First when there's nothing...

but a slow-burning dream... huaaaahhhh... what a feeling! Might actually sing this song one day at one of those crazy karaoke parties. Who knows the song??? The winner gets... uhm... a faraway kiss with a twist.

Anyway, it's Friday (again!) and I haven't done much except stand outside a bookshop window in a small alleyway, write down room ads and call them. Oh yeah, I also met Mr. Flitze and Mr. Schmitze for lunch. We almost didn't find each other amongst all these first year students who were ignorantly crowding our lunch meeting point. After lunch I killed a balloon with a newly acquired biro, Erik cried and Flo got him another one. I just sat there and giggled like an evil witch. I should have been a bit nicer I guess since I have to seek asylum at Erik's over the weekend. But he's just such a baby... whimsy little munchkin...

"The dog on the tuckerbox is misunderstood" (written on a brickwall on Faraday St)

My home in a tree

Yep, now you know. Thanks, Erik, for disclosing my secret... There's absolutely nothing that you can hide from those gossip boys... humph... But it feels good to be able to tell everyone the truth now and not bite my tongue (well, my finger tips) everytime I give you guys a fake update on my exciting life here and how I'm staying with this friend of mine in Northcote, while looking for a place to live. If truth be told, every night I crawl-climb the tree just outside the Union House, and just before the sun comes up again, I have a quick swim in the fish pond, leave the university premises and pretend I just came down from Northcote (casually wearing the same clothes just inside out). Hope, I'm not too much of a disappointment to anyone (and if so... who cares?). Yey freedom! Yey bad-hair-days-weeks-months! Yey sore back! Yey to all my little buggy neighbours!

Well, returning to my entertaining journal update: Erik had a house dinner last night (and I was invited!), and I must say I enjoyed myself exuberantly (yummy pumpkin-sweet potatoe-carrot-ginger soup plus wine and beer and awesome company). I couldn't stay very long but I stayed long enough to know that I'm very jealous of Erik's house and his housemates. Maybe I should try and take on his identity... I have to watch this Mr Ripley movie again, I think...

I'll leave out the details about what happened later that night (just to be at least a little mysterious), also skipping all this important information about how I had coffee this morning actually getting some stuff done etc. What I think could be of interest is that it is a bloody awesome day (the third in a row!!!) and I'll soon get out there again to catch some more of these volatile sunbeams, and tonight I'll watch a film at the open-air cinema in the Botanical Gardens with Flo and Tim and more people that I have yet to meet.

Life can be quite sweet!

The day after

wooahhwooahhwoahh, I had the best time over the weekend! Not that I found a place to live or anything BUT I have a job, which is almost as important right now. I can work at the Lounge (a bar/cafe/restaurant in the city) once a week and whenever they need someone. Thanx to Grace, who's one of the shift managers there. It's always good to have connections! Paul also works there ( I think he has been for the last five years). I must relearn, however, to carry three plates again. Haven't worked in hospitality for almost two years, so I guess all the muscles that I once had are gone. Bugger.

Anyhow, after "work" Paul and Grace and Flo and his flatmate Will and I all went to this Electro-Party in West Melbourne. (I left out the bit about me stepping in someone's vomit...) It was such a great night. I danced like a maniac and got pretty drunk (which means that I also didn't have my frustration level under control...) Luckily I'm too shy to act upon my instincts when I'm like that, so I ended up on Flo's couch. Sunday was not quite as exciting but an okay finish to a fantastic weekend. Looked at a couple of houses (one was in Brunswick West which is a bit too far out even though I really liked the people and they wanted me to move in but I just don't want to live around there... was a hard decision). The other house would be perfect, so I expect them to call me tonight or write an SMS saying: we found someone else to move in with us. good luck. Yeah, right! No worries. Everything else seems to work out right now so it's just going to be a matter of time until I find something.

Went to see Kate, the head of the Australian Centre, today and now I'm quite relieved because I'm not in trouble after all. Rather the opposite: we cleared the whole business with the Cinema Dept and then she introduced me to a couple of people and said something about a weekly meeting that I should attend and stuff. She was really helpful!

All in all, things are really bright and colourful right now. Yey!

PS: Avocado on Jeans looks like baby-vomit too!

Very tempting

Flo and I just had lunch together (Laura and Erik flew past on their bikes... they're going to spend a romantic weekend exploring Melbourne's surroundings)... where was I... right, we had lunch and Flo started telling me about going to Nimbin for a week and stuff THIS Sunday!!! It's a big hippie commune a bit inland from Byron Bay, a touristy but very relaxed surfer's town on the way to Brisbane. I'd like to be spontaneous and just say yes and go with the Flo (a little rhyme!) It'd be a week of hanging out, lots of reading, nights around a bonfire and music, walks through the surrounding rainforests and such... I need to find a place to live though very soon and - as always - it's about the money... There's one thing in the world that I really hate wasting mental energy on - moneymoneymoney. Very tiresome.

So, what should I do? It's probably not going to happen, not this Sunday anyway. I'm quite excited about the idea though... wellwellwell

strange weekend

Funny how addicted one can get to being online and checking one's mail and just surfing the net... At home in Berlin (in my beloved old apartment that I voluntarily moved out of...) I had internet access anytime, here I have to wait for the weekend to pass, so I can get back in front of the screen. Not looking forward to the coming weekend! Bullshit, of course I like weekends!!! It's just that right now I don't know the difference between weekdays and weekends anymore apart from the fact that people actually go to work now during the week and that I can't check my mail over the weekend unless I find an internet cafe.

Oh well, we didn't go to the beach on Saturday after all, instead I spent most of the day bumming around at my friend's house (I made pancakes! among other things), then I went to visit Renee at her cafe to have good coffee and show her my outfit that I was going to wear to a "Sexy Party" (not Sex Party! The idea was to dress sexy), then I went to meet Paul, my old housemate, and his boyfriend and we had some awesome Thaifood. Finally I ended up watching Jane Campion's "In the Cut," which I've been wanting to see for ages since I'm a fan of hers. I liked that she never repeats herself in what she does but, disappointingly, it was a pretty solid genre piece with Meg Ryan and some guy with a moustache having a few sex scenes. She used a few cool techniques but all in all it was not the kind of film experience I had expected ( which can also be a good thing, I guess, since I like it when people know how to play with other people's expectations...). Afterwards I still went to this "Sexy Party." I mean I had gone through the trouble of thinking about an outfit - well, it wasn't too hard actually considering the amount of things that fit in one backpack. Anyway, I went there, met Erik, Laura and Flo (he looked like a YMCA gay guy! The girls loved it!!!) and left again after a couple of minutes because I suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe with all these drunk and dancing people. Haven't had a claustrophobic fit like that in a loooong time. Freaked me right out.

Sunday was not much more exciting: overslept (was supposed to look at a room close to uni but I could reschedule), went to have another coffee at Renee's cafe, helped her put up little posters in the cafe's neighbourhood, looked at the room (cheap, in the middle of EVERYTHING, nice enough people, available soon BUT I just walked past one of the girls and she pretended she didn't see me with her head lowered... I guess that's not a good sign), went down to the city to check out the Midsumma Carnival, then on to St. Kilda Festival. I love the beach!!! That was one of the things I missed most about Melbourne... Love having the sea so close. But there were definitely too many people around (half a million half naked, sunglasses-wearing, beer-drinking, chicks and hunks). It took 40 minutes to cue up for a pee!!!
Tamsin made out a group of Germans, so we ended up spending most of the night with them. Was fun. The end of the night was a bit dramatic, however, because I stayed over at Ren's and for some reason we got into this argument. Seems like there's still some old baggage that we need to throw overboard even though I really enjoy spending time with her again and also being so close without actually being together (the attentive reader will have figured out by now who the mysterious person was I spent the first night with not falling asleep...)

So, now I'm sitting here, one Dollar in my pocket, no tobacco left, no credit on my phone, and thinking that maybe I should have joined ELF (ErikLauraFlo) to spend the day at the beach. I'm saying that now but I really think they're better off without me today. No intention of spoiling their day. However, it's hot and sunny outside and I'm a twit to sit inside this office here and stare at a computer screen... At least I got some cool music to keep me sane (I gladly blame Henri for that! Thanx honey! It's my favourite CD right now)

Sorry, if I bored anyone senseless. Your own fault!

Miracles still happen after all

You wouldn't believe it but I actually have a staff card now AND a computer log-in AND I can even get books from the library now!!! Lots of books! But only next week sometime. It's Friday after all and Flo, Erik, Laura and I are going to drive down the bay tomorrow and maybe go skinnydipping and sunbaking and surferwatching. And Sunday we'll go to the last day of the St.Kilda Festival, and Monday it's supposed to be really hot, so we'll go down to a beach again. And because we can we'll do the same on Tuesday, so maybe on Wednesday I might start doing some work (if I feel like it...)

There you go. I'm homeless and clueless and still a bit tipsy from last night (I got absolutely drunk with my old housemate last night. oooooh, how I missed him! He rocks!!!) AND I'm wearing a NO WAR sticker on my white shirt because I don't know how to drink a mangolassi properly. Did you know that it leaves really nice looking marks on white shirts that look like baby vomit? So now people at least have a reason to look at my chest. No war, I say!

Well, things can only get better from now on, I decided. Thanx, Erik and Flo, you karaoke queens! For listening to my whinging and for being sooo crazy. Love ya! Inga

PS: Who the heck is OMA??? Can't be my oma unless she has risen from the dead... ooohhhoooh

Not happy

It's raining. Again. Just arrived at uni and look like a drenched poodle. I might have to get an umbrella after all, even though I find it a bit daggy to walk around with this thing over your head and navigate on the sidewalks that are far too narrow for more than one umbrella in the air. But I guess with an umbrella you at least have a weapon to defend yourself with. I'll think about it... No, too daggy, isn't it? Well, the easiest solution for the problem would be if it just DIDN'T rain! Mmh.

Had three coffees this morning, so don't mind me! So long.

Welcome back!

Well. yes, I'm back in Melbourne, so I guess I made my threats come true. Who would have thought?

I arrived a few days ago, the day the biggest storm was about to happen ever since records began, so coming down on the plane was a pretty bumpy experience. Lucky me that I didn't arrive one day later because that's when the storm really got it working. Half of Melbourne had wet feet that day and probably spent most of the night putting bowls and anything else that would hold water on the floor since most of the houses in this country have holes in the roof. And when you're done searching for all the leaks then you can try and go to sleep to a nice little dripping concert or you just don't sleep at all and do what I did (well, I'm not going to talk about that right now... only as much: it involved another person.)

Anyhoo, I've had a bit of trouble getting my staff card that I need to have access to the computers and the Australian Centre where I'm going to spend my time in the next few months being very productive. It's also a library card, so that's pretty important. Apparently it's all going to happen in the next couple of days. We'll see. Other than that I'm looking for a place to live but it's going to be a bit difficult to find something for such a short period of time. I've already looked at a couple of houses (one right around the corner of Charles Street, my former residence and crazy party house that I missed quite a lot when I was back in Berlin) but I got time, so I don't need to hurry (thanx to a friend of mine who lets me stay with her). I'll just be lucky and find a place that's not too expensive yet close to uni and full of likeable people. No prob, I reckon!

So, welcome to the live of Inga! Pop in for more updates soon! Inga

Leaving Berlin

Posted by Ingale