31/05/2011

Surprise, I've been in NZ. It has been FANTASTIC. Last time I was here it was so rushed that I didn't really get a chance to relax. While this was still very busy, It's been so good to just hang with friends and family. I've spent a lot of time with mum which has been great, she's so amazing and makes me laugh so much. The other day I showed her the "Being a Dickhead's Cool" video and she found ti so funny. This morning I came downstairs to find her listening to it, which was funny, then i realised the song was on repeat with her singing along.  Similarly, I walked into the kitchen another time to hear her rapping to a P!nk song, which includes; "dirty little freaks" "all my underdogs" and other catchy lyrics like "call me up if you a gangster".

Quality.

My mum is the most amazing mum in the world. I talked to my sister about living at home still and she said "You know i'm never moving out, right? Our parents are so funny". Which would probably suit my folks just fine. I'm really very lucky to have my family, we all get on very well and laugh so much when we're together.  It makes me miss them, not in a way that makes me homesick, but in a deep, lasting grateful way where i'm so proud to be a part of that family. Sell family what!

Now i've had a few comments from friends on this blog, mostly along the lines of; (and I quote) "where Catherine whines about being sick, lists whatever medication she is on and tells the world she is going to bed early."

Thanks very much Aimee. At least i don't have to spell my name out loud each time I speak.  I'm pleased to report that, while still being on medication, I have had a number of late nights while being home in NZ.  Granted, i've felt sick a number of times however have not yet felt the need to blog about this experience. I hope you're all happy. I understand that it's probably only Aimee who feels this way, so please let me know, i'm more than happy to explain the insand outs of having a cold in Sydney.

My brother's birthday was on Friday, this time we only had 2 giant cakes and loads of cupcakes to eat, bit slack really.  Mum made some incredible Thai curries which were delicious and inspired me to actually cook in my kitchen, instead of just opening the takeaway containers of Thai food to eat. Plus I got an awesome guitar shaped cheese grater and ninjabread men cutters from Lou and Aimee, so i'll be grating and cutting a lot. Well THAT sounded emo.

Saturday night was Lou's engagement party where I had a kick-ass outfit and had fun being made fun of by Lou's mum (best call ever was when i told her my flight was cancedlled, she replied "you know I didn't think they were taking me seriously when I called them, but I guess it worked"). It was lovely, there was a marquee and fairy lights and it was so so lovely to be there with Lou and Mike as they celebrated.  Plus there were only 2 kids and they left early, so I was happy. In fact, I even stayed up until 1am, so eat that Aimee Brookes! Who knows this because she gave me a ride home!

On Sunday mum and I went up North to see my dad at the new house. He's been working his ass off and it looks amazing, such a cool place and amazing views.  Mum and I did voluntary exercise TWICE, biking and walking on the beach.  We already have great memories up there and it isn't even finished yet.  My favourite was when we went up there with the whole family and Adria and played cricket in the field next door. Tammy kept grabbing the ball and the game stopped for 10 mins while we chased her around trying to get it back.

Spent much of the weekend catching up wtih various friends for a quick (too short) catch up over coffee and food. Makes me miss my friends and family back here. Helped on a soundtrack for Richard's new animated series which was fun, dyed my hair purple, had more singalongs with mum (she got the Glee Warblers soundtrack, it's pretty hilarious, she tries to be the background singers by going 'chigga chigga chigga chigga' to every song. It IS pretty funny).

I should be on a flight to Sydney right now, but my flight was cancelled. They gave me taxi vouchers to get home, it was $140 to get home from the airport. Sucks to be them at peak hour traffic time. My flight's tomorrow night which means I have some time to chill, which i'm really looking forward to. Never been cancelled before. This must be what it feels like to be a bad sitcom. Ouch.

24/05/2011

No updates today.  I realised yesterday that it probably isn't right to publish a 2.5 page long rant about how I feel about children in cafes.

So instead, a NZ joke;  (you need to say this one out loud).

What's a Hindu?
Lays eggs, bro.

21/05/2011

Today I've had so much Vitamin C that i'm just about ready to do a Violet Beauregarde. "Violet, you're turning violet, Violet!". Except fluorescent orange. So drugged up and dried up on Coldral that I have to drink water every 5 minutes. So sick from the Codiene in the Coldral i'm ready to throw up. Life is good.

What the heck is it with new countries? Sure, in India you expect Delhi Belly, but a whole new set of germs to pick up in Sydney isn't something you bank on. Yet, here I am, sick again.

Which also means I won't be going to see my Opera House amazing spectacular clarinet show tomorrow, instead, time in bed. Which i'm actually very much looking forward to.  I just wish I had the original Charlie & the Chocolate Factory on DVD...

"I never had a chance to shine
Never a happy song to sing
But suddenly half the world is mine
What an amazing thing..
'Cos I've got a day in bed tomorrow!
I've got a golden twinkle in my eye!"

End.

20/05/2011

Last night I met up with Naomi, Kyla and her partner, Lew. We went to 'The Nepalese Kitchen" which is worth the hyberbole i'm about to give it. Best. Food. Ever. We had a lot of laughs, so good to see them together, soon Lou will be over here too so all of us uni girls (the ones that started and finished together anyway) will have moved to Sydney. Wish I could say it was my trend-setting, but it wasn't.  Nice work, Kyla! Surry Hills will be my new hang out, I think.

I've been feeling a little off-colour for days, figured it was just being tired, then today...BAM. Sick. I was really gutted as I felt like i was making progress on the machine, plus I had work drinks tonight, then one of my band mates asked me out for a drink, so it could have put my Sydney friend count up again.  I'm prepared for it to drop as Em's thinking of moving to Canberra.  I asked Kyla's boyfriend Lew if he was my friend yet, he declined, so no luck there. So I came home, slept a few hours and am now spending the evening in my pajamas and generally time-wasting. My internet is stuffed so I can't even watch True Blood, so it's finishing a book and perhaps watching "the Runaways", movie about about Joan Jett.  Which is already hard to take seriously as it has the girl from Twilight in it, despite her looking remarkably like Joan Jett, all I see is "I know what you are...you're a vampire".

This weekend i'm seeing my first show at the Opera House, which, sadly, isn't Belle & Sebastian or The Cure (tickets sold out so fast, now they're being scalped at ridiculous prices...reserve $6,000? Really?) but instead something classical or something something. The rumours are that it's clarinet based... I don't really know, my friend couldn't go so I said i'd buy her ticket.  Either way, it'll be fun to actually go to a show inside it, even if it's lame and reminds me of when I played the clarinet when I was 11.

So I have the Coldral and the super sustained release Vitamin C...(not the singer, 'graduation' still makes me sad)...let's go Catherine, Let's go!

17/05/2011

Today, three things happened that were remarkable.

1) I ate a giant Caramel Koala.  It had SO MUCH SUGAR in it that it burned my throat, brought instant nausea and later, a headache. Will I learn my lesson? Probably not.

2) On the bus on the way home from Taylor Square, someone had their music up really loud. Usually it's the cool kids at the back listening to death metal or rap music.  Not today. Today it was Abba. Not kidding. I thought I heard it wrong..."The winner takes it all!!" Nope. I heard right.  I looked around to see if anyone else thought it was strange. Nope. Just me. By the time I got off, it was onto the second Abba song and no-one seemed to notice. Or care. Or both.

3) I went to band practice and it was AWESOME. But what was remarkable was that I didn't get lost once!

Catherine=life.

16/05/2011

Yesterday was so cold. So, so cold. It was so cold that I left the house briefly to go to the closest food place (fried chicken and chips) then didn't leave the house the rest of the day. Because of this, I used what was in my house; I drank coffee and ate toast for the rest of my meals, while not leaving my room, sitting by the heater and doing pretty much nothing.

Today, I was determined to see the sunshine, so Em and I visited Glebe, had coffee, went antiquing and op-shopping (still trying to decorate the house), then came back and are about to have a Sangria creative night- her with art, me with writing and music, eating Thai food and enjoying excellent music.  Sufjan, Passion Pit, Badly Drawn Boy, Beatles, Temper Trap, The Shins, Regina, REM, The National, Mumford & Sons, Jurassic-5, Hendrix,  Artisan Guns, Fleet Foxes,  Bon Iver... it just carries on. LOVE IT.   Music is incredible!! 

Back to work this week, after a plumbing problem and sewerage overlow on Saturday... Good times.

14/05/2011

Ah. A Saturday night, rocking out on my own, eating Thai food, watching True Blood and reading Tina Fey's new book.  You know it's a good book when the first chapter already makes you laugh out loud.  And while, granted, I laugh out loud at my own jokes a lot, when I watch or read something funny, it takes a lot to make me actually lol. Rofling is another story. FTFM.

This week has been really full-on. Learning is really exhausting, especially the full-on training i've had this week.  It's amazing what effort goes into each coffee, each dose, each tamp.  You have to think about EVERYTHING, your stance, posture, the way you hold it, the way you dose, the way you settle it, the way you tamp, the way you click, the way you twist it, the level, the pressure, the cleaning...and this is all before you've even put in in the machine! Not to even add in the setting the grind.  It's meant that i've had little energy this week, learning all of this, as well as setting up, cleaning down (they clean like nowhere else i've been...it's awesome, but feels like i'm in the Army or something) and doing usual cafe management stuff. Phewf! It's meant that I cancelled my plans...and I actually had plans this week.  Good ones at that!

So tomorrow, I plan to get my energy back and prepare for next week, where i'll be a bariSTAR.

I'm feeling good lately. Been writing a lot, poetry, music, songs, it's been good for me. Think I overdid things in NZ, always seeing people and keeping busy, it's so nice to not have so many obligations and to take it easy. I'm grateful for the opportunities I have.

11/05/2011

It's been a while, i've been busy with a number of things and just haven't had the time to write this properly. I've been busy with;

Work. Work is going well, i'm on coffees this week which is pretty full-on.  We do about 14 kgs each day, and i'm doing shots today so it's high pressure and loads of mulit-tasking. I'm not good at multi-tasking first thing in the morning. Come to think of it, i'm not good at much first thing in the morning. Can't wait to be an awesome fast barista, though.

We had a number of work functions last week, the unveiling on a new Machine...the Strada.  It's beautiful and I want one. We also had more work drinks (where work paid for everything again!!) at this amazing place in Newtown called Madame Fling-Flongs.  It's an old school type bar which mismatched old retro couches, lamps and amazing music.  in the first 10 mins we were there they had Sufjan Stevens, Zero 7 and Vampire Weekend on the playlist. Nice. They do movie nights where they put up a projector screen, play movies like "The Breakfast Club" and "Donnie Darko", for $20, where you get wine and tapas. Not bad.
Still enjoying work but it takes up a lot of my time and energy.

Brendan. Brendan came and visited this weekend,  which was awesome.  He's a guy I dated for 2-3 years, we had some time apart to move on and we're recently re-visitng our friendship.  He's a fantasic guy, which makes it hard for my family to move on, who ask about him at every Christmas and even invite him to come along. This facebook post explains it all. 

Josie Tuck who is this brendan fellow.. should I be worried?

Catherine Danger Sell Haha, actually he's the one our family asks about at every Christmas! Unfortunately for our whole family, we're just friends. I'm not sure if mum will ever give up hope that we'll get back together though.

Bernice Sell Yep, Brendan for son-in-law. Damn straight!

Laura Sell Preach it Mumma!

We had great fun being tourists, eating pancakes, seeing bats and dinosaur bones, drinking coffee, eating pizza and Sothern Comfort (which I had never tried before. It was like sugar liquer, I can't believe how sweet it is)!

Music.  I went along to meet some people who have a band i'm possibly joining.  I love the music, despite it being angry and miserable, it's beautiful.  Michael (who writes the songs) has a voice that I think crosses the lead singer of the Smiths with the Lead singer of the National.  I'm going to play the glockenspiel/banjo/percussion/bass/whatever. We're mucking around and it's great fun. We're meeting up again next week and will see how I go.  Either way, they're interesting people, he's an English teacher from the UK who spends his mornings writing scripts, screen plays and music, and teaches the rest of the time.  He has a bird with a fancy name (that i likened to Harry Potter, it's shortened to Ludo).  Not sure how it will go, either way, a great hobby and way to make friends.

Other than that, catching up on Survivor and getting more and more angry with Phillip. Anyone?

3/05/2011

At Cottage Church, we're having a community group night where everyone brings along their favourite song to share and listen to.  It's so, so difficult, I've been thinking about it for 2 weeks, but even so, am finding it hard to narrow it down.

Today I realised that the reason i'm finding it so hard is because each song brings a memory, most of which are associated with people and moments I love.  Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" will always be a song that reminds me of my mum. Anything by Johnny Cash or Brooke Fraser is my sister (except Albertine, which is Aimee, for irrational reasons i'm still a little embarrassed to admit). Jimi Hendrix's "Red House" is Erin, same with anything by Sarah Mclachlan or Joni Mitchell. The Shins "New Slang" is India on the train, staring out of the side door to the speeding world outside. The Smith's are Tara and Richard. Anything by The Beatles is shared by Lou and Mike, as well as Ellie and Em. Anything Disney is Sarah, Carole King and Fleetwood Mac remind me of my dad. Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" is my earlier years, when I wanted it at my funeral, despite the words not meaning anything to me except for the tiny dancer having a 'pirate smile'.

Each of these songs and their corresponding memories are way too hard to narrow down as it feels like i'm betraying the memories by picking a favourite memory. It really made me appreciate music and the way it connects people. By listening to a song I love, I honour that person and that memory. Here's to you.

So, out of a) not being able to choose a song and b) preferring to have far too many favourites, instead i'm choosing a random Brooke Fraser song, not a favourite, but a good one to share, to shamelessly promote NZ music and a songwrite I love and respect. I think it's a good compromise.