That’s Stella

I did it. I’ve been talking about it for ages but I finally did something that would seal the deal. This is it. I’ve paid for it. And it’s all happening!

I booked my ticket back to New York!

I’m leaving in January and well… I don’t plan to come back to Australia for some time if everything goes to plan.

It was quite a spur of the moment decision. I went to pick up some sexy black wedges and came home with an itinerary for my trip.

I have had enough of Perth. I love my family and my darling Poodle and my best friends and work buddies that I’ll be leaving here, but damn I am too young to be stuck in the most isolated city in the world! If I had it my way I would bring them all over with me.

I’ve decided I’m not taking any holidays from work till I finish and instead, will be rewarding myself with some time in Los Angeles, Oregon and Chicago before setting up in New York. I love Los Angeles. I could never live there but all the times I’ve spent there, I’ve had a great time chilling out in Santa Monica and admiring the extravagance of places like Beverly Hills.

It still hasn’t fully sunk in yet that I’m actually leaving! I still have another 3 months till I resign (and a month after that till I finish) so it has killed me not to tell anyone from work. My client has been briefing me on jobs that will continue into the new year, and all I want to do is ask them if I really need to be paying attention and taking notes because I’m not going to be around!

If you haven’t listened to Feist yet, you really should. When I first heard the name, I wasn’t even going to bother looking further into it, that is till I heard My Moon My Man and well… I am impressed. Check her out here.

Okay so what is up with Facebook? I’ve noticed that it is almost ‘appropriate’ - or at least not socially frowned upon to be looking at your Facebook during work, but if someone is checking their MySpace, they’re treated like an outlaw. I don’t have Facebook. I personally DON’T want every Tom Dick and Harry from high school adding me as their ‘friend’. If you, yes you reader have a MySpace, I want to hear from you.

Some advice? Don’t watch Premonition. If I ever meet Sandra Bullock, I am going to demand that she somehow repays me 90 minutes of my life back. Bridge to Terrabithia is great. Kevin Costner in Mr. Brooks is pretty decent too.

In other news… I have some super exciting fantastic news…!!!

But my lips are sealed for now. I will reveal all soon.

Happy Friday and thank God it’s the weekend.

Despite bitching about my job frequently, admittedly one of the perks of my job is attending lavish lunches and parties and cocktail functions and my boss considering it all part of ‘business’. Today my client and I had a 5 hour lunch. Our bill came to over a grand and it was all on the company credit card. Mwahaha! When I got back to the office at 4:30, I decided I was too full to be productive and left the office at 5:30. Now THAT is what I call a good day at work!

We went to this top notch restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try for ages. It’s hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The atmosphere was great. It made me feel a million miles away from work and the service was fab. The waiters and waitresses did everything for us except chew our food. They poured our drinks without stopping conversation, brushed down our table, opened our menus in front of us and laid out our napkins on our laps.

I tried truffles for the first time. Truffles are super expensive - apparently they can fetch up to $9,000 per kilogram in Europe. Anyway I couldn’t resist trying and had the beef carpaccio with asparagus and truffle. It was sliced so thinly that I wonder if I really had a fair go, but from what I could tell, it was woody and not as distinct as I thought it would be.

To be honest, the food was pretty average, except when it came to desert! Now the desert was in a different league altogether. I shared the desert tasting place (for $29!) and it came with coffee tiramisu, apple crumble with mascarpone, strawberry and rhubarb with meringue and gingerbeer sorbet, chocolate torte with brown sugar ice cream.

It was divine!

I saw The Shins live on Friday night. They played an impressive show. I’ve been suffering from a cold and on Friday morning, the thought of not going to The Shins actually entered my mind. Thank goodness I never acted out on that thought. It was a sold out show, so I never expected getting a good view. Hell, I’m so short that I’ve never really expected getting a good view at any gig. Anyway the one time I leave my camera at home, I managed to get front row views. The Shins were 2 metres away from me! If I hadn’t had a blocked up nose, I’m sure I could’ve smelt the sweat dripping off them from all the bright lights.

The Shins have made it to my top five. I love that they don’t fit the stereotype indie rocker look. There was no sign of skinny leg jeans or blazers. I love the dynamic on stage between them. I love that they were obviously having a good time. And I particularly love the antics of the bassist and guitarist.

I got my tickets the day they went on sale but for the whole 2 months that I had my tickets, it never entered my mind that I could actually be seeing and listening LIVE to a song that brings back such bittersweet memories. When The Shins went offstage before their encore and hadn’t actually played Caring is Creepy, I prayed they wouldn’t play it.

For their encore they played Pink Floyds Time and it was followed by Caring is Creepy – the song that my New York Man use to play on repeat whilst we zipped around Manhattan in his car late at night. I remember the first time I heard the song like it was yesterday. I stood outside my West Village apartment anxiously waiting for him to pick me up for our first date. It was freezing cold and there were stray flurries hovering Manhattan that night. When I got into his car he had the Garden State soundtrack playing. Once we had got over the nervous chit chat there was silence and like some great timing, I heard for the first time this amazing song with this great intro and that was Caring is Creepy.

Later when I had to leave New York to head back to Australia, I remember putting the song on repeat during the drive to JFK and just sobbing. It was a painful experience. So when I heard The Shins play it live on Friday… well it was overwhelming. They played it slower and it was dark and only one yellow light was focused on the lead singer and it was quite appropriate. I tried so hard not to, but tears fell down my cheek and I can only be so grateful that it was dark and no one noticed.