Sonne Mond Sterne festival

Has it really been two years since I attended a music festival?! Well the clock was reset this weekend when I went to Sonne Mond Sterne! Held near the village where he grew up in Thuringen, Dunkeldeutschland, Alex has attended this electrofest every year since the first one (19 times!), and with this inside info, it was AWESOME!!!

The party started at 10pm. To be honest, we were a little worried about how we were going to see Steve Aoki who was scheduled to start at 3:30am

But THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS started an hour late (I think it was around 2am?) due to technical issues. When they started though, their light show with these EPIC SINGING ROBOTS was totally worth it! Like a religious experience!

The sun rose during Aoki's set

And I totally would have watched it except I was too busy dancing.

We slept in until around 2pm, although I'm not sure if it can really be 'sleeping in' given that we slept after 7am. Either way, we took it easy before getting into it again. And with a line up including Gestoert aber Geil, FAITHLESS (!!!), Fritz Kalkbrenner, and Calvin Harris, we were going to need all the rest we could get. 

Just like this beach buddha with disco ball

Wayfarers, dancing masks, graphic shirts, flower crowns, duck faces...the uniform for dance parties!

Calvin Harris has come a long way since the Prince of Wales Hotel in St. Kilda! There was no way I'd be able to stand close enough to watch him sing today. Also, he doesn't sing anymore :(

I have to say, a general agreement between us (and the taxi driver) is that unlike other festivals, people weren't overly drunk or drugged or angry. It was all happy moods, as you can see in this photo...

In any case, such an awesome time was had that it was completely understandable why someone would attend for 19 years running. And we've already decided to go again next year!

So here's to SMS XX!!!

I'm not dead!

I was just really busy! Here's a basic summary of what (I think) had been going on in the past few months...

November - My wisdom teeth finally came out.

The surgery was kind of brutal with many people amazed at both the extent of bruising post-surgery but also the speed of my recovery.

December - Miss Pooky came to visit for Xmas! She was an epic series of Christkindlmarkt visits where I made her try out different sausages and she met Dr. Pfft to prove to her that not all Germans are sooooo bad.

I roasted an epic chicken for Xmas dinner.

After she left, the snow came down like how!

January - Okay, I really have no idea what the hell I was doing in January. I was probably working like hell because in February...

February - I went back to Melbs with stopovers in Bali and Singapore.

Relaxing on the beach in Seminyak

Relaxing in the pool in Singapore

Hanging out with Cookie Monster in Melbs

March - I've also got no idea what I was doing in March, probably because it was Starkbierfest and sickness swept through the campus. *Cough*

April - I finally managed to visit Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, and Strasbourg.

While in Strasbourg I somehow conducted a conversation with a shopguy in 3 languages - French, German, and English. YAAAAASSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

May - This month was insane.

First off, I went to Lisbon with my German Wolfpack

. 

Next, due to the fire at Fiumicino airport a planned weekend trip to Rome turned into a crazy 12 hour trip to Rome to celebrate the end of Riz's posting. 

Then I spent a weekend raving.

I went back to Italy the following with my International Hangover girls. And finally, I rested.

June - The Third Annual Suit Up Birthday Party!

And now it's July. I can't promise that I'll be as stringent a writer as before, but I'll try!!!!

Entertainment, Aussie-style

On my way to meeting Rachie, I saw a huge crowd watching these performers outside of the GPO...

And I couldn't think of any other place where adults would put on giant fuzzy costumes of native animals and dance around in the sun in 35C temperature.

A day with Rachie (and food)

I have really, really, really craved good Japanese food while in Munich. Good thing RachiePoo and I went to Sushi Hotaru to catch up and eat!

Mmmm, soft-shell crab hand roll. 

When I tell people in Munich that I'll eat almost anything, I'm never quite sure if they believe. So for your delectation/disgust, here is a photo of the raw prawn nigiri that I ate.

The damage. Not that impressive when you consider it was the combo of me and Rachie. On the other hand, I did swing by ACB beforehand and for some reason, they fed me a lot of sliced meat and roast chicken.

As our intention was to catch up with each other, Rachie and I ended up strolling around and, as always, we ended up at NGVAustralia where a number of interesting exhibits were on display.

My favourite of which were the pieces from the Hotham St. Ladies in which they created domestic scenes out of pieces of cake frosting.

Seriously, here's a close up of the above sign.

It actually took us a while to figure out that it was icing. In this lounge room, icing pieces included the couch throw, rug, pizza box, chair cushions, wallpaper... 

Ka-POW!!!

Since the gallery closes at 5pm, we headed out to get a drink at a rooftop bar but the weather had changed and it was pretty gusty and cold.

So we retreated to the Sofitel as usual. This is actually a mocktail!

Also knowing that I've craved dumplings while in Germany, dinner was booked at Hutong Dumpling.

My love/happy face for the many dumplings to be had!

Mmmmm, classics. 

Susi has a friend who actually worked at the Melbourne Hofbrauhaus! This photo is for them!

Now, I was actually pretty full after all that eating, but during dinner it was discussed and decided that we all (Clinty, Omar and Pooey joined us at Hutong) would take SECOND DINNER at Huxtaburger because I had never been there.  

Front - my Rudy (the small one). Rear - Pooey's Bill. I'm glad I got the small burger because delicious as it was, I was so damn full. Despite all that, Pooey and I still got bubble tea before leaving the city!

Then I went home and collapsed into a food coma. 

City of London Museum

A number of activities were completed on the Sunday I was in London. The first thing Pooey and I did was head off to Postman's Park.Movie buffs might recognise it as the park from the movie Closer, where Jude Law and Natalie Portman's characters chat with each other after Natalie is hit by a cab.

It was a beautiful, tranquil day. I wanted to sit near the Alice Ayers tile but a bunch of construction workers were socialising there. 

The park in the final scene of Closer (SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!!!)

I have a funny side story/example of British humour. It was a quiet, warm, sunny Sunday morning. As I previously mentioned, it was extremely tranquil. The tranquility was broken by a vehicle that was driving around the area blasting out Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. While Pooey was turned to me making a comment about the music, the source drive by the gates - IT WAS A FIRE ENGINE!!!

Anyway, moving on to our next destination, we went to the Museum of London, located near Barbican and the old City of London Wall. This museum documents the history of London from prehistoric to modern times. I had a lot of nerdy fun here.

My excitement started before I even got in!

Here I am trying to balance some weights in the Roman London section. I wasn't very good at it.

Looking at examples of sculpture from Mediaeval times.

Wearing a Mediaeval/Tudor headdress. It keps my ears warm. This hood also kept my ears warm. It wasn't until I put them on that I thought about all the other heads they might have been on...

Moving on, here I am modelling a cell from Newgate Prison. Pooey mentioned that a friend of hers and Smee's lived in a room smaller than this.

The Vauxhall/Pleasure gardens exhibit. Those are some sweet hats and dresses.

A Vauxhall footman with some sweeties, and an example of an acrobat that could be viewed there.

And then we got to the Victorian era where they had a whole street/shopping set-up!!! Clockwise from bottom left! I'm so interested in the tailor shop!!! And the barber shop!!! And the pub!!! I'm not so sure about the public urinal though.

Seeing if I could pour my own beer in the pub. Pooey said it looked like any old pub on the street.

Ummm, I can't remember what this is, but it looks like a pipe organ or calliope.

PENNY FARTHING!!!!

And then finally, there was an exhibition on the Olympics, since London hosted the 2012 games. This is actually a torch for the previous Beijing olympics.

Postman's park is located on Aldersgate St/St. Martin Le Grand.

Museum of London is on London Wall. Entry is free.