INTERNET PIRATES!!!!!!!
SUP GUYS. Still in Perth! Currently I'm in at the local CHAMBERS, which is the big important place where all the barristers of Perth walk around and have important offices filled with important books and wigs. I think dad's wanting me to do some more book-stacking for him but I've managed to find a wireless internet connection that was unsecured so I've LOCKED ON. BRUHAHA. Hope nobody sees me :|
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FRIDAY MORNING, ON THE PLANE:
First time in I don't know how many years, but I got a row of three seats on the plane over to Perth all to myself. SO GOOD. I only got two hours' sleep last night so I was hoping I would just sleep on the plane, but then the Lake House was on and I really wanted to watch it T_T it was lovely, by the way! A bit romance-predictable and Keanu can't really do romantic lead very well but I do love Sandra. Sorry, it's like a disease.
I went and saw Josh Pyke at the Zoo last night! Met up with ferntree there, also my 43t BFF Ange and her boy Da...mian? Mien? ne? Can't remember; how awful of me. The gig was quite wonderful, must say! Jen Cloher was supporting, which I was also glad of, because I went to see her headliner back in June except it was a lame night, and a sardines venue, and we ended up leaving after only five or so songs because Em and I were both like, T_T. But last night she was very engaging and the Zoo had a great, mellow crowd and life was pretty great. A few photos can be seen here because I am too lazy to resize them all for lj all over again. And am making a big effort to use my flickr account more, now that I have gone Flickr Pro. Oooooh.
This week and a bit in Perth should be interesting, I think. It's funny... I'm on the plane, over halfway there, and I STILL don't really feel like I'm going on holidays. To Perth. I'm probably going to walk around for the first couple of hours going *_*. The two hours sleep last night isn't going to help either, I can tell. Do you want to know why I only got two hours' sleep? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. Jellyfish was up on the roof. And I feel like the worst mother ever because at 3:30am I gave up on trying to coax her down and went to bed for a precious two hours' sleep. I TRIED TO GET HER DOWN, I REALLY DID. I've managed to drag her down before; there's one point of the roof where I can just reach the guttering if I'm standing on a chair, and she gets close enough for me to grab a hold of a paw (this has to be done quickly and stealthily because she is skittish at the best of times) and grab her down. I don't know if I was too tired last night to be superfast or what but nothing worked. I shook her food. I walked the perimeter of the house. I contemplated crawling onto a not very stable-looking window ledge. I had to give up. For all I know she was still up there this morning at 5:30am when we left for the airport. If she is dead when I come home I may just jump off the roof, myself.
ON THAT BRIGHT NOTE; here is what I want to do while in Perth!
* Ride ponies! Well, okay, they're horses. WHO CARES!
* Work on my novel.
* Do lunch with my dad in the city at LEAST twice.
* Actually explore Perth for once! This will be the third or fourth time I've been over there and I've never actually explored it because it's always just been "going to dad's place", not "going to Perth, the capital city of Western Australia!"
I think those are probably the only main objectives I have. Hopefully one day I can get out to Cottesloe and eat that amazing lychee sorbet I had back at Christmas. Okay, that'll do me for now. Only two and a half hours of flying left. T_T
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MONDAY MORNING, IN PERTH:
Now it is Monday, around 10am WA time which is noon my time. Dad's at work today, he's got a trial on that he couldn't divert. Stepmother is absent for a couple of hours. She doesn't work any more, she's just a lady of luxury so she's around the house all the time when she's not off socialising or whatever. This is possibly the main reason I want to get out and see more of Perth while I'm here... so I can see less of her. It's a cunning plan.
Okay, here is my weekend recap. I got into Perth at around 11am and was met at the airport by stepmother as dad was still at work. Came back to dad's place and I promptly crashed into a nap until 4:30pm. IT. WAS. INCREDIBLE. Maybe, in fact, the best nap I have ever experienced. Dad woke me up then with a wet washcloth in the face. He thinks he's pretty funny, can you tell?
We went down to the yards and loaded Conrad, dad's horse, into the horse float, then hit the road and ended up in Wondecla four hours later. Wondecla's about a twenty-minute drive out of Kojonup. Yeah... it was dry, dusty, and there was no mobile phone coverage. But there were ponies everywhere. It was pretty cold, I wasn't expecting that. We found a parking/camping spot and unloaded Conrad then went over and found dad's team, the Foothills players. Ended up going to bed pretty early because I was stuffed. Guess where bed was? Back of the horse float. It was one better than dad, who slept on a mattress on the cold, hard ground outside.
On Saturday dad's team had a 9am game and then a 12:30pm game. I think. Yeah, that sounds right. A game consists of six chukkas, and each team has two sets of three players that play alternating chukkas. A chukka lasts for only six minutes, I think, but it's full-on with galloping and crazy racket-smacking and it's fantastic. The Foothills team won both games by a fairly impressive margin and that meant they'd qualified for the B-grade final on Sunday. Saturday night was spent sitting around and drinking and then waiting for dinner and then eating dinner. It was all very rural and any time anyone asked me what I did for a living, I didn't feel so retarded saying that I worked for a fertiliser company.
Sunday was pretty much the same as Saturday, except it was finals. Foothills won both D-grade and B-grade finals. Apparently it was the best carnival they'd had in a while. I decided to take all credit, saying that my presence brought luck with it. Dad was all for that but I don't know if any of the others agreed... ANYWAY, we were packed up and on our way back to Perth by 3:30pm and had Conrad unloaded back at home by 7pm. So tired and aching. Actually I've made it sound like I didn't do much but watch the games. Let me correct that; I was playing strapper for dad all weekend. This is what I would do: get Conrad from his stall, plait his tail up, saddle up (leg bandages, saddle, bridle and all fiddly things concerned), follow dad over to the playing field with spare racket, drink bottle and wet towel, watch dad's chukkas (his three played first, third and fifth chukka) and during the alternate chukka I'd walk Conrad out (it's best to keep the horses moving when they're due back out on the field), then after the game ended I'd take Conrad back to the float and unsaddle, take him over to the watering station and hose him down, back to his stall to scrape off excess water, rug him up and let him go. I think all three times I ended up wearing more of the water than Con did. I also got constantly headbutted, especially when walking him out. Once he got me right in the stomach and almost winded me. It was pretty funny once I realised that I wasn't injured.
So that's what I did. I LOVED IT, BTW. But was suitably stuffed by Sunday night. We ate dinner while watching HIDALGO, which turned out to be fitting. Ponies and ponies. A full ponied weekend, you might say. And now it's Monday. I don't have any transport and there's not much to do here so here I am, writing an lj entry into a notepad window. Let me stop this nonsense right now.
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TUESDAY AFTERNOON, AKA RIGHT NOW, DAD'S OFFICE:
And that's all I got written while hanging around at home. Yesterday dad worked from home in the morning and then in the afternoon we went for a ride! :D! Except that mid-way through I had this crazy dizzy spell that could have possibly been an anxiety attack and it wasn't very cool. However, I didn't fall off the horse. HEY FW... LOOK AT THIS PHOTO. I PROMISED, RIGHT. HAHAHAHA. Fantastic. Yeah... that's about it. Not sure what's planned for tomorrow or Friday, but Saturday and Sunday we'll be at another polocrosse carnival (home ground this time! FOOTHILLS FTW) and then Monday, bumming around until 5pm and then it's time to jump the plane home. Pretty sure I won't have such comfortable seating on the trip home. Looking at the time of the flight, I'm sure I'll be joined by rows and rows of businessmen or something. Sad face. OKAY THAT'S MY STORY FOR NOW!
FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER:
Current DVD to Watch: Err.
Current Movie to Watch: I want to see Children of Men, damnit.
Current Actor to Watch: I JUST DON'T HAVE ONE THIS MONTH, OKAY.
Current Music to Hear: Still digging Sarah Blasko's new one!
Current Book to Read: I have bought two in the last week, Life of Pi by Yann Martel and also Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. Currently a quarter of the way through the former.
Current LJ Friend to Love: I MISS YOU pastelity T_T
Current pastime to commit to: I don't have one of these either right now. OH WAIT HOW ABOUT RENAMING/LABELLING SOME MP3S? That'll do.
Current song to sing: I JUST HEARD "LIFE IN THE FAST LANE" AND NOW IT'S STUCK IN MY HEAD
Current food: Sushi sushi sushi. Had bad sushi for lunch. Want good sushi. :(
Current drink: I just had this wonderful green tea plus peach/pear juice. I WANT MORE!
I have to share this. On the drive out to polocrosse the other night, I took control of the stereo and put on my cover songs playlist from my iPod. Dad was so confused. First song that he recognised was the Bens covering the Divinyls' I Touch Myself. "WHAT... THIS ISN'T THEIR SONG!" He exclaimed, quite loudly. I tried to explain cover songs. "BUT THEY STOLE THIS SONG. IT'S NOT THEIRS." Sometimes dad doesn't listen when other people talk. He got over it for a few minutes but then Adam Green and Ben Kweller's cover of Kokomo came on, which he also recognised. "IT'S ANOTHER THIEF. IS THIS THE SAME PERSON. THEY'VE STOLEN THIS SONG. THIS IS THE BEACH BOYS' SONG. THEY DID IT BETTER TOO. WHY DO THESE PEOPLE STEAL THESE SONGS." You know what, guys? Parents just don't understand.
Not my dad, anyway.