Catherine’s Blog

38/365 Bad Swedish

Originally uploaded by LPM

This weekend has been busy.
Friday night saw me out, going to Gulag, a goth night. It was very nice, I will be going back as it felt like it could be a tiny vagabonds or B-movie.
Saturday Natalie and i along with Fergus and Ewan headed off on along drive to see the Redhill craft market. It was very interesting and we are going to put ourselves down for it.
Saturday night I was in Kyneton playing board games, I had a lot of fun doing that. I won one and lost badly in the train one. It was A’s birthday celebration and a lovely time.

Sunday was another craft in Gisbon markets, they were not quite for us. There were people selling aprons but at really cheap prices.
Most of the afternoon was spent in the Corner hotel beer garden in Richmond with camera people. It was lovely but I must get into taking photos of other things besides me.

The sign in the photo is meant to say “Rikard thinks I am awesome” there is no Swedish word for awesome so it is bodged together.  the reason for this is he sent me a list of self portrait suggestions and this was one of them and i hacked the Swedish from online translators.  It is a little nod to meeting 12 months ago.
Today is shopping for fabric for a couple of custom aprons and lunch with F whom I went to school with.

36/365 Snip, snip

Originally uploaded by LPM

It is late, i am curled up in my bed after going to “Gulag” a little goth night with good friends, bowed out early as we are off to check out craft markets.
Today, I got my hair cut and applied for Jobs, what an exciting life I lead.

35/365 The endless hunt

Originally uploaded by LPM

In the Melton Library, hunting for work.
The large public library turned me down.
Meh.
sucks to be me.
good news, ummm, it has cooled down and I got my e-tag fro the car.

26/265 Australia Day.

Originally uploaded by LPM

So last time your intrepid blogger checked in she was complaining about sunburn after looking at cars. Since then there has been a public holiday, Australia Day which was passed lying on the couch, listening to Triple J and looking back on the year. It was then i publicly announced I was returning to Australia, I am back now and although certainly not where I thought i would be I am reasonably happy.

I went out, goth clubbing and caught up with lots of people and made some new contacts. It was great to get out even though there were lots of young goths who looked like they dressed like R&B goths.

I test drove a number of cars and finally settled on a Holden Bernia. I am well pleased with the car and it has given me a good boost even though the amount of money has given me the waking up terrors.


Since the purchase of the car I have been testing it, by visiting people unannounced and in general getting a sense of freedom back. Although I had access to cars it does not feel the same as my own car. I went and visit Penny at Syber’s books. It was like I had come home. I have gotten back into reading. Some trashy fantasy plus other fantasy stuff, next step is to read Rikard’s favourite books and some steampunk. Catching up with Penny was great. Lots of brilliant gossip, catching up with the past two years, it was tough telling her why I was back. Really tough. She also filled me in all the comings and goings of friends and exs. I picked up books and went on my merry way.

I have had a couple of job interviews that I have good feelings about. I am waiting for choices to be made. I really want one in a big public library, the vibe off the interviewers was very good and they are doing roving which I am very interested in. The other was for a large well know retailer here in Australia, it is call centre work but products they sell I am interested in and the job seems not too far away from what I have done in the past. I have a number of jobs to apply for this week. The market seems to be picking up which is very good.

I am getting into the catching up with people and rally making an effort at the moment, I caught up with Catherine from High School earlier in the week, catching up without her boys over dinner. We have made a date in three weeks time to do it again. I am also catching up with Flo and her new addition on Monday.
I went to the movies with Joyce last night to see “The Lovely Bones”, dark and surreal, it was a good movie, possibly a touch long. Before the movies I spent a lot of time looking at old photos and finding the perfect one for a looking into the past self portrait.

Today I cut out fabric and headed back to Melton, tomorrow job applications.
I have been getting into this self portrait thing and working on more artistic shots. I am quite pleased with some of my recent ones. I am going to try and post a shot here a day to try get into the swing of posting more often, even though I have only vague idea who reads this. I have had a quote back on my DSLR and will have to discuss that with my brother about the insurance.

21/365 Victorian postcard

Originally uploaded by LPM

Right, today, went car shopping, think i have found my new car, this is good and bad, more expensive than I thought but I have realistic that small autos are hard to come by and hold their value.
I have another to drive on Monday before I firm this up. I am very nervous about doing this before knowing how much money i will have and the Aussie dollar but I need a car.
So, I also got very sunburnt, I really need to get a grip on putting on sunscreen before leaving the house.
The photo was going to show the sunburn but the sepia looked very cool.
The photo below is because my audience thought I should laugh or was making me laugh. You can see my sunburn, I am going to have a very brown face at this rate.

Rest of me week has been quite up and down, well mainly down. Applying for jobs etc is stressy. I spent a lot of time sewing aprons and getting ready for a market, that we only made $20 so that was depressing.

I am sure things will pick up but a job is a job and blah blah. Oh well, I have to go nurse my sunburn.

9/365 Looking into the sun

Originally uploaded by LPM

I am bad. This looks like I have been busy, not sure if this is the case. I have filling in a lot of my time with bits and piece including photography.

After my day out with Joyce, last Thursday I headed out with Tracy and Jack to have a poke around the ACMI museum, very, very cool. Great interactive exhibition and lots of different things to look at, some great flash backs to the television I grew up with. Unfortunately I managed to get sunburnt which was very naughty of me.
Friday was spent mainly sewing and hiding from the heat, the weather has been scorching and avoiding it has been difficult. We have a craft market lined up for this Saturday so I had to get stuck into putting together stuff.
Saturday I took the boys out to the park before it got too hot, even though it was 30C by 8am we threw around the frisbee and had fun. I headed out later in the afternoon and went to Royal Park to help Toby celebrate his 30th birthday. I waited for the temp to drop before catching the train into Melbourne. It was very pleasant in the park, lovely company to chat to and generally relax with. There I met Dee and Anthony, Dee is a fairly serious photographer, carrying around no less than f cameras. Insane! But not too insane as one was a pentax. We got along well because she had recognised me from Fergus’ primary school Christmas concert. It is a very small world, she on lives a street over from us in Melton. Due their closeness to mine they offered me a lift so I then threw out the plan to travel back on the train. This possibly meant more beer, followed by a trip to Lygon Street. Ahhh Lygon Street, teeming at all hours of the night, restaurants open to ridiculous hours and always something happening. We found one of the Italian restaurants willing to serve us and we sat down to pizza and wine. Oh, I had gnocci. Pesto, which I have realised I don’t eat any where as much as I used to, it was a staple in our house.
Sunday was possibly a little bit of a write off, it was hot and I was tired. I also was little bit like a cat on a hot tin roof as well. Rikard’s mother was in London and I was scheduled to have a Skype chat with Lisbeth. Ack, I find speaking to parents of people I like romantically hard at the best of times but over Skype and a woman who is doing her masters is sociology and speaks more than one language! To top it off Rikard is an only child and I was blithely told she has never met or spoken to his other romantic attachments. Oh course, no pressure.
The photo call was short and the web cams not working but it was not as bad as I thought it could be. She had a very Swedish accent, very pleasant to listen to, and apparently was nervous as me.
Monday I sweltered in the house on my own as the rest of the house had headed to Phillip Island for a break. I went into the city to pick up supplies for sewing and by the time I arrived back I was a sweaty mess. It really was too hot to do much, I pottered for a bit before it became just too hot even inside. It his 45C outside and I retreated to Hungry Jacks for a break from the heat at 9pm when it was 35C still.
The temp did not drop below 30C all night, the hottest night for ages, apparently a 100 years or something. Sleeping was a tossing, turning and sweaty affair. Tuesday morning was revolting and hot, the concept of doing much was difficult. I did a bit of washing and sewed a little whilst waiting for the cool change to come through. When it did was a relief and I spent the cool productively sewing.
Today, Wednesday, began with an early start, shower, fancy new dress and make up on before 7.30am. I had a date on the couch! Rikard and I watched Life Aquatic together whilst on skype. It was another surreal moment but well worth the effort. These planned activities are an interesting concept as they make you feel more a part of the others life even though we are half a world apart. Very kooky but well worth the effort.
Tonight I have been out to a meet up photography group which was very pleasant. The rest of the week will be tidying, sewing and applying for jobs. Exciting. We have a craft market to go to in Williamstown on Sunday so madly planning for that.

6/365 Driving on the Highway

Originally uploaded by LPM

I am little tired today.
Today headed out with joyce to see the movie “Bright Star” which was very enjoyable and the costumes just lovely.
Yesterday the main activity was swimming with the boys. 2 hours in the swimming pool. I think this is the reason for the tiredness. We had a ball I took photos!

4/365 giving my baby to a stranger,
originally uploaded by LPM.

I spent this morning chasing Fowler preserving jars. I found a great stash of them for a cheap price at the local tip shop! Very pleased and I found rings and lids for the size 2 styles.
I also had to finally take in my camera for repair after dropping it recently. I have cracked the base plate, at the moment I have no idea how much it will cost or if it is repairable.   I am missing it already and they may keep it weeks!!!
My life is so exciting!!!!

2/365 Saturday night

Originally uploaded by LPM

Okay, I think I might have gone mad. I have decided to do a 365 project. A self portrait every day for a year.
I am determined to push myself this year and generally try and make it an awesome year. I really want to get on my feet and be me, for the first time in a while.
So, that subject line, with that divided number will generally indicate an self portrait. I am going to mix it up and add photoshop and lighting to the pictures as well. There is a new category in the side bar there and all the project photos will go there to.
Also I believe I have a new reader of this blog. Hi Dad, welcome to the internet and my little bit of it, I hope it is not too embarrassing, and remember this is like fight club, what is said on the internet stays on the internet.  ;0)  (you may have to look up emoticons.)

3/365 Face painting

Originally uploaded by LPM

Today was Ewan’s fourth birthday and a party. There was lots of food and cake and some face painting.
I need to have a play with the Optio’s settings as a lot of them were over exposed because of the bright sunlight out of the shade.
Ewan had a great time and when I got home this morning he was terribly excited. He is quite a difficult subject to capture, very much a child that will say no to everything but I was letting him paint my face so he allowed the camera to be used.
He then took some terribly unflattering photos of me and we posed for the following one.

and the arty farty shot for the day.

I am quite tired today but had an email that increased my cheer by quite a lot.