Film Binge

I joined Netflix yesterday because of Arrested Development Season 4, and it's caused twenty-four hours of unadulterated streaming bliss. And that was on top of two DVDs I'd already watched yesterday too. So, since yesterday morning I have watched the following movies, which seem to become increasingly low-brow as time goes on!:

1.Otto Preminger's Advise & Consent (1962)

2. Douglas Sirk's Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952)

3. The Dictator (2012) - This is the beginning of the Netflix mania last night...

4. Bachelorette (2012) Very late now!

5. Adventureland (2009) - This was this morning, 'warming up' to lecture writing today...

Plus I watched some Arrested Development (hmmm),90s SNL and Portlandia as well. So I've caught up on a lot of the recent 'guilty pleasures' and also I've got a good-looking queue for the future. I wish Netflix had more mid 20th century classics though and a better way of searching through available films, though. It's a bit trial and error at the moment.

Lamington at Il Primosole

Il Primosole is one of the neglected wonders of East Brunswick, it is a diner with cheap food and coffee (I guess it means 'first sun'?), if it was in America it would probably be really popular but for some reason this place is never really that crowded. So, it is the perfect place to be able to just hang, read, do nothing. I imagine that this would be a great place to write an entire PhD or a novel. Because I am probably leaving this hood soon for warmer climes, I feel sad that this place is not going to be my local cafe any more. I am missing it already! So I am going to come here as much as I can before I leave. It is right at my tram stop, I dropped by after work tonight because I was really hungry:

Look how wonderful the interior space is! Look at the lights! And the plants!

It was nice to see a couple of people hanging out here this evening. There were three people in the cafe when I went it - a veritable crowd at this time of night. This was one guy who just wanted to stand, eat and go, Italian style...

Rosemary's Baby

Watching this week's episode of Mad Men directly inspired me to download the Kindle edition of Rosemary's Baby  to read for the first time (Sally Draper was reading it in bed before 'Grandma Ida' turned up). I've seen the film already, of course!

Healesville Sanctuary Sunday

Irit and Chris, who I recently discovered are also recently anointed zoo members (so good!), invited me to go with them to Healesville Sanctuary on sunday. For both of them it was their zoo trifecta, but I still have to get out to Werribee Open Range Zoo before I've seen all three. Healesville is a very peaceful and happy feeling zoo, there is a lot of open space and freedom to move around (for the people and the animals), and I think the animals seem a lot more at ease here, being native and all. I don't have a picture here, but I got to pat a slinky giant snake! It was coiling around and trying to get into my bag! These are some of the other guys we met on sunday....

Irit's haughty new associate!

Suddenly not looking so haughty...

Spring Breakers

In retrospect I have to say that this movie blew my mind. I'm thinking about seeing it again on cheap mondays at Nova if I've got time this week. At first I resisted the premise and got angry at the crap characterization and semi-narrative, and then I got pulled in to its style and it held me from (amazing) Britney Spears ballad to Miami Vice speedboat. I love the film's tonal shifts from serious to comic and back again. It is the first film in a long time that makes me feel 'I am watching a poem'.

Douglas Sirk Film

I don't know which one yet.

*Update: It ended up being Imitation of Life - wow!

 

Melbourne Zoo: Loose Seals

I know that this is going to get repetitive, but if it aint broke don't fix it I guess. Today I visited the zoo after my morning class and uni work, I spent a couple of hours over lunch seeing a few of the places I hadn't had a chance to go to yet (and back to the butterfly house). Today was a pretty cold, wet, unpleasant kind of day, I felt very sorry for the poor lions in their enclosure, in fact I feel sorry for all of the equatorial or warmer climate creatures having to go through winter in Parkville... shouldn't there be an artificially created environment for these poor things?

The underwater seal world was mesmerizing, I spent ages here today and used all sorts of photo apps to try and capture a good shot (they move so quickly!). I like using Luminancer to try and capture their movement through light and colour too.

It started to bucket down with water at the seal display. I tried to get to the Butterfly House quickly to warm up again, but by then all the pathways had flooded and then I had to wait it out a while inside... which was fine with me. This giant butterfly below was really attracted to this one guy's particular umbrella...

A view of pouring rain from the SE-Asian elephant hut. The rest of the photos are just other lovely creatures and things I saw today!

Another Snuggie Night

Post lecture........ Sleep!!!!!!!

Ready Steady Cook

I ate lunch watching Ready Steady Cook. Daytime television. Lecture writing. Need to go.

Rye Weekend

My first 'weekend' in five weeks, I got to hang out with RJ, Kate and Hugh at Rye for a night.
When we got to the apartment, we discovered that we had a mini-golf green in the back yard. The novelty wore off for me after about twenty seconds (after I realised how bad I am!), but I have to admit that Hugh is in all respects a mini-golfing genius.

The real reason for the weekend was to go back to the Peninsula Hot Springs - I hadn't been here since August last year. It ended up being really hot and sunny yesterday, so the springs weren't heated to be as hot as they usually are. Not to be an asshole and all, but I actually wanted a cool one yesterday.

OK, the bad part of PHS yesterday: I was kind of annoyed that there were only three robes left for hire, just like last time they only had 'summer robes' and not enough for all of us. There needs to be: 1. the option to hire in advance of arrival, 2. more experienced front reception staff and a 'already booked' fast queue 3.less people allowed into the springs at any one time. After going to Hepburn Bathhouse a month back, I was struck this time by how super-crowded this place is. I don't have the opportunity to come here unless it's a weekend at the moment. This is going to sound mean, but I also think that children aged 3-12 should not be allowed here. It would just fit in more with the whole 'zen' thing they're trying to theme the place as too, to get rid of the pool bombing kids who understandably get a little over-excited at times. Or... they could create a separate 'kids-friendly' family wing or something?

I didn't go to the pool 'on top of the world' yesterday, you can see the long queue for the pool here. It just wasn't worth it. No one was getting out quickly, and if you got in you have to sit there feeling people watching you and resenting you. It might have been extra crowded because it was getting pretty close to sunset. Also, it is such a small pool that you often end up seated across from some dreadlocked dude that you don't want to look at, or else there is someone annoying who wants to get 'close' to their partner, and Kate also said 'there are a lot of bugs up the top'.

Below: Doing the reflexology walk. So on the plus side, I still had a really beautiful and relaxing day overall. There was a new lakeside pool that has a fantastic spa (although it only works for the first 15 minutes of every hour???), and we all got to hang and chat and eat sour coke bottle lollies and say nothing and recharge after difficult weeks all around. There were still lots of places where we could go where there was the possibility to hang out in quiet... just not the really well-known signature places. The hamam didn't feel as hot as usual, but I got all woozy from it and had to jump in the plunge pool afterwards to recover!

Kate and Hugh: looking like the ultimate rehab tourists!

So today RJ, Kate and I drove around the Peninsula, doing sight-seeing stuff. We went to Bushranger's Bay from Cape Schanck on a little bushwalk. Then we went to Flinders for lunch, I ended up getting a vanilla slice from a takeaway place there that has a world record for the largest vanilla slice in the world. So they make these gross, tall slices that taste like gelatinous, clotted cream with vanilla essence added. OMG it was so sickly, I ate three mouthfuls and then couldn't eat any more...

Here's a photo of my face next to the slice, so that you can see how ridiculously tall this thing is. I have to admit that I am a big fan of vanilla slices, and I am always willing to try a random Victorian bakery in order to see if it really does have 'the best Vanilla Slice' in Australia or whatever, but let me tell you I think I'm now done for life. I am done!

Imagine getting married and having a vanilla slice wedding cake that tastes like gelatinous cream with vanilla essence added to it... just imagine...

Today ended up with a wander through Ashcombe Maze, the classic hedge mazes were really nice and tall and confusing, the weather had changed though to the dreary and we were all a little exhausted and over it. We did the rose maze, thought about doing the lavender maze, and then left for home again. It was a happy weekend. It is good being able to relax and not work all through the weekend or be sick for a change.

Teen Witch Mag Issue 2

This arrived in the post today, it's so damned good, there are tattoos and stickers and collector cards!

Melbourne Zoo Again: 'SE Asia style'

You know what they always say: when the going gets tough, the tough go to the zoo. So yeah, I went back to the zoo two days after joining . It was like twenty six degrees today, blue skies, bright light, I was having a shit day on campus so I decided to take an early one and spend the last hour at my new favourite place. It's a ten minute bike ride! I could come here for lunch every day!

There was an ice cream truck outside, so I made sure to get a chocolate soft serve before going in.

The weird thing is that I didn't really take that many photos of the animals today. I only had time to go to the tiger/elephant 'South East Asian rainforest' area of the park, but all the photos of the animals are long-distance, dark, blurry and shady.

"Hati hati"! The Melbourne Zoo have really gone all out with the SE Asian stuff!

So today I saw tigers, elephants, butterflies and meercats. When I was leaving at closing time, I bumped into Irit, and it is CARAZY but she has just become a member too! I am so glad to have a zoo buddy now, together we can help start the revolution...

Finally, here's the beautiful entrance to the Butterfly House. Again, I didn't get a good photo of a butterfly inside, but believe me, it's amazing in there. I remember going to a Butterfly House with Sylvia and Alex in Chiang Mai in 2011 and there were like two butterflies in the whole place. But the MZ one is heated to 26-31 degrees every day, so alongside the pretty 'flies this is also a good 'winter escape' option in the Parkville region. I can just take my books there and hang out all day! Today I got here at the end of the day, which is the beginning of 'roosting time'.