roller derby & melancholia

Tonight I went to Roller Derby at Hordern Pavillion with Dean, Zane, Erin, etc (I was the heterosexual minority which was novel!) - Sydney versus Wollongong Illawara (Sydney thrashed them woo woo woo!). It was my first Roller Derby experience and I had a great time! The rules seem complicated but it's actually quite simple. And there is a lot of shoving - I was quite surprised how violent it was! The best thing about it is the showmanship aspect - all the girls have fun 'skating names' like "Peaches Obscene" and "Babycakes" and "Miss Sin Doll" and "Vindi Vicious" and the style is really burlesque - lots of make-up, minimal clothing, lots of lace and ruffles and tattoos and glitter and showing off.

Now I am home eating beans on toast and watching some awful film called Before Sunrise despite the fact the Ethan Hawke character is grating on my brain (keeps coming out with such cringe-worthy/scientifically disastrous/irrational gems as 'so 10 thousand years ago there were only a million souls, today there are x million, so where did all those extra souls come from, they must be reincarnated'). But it's set in Vienna and the premise is the characters meet on a train and spend the night in Vienna together, walking around. It makes me want to go to Vienna.

I kind of feel like Vienna might be one of those places like Sydney, that are just so close to reaching near perfection as a place to be. Vienna has, for me, almost everything. A beautiful city, beautiful surrounding countryside, great weather (reliably hot, sunny summers and reliably real, cold, snowy winters), low living costs (comparative to most western european capitals), amazing culture and history, great bars and fun nightlife (surprisingly, and something Sydney definitely lacks), plus plenty to fill your days with. It is safe, and quiet, the transport is amazing and everything is just so well run. The only thing it lacks is coastline and good food (austrian food has tendencies to make my insides revolt, rather quickly - it is just meat and stodge! No fish! No vegetables!). Two things that Sydney of course can offer, in abundance.

It is places like these, like Vienna, like Sydney, like Paris, like Melbourne, like Berlin....that make me feel sometimes there is no hope for me in the United Kingdom. But then I think, I have to find something. I have to look really hard and find something there, because I have to live there. This makes me feel a strange mixture of determination, hope, and confused melancholy.

'Now, if you're ready, Oysters dear, we can begin to feed.'

I just made the BEST dinner - thai yellow coconut curry with prawn, red pepper* and pak choi. I love asian greens, I always like to eat them whilst Mark is away as he doesn't like them so much. I like the bitterness and the crunch. I guess I've always liked things like that, cabbage, sprouts etc. Green leafy things as part of a hot meal.

I really don't have that much to report. Stress continues to plague me in various guises - all UK-move-related. But I am calmer today due to a possible step forward on the temporary accommodation front and after a long discussion with one of my staff (Rosie) about Port Stephens and all the things we can do when we go up there in November with Mark's parents. I am planning a lot of swimming, walking, relaxing, whale and dolphin watching, fish eating, and horse riding. Spring break!!!

Since Mark went away I've not been really doing that much, which I'm hoping to change this weekend with at least one proper day out. Last Saturday I got the train to Redfern then walked into Glebe and met Dean at about 10.30am, we visited La Banette, the bakery/patisserie and bought many pastry and cakey and bread based items. La Banette is great - can't believe I've not been before. They do this mini brioche thing stuffed with nutella, omg so nice!!!
We got the bus back to Newtown and dropped the food at Dean's before heading round to Shenkin to drink coffee and milkshakes and eat hommous and falafel and greek salad. Mmmm Shenkin falafel is amazing, and their hommous is pretty much the best ever. Possibly even better than the chile dip from Sultan's Table. We sat for a long long time then went back to Dean's to while away another couple of hours playing with the dogs. Then I walked back down the road to mine and watched the last of my DVDs before I had to take them back to the video shop, the last one being Notting Hill, which was enjoyable enough but Love Actually is SO much better. Then I walked up to the video shop to put my DVDs in the returns chute.

Sunday I woke up feeling a little ill. Lay around feeling sorry for myself for a while but then had a shower and caught the train to Circular Quay for a walk and to take some more photos. Then bought some AMAZING CHEESE from David Jones on the way home. Like mega creamy brie with a blue vein. Oh and also 6 oysters to try to make myself feel healthy. Oh oysters. How I love thee.

'O Oysters,' said the Carpenter,
'You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none --
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.



*Yes, pepper. I may have slipped comfortably into 'eggplant' for aubergine, come around to 'chips' for crisps, and eventually even forced myself to adopt 'lollies' for sweets, I cannot and will not ever bring myself to call a pepper a 'capsicum'.