Catch-up and PLAAAANS

[dendritejungle]

Good grief, where the effin' hell has the last week gone?!?! Oh yeah:

• Thursday: origami society meeting


• Friday: Harry Potter with eboniorchid, which was loads of fun but oy, people, learn from my pain: DON'T see the 3D IMAX version while sitting two rows from the front, particularly after a "dinner" of Spinach-and-artichoke-cheese dip (hey, there wasn't time for a proper meal before the movie). The nausea was kind of insane, and let's just say at least I (barely) made it to a garbage can the SECOND time I threw up on the way home... *winces*


• Saturday: housecleaning, ActionGrrrlz, and the entirely awesome Fringe play GeekGasm with jaefru, thegreenavenger, fairylane, the_great_waka, ecchs, and others. I got a resounding verbal cheek-pinch-of-cuteness "awwww" when I revealed that the last time I had been in that theatre was when I had been on the stage in a grade school production of Pinocchio. (The humour of this is more evident when you know that most of them DO theatre/acting in some sort of professional capacity and are the better part of a decade younger than me.)


• Sunday: a ridiculous amount of laundry and a lovely afternoon/evening with neeuqdrazil *goofy grin*


• Monday: Summerlicious dinner with my mom


• Tuesday: I cooked (!!!) for my evening hanging out with memethief and Jake. Wonderful to see them both, though I am feeling abashed having been a tad stressed over my unfinished to-do list. :P Sorry guys!

So I am relieved to be back and posting (though quietly dreading the skip=3,587,624 I'm going to have to do on my flist - lord, you lot are a prolific bunch, aren't ya? ;P).

AND, with no further ado: YES, I am going to be flying my merry self to Australia. Thank you to everyone for your input! You may be amused to know that the responses fell largely into two camps: "Hell yeah, come visit!!" or "Hell yeah, go visit - but I hate you/am jealous/want you to bring something/body back!!". *grins, loves you all* My favourite (email) response was from Manifestudio, with whom I did an awesome road trip a couple of years ago: "Australia! When? Why? And what should I pack?" Hee! :D

The plan thus far - and input request from the wonderful Aussies on my list...

So! *rubs hands* The most urgent thing I need to figure out is what three weeks between August 27th and September 28th I should be coming so I can book my plane ticket. My #1 priority is seeing you lot, so if you have any dates you know you aren't going to be around, please do let me know and I'll work around that. My distant second priority is finding out if there are specific neat things going on that I should make sure not to miss, and I'll try to book my ticket so I catch 'em.

My vague, tentative plan is to spend four or five days each in Melbourne and Sydney, and then spend the rest of the time going up the interior and down the Gold Coast? Y/N? I was toying with the idea of starting in Sydney since I know merihn may be leaving imminently, and ending in Melbourne as close to the end of the month as I can manage (maybe flying out on the 28th or 29th?) since I gather that the Melbourne Fringe starts on the 26th. missyjack, any idea if you'll be in it this year? The 2007 NSW Whipcracking Championships are being held on the 29th so I think I will juuust be missing those, dammit. :P But I'm crazy flexible (heh), so do let me know if you have other suggestions.

nixwilliams had requested that I post a bit about the sorts of things I enjoy doing, so as to get better feedback on what sort of events and such y'all might recommend.

Stuff to know about me re. travel:

While I'm happy to swing by requisite Tourist Spots if they're actually worth visiting (and let's face it, lots of them become famous because they are really worth seeing), I much prefer to see the unusual and local and neat. I'm a bit of a sucker for museums and gardens/parks. But if I have limited time somewhere, I would always rather see something different and local than mainstream and touristy. I kind of love everything: museums, galleries, restaurants, random cool corners in neighbourhoods, gardens, parks, countryside, scrappy ugly little corners with nothing but weeds and awesome graffiti, heights and views, window shopping of unusual shops, and a lot of wandering. I love just getting random feels for a place: wandering around neighbourhoods and peering down alleys, examining strange products in corner stores, surreptitious people-watching in cafes, staring in fascination out of the window of public buses...I can happily spend hours doing this stuff and consider it time well-spent. I LOVE really good food, and really gorgeous or interesting views. ("Sunsets and long walks on beaches..." *snerk*)

I love hanging out - particularly since such a major part of this trip for me is seeing people. While travelling I am usually happier hanging out while being out somewhere: e.g. in a cafe or wandering or sitting in a park. Not constantly, mind you, but certainly for a decent proportion of the time.... (This is the opposite of when I'm home, where I am a total couch potato. I recently got ice cream on my pillow while sitting on my couch - because I'd been eating AND sleeping on my couch. *facepalm*)

I've been told I'm easygoing and enjoyable to travel around with, but I am also perfectly happy doing stuff on my own if folks are busy. But I do hope to see lots of you! *bounces*

I...er...don't really drink much (my body doesn't react well to the taste - which kinda sucks - rather than for any high-falutin' reasons. SO HELP ME I am trying purple nurples, though. :)=) ) and large crowds exhaust me over time because while I'm a pretty darn social introvert, I am still an introvert. So while I enjoy going to clubs and dances and such, I can usually only handle a few hours. My other problem is that my hearing kinda sucks, so places where lots of people are talking loudly I find frustrating if I'm trying to have a conversation with someone (e.g. bars, really loud restaurants). Having said that, I do enjoy shows - music or stage or cabarets or what-have-you - because then everyone is usually focusing on one thing so I can hear. And, of course, they tend to be really neat and/or worthwhile. :D

Inexpensive is generally better, but I'll be damned if I'll let money get in the way of doing some really neat thing.

My idea of heaven on earth is the participatory art festival Burning Man. (Though I'd hope heaven proper would be a little cooler and have showers. :D) BEST. EVENT. ON EARTH.

Other random things I really enjoyed on recent trips include

• the Studio Ghibli musem in Tokyo, the shrine on earth to Hayao Miyazaki's genius
• travelling three days of my trip just so I could spend a day in the ancient World Heritage forests of Yakushima (SO WORTH IT),
• A visit to Arcosanti and Biosphere 2 in addition to Vegas (heh) and antelope canyon
• World Treehouse Association Conference! \o/

Er...does that help? Feel free to ask me clarification questions...

What about you lot? Are there specific things you do or don't like to do? What is your availability for hanging out e.g. weekends only, or are folks free during weekdays?

Tonight: Ratatouille, posting the spn_bakeoff results *guilt* and Pride pics to the Gay Geeks list *more guilt* and catching up with ALL OF YOU! :D

Comments

[dendritejungle.livejournal.com]

*smishes*