shirtless acrobats (devoured with eyes only!)

And apple and rhubard crumble, the best cheddar I've ever had (as part of a cheese board) and fries with aioli (my hands were too greasy for photos by this point).

After a freezing wait and tram trip back into the CBD that included a mini Peter Andre singalong, we three managed to squeeze into a photobooth for a commemorative strip and made the 11:00 PM train back to Geelong.


(Andrew and Maggie with said strip).

The consensus was that the night was a roaring success :)

Getting to know you...

Back when this blog was merely a twinkle in my eye (don't you just love that turn of phrase?) I made this Polyvore set as inspiration for the artist who was doing the design a.k.a my poor boyfriend. The things in the set were chosen as representations of my style and what I like and I thought Andrew would be easily able to come up with something I'd adore based on it.

He didn't.

We argued and haggled for literally months before he eventually made my matryoshka banner and by that point, I was just relieved to have something I actually related to, rather than something Andrew had come up with and wanted me to use (including, at one point, a brown design with only thin borders for decoration).

In any case, this set is still relevant as a summary of things I find aesthetically pleasing and some concepts/phenomena I find interesting.

Blog idea collage by deplorable_world featuring Chloé boots

P.S: You might be interested to know that I actually own the Bowie t-shirt in the set and was wearing it when I met my boyfriend :)

An Awfully Big Adventure

A while ago, I stumbled across 'An Awfully Big Adventure' searching for Hugh Grant movies on my video shop's catalogue and was quite happy that I did!

The movie is set in post-war Britain and follows Stella- an awkward young girl- as she starts works with a theatre company and learns about the world. It's a great story (which I'm not going to spoil for you!) and visually pretty incredible; lots of wonderful 40s costumes and a few quirky scenes such as a pirates' football game!

Sartorially, I was drawn to Stella's modest outfits which, in keeping with the post-war era and REAL LIFE, were made of the same few revolving pieces like a good woolen coat, a handful of blouses and skirts or slacks and some really pretty dresses.



I found her 'work' outfits unbelieavbly charming:


(I've never seen overalls look so good)

The lady actors of the theatre company had some lovely outfits and I loved their hats in particular:







(yes, the theatre company smokes a lot!)



And Hugh Grant wore some interesting head gear too:



(loves!)

The rich, dark colours of the movie really set the scene for me and really brought a period I'd always thought of as grim and rather dull to life. I was mesmerized by the contrast between Stella's hair and her milky skin, too.

And like all good movies, I want to read the source novel now too!

More pictures can be found at my Flickr.