we are children of the nineties

This weekend I sat by a lake with eight others of roughly the same age, and turned 25 as we sang along to the smashing pumpkins, spice girls, ace of base and alanis morisette. We still remembered every word.

We communed with nature, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer and red wine in the mud. Wearing polyester blankets patterned in leopard print. We made new friends and ate chinese takeaway in the middle of a tiny town, deserted at 10pm but for a few hangers on at the pokies.

We talked about Kurt Cobain, 2 Pac and Biggie. We rowed in Kayaks on another lake, our iPods and portable speakers splashed with water but continuing to play incredibly offensive gangster rap. (We turned it off when we realised how many children we were sharing the lake with).

We spent hundreds of dollars, on beer, breakfast, barbecue supplies. We feasted on sandwiches and easter eggs in the middle of the night and powerade and golden pash the next morning. We got lost on the way there and the way home, but we got back to the city in time for the unfortunate few who had to work.

peas and other things

I love eating frozen peas straight out of the freezer! Another really good thing to do is to smash them with broad beans and pop them on some toasted ciabatta with a wodge of mozzarella. Another thing I feel like eating is ravioli. Like, really good hand-made ravioli from Maria Pia's, covered in sage butter. Dripping in it. I could also go a giant American hot dog, with onions and mustard, cheese, and a medium-to-low quality sausage in the middle. Yesterday I ate the rest of the Gouda that Lou gave me while making a lemon and asparagus risotto, and that was pretty good. I would like some lamb, marinated for hours and cooked on a barbecue. A cheeseburger from a fish and chip shop, cooked on a grill. I had Cocoa Pops for breakfast. I wasn't allowed them when I was little but I figured "Hey! I'm a grown up! I can eat whatever I want!". Take that, Mum. We bought the most incredible honey-cured streaky bacon from the Kerikeri farmers' market on the weekend, it made my fingers smell delicious. The market also had beautiful orange juice - or perhaps a mix of orange and tangerine - which we actually kept a secret from our friends waiting for us back at the bach so we would not have to share. Corn fritters with fresh mozzarella. Vietnamese salad with mint and lemongrass. Mushroom lasagne with bechamel and no tomato. Pizza blanco with Gorgonzola, prosciutto and big basil leaves. 

happy australia day

Hope those of you in Australia have a lovely, sunny day throwing shrimp on the barbie tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to doing as many of these things as possible:

Sleep sleep sleep, I have about a week of late nights and early mornings to make up for.
Go to the pools
Sip on Pimms cups or gin and campari in the sun
Going to the garden shop, and spending some time working in the garden, not just lying around next to it
Cleaning my room (eek, I'm not too hopeful about this actually happening)
Having an early night!

xx

back, though not yet back in business

Hello again, happy 2010?

My lovely Summer break is finished and while Han has another week of holidays she's back in NZ now too.... So I suppose some things might start happening around here again soon.

I think the part of my brain that forms sentences may have melted and poured out of my ears sometime during the hottest night ever, so for now I will leave you with these pretty pretty 'balloons' from Clementine Henrion and some random highlights of the past few weeks...

We danced in the rain on rooftops, we read by pools slathered in sunscreen, we wore hats and little else, we ate ham and cheese croissants, ham and cheese toasted sandwiches, and drank bloody marys, we drank gin from a bucket and beer from plastic cups, we watched bats fly over audrey hepburn and dozed as she searched for "cat, cat", we walked, and trammed, and taxied. We found The Worst Dress (which shan't be mentioned again), and bought too many books, rowed boats, danced on rocks and saw lions roar. So far it has been an excellent Summer.

merry christmas baby

Bye all, see you next year!

Han and I are going to be seeing eachother In Person in less than a week and I will probably be too busy stomping around Melbourne in cloggish heels with her to sit down with the internet.

Have a lovely lovely holiday x x x

ps Here's a song...

1970s / 1900s

Darling Han is coming to visit Melbourne Very Soon and I had the best idea this morning for a fun, slightly random, away from the city but still inexpensive activity today: a Picnic at Hanging Rock!

(That's us obviously)

Tea party at hanging rock! With a man who slightly resembles a grumpy Donald

Our picnic will probably involve less tea and more quencher (pictured here as 'non-descript alcohol'), and boys in jaunty pants if we're lucky

we will take ipods

Picnic at Hanging Rock1 by Lou1 featuring Miss Selfridge

Items in this set:
VINTAGE COLLECTION Peach Crystal Pleated Dress, $185
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN KL06F04 CREAM SILK -, 540 GBP
High Neck Ruffle Top, $38
Petites Cream Crop Blouse, 28 GBP
Leather Combat Boots, 415 GBP

If you didn't already know (gasp!), Picnic at Hanging rock is the name of a book written in the 60s about a group of school girls in 1900 who vanish during a Valentine's Day picnic at the site of an enormous rock formation. The rock formation featured in the story, Hanging Rock, is an actual geological formation located in Victoria, Australia (thanks Wikipedia). The book was made into a great movie in 1970 which is full of floaty lace dresses and straw boater hats...

hanging rock2 by Lou1 featuring Opening Ceremony shoes

Items in this set:
Chloe Draped silk halterneck gown, $2,338
Stella Mccartney Sheer Organza Silk Blouse, 375 GBP
Free People - Downtown Ruffle Mini Skirt (Nude) - Apparel, $58
Opening Ceremony Suede Bow Front Wedges, 295 GBP
MYPETSQUARE boater hat, 39 AUD

I'm sorry, I just had to put this one in here for it's 'This Guy' potential

hanging rock3 by Lou1 featuring Miss Selfridge

Items in this set:
Nude Lace Crop Top, 25 GBP
Jason Wu Silk-chiffon pleat-knot skirt, $1,105
Halter neck ruched swimsuit, 250 GBP
Two tone wedged ankle boot, 490 GBP
picnic blanket

Side note: The clothesey stuff was totally inspired by this post - thanks Almie, and kind of progressed from Edwardian inspired to slightly more realistic attire for the Melbourne Summer/our tastes to Holy Hell I want those Chloe boots baddd, and that sweet crop top...

PS Thank you thank you han for the Fantastic phone call minutes ago (with operatic office caroling in the background - amazing!)

PPS This idea needs to become a reality, anyone in Melbourne with a car who wants to come/take us, let me know!

next i want to try coachella

This weekend was Incredible.

I drove up to a huge music festival at lunch time on Friday. My friends had arrived early and set up camp in an excellent spot, near the ferris wheel and only moments from the stage and all the fun! I danced and danced. My shoes turned brown. It didn't rain. I wore the same shorts and t shirt for three days, despite having packed plenty of changes. I didn't shower. I drank gin and soda from a water bottle in the afternoon. We made punch. I found everyone I knew who was going without the assistance of cell phones or prior planning...

Highlights:

Friday night: Patrick Wolf - Body glitter, Union Jack overalls, costume changes, feathers, face paint

Saturday morning: Coffee, a brass band marching around the campsite waking people up before getting on stage and playing a cover of Hey Jude.

Saturday afternoon: Kitty, Daisy and Lewis - Gorgeous, multi-talented, teenagers, a harmonica, a banjo, a slide guitar, a double bass, dancing like crazy in the middle of a thousand others doing the twist.

Saturday night: Animal Collective - got lost in the throng and all I could think of was my lovely friends getting engaged to this.

Finding my way to the very front of the crowd just in time for Jarvis Cocker and not moving for four hours.

JARVIS - the man with the moves, trying to think of a way to get over the barrier and throw myself at him.

Trekking to the outdoor cinema for a 2am movie date, and finding that my friends had done the same, despite being sure we would all forget/get lost/not want to leave the music.

Sunday: getting home last night and showering, twice. Putting on an Aesop face mask and hair & scalp mask and watching tv in a big warm sweatshirt.

Other highlights included the incredibly orderly lines for the not-even-disgusting composting toilets, which were consistently full of toilet paper and didn't stink. Pink flamingo cocktails from the bar; when you've been drinking slightly warm beer (or gin, or anything) all day a pink drink with grapefruit juice and crushed ice is exactly what you need. Jerry's Vegie Burgers, they were Amazing. People watching, besides the OTT 'festival outfits' here and there, the odd streaker and occasional bogan, everybody was really, really Good Looking.

The photos are from the Meredith website and their Flickr stream, where they're credited to photographers.

as the weather gets worse...

The last one is my favourite. I can't remember who I took these from in particular, but they are from here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1049625@N22/pool/

pastels, eggs and chocolate

Happy Easter, hooray for long weekends!



Helmut Newton

Kate Kunath
Forgotten the credits for the first two, I'm sorry!