So, I’ve been pretty busy lately – from working weekends, to a trip to Europe and then Singapore, I literally have not had a weekend free in months!

So as you can imagine, I was pretty damn excited this past weekend to actually have the time to do…nothing! The weather here in Melbourne finally heated up and I had my first taste of Summer. I figured the only thing to do was to head to the ‘beach’ for the day at the famous St Kilda. I use the word ‘beach’ loosely because as a Sydneysider, I’m still not exactly convinced that you can call it that – but I’ll indulge the Melbournians this time.

I start off my day with a takeaway coffee and catching a couple of trams down to St Kilda, which took around 45 minutes from my place, although relative to Sydney public transport was very easy.  I’d been told the night before to ditch St Kilda. To instead find one of the other beaches along the bay which were less touristy and were likely to be less busy.  In the end though I decided, that given I am still essentially a tourist; I needed to give it a go.

Everyone else in the city is clearly just as excited about the heat as I am so the place is packed, from the sand to the grassy parks across the path along the boardwalk.

I lay down on the sand and read my book – which I have to mention, is amazing.   Yes, it’s somewhat a geek’s read but actually really interesting and the best way to understand my area of work in a practical way. “Freakonomics” describes the weird and at times unbelievable data-led explanations for some major social events/trends in history (previously unexplained).

Before the crowds appeared

Anyway, come lunchtime I wander along Acland Street which is a little too bustling for my liking and there’s not a whole lot to look at other than cafes and cake shops.  Still, it’s nice to get a break from the sun to find some lunch (and sunscreen which I’d forgotten!).  I head back to the beach for another couple of hours – still unable to actually get into the water which is freezing and let’s face it, pretty boring given the lack of waves!

I note the paddleboards at the city side of the bay and realise I may have to stop trying to make a ‘beach’ where there is none, and apply an activity to the bay next time!

[ This is something i wrote for a blog at work.. thought i’d just include it here for fun ]

So I have this recurring fantasy where I spontaneously walk into a hairdresser off the street and utter the dangerous words … “go nuts!”

Well today was that day!

I’m planning a trip to Europe in a few weeks, so naturally I also planned a trip to my hairdresser to add some blonde in my ever darkening roots!  I casually mention this to my work colleague Karly this morning and it drives a polite “hmmm” and slight nod without turning her head away from her work.    I guess it shouldn’t surprise me given the mundane concept of a maintenance colour. So I continue and explain my fantasy concept and suddenly her chair turns towards me and her attention is undivided with the words, “just do it!” sounding out in eager excitement. I laugh at the sudden shift in attention with no intention of following through. “Just do it, just do it!” she continues.

And I start to wonder.

When it comes to changing your look, it’s pretty much the most scary thing you can do. Because let’s face it – the other scary things in life pretty much just stem from insecurities about your appearance. Working up the courage to talk to the guy you like or presenting your work in front of a boardroom of people – they’re nerve racking and scary because people are looking at you and judging your appearance! Ok, so maybe that’s not 100% of the challenges in life and this is definitely a “vain” angle, but you know what I’m saying!

So the thought of risking a change which could result in judgement is enough to put you off entirely.  But maybe Nike has had it right this whole time – maybe we should “Just Do It”!
Karly’s words resonate in my head and suddenly I’m online trying to find a hairdresser to book me in before I change my mind.

My long time hairdresser in Sydney stocks L’Oreal Professional so I figure I’ll reduce the shock factor by sticking with the same brand, and I find the salon “Heading Out” on the L’Oreal directory.

A few hours later, I walk into the salon feeling less than confident if I’m honest, but I’m determined to follow through. “So what are we doing?” the stylist prompts.  To which I reply, “Whatever! I’m open to anything…go nuts”.

I promise myself I won’t say no to anything, but when she suggests a darker shade I immediately want to get out of there and go back to the comfortable frame of mind I was in only hours ago. Nike enters my mind again and I just go with it, smiling “sure, yep I trust you!”

I’m a big believer in a hairdresser acting like a friend and Maria definitely fits the brief, casually chatting with me and particularly humoured by the chance to “go nuts”.  We talk ponytail extensions and coloured chalk which both come as new concepts but which are apparently huge at the moment. The mention of extensions then leads to some of my own which I’ve never even considered. An image of platinum blonde gold coast beauties enters my mind, but Maria is quick to put my fears to rest and I continue to go with it.

She talks me through her experience with the L’Oreal Professional brand which she affectionately describes as ‘gentle’, ‘nourishing’ and having a ‘broad range’.   The salon also gets involved in L’Oreal Fashion week and Maria herself has won Colourist of the Year (cue my internal sigh of relief).  She continues, unprompted, that she’s represented other brands but would now never change from L’Oreal.

I leave, really happy with the cut and incredibly surprised that the darker shade doesn’t scare me off too much. The extensions and curls are a bit harder to get use to but I’m assured that they’ll be less dramatic in a couple of hours.

I’m slightly* embarrassed to be back in the office with my new dramatic look, but I’m also comforted by the result given that another hairdresser with free reign could have decided that a black die job or a perm was the way to go.

But at the same time I realise how easily you can re-book and “Just Do It”, all over again tomorrow!

(*hugely)

#nomakeupbelow!

A scenic one hour trip around the bay of Melbourne, we reach Sorrento & Portsea. Sorrento sits on the bayside of Melbourne where you can actually see the skyline of the city miles away which almost feels like a hallucination and i expect you’d have to see it to understand what i mean!

We have fish & chips looking out onto the water and the moored boats which is picturess and you can see why this is the choice of many a Melbournian to spend their weekends & holidays.

But it’s when we venture over the other side of the land onto to the coast-side that I actually yelp at the view!  Don’t get me wrong I love the bay, but i’m all about Aussie waves and coastline so when we hop out of the car on the coastal beach of Portsea I realise no bay or river will even come close. I guess that’s why Sydneysiders are so snobby when it comes to our beaches. But i have to admit this coast like is just as beautiful as any NSW beach and I make a mental note to spend the entire summer here!  Looking even further down the coast and we see huge rocks protruding through the water and I immediately think of the 12 Apostles and i even ask the dumb question as to whether its them.

It’s not.

Looking up the coast..

It’s been raining all day but the heavens clear as we’re overlooking the Tasman and even a rainbow appears which i think was just overkill! 😉  

This past weekend I was lucky enough to have a visit from Mum & Dad in my adopted city. Since all three of us have spent so much time in Melbourne and seen much less of country Victoria, we decide to hire a car and head out of the city to a few different regional spots. Not so lucky though, that it also coincides with a crazy time at work which means that our planned four day weekend in the country is cut short when I’m told I need to be back in the office Monday afternoon. Still, for the brief break outside of Melbourne is really feels like a holiday.

An extremely easy drive about an hour and a half out of Melbourne, we arrive into Daylesford, labelled on the welcome sign as the ‘spa capital of Australia’.   The area sits on natural mineral springs and as such has turned into a town of pampering and you can even swim in the (apparently medicinal) springs.  Also supposedly the gay capital of Victoria (still not sure why, I think we missed something), the town is sort of like the Blue Mountains but maybe slightly more ‘small town’.  Servicing tourists and weekend visitors from Melbourne is clearly the main business and it’s reflected in the knick-knack type shops that line the main street.  You know, the type that you go into and have look around but pretty much never buy anything.

Gardens in Bendigo

Finally the Melbourne weather found me in Daylesford because it pretty much rains the entire weekend and for the first time this winter I’m seriously cold. Like ‘trip to the snow’ cold. It means the weekend is based around food & pampering which suits me perfectly! We eat out at every meal and there’s not one place that disappoints – the food is consistently good, from a trendy Melbourne-esque coffee house to a vegetarian café we accidently stumble upon.  Worth its own mention though is “Perfect Drop” the restaurant we go to on Saturday night which was chosen by Mum after some clever trip advisor research.  The place is conveniently next door to our accommodation and boasts possibly the best Modern Mediterranean food we’ve ever tasted.  The restaurant is cosy with fireplaces and accents like old records and exposed brick and has a really trendy vibe for such a small town.  Every dish is amazing and following our meal we sit in front of the fire as if we’re at home and order another bottle of red. I honestly could have stayed there all night, which Mum & I almost do, only leaving when we get the feeling they’d like us to move along.   Tragically we’re told by the waitress that their head chef is leaving to “spend more time with his family” which we assume means he’s been poached by some upcoming Melbourne spot.

Bendigo Courts

The rain continues on Sunday and I decide I have NO other option than to get a massage and a facial at one of the several spas in the centre of town (poor me, right?!).  By now I’m sufficiently relaxed and the impending work stress that awaits me is a little further from my mind.  Daylesford is probably not more than a one day or two day destination but it was still a gorgeous quaint little town and I’m glad we went.

Melbourne bound on Monday morning, we take brief detour to Bendigo which is built on gold (!) and the town wows us all with its grandeur, apparently left over from the gold rush. Not exactly the type of place you could spend too much time I’m afraid but definitely worth a drive in and out visit and a nice end to our very brief tour of country Vic.

Bendigo’s Town Hall

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to do some Melbourne exploring. Between moving and trips to Sydney, it was nice this past weekend to get back out and discover more of what’s fast becoming my favourite city in the world.

I’ve been seeing advertising for the Hollywood Costume exhibition at the ACMI for a while now, not to mention several people mentioning it to me. Ironically when I was living on Flinders Lane, it was a mere 100 metres to the ACMI, yet I never made it there!

So this morning I start early: partly to make the most of the day (I have a flight to Sydney at 4PM) but partly because my Friday night only consisted of a couple of episodes of Wentworth, some warm milk and straight to bed (oh lord what’s happening to me?). So I’m up involuntarily at the time of my week day alarm, around 7am. The exhibit doesn’t open until 10AM so after some brekky at home, I wander up to Toorak Road for a coffee at “The Drugstore” which is a quirky café on walk to South Yarra Station. It’s got that Melbourne-healthy vibe, serving brekky Quinoa (nuff said). I sit for a while and people watch before heading hopping on a train to Flinders Street Station.

Did I mention the trains come like every 5 seconds and it takes no more than 10 minutes to get to the city from South Yarra?!

Campfire at FedSquare

I’m still too early when I hit the city but ACMI is at Federation Square so I grab another coffee and wander around a bit, realising with surprise that I haven’t actually seem this touristy square properly til now.  Strangely I smell bushfire and notice a campfire blazing in the middle of the square – an art piece in recognition of the indigenous community. It’s a pretty freezing day and although the fire gives off little to no heat, just the smell is enough to warm me up.

Finally 10am arrives and I wander into the exhibit which is a showing of old and not so old costumes from Fight Club to Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The standout for me (randomly) is Glenn Close’s skirt suits from her role as Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians. Two suits are displayed side by side on mannequins.  The suit on the left is your classic Chanel Houndstooth skirt suit (think the David Jones pattern for anyone not familiar), clean lines and power shoulder pads.  If you know the movie you’ll know that initially Cruella de Vil’s character is relatively calm and sophisticated (albeit nasty), much like Amanda Priestley in the Devil Wears Prada.  To the right is the identical suit but its black detailing has been highlighted with black sequins, it’s shoulder pads have been altered to come to a point and turned upwards and what was a pearl necklace draping on the neckline is now glass-like shards of black plastic. It’s such a clever symbol of a character change which I’m sure I’d never noticed in the movie and I just love it.

Hollywood Costume at the ACMI

I pass by Rose from Titanic, Roxy from Chicago but I have to stop at Hepburn in her famous Breakfast at Tiffanys black dress (in my opinion nowhere near her best costume from the movie but hey!). She’s standing next to Marilyn Monroe circa Some Like it Hot and it’s their size and the idea that they actually wore those dresses in front of me that blows me away. In the same way it’s cool to see Brad, Leo & Russell’s real size and costumes and I feel like this has much more impact than something like Madam Tussauds.

I’m told when I first walk into the gallery that it will take me over an hour & a half to get through to the end if I intend to see it all (which i look forward to!) but I don’t see how anyone could spend more than 45 minutes there. I actually find myself peering into a fire escape because I assume I’ve missed some.  It’s a little disappointing but all in all it’s a nice way to spend the early morning.

I wander further up to the CBD and spend the next hour watching a band busking to a crowd of about 50 people outside Myer! They’re incredible for a band performing to strangers on the street and I happily buy their $10 CD and even snap a video with my phone. So maybe the exhibition only took half an hour but luckily, when in Melbourne it only has to be part of the story!

Woodlock Lemons

I spent this past week in Sydney for what became a bit of a turning point for me.

Since I wrote this now notorious article for Mumbrella I admit, I’ve been kind of a mess. Not in all sense of the word don’t get me wrong – I haven’t been borderline suicidal or anything, but I have tended to wonder (on a daily basis) how one split decision and one article could affect the rest of my life. A tad dramatic I know, but after a while you start to believe what you read on the comments thread or twitter: “your career’s over” I’ve been told.  Anyway, after a few months of no sleep and knots in my stomach, this all came to a head when I was asked in a follow up to the article to appear on a panel at Australia’s largest Media, Marketing & Entertainment Conference , “Mumbrella 360”.  Why the hell did I agree to that, you ask? Well the short answer is I didn’t! But through a comedy of errors I was forced to accept and was pinned as the “baddy” in the great gender debate of the conference, entitled “ Gender Equality: Time to put up or shut the f*** up”.  FML.

The preparation I put in to prepare for the day was crazy – flying to Sydney to be put through my paces with a PR coach and practice sessions with women from my office who disagreed with my point of view but luckily still talk to me!  There was some people I even kept this information from in fear of a lecture or more accurately to avoid, “what the f are you doing that for?!” type comments.

Luckily my fear of being attached by an angry mob outside the conference was unfounded and in actual fact the session itself was surprisingly restrained. I would argue dull even, no claws anywhere in site!  The conversation never ventured anywhere that would make me nervous and the practice questions I was taken through weren’t even touched upon.

I have really come out of the experience feeling amazing.  What I thought would re-open wounds from the initial article has actually made me more confident in voicing my opinions and also open my eyes to others.  Where I would previous avoid going head to head with people on the issues I now welcome the discussion and remind myself that differences of opinions are what make life interesting!

Following that initially daunting day I hadn’t even stopped to prepare for the other task of mine at the conference – speaking and (supposedly) inspiring young Uni grads on my career progression in media, apparently to entice them to join up!  I honestly think that had I not done the panel the day before that I would have faltered.  Somehow I felt like I’d made the transition from young naïve girl, to someone actually worth listening to. Seriously – within a day.  Ironically I hadn’t even thought about the grad speech but that became I feel, I huge milestone in my life. Having a story to tell to people I don’t even view as that much younger than me. I realise I do have a story to tell, even if it’s only just beginning.

So Melbourne has a North & South side rivalry, with the North side of the river boasting the ‘hipster’ types in Fitzroy and Carlton areas while the Southern suburbs of Prahran & Toorak housing the ‘money’ types and is actually equivalent to the North side of Sydney. Luckily my place in South Yarra, technically South but in fact borders the two areas so luckily for me I’m from the right side of the tracks no matter who I speak to!

Just call me Bob

Explanation of the photo above:  I naively went to Ikea on Saturday to buy a set of drawers, forgetting just how painful flat packs can be – starting from the simple task of lifting them into the tiny Toyota Yaris I’d hired for the weekend!  The pain continued when I realised in order to assemble the thing, they assumed I had a whole toolbox of screwdrivers and hammers! I don’t.

After a trip to Big W, now an easy 5 minute walk from my place, I was hammering away like a boss and 3 hours later had created this little gem which is possibly my greatest ever creation.

I took this photo in utter excitement, which I suspect will continue pretty much every time I see my labour of love!