Biting the Big Apple

There are people waiting for the computer (even at 1.30am- the city that never sleeps), so I'm just going to do a quick run down of my last few days. More embellished blogs later- maybe.

Monday- flying. More flying. More flying. Business class upgrade- woot. Arrival. Walking in Times Square- woah. Hot Dog. Sleeeeeep.

Tuesday- Visited Rockefeller Plaza. Camera batteries died, so I returned to hotel. Yeah, good first day planning :P So I ran errands- picking up broadway tickets, getting subway tickets etc. Collected camera. Got chilli for lunch from a vendor. Took it to Central Park to eat it. Watched squirrels. Hula hooped with a busker (or tried) and am subsequently in a bunch of tourists' photos. Saw the area where John Lennon was shot. Returned to hotel to find my cousin was delayed and not arriving til the next day. Saw 'In The Heights' on Broadway, which was in-fricking-credible (all hip hop and Latin music and dancing. Wow). Trekked out to Chinatown for dinner. It was all asleep. City that never sleeps, my ass. The only food I found was shit. Boo.

Wednesday- Rhiannon arrives in the morning. She is sleepy so I head out alone. Empire State Building- pretty wow. Greenwich Village for Jude Law spotting and New York Pizza- yum. WTC site- not much there. Financial districts- extremely cool buildings, churches, place where Washington was inaugurated. WTC museum. Night bus tour of New York and parts of Brooklyn- Shiny. M&Ms world- chocolatey.

Thursday- New York Public Library- big, marbley, smells like books, not many aliens. Beers in Bryant Park listening to piano. Walk down 42nd Street to the pier. Rain. Lots of rain. Boat cruise to see the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan-from-water - very cool. Learned that the financial district of Manhattan is actually Gotham City!!! Many photos. Hid from rain in crap diner. Wandered Hell's Kitchen a little. More rain. End up in Hell's Kitchen for dinner and drinks at an awesome Turkish restaurant and a cool cocktail bar respectively.

Friday and Saturday (Independence Day) to go and then it's off to Toronto. Hopefuly I'll have a chance to better check out Central Park, Greenwich Village and China Town, explore Harlem, SoHo and Chelsea, and see a museum or two. There's just not enough time!!! IT'S SO BIG!

New York, New York

I'm here! After 28 hours of travel since leaving home, I have been in New York for 3 hours. In this time I have: eaten a hot dog; seen navy dudes; been utterley overwhelmed by the sheer LIGHT of Times Square; walked 42nd Street; 5th Avenue; crossed Madison Avenue; seen the Chrysler Building; and learned that the police station in Times Square has a flashing pink and blue neon sign;

Lapsed

Oh dear, oh dear. It would appear that ocne again I have lapsed in my blogging. I guess I should face the truth- my facebook statuses (stati?) have overtaken blogging in my life. It's a good thing I don't Tweet, or I'd never write on this damn blog.

Anyway, the pattern seems to be that I blog when a) I'm on school holidays or b) I am travelling. And hurrah, very soon I'll be doing both simultaneously. I'm one day into school holidays (woot!) and one day away from overseas travel.

Yes, on a crazy and unaffordable whim I am heading to America. Who would have thought I would EVER go to America, but now that it's imminent I am enormously excited! After an argument/bet with Nick about how cheap flights were (he won), I booked myself flights to visit New York and Toronto (where my cousin is on exchange and my travel friend Dave is soon to be married).

And so, I find myself about 36 hours away from a 23 hour travel stint. And I just cant wait :) Thanks to all of my wonderful friends and family, by the way, who have ensured I have broadway shows and attraction passes prepared, and lots of exciting experiences to look forward to it. I'M GOING TO NEW YORK!!

NerdFighters Google Verb Meme

• Naomi needs vagabondspirit.typepad.com
• Naomi looks like something you’d see on Batman’s utility belt: its sides are curved inwards.
• Naomi says She Loves Posh.
• Naomi wants A Brazilian Baby.
• Naomi does Frugal.
• Naomi hates Humans.
• Naomi asks lover for pounds; EXCLUSIVE: MODEL DEMANDS PAY-OFF.
• Naomi likes to screw.
• Naomi eats Puffs.
• Naomi wears Nicole's hand-me-downs.
• Naomi was arrested for injecting Snake with FOXDIE, and placed in an undetermined maximum security facility.
• Naomi loves taking odd pictures of herself pictures from birthdays.

Get yours by going here: http://www.roborg.co.uk/google-verb-meme/

(The weird thing is, I HATE snakes, I think Batman is way cooler than superman, and I take lots of photos. Is this coincidence???)

2008 in quiz

Quiz Stolen from Sarah's blog :)

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Ummmm... was Head of a Faculty. Taught VCE. Got paid for summer holidays (well, part thereof, it turns out). Bollywood dancing. Pilates. 

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 
I didn't make any in 2008, as I feared it would lead to disappointment. Pushed to Resolve for 2009, I am aiming to do One Unscheduled Social Activity per week.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My cousins Amber and Nadine. My lovely friends Felicity and Dale (gosh, was that only in the last year?!). Several girls I went to school with.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, but my friend Sarah lost her mum :(

5. What countries did you visit?
Erm, none. Although at times, Preston seems quite other-worldly...

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More live music. And - stealing it from Sarah- More travel. 

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
No day really etched. All a pretty good blur.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Surviving school- between Samaritan and Head of Drama at Donny, it was a pretty challenging year!

9. What was your biggest failure?
Sorting and cleaning. Ha.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Apart from fainting after giving blood and ending up in Emergency, it was just standard flu and such.

11. What was the best thing you bought in 2008?
My replacement i-pod, probably. Cos the old one was left on a plane. Oops.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Nick's awesome film work :) My sister, for quitting her crappy abusive real estate job

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
My sister's old boss??? And the Catholic Education Office.

14. Did you go to any weddings?
Yes, quite a few! Alle and Mick, Kat and Michael, Annie and Andrew.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Holidays! New jobs. Seeing Nick's film (and hearing my voice) in a real life cinema.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

Anything by MGMT.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
---happier or sadder? Hard to say. Last year had lots of awesome travel, but this year was consistently mostly-happy
---thinner or heavier? heavier :P
---richer or poorer? About the same. 

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Danced. Even though I've danced so much more than before. Seen live music and theatre.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stressed. 

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Xmas Eve Day with Nick and his sister making pieragi. Xms Eve Night at Dad's bbq-ing. Xmas Day with one family, Boxing Day with another set of family. Good times.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Same same (mwah)

22. Were you rejected by anyone?
No. Everyone loves me!!! :P

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Life on Mars. Not that I've seen all of it.

24. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?
Apart from the Catholic Education Office? No.

25. What was the best book you read?
The Wife of Martin Guerre was good, as was The Doll's House, but they were both for school. Wicked. It was awesome.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Regina Spektor. Vampire Weekend. Little Red.

27. What did you want and get?
A local chocolate store. Lots of awesome wine :)

28. What did you want and did not get?
A moose. Pay for the whole summer holidays. A chocolate factory. Life is so unfair.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Oh, so hard. Perhaps No Country for Old Men. Or Sweeney Todd. Definitely Juno.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 
I turned 26, and had a dinner with friends (disappointing food and service but great company) and super delicious cocktails with lots of great folk dropping by.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A chocolate factory.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Be-sloganed in tshirts. Many pinafored.

33. What kept you sane?
Music. Friday night drinks. Nick.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Johnny. Of course.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
The Bill Hensen crap was pretty... crap. Was that last year?

36. Who did you miss?
No-one, caught up with lots and lots of people in 2008 :)

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Any of my fab work buds- Kat, Nik and Mia at Samaritan, and Mel, Dani and Paul at Donny.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Be yourself. It's much less work, and often reaps the best rewards. 

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath

Un/reality

I recently re-watched 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', having received it for Christmas and I realised that all of Kaufman's films are essentially about the same thing: reality, and our perceptions. This doesn't make me love his films any less, but the Great Epiphany just hit me while watching. Think about it: 'Eternal Sunshine' considers reality through the reliability (or lack thereof) of our memories; 'Adaptation' ponders who controls reality, by playing with the idea of the film writer creating the world around him; and 'Being John Malkovich' explores the reality of our own identities. At the same time, Kaufman leaves us wondering how in control we are of those realities, of our own destinies. This is especially clear in 'Eternal Sunshine', where the characters find themselves unconsciously reliving the same lives they sought to leave behind.

The themes of destiny and identity were followed up in another film I saw yesterday, 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'. Nick, Paul and I went to the Nova to see 'Frost/Nixon' on the cheap, but sadly it was sold out. We took the gamble on 'VCB' (Woody Allen can be such a risk!) and happily it paid off. This film was shot SO beautifully (I found myself wandering off the story at times, so taken was I by a camera angle or sound choice), and made me remember just how much I loved Barcelona. It follows two young women on holiday, exploring different ideas of love and 'what they want'. I loved the way the script juxtaposed the ideas of creative spontaneity and sensible stability and found both lacking and tinged with regret and uncertainty. A really clever and worthwhile film, and strangely uplifting, despite the bittersweet feeling with which the characters leave.

We did also see 'Frost/Nixon', by the way. Yup, over four hours of film in one day- we are HARDCORE. Completely different to 'VCB', but 'Frost/ Nixon' was also an excellent film and again had me considering different realities. For me, born in the early 80s, this film focuses on an essentially historical event. There's no personal connection, but I wonder how the film would have effected me had I been old enough to have lived through these events? I think the enormity of such a moment escapes a younger audience, and causes us a completely different experience of the film. I also wondered about the unreal image we have of public figures, and how the disconnection from them as a human being makes it so much easier to vilify them, and hunger for the 'kill', so to speak. 'Frost/Nixon' (and presumably the interviews themselves) were incredibly humanising of Nixon, and left me feeling undeniably sympathetic. I'd love to know whether older Americans found themselves moved (by the film or the interview), having felt a much closer to the subject matter. I imagine the whole affair would exist in a completely different reality for them.

Creeping on up

Oh look, reports are finished ( in fact, term is finished) and I haven't yet blogged. Oops. I think facebook actually makes me very lazy about blogging, as I figure with a status update I have kept people in the loop that is my life. 

And so, here we are; almost Christmas, which means almost the end of the year. My final weeks of school were so hectic (reports, followed by senior transition, followed by junior transition, followed by packing and relocating my desk, followed by celebrating the end of term) that I've barely had time to keep up with things winding down. And now Christmas peers over my shoulder. Where'd you come from?

The best part about the end of this year is that, for the first time ever, I am being paid for Summer Holidays. Honestly, it makes them SO much more exciting. Having the time to sit and read, or watch movies, or drink coffee, or even CLEAN is given that little bit of extra lustre through being a financed activity. In fact, these are my first Work Free Summer Holidays in TEN YEARS.

Here are my planned holiday activities. (I wish I could put tick boxes next to each item and mark them off as I do them)

- Read the following books for school purposes: "Dinner at the homesick restaurant"; "The Bridge to Wiseman's Cove"; "Shogun"; various stuff on Japanese religions/ shinto/ buddhism/ confucianism.

- Read some other books for pleasure.

- Watch the following films for school purposes: "Witness"; "Look Both Ways"; "Spirited Away/ extra features"; "Tuck Everlasting".

- Watch lots of old films I have been meaning to see for years.

- Use up some of my free movie vouchers :)

- Watch all the rest of Buffy and Angel DVDs I've borrowed from Rami

- Dance lots

- Take up kickboxing (again) or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Or pilates (again)

- Catch up with lots of people :)

- Give blood

- Cook lots of yummy food and give dinner parties

Yeah, sounds doable. Wow. I love holidays.