Tres cool

Feeling rather cruisy after a whirlwind trip to Canberra over the weekend. Pic above is of me at the Masterpieces of Paris exhibition at the National Gallery; they had this cosy little 'family' room where kids could draw a self-portrait or make a star for Van Gogh's sky or play around in the room at Arles like I did. It was tres cool, even for big kids.

But I barely spent a day in Canberra. My sis was up in Sydney to go to Tetsuya's for a friend's birthday and stayed over at mine, then in the morning we went to our parents' place to have lunch with my cousin Derek (mum's side) who is travelling around Australia until mid-January.

Then I took my dad's car, a Honda CRV, on the road to Canberra, picking up Skippy (down from Brissie) on the way. Originally I was to take my mum's Toyota Corolla but my parents had had a weird tiff that resulted in my dad refusing to let her borrow his car to drive her friends (whom he doesn't like) to some party. So I had to borrow his car instead, which made me nervous because I don't drive very often and having to drive a big car when you don't drive very often is hard.

After dropping Rach off at her place (she now lives in Yarralumla), Skippy and I went to meet her friends at an Indian restaurant called Rochi in Belconnen. Ended up eating dosai and kulfi while doing numerology and chatting, then went for coffee in Manuka afterwards.

Shared a double mattress in my sis' living room overnight, then went to breakfast at Urban Food (formerly As Nature Intended where I met with my high school friends back in May) before dropping Rach at her car, which she'd left at work on Friday, then heading to the National Gallery to see the Paris exhibition with Skippy.

The down side was that Skippy had booked her flight from Canberra to Brisbane so after I dropped her off at the airport I was all alone for the 3.5 hour drive back to Sydney. I officially left Canberra at 6.06pm. By 6.18pm I was bored of the freeway. I even stopped at Goulburn, which is only an hour out of Canberra, to give myself a break (besides which, I needed to go to the bathroom). Unfortunately the Merino was closed, so I couldn't buy pointless postcards.

As for the week before that, it was not as bad as I thought it would be, though I am harbouring a sneaking suspicion that I have conveniently left myself too much work for next year. It was quite a social week, actually, plus I won a Gloria Jean's hamper at the AIEx Christmas party, which I gave to my co-workers, as I don't drink coffee.

Also met up with Ness on Friday for sushi and beer; we tried raw sea urchin and it was like the sloppy scrapings from the inside of an aquarium. Bleh. Then she had to go home and I went to see Howling Bells at the Gaelic Club. Despite microsleeping through the first half, it was a good gig and I liked the support band, Canvas Kites, as well.

That is all.

Have yourselves a Merry Christmas and I'll check in one last time for 2009 before Peats Ridge and New Year.