Conference days in Hobart town part 2 - Play

When you ask a crowd of highly intelligent people *cough* to converge on a small city, I would say you're going to get two actions.
1. It will be quiet - we are professional geeks after all, or
2. There will be mayhem - bored intelligent minds? In one place? ka-BOOM!!!
I would like to think that I contributed much to option number two.

Night 1 of the conference was the welcome mixer where everyone stood around drinking the free booze and eating the very little fingerfood resulting in some very drunk scientists. ACB did it's duty and picked up a whole heap of people (mostly from CNS) and we all went over to Salamanca place to drink down one of the bars. I was still suffering the fallout from Friday night and had to go home quite early. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. I did however manage to sleep more than some people and had to console some people with very sore heads.

Night 2 was the Cocktail Party to be followed by the Student Mixer. I wasn't planning on attending this but ended up doing so after my status was met with disbelief and then begging - particularly from Punz and Joel's Angels. I did not go THAT hard because I wanted to keep down the supposedly awesome Seafood Chowder that PeteKoz was telling me about. It is generally thought in the dept. that I can be quite good at convincing people to bend to my will. I demonstrated this when I managed to convince our entire group that instead of walking across the road to get dinner, we should walk halfway across the city to where the awesome chowder was located. Unfortunately when it came for PeteKoz to take us to the restaurant, he confessed he didn't know which one it was. Dammit. Eventually we were satiated and stumbled onto the next pub for the Student mixer where David discovered that two beers, one G&T, and a Laphroaig somehow managed to cost less than $15. He was pretty amazed. I eventually pleaded exhaustion and friend-aid to go home early: Punz was giving a talk and I had to give her my opinion on what to wear to it. Needless to say this early finish meant that I didn't get to see true debauchery. That's okay because I managed to be present at....

Night 3 for the Conference Dinner. Dr I. had been trying to convince me for ages to attend the Dinner because it's where the fun is apparently at - he even pulled out a story of his wife playing air guitar on the leg of a plenary lecturer. I was tempted...but the price just wasn't right and when the combined forces of Pooky, David, Mikey, PeteKoz and Joel's Angels did finally manage to convince me...well the dinner was sold out. I went off with some non- dinner registrants and we had a pleasant meal of Thai food in Hobart's restaurant street. We ended up finishing around 9pm but no one felt like kicking on. I wasn't averse to going back to our room but the sad fact was Pooky had the only key and her phone wasn't working.

This is where Operation David came into it's own. I made a few phone calls and requested whether it would be possible to gain entry to the dinner given that I did not have a valid ticket. Innocent-looking Punz and dodgy as all get out David managed to *acquire* a ticket and bang, I was in the dinner! The problem then was then that I couldn't find Pooky - apparently she couldn't find anyone either. But since they'd gone to such effort to admit me, I couldn't just leave....so I got into the spirit of things. I discovered that watching senior scientists dance is akin to watching your parents dance, cute in a strange way but scarring in another. I found while formal dancing with a Brazilian postdoc that I want to lead. He very kindly tried to force me into how girls are supposed to dance by showing me how to move my feet and hips to do the samba. Secretly, I think he despaired at my lack of rhythm but was too chivalrous to say otherwise. I also discovered that tall skinny guys give good piggyback rides but their shoulderblades will invariably end up in your boobs.

A large crowd of us naturally kicked on but it was pretty much more of the same until Linnie and I decided to walk *Elly* home. (Elly is in asterisks because despite working with her, I was never told this was her English name.) We drunkenly walked her all the way to her apartment which was located in what was probably the as close to a dodgey street as you can get in Hobart. By the time I got back to the hotel, I was pretty sure Pooky would be asleep but hey, hope springs eternal. Unfortunately, my spring ran dry and despite quite a bit of knocking followed by asking reception to phone the room, I had to call Linnie and ask if I could crash on her couch. An appropriate end to a chaotic night!

Night 4 was a bit more sedate. The conference was officially over and I resisted the lure of booze once and for all, sinking only two champagnes at the farewell drinks and then only havinglemon lime bitters at what is considered the best Indian restaurant in Hobart. A large crowd of us wanted to go out with a bang and we decided to let Abrez choose the food to which he totally rose to the occasion! As you can imagine, there wasn't much going out on night 4. Everyone was just wrecked.

So tell me now, do you think I did better at work or socialising at this conference?

Conference days in Hobart town part 1 - Work

There's not really much I can say about the actual things that I listened to and presented at the conference.

1. I attended ALL the plenary lectures. I don't know if any of you realise how much of an effort that is on my part. Attending lectures voluntarily at 9am, going to things I know I won't understand or am not interested in...truly...maybe I'm no longer as geeky as I once were.
2. I was a bit startled to find the president-elect of the society asking me questions about my poster presentation. Needless to say, I don't think I impressed him very much, dammit.
3. Good looks don't make up for a boring lecture. Or at least they didn't until I had a few drinks into me and then I got to have a nice close look at one of the speakers whose lecture Pooky swore we had to attend. I nearly killed her out of boredom, it was that bad. He was nice looking, in a suave older man kinda way. And he'd look even better if he styled it better.
   
4. If I ever had doubts before, they have been swept away - SCIENTISTS ARE ALCOHOLICS. Four official conference days, four nights of free-flowing alcohol. Many hangovers the next morning at the plenary.
   
5. A conference will always be judged by the food served. I don't think anyone was impressed by the lunch showbags or the meagre morning and afternoon teas.
   

Next entry: my thoughts on the social activities of the conference!

Hobart day 1 & 2

Well people, in the space of less than a week I went majorly AWOL again. This time, the reason was a conference in Hobart. I didn't bring my camera (or ipod, dammit) so you need to take my word for some of it.

After a turbulent Friday night which won't be chronicled here, I got to the airport after about three hours' sleep. When we got to our booked accommodation...I swear to god, I have never met such rude staff. They tried to fobb us off with a booking for four people - it had been changed to three people and then they tried to charge us a higher rate even though I had it written down what the charge for three was supposed to be. I camethisclose to saying *!@#$ you, we're moving somewhere else.* When I saw the room, I really wished I had said it.

I don't know about you guys, but when I say three beds, I expect three BEDS. I don't want to see couches dressed up as beds. And the place seemed pretty dirty to me too. But the others wanted to stick with the cheap so I grudgingly relented.

BUT THEN POOKY SAVED ME WITH HER OFFER OF ALLOWING ME TO STAY IN HER ROOM IN THE CONFERENCE CENTRE WITH IT'S LOVELY HARBOUR VIEWS!!!

So I went over and for the second time in a week we bitched to each other in person and I managed to get some sleep.

The next day we decided to explore the city and do some shopping. Now, Miss Pooky is from a big city. She has been bred by people who are from big cities. And when I say big cities, I mean her dad thinks that Sydney is small and not crowded. Miss Pooky could not get over the small size of Hobart. She was horrified by the amount of roadkill she passed on the way from the airport to the *city*, and that despite spending the whole day wandering around the place, she only managed to see seven asian people - including ourselves.

Later we decided we should go to a supermarket to purchase foodstuffs and other assorted items. Seeing as we weren't local, we decided the best way to do that was to purchase something else...say, a book, and then ask the proprietor for the nearest located store. Our logic was that having bought something from them, they'd have no reason to lie to us. Well they even had to think about it and then directed us to a Woolworths. I walked doggedly up the street, certain that it would be just over the next hill while Pooky swore while she watched the streets become more and more deserted that if she didn't know me so well, she'd think I was trying to lure her somewhere in anticipation of some murder-fest. We found it eventually, and it was probably only a 10-15 minute walk...but we still purchased enough so that we wouldn't have to return. From then on, I did tell people where it was but warned them that it was FAR. And I was always gratified to hear when people agreed it was far.

Later in the week though, both me and Pooky shouted *WHAT?!?!?* when PeteKoz told us that there's a foodstore in Salamanca Place. It was truly devastating. Okay, it wasn't a supermarket but...still....

wah....

Did you guys see Jo-Willy (Ali) kick the crap out of Nadal?
Awesome!

For Heath

I don't usually like to comment on celebrity death but I'm finding myself surprisingly quite saddened by the news of Heath Ledger's. I wasn't an overwhelmingly huge fan of his although in hindsight, I realise I've seen pretty much all his films and enjoyed them (well...maybe not Ned Kelly). It was a big shock all around the lab when we heard. I don't believe it was a suicide/junkie etc etc and to paraphrase Elton John, I'm disappointed that all the reports had to say that he was found in the nude.

So in memory of Heath and his talent, here are some clips from his movies.

The singing scene from 10 Things I Hate About You

Trailer to Casanova

Fanvid of Brokeback Mountain to Nickelback's Far Away.

Peace out, Heath. You will be sorely missed.

For Pooey-ooey!

This entry is dedicated to Pooey who has been languishing in London where, despite being one of the world's indisputable *Alpha* cities, there is apparently a dearth of good Japanese and Korean restaurants. As much as it annoys me to say that anything about Sydney is better than Melbourne ...*sigh*... Jap and Korean food in Sydney is better than that found in Melbourne.

ARRRRGHHH!!!! BUT MALAYSIAN FOOD AND THE BAR SCENE IS BETTER IN MELBOURNE!

Okay, now that I've got that off my chest, here are some of mine and Pooey's favourite places to eat jap and kor in Sydney.

Menya (8 Quay St., Haymarket - Chinatown) is Pooey's fav ramen shop. The first time Pooey and I went here, it was something like 40 degrees celsius and we still had soupy noodles! Giant bowls of squishy ramen in tonkotsu-based soup...and it's super-duper cheap! I had a bowl of tori katsu ramen with a side of corn (for extra fibre) for $10.40. And I always end up rolling out of the restaurant.

The menu board.

My tasty tasty ramen...and with the corn.

Sushi train...what can I say about sushi train? All plates are $3 (it used to be $2.50!) except for the special ones - usually stuff like sashimi. But you can get all the raw salmon/kingfish/squid/takoyaki etc. that you want from the other plates if you keep an eye out and snatch the plates before your fellow diners steal it. There are a few of these around Sydney but the one I always seem to go to is near the corner of Bathurst and George St.

I didn't take any photos here because Miss Pooky thought it would be cruel of me to tease Pooey with succulent pictures of raw scallops.

What I consider undoubtedly the best Korean restaurant in Sydney is Seoul Ria on the corner of Goulbourn and George St. I'm not the only one who thinks it's good - pretty much everyone I know who's been in Sydney for an extended time knows about it and if you're still not convinced, do a google search and you'll find many other people agree with me! I always have the seafood pancake and the chili deep fried chicken or prawns. I couldn't have bulgogi this time around but that's usually something on the automatic-order list too!

Unforch I was too busy stuffing my face to take pictures here so here's the outside.

And the awesomely dodge elevator you need to take to get to Seoul-Ria.

This is not something that's particularly awesome but they're everywhere in Sydney and nowhere in London - bubble tea!
Well Pooey, I hope this makes you think of what you want but can't have!

Crimes against fashion

Number 42 - Accessorising is a great way to build on an outfit. Sometimes a clashing accessory can become the centrepiece of what you're wearing - for example, a chic silk scarf or a beautiful handbag.

However if you do it wrong, well, judge for yourself:It takes a certain personality to pull off a bowler hat. Or you are a Tramp. Or perhaps even a member of the Orange Order. Either way, I don't think it's the right thing to go with a jeans and runners.

Movie review - 27 Dresses

Ahhhh, chick flicks; the film genre equivalent of romance novels. You know what's going to happen. They know you know what's going to happen and doesn't pretend to be anything but a fluffy confection. And if you walk into 27 Dresses expecting a something heavy or with a sad ending...I think you need to reassess why you go to see movies. Flaneur and I were catching up after not having seen each other in years and so went to see this because we needed a movie that only went for 1.5 untaxing hours.

27 Dresses starts off with adult Jane (Katherine Heigl) explaining how was a 10 year old, she fell in love with the happiness inherent in weddings and how she likes to help that happiness along. Fast-forward about 20 years and Jane has become the equivalent of a professional bridesmaid by helping anyone who asks her to be a become one and help organise the wedding to the extent that she's done it 27 times (natch). At one of these weddings she meets Kevin (James Marsden) who does go to weddings professionally - he's a columnist who writes about weddings - but is the opposite of Jane because he's cynical about the whole wedding thing. Despite Kevin's good looks and obvious attraction to her, Jane's not interested because she's been in love forever with her boss George (Ed Burns)...who then falls in love at first sight with Jane's sister Tess...who then asks Jane to organise their wedding. You see where this is going, right?

There's no real point of me doing a huge Departed/Infernal Affairs-style analysis, nor did it enrage me enough to do a Miami Vice/Just Friends-esque movie assassination. The main points are thus:
1. Kevin and Jane had nice chemistry when they were bickering together. I'm not sure if that was really transmitted into romantic chemistry but I did feel a bit teary when they got to their big misunderstanding.
2. The reason for Kevin's cynicism (failed marriage) was brushed over in about two lines and not explored at all.
3. Tess is shown throughout to be a pretty shallow bitch to the extent that she does something pretty horrid to something that had a lot of sentimental value to Jane. And again, her character does a massive turnaround in about 2 minutes.
4. Sure, he's good looking but I didn't see the appeal of George to Jane. He totally took advantage of her taking care of every aspect of his life for 10 years with only token thanks and I can't believe she didn't get over her crush in about three years.

Nothing groundbreaking, but hey, chick flicks almost never are. 27 Dresses lives up to the soft and fluffy and formulaic perceptions of the genre but not in an unpleasant way. It filled in exactly what I needed it to be - something nice and short and unchallenging for a Saturday evening.
6/10

P.S. I have been advised to post a photo of James Marsden because he's pretty smokin' looking. Enjoy! (photo from rottentomatoes.com)

Leave of Absence

Hi Everyone.
I'm taking a well-deserved semi-break and will be in Sydney until next week. Net access will be variable so I dont know how often I'll be writing in. I will be posting another Crime against Fashion when I return - I forgot to upload the photo to go with the post. It was supposed to go out on Wednesday.

In other news, I'm devastated that Safin lost and I really did burst into tears while watching the match. *sigh*

Well now...

Apologies to my regular readers (hai Pooey, Amandine, Lydia & Pooky!). You may have noticed that my blogging frequency has dropped off in the last few months from one entry every 1-2 days to every 3-4 days. The answer is quite simple. Work has taken over my life.

I shit you not!

It has suddenly struck me that I'm approaching the third year of my PhD and I have nothing that looks like being published soon. Curse the three pronged attack! So I've basically been a machine since mid-December. Even Erica commented on how much work I'd done when she got back from Xmas break! Then she told me to take a break and stop working so hard (w00t!).

Anyway, I will try to maintain my level of opinionated commentary. Unfortunately it looks like Awards Season is going to be cut this year so I may not be able to do any fashion commentary for a while dammit.

Oh joy for Tennis Season!!!

I do love it when the tennis circus rolls into town. I also love it when photographers capture stuff like this:
(Source and Source)
Oh yes, I do so love the tennis circus.

Actually, the source that I ripped off the first photo, Craig Hickman's Tennis Blog, is a pretty good site for analysis and irreverent tennis commentary.

Movie review - 2 Days in Paris

Ahhh, Paris. Kim, Lydia and I went to go watch this the fateful night a waiter decided to have a meltdown. Despite being that putting me in a bit of a cranky mood and the movie featuring some of the most irritating people I've watched on film for a long time, I found myself highly enjoying them bicker their way across 2 Days in Paris.

Marion (Julie Delpy, the writer, directed, producer and according to Kim, my doppelganger) and Jack (Adam Goldberg) are on a European trip to rekindle their relationship and decide to stay two nights in Paris with Marion's parents before heading back to the US. Over the course of the two days they have culture clashes, personal clashes, and physical clashes. That and catching up with a lot of Marion's ex-boyfriends.

Despite the romantic premise or two days in the city of lurve, this is not a very romantic picture. We basically see Marion and Jack's relationship unravelled as they bicker across Paris. And not even just with each other - with Marion's parents and sister, her exes, taxi drivers and even randoms on the street. This does not show them in the best light. Jack appears as an paranoid hypochondriac whinger while Marion seems to be a chronic liar with anger management issues. That said, their insecurities and behaviours are very real - Jack is paranoid and whines because he doesn't speak the language and often can't comprehend what's going on around him, Marion lies because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings or believes that her arguments with various people are right.

And then there are the supporting characters/randoms!!! It's like every french person on the street was a pretentious arty type who was obsessed with and have a multitude of opinions on sex and plenty happy to share it with anyone. Taxi drivers are racists or perverts, American tourists are xenophobes obsessed with tracing the DaVinci Code or seeing Jim Morrison's grave, parents solely exist to humiliate their children...blah it just goes on.

But you know, some of it is quite funny. Other annoyances aside, we three agreed that it's quite a good introspective look at modern day love and relationships. I usually find voice overs whereby the action is narrated by one of participants qutie trite, but in this case Delpy's observations and explanations seemed sincere and true to anyone who's been in the same situation. That's probably the main redeeming feature.

The film doesn't break any new barriers, but it's quite cute and enjoyable.
7/10

Service Levels

Last night, Lydia and I met up for dinner before going to see 2 Days in Paris (review coming) at an art house cinema. The cafe that we usually like to go to is currently closed for renovations and it's sister restaurant was so packed that people were queuing up on the street. We decided to go somewhere that I hadn't eaten at for years but was very close by.

We had about an hour before the film session was about to start so we walked in, plonked ourselves down and ordered a bowl of spaghetti each. We just chatted about crap for a while until we realised that the people next to us had pretty much finished their food despite arriving and ordering after us. I figured that based on the time I rang Lydia, we'd been sitting in the place for about 20 minutes. We decided to ask if it was coming and explained it was because we had tickets to a show. The waiter was initially apologetic saying that a lot of people arrived at the same time so the kitchen had a backlog. We took it for the time being.

But you know, how long does it take to make a bowl of spaghetti?! This was a place that normally throws that kind of food out!

So we decided to wait another 10 minutes before asking again because that would leave us with 20 minutes to scoff the food down. At this point, the couple next to us were onto their coffee and they actually commented to us that it was strange that we were sitting down before them and had yet to receive our food. THEY actually grabbed a waiter for us (different waiter I think - they all kinda looked like each other) but he was SOOO RUDE. Seriously, I believe he said something like this to us:

Look, I'm sorry but a lot of people arrived here at the same time, that's why your order is late. It is coming. Anyway, you've only been sitting there for about 20 minutes.

ONLY TWENTY MINUTES?!?! My curvy ass it was only 20 minutes. What kind of stupid waiter also reminds you how long you've been waiting?! Anyway, it wasn't as if they were like the best restaurant in the world making an incredibly complex dish - we'd both ordered the spaghetti of the day!!! I watch a lot of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, he may not be the biggest ball of charm but if there's one thing he knows, it's how to run a restaurant and he always rams it that you do not keep your customers waiting ages for their food. Also, the restaurant was NOT huge, it wasn't as though a tiny kitchen was cooking for 100 people.

THEY WERE BOWLS OF SPAGHETTI!!!! WITH SALAMI AND TOMATOES!!! IT SHOULD NOT TAKE LONG!!!

So anyway, we looked at each other, got up, picked up our bags, told them the order was cancelled, and walked out.

F!@# you waiter and thank you for reminding me why I haven't eaten at your restaurant for years. It's going to be many more before I walk back in.

Mike the Hottie

When Pooey got back from Berlin, she told me some of the stuff that she liked about Berlin, and one of the notable items was her hot tour guide. Now, Pooey went to Stockholm and talked about a hot hotel guy there but she disappointed me by not taking any photos of him so I was unable assess him for hotness. I was very disappointed. Needless to say I was not holding my breath when I asked her whether she had any shots of Mike the hot tour guide but to my pleasant surprise, she did!

They were not very good photos and frankly when I saw the first picture, I thought he was moderately attractive, but not something to swoon over. In fact, I thought he looked a bit like Andy Roddick but with eyes that were further apart.

Mike

Andy

But then she ended her blog with this picture and I was much more easily convinced of this hotness!!!
In fact, the way his eyes crinkle combined with that hairiness reminded me of...dare I say it...Marat?

My husband

Pooey said that Mike the Hottie's normal expression was the crinkly smile in which case I fully give him my eye candy seal of approval! Can I also say I like how low his pants are in the second photo? Hottie!

GLORIOUS gigabytes!

For pretty much all of 2007, I have been neglecting my desktop in favour of my laptop (Toshi). Not because of the convenience of being able to do my net stuff in front of the tv (although that is pretty nifty), but because the volume of data being analysed was large and some of the programs I use for analysis weren't on the desktop. Sometimes I'd think I'd do something at home only to find I'd left the files on the laptop or I'd brought the right stuff home only to realise that they're still in their raw format. Annoying!

But you know, carrying the Toshi around all the time gets annoying. When it rains (as it did torrentially a fortnight ago) I'm always terrified that it'll get wet and destroyed. It also hinders my ability to go straight from the gym to the bus stop. But the real problem is that since my study is generally photography-based, I was creating massively huge files and was losing the ability to back them up because my DVD-burner was suffering from lack of free mem to work properly.

This is where Smee comes into the picture. Smee advocated getting a mini-HDD ages ago but I declined due to the expense and not thinking I'd wreck my toshi volume so quickly. Long story short, he did some investigating and found me an absolutely bee-yoo-tiful mini one that I've now christened *Glowy* for reasons that will become apparent.

The box.

Yes, it is choc-full of glorious gigabytes!!!

Oh hello to you too!

Glowy poses outside of the box

Glowy singing a happy working song and glowing along as it works.

Since there I'm sure the two of us will have a wonderful working relationship!

Shared photos

Okay, I finally got off my curvy ass and uploaded photos of Eurotrip and Xmas 2007,

Once again, the link is http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com/
Password - 12345

Argh, back to work

Well, work officially started again yesterday. And ok, technically I didn't have a break because I was pretty much here all the time anyway...but I resent having to be here all the same.

Although I did have only a half day yesterday - I played hooky to go have laksa with Smee and then play with a corgi puppy. So cute.

Ringin' in the New Year!

Happy New Year to y'all!!! After many years of filth, it was decided that this year was going to be all class. And when you think class and Melb, well the only answer is The Windsor, of course, and so we waved goodbye to the hottest day of the year surrounded by all it's Victorian grandeur.

Grand Staircase

Grand Piano in hallway

Our hallway

We were a little concerned that the hotel wouldn't allow us to host a party and also how large the suite would be - it was never stated in the room description. But our worries came to naught as the hotel were wonderfully obliging and our suite was absolutely huge and beautiful!!! Seriously, Natty, Dr. Ilaya-Kelly and I let out gasps of excitement as we investigated our Sir Winston Churchill suite!

Lounge room

Dining room

Absolutely HUGE king room

*Small* bedroom - which was bigger than some of the rooms I've slept in.

Using the old-skool desk

And so we carefully set ourselves up and let the night roll on!

The set up view one

The set up view two

The mantlepiece show

The boys celebrate the end of the year by watching TV...

And then dig into the booze

Our table setting gets ravaged

With QQ...

and Dr. I-K...

and Lydia

No comment

I swore that if it had not dropped beneath 30 degrees I would not be leaving our air-conditioned apartment but the appeal of going out to watch the fireworks proved too much and we rocked out into the 32 degree heat to watch them. Well, Dr Kelly and Laulita got lost on the way to Treasury Gardens and Natty went too hard too fast to leave the room. I didn't pack my camera with me so take my word for it that they were viewed.


Unfortunately the heat and drink got the best of me and when I had to change out of my boned dress and remove my contact lenses all bets were off and I had to crash around 3am. I didn't take a photo of the damage before we cleaned it up, but you can judge for yourself by viewing the garbage pile!

Natty and Dr. I-K put the Victorian furniture to use

The boys ring in the new year by watching TV

Special mentions of the party go to

• Laulita who despite being the eldest there put us all to shame by being last one standing as well as having the least amount of sleep.
• Kahuna who made the effort the other guys didn't make himself suit the surroundings
• Sandro and Alain who took the party to another level.

A good night had by all. Who wants to start planning our upgrade to the Royal Suite next year?!