A quick one but a cute one

Your too cute Wednesday pick-me-up! Tiny fluffy puppies herding ducklings.

http://holycuteness.com/2012/03/19/puppies-herd-ducklings/

Introducing an old friend: Hello Kitty

My love of Hello Kitty began in around 1993, when I was four years old. It was a red Hello Kitty lunchbox, its accompanying drink bottle long gone. On the side were pictures of Miss Kitty gardening, coaxing tulips out of the earth as sweet birds flew overhead. The lunchbox became the perfect place to store my growing crayon collection. It was portable enough to take from project to project- scribbling on butchers paper on the floor, or practising colouring within the lines in books on the kitchen table.

The love affair lay dormant - surprisingly - during my teenage years. Towards the end of high school, when day trips to the big city became a possibility, my friends and I discovered a little gem of a shop just off Bourke St. It was called Artbox, and it was a haven of all things cute. I made some new friends:

Super Panda

Blue Bear

And of course charming, inexplicable examples of Engrish, which like this one are often sweetly poetic:

So Artbox (sadly no longer open in Melbourne's CBD!) became my go-to place for cutesy stationery- notebooks, erasers and diaries. I was happy with my new friends for a while, but in 2007, my soon-to-be boyfriend Al gave me a Hello Kitty alarm clock as a gift. It was an old-style analog clock with a bell on the top that set off like a fire alarm every day. I soon learned to not use the alarm function, because I was sleeping with it under my pillow to muffle the BRRRRRRR every morning at 6.50am.

For my 18th birthday, one of my best friends Hayley gave me a Hello Kitty toaster, still in use to this day as you can see by the state it's in. I'll call it well loved...

This ingenious appliance etches Hello Kitty's face into each piece of toast. Al doesn't love my toaster, because it does happen to leave some portions of the bread largely uncooked so we have to flip the bread over halfway through the cycle. To get a good clear face in your toast, you need to cook the bejesus out of it.

What the toaster claims to do.

What it really does.

When I moved into my tiny college apartment the following year, Al gave me a Hello Kitty DVD player. It was hot pink, with decals of Hello Kitty and her friends and family wearing 3D glasses on it, and came with a super cute matching remote control.

After this, my Hello Kitty collection began to grow. And only today have I realised that I haven't bought a single item. And no, I am not a shoplifter (my criminal career ended at age three when my attempted theft of an Easter egg was intercepted by the scariest of all law-enforcers... my mum. All of my Hello Kitty goodies have been gifts, which makes them extra special! Here are some of my things:

Hello Kitty playhouse. I may be a little too old for this, but I really, really love it!

Hello Kitty figures can be purchased separately, like this birthday Hello Kitty (pictured with sister Mimmy)

Just hanging out with a snack!

Sailor Hello Kitty!

Strawberry Hello Kitty plush toy. She sits at my dressing table and keeps me company while I do my make up!

I have a few Hello Kitty cups. When my favourite one broke, I was too sad to throw it away, so it now has a second life as a pen and pencil holder!

Hello Kitty Monopoly is the newest addition to my collection. It doesn't make Monopoly gameplay any less brutal, but the properties are named things like 'Playground' and 'Flower Shop', while the train stations have been replaced by 'bicycle' and 'boat'. Darling!

This book is pretty much the guidebook to all things Hello Kitty! Did you know that she is the height of five apples, and the weight of three? Didn't think so, you'd better study up!

Hello Kitty lolly dispensers. Note the lack of lollies. Yum!

And lastly, this is our household phone. My best friend Ericah bought me this for my 22nd birthday last year. My boyfriend is very patient with me, isn't he? These are my favourite items from my collection. I won't bore you with photos of my many other Hello Kitty products: notebooks, diaries, rules, pens, erasers...

Hello Kitty is an anti-consumerist's nightmare. There was no original TV show or comic book. Her entire point of existence is to be plastered all over every kind of product there is, from clothing to USB flash drives, from cotton ball containers to hairbrushes. And while it's healthy to keep consumption at a moderate level (unlike this fan over over here), Hello Kitty does bring a little sunshine into my life! And there's nothing wrong with that.

Han x

Some nostalgia

I was getting a little nostalgic as I went through some old things a few weeks ago, especially when I found this old letter. I sent these handwritten letters (loveheart-dotted 'i's and all) to all my high school girlfriends as school was finishing for the last time. I had always planned to defer from my university place the year after high school, but life had other plans for me. Very suddenly I had to move out of home, leave Central Victoria and my family, and find my feet in the city. This all happened within about four weeks, and I was only seventeen. I wasn't ready to go.

* * *

I suppose that I finally have to admit that The Group's self decided high school reign of superiority has finished. Our era as we know it is coming to a close, and although our best intention is to hold off and avoid our inevitable fate, our futures are pulling us away from what we always wanted. Plans make in our last year of togetherness over out hand-painted watercolour table at school are becoming harder and harder to maintain. Our dreams of eternal years of schoolies-like parties are being replaced by personal ideals of the perfect job, university places, lectures, finding new accommodation, meeting new friends, and finding new love. Some of our ideals are being realised, while some of our original plans are being thrown out of order by new opportunities that were never intended to occur.

Change for some of us puts smiles on our faces, as this was the plan all along, to change. But this word has another meaning for others. Changing is forcing us from our ordered, safe, comforting little worlds where ideally, everything will continue to be. At least until we say that it is alright to adapt.

As much as those of us want to hide in this place, life makes other plans for us and I've begun to understand that no matter how happy we are to live here in our organised, sheltered lives, we can't prolong our stay here any longer than our fate intends.

We've hear one thousand times over that "things change", but from now on, I want to swallow my fear of it and make things change for the better. I'm scared of something that will be a whole new world for me, a whole year too early. I'm scared of losing you and leaving you and I'm scared that my future will be too far from yours.

But I will call you. I will email you. I will visit you. We will always be together, just in a different setting. Things will be different, but we don't have to let The Group go. We have had our years of wonderful experiences.

We'll go to the beach in the summer and make pyramids and take photos. In autumn we'll walk together and laugh about Slush Puppy and Muscular Whore. In winter we'll stay together in an apartment in the city, after our annual Saints vs. Bombers game, and be grateful for our doonas and hot chocolate. In spring we'll come back home and lay in the grass in the Castlemaine Botanic Gardens and be thankful that despite our different and diverse paths, we didn't let our friendship slip away from us. We'll make new friends, but we'll never replace the old ones. We have too much to let go of.

A naughty dog story

The staff at an English animal shelter couldn't work out why their dogs were escaping out of their cages at night and enjoying feasts in the kitchen. They installed hidden cameras and discovered that the culprit was a very clever dog named Red.

Watch the video here.

My mystery flight

The last present in my Christmas stocking was this:

So the clues were: a ferry, a zoo and a hotel... any city coming to mind? Yep, you guessed it!

I'd only been to Sydney once before, and it was only for a weekend. So when we arrived at our gate at Melbourne Airport, I was thrilled to see that I'd see the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and Circular Quay.

Now, I'm not a great flyer, and I do struggle between this and my love of holidays. I had my

Rescue Remedy pastilles packed, alongside my sleep mask (so I can't imagine the plane tilting down)and handkerchiefs and bottled water (to avoid smoke inhalation in an accident). Despite how organised I was, I was still pretty horrified to be warned by the pilot before take off that we would be expecting some rough turbulence during the flight. Thankfully our plane was equipped with television screens and Foxtel. I channel surfed until I found an old episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, and I put my headphones in and focused on Ray, Robert, Deborah and Marie, laughing a little too hard at some of the jokes. The turbulence did kick in, but I was very grateful that it was a short 53 minute flight.

We arrived safely in Sydney, and welcomed the less than 30-second wait for a taxi (that's why you travel at night!). I was happily clueless about where we were heading, so I just enjoyed the adventure. Unlike last time where we had unwittingly booked an apartment in the sticks (and paid a hefty toll fee for each taxi trip across the bridge), I was excited to see that we were travelling right into the heart of Sydney. I recognised a few sights, like the beautiful Queen Victoria Building, and realised that we were staying in my favourite part of the City- The Rocks.

As we unloaded our luggage from the taxi, I looked towards the end of the street to see this:

We were in the perfect place to explore the city, over the road from Circular Quay and . Our hotel was the Russell Hotel, boutique accommodation,

fronted by a lovely little wine bar.

But that wasn't the last surprise for me. We unlocked the room and as I stepped inside, someone else was already there! My friend Benny had flown up from Tasmania for the trip too. Benny and I partner stunted together at Deakin, and you don't get held up in the air by someone and not trust them with your life! It's always so nice to see him.

Fun in the sun with Benny in Broken Hill, 2010

We all woke up feeling refreshed and ready to see the city. While Melbourne was having a disgustingly cold week, Sydney was showing off with clear skies and toasty hot sun. With one more smug look at the Harbour Bridge from the hotel's rooftop garden, we were off.

Oh so smug.

On our first day we walked to the Bridge and admired the view over the stunning harbour. We walked up to the Botanic Gardens, and had a cold drink at the pretty little cafe there. It was like something out of a French film, with delicate little tables and curly-framed chairs. There was even a guy sitting beside us under the shady vines, scribbling words down in a leather-bound notebook. Ridiculously perfect.

We also visited the Museum of Sydney, which for the record, is not Sydney's answer to Melbourne's fantastic museum. We should have visited the Australian Museum, not the Museum of Sydney. It was interesting, though small, with an interesting look at colonial trading, as well as a really entertaining exhibit on Sydney's surfing culture.

 However as we read the information boards throughout the museum, it was hard not to miss the regular comparisons with Melbourne, and that the 2000 Olympic Games really solidified Sydney's status as Australia's greatest city. People from Melbourne don't seem to need to constantly remind visitors that our city is the greatest in Australia, even though it actually is the current most liveable city in the world. Maybe this needs another blog post as I am getting off topic. Main point: Melbourne wins!

That evening we had dinner at the Russell Wine Bar, which was expensive, but the tapas menu had so many delicious options on it. Al and Benny LOVED the coconut king prawns (and still talk about them), and my pick was the buffalo mozzarella. The bar was cosy, with an elegant peacock theme throughout. We sat on wooden stools at a table near the front with a view of the soft sunset outside.

Day two was all about the zoo. We headed down to Circular Quay, and admired the huge cruise liner in the harbour- the Princess Diamond. The ship was so big that she couldn't fit under the Harbour Bridge, because her pool deck was too high.

Still can't really even capture the scale of this ship!

We took a Captain Cook ferry out to Taronga Zoo. The zoo is set in a magnificent spot, on a hill right on the harbour. As you meander your way through the zoo, there are picture-perfect views of that sparkling water. We wobbled off the ferry gangplank and up a ramp to work out our options of how to tackle the steep hill in front of us to get to the zoo's gate.

Super lazy option #1- take a big noisy bus.

Moderately lazy, but with good views option #2- take the chairlift. I have a mortal fear of chairlifts thanks to a chairlift disaster show I saw when I was little that scarred me for life (why did you let me watch it, Mum, why?!), so despite the experience apparently being amazing, this option was out. Which left us with:

Slumming it and walking (option #3). So walk we did. But there was a lovely little lookout on the way up. Benny and I admired the view, while Al got acquainted with the local wildlife:

Though Benny the spider wimp wanted to have it killed.

The zoo was fantastic. The highlight for all of us were the sea-lions. There were two sea-lions near the entrance, one named Miya who had been rescued. Al always says that if he could be any animal, he would be a seal. And watching them glide through the water, twisting around, and almost showing off for us was such a joy to watch. And what was even better was the seal show, which you can see a snippet of here (not my video though). I felt like a little kid, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all the clever tricks and all-round cuteness.

Amazing sea-lion acrobatics

Other highlights of the zoo included the reptile exhibit because I always love gawking at a scary big snake or lizard, and the Tahr from the Himalayas, which was a shaggy goat. There were about twenty of them (including a baby!) standing or sleeping on narrow and precarious ledges on the custom made steep rock formation.

The zoo ended up taking up the entire day, and we were pretty tired by the end!  But not too tired for a delicious proper German pretzel served by girls in cutesy German maid outfits and boys in lederhosen at Lowenbrau. Fun fact: if you want to be meowed at by an elderly man in lederhosen, don't miss this place!

 With the love of my life... and the other love of my life.

That night we watched the Princess Diamond leave the harbour, and went on an adventure through The Rocks to find a Thai restaurant called Sailors Thai. If you visit Sydney, you MUST eat here! We sat on the end of a long, communal table, and we were waited on by a guy who wouldn't stop cracking the sort of jokes that make you a little bit nervous. The food was amazing, all authentic Thai flavours. Unfortunately Al's was a little too spicy for his palette (the guy can't help it, he was raised on meat and three veg). The waiter noticed that Al hadn't really made much headway on his meal and said: "you didn't like the food?". Al, mortified, muttered something about it being too hot for him. Instead of bringing us the bill, the waiter returned from the kitchen with the most delicious coconut ice cream served with fresh mango. He told us that the kitchen staff felt bad about Al's meal and that this dessert was on the house. Amazing. GO TO SAILORS THAI!
I will definitely be returning on my next trip to Sydney.

*Photo credit from Sailors Thai website. 


We spent our last day in Sydney just exploring. I got a lychee ice cream at Circular Quay.

I met Captain Cook there too. I was too shy on my previous trip to ask for a photo, but when he came over for a chat, I knew the Universe was giving me the perfect opportunity.

We enjoyed a ferry ride out to pretty Watson's Bay and strolled along the foreshore beside the picture-perfect cottages.We also walked up to The Gap and watched little yachts navigate the sparkling blue.

Watsons Bay

    

The Gap

Sadly as the sun sank lower in the sky, we knew it was time to take the train back to the airport. Al and I waved Benny off at the Jetstar lounge, and wandered over to our gate (but not before stopping off at the  Victoria's Secret store on the way!) It was sad to say goodbye to Sydney, but this time around I really fell in love with the city. I know I'll be back!

Big sky country

On Christmas Day, Mum, Luke, Al and I went for a walk (with our old dog Tosca of course) to the top corner of the property.

Tosca is about 15 years old. He deserves a post all to himself, but he is a part of this story too. He's pretty blind and deaf now, and he has lost much of his country dog sense. When he used to accompany us on our adventures through the paddocks, we would clamber over the barbed-wire fences with no trouble. Tosca would stalk along the fenceline, and always knew the perfect spot to wriggle under and catch up to us. Nowadays he gets confused because of his eyesight, so it's our job find that perfect spot and peel up the bottom on the fence for him.

They call the American mid-west 'big sky country', and I think it must be just like this. There are always beautiful sunsets back home, and no matter what time of the day it is, it feels like the sky goes on forever. Which I suppose it does.

The sky was extra special on this night, as a storm headed past to wreak some havoc on Melbourne (while missing us completely). We saw lightning on the horizon, and as the sun set lower in the sky, the cranky blue storm clouds softened into pinks and lilacs, and finally a dusty gold.

All these photos are taken by Al, and I want to thank him again for capturing such a beautiful evening.