for now

I can be described in three words.

Tired.
Preoccupied.
Happy.

It's been a full-on week of work, house hunting, work and not enough time in between to squeeze in anything else save for some online shopping and watching Entourage before bedtime. I am but hoping to get a cocktail refuel tomorrow to welcome the much anticipated weekend.

The girls and I have been somewhat frequenting the Hairy Canary on Collins and I found myself spacing out briefly during a meeting today thinking about the honey and ginger sour I had last week. Alcohol fantasies before noon. How bad!

I am loving Spring so far. The sun has been staying out long enough for evening walks, I've packed away the boots & scarves and the fashion has proven to be delightful. I gasped and ga ga-ed over the gorgeous designs during the Kaleidascape fashion show courtesy of the Fashion Week, feeling my insides melt for the likes of Fleur Wood and Mad Cortes.

pic taken by adelle - we were in love with this dream by fleur wood

No chance of ownership for now unless a cash flush comes my way. I have been cutting back (truly!) and counting the nickels in my piggy bank for a hit at real estate instead. The boyfriend and I were insanely close to putting an offer on a breathtaking piece of property this week but our (his, actually) senses made us stop short to shop around a wee bit more.

It's all been very exciting.

In the meantime, some pictures from the recent drinks and dinner party:

dinner at Koko, Crown

sashimi and cake go hand in hand

iphone nuts

lovely claire bear

catching up with gorgeous anthia

cocktails and gorman

26 and feeling the love

Crapola.

I keep reminding myself to entice you with updates regularly but it's getting a wee bit dusty here, don’t you think?

There's just not enough hours in the day. It's been a very eventful, manic even, couple of weeks and suddenly, it's Monday all over again.

The boyfriend surprised me with a roadtrip to the ocean and a reservation to a moonlight retreat, an early birthday gift. It was so lovely to get away from the hustle and bustle, I had withdrawals when I came back. I adore the countryside; all those vast green lands and oceans that stretch beyond lmits of the imagination. It was enough the channel the inner hill-billy slash bogan in me, causing yours truly to declare every split second or so,

"Lets move to the country and live here FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER!

Oh, you skeptics. I could very well do away with the corporate-ladder-dragonlady image, kick off my stilettos and pack away that suit to plant and farm and feed piglets every single day. I could!

Anyway, I'm back, none the wiser, spoilt silly with a tirade of gifts in the form of roses, Chanel, Dior, Tiffany's and more - I know the loveliest people, I do.

A heartfelt thank you and the biggest of bear hugs to all who made the week so special.

xoxo,
rosie

the ocean followed us

breather

view from our room

him and me

the apostles were breathtaking

making nice with the city

I worked my first 10 straight hours with no breaks yesterday since landing this career switch. The hours have been meshed together in a blur for the last few weeks - a mess of client meetings, deadlines and work.

It feels fan-tas-tic. I finally feel somewhat back in my game again.

The days seem longer now, which can only mean that winter is ending. I am slightly wistful yet elated about the change of seasons. The year has marked milestones achieved; career-wise, moving interstate, buying my own car and falling in like with this home-for-now.

Melbourne and I are officially on amicable terms despite the occasional tantrums and outbursts on the street (people in front of me are always walking way too slow).

Not only am I so over wearing layers and desperately missing the beach, September indicates the onset of more activities to keep yours truly distracted and entertained. The itinerary includes house hunting to put an end to renting, more barbies/picnics/cheese nights/anything that involves eating, more drinking and hurrah, the spring fashion week!

I cannot wait for the fashion shows fueled with all those delectable australian designers i.e Cohen Et Sabine, Mad Cortes, Ginger & Smart, Gorman .........Utter bliss.

Drinks with the guys at RMH and tipsy by 7pm. I am in poor form.

coming up for air

After two mornings of trying to track them down, my Kate Hurst pants finally arrived in the mail this morning. Security stopped it at the mail room (the cool factor of working with the cops), which meant I had to run over to the next building, through various swipe points before claiming my parcel from a scowling guy who marked the package 'DELEVERY'. Oh lawd.

All good now. I am in love.

I have been smugly predicting that light easy pants such as these would make a comeback and they are creeping into the runways and the best part is they have yet to catch on with the public.

Fashion addictions aside, I'm in the middle of an insanely busy spell which explains the long update hiatus. I've finally secured a switch in career roles which not only guarantees more bacon, it is finally something worthwhile to sink my teeth into and hold my goldfish attention span. It's back to watching the hours whizz by and working insane hours.

In other words, I am ecstatic about it.

Regardless, I'm still relieved to see the tip of the weekend. I'm catching up with Adelle at Flinders Lane for lunch, drinks with the Perthies tonight and maybe catch the Olympics opening on the big screen. Tomorrow the boyfriend and I are going trawling for houses (yes, I might be buying one of those classic victorians!) followed by steaks at Squire's Loft with the Melbie crew. It's all fun and games for now.

I'll be back soon, I promise.

every good turn deserves dior

The lovely make-up girl stopped me in my tracks on Friday evening - after I politely declined after-work drinks and took a stroll in the city - to gasp at the length of my hair. I told her it was non-natural and some girl at the other end of the world might be bemoaning her lost locks while counting well-earned renminbis, to which she started shrieking slightly at how real it looked.

So this, in turn, launched our little girly tirade of asian vs. caucasian hair, work, and how expensive everything is for us career gals. And because I believe that sharing equals caring, I dug through my handbag and handed her my stylist's business card while she grabbed a bag and filled it with glorious Dior samples and goodies.

The sisterhood is strong with this one.

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The weekend was fun-fueled despite the cold.

• Wedding dress shopping with Marcie again. Over the span of 5 weeks and 60 dresses later, the girl finally decides on the classic strapless silk white we saw at the very start. Progress!
  
  
• Bestie Cher and yours truly are planning a new escape route; this time it's Shanghai. She may be a million miles away yet I love how we still find time to yabber to each other at least once everyday. Endless dumplings and bubble tea, shopping excursions and partying, here we come!
  
  
• Dinner with the bride-to-be and Aaron at japanese restaurant, Shoya. The food was exquisitely delicious, with a spread of unique dishes i.e sea urchin cheese cake (yum), albeit painfully expensive. We ordered the house sake which turned out to be very dry rather than sweet, concluded that it tasted like paint stripper and in true Aussie form, proceeded to do sake shots.
  
  
• Teppanyaki at Timmy's on Sunday night, another food spread and discovering various ways of cooking ox tongue, which goes to show you really can spend the whole weekend eating.
  

******************

Picked up the first season of Californication starring David Duchovny, which seriously rocks. Not only is the show very saucy, I love the witty reparte and eye candy. I managed to get the boyfriend hooked on it as well and we've been tuning in religiously before bed with the electric blanket turned up high.

I heart winter.

drinks at cho gao with darling lena

two heaters and counting..

I refuse to believe that it will get colder than THIS.

Yes, I have been spoilt with good weather most of my life, living in the tropics with that perpetual tan. People often think I'm joking when I tell them I cry when it gets too cold e.g.

1. Sydney 2002 on the way back from having pancakes at some godforsaken hour in the night - I started blubbering by the harbour.

2. Last windy wednesday on my way to get sushi, this coupled by the unfortunate incident of having my fig & honey yogurt stolen.

I have to admit though, it's been pretty good forgoing exercise and only hopping to pilates every so often all the while blaming it on the weather.

"It's just too cold to work out"
"It's just too cold to get out of bed"
"It's just too cold to do any form of housework"

"It's just too cold that I HAVE to shop more for clothes, indulge in more doona time, eat that bucket of chicken..."

TheBoyfriend and I planned a 'just-us-two' day during the weekend, waking up early to get the car serviced (yes, long drives and car maintenance rock our boat), stuffing our gobs with laksa for brunch then strolling in the city to buy yet another heater and THE BEST EVER PURCHASE FOR THE YEAR.

My very first electric blanket......

And no, we dont spend weekends like boring oldies - we did get spruced up to go out for lobster noodles with the visiting perth crew, followed by drinks at The Toff and Manchuria.

What is the deal with having bars in dingey alleyways by the way?

huei miin & darling tjin

jac and sugi

us

timmy and sugi

breaking loose

My weekends are bearing more semblance to how it used to be. It's been a flurry of things-to-do and people-to-meet for the past weeks or so and I feel somewhat back in my element again.

I spent the morning with Marcie at her wedding dress fittings which was hilarious as the girl turned up hungover from drinks the night before. She looked progressively more blue with each dress she tried on, still a vision though, while I sipped champagne and hollered out creative opinions. We ended up sidetracked and shopping for shoes in Brunswick - leaving the store an hour later armed with four boxes of our spoils. Lovely.

Despite vowing not to spend unnecessary ka-chings this month, I sold myself out for these snake print Tony Bianco's at a fraction of their going rate.

They do look rather fierce

but a girl just couldnt resist!

The rest of the weekend will be chock-full, with a catch-up dinner later and lunch tomorrow at Chapel Street with Timmy and Xia who's in Melbourne to attend a conference. The pièce de résistance comes in the form of broadway musical Wicked tomorrow night. It's been awhile since we've been to the theatre - I am so psyched about it!

Speaking of theatrics, I am loving these pants from aussie designer Gorman, very much following in the footsteps of 3.1 Philip Lim's (I would like to think he is a lost sibling, misplaced in New York to spread joy with his clothes) jodphur pants which he describes as 'pants dropping everything and breaking loose'. Genius!