hand delivered treats
Big Day Out was fun - I love music and festivals! We took it pretty easy, actually, just wandered about the grounds, but it was good. John Butler Trio was the highlight for sure. Mike volunteered to go hang out in the beer gardens while Jade and I ventured up closer to the stage (like that was a huge sacrifice for him to make... o_O ) and so she and I just rocked out and loved the vibe. JBT are seriously one of the best bands I've ever seen live, absolutely fantastic. It's made even better by the fact that the 3 of them obviously LOVE what they're doing. Nice. It was slightly marred by a handful of incredible douchey dudes, who were just being obnoxious and annoying everyone around them. Jade said something to the douchiest in the group and I seriously thought he was going to punch her. Not cool. But I smooth talked then moved us away from them, crisis averted.
Tool was also amazing, of course. Deftones put on a solid set, if a bit boring. Birds of Tokyo were great. A bunch of bands that I wanted to see overlapped each other so we only caught a few songs of Washington, Sia and Angus & Julia Stone, but all 3 were absolutely fantastic. Best newly discovered band was "The Naked & Famous." A band from NZ who were fun and talented and really great. Ironically the last song they played is on a commercial (for Strongbow) that keeps playing on tv, and every time I saw it I wanted to know who the band was. I like it when The Universe hand delivers little treats.
Friday before BDO we went out with some of our new Perth friends: Chris, Nick, their lovely ladies Camilla and Karyna, and their friend Camby. Nick brought Maclean a button down shirt and dress shoes to wear, he looked completely unlike himself and Nick couldn't stop laughing. It wasn't the most ideal outfit, but I liked how he looked in a nice shirt and nice shoes - it should happen more. We had some drinks in our tiny apartment then met the girls in town for some more bevvies and some dancing. I was wearing my tiger faux fur shirt and knee high boots with my tiny shorts... it garnered me a fair bit of attention. *grin* I mostly deflected it, but it's nice to be noticed, and appreciated.
We ate souvlaki pitas before returning home, Maclean wasn't tooooo rowdy (I pawned him off on Chris for most of the night just to be on the safe side) and shockingly I didn't feel too bad the next day. Nice.
The week was pretty chill, hit the beach a few times, Jade worked some, Mike and I took advantage of the alone time to take advantage of each other.. Maclean and I also made a little day trip out to Rottnest Island. It was kind of cool. We biked around (in 35C blazing sun!!) snorkeled, swam, climbed a lighthouse, took photos with some ridiculously cute Quokkas.. It was a good day.
Thursday we had to get out of our apartment so Jade and I spent the night in a hostel in Cottesloe. It was fairly uneventful. The hostel was pretty cool and it felt good to be among travelers again, but man are we ever antisocial! I feel like I should work on that, but I simply don't have the energy - and often I just don't care. Not sure if I'm getting old and lazy or if I've always been this lame. Hmm.
Friday Chris drove us and his friend Bec down to Dunborough (near Margaret River) to stay at his mum's place. The countryside in south WA is absolutely gorgeous. It's wine country and we took advantage of the wineries on Saturday, checking out 3 different ones and a brewery for lunch. Definitely fun. Except by the time we got home I had a splitting headache that degenerated to the point of migraine. I couldn't do anything about it and felt lame for being such a bummer. I went to bed at like 8pm while everyone else ate cheese, crackers, and olives and consumed more wine in the beautiful living area upstairs. I don't know what was wrong with me. The wine perhaps, but I drank a lot of water and ate a bunch of food.... Totally lame.
The house was AMAZING. All modern with walls made of sliding windows, polished concrete floors, and an incredible open concept kitchen. Love love loved it. Chris's mom was pretty amazing too. Total hippie! Lol! She was wearing a long, brightly coloured dress that showed off her obviously fake (but still spectacular) boobs and a body that was surprisingly fit for a 50+ lady. She greeted everyone with kisses and every third word out of her mouth is "dahling," she's priceless. When she met Mike she grasped his face between both of her hands and gushed about the colour of his beard. Awesome. She's totally into health and alternative everything, which of course is right up my alley. We had a few conversations about food and health and such. She introduced me to "Life Force" - a nutritional drink from the States which actually looks and sounds amazing, so I'm going to try and get my hands on some when I get back to Canada.
We hit the beach a couple of times, drove around the countryside gazing out at the gorgeous vegetation and trying to spot kangaroos (Mike saw about 50, the rest of us didn't see any..) We cooked food and drank wine and had good conversation. It was fun!
A minor bump in the road was when Jade didn't get her paycheque and had a meltdown. It's stressful not having any money and relying on other people to pay for everything, not that Mike or I really mind. She had a little cry fest that made me really sad, because she hates her job, feels like she's wasting time and wasting her life by being here in Australia, is having a hard time hanging out with a couple constantly and feeling like a third wheel..... Not cool. I totally understand but there's nothing I could do about it. We're contemplating changing our plans again though and going back to Thailand - neither of us really wants to stay here, especially since it's soooooooo bloody expensive. It will be interesting to see where the next few weeks take us.
Tool was also amazing, of course. Deftones put on a solid set, if a bit boring. Birds of Tokyo were great. A bunch of bands that I wanted to see overlapped each other so we only caught a few songs of Washington, Sia and Angus & Julia Stone, but all 3 were absolutely fantastic. Best newly discovered band was "The Naked & Famous." A band from NZ who were fun and talented and really great. Ironically the last song they played is on a commercial (for Strongbow) that keeps playing on tv, and every time I saw it I wanted to know who the band was. I like it when The Universe hand delivers little treats.
Friday before BDO we went out with some of our new Perth friends: Chris, Nick, their lovely ladies Camilla and Karyna, and their friend Camby. Nick brought Maclean a button down shirt and dress shoes to wear, he looked completely unlike himself and Nick couldn't stop laughing. It wasn't the most ideal outfit, but I liked how he looked in a nice shirt and nice shoes - it should happen more. We had some drinks in our tiny apartment then met the girls in town for some more bevvies and some dancing. I was wearing my tiger faux fur shirt and knee high boots with my tiny shorts... it garnered me a fair bit of attention. *grin* I mostly deflected it, but it's nice to be noticed, and appreciated.
We ate souvlaki pitas before returning home, Maclean wasn't tooooo rowdy (I pawned him off on Chris for most of the night just to be on the safe side) and shockingly I didn't feel too bad the next day. Nice.
The week was pretty chill, hit the beach a few times, Jade worked some, Mike and I took advantage of the alone time to take advantage of each other.. Maclean and I also made a little day trip out to Rottnest Island. It was kind of cool. We biked around (in 35C blazing sun!!) snorkeled, swam, climbed a lighthouse, took photos with some ridiculously cute Quokkas.. It was a good day.
Thursday we had to get out of our apartment so Jade and I spent the night in a hostel in Cottesloe. It was fairly uneventful. The hostel was pretty cool and it felt good to be among travelers again, but man are we ever antisocial! I feel like I should work on that, but I simply don't have the energy - and often I just don't care. Not sure if I'm getting old and lazy or if I've always been this lame. Hmm.
Friday Chris drove us and his friend Bec down to Dunborough (near Margaret River) to stay at his mum's place. The countryside in south WA is absolutely gorgeous. It's wine country and we took advantage of the wineries on Saturday, checking out 3 different ones and a brewery for lunch. Definitely fun. Except by the time we got home I had a splitting headache that degenerated to the point of migraine. I couldn't do anything about it and felt lame for being such a bummer. I went to bed at like 8pm while everyone else ate cheese, crackers, and olives and consumed more wine in the beautiful living area upstairs. I don't know what was wrong with me. The wine perhaps, but I drank a lot of water and ate a bunch of food.... Totally lame.
The house was AMAZING. All modern with walls made of sliding windows, polished concrete floors, and an incredible open concept kitchen. Love love loved it. Chris's mom was pretty amazing too. Total hippie! Lol! She was wearing a long, brightly coloured dress that showed off her obviously fake (but still spectacular) boobs and a body that was surprisingly fit for a 50+ lady. She greeted everyone with kisses and every third word out of her mouth is "dahling," she's priceless. When she met Mike she grasped his face between both of her hands and gushed about the colour of his beard. Awesome. She's totally into health and alternative everything, which of course is right up my alley. We had a few conversations about food and health and such. She introduced me to "Life Force" - a nutritional drink from the States which actually looks and sounds amazing, so I'm going to try and get my hands on some when I get back to Canada.
We hit the beach a couple of times, drove around the countryside gazing out at the gorgeous vegetation and trying to spot kangaroos (Mike saw about 50, the rest of us didn't see any..) We cooked food and drank wine and had good conversation. It was fun!
A minor bump in the road was when Jade didn't get her paycheque and had a meltdown. It's stressful not having any money and relying on other people to pay for everything, not that Mike or I really mind. She had a little cry fest that made me really sad, because she hates her job, feels like she's wasting time and wasting her life by being here in Australia, is having a hard time hanging out with a couple constantly and feeling like a third wheel..... Not cool. I totally understand but there's nothing I could do about it. We're contemplating changing our plans again though and going back to Thailand - neither of us really wants to stay here, especially since it's soooooooo bloody expensive. It will be interesting to see where the next few weeks take us.