i got the anthology contracts and stuff in the mail yesterday. actually, i found it yesterday - went to put the bins out, and there was this huge parcel behind the recycling wheelie. i thought it was rubbish, but i picked it up and had a look at it anyway - then i noticed the stamp from curtis brown. made my day, that package. i was supposed to have the signed contracts back today, but that was obviously impossible. turns out it's all good, that lateness wasn't an issue. anyway, i had started a short story a week ago, and hit a wall - but today, i finished it! it's a lot different to my usual writing style. it's very chick-lit in comparison - and i really enjoyed writing it. i gave it out to some people to read - a twenty-something funky female friend, a nearing-thirty female lawyer friend, a thirty-something tech nerd friend, and a thirty-one year old husband. good cross section, no? feedback so far seems to be all good. i really like the story; it moves along quite well. some sex and the city references. nice resolution. now i'd love to know what the anthology people are going to think of it! the whole thing is due for publication next october... i'll let you know more details further on down the track. tomorrow i'm meeting with the rest of the verandah 20 editorial panel, and next week i'm getting some headshots done. here's hoping only one chin comes out to play!

as i mentioned in my last entry, last week i got invited to go to the launch of the bollywood masala film festival at nova cinema. the dress code said 'a touch of bollywood'. now, usually i wouldn't have a problem tarting it up in that department, but as luck would have it i had lent pretty much all my indian clothes to my mum the week before. so i hot-footed it to my sister-in-law's place and borrowed a beautiful turquoise salwaar kameez off her which, on me (teamed with jeans and a white cotton top) looked less like a salwaar kameez top and more like a long jacket. the cotton top was sort of thin so i had to wear something underneath it - so this meant i was dressed in three layers... more on that later. anyway, they had drinks and nibblies in the upstairs foyer. on the way in, i nearly went a-over-t when i slipped on one of the rose petals so graciously showered upon us by the welcoming girls... and the foyer area had a glass rooftop which let the sun stream in, so soon enough the atmosphere was as muggy as a mumbai monsoon. i should have taken my fan - three layers = not such a good idea. after copious champagne and namkeens we escaped to the airconditioned comfort of the cinema. we had been allocated 'munna bhai mbbs', but i don't particularly like sanjay dutt; nudged our way into 'main hoon na' instead. i will describe this film as 'the matrix' 'meets van wilder: party animal' meets 'apocalypse now' meets 'grease'. for me, the best part of the whole movie was the closing credits. two jokes i actually liked in the film were the matrix-like dodging that shah rukh khan does in the staff room, and the teacher he falls in love with - every time she's on screen, her hair is blowing back off her face a-la high fantasy modelling shoot. it's hilarious - they must have had a person specially allocated for the 'fan holding' job.

i got an email from my publisher yeasterday asking me for some bollywood sound and action to use as a backdrop to the sales presentation for my novel at their sales conference next yeah. oh yeah, of course! sales presntation for my novel... hang on. sales presentation. for *my* novel! holy crapola. talk about alternate universes! i immediately thought, 'must dvd shop! aishwariya rai will save me from this dilemma!', so made my way down to bharat traders on barkly street. i love that place... it's actually light and airy and spacious - i.e. unlike any other indian shop i've ever been to! they were having a diwali sale - all dvds five bucks each - so i grabbed about five... and the girl behind the counter casually says, 'if you buy ten, they are $4.50 each...'
so of course shalini grabs ten!
then after sitting down with mark and watching an american-desi one called 'flavours', i get a phone call from a friend of mine who asks me if i'm free tonight... which i was... so she invites me to the launch of the bollywood masala film fest at the nova! woohoo! rose-petal weilding, sari-clad welcoming commitee, here i come!

yay for casey donovan! even though i pretty much lost interest in aus idol when chanel left, i watched the finals last night. we were over at my parent's for dinner - we all hurled abuse at andrew g and the other host guy as a family; what a great bonding experience! we wanted casey to win, though we'd all pretty much resigned ourselves to watching anthony take it out... afterward it was agreed that casey winning idol restored a little of our faith in the voting public of australia. my brother reckoned that john howard winning the election again taught people not to be complacent... there was a rumour floating around (which, like all good rumours, is being passed on quoted as 'fact') that eighty percent of voters said after the election that given a second chance, they would vote differently. hmmm... exactly what is that supposed to mean? that there's a whole group of people out there who didn't want john howard to win, but went to the polling booths and voted for him anyway? what a bunch of bologna. as for aus idol - if you wanted anthony to win, but you didn't vote for him - shut the hell up! (just quietly, did anyone else think he looked a tad oompa-loompah-ish in that mini-designer suit?) back to the john-howard-voters urban legend - 80% of voters wanting to change their vote after the results? i don't get that. 49% of people wanting to say 'we're sorry, but at least we tried' after the results? that i can believe. have a look at this site - it might go a little way in restoring your faith in the american voting public.

okay - we've been through a lot together, wouldn't you say?
you've let me critique 'the o.c' while putting up with my take on pop culture...
and now, after all we've been through, i will finally ask *one* thing of you.
even if you know that i know you, even if this is the first time or the fiftieth time you've visited my blog - please leave a message. i would love to hear from you - whatever you want to share with me. go on - validate me!!
xox
shalini

given the fact that i've blogged for the past three days, and all my blogs are about tv, i think it'd be safe to say it's obvious that i haven't exactly been churning out the serious stuff lately. i want to get some more short fiction happening but my head's not really helping me at this stage, so let's forget about that for the moment and talk about the o.c. again. there was this bit last night that made me laugh out loud - when teresa comes over and stays in the pool house, sandy cohen goes to ryan 'you can bunk down in seth's room, on the air mattress'. the air matress?? what, you mean to tell me that huge house is just made up of mum & dad's room (plus ensuite and parent's retreat, obviously), seth's room, two massive living areas, a dining room and a kitchen? no wonder they have the pool house - it's not cause they're rich bastards who love splashing their money around, it's cause they realised there was nowhere for impromptu guests (and runaways from the wrong side of the tracks) to crash for the night! it all makes sense now. if only my life were so simple and pretty. on that note, i must say this: i have been doing some housework recently, and i'm getting all organise-y for some reason. prolly has something to do with the two spare rooms that have resembled war zones since we moved in here a year ago. hopefully we'll get at least one of those sorted this weekend...
there's always hope.

ok, here's what i think. i think 'the o.c.' should be renamed 'ryan's relationship rescue wagon'. i swear, could he get any more do-goody? seriously. i am happy though that the o.c. is there - it's a perfect cross between 90210 and melrose place. mrs. cooper's turning out to be the token ho, when i was sure that mantle was going to be passed to summer. marissa is the doe-eyed, woebegone juliet, and seth is just rockin'. i love seth cohen... what can i say? it's a well known fact that i have a soft spot for nerds. some things you just shouldn't fight.
i cannae remember if i'd mentioned this, but i submitted the my final draft to penguin last week, before we headed of to canberra. feels great! but am anxious/interested/curious to get the next round of feedback - which will hopefully be before christmas sometime. and just in case you hadn't noticed, i have changed the coding of this page slightly so that the blog title and my by-line at the end of each post now doubles as a link to my blogger profile which, together with more crap about me, has a link to my other blog - my 'writing' blog. i've decided this blog is more for general ramblings, like tv and crap, and the other one will be where i (attempt to) get all wanky and theoretical. yesterday i got a cd copy of my visit to triple j breakfast in the mail - and i spotted a mistake i made on air. instead of describing hello kitty as 'subverting of the asian-australian stereotype', i called it 'asian-australian subversion'. tricky. what can i say? it was so early in the morning, people! i was amazed i was up and about at 6.30am whilst on a day off... apart from that little slip at the very end, i am pleased with the way my little on-air chat went - all six minutes of it. as a result of over-indulgences in lismore, i sound pleasingly husky on-air, which is never a bad thing for me seeing as my voice has a tendency to stretch and twirl itself into a girlified sqeak when i'm nervous. i'll put up a copy of the audio one of these days.

last night, australian audiences finally got to see the final episode of 'sex and the city' - and yes, i cried. i think it was partially due to the the actual happenings in the show, and partially through frustration that because we had to wait so bloody long to get the final episodes, i already knew (a) how it was going to end, and (b) what mr. big's name really was. both these details were let slip by friends who had already seen the ending - i didn't hold it against them or anything, it's not their fault that channel nine are fucked in the head. after sex and the city i watched the chanel no. 5 thing - the two minute film/chanel ad. which is set in a mythical times square, where a mythical film star who meets a mythical writer and they run away together to the fringes of the mythical city and have a six day love affair of mythic proportions, then the actress goes back to her mythical life and the writer is left with his unfinished manuscript and the memory of her scent. wow, man. myth-tastic. was it just me, or was that whole add just a compressed version of moulin rouge? anyhoo, weekend was a runaway success, hello kitty gig in canberra went off! had a ball. absolutely best time ever so far on the kitty journey. who knows whats in store next? if the kitty-gods are listening, overseas would be good. speaking of which, on sunday the whole kitty crew got interviewed by bbc world radio. i chose to listen more than talk, as i found the whole process a little daunting and the questions were a tad curly. tell me, does asian-australian identity actually exist?
hmmmm. i'm sitting here, aren't i?

i should say happy diwali in advance to everyone, seeing as i will be away this weekend, in canberra, performing with hello kitty. so, happy diwali! last weekend, i did something i haven't done in ages - went to the diwali function at the hungarian hall. seeing as i'm nearly finished writing the novel, i thought i'd soak up some good, old fashioned indian vibe before i send it off to my editor. so, i pulled out the old faithful salwaar kameez (black one with tiny pearl beading all down the front), teamed it with a cream shawl, my fake indian necklace, a red bindi and my pointy-toed ankle boots, and i was ready. mark didn't want to dress too indian, so i got him to wear his cream kurta with his jeans - i must admit he looked pretty spunky, a la a young imran khan. broody cross-cultural hunk... i likey! anyway, i grabbed my notebook & pen and off we went. the night started off okay - the food was great (i had rourou, fried potatoes, cooked tomato chutney, salad and raita - yum), and they had fresh jalebi for desert... heaven. anyway, then the speeches started. and oh my god... talk about mood killer. they make everything sound like a lecture, and they love the sound of their own voices. the program hadn't even started yet, and everyone was already bored shitless. and i don't undertsand why they insist on talking in shudh hindi when none of us actually speak like that at home... the whole thing is one big excercise in denial. anyway, we stayed over at mum and dad's house and i decided that on sunday, we'd go shopping at indian central (foster st, dandenong) before coming home. well, i must say the cust service was a lot better than the last time i remember it - people were actually friendly. there was this one guy who cracked me up, though... luckily for him i wasn't having a delicate bad-body-image day. i asked him about an outfit and he said, matter-of-factly - 'no, that one is not for you...' (directs my attention away from beautiful outfit i had asked about, toward loose, dowdy outfit that is not half as impressive, but obviously at least double the size of my original choice) '... this one is for you'. after we left the store, mark and i laughed our heads off. also overheard in another shop - an old indian woman haggling over some bangles -
woman says 'how much is this?'
shopkeeper man says 'fifteen dollars each.'
woman says 'why fifteen dollars?"
shopkeeper man says 'because it is fifteen dollars.'
woman says 'arreh baba, but why fifteen dollars?'
shopkeeper man, trying not to get angry, says 'because this is my shop, and i put the price there, i know how much everything is, and i say this bangles cost fifteen dollars.'
(woman explodes in a tirade of what i think was punjabi or gujerati insults and leaves the shop).

you know, i'm so embarrassed right now. not for myself (well, maybe a little, as will be revealed), but for the australian television industry. two words - 'australian idol'. specifically, two more groups of two words - 'mark holden' and 'marcia hines'. i mean, who do these people think they are? mark holden and his touchdown phenomenon - seriously, when did this become something to aspire to? does he realise he looks like a bit of a wad when he's in the process of 'touching-down'? and marcia, with the whole 'girlfriend' thing. who died and made her the spokesperson for black artists everywhere? the woman has no idea what she is on about, and she is quite offensive if you actually listen to her - which i don't think is a problem, as i'm sure no one actually does *really* listen to her (obviously apart from myself, hence the aforementioned embarrassment). i feel bad for the performers that they have to actually take feedback from these two people. now, as for dicko - admittedly, i thought he was a bit of a tool for the whole paulini/gold dress thing last year, and again, admittedly, i was biassed, as paulini is a fellow kai-viti - but i swear, if it wasn't for dicko, even i would lose interest. he actually gives real feedback - something which is sorely lacking with the other two. now, i will admit, i've watched most of aus idol stuff (apart from inside idol, which sucks) - but i lost interest after chanel was voted off. she was the spice in the stew. now, it's just stew. hmm. i think i need another beer.
any way, before i sign off - i have finished with the writing. yay! i am a little shy of the 80 000 word mark, and i am well pleased with myself. so, i am not drinking irresponsibly this evening - it is in celebration... woohoo!
ps the idol collective song tonight - 'oh what a night' - sounds quite pathetic. like they're missing a whole section of the choir.
which, ironically, i believe they are.

last night, mark took me to a lovely french restaurant in the city, and we proceeded to eat our way through two and a half courses - entrees, mains and a shared desert sampler plate - each. the food was quite exquisite. i panicked initially when he told me we were going french - being the ultra-casual (read: daggy) chick that i am, i was afraid of snooty waiters and the like - but he didn;t let on till the last minute, so there was no time to think too much about it. as it turned out, the ambience was quite different to what i was fearing. it was a more casual environment, though we were probably the youngest couple in there. it seems the tables behind us and to my left were taken up by members of parliament, and members of their families - not that i knew who any of them were, mind you. i couldn't work out, when a couple of them held my gaze and smiled at me, whether they were looking to secure my affections, or my vote. it was funny to observe, as they all went to extreme pain and distance to ensure that surrounding diners were quite aware of their status; through their loud, name-droppy conversations, their ability to attract the attention of wait staff stationed across the room with the mere twitch of a finger, their unfortunate decision to pair their charcoal and pinstriped suits with light pink shirts and wide, light blue and lemon striped ties, and the sheer volume of oysters they consumed. mark had unwittingly planned the perfect birthday dinner for a writer-girl like me - fine wine, fine food, fine company - coupled with the opportunity for much discrete eavesdropping.

now that i'm thirty-one, i really should learn how to stop procrasinating so much. that's right, it's my birthday today, and what have i done with my day so far? checked my email, surfed the web, gone to the post office and supermarket, written in my blog... notice the pattern? that's right. no actual real writing has been going on in my neck of the woods for a while. i guess that's a little because i did quite a bit of work on it in october - read it all the way through and added bits as i went - and now i'm not really sure where to start attacking it again. i guess i'll just re-read the last editor's report and see what bits i need to add to. i have a month before i have to hand it in... there'll be more editorial to-ing and fro-ing after that, but it'll be good to get it all happening. monday night's early birthday shenanigans went really well - great turnout, heaps of people i hadn't seen for ages. chris and alex gave me the most amazing present - a medulla poster which chris framed himself. bjork's skin looks so good in that picture... chris doesn't even have a copy of the picture himself yet! it's still at the pub, though - might pick it up on the way home tonight. mark's booked us dinner somewhere this evening, and i'm quite looking forward to it. also, jo's exhibition (called 3013) opens at the gasworks arts park today. i'm really looking forward to seeing her stuff, as she's changed themes and created all new paintings - from exteriors to interiors. go see it if you get a chance! now i will go an try do something constructive - like write... or at least think about writing.