Team Tango!

When Benny called me and asked if I would do tango with him I actually had no idea what I was getting myself into. After I had to grab my laptop and google it and it wasn't what I expected but I was still up for the challenge!

We had an amazing time with Angelique & Chris learning to dance. They are fantastic teachers and the smaller sized groups meant we had lots of one on one time to figure out the steps we (usually Ben) couldn't get out head around.

I was actually pretty sad on the last day after our performance, as not only would I no longer get to invade Benny's personal space with good reason but it meant that my fave time of the week was over and we had to say goodbye to the rest of the group.

Shame there wasn't another class starting immediately after mine as I would have loved to continue!

If you're in Brisbane and want to learn to dance (not just tango) give Angelique & Chris a call on 0479 170 818 at Evoke Dance and Theater company, or you can view their website here. I promise it will be fun!!

Here are some pics of Benny & I on our last day...

A moist Future

Wet doesn't even describe it.

Future Music Festival Brisbane 2013. Imagine heavy rain, with thousands of inebriated people running around having mud fights and you get a half idea of what was going on.

There was a river flowing up to the stage, almost over my gumboots - we obviously had to jump in! The ponchos weren't doing much anyway.

Gemma flew over from Perth to come to the festival with me as it is the last time we will see each other for ages, with me moving to Canada and her travelling around Europe soon. We lasted two hours. Maybe 3?

We were saturated and cold, once we watched PSY perform Gangham Style we decided we had got our $130 tickets worth and headed home much to the disgust of Ruhee & Carl! We had both already seen Prodigy and many of the other acts so were happy to go home and then head to a warm pub in clean, dry clothes.

Wet at home after FMF

Pre-festival

Bootay Shaking & Ridiculous Dancers, J Lo World Tour

To be honest I didn’t have high expectations for this show.. I am not a J Lo fan but we got free tickets from work and thought it would be a fun girls night out.

Firstly, she took AGES to come out. A good 45 mins to an hour. I know she’s a mega star but don’t keep the crowd waiting. It doesn’t build anticipation, it creates boredom. There was also a massive amount of Vidal Sassoon ads and a formal wear shop ad. Replayed over, and over again. Annoying.

Anyway...

 

The bootay. The bootay isn’t as great as I expected considering it is insured for a stupid amount. However, she is very good at shaking it!!

The abs. Wow. She’s, 45 (ish?), has had twins and those abs are incredibly defined. I can only hope to be so ripped at 45. Actually I could only hope to be that ripped now! Would require a lot of dedication. But when your body is partly your business, the dedication would be more than worth the results.

The dancers. Hell, if I was J Lo, I would keep one for myself too. God Damn they are ridiculously good looking and ripped. I had to stop myself from nearly drooling. I want to be a singer just so I can have an entourage of amazing male dancers.

All in all a good show. She can sing, dance and she’s gorgeous. She put a massive amount of energy into the show.

On a side note though, how many capes with feathers does one woman need?!

Halloween Festivities

My friends throw the best parties. Especially Halloween parties, with one of them being American you wouldn’t expect much less but this man really knows how to make a bunch of people party their socks off!

Last year this party was so cray it ended up on the news… a couple of times. But that’s another story.

Party starts at 7pm and if you ain’t on the list, security won’t let you in. 

There’s a hallway of terror, where you walk in groups of four through the entrance, between sheets hanging splattered with blood, cobwebs and ghosts and spiders everywhere. There are four guys stationed along the path that jump out at intervals and scare the living daylights out of you. One even pops up from under a gravestone on the ground. Certainly sets the scene for the evening!

Inside you find promo girls taking around nibbles and shots as well as two pole dancers who give out lessons to those tipsy enough to give it a go.

The entire house is decked out in Halloween decorations and of course the food is all themed too. They even imported red pool dye so the pool looked like it was bloody.  I thought I would have a go at making eyeball cupcakes and fanged teeth cookies! Cookies didn’t look too bad but the cupcakes on the other hand… something to work on for next year haha.

Needless to say the night gets messy reasonably quickly. And the party is all the better for it! The DJ starts playing and breaks at intervals for the band to jump on and have a jam. Dance floor is packed.

I was a sailor, and I was accompanied by the hulk and a sexy swashbuckler. I think we were all nearly hulks by the end of it due to the amount of green paint floating around!

Sexy swashbuckler decided to go sightseeing around the back of the house (as one does when drunk, merry and feeling adventurous) and instead found herself falling over and cutting up her knees! Poor thing had huge bruises and grazes the next day. Alcohol is such a good anaesthetic.

I found some pics of me ripping the Hulk’s top off.. the hulk does not wear a top!! But I have no recollection of this. Yay for pics telling me of the stupid antics I get up to when I’m drunk. Speaking of pics, how funny is looking at pictures the next morning? We were all crying laughing swapping pics in bed in the am.

Now what to dress up as next year??

San Francisco.. The welcome city

The welcome city in that everyone is welcome. Hence the huge population of homeless that reside on the streets. I swear you get high just walking down the street from passive weed smoking. Snoop Dogg would love it. I was pretty much floating around the whole time I was there.
Story goes that in the 60's some guy turned up to a street party with a whole heap of weed and LSD which he gave out to everyone for free. They had a great time party time and consequently didn't want to go back to work and became addicted to the drugs. Not sure how true that is but that's what our tour guide told us.
I have never seen so many homeless people. I'm not sure if we were just staying in a dodgy area or what but they were everywhere. They don't really attempt to make any communication with you. They just smoke and lie on the side of the street with their trolley full of their only possessions. Ironically, this is right by downtown which is where the most upmarket stores are - Gucci, Prada, Chanel etc.
San Francisco is also home to the most billionaires after only three other cities in the world.

Unfortunately for us it was Fleet week and the city was swamped with the Navy, Army and other military organizations. This meant that the street cars, buses and cable cars were all full, with huge waits. It was difficult to get around the city and piers as it was so crowded.
We ended up only doing the organized tours with our crew as we were now exhausted and still drinking every night.
When we arrived we did a city tour on the bus, stopping at famous sites such as Pier 39, the houses where Full House was filmed and museums etc.

Our hotel itself was lovely, if not in the best area.
I could have spent the two days just in that bed! It was huge with the softest egyptian cotton sheets and about 6 pillows of various shapes and sizes. Ahhhhh **sighs**

We headed to Bubba Gumps (of the movie, it's a restaurant chain here) for dinner. Gemma and I sat with a Korean girl from our tour and the tour manager. It made for a hilarious evening. My meal was delicious, Cajun shrimps for starters and Scampi for my appetizer - yes they call mains appetizers, talk about confusing, no wonder I ate so much really!
If you ever visit Bubba Gumps try a pomegranate punch cocktail, sooo yummy and full enough of alcohol to get you going for the night!

We then headed to an irish pub to continue the drinking, which of course with Fleet week, was full of boys in uniform- much to the delight of the girls on our tour!
I may have danced the night away with a Navy hat on. So trusting of them to let me have their hat for the night!

More shopping in downtown on Sunday as again the lines for transport were huge. I was spending all the rest of my USD so had quite the merry time!

That night we had purchased tickets to watch a Kiwi band, six60, with some of the other crew from the tour. When we asked the hotel how to get there, their response was 'why would you go there?' So we already knew it wasn't going to be the best venue.
There was only one toilet, which, had the choice, I wouldn't have used! The place was so packed you could barely move, let alone get a drink.
Speaking of which, free pour is a killer. Two of my drinks I couldn't even drink due to the amount of vodka in them. They were all but straight. Makes for a cheap night out though!
Anyway it was all worth it to see six60 perform their little hearts out at such an intimate venue.
For a tiny, dingy venue in the middle of nowhere in San Francisco, it was full of Kiwis. The atmosphere was awesome and the band really interacted with the crowd.
After the gig the boys all stuck around an we had a whole heap of photos with the band. I felt like a bit of a groupie so hung back a bit but some of the others had no problem playing the role of a groupie!
Hilariously, the biggest groupie of them all wasn't one of us girls but one of the boys from our tour. He followed them round like a star struck puppy. He even hung out with them while they packed their vans an tried to go back to their hotel haha.
We finally got a 'taxi' which was actually a town car back to the hotel, and on the ride, Raul, the groupie, thought it would be appropriate to question our driver about the size of his 'dong' as he was a black man. The driver couldn't stop laughing, especially when Raul farted and tried to keep all the windows up!
At subway I managed to drop my MAC lipstick under the soft drink dispenser and in my drunken state thought it would be a fantastic idea to lie on the floor for a bit with a straw to try get it out. I succeeded but damn was I filthy!

Yesterday was our last day in the USA after 37 incredible, crazy days.
I am left fat, exhausted and broke but happy!