To the city of culture

On the mother flippin' road:
Lucy, me, Erika and Kieran.


Melbourne. Radiohead. A car full of young whippersnappers getting high on life, junk food and good tunes during a nine-hour road trip. Markets. Piercings. A scummy, stinky hostel dorm room. More junk food. Losing a wallet/ID/money. Sailor Jerry. Giant op-shop. Stumbling across a glorious beer garden. Video Games - the song. Fresh juice. Going overboard in a lolly shop. Succeeding at navigating the tram lines. 

I didn't know where to begin in describing my amazing weekend in Melbourne, so there you go! There's all of it blurted out in a paragraph of key words.


At The Brunswick Green's beer garden:
eating TDF sausage rolls and spectating some guy's mission to bring down an umbrella.


Last Friday, my brother, sister, friend and I embarked on an epic road trip from Adelaide to Melbourne in the name of Radiohead, which was the band name printed on four concert tickets I held in my hand. Note: I came by these tickets with some wondrous luck mixed with enormous dedication and a 5am wake-up one morning in March (read here).

Sitting in the back seat of the car, where it was quite squishy and smelt like greasy human, was compensated for by having Lucy pick us rad songs to dance to, and picking up ciders on the way. (Cider makes everything better).
We happened to stop for food not once, but five times (!!), with hot dogs, Maccas, HJs, cakes and ice-cream all wolfed down to keep us on a sugary high. 
Yep I did feel sick.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the road, my friend Erika lost her wallet. Though we didn't believe it could be lost, at all, until we actually stopped at every place on the way home three days later and found it! 
The loss of her money before reaching Melbourne was bad, but it was the ID that was a real problem.
"How about you guys stay at the hostel and we'll go out," was roughly what Kieran and Lucy suggested. 
"Or we could sneak her in somewhere?" I said, all hopeful and naive-like.
"Not a chance, that just doesn't happen here," they replied.
We slumped our shoulders before enjoying a walk around the city, a game of pool, and an early (1am) night in the smelly hostel room which was full of sweaty half-naked people and hot condensation on the walls and window, urrrgh.


Our smelly, eight-bed dorm room.

SJ.


The next day was bliss, because IDs do not matter in the daytime. 
We scoped the markets, had gourmet eggs (and vodka) for brekky, visited the Asian Beer Cafe and took a tram to Brunswick St where we explored the GIANT op-shop, Savers, and came across the best beer garden ever, dappled in sunshine and filled with chattering voices.
Initially I was thinking the place was too dark and dingy, because you walk in and... well, that's just how it looks. 
But the cool bar guy piped up, "Hey, we've got a beer garden! Why don't you send one of your troops to check it out and report back to the group? Meanwhile, two of you can check this food menu here, and the other can decide on drinks!"
What a smooth talker!!! He even picked out our meal for us, pointing to the sausage rolls that taste like "If you took your grandmother's recipe, hid it away for 30 years, and gave it to our chef who made some minor adjustments...," he said. They were delicious, especially accompanied by Sailor Jerry rum.



Kiz and Luce ready to order.


 Learning to read a menu without pointing my finger.

A bitchin' Iced Coffee.

Yum.



Now for the whole point of the trip - one of my favourite bands ever, was playing at the Rod Laver Arena.
Radiohead smashed it. 







We were seated up high, feeling a little casual about it all when they launched into Lotus Flower and I suddenly couldn't stop grinning. Thom Yorke does dance like a maniac, and it's a pretty contagious vibe!
From there it was There There, Myxomatosis, Exit Music (For a Film), Paranoid Android, You and Whose Army and a myriad of amazing tracks that just stole the night. 
I will always be slightly dev'd that they couldn't just stop being too cool to play their most popular songs and just play me High and Dry or Karma Police, but it was still great.

Our last day was quite cruisey - we stopped at Off Ya Tree and Kieran got his septum pierced while Lucy got her second tragus done. We had brekky at Quarter in a wicked-as alley and took a bazillion more photos with our iPhones.

Then we drove. And drove. And drove. And got home to my Dad's place, where eleven homemade pizzas greeted us, before we went to the pub for a beer and to write a thank-you note to the guy who lent us his car!

And that's about it for our adventure.

After only my second visit to Melbourne, I can straight out say I love it.
A simple wander down the streets just smacks you in the face with so much culture - in the super-varied clothing/appearances of the people you pass, in the countless quirky shops and cafés, in the music gigs and art exhibitions you know are going on just a few blocks away...

I'm definitely set on living there for at least a year while working at Frankie magazine or something. :)

xZ

Photos from a rookie














After putting it off for a month, I finally got around to looking through my photos from a photography workshop I did - read here.

The aim of the workshop was to teach 10 young Margaret River locals about photography, with tips from expert Christian Fletcher,
but also it was to make them think about the appreciation they have for certain places within their community.

We visited:
- The Organic Garden
- Boranup Forest
- The junkyard
- Redgate Winery vineyards
- Contos beach
- Gnarabup beach
- Rivermouth beach
- Wallcliffe house
....and I actually can't remember the last two off the top of my head.

Anyway,
I guess I've been nervous about selecting my "best photo" for the upcoming exhibition we've been asked to take part in... but it has to be done. The above are a few I've shortlisted, and I think the 6th (flowers) and 7th (top of a tin can stack in the junkyard) and last one (weeds at the beach) are my favourites.

I also love the one of my friend Maya, who I met at the workshop, but I don't think we're supposed to include photos of people! It's all about selecting a photo that represents a place that means something to us and we have to write 50 words or less to explain why we chose it.

Let me know if you have a favourite, it mayyyy make my decision easier.


:) xZ


Note: The first six photos are from the Organic Garden; then one from the local junkyard;
one from Boranup Forest; and the rest are from cliff at Contos.

Bohemian summer



























Just a whole bunch of amazing summer images to inspire you for the warmer weather.
I can't wait for it to warm up enough to swap my winter wardrobe for flowy dresses, crochet tops and SO many bright coloured things!

xZ


Getting into photography

Image source: The Design Work


Hi guys!

Yesterday I went to a photography workshop and this morning I was REALLY excited to charge up my camera again and properly look over all my photos for the first time.
...But my camera charger blew up in my face so I'll have to wait for another to arrive in the post haha.
I'll express my excitement here. :D

The workshop was run by Christian Fletcher - a well-known landscape photographer in Western Australia. Only 10 people participated, ages 15-25, because we had won the opportunity through a competition.

I was surprised to win, to be honest! I had written my application in under 20 mins and was not satisfied, but it was a truly last-minute thing. This just shows, you should NOT give up hope until you give your efforts a chance.

Me and the group!

Anyway! With much nervousness going on, I rocked up to the workshop and found myself launched into photography - it was brilliant! Christian gave us tips on how to take photos and how to edit them in Photoshop, before taking us on a road trip to stunning places around Margaret River. 
We travelled in a minibus, with a little map planned out - we had to each choose a location - and would stop at each place, take about 10-20 photos, and move on! High speed, with maximum effort/quality - I hope. :P

Eeeee I can't wait to look at them!

If you have a interest in photography - even if it's like a "Yeahhh.... kinda.... but I don't think I'll be good" interest - give workshops a go! Look into it! Don't be afraid.
You might be able to pay for workshops run by local photographers, or you could just ask them to give you some tips and show you some things.
There might be some competitions/opportunities around you - so look on the Internet or in the paper, whatever! 

<3 xZ



Workplace challenges














Today I'm writing because my friend, Narelle, told me she didn't like finding her own eye staring back at her every time she visited my blog. Haha. So here is a new post!

The main thing that has been happening lately is work.
But I'm not saying this is dull. In fact, it's been hectic and challenging. I'm learning new things, which I love!

Our editor, Mal, finished up with us last week and has gone on to lead a life of nomad travels.
Meanwhile, the Mail is left with an editorial team of TWO people. One being a cadet. Me.
Last week, I thought it was brilliant being able to take half a day off for my 22nd birthday, and then being sent to Bunbury for a day course on 'Breaking News'.
But combine that with the fact that I'm now in charge of sport - yes, sport; I can spell it, at the very least - and I'm expected to take on a lot more responsibility with general stories and laying out pages.

So basically, I was very behind on work, and had to do most of my entertainment stories on the weekend to catch up.
On Monday, I felt like I took eternity to wrap my head around which sport photos belonged with which stories, because they all arrive in bits and pieces through email.
On Tuesday, deadline day, I was carefully laying out the sport in QuarkXpress - tongue out in concentration - and then finally finished to find that Janine had sent almost all the pages off to be printed already!
She does so much work it isn't funny.
So I hope to climb up in my level of efficiency and feel as though I'm helpful. :)

xZ


Kindred spirits



This is my beautiful friend, Narelle.
Today she said she was posting a surprise for me on Facebook, and I later discovered this image of sunshiney delightfulness!
"I'll put flowers in my hair and take a pic for you when I get home!" I told her.
Sadly the sun wasn't anywhere to be seen, but I still enjoyed the fresh smell of the jasmine pinned to my tangled locks, and took a photo for my buddy, with the feeling like we were sharing fun times despite being states apart.

I like the contrast between her warm pic and my seemingly cold one.





My brother Louie and I had fun taking a few snaps while we were at it.









Top- Just Jeans; Boots - Rivers; Stockings - IGA.

xZ