arriving alive

i set the alarm at 4am today so i could wake up at 4.30am to go fetch the flatmate from the airport. living in a quiet little 'burb denotes a 1hour drive to the airport somehow - there is a connection somewhere. and it was nice driving at 5 in the morning, for a change. 5am is sometimes the time that i fall asleep, so it was slightly odd to wake up while it was still dark. lovely for sleep-ins, winter mornings are.

at the airport, i witnessed a meeting that turned my insides to mush. i'm a softie like that. there was an understated joy in the meeting between a 60-something year old english woman - every bit like a granny in appearance, and a 70-something year old man (in a corresponding grandfatherly appearance). i'm not assuming they're a couple. perhaps they are. i would like that to happen to me when i'm 64. it was sweet, the manner which they kissed and hugged. slowly. and it made me feel there was a sense of quiet stateliness about the whole affair.

that's the thing i love and hate about airports. the (temporary) reunions and the separations. breaks my heart sometimes, even if it is a reunion. the heartbreakingly happy sort.

when i was younger, my dad had to travel overseas frequently for business, and i dreaded the news of hearing of a plane crash. i suppose i've never let on that it affected me so, but i made it a point to be around for dinner the night before each trip. that fact that that could be our last meal together as a family scared me shitless, really. not that any accident would cause us to be any less of a family... there'd be prayers uttered, and promises made to myself (which were sometimes forgotten after his return). but thankfully, he would always return safely.

and now, with some miles of my own, and a family separated by several time zones, i am still on tenterhooks the night before anyone close needs to travel. and i am still amazed by the grace that allows for safe landings.

in denial. me.

the winter break was kickstarted with a hearty angmoh-style brekkie at mario's. its all-day brekkie meant we could stuff ourselves silly with real baked beans (why bother with canned ones anymore?) on wheat toast, 'shrooms, omelette and sausages at 3o'clock in the afternoon. their famous homemade plum jam was obviously flying off the shelves that afternoon, so we had to try a bottle. that was the first and last meal of the day, the breakfast. the rest of the nourishment came from the lovely coffee we sipped at brunetti's after a stroll to the museum and a walk down lygon's. winter's not so bad after all, with all the more reason to indulge in a little winter bulge.



tell me i'm not beginning to become very auntie-fied. the next few days are spent mulling over amazingly pretty fabric that's being cleared from ummm... spotlight. yeah. there, i've said it. i've a secret fixation with the good ol' craftiness that comes with auntie-dom. it was an end of financial year fabric rummage sale, and the crowd consisted of oba-sans getting their measurements right for their curtains, suburb-y moms with prams and sticky kids in tow, and the occasional crafty girl-in-her-20s. the men, the wiser for wear, had decided to wait patiently at the nearby dick smith's electronics mart. oh the trauma of a warehouse full of oestrogen-pumping bodies, dreaming up DIY ways to decorate their nests. you can almost smell the rose-lavender potpourri and the mothballs.



this i'm particularly proud of - a battle conquest of sorts. at AUD9.95 per metre, i managed to purchase 3metres, and then get the last 2metres of the bale at AUD2. don't you just love it when you are the last person to purchase an item like fabric or food, and there's a little more so you get to have more for less? and that feeling of knowing no one else is going to have that fabric, since it's a clearance sale, so you've got the last of it. and you're somehow that much more special than before.

so now i have 5metres of pretty pink dotted fabric. they are going be my future curtains. it gets me mad sometimes, that at the precise moment that i need it, i can never find what i want. so these pretty dots can be with me all the while until i need curtains. for now, i'll think of some use for them - i'm sure there's plenty of things to decorate around my (tiny) 50sqm apartment.



and taDAH! my not-so-virgin efforts at sewing a cushion cover - the last and first cushion cover i was forced to cross-stitch was when i was 8 years old, for art and craft in school. it was a horrendous thing with giant saccharine pink frills i think my lovely grandmother, bless her soul, helped to complete. i suppose it was the 'in' thing aesthetically back then with the housewives. frilly cushions. i was never great shakes at sewing. the lines always turn out crooked, and the thread inevitably tangles itself.

so this is a good cushion cover, by my own standards. i'm bringing it to sydney for the next week i'm there. somehow there's always a fear of leaving my regular sleep-pillows-for-hugging behind at a hotel when i'm on a trip. i try to be a big girl about it, but it's just that much harder to fall asleep without the security of that dratted pillow. so this time i'm trying a cushion - not so much feelings attached to it, yet homemade enough to allow me to feel the comfort of familiarity. over the break, i've developed an unfortunate habit of sleeping at 4am and then waking up past noon. so i'm really anxious that i can't wake up in time for the hotel's breakfast, which is usually cleared by 9am. terrible. i hope my friends manage to shake me awake in time for brekkie, really.

will be in sydney for the week. i'd appreciate it if anyone could let me know if there are any really good sights i should catch, or good cafes. or bookshops. thanks, you guys!