Firstly – an update since I began to extract myself from the increasingly worrying Sex and the City vortext – I went to the Opening Night of the Mardi Gras Film Festival – which was lots of fun, but when I think back to the Opening Night of the 2006 London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival – in Cafe de Paris, with the fan dancer and other fantastic entertainment, it does pale somewhat in comparison (finally something that London does better than the Gay Capital of the World!).
Last weekend I took advantage of the beautiful weather and wandered along Bronte beach to Bondi – I’m slowly being charmed by the more beachy parts of Sydney and am considering moving nearer the sea. Pics on Flickr of the dangerous animals I encountered!
Last week was another Sydney Institution – Tropfest. This is an annual short film festival, where a TSI (Tropfest Signature Item) is announced a few months before the screening date, and every submission has to feature this TSI. This year it was a sneeze, which is quite a tricky one, (last year’s was a kiss) so it was interesting to see how the filmmakers dealt with it. It’s there to make sure people don’t just recycle old films they’ve made, so that the films are made specifically for Tropfest. Anyway, being a film industry bigwig over here (lol) I had VIP tickets – which meant free food and endless cointreau cocktails in the VIP tent, and actual seats to sit on (the screening is outside in a huge park so everyone else has to bring their own picnic blankets or cushions) – the atmosphere was great, and as all films were under 7 minutes, people’s attention spans didn’t wane too much. Next year I might even try to enter a film!
Surry Hills in Sydney is littered with lots of lovely little art galleries, so there’s a gallery opening nearly every night of the week here. I’ve managed to get myself onto the lists of quite a few, so Christina and I went to The Sherman Galleries this week. The space was lovely (see pic) but the exhibition was about animal rights, which doesn’t really interest me, so we supped the free wine and played at being art critics for the evening. If I see anything nice I might purchase something sometime, but these were all a bit twee.
Which brings me to the pinnacle of the week – my birthday! Was initially quite excited about the prospect of having a summer birthday, but the heat has been pretty unbearable of late, I’m covered in mossie bites and heat rash, and quite frankly the novelty is wearing off somewhat. I looked at Heidi’s recent Finland photos with longing nostalgia the other day – I think there’s a reason I was born in the Northern Hemisphere – I was meant to have a winter birthday! But anyway, let’s not be too humbug about it – the evenings are wonderful and warm – where else can you wander by the harbour at 1am and not even wear a cardigan?
My housemates bought me an Australian world map for my birthday:
This tickles me – I never even thought that there was another world map to the one I’ve had on my wall for the last 10 years! Isn’t it cool? It excited me somewhat more than the Dior lipgloss they also got me, which I think is a bit like when kids play more with the packaging of their really expensive Christmas presents…
The guys at work surprised me with a yummy birthday cheesecake, and I skived off work for a few hours in the middle of the day to get my hair done with my new marketing coordinator Steph – she’s fab. Then after work we wandered over to Cockle Bay Wharf in the Darling Harbour to a restaurant called Chinta Ria for yummy asian food and BYO wine. This part of town was a little too touristy and tacky for me, so we were soon back in our Darlinghurst comfort zone, but it was a fun evening.
Things are still going well over here, but I did miss you all on my birthday – thanks to everyone for the parcels, texts and emails. It was great to hear from you and feel a little less far away. And remember – no moaning about the cold British weather – some of us wish we could swap climates ;-)
cx
