That’s Stella

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year! This morning I was greeted by ang pow (little red packets with money in them) but I always feel guilty when I take them. Turning 22 this year, it feels wrong to still accept ang pow, but I’ve been told by mum that I stop getting them when I get married so enjoy it whilst it lasts.

I’m having dinner with the folks and family two nights in a row this weekend. Holy crap! It took a lot of cancelling of prior engagements because it slipped my mind that it was this weekend. Same as Australia Day, I’ve been in New York for Chinese New Year for the past couple of years. Last year I walked to Chinatown and spent the day soaking in the rainbow confetti covered streets, following the dragon as it danced into each store off Canal St and buying Chinese groceries and Chinese dumplings and cakes to take home for tea. What a treat. So this year it feels good to spend CNY with my folks. I like Chinese New Year tradition which really just consists of lots of eating and catching up with relos. We went hunting for a duck for dinner tonight. I followed my aunts and uncles to the local park and if you can, imagine 10-15 little Chinese men and women running around with pots and pans and rifles trying to hunt a duck. The ducks really put up a fight and there was a lot of quacking and ruffled feathers, but after an hour we finally caught one.

Oh by the way, I’m kidding about the duck. Mum and I just went to Northbridge and picked the tastiest looking duck hanging by the window. Eating duck really freaks me out. It’s fatty tasting and way too boney. The plum sauce that usually accompanies duck really doesn’t drown out the taste enough for me. Grouse man.

Check out my little video clip of my Chinese New Year last year (and click on Chinatown NYC). The camera work is super dodgy because (as you’ll see) I was a little paranoid the dragon would be dancing up my ass if I didn’t move it on time.

Jack is this buff punky rocker with a lip ring, unruly mop of hair and a permanant look on his face that says “Don’t fuck with me”. But he’s always the first one to wash the dishes at my house. And Racer is this gorgeous blonde with a pretty boy face - the type that wears striped polo shirts with the collar up - Elvis style. Who would ever know they would be best friends? This is what made me laugh on a balmy afternoon by the river at Point Walter.

The boys are swimming in the river.
Jack flinches when a jellyfish touches his leg.
Jack - Wanna eat that jellyfish?
Racer - I will if you will man
Jack - Yeah okay
Jack pulls at a dead jellyfish floating by and it’s tentacle comes off. They’re both closely inspecting their meal, probably deciding whether or not they have the balls to go through with it.
Racer- I’ll take the small piece
Jack - I’ll take the bigger piece then
They put it in their mouth. Moments later they have the same look of disgust on their face and both of them scoops up salty river water to wash down the jellyfish.
Racer - That’s bad. It’s like swallowing a loogie.
Jack - Whoa man. A moment ago I was kinda freaked out when it touched my leg. Yet I can still eat it.
Racer - Dude, am I glowing?

I love Australia Day. It’s my favourite public holiday. Having spent my last two Australia Day’s in New York, it stirs up all sorts of patriotism when it comes to this time. It reminds me how much I miss home and imagining all my friends by the foreshore playing cricket before the fireworks over the city. Now that I’m actually in Perth for Australia Day, just the thought of braving the traffic just to get to the foreshore makes me cringe. In a couple hours we’re having a huge barbie at Miss. 23’s place. They’ll be meat pies, potato salad, snags, steaks, prawns, lamingtons and pavlova! Maybe I can try and persuade everyone to change a bit of tradition and head to a lookout to view the fireworks.

This is what I was doing this time last year -I remember it like it was yesterday!

January 26th 2005
Happy Australia Day! Hope you all had a great one! It was so sad to have to be at work and not be able to celebrate. I could just imagine you all down by the foreshore drinking and causing a ruckus in that Perth heat! I want to hear all about it!

After work this evening I took a walk around the West Village in search of dinner for Hinius and myself. I was looking through the windows of all the restaurants and came across this one fish and chip store called “A Salt And Battery”. It had an Aussie/English feel to the place (like a small fish and chip store you’d come across in Freo) and on their desert menu was “Fried Mars Bar”. I had heard about these greasy fattening buggers, but thought I’d buy one to take home and surprise Hin with. It was here I met Jimmy – a friendly chap from Belfast who guessed I was from Australia. We had a good chat and he mentions that the folks working at “The Tea And Sympathy” restaurant next door are from Western Australia! Crazy! We have a laugh and he tells me to visit again and meet the Aussies. Oh and he wished me a Happy Australia Day! I was pretty imrpressed.

In other exciting news, next week is my first big New York party! Work is hosting the New York movie premiere for a new movie out next Tuesday and a rather large after party at Hotel Gansevoort which is just around the corner from my apartment! Work has been okay. We deal a lot with fashion designers like Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, Diane Von Furstenberg and a lot of film companies. Yesterday Lisa and I spent the day working for Longchamp and Vidal Sassoon, but in the end it was a pain in the ass because of all the travel in this freakin snow and grimy streets.

Awww… there’s so much more I want to tell you all! A few things I will say… I could get away with murder with my Aussie accent! Men freakin love it here. Often I have contemplated doing a Kath and Kim “Look at moi” accent to see if it has the same effect. I will let you know.

Last exciting thing…there’s a guy on the scene. He’s outrageously handsome. A typical prince charming looker. And we’ve been dangerously flirting and nudging each other and finding any excuse to hold hands. It’s very… very exciting.

“I’m impressed… You sell yourself very well. Your personal presentation is of a high standard. Your awards and ambitions are fantastic. Very impressive.”

He was practically giving me the job!
But… (there’s a BUT)… I think I’m going to turn it down…

I applied for a job at an advertising agency on Friday. It was the first time I checked out Seek for months because I haven’t really been looking since graduating. And I come across this position at a boutique advertising agency. I had actually passed the due date for resumes, but thought I’d apply anyway. I’d never heard of the agency but figured I’d fish a little and see if I get a bite.

I was beyond surprised when I received a call from the Advertising Director today. We had a long chat about the position. As soon as he said the role would involve taking care of financials and accounts payable I didn’t have a good feeling about the position and went into TRUTH MODE, hoping that he’d be so turned off by my ugly truths that he’d be sorry for ever calling me. But my truths seemed to be even more endearing. I told him straight out that I nearly failed accounting and failed business statistics the first time, and only scraped by with 58% the second time - hey, that is why I’m in advertising! But I told him that I was good at budgeting for expensive clothes and holidays overseas. He really liked this.

There’s way too many factors working against me taking this job.
1. The pay is shit – I’m talking $25,000ish shitish. I worked my negotiation skills, but he said he couldn’t budge on the pay. Fuck! He was only offering HALF of what I earned at my last job. Money isn’t a top priority. I would be happy getting paid $20,000 for starter job at a top agency like Clemenger BBDO or Saatchi… but for a job involved in financials I’m gonna need money motivation to get me going.
2. He couldn’t guarantee there would be chance of promotions or that a better position like account co-ordinating or account management would even be available. THIS is a top priority.
3. Their “major” clients are shared with other agencies and are mainly local retailers – this means that because we’re the boutique agency, all the main creative and huge jobs would be undertaken by bigger agencies we share the client with.

Seriously, I think I have just been spoiled too much and hence my greater expectations. I mean I gotta say, if I had no experience whatsoever, this would be a dream job! But when you’ve been paid $500/hr for working on TV commercial concepts and worked with clients like Apple and Chanel and Bvlgari and Longchamp, I just figure I deserve to be a little more choosy.

I’m not completely desperate yet. I am still enjoying holidays and I still have work at one of the top agencies here coming up soon anyway, but not sure if it’s permanent…
Aw shit. I hope I’m not making a bad decision.
But surely if he can see how fantastic I am, other people can too… right?

I was close to piking on Pat’s gig at the Hydey. There were so many birthday parties last night. But I justified choosing Pat’s gig because I hardly ever see him and turns out an old friend of mine I use to work with on radio was headlining the gig and I haven’t seen him since my 18th birthday. It turned out to be a huge reunion like night. Memories and people from the days when I was an indie kid and sported pink flamingo hair and donned crazy little outfits came rushing back. I’m still an indie kid at heart tho. My work buddy is still the nice guy that he is, but seems to have mellowed out. Then there was a girl I use to be really close to. She’s in a “fake band” (she said they can’t play instruments or sing but get up on stage and pretend to play music) and is completely self absorbed! It was painful talking to her. I just don’t know how she could warrant being so far up herself. I’m sorry, but being in some phony band and on the dole does not make you the bees knees.

During the night I had pangs of regret for leaving the scene. To be completely honest, they were fun days. But then again, I could have been having all these feelings because I hadn’t seen so many good looking guys in once place for a LOONG time. Every second guy was some cute indie boy. Check shirts. All star sneakers. Black skinny leg jeans. Cowboy shirts. 80’s vintage sweaters. Aloofness. And FLOPPY HAIR. Awww…

Pat’s band was pretty impressive. Loud. Catchy. Strokes influenced. The whole night I was intrigued by his drummer. He is absolutely stunningly cute, but he looked familiar and I just couldn’t put my finger on who he looked like…. This morning I finally realised he looks like Andy Samberg (check out the David Letterman clip – v. funny story).

After drinking too much beer, we went to The Moon Café and shared a chocolate pizza and fries with aioli sauce and played Monopoly. Argh! I’m completely addicted to Monopoly! When we finally left the Moon at around 2 in the morning, we decided to go buy some sparklers and headed to Kings Park, fired them up and ran around the park overlooking the city.
Good music, cute indie boys, fries, Monopoly, sparklers and views - now THAT is my kinda night!

My dinner party on the weekend went brilliantly. There were more people than I had intended to invite. Initially it was just going to be a small affair, but when you have 30+ people in a particular group of friends (not even including school friends, uni mates and random buddies), it’s hard to narrow down an invitation list to ten. I ended up having 14 over and received “Where was my invitation to your dinner party?” remarks the next day from the rest of the 15+ who weren’t invited. It’s great having such a huge group of friends because there’s always something to do, but you’re bound to offend someone when you attempt to have a small gathering.

Before dinner the boys decided to jump in my pool and naturally, after much screaming and kicking and resistance, Brad and Ryan chucked me into the freezing pool. I knew I should’ve stayed in the kitchen finishing cooking the crackling roast pork, but I couldn’t resist the balmy summer night and it was a real treat seeing the guys and gals just lazing poolside.

After midnight most people started leaving. Adam had come around to my place earlier that day to hang out and he met my parents. I wondered why I was graced with his presence a little earlier and as I found out, it was because he too had to leave around midnight to get up early that morning. I begged him to stay. When he arrived at my place, he was looking like the first time I met him (boyish and handsome) and throughout the night I had high hopes of him staying over and going for a late night swim and toasting marshmallows outside and such. But my powers of persuasion were weak that night. Before he left and I was saying goodbye to our friends, I saw Adam doodling on a napkin and he went into my bedroom. He came out a few minutes later and I walked him to his car. We leant against his car hugging for sometime, till it hit me that Jeremy was still inside.

Jeremy ended up staying over till 4am. We just sat on my couch talking. No naughty business, especially after the following conversation:

Me – So… you’re like…. 24? 25 years old? Right?
Jeremy – what makes you say that?
Me – Well, Hunter and Brad and all that are 24. You look around mid 20s? What? Am I far off? How old are you?
Jeremy – 19
Me- WHAT!!!!!!!???????
Jeremy – What? How old are you?
Me – 21!!!!
Jeremy – Oh yeah, turning 21 this year right?
Me – NO! Turning 22!
Jeremy – Oh….
<silence>
Me – YOU’RE 19 YEARS OLD?? Are you sure?

That is awkward…
A one year younger age gap makes me cringe, let alone two!

After Jeremy left and I was about to go to bed, I opened my desk drawer to get my Blistex and there inside my drawer was a folded napkin that I assumed Adam had hidden. I unfolded the napkin and when I saw what was on it, I was in awe. There on the napkin was a picture of a funny stick man with an arrow pointing at him saying “ADAM” and a speech bubble coming out of the stickmans mouth saying,

“I LOVE STELLA”.

I was tagged by Teddy. Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot.

Little Miss Pissy Pants
Milchfrömmler
One Dog Said to the Other
TEdALOG Lite
That’s Stella

Then you get to select five people to pass the love on to…
And I choose…

ShyGirlAndrea
Passive Agressive Steak
Lobotomy Rips
Supertorio
Andge’s Journal

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Ooo… I was 11 years old so I was going through a pre-teen identity crisis, singing to Shampoo and Black Hole Sun. It was the Beverly Hills and Sea Quest DSV years so I was pining over Jonathan Brandis and Jason Priestly. And probably wearing overalls and tencel jeans. Eww…

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Chicken salad
2. Oranges
3. Toast with melted bocconcini
4. Carrot sticks
5. Reeces Pieces

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
1. Eternal Flame – The Bangles
2. Connection - Elastica
3. Breath – Kylie Minogue
4. 6 Underground – Sneaker Pimps
5. Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. Buy properties around the world – starting off with New York, then Perth and LA
2. Be a philanthropist – give away millions of dollars to the needy and charity
3. Set up my family for life
4. Pay Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman to make me a lead in one of their feature films
5. Fund Larry David projects

Five bad habits:
1. Spending too much on clothes – having expensive taste
2. Taking too long to get ready – showering and deciding what to wear, etc…
3. Biting my nails
4. Openly mocking stupid Public Relations girls and my Asian relatives
5. Being too competitive

Five things you like doing:
1. Day dreaming
2. Exploring flea markets around the world
3. Eating cookie dough ice cream and saving the cookie dough pieces till last
4. Chasing ducks
5. Neatly packing my suitcase before a big trip overseas

Five things you would never wear or buy again:
1. Tencel “denim” – so wrong…
2. Wedge shoes and platforms
3. Chinoto – you know, the drink? Grouse man
4. a PC – once you go Mac, you never go back
5. a backpack – unless I went backpacking and highly unlikely

OOOoo seems I have been tagged by Ted! I will get onto it Teddy…

I decided to throw a dinner party this Saturday night and well… because I’m not completely petty I thought I’d invite Jeremy since all his mates would be coming over. I texted him an invite and didn’t hear from him till the next day…

“hello hello hello! I have come to a conclusion about Saturday night and after serious consideration and shuffling of my busy schedule, I am going to be there!”

I replied… “Ooo I don’t know how to tell you this, but after serious consideration I’ve decided you’re not invited anymore. You kinda take too long to reply msgs :-/ This is a little awkward”

After a few minutes Jeremy texts back “Oh…I’m used to rejection”

I continue to reply “I’m sorry, it’s not me, it’s you!
Aww but because I take pity on you fool, you’re still invited. Come over at 7”

Last night I went to JB Hi Fi and bought the new Strokes album “First Impressions of Earth”. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but my JB HI FI boy was raving on about the album saying it was darker and different to their past albums. I tell ya what, the album jacket and lyrics is a work of art.

I have the BIGGEST crush on JB hifi boy. He definitely ranks a lot higher on the scale of interest than Jeremy. He’s just so HOT. Every time I see him I just want to jump him. He makes me swoooooon baby!

Last night I planned to just pop in quickly to JB to get The Strokes CD and rush out to meet the girls for dinner. Of course I had every intention to sneak a peak at him since I haven’t seen him since Christmas, but when I went to grab The Strokes off the shelf, I hear a “Well hello hello!” and there he was standing behind me. An hour and half later, I’m finally walking out of JB and in deep trouble with the girls who are all waiting for me to go out for dinner.

We couldn’t stop rambling. His boss even came around a few times and he was unfazed by her orders to do some work and check out a dodgy guy in the store nicking CDs under his sweater.

He’s so completely hot but what I realised tonight was how incompatible we are. Not just JB hifi boy but with all alternative rock indie boys. I’m in a love hate relationship with them. I love love LOVE their look and their passion for awesome music and how they dress and how they style their hair. I am completely attracted to them physically. But it could never work because I loathe how they’re so cynical and how they bum around waiting for their big break in rock stardom not realising that one needs to make a living and it’s just infuriating! Hey, I’m all for realising dreams but all I’m saying is don’t be so fuckin lazy about it and realise if you suck and move on. In a way they’re like little boys who don’t want to grow up. Which is, I suppose the Wise One Hin’s point that I should find a MAN and not a boy.

We even had a discussion about this last night – that the only thing binding us together was our same taste and love for good music, but other than that, we’re probably not supposed to get along. He’s cynical and hates business and commercialisation and huge corporations and working and the media and all that jazz. I love business and my passion for the art of persuasion and manipulation and creativity revolves around hard work.

So really, what I should have proposed to him is purely sex – no relationship. Sounds good to me.

His band is playing next Friday night and he asked me to go. It is definitely tempting but I’m going to have to bring in the big guns – friends.
Friends always make one look good.

I went to this rockin party last night. The host was this guy who has recently joined our group and his house is a super mansion! Lucky – because 150+ folks showed up to what started as a wee get together. I went over Hunters place in the late afternoon, expecting just 15-20 of us for a backyard barbie. I dressed casually, wearing brown tailored shorts, a cream camisole, green beads and pink flip flops. I was pretty dissatisfied with my outfit – I know the male species don’t tend to understand these things, but it was like I was wearing a bad hair day. I left my house feeling crap.

By 9:30pm, Hunters gargantuan mansion was getting cosy. The barbie that lured us to Hunters place in fact did not happen so the girls and I were discussing getting dinner and eating by the foreshore. As we were in dinner talks, I saw Jeremy. I met him a month ago at another party and pardon the dreadful cliché, but we got on like a house on fire. Great sense of humour. Attentive. Friendly. Cute. Brown floppy hair. Stylish. But after we met, I was baffled why he didn’t ask for my number and decided to write him off into the “He’s just not that into you” category.

So there was Jeremy standing 30 metres away on the opposite side of Hunters lounge. Despite the distance, he saw me and we made eye contact. I turned away doing the whole disinterested thing, but at the corner of my eye I see Jeremy running (yes, literally RUNNING) through Hunters lounge room, occasionally politely shoving people over to get to me!

Jeremy and I do the kiss greeting and whilst we’re talking he twirls my necklace beads with his fingers and says to me “You look really nice tonight”. Aww… But I can’t help but go into my spiel about how I’m unhappy with my outfit and he’s actually listening to my rambling shit, not only looking me straight in the eyes but making remarks about my pointless blah and I’m thinking “Wow he must really like me”.

Before my girl friends steal me away from him, he finally has the balls to ask for my number. We do the exchange and he retreats back to the other side of the lounge with all the rest of the boys. My girl friends and I discuss where to go get Italian takeout and every time I look in Jeremy’s direction, he is looking straight at me! Every. Single. Time.

The girls and I dash off to get dinner and I don’t get the chance to say goodbye to him. Later that night after eating gnocchi by the foreshore and settling down eating ice cream watching the night stars, the girls convince me to msg him…

“How’s your night going? We’re doing ice cream by the foreshore. Yumm….”
He responds seconds later,
“I’m lying in bed almost asleep….
But I’m quite jealous of you and your ice cream”.
I reply…
“Mmm… cookie dough. I’ll save some for you! Wanna get together this week?”

Okay I know this was a big call on my behalf taking the initiative, but I figure, I’m not head over heels over this guy so I feel comfortable taking the risk. But it’s been nearly 24 hours since I sent that msg and he still hasn’t replied!
That son of a bitch!

WHY!!!!!!!!!!???????

I’m really not that into him otherwise I would never have asked him, but it still annoys the hell out of me that he hasn’t msged back!

BOYS CAN BE SO RUDEEEE!

There he goes… back into the “He’s just not that into me” pile.

Whilst I was waiting at the traffic lights on my way to a sunday sesh, the car in front of me had two bumper stickers on their rear window “Children in Car”.
I bet these parents had “Baby on Board” yellow hazard signs too.
What’s with that? A “Children in Car” bumper sticker doesn’t stop you from being a shitty driver. If you break suddenly, there’s no magical force surrounding your car that’s going to stop me from hitting your rear. In any case, if you do break suddenly, I doubt I’m going to have time to read your shitty bumper sticker and change route.

I want a “Bright Young Woman with Ambitions in Car” bumper sticker on my rear window.

Other pointless and random thoughts for this weekend…
1. I would pay a lot of money to sleep with Mark Ruffalo
2. I wish all service stations had frozen coke machines
3. If I could look like anyone, I’d have to say Angelina Jolie Nicole Kidman Scarlett Johansson Jolies looks, with Kidmans style and Johansson’s coolness gets my vote
4. The new Coke Zero really does taste better then Diet Coke
5. Is a free trip to Malaysia really worth it considering the insane humidity?

Back in the day when I was working in the music industry and I worshipped the ground rock stars sauntered upon and I was young and naive and very stupid, one of my many crushes was Mr. Amazing - he shall remain anonymous and innocent for now.

Years after I quit the industry (it was bitchy and hardcore and stressful and I developed anxiety attacks) I started forgetting encounters and stories and goss back from the day… Till today I was reading an article about Mr. Amazing and about how his latest album stinks and how he’s started a family and got married and yada yada yada… He said something about loving his new life and this triggered off my memory of how I got over Mr. Amazing.

Mr. Amazing was touring Australia and he gave me tickets to one of his shows. His friends knew I was keen on him, but despite being his friends, they still warned me off him. I went to his show with Ana (who’s always been a great partner in crime). So we’re at his show, and there’s hundreds of people (majority are screaming women) and luckily Ana and I nab this perfect position with a great view, till 10 minutes into the show, a couple of barely legal girls in front of us start making out and feeling each other up in front of everyone! ARgh! Awkward!

After the show, Ana and I are escorted backstage whilst Mr. Amazing is next to the stage busily signing CD’s and shirts, etc. Ana and I are hanging out in his dressing room and… well… we’re a little bit naughty and being nosey and going through his stuff.

We’re playing his guitars and… argh!! I cringe when I think of this, but Ana finds this black book on his dressing room table. She opens it up and finds it’s his diary!!! Mr. Amazing has a DIARY!? Now, remember we’re young and stupid and a little toasted from drinking so much, so we are posed with an ethical dilemma, but brush off our consciences and decide to take it in turns to have a peek at his diary, whilst the other watches the door for him. It’s no girly diary. His book is full of his ramblings and AAA passes from other shows and photos. It’s pretty… well… amazing! We get a good 20 minute look before getting paranoid and putting his diary back in the exact position we find it and decide to just chill out on his couches. Chill out? Well that was impossible. I was as giddy with excitement. Ana and I quietly discuss that after she meets Mr. Amazing, she’d go to the after party with the support band and I’d meet her there so she’d give me some lone time with him.

Well… we spoke too soon. Minutes later, we hear footsteps and giggles coming towards Mr. Amazings dressing room door. I’m getting all fidgety quickly adjusting myself on his couch trying to look cool… Well, imagine my shock and heart break when Mr. Amazing stumbles into his dressing room with two girls - wildly making out with one whilst grabbing the other girls hand leading her into the room!!! Ana and I are gobsmacked when they stumble in and realise the two girls are the two lesbian exhibitionists who were making out in front of us during his show! Son of a bitch!!!

When they realise Ana and I are sitting there in his dressing room, well… THAT was awkward. No one said a thing. Mr. Amazing went white. Ana and I were still sitting on his couches contemplating what to do. The room was silent. Ouch it hurt bad! I was the first one to make a move. I gracefully got up off the couch, Ana did the same, I walked towards the door, I waited to let Ana walk out first, then I slammed the door behind me. It was the end of my crush, the start of spreading the word about what had happened and the last time I ever saw or spoke to him.

So today I’m reading this article about him, and wondering if this is really all in the past for Mr. Amazing and I secretly hope and pray for his wife and bub that it is!

Considering that I’m planning for these Christmas/New Years Eve celebrations to be the last celebrated in Australia for a few years, I really should have planned earlier and put more thought into my NYE. One of my girl friends had an amazing flowing chocolate fountain at her birthday on Friday night and it was only then we “confirmed” what we were doing to bring in the new year.

Friends of friends of friends of ours were invited to this party in Cottesloe, which of course meant that me and my friends got an unofficial invite. At 10pm NYE, we all gathered at Miss. 23’s house and headed to this party. Upon driving up to the beach house in Cottesloe, we were gobsmacked at the site. There were easily 250-300 people pouring in and out of this place! The street was packed! The street had in fact been over run by drunks! After 15 minutes of trying to find parking, police cars arrived and surrounded the block. It was at this time, the girls and I decided it wouldn’t be worth it and turned back, all the while ringing friends to find out about any other parties. The boys however decided to brave it and marched into the party. They texted me minutes before the police raided saying “THIS IS AWESOME”. What became of the boys? I have nooo idea!

By 11pm we settled at Jonesy’s house who was having a quiet one. There were 20 or so of us and most were close friends that we wanted to spend NYE with. Of course by leaving this huge party in Cottesloe it meant we were giving up on the chance to kiss a good looking stranger at countdown, but it also saved me and the girls from regretting anything the next morning. We all decided it was a welcome change.

After the countdown and abusive consumption of bubbly, half the gang left and the rest of us played Monopoly till 4am. Seriously, Monopoly brings out the worst in people. My extreme competitiveness reared it’s ugly head, the boys used their sex appeal to break down the girls, the girls got bitchy and backstabbing. It was utterly fantastic! Half the gang left early that morning wondering if friendships were still in tact.

When I started falling asleep on Jonsey’s couch, Adam offered to drive me home, despite him only living around the block from Jones and me living 25 minutes away. I refused his offer and drove home with Pulp blaring through my stereos. I tried to get sleep, but suffered a bad case of insomnia all of new years day. I had that terrible sleep where your eyes are closed, but you’re fully conscious of everything. At 1pm, mum and dad cruelly woke me up. But they made up for it. We had lobster and turkey to celebrate new years day.

Hope you had a good one!

1. Returning home to New York
As soon as I landed in NY, I went straight to my friends, Rob & Tiongs apartment in the East Village. I could direct the cab driver exactly where to go. Everything looked the same. After a year away from home nothing had changed and I still remembered exactly where my favourite Chinese restaurant in Chinatown was, my favourite store in Soho and the correct subway exits to take. How awesome to return to the West Village to live and have one of my best friends from Perth live with me for a month.

2.Meeting new friends
Bonding with my New York Jewish men - Katzy & Bornstein.
Meeting uber talented stylish net friend – Miss. Tiff
Joining a new group of 20+ friends later in the year
Meeting my best uni girl friend – Miss. Andrea

3.Winning Best Ad Campaign Pitcher
Kicking boys asses and working hard and being rewarded with my first job in an advertising agency. My competitiveness and strategic thinking and constant stressing paid off.

4.Hide & Seek in Times Square
During New York fashion week, my colleagues and friends and I were invited to a few fashion shows as part of work. We started off the night playing a game of hide and seek in Times Square, running around and losing each other in the sea of lights. Following the game, we attended the fashion shows but missed out on the front row goodie bags with Dior glasses, etc…

5.Date with Doves
I scored free tickets, backstage and VIP passes for the Doves gig in Perth from their cousins. My date and I had a VIP viewing section to watch their show, and at the end of the night the band manager yelled at Metropolis Security who wouldn’t let us backstage. After the show we drank beer with the lads till the wee hours of the morning talking about how Velvet Underground was the best band on earth.