re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Mon Dec 12, 2011 03:54 AM
That's kind of the point. What happened to Sara was utterly disgusting, and signifies a tipping point in our supposed democratic, constitutionally protected rights. It is VERY scary.
In other news, I Mic Checked the Bourke St Mall on Saturday afternoon. This is what I said.
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my head (karma: 2)en>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Tue Dec 20, 2011 03:53 PM
Tomorrow is Second Boyfriend day! I can't wait to see him, he's so, so lovely.
I am a bit broke this Christmas, so I made him a wallet. Out of a laptop keyboard.
I started with this:
And ended with this:
Mad skills.
In other news, I haven't been back to Occupy Melbourne for a while, because I've been so busy with school and placement, but now I am finished with that, so I look forward to getting back into it. The council and police harassment hasn't stopped, so we're planning the next phase of our movement. Tonight's General Assembly will reveal all! EXCITE!
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Wed Dec 21, 2011 04:33 PM
IT'S SECOND BOYFRIEND DAY!!
My housemate Sue has given me a lovely dress for Christmas, which I plan to wear tonight when Second Boyfriend and I go out for drinks/dinner. It's an EXTREMELY flattering leopard print maxi dress, and it's SO SO long that I have to wear heels with it. Excite!! (I'll post pics of me in it tomorrow )
We are staying at the Adelphi Hotel, a boutique hotel in the city. It's got an amazing glass-bottomed swimming pool on it's top level that overhangs the street. In 2002, a friend of mine had her 30th birthday at this hotel, and I remember being absolutely ENAMOURED by the pool, and I vowed that one day I would swim in it. Well - that day has come!!
I'm halfway through packing my suitcase, and have ALREADY packed two pairs of shoes. Sigh. Why does anyone need to take TWO pairs of shoes to spend ONE night in a hotel?!
Obviously, I am pretty psyched. I can't wait to give him his lovely present, I have boxed it up lovely style in a nice gift box that my housemate gave me:
Oh, I can't wait to see him. It's always just too exciting! Hope you are all having a lovely Thursday!
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Thu Dec 22, 2011 07:47 PM
At 6.30 this morning, I swam in this pool. It's on the rooftop of the hotel we stayed in, and the far end is cantilevered over Flinders Lane and has a perspex bottom, so one can swim right to the end and peer down onto the street.
It was quiet up there at 6.30. Dawn had broken but the sky was soft and grey, and I was on my own on the deck. Astroturf adorned the ground, deckchairs and yellow umbrellas were scattered around upon it. I could hear a few trams going up and down Swanston Street, and a few cars drove by below me, but the cranes at the building site across the road were silent, fixed. The neon sign on the KPMG building was still illuminated, and I wondered if anyone was at work yet. I swam languidly up and down as the sun slowly rose in the sky. While it's no secret how much I love my city, I fell in love with Melbourne all over again as I swam above the city this morning. And I think Melbourne might be feeling the same way
My evening with Second Boyfriend was glorious. We had one drink in the hotel bar, ate dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant on Degraves Street, and then drank sake at the Robot Bar. It was such a lovely warm night, we sat outside and laughed for hours. Wonderful times.
This morning we had breakfast, again on Degraves Street, and went our separate ways. He went to Melbourne Central to meet his friends, I went to Mark's office to have an iced coffee with him. I now sit on my bed, awaiting him to come home. When he does, we'll go out and do our Christmas shopping, and buy some beer. It's going to be lovely.
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Fri Dec 23, 2011 08:34 PM
Christmas Eve List O' Things To Do
1. Feed cats
2. Clean cat litter
3. Breakfast/cup of tea
4. Clean kitchen
5. Shop for last minute gifts and supplies
6. Clean bathroom
7. Clean lounge
8. Vacuum floors
9. Wrap presents
10. Get cats a little treat
11. Bake bread
Almost all of that is done. All that's left is to vaccuum the floors and bake the bread, and Mark is thoroughly ensconced in rising the bread at the moment. I am also going to give Mark's hair a trim before he has his shower later this afternoon.
My sister and her boyfriend are coming over tonight for a few drinks and gift-giving. Hosting Christmas festivities at my house makes me feel VERY grown up.
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Sat Dec 31, 2011 07:15 PM
New Year's Day, and here we are.
Christmas was great. Got some lovely things, the best of which was an ice cream maker from Mark's sister. We will never be without ice cream again!
New Year's was good too. Friday night was a party with some of my people from Occupy Melbourne - one of our sisters turned 21 on Christmas Day, so a big party was thrown in her honour on Friday night. Drinks, food, music, dancing and amazing company. It was an awesome night, and we needed it SO badly. It really took the edge off the troubling stuff that's been happening over the past few weeks.
Saturday night Mark and I had drinks at home with a friend, then watched the NYE fireworks from the park across the street from our house. Lovely! I criticise the amount of money spent on fireworks, which basically amounts to burning a million dollars in 15 minutes, but I do love them. They're very pretty.
Today we got up at about 9, had breakfast, and Mark has made ice cream. Tonight we are off to Occupy Melbourne's new home base at Fr Bob's parish in South Melbourne for a big roast dinner. I think it's going to be lovely.
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Fri Jan 06, 2012 08:23 PM
Edited by Odessa (22571) on 2012-01-06 20:25:20 bold!
I have not had a normal night's sleep in over a week.
December 30th - Occupy Melbourne First Aid and Care/Jasmine's 21st birthday party. Was out dancing all night at Jason's. In bed after 2am. December 31st - New Year's Eve. Stayed up to watch the fireworks from my front yard, drank beer, danced, was happy. In bed after 2am. January 1st - Occupy Melbourne New Year's Day roast dinner. Went to OMel HQ for a big roast dinner - ate a bunch of roast veg and apple pie and came home and sat outside and drank beers with Mark and our housemate Susannah because it was too hot to be inside. In bed by midnight. January 2nd - Evan and his friend Simon came over at 11pm to watch Charlie Brooker's 2011 Wipe. Was hot as satan's balls in the house so after that finished we went outside and sat in the backyard and talked politics until 4 in the morning. During this, Evan asked me what sort of police surveillance Occupy Melbourne had been subject to and I said I had heard some whisperings of people being followed by the po-po. Just as I got done explaining this, we all noticed a police helicopter circling overhead. It did a number of big laps and then flew away. In bed by 4.30am. January 3rd - I think this was the only night I went to bed before midnight. January 4th - Went to Evan's at 11.45pm to talk politics and OMel. His friend Luke drove me home but we just drove around and goofed off for ages before he dropped me off. In bed after 2am. January 5th - Our internet had been shaped because we downloaded too much in peak time. Offpeak starts at 2am, so I had to stay up until 2am in order to finish my last assignment for nursing school. Was in bed by 4am. January 6th - Woke up around 10am and dragged myself out of bed because I had to a) hand in the cursed assignment and b) drop by City Square for the re-occupation. Mark met me there after work at 4pm and we goofed off in the city for a while and then came home. We both fell asleep on our bed at 9pm, woke at 11 and then got up and had dinner, washed the dishes, did a load of washing and hopped online at 2am when the internet sped up. We were in bed by 4 but then were woken by roadworks at 5.30 (new tram lines are being constructed near our house, and it sounded like a warzone out there), by the cat at 6.30, 7.30 and 8.30, and then by warm wind at 10.30. Today (January 7th) - In town again at State Library using superfast internet. Going to OMel General Assembly, then home. Maybe even to bed.
New Week's Resolution? Go the blank to sleep at a normal hour. I'm not anticipating that happening though, with the next ten days featuring 24 hour tram track works outside my house. Shoot me.
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Sun Jan 08, 2012 01:26 PM
Occupy Melbourne. Day 85.
That's right. Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione brought their bad selves down to Occupy Melbourne, occupied a tree for about 45 minutes and sang us some lovely songs.
Including The Rainbow Connection.
It was amazing, and it brought so many new faces to Occupy Melbourne - I hope we see some of them come back.
Thankyou to Amanda and Brian for taking time out of their busy schedule to come and play with us, we are humbled.
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Mon Jan 09, 2012 01:08 AM
Hah? Really? That's awesome!! Small world moment #578! What's his name?
Mark took those first two photos, and has offered to photograph your Melbourne show if you'd like to engage his services. He accepts payment in the form of photographer credits anywhere you choose to publish the photographs.
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:10 PM
It is the last day of internet shaping! Last night I went to bed at about 2.30 am, and slept all the way through until 11.30 am, and I feel SO refreshed!
I got up and cleaned the kitchen and the floors, and now I am waiting around for Mark to get home from work so I can take his tram ticket and go into town for General Assembly.
Just a short update today. I'm feeling pretty good because I finally got a decent night's sleep, after almost two weeks. Occupy Melbourne is moving into a new phase of operations, and I'm feeling very positive about the next steps.
Having the Dresden Dolls come and sing songs for us was very energising. I hope we can hold on to this momentum.
re: a wide open country in my eyes, and these romantic dreams in my headen>frfr>en By Odessa Comments: 10720, member since Wed Feb 27, 2002
On Tue Jan 17, 2012 02:59 PM
Edited by Odessa (22571) on 2012-01-17 15:06:07
I'm exhausted. I haven't slept properly in days. Occupy Melbourne is taking up a lot of my time and that would be OK if I was getting decent sleep. It's a full-time job and without sleep, it's sucking my will to live.
But despite all that, I love it. We're a small group at the moment, we Occupiers, and we're currently only Occupying one day a week (an event called Occupy Friday, which runs for 12 hours), but so far we've managed to get Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione to play for us, and this Friday, Jacob Appelbaum, hacker and information activist, is speaking at City Square. It's really, really, really exciting. It's amazing being part of something this big - when I first went down to City Square on October 15 to check it all out, I didn't imagine I would become this involved. It's like a vortex, it sucks you in.
In other news, Mark and I are headed to Hobart next weekend for his Dad's 60th birthday. I am really looking forward to this, as I have never been to Tasmania before so I suspect it will be a really nice weekend. We leave on the Friday morning and return the following Monday. Mark is going to buy me a new dress for the occasion, too!
Australia Day, the day before we go, is shaping up to be a good one this year. We're going to have beer and savoury croissants for breakfast, and then head into town for the Share The Spirit festival, which is an indigenous music, arts and culture festival. I'm really looking forward to this. I always have a lot of white guilt on Australia Day - it commemorates the day the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove in 1788, began the wholesale destruction of the indigenous people living here and the theft of their land. I know I wasn't part of that and I know it wasn't my fault but I can't help feeling bad about it anyway.
The other day at Occupy Friday I was sitting next to an indigenous activist in a discussion circle, and her phone rang. It played the song Treaty and my feelings were so conflicted. On the one hand it made me smile because it was just SO her, and on the other hand I wanted to sink into the ground and die because my government STILL hasn't made a treaty with the Aboriginal people of this land, or done ANYTHING to mend the damage done by 200 years of colonisation.
I wanted to sink into the ground and die because we STILL have a Northern Territory intervention which is nothing but nanny-state neo-colonialism wrapped up in a "save the children" agenda. Rich white people in Canberra are in NO position to arbitrarily dictate what's best for Aboriginal people living in the centre of this continent, and the Northern Territory intervention is one of the ugliest remnants of the Howard era.
I wanted to sink into the ground and die because mining companies continue to desecrate land that doesn't belong to them and con traditional owners out of their homes in their never-ending quest for heavy (and sometimes radioactive) metals.
I wanted to sink into the ground and die because I don't know how to deal with any of this.
The only thing that makes sense is to Occupy. The only thing that makes sense is to meet with other people who feel the same way I do, to forge connections with indigenous activists and elders and work together at shaping this nation into a place where whitefellas and blackfellas can share the land, live together peacefully, and make decisions for themselves and their communities, not for or on behalf of each other.
Readers, how do you deal with your white guilt? Do you have any?
