we raised $5m!!

yesterday's concerts raised $5m for the bushfire and flood relief funds! and if you didn't make it to the concerts you can help by buying the cd and dvd when they're released (soon i hope)

cake, wild yak's, concert and gizzards

it has been a busy weekend

off to a good start with a visit to my new chiropractor who is working magic on my back, followed by a trip to a new to us cafe in high st. coco inc has amazing cakes, good coffee - w and i tried the most modest looking cake - a swiss truffle which turned out to be a disc of chocolate sponge covered in a mound of really light chocolate mousse and then a thin shell of chocolate.
as you can see the presentation was amazing.
and w's verdict?
friday evening was the first instalment of the "eat our way up high st project" that urbane scrumping and i have embarked on for 2009. the five of us will choose a different cafe/restaurant/supping station every second friday night going up rucker's hill and then down the other side. the area has changed so much since we first lived here in the late 80's - it's on the cusp of becoming the next brunswick st so we want to try places while we can still get a parking space.

wild yak's was the eatery of choice and the food is great - light delicate curries, lots of veggie options if you're that way inclined and a light fluffy rice pudding for dessert accompanied by jasmine tea (which i like despite it tasting like bathwater - although maybe that's why i like it...) we got the take away menu and will be returning. (apologies for the poor picture quality - i forgot the camera and had to use the phone)

unfortunately my gizzard comprehensively rejected the tibetan food after 15 hours of considered reflection. just in time for the bushfire concert at the mcg...... i now can give a qualitative assessment and recommendations of the lavatories at the mcg (go to the members' stand ones) btw there was nothing wrong with the food - every one else was fine and my dodgy innards have been capriciously rejecting all sorts of food lately.

so urbane scrumping and i joined 81,000 of our closest friends
to see the most amazing concert - all proceeds donated to the red cross bushfire appeal. there was a simultaneous concert at the scg with the proceeds divided between bushfire and the queensland flood relief funds.

i could have done without the hip hop act - that sort of music seems clunky, mannered and joyless to me - and i found the nuremburg gesturing rather disturbing. but the young people seemed to enjoy it......

but then the big acts started - after a couple of songs liam finn was joined by his father and uncle for a surprise crowded house turn.

it was my first time in an 81,00 voice choir but it was a sign of things to come.

hunters and collectors,

split enz

and midnight oil
filled the next 3 hours with the anthems, hymns almost, of a generation.

it was fantastic :) (see more of urbane scrumping's concert photos here)

launch of a laureate

laurel wreaths all round last night when melbourne poetry lovers flocked to collected works bookshop for the launch of my lyrical brother inlaw's book of poems: "in the hungry middle of here"

here are some action shots

(that's urbane scrumping, my Mother and my sister (wife of the laureate))

it will be available on amazon soon - go and buy - it's really good. the more poets the better in the current gloomy climate
and later urbane scrumping and i repaired to nudel bar for some noshery (btw the gfc doesn't seem to have affected the local restaurant business - we tried a number of establishments before we found somewhere that wasn't packed to the gunwhales) we were so hungry we forgot to take photos until after all was devoured. but it was really really good.

bizarre bathtime conversation instalment #2098

last night in the bath 4 year old w asked if i would like a 'a nice clean cup of tea'.... as opposed to my usual cup of filth i suppose.......
i think this comment may have been prompted by an earlier conversation we had had about the state of advanced slatternity of the kitchen floor. it was so bad that i felt moved to mop it - on a week night. during this conversation w asked anxiously if the floor was too dirty to eat off..... not that this is a practice which is encouraged chez seahorse but i do have a robust attitude to things being eaten after they have fallen on the floor - if you can get to it before billthedog, then go for it

weekend round up

the much looked forward to long weekend has gone - today was labour day which celebrates the achievement of the 8 hour day in Victoria back in 1856 (more information here.)

the weekend felt bitsy and got off to a less than joyous start with a rather unpleasant test on friday - 2 hours in a CT scan machine with various erky substances injected into me at intervals.
watching the show unfold on the screen was fascinating - as the radioactive stuff filtered through my liver and beyond it looked like those NASA pictures of deep space - the gizzard nebula perhaps.... i felt rather whacked after that experience and a bit poisoned from the injected stuff so spent most of friday afternoon in the big bed.

saturday was more resting and a brief foray to gj's to get some interfacing for a bag and some remnants for a toy robot for w.

yesterday was tarrawarra, of course

i dragged out the japanese scrap wallhanging that i made a few months ago - i tried bleaching some circles with discharge paste but it doesn't seem to work on japanese fabric, or not for me anyway. so i got out the fusible thread and after a brief tussle there was a mutual decision that it would work better in the bobbin and five spirals were free machined onto the quilt. then out with the gold and copper foil and lo it looks much more interesting than before. i'm afraid there are still quite a few loose threads and more than a few cat hairs but these will be fixed before the piece is hung in the front room.
and look - nail polish! i usually paint my fingernails once every three or four years and this full moon was one of those times.
we took urbane scrumping out to the airport this afternoon - he's giving a presentation at a conference in canberra this week. and then came home amd made rosewater cupcakes - ably decorated by e and w
and some rather spiffy triple ginger cookies

sunday

today i took e, w and my dear friend blogless helen up to the yarra valley to this exhibition at the tarrawarra museum of art. the paintings were fabulous - saturated colours, mysterious iconography that we stumble through, marvelling at the gazillions of dots that make such large and opaque (to us) patterns
some excellent hot chocolate and a walk around the lily filled dam.

post aqc

well, i went to the quilt convention yesterday and had a great time. it was the first time they held it at melbourne's exhibition building which is a huge victorian pile where i had first year uni exams 60 gazillion years ago and then a couple of years later the arts ball and the chocolate society ball - the less said about those gala(h) events the better. there were shirt loads of people there - the building was crammed with quilters, especially the central part which had all the stalls. (i will post some photos of the building and the crowd later - my phone is reluctant to give them up at the moment)

i was pretty disciplined and spent my pocket money at the thread studio - ian and dale looked remarkably calm for people were literally besieged. i went around a couple of times before the crowd was less than 5 deep
the other place i spent some pocket money was the wondrous Babbarra Designs by the women of Maningrida which is in Arnhem Land waaay up in the top of the Northern Territory. they had a stall set up with lengths of already printed cloth and were doing demonstrations of their technique. after much judicious choosing i bought a 2 metre length of hand printed cotton
it was a big disappointment though that the my place quilts were not sent in time from south africa to be displayed at the convention. they arrived in melbourne half way through the convention - way too late to be hung. there were plenty of stunning quilts to look at though - dijanne cevaal had her gorgeous inspired-by-the-middle-east caravanserai quilts displayed and there some amazing quilts by the ACT based tACTile group.

then i came home and cleared up the studio table so i can actually use it sew on
but what to do with the stuff that migrated to the floor???