Top 5: Favourite Albums for 2014

Apparently the ARIAs happened in Australia this week, although I feel pretty removed from the First World whilst here at work. Still, I usually do a Top 5 Favourite Albums of the year post around this time, so here it is....

1 Chet Faker's Built On Glass - loved it from the first listen, and have listened to it pretty consistently since. Chilled,

2 Stay Gold by First Aid Kit. Love this sound from the Swedish female duo. So beautiful, and some very poignant tracks.

3 Dan Sultan's Blackbird was probably my most played tunes over this year.

4 Black Keys and their Turn Blue, followed me around this year in my iPod, and all around on my travels. Loved it!

5 Tough call, because again I have been pretty removed from new music and new albums this year because of travel and work. I would have to put Slow Dancer's Surrender here. Former guitarist for Oh Mercy, I loved these tracks from the moment we heard them live when he played as support to the band, and the album release this year is very good.

End of November is always good, as it's the end of the hard slog for NaBloPoMo - although this year was another fail, with 2 posts planned but not completed and published. Just way too hard here at work!

Where Else Shuts The Country's Main Road When A Plane Is About To Land?

Where else but the Pacific nation of Nauru! The airport runway is surrounded on both sides by the single road that runs all the way around the island, and so, because it is so close to where the planes land, traffic is stopped.

Having watched the process as I waited for my flight to leave, I can tell you that someone mans the gate just outside the airport, and when they receive a radio-ed message from the air traffic control tower, they close the gate.

Planes land on the strip which has ocean at either end of it, just after the main road, and rumour has it, just 50 metres to spare in terms of regulation length based on the class of planes that land.

Here is an Our Airlines plane landing, obscuring the parliament buildings on the island.

Once the plane has landed, and taxi-ed into the airport building, the road remains closed because the plane will off load people and cargo, then reload and take off again.

It's a pretty unique experience, and pretty amusing the first few times!

Jessica and Heath's Wedding: Reception

After the ceremony, and drinks and photos, the gathering for Jessica and Heath wedding made their way around the corner to the Queen Victoria Market Deli Hall.

Greeting guests were the amazing catering staff for the night, and a spread of cheese and antipasto that was sensational! More mingling, great food, and champagne.

This most beautiful venue was so unique - only one other wedding has been held here, with the light from the skylights as the sun was fading, and then the lit up stores along each of the two main corridors of the Hall. Just stunning!

Heath and Jessie entered the Hall and joined the party. Their speeches began the night.

The seating in the next section of the Hall was stunning - each place was set around the veggie centrepieces all the way along the tables, from the produce sellers, of course.

Starters were served, and before I knew it it was time for me to make the family speech on behalf of myself, sisters, Mum and Dad. Max followed me, for Heath's family.

Then mains were served - the food was so very good!

Next was the traditional cutting of the cake, which was served as dessert, and then the bride and groom hit the dancefloor!

A totally romantic dance ensued, with the two of them having so much fun, and delighting the adoring audience. And then the rest of the party was invite to join, and the playlist kept people there. There was a moment when all the girls from Jess' Hen's took over the space in the Hall for dance, with the vaguely remembered moves for The Look.

It was such  an incredible day and night, for such a lovely couple. A day so very them, with all the details. Everything ran perfectly, and it was such a happy occasion. So lovely!

Standing Guard At Syntagma

I wandered through Syntagma Square in Athens while getting around the city taking in the sights, but didn't time it for the changing of the guards at the Parliament Building. Nonetheless, I got to see the guards, and their pretty uniforms, being pestered by a throng of tourists trying to get selfies with them. They stayed as stoic as they are supposed to - stern and still. Check out that pompom at the tip of his shoes - how can they take themselves seriously with that there!?!

More Athens Faces - Street Art Finds

I can't tell you how excited I was to discover so much Athens street art - it was scattered throughout the neighbourhood I stayed in, and then would also pop up in my wanderings around the city, sightseeing.

The top one, which echos Picaso, was a couple of doors down from my apartment building entrance and helped me know I was home. The hatted purple man was also a similar landmark for my stay and wanderings, and I was always happy to see him, meaning I was on the right path of laneways and little streets to get home!

This bottom one is by Sonke, and it's said that the girl that he paints is a former girlfriend who broke his heart. He now paints her everywhere, as a way to work through the breakup, and maybe reminder her of him when she sees these faces around the city. These girls are pretty captivating!

Top 5: Favourite Cities Around The World

After traveling to world for some 15 years now, predominately solo, and visited 54 countries and counting, there are a number of cities across the globe that I love, and yearn to go back to. And several of these I do go back to, frequently. One is the place I consider home, as much as life at the moment allows that notion.

My Top 5 Favourite Cities:

1 New York. This raging metropolis has been top of my list right from my very first visit back in 1999 - and I have been back 5 times now, with my last visit an opportunity to show it to my little sister. The magic of the Brooklyn Bridge, the wonder of wandering different neighbourhoods and getting totally different vibes for each, and the fact that there is always something happening somewhere, all appeal. The frantic bustle, the buzz and energy, and the possibilities, all make me dream of living there one day.

2 Tokyo - the Asian New York. But Tokyo is more perfected, more precise and efficient. So easy to get around, the food is amazing, the people are so cute, hip, and super friendly. I loved the energy and the cultural polar opposites at every turn. I'd love to return one day.

3 Phnom Penh. A city and country that got under my skin when I lived and worked there as a volunteer some 12 years ago now, and always feel a yearning to return. I would live and work there again in a heartbeat, for the right role. Going back early last year, the elements that I loved and hated about living in the city were ever present, reminding me of the buzz of the place - the amazing people and the killer traffic and pollution, the feeling of humanity from the way most people live and then the huge disparity between the rich and poor, the sense of rebuilding and resilience and then the evidence of the persistent corruption. The food, the buzz of new places to patronage, the feeling that just being there amongst it gives, as if you are somehow in the middle of something happening, something good and real and reborn.

4 Toronto. Just three months living there, admittedly over Summer (I am not sure I would survive a Canadian Winter!), was enough to know that this is a city that feels very much like home. And it IS very similar to Melbourne in many ways - the multiculturalism, the notion that there is always a festival going on somewhere, there is a great music scene, and different neighbourhoods are different little pockets across the city.

5 Melbourne, of course. One of the world's most livable cities, so the city finds itself claiming every year - and where I would sit still if the planets aligned again for that to happen (Hmmm, I am not sure what that would take, though!). The city that is my benchmark for everywhere else, in terms of what I want in a city - good sports events, a buzzing music scene, easy to get around, neighbourhoods that are unique from each other and have their own distinct character. Multiculturalism is what makes Melbourne so vibrant and full of so many amazing and diverse events, all year round. Good food, and always something new to discover and track down.


What would yours be?

Russell Street Substation: Open House Melbourne

One of the most popular buildings for Open House Melbourne, for many years running now, is the Russell Street Substation. The opportunity to go underground in the city, and check out a live electricity zone substations, gets an almost constant line up for the weekend. It's worth waiting to get a look, and the full personalised tour, to this unique part of our city!

Once at the front of the line, in the alleyway off Little Collins and Bourke Streets, you need to kit up for the experience. This means full length industrial grey jackets and a hard hat over a hair net! Not everyday you would donn such an outfit, unless working in such a place is your day job.

For the guys for whom this is their day job, you can tell it is a labour of love the moment they begin the tour, for which they have volunteered their weekend to deliver all day, both days of OHM. Their enthusiasm and knowledge, and obvious joy at showing off their little hub of electricity, is brimming.

Once down on the level below, the tour groups are taken through the rooms below, which house the equipment which was part of the first public electricity supply in the southern hemisphere. It it also the last substation to supply DC to local businesses, as last as just 8 years ago.

But the gem of the visit, along with the quirky electrical conductors and transformers, are the blue glowing mercury arc rectifiers. Looking like something from an outer space alien movie, these illuminated glass bulbs (turned on and off by tour participants) are still running just for show, and given their age and lack of actual use now, when they go out or break down, that will be the end of them at this location.

Worth going along just to see this weird and strange science in Melbourne, that cannot be repaired when it reaches it's natural end. But the dress-ups and the fun tour guides make this a don't-miss for Open House Melbourne.