catty goes to america.. again!

we've just booked our trip to the west coast of the US of A tonight. i am so excited i'm beyond words cos guess what? guess where we're staying when we go to Vegas? *drum roll*

... THE Bellagio....


*squeals with excitement!*

times like this i thank the universe that hotels in Europe are massively over priced. Cos when you compare The Bellagio to an average 3 or 4 star hotel in Europe? well, let's put it this way, it came out cheaper than our hotel for Rome this weekend.

this is going to be the big trip of the year. We're also going to LA (Hollywood!) and San Fran to see my friend Anh, who I've promised and promised and never came... but here I come! And I cannot wait to see her, her two kids and her two dogs! Oh, and Johnny, her hubby :)

oh, and this trip is also sorta in celebration for me turning the big three-oh in September. gotta celebrate in style, right?

still here

apologies for lack of blogging over the last week. it's been a hectic week to say the least. been working a couple of nights to meet a deadline and been in a workshop for most of today. i promise i'll be back to tell you all about our wonderfully relaxing, albeit grey and dreary Easter weekend last week!

Ciao.

ps. got a replacement phone - life is swoit again!

pps. watched Twilight again last night (oh don't act so surprised). Got Mags into loving Edward too!

leon

on possibly the first day of uni, i was in class with this guy who i thought was a bit of a tosser, to be honest. one of those class clown types, and when he leaned too far back in his chair i would wish he'd fall over, and inevitably he would, and I would have a bit of a giggle. I was also cursed because this guy had all the same classes as me, lectures and tutorials alike, and there was nothing I could do about it.

so i just went along to class and saw him every single day. eventually, the curse laid on me was so powerful that Leon snaked his way into my life and became one of the largest, most solid and most unshakable parts of my life. He's seen me at my worst. In fact the only other person who has seen me worse is Loreen, and I would have married her if Felix hadn't gotten in the way. But Leon also has, and loves me just the same.

i can almost say I've done the same for him. I've tried to be there for him, from a distance, when he needed me. Sometimes i feel like I'm failing him, but sometimes I feel like the distance has strengthened our friendship. From the northern hemisphere to the south, we still manage to chat almost every single day of the year. That's something, isn't it?

So what a treat it was that Leon came up to Sydney and spent one glorious day with me. We packed a weekend's worth of activities into a day, definitely ate enough for two days (breakfast, then oportos, then laksa, then opera bar, then max brenner, then hurricanes, then lindt cafe! and then i wanted to die..) and watched each others nervous laughters as we both had our second tattoo etched into our skin.











it was an amazing day.

bubbas. everywhere.

as i sit in the airport in Sydney, waaaay too early for my flight to Brisbane, i am confronted with the vicious beast that has been rearing its ugly head at me since i was all but twelve years old. this beast lays dormant most of the time, but occasionally, spurred on by the sweet smell of newborn babies, it surfaces and side swipes me into a blubbering quivering clucky mess of a person.

and my goodness has the beast been well fed since my arrival back in Sydneytown. Not only did I have six brand spankin' new babies to meet, cuddle and drown with kisses, there was also Milo, who is now a toddler (not so much a baby) but still my special, my favourite.

to quickly introduce them, there was Jude, Sarah & Mitch's brand new five-week-old wonder (and little brother of Milo); Keira, Gene & SK's little Korean princess; Linden, Ivan & Monica's chinese buddha of a baby; Alana, Ian & Stef's happy little chicken; and last but very certainly not least there was Lachlan, Babs & Brett's amazing boy... and somewhat the closest thing I have to a nephew. Lachie I just met today, and boy did I not want to let him go. Absolutely devine.





















and I still have chubba bubba Ashleigh to meet!

home is where the heart is

End of week 1.

I landed in Sydney on Sunday evening around 9pm, the perpetual 21 degree air conditioning in the airport disguised what awaited me outside. I flew through immigrations (ah, bless. Caught a flight full of Other passport holders), collected my bag and headed for the door. i dived headfirst into the muggy Sydney evening, and having come from crisp cold London, this was like... I don’t even know how to describe it. It was a little like walking through something solid, wading my way through goo, or maybe like Patrick Swayze in Ghost, where he could walk through something solid, but with a little effort.

In about two tenths of a second, I was drenched from head to toe in sweat, and it didn’t help that i had been on a 22 hour flight, with no showers in between. The BO meter was off the charts. I took deep, wet breaths and trudged on. By the time I got to the cab, I felt like I’d been dunked in the BO ocean, retrieved, and not wrung out very well.

BUT. This isn’t a cranky story. It could have been, had I just landed anywhere else in the world. But I was home. In Sydney. And i could smell it in the air. I AM HOME.

It’s been a week people, and I have fallen back in mad crazy love with the city which in truth, I had never stopped loving anyway. It’s like we’ve renewed our vows. I had the first two days off to play tourist and tour guide, and I wonder, why did I ever leave? This city is perfect in so many ways.

Lazing in the sun at Circular Quay, the ferry to Manly, the beach, the sun, the people, the food, the smells, the freshness of everything.












And lastly, on Wednesday night, a reunion of my pals in Surry Hills...


It actually feels like I never left. I'm even loving being back in the office, seeing everyone, and feeling right at home.

And Ying, if you’re reading this, I’m not even counting sleeps. Are you proud of me?

homeward bound

so. i am homeward bound in a few days, homeward bound the to warm open arms of Australia, for five whole weeks. shouldn't i be completed elated? i should. i know i should. but somehow, i'm not. And if you think it's because i've sprouted a sudden connection with London, please go take your daily meds, i'm not quite that insane yet.

i'm feeling a certain breathless emptiness because... i'm embarrassed to even say this, but because i can't bear to be away from Panu for 5 entire weeks. Do you remember when we were in Sydney and he went away for one week? i died. well, almost. I counted days, hours and minutes and my heart skipped a beat whenever my phone rang... and now, i have to endure this for five times over.

but i do get to see my old friends again. and meet quite a number of new babies (they all seemed to pop into this world in the past 12 months). and two of my close friends from Melbourne are making special trips up just to see me... so I feel blessed... i do. I just have to get over my soppiness. and I will, I promise.

and a certain someone I am dying to see is my little mel, who turned the big three-oh today. Happy birthday, my lovely and I'm sorry I missed it by a mere handful of days. I will see you very soon.

shit ass host of the year

Welcoming us back from our Morocco/Milan trip were three of my most favourite people in the whole world – Mariano, Ita and Andrew. They’d arrived the day before and proceeded to freeze their little tooshes off in London’s subzero ‘big freeze’. I have to say, I win the SAHOTY award hands down. Shit Ass Host Of The Year. Of the frickin' millenium, more like. Not only was I sick the whole time they were here, I made them miss new years eve (they went out, but came home before midnight to count down with me – I know, I totally felt the love!) and then I made them sick too! To return my love, clearly.

I think the whole London trip was jinxed anyhow… Maz completely screwed up their hotel booking, Andrew lost his camera and after relying on the other camera for happy snaps, Ita accidentally deleted all of their photos! So really, it was like London didn’t exist. And me, I was totally not myself… I didn’t take a single photo! I know, can you believe it? I told you I was sick!!

On Monday 5 January, I sent them off at Heathrow, to begin their South American journey… they made their flight to Madrid, but then missed the connecting flight to Cuba. Doh.

I love them much. Can’t wait to see them in March.

In other news, after being sick for four weeks, today I feel mildly human. Touch wood.

my foodie mate

i clearly remember the day i officially met Melissa C. she'd moved to London for work and not knowing anyone, a mutual friend who was here on holidays organised for us to meet up for lunch, because she had an inkling that maybe, just maybe, we would hit it off. Even before I met Mel C, i already knew she was a foodie just like me thanks to her blog (which she needs to re-start again!) and booked us in to a three course lunch to kick start our budding friendship!

from there i would say our friendship more than flourished. it's only been nine months since we met but i can truly say that that girl is a special one. Despite our obvious moral differences (i can openly say fuck and penis, but Mel would rather loofah her tongue than utter those words), our mutual adoration for all things yummy bonded us. We revived the breakunch, squeezed in lunches where we could, and above all else, spent way more than our allocated time at Hummingbird.

mmm.... red velvet and vanilla cake. who will i share them with now?

Man that girl can eat.

Anyway, without dwelling too much on Mel C (or cake)... i guess some times you realise it's not the people who you've known all your life that are your closest friends by default. Sometimes if you let them, special people come into you life. For a day, a week, a year or forever.

Mel is one of the special ones for me. I miss her a lot, though it's only been a week, but with any luck I'll see her again in March next year. We are planning a rendezvous in Sydney... and a visit to none other than Tetsuyas for a true foodie reunion... *wheee*

i'm alive!

holy crap, i didnt realise it had been over a week since my last post! where did the time go?! i can usually blame a lapse this long on an exciting vacation, however this time, i have been here all along, in this misty little freeze pot we call London.

it has been a hectic couple of weeks with beer guzzling visitors from Germany, a familiar face from Newtown, a birthday celebration, a christmas house party and not one but two people close to my heart leaving for Oz...

and amongst the social tizziness brought on by the impending silly season, work has also been tremendously busy, because pre-December, it seemed completely viable to promise deliverables "before Christmas"!

anyway, i was going to blog about Mel C going home, and we've already had three farewell shindigs (involving much food and cake!) but you know what, I think we might just squeeze one more in tomorrow night ~ some Mexican lovin' ~ before she leaves on Wednesday, so i'll divulge details afterwards!

In other news, 8 sleeps til Morocco... and better still 15 sleeps til I see my most favourite Sydney-siders again!

me & my Jo

where do i start? Jo and i met one year long long ago, at a work 'Easter Carvinal Day'. Amidst the stench of farmyard animals, we connected, and happily nurtured our budding friendship at Circular Quay with a cocktail or two or ten. our relationship developed pretty quickly, and before I knew it I was visiting Level 5, wiling away my work hours sitting on Jo's desk, and Jo would brave the impenetrable Level 6 snobbiness and visit me at mine. It was love, platonic, but love.

and then she told me she was moving to London. i felt like my heart was ripped from my chest, an emptiness in my throat. and it was all so sudden... we never did have the farewell lunch at Lindt Cafe that we had planned. Or Max Brenner. Whatever, it involved chocolate.

we stayed in touch intermittently via msn and facebook (God bless) and who knew, but a year and a half later, here i followed Jo to London and we rekindled our much treasured relationship. And now? she is leaving me again, back to the sunny shores of Sydney. DON'T GO JO! You will make London that much more miserable... and I will be empty once again.

*sigh*

Jo never ceases to amaze me. I constantly pinch myself to remind me that she's five years younger than me... her wisdom and maturity far outweighs mine, and she always always makes my day. I have no idea how our strong friendship was built.. I mean, we even share an ex (and how funny was it the night we found out!) and being females, shouldn't we be clawing at each others throats or stealthily deflating each other's wonderbra? Hardly.

I'll miss you Ms Nicholson... and I know you suck at emailing... so here I put all my faith in Faceboook.

halloween!

Friday night was Amanda's farewell from Londontown (sad!) and hey it was also Halloween, so we all got dressed up and headed down to Verve Bar for a few drinkies and some dancin'! Truth be told, not much dancin' actually took place because it was frickin' crowded but there sure were a lot of photos being taken. Witches, monsters, bloody nurses and naughty pussy cats.. just to name a few costumes.. and me? I was meant to be Alex de Large from A Clockwork Orange but I don't think anyone actually realised that!!













More photos here.

In other weekend news, Friday night also saw my Sony Cybershot die a miserable death *sob* the image stabiliser had been on its way out for a while now, not focusing and simply whirring itself into near histeria. This time it carked it for good, so today i am once again a Canon-ite, purchasing the IXUS 870 IS. Canon does feel like home.

Oh, and what good would a post be without some foodie contribution? Yesterday I met Jo for lunch, and the grey, bleak wetness propelled us towards the warmth of Strada for some hot tea. But then, what is hot tea without dessert? So I ordered the scrumptious Panettone Al Forno (bread & butter pudding), while Jo revelled in her Fondante Al Cacao (warm chocolate pudding)... yum...










Gluttony continued well into the evening as Mel C kindly invites us over for some food, which turned out to be a feast-extravaganza!

Babs...

In the early hours of last Thursday morning, Babs gave birth to a little boy... Lachlan Thomas Sutton, weighing in at 3.935kg, who opened his little eyes and looked around the moment he was born.

the strangest thing was that on Wednesday I woke up thinking about Babs, and could not get her out of my mind. I'm not talking about just you know, wondering if she's popped... I was incredibly distracted at work, not able to focus on anything, and had the utmost gut feeling that she was giving birth. So i called her, she didnt pick up (nothing new there)... and I sent her a text to say I was thinking about her... Mags replied that Babs was in labour, about to give birth.

Creeeeepy!

Babs and I go way back. Waaaaaay back, to the days of dance parties and listless gossiping in the university gazebo. We even share an ex-boyfriend, although we'd both rather forget that. We moved to Sydney at the same time, we lived out of each other's pockets... we toiled through hours of wedding invitations... we just were. Babs and I could talk for hours, or not talk for hours, which I loved. To me, she's as good as a sister, one of my best friends...

When I last saw her in Sydney she was 8 months pregnant with little Lachie...

And now she's a mum... I can't believe Babs has a son! It's all I can do to not buy myself a ticket and head home right now to see her.

ciao....

brian and jackson have both been a staple part of my social diet for a long long time, from perth to sydney to london. so it goes without saying that their departure from london makes me a little sad... but i feel safe in the knowledge that we've all known each other for the better part of a decade (or more!), so a few borders shouldn't keep us apart. in fact i look forward to partying with the ol' b-wong in malaysia one day!











trish and fergus on the other hand, i've just met a mere 6 months ago. i've spent a good deal of time getting to know trish and that is one special girl. she's tiny and sweet and has a wealth of maturity and depth beyond her 26 years. we've become good friends, and i hope their leaving won't change that.

the good news is that they are heading to Sydney and by the time we get back, they will be there all set up as a happy family, with a bub in tow *yay*...

more pics..

ps: happy birthday to three of my favourite people in the world! Babs, Mags & Bec... *big kiss*

my mate boonga

Today I walked down the road to the Post Office to send boonga is birthday present. For those who don’t know, we share the same birthday, albeit the fact that he has 3 years and exactly 57 wrinkles on me. I know we’ve only celebrated 2 birthdays together, but the first one was so mind-numbing-stupefyingly amazing that it replaced all birthdays preceding (which isn’t hard) and set the par way high for any upcoming birthdays.

anyway, it’s a bit sad not partying with boonga this birthday, but we always have next year, and the next, and the next until we decide that it just ain’t a cool birthday anymore. But that isn’t going to happen. I know at least 3 more people with the same birthday and we are all cool. Right?

this is probably a good time to give y’all an update on me and my friend boong boong. You probably know about how we met, how we were flung together by incredible forces of nature (known as the mcauleys), how we tried to make this unconventional thing work, our ups and downs, and eventually us parting ways.

it was only after the madness had passed that i discovered what i really had was a friend.

So there really isn't an update. we are now friends, just friends, and the best of those. so i'm eternally sorry to those of you who wanted something raunchy, or at least some gossip. i know the boy aspect of my life was terribly exciting before i became all settled down, but hey, it's exciting now in a different way!

shopping & geography

Mel: "hey, is there FCUK in the UK?"

ahhh, i missed you Mel.. *hugz*

finally!

Loreen and Felix started going out before I even had my first proper boyfriend. They survived the tumultuous transition from high school to university and stayed together through various odd phases of university life, and even odd-er casual jobs. They stayed strong through the turbulent early years of fledgling career-hood, through CA exams, and even the highly stressful move to the top-left end of the world.

All this time, while they stuck together in unity and strength, I was piddling along from one relationship to another, falling in and out of love and crying on Loreen's shoulders more than a few times.

How amazingly lucky they are to have one another in such a profoundly strong relationship.

All I can say is thank goodness for mIrc, for otherwise, these two would never have met!

Congratulations Loreen & Felix, i love you both x

More photos here.

update

time seemed to escape me again, it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post! i'm in dire need of a verbal vomit onto this page but between work, visitors and attempting to be social, i've just run out of minutes.

so here's a brief update on the happenings in the life of catty:

• we had our very first visitor! aaron came, slept on our aerobed and left to follow le tour around France...
• on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, G-Love and friends played an awesome show at Hyde Park... (photos)
• uncle shawn hosted a bbq, where the guests had to build the bbq... (photos)
• we managed to squeeze in Wanted, which i thought was absolutely brilliant! how did James McAvoy get so hot?
• and Erika (who's leaving me!) and I had dinner at a funk-quar Malaysian European restaurant - assam laksa, roti canai... not too shabby!

Penang assam laksa and Roti canai with dhal curry dips











Ikan asam pedas and Aubergine curry

I know, not very European, but they did have rib eye steak on the menu too!

This weekend, tonight in fact, we are off to France again for the much anticipated wedding of Loreen and Felix! They've entrusted us with the task of delivering the celebrant from Paris to the wedding somewhere outside of Paris - big responsibility hey? Let's hope we don't get lost.

no bunny suits..

Loreen had instructed quite clearly that there were to be no strippers. She also instructed in perfect French ("I'm not wearing the fucking bunny suit") that she might not be pleased if she had to wear a bunny suit.

If it were anyone else, literally anyone else, I would have picked up the phone and booked a naked fireman without losing two winks of sleep. But for those of you who don't know Loreen, she is described by her own fiance as "obsessive, compulsive, fierce". And that's an understatement.

So without pushing the issue of the "fucking bunny suit" much further (read: at all), we convinced Loreen to don the cutest set of bunny ears, a little bow tie and the cutest of cute fluffy tail *yay*... how cute does she look??

With the hen appropriately dressed, we headed out for a night of good food, copious amounts of bubbly, and somewhat average music. It was good girly fun, so completely underrated!

More photos here.

Incidentally, we spent the day lazing at the Le Kalon Spa, closed to the public for 6 hours for our private function and it was the most chill-axing day of pampering ever. Highly recommended if you are having a party of about 10 girls.