Once more a nomad...

I have once more become a nomad and moved out of 41 Bennett Street yesterday, although not far, as I am literally around the corner from the North Fitzroy crew. Last week after more house hunting, Marta decided to become my estate agent and phoned her friend Matt, who lives round the corner and we went round for tea. Yay! A decent flat, close to the tram, one lovely cat called Molly, and Matt who is a lawyer / musician. My room is small but rent is super cheap so I am saving loads of cash for travelling.

Australia day dawned brightly and Ram and I set off for Ikea in Richmond - I did not know what I was getting myself into and if it wasn't for Ram's moral support I would have run out screaming and would have happily slept of the floor for the next two months. They have designed the store as a maze so you are literally trapped in there for hours. I almost killed some brats in the kitchen department when they decided to set off all the egg timers, forcing the 20 babies in the near vacinity to start screaming and their parents were totally oblivious. Other brats blocked the isles screaming at their parents because ther were no toys to play with. We eventually made it to the self service warehouse, were you collect your furniture which you have chosen from one of the desplay areas, when someone stoll my trolly with my coded piece of paper! Sob! I couldn't face it, but it was propably because Ram and I had taken a break and were racing down desserted warehouse isles on our other trolly! Oh well, I eventually found some one to help me and then just gave up and grabbed a futon. Much easier and lighter. After finally paying for everything and escaping 3 hours later, I was ready to take up smoking, hypoglucimic and dazed by sunshine after all the flourencent lighting. Needless to say we had to go out for a drink that evening and unsuccessfully attempted to celebrate Australia day by finding some berry palvova icecream.

Yesterday was moving day, which consisted of three of us carrying my things round to St Georges St, Tally carrying my bed base in her shopping trolly and me with my matress on my sholder. We were accosted by an Aussie shelia, in a sweat pants suit, with paroxided hair, swigging brandy and cola from a tin and walking a maltese poodle. She shouted at us from across the road, demanding to know where the blokes were to carry my stuff. Well the blokes were not needed as Tal and I assembled my bed and sorted everything out and I have blisters on my hands to prove it!

Too much tequila...

Preparations for Bollywood at Bennett St began rather late on Saturday after a lazy lie in - we were all still recovering from the lack of sleep from Thursday evening and Tal's impromptu production on Friday night... After running around in th rain sorcing posters, alcohol etc we wrapped our selves in curtains, decorated the house in candles and rose petals and put on the soundtrack of Monsoon Wedding, praying that no-one caught alight in their 100% rayon outfits.

Well Tally's punch was fantastic (a bit too strong...) and got the party going. Soon there were 100 people in out house all wearing bindis freshly flown in from Syndey, thanks to Greg, our personal shopper and the party had began. Oi va voi it all gets a bit blurry from there but there were people still dancing at 6am in our lounge to Bon Jovi leaping around like maniacs.

Thank God for tomatoe soup, tea and Grey's anatomy to get you over the pain of tequilla and Tal's punch. Ram and I even made rusks!

Bollywood at Bennett Street

Get out your saris and your dancing moves for the party of the year! We are preparing ourselves for a Bollywood party this evening in honour of Ram's return to Aus, Lieu and Marta moving in and my bithday. Thursday was the warm up party and we have been busy all morning buying bangles, movie soundtracks, booze etc. I will be wrapping myself up in a curtain and the outfits are planned. Photos will follow and no doubt a few crazy stories. We are expecting about 150 people and have two djs lined up for the festivities....

Employed but homeless!

The good news is that I'm employed, but I am homeless and have been too depressed by the state of houses to bring myself to write about this horrendous ordeal. Oh, hyperbole for effect! I am not homeless as I am still staying with Tal in her fabulous house, but seriously, I have been into some revolting houses.

The first was dark, so dirty that I didn't want to touch anything and had unidentified organisms growing in the kitchen sink. The frightening thing was that it was owned by a teacher, someone who is meant to be educating young minds about the world (including hygiene) and it was next to a cemetary. The next was a house filled with chain smoking women, and the amount of nicotene which they had exhailed had turned the entire house yellow and the fumes and level of estrogen was so strong, that it was stripping the paint off the walls. The third and most delightful of the lot, was discribed as short to medium term accomodation, all rooms en-suite for interational travellers and it was just down the road. Fantastic! I headed off filled with naive enthusiasm only to be confronted with a hole in a wall filled with retarded, stonned out of the minds (no wonder everyone stays there for a few months, because they have no motivation to crawl out of the sess pit!) with dazed children, half naked, passed out on the chairs. All the rooms are "en-suite" because they share one bathroom in a courtyard and the rooms are dorm rooms, that is if you are able to wade through the crap strewn across the floors to find anything resembling a flea infested matress... I left rather suddenly only to be told that I better book soon as they were filling up fast. Filling up with what, left me shivering in horror and runnning for my life. At one point last we I seriously considered moving in to the Nunnery, wich was clean etc but the nuns wouldn't have me!

Salvation arrived this weekend when I met some fairly normal people and had a drink at the pub on top of the venue where I am going to see Hot Chip (a good sign). I went to see the house today - a beautiful rennovated Victorian terrace house, freshly painted, large rooms, polished floors, a garden minus stinky hippies and only ten minutes walk from work! So, I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I was able to charm Lee and Emma into living with me.

And I started work today. Yes, I have been employed by the Peter Mac Cancer Foundation and am helping them with admin, event organising, raising cash for cancer etc and I will be there for the next three months. Perfect. A small office, lots of happy people all working for a good cause at the hospital. They are a research and specialist cancer treatment hospital and some of their research is very simular to that of some of the companies which Cape Biotech funded, so great to be in a simular environment. The head of the foundation is a South African so he is pleased to have an allie against the Ozzies, and they are all fairly young, except for the ladies who work in the gift and charity shop - I have about three new adopted grannies and Claudi they are already probably knitting something for your baby! - but are very sweet and we administer the funds which they raise.

Tal, Ram and I went to an amazing Mexican restuarant last night, clearly not as good as Greg's Iraqi cuisine, as I do not have pictures, but the freshly made frozen magaritas were delicious. On saturday we went to an evening concert in the park, where we listened to a raggea/latin/allsorts band which were rather good and it reminded me a lot of Kirstnebosch but with bats flying about and possums in the trees around us. Now that my prospects are looking up I promise to post more often! Dratt - Spell check not working again.... Apologies

Back to reality in Melbourne

Happy New Year to you all and I hope you had a fabulous party where ever you may have been around the globe! Judging from most of the photos that I have seen, it seems like most people got into the swing of things and had fun. We had a barbi at the Petrie's house on New Year's eve with a bunch of Greg's frineds, all engineers and very nice people. We then watched the fire works across the harbour and carried on drinking bubbles and dancing at the house. The rest of my time in Sydney was spent visting the zoo, which has resulted in me doing a lot of research into the local wild life, which included spiders much to Tal's dismay. The highlight was went two ring tailed possums came to visit us on New Year's eve - in the middle of our barbi - an a kookaburra having a fight with a magpie and eating lizards!

The koala bears at the zoo were also very sweet.

I also spend time on the beach, exploring some more of the city and museums and spent a day at Sydney University (which is a copy of Edinburgh University), finding out about biotech and the different programs which they offer. It was also good to spend the last two days in New Town as it is a very different area to than of the North Shore. New Town is quite like Melbourne in some ways as there are lost of little shops and small cafes lining the streets, and apart from some really strange ladies trying to chat to me and offer me biscuits (?), and one wanted me to move a cupboard, it seems like a nice side of the city. Spending time with Greg was cool, as he showed my round the city and took me to his favorite resturants, despite mehaving to make him tea while he wrote up his thesis and putting up with his grumpiness. He decided that it would be a good idea to quit drinking coffee on the second day that I was there - I soon put an end to that nonsense because by twelve he was a pain in the neck, was wingeing and the magic pink pills weren't even touching sides. As a result I got bought a freshly made cappachino every morning - just what I need on holiday!

Well I arrived back in Melbourne two days ago feeling rather flu-ish. Thank goodness for Jewish penicillin, as Tal's chicken soup worked miricals and Lieu forcing me to drink ginger "the Vietnamese elixer of life" has made me feel a lot better. After spending yesterday in bed, I ventured out of the house despite the heat today, only to feel like I had entered a boiling hot oven, as I openned the front door (it was still 36 degrees at 11pm last night). Needless to say, the highlight of my day was visiting the frozen food isle in the local supermarket... Tomorrow I will venture further afeild as I head down to Polyester, a music store where I hope to buy tickets to see the Hot Chip, Yo La Tengo and will try to track down some tickets to see the Killers some how! I am very excited!

I am in the process of trying to get my life sorted out at the moment as I need to find some where to stay for the next few months and have begun looking for recruitment agencies and for jobs. Thankfully again, Tal has done this all before and so has been very helpful. I suppose it is back to the real work as I will need some cash before I set off on my next adventure!

Happy Christmas from Sydney

I spent my last evening in Melbourne with Tal exploring the night market in the city. The Victoria Market has a night market once a week around Christmas, where you can wonder around, grab a bite to eat, shop for Christmas presents, have a drink and listen to live music. After the most delicious chicken teriyake and blood orange and granidilla sorbet, Tal and I went exploring the bars of Melbourne. There are literally hundreds of bars tucked into every lane way. We went to Madame Brussels which is on the third floor of a building in the middle of the city and feels like you have walked onto the set of an Outcast music video. The whole bar is done up like a garden, with Astro Turf, a garden path, pergola's and waiters walking around in bow ties. Needless to say that it was a late night and an early start as I headed to Sydney the next morning.


My first day in Sydney was spent exploring around Circular Quays (where the Opera House and the Bridge are, the Rocks as well as the Sydney Museum and the Contemporary Art Gallery. Sydney is very different from Melbourne, and feels more like a city and is very spread out. It is very beautiful though and you are constantly surrounded by amazing views over the water and the bay. After wondering around I headed back to the University, where Greg was running the reactor (poof that he is actually doing a PhD) and learnt a bit about palladium catalysts... we then headed off to the Petrie's house near Manley where we have spent the last few days, relaxing by the pool, walking on the beach and having an amazing holiday.

Tal arrived in Sydney in time to spend Christmas Day with Greg and I, and we were also joined by Greg's flat mate Kurt. After a Jew-friendly Christmas dinner, things started to get very festive with lots of singing and dancing around the house. Boxing Day was spent watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on the cliffs of the Sydney Harbour National Park and then we went for a beautiful walk along Manley to Cabbage Tree Bay in the evening, followed by the most delicious Indian food at one of Greg's favorite restaurants in the city.

More exploring followed today, when we went down to Bondi for lunch and to hang out with Tal and her niece and nephew, who are very sweet and I then took the ferry back to Manley this evening which was beautiful. I can see why people love ferries...
I have decided to head back to Melbourne in the new year as even though Sydney is beautiful, Melbourne will be easier for me to settle into at this point in time and it will be very easy to base myself from there. We are off to the zoo tomorrow and will keep you posted, when I am able to steal Greg's laptop away from him, in between him writing up his thesis!

Exploring the lane ways and the city sites

Melbourne is fantastic and I have spent a bit of time missioning on my own, which is very easy to do as everything is very organised and runs on time... The weather is weird though, on Friday, I left the house and it was 40 degrees, it then got so cold in the city, that I went shopping trying to find a jersey but was unsuccessful. Took the tram home were I bumped into to Tally and went for a drink, and had to run home in the rain! Crowded House were right...

Tal has been able to take me into the city this weekend to explore the lane ways, art galleries, VCA, and the outer areas of Melbourne. The mayor of the city is very into preserving culture in the city, which includes the grafitti in the lanes, installing light boxes, putting masses of cash into the arts and museums, which is amazing. Something South Africa should definitly encourage more, but alas I suppose our cash has to go else where.

The food here is also amazing and I am going the have to start a food diary to remember it all, the tastes and influences. Eating out is relatively cheap and there are hundreds of bars, cafes and resturants lining every street. Many of the areas in the city have local expat communities so there are pockets of italian, greek, asian and vietnamese influenced places. Everything is fresh, sasonal and made to order. And the coffee is always good! Sydney will have to prove itself as having the best coffee in Oz.

Today Tal and I went to Soul Mama in St Kilda, were apart from the some really bad beach party playing shocking music, we had a delicious lunch over looking the sea. Virtually all gluten free and the best thing was the chocolate espresso pot, which I loved, even though I am not a chocolaty person.

I am working off all this food by tackling Tal's garden which is a complete overgrown jungle. I have filled four black bags with weeds so far and have planted a herb garden and some sunflowers for the house. They have a rose bush which is the size of a small tree! I have taken before and after shots so will keep you all posted. Tal lives with really lovely people, Lil who is a Vietnamese, freelance journalist, Miya who is a Polish photographer and Ram who is doing his PhD in human rights law. This make life interesting but they have been very welcoming and we have been hanging out while Tal has been working.

Off to Sydney on Thursday where I will be for Christmas etc! And appologies, spell check is not being my friend...

Hanging out with Tally

For the last two days I have been trying to get over my jetlag and have been exploring Melbourne with Tally. We went to this amazing Moroccan restuaurant last night after a glass of wine and a catch up. The most exciting thing about Melbourne so far is that it is a gluten free friendly city! Everyone here know what I am taking about, they have gluten free alternatives and there are even coeliac bakeries. Mum, if there is one reason i might move to Australia then this may be it!

Today we wondered down Brunswick St which was great, first having breakfast/brunch at the Tin Pot and then off shopping and to the famous Fitzroy Nursery. Here we bought seeds and herbs for Tals garden make-over (my project is to tame the jungle in her back yard) and I am going to apply for a job there if I come back to Melbourne in Januanry as it is a very cool place.

Despite the day being very smoky, due to the north wind which is blowing the smoke from the bushfires into the city, Melbourne is very pretty with lovely houses and beautiful shops. Tal has to work tomorrow, to fund her next project which sounds amazing, so heading off to the big city on my own to explore!

Finally arrived in Oz!

Hey Hey - I have finally arrived in Oz and very happy to be in Melbourne. It's great to be with Tally, despite my extraordinarily long trip and encounters with a number of strange but interesting people. I suppose that most people appear rather strange after not sleeping for 30 hours, and when they haven't slept either...

Thursday was rather frantic as I had a scholarship interview an hour before I had to be at the airport, but I managed to catch my flight and was picked up by Em at the airport. After a whirlwind tour of her garden, with house attached, we headed off to Greenside for a yummy dinner and a crash course in antibiotics. I will now be able to save myself from deli belly and amoebic dysentery thanks to Em's prescription scrawled on the back of the waiter's pad.

I spent Friday, being bossed around by Jack in his shop, having tea with Fran and driving around Joburg trying to find Indi in Cresta of all places. Dinner with the Joburg crew in Melville in the evening and it was great to catch up with Dr Phil, Kenjamin, Kirst, Crazy Cath, Paula etc. Lots of wine, delicious Thai food and a drink at Tokyo Star, but the music was horrendous so we headed for home rather early.

Indi dragged me off for a shopping spree like only India can on Saturday morning. Most of which was spent in downtown Jozi in the Chinese supermarket and fireworks store where we bought presents for the Medics Christmas party happening that afternoon. We finally escaped after buying half of China town and chatting to the shop assistants who were threatening to toy-toy if they were not let off early to go and watch the soccer, only to be caught up in the Pirates/Chiefs taxi jam, a fire at the train station, one body on the road and narrowly missed being killed by a bus driver speeding and talking on his cell phone. Oh, the joys of Africa....

The first leg to Dubai was difficult as I had a man on steroids with the largest biceps I have ever seen sitting next to me and he needed two seats, but we arrived safely at about 4:30 am. You have no idea how many people are shopping in duty free at 5am, though I am sure that the neon lights and them pumping in oxygen has a lot to do with it. But that is the point, as they even pick you up in a golf cart and whisk you off to your boarding gate from duty free if you are too busy swiping your credit card to make your flight. The airport is enormous and the frightening thing is that they are extending it even further.



















I arrived in Singapore only to be accosted by reindeers leeping through banks of orchids, Visa having sponsored Christmas and clearly the gift of giving, 30 degrees and George Michael singing carols.... I quickly fled to the traansit hotel and passout for 12 hours. The next morning I spent drinking coffee in the orchid garden which was beautiful. As I was making my way to me boaring gate I narrowly avoided being killed by the police (who are armed with AK47s, pistols and huge knives), when a group of American tourists flocked around them. "We sure love you alls outfits and your hats are so cute!" The police were not impressed.

Finally arrived in Melborne at 2am on Tuesday morning, having been the only person not over 50 and visiting there greek, cypriot or italian relatives. Did you know that Melbourne has the largest Greek community outside of Athens? Collected my bag and headed to the taxi rank where I was collected by a Somalian, who made me read the map, broke the speed limit and spoke on his cell phone. So you see, Australia isn't so different from Africa after all!

Rudolf, looking pissed off in the orchids...

Only 3 days left in Cape Town

Can't believe that I only have three days left in Cape Town, as I am running round like a headless chicken trying to get everything done before I go. Spent the afternoon being told that I was going to die from everything under the sun in Asia by the paranoid doctor at the travel clinic. I escaped a R1000 poorer but safe against the ravages of Hepatitis, Typhoid, virilent eColi and Cholera which were out to get me. I even have a cooler box with another dose which I have to take just before I leave. I know, I know - yes I am also a bit of a hypocondriac but I do have a medical kit too...

Thank you to all of you who came to Relish on Friday. It was great to see you all and to say goodbye. For those of you who couldn't make it, you missed out on some damn good mojitos!

Goldfish at Kirstenbosch

Kirstenbosch Concert last
week with my cousins and sisters.