I love Sydney Road.

I plan to spend the whole day $2 shopping for lights, toys and decorations for Rainbow Serpent - two blocks from the start and two shops later and my arms are packed to the brim and I have everything I need and a few more things besides.

I spontaneously applied for three weeks annual leave yesterday - the most I’ve ever taken all in one go for most of February - purely because I’ll need days off from my holidays.

Feb 9th - 11th: Techstep presents Earth

Feb 14th: (Shotgun) Wedding

Feb 15-16th: Sound Squares & a 30th birthday somewhere in there.

Feb 19th-24th: Beach-house getaway with friends near Anglesea (I think).

After Summer is officially over I have to behave and save money.

Last weekend I went to the best gig of the year (so far… hah). It was a trance event with three world renowned DJs at a modest sized nightclub in Hawthorn doing something of a Summerdayze after-party . The last artist’s set was cut in half when the club decided to close it’s doors two hours early. If you ask the bouncers, they would’ve told you that it was ‘dead.’ Not from where I was standing from on the dance floor. Not fifteen minutes early dozens of fists were raised in the air as everyone chanted Gareth Emery lyrics and the crowd started whooping and clapping. Everyone was having a good time. Perhaps too good. Everyone’s eyes were on the DJ and no one was buying drinks from the bar.

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An American friend was visiting her hometown of Seattle a few months ago when she took a snap of an SUV plastered with angry sounding bumper stickers about the state of the environment. I’m happy to report that the irony was not lost on her. It got me to thinking about how lucky it is that we are a lot less ostentatious than most of the rest of the world when it comes to cars. People still drive unnecessarily large 4WDs (what we call SUVs), but the rest of us have the grace to be annoyed by them. Flashy sports cars are reserved for immigrant rich kids who don’t know any better, and balding men who like their toys. Just anecdotally I know a guy who was born into a rich family. He has a partner, two kids, a seven figure house in North Fitzroy – and an old volvo station wagon. He is good people.

When it comes down to it though we Australians are certainly greedy on one thing and that is space. We all dream of owning big properties with big houses and big lounge rooms with big TV screens, big BBQs and big outdoor settings. Big cases and shelves will display our media collections and our books. They will show our treasured family moments and be a monument to what makes us who we are. How badly do you need it?

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A little less than a year ago I sold my car and my bike became my primary form of transportation. Living on Sydney Road, my car became more of a liability and yet often laziness prevailed - to gain an extra 20 minutes sleep before going to work, I’d have to pay for parking and petrol, on top of annual costs like service, insurance and registration. With the bike I also gain the added bonus of 20km of exercise a day and feeling much better in general.

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I went to the Carlton (eww) in the city after work also to have drinks for my sisters birthday.  They went to 1806 prior to eating - I don’t know why they couldn’t have gone back.  The heat had virtually made the city empty.

I got to hear about my brothers trip to falls.  It sounds like Big Day Out - the Thing To Do on NYE so too much of the crowd is just there drinking and not paying attention to the artists - a pet peeve of his, and it doesn’t sound particularly fun for me.

Despite this he had an awesome time, and I was stoked to learn that he got right up the front for the Flaming Lips!  The zorba, rubber balls and confetti (apparently the giant vagina didn’t birth the band though - can’t win them all) were all in close proximity.

Flaming Lips was one of my favourite bits of Harvest 2011.  I was sobering, emotional (Portishead) and physically drained.  The that shit happened and I felt like an amazing sense of childlike wonder and beauty.  I was really sad when my siblings told me that they had left early and missed.  To be in the front row… incredible.

I’ve been on a slow drip of Flaming Lips recently - trying to breach their less famous albums.  I listened to the Marc Maron interview a while ago and it blew my mind how aweomse Wayne Coine is.

A friend is trying to convince me to go to Laneway Festival with her, but I’m afraid I’d have to take Valium to blend into the crowd.