culture vulture time again - this time for my first asian chinese new year. coming up on the weekend of 19 feb and being the dirty expat that i clearly i am, i somehow managed to forget i was in asia momentarily til this weekend passed. leanne was here from sydney on her way back from europe (bless her, she rocks!) and we walked down to chinatown and all 5 senses were chinafied within seconds.

 

the smell of smoky sweet woody incense that lingers in your hair and clothes for the rest of the day, the music of the high pitched chinese sopranos (and percussion frenzies at key plot thickening intervals), the vibrant bright red and golds, the touch of the gooey jelly sweets and cakes that wobble in your hand like cheap plastic boobs, brushing past clans of 3 generations of the same family all buying big on their red packets for pre-death inheritance distribution and eating soupy dumplings in the rain.

 

we had many an amazing conversation this weekend, but i posed a really interesting thought starter that when i am to make my oscar winning film (of course boycotting the actual event) and move to paris, i would hold small dinner parties with my favorite anti-establishment famous friends (well, they would be my friends by then).

 

at this dinner table i would invite the following people:

- johnny depp: he lives in paris, destined to be a regular i reckon

- madonna (have identified that she is exactly like me, except a few years older, white, great dancer etc etc but you get the drift) and maybe guy ritchie if they stay together. surely we could smalltalk about movies, maybe collaborate on my second oscar?

- benicio del toro: he's about as anti-establishment as they come, hides from the paparazzi, doesn't turn up to his own movie premieres.

- thom yorke: do i even need to justify this one? he signs off all his emails and blog postings with a 'x'...sigh

- my current favorite f*cking cool designers/artists http://www.eleykishimoto.com

 

a very very smart ex coleague of mine confessed that she uses this question in interviews to test a persons ability to identify inspiration (and subsequently passion) and i must admit i have stolen this from her in recent times...so who would you invite to your dinner party? dead or alive?

 

hmmm, maybe the moral of todays post is that it is finally time for that career move i been contemplating for such a long time??????

 

x

My god, 06 was without a doubt the quickest one to date. A big one, but a GREAT one indeed.

 

I headed down to Sydney town for new years which was insane. Some stuff that was successfully achieved:

 

- Flying in at 10pm on the 29th didn't stop Wooj and I from heading straight to the Cat N' Fiddle (www.thecatandfiddle.net) in Balmain to see her friends band Meza (www.myspace.com/mezaband)

- Drinking the yummiest schooner of Carlton Draught EVER

- Checking out the revamped Kirketon Hotel (FIX) (http://www.kirketon.com.au/)

- a short visit to the revamped-but-still-looks-the-same Grand Pacific Blue Room and my ye ole ole favorite reliable and faithful Ruby Rabbit (www.rubyrabbit.com.au).

- Eid was a girly affair with Wooj, Ammi and I eating up a storm with some family friends. Around 42 shami kebabs were consumed that night alone.....by me.

- counting down at Kuletos (cocktail bar http://www.kuletos.com.au/). Really took me back to my uni days of bumming around Newtown most afternoons (strategically had zero classes in the morning!!) and especially hanging with Liz Lamb and Nikoletta who I was reunited with after almost 5 years. Needless to say some things don't change and we ended up giggling (and taking photos of each other doing "Asian poses" complete with fingers forming V's - see pics).

- managing to get a last minute ticket to Field Day and boy was it Hendociting...(hehahhehehahahaheheha). I don't know where to start - Solveig, Mylo, Kid Kenobi and a WICKED day out. When I figure out how to do the YouTube thing, I will post videos up for you to see for yourselves.

 

The rest of the time was spent chowing down Wagamama's with Wassef, pubbing it up in the Rocks with the old Mojo crew, eating lots (!!!) of home cooked meals (THANKS AMMMMAAAAA!!!), chilling with NasYas (Happy Budday Yasmeeeen), drinking stacks of chai and general hanging around....and coming back to be greeted by Aboo on his way home from Mecca and catching the Singa Desi crew at Reema's party...

 

Something new starting from next post...i promise :)

 

Until then, xox

Chotoo