we have the weekend mapped out for us. saturday - groceries and some food prep, then off to an indian fashion event at a reception centre in clayton - a mate of mine from sydney is selling outfits, and a friend of hers is doing the melbourne launch of an indian wedding mag called 'my shaadi' (my wedding). then sunday is the christening of mark and my very first god-daughter, charlotte. i'm looking forward to it, she's an absolute sweetheart and i'm quite proud of her. should be a great day apart from the weather reports which are threatening showers for the weekend. i had a min-stress last weekend about what i was going to wear for the occasion, but i found some pieces on tuesday after work in the city, so that is thankfully sorted. i just need some beads to hang around my neck, and we'll be done. mark's dad is coming down for the weekend so we've prepared the spare room for him. it'll be a family weekend, which is one of my favourite kinds.

even next weekend is a bit of a double-bill, too - we have a wedding to go to on saturday evening, and on sunday i'm on a panel with the melbourne emerging writers festival. the panel is going to be discussing using past experiences to imagine future ones - something which is right up my alley, really, so it should be a very interesting discussion. check out the program, lots of interesting stuff happening - might see you there?

photo-blog of last weekend, courtesy of my mobile phone camera.
we checked out some of the free entertainment that's in town as part of festival melbourne. first off there was talvin singh at fed square late on saturday night. this is what the sky looked like that evening:

before talvin, we had some food and then ice cream., and went for a wander to alexandria gardens. we caught the tail end of mariam makemba's set, then watched the fish from the opening ceremony on the yarra do their water-and-light spurting thing (also referred to by a friend's sister as 'the fish going off' - great choice of words, i thought). then we wandered back to fed square.

mark loves talvin's work, so he was quite excited at the prospect of seeing him live. the gig started out all chill and trancey, which was not what we were expecting, but nice nonetheless. we started out a fair way from the stage

but as the evening progressed we inched our way further and further in front

till there were about three people between us and the barriers.


then on sunday night the plan was to catch the world percussion gala at the myer music bowl. when we got there, there was a huge queue of people and a chill in the air; to tell you the truth i kinda started getting turned off at this point. we went in and met up with our mates, but i couldn't stay for the whole thing; we left after the dhol foundation was on at around 10.15 (they were the main reason i went). they were great, all showy and high energy - and up till that point, the only act that had people flocking to the front of stage to dance.

so, the commonwealth games have started. i watched the opening ceremony the other night and couldn't wait to see the fiji team march out. mark was quite amazed at the size of their team... sports have always been huge back home. while i waited for them to appear, i grabbed my bottle of 'chinese lollies' (preserved plums that were huge in fiji when i was at primary school), and cheered them on. hope they have a great time, and win some medals!

through a last minute opportunity at work, mark and i got to go to the final rehersal of the opening ceremony on monday night. my favourite bit was the motorcyclists and ballet, and i couldn't wait to see it on the telly for real... but something must have gone wrong, because the camera angles were all weird, and it wasn't very well shown. something must've gone wrong. did anyone else notice that there were voices on c.b. radios over the top of everything else? it was quite distracting. anyway, there was a gaggle of those voices during that part of the show, then the camera angles were very tight for a while, like they were trying to hide something. frustrating... but when the fireworks went off, i ran upstairs and watched them from the back balcony. i wish i had a great digital camera, i could have taken some great shots. but no such luck. i will have to buy myself a clicker before we go to fiji in june...

i'm looking forward to some free music gigs this weekend, too - talvin singh on saturday night, and the world percussion gala on sunday night. viva free gigs!

okay, so it's been a while since there's been a totally tv-centric post on this blog. but today that all changed. yes. today, there were the oscars.
i must admit, i missed the red-carpet special - that is because i've become obsessed with 'the biggest loser'. tonight, i cried. i cried when cat was voted off. what were they thinking? i mean, what. were. they. thinking. this show might even motivate me enough to buy a set of scales. i want to see cat blitz everyone, i don't hate wal that much anymore, and i want adro to win. alliances? they only work on survivor.
i taped desperate housewives, and (a show which after one episode, i tragically sense an addiction to) - commander in chief. why was it axed? why? whhyyyyyyyy?
anyway, oscars. i will admit - i have not seen any of the big films - not brokeback, not capote, not walk the line. not even crash, even after my brother called me and told me to watch it. oscar moments:
- i am glad that reece won an oscar, and am even gladder that she stopped short of doin' a gwyneth on the podium.
- great host-age. i mean, how much did the 'westerns' montage (and the 'community announcement' ones) rock?
- ben stiller in the green suit. i love him. he is on my list. my husband totally understands.
- i couldn't watch (literally) when lauren bacall tried to read from the auto-cue. font, people! bigger font!
- george clooney. 'nuff said (though i loved the shifty-eyed look he did, as if to say 'i've lost count of all the women who publicly voice thanks for having been seated next to me at some point in their lives'. own it, baby. pwn it!!1!)
- why, why, but why was jennifer lopez diguising the derriere? you're on the stage, baby - let it shine! let it shine!
- salma hayek - get a hair-slide. or a love-in-tokyo. or something.
- how cute was michelle williams? she's come a long way from dawson's.
hmmm. what were your oscar-night highlights?