I JUST CAME BACK FROM MELBOURNE!

Surprise surprise! I flew to Melbourne over the weekend for an open audition with a dance company called ADT. Seriously I had so much fun there! I think maybe a little bit too much.

My first day consisted of waking up early from a incredibly late flight and walking into the city. I told myself before I got to Melbourne that I wouldn't buy anything because I literally just bought things in Perth...

Holy shit.

I

went

crazy.

After hunting down most of the stores that we don't have in small town Perth, I caught up with a friend who was performing in Melbourne. It was so great to see him and to meet new friends. We walked around town and discovered some really cute alley ways filled with indie shops and cafes.

Yeah, I was a complete tourist.

The second day I caught up with two of my friends in Perth - Grace and Damo. We had a huge dilemma, which I'd much rather not get into because it was crazy. Anyway, we decided to head to Chapel St to do more shopping but before that we stopped by at a version of Harbour Town but way bigger and had way more stores. Once again, we went crazy. It didn't stop there! When we hit Chapel St it just got even worse! We spent all afternoon walking down Chapel St walking into store into store into store. It was seriously one of the best therapy I had in a long time.

After a long day of walking, we headed out to the Merywell for some classic American dinner, which made Grace super happy because she American... Duh.

The next day was my audition. I didn't get in as excepted but I did have a lot of fun. It was so great learning new moves from the rep that we did and it felt so good to just learn and dance. I've been improvising so much lately I needed some mindless dancing! The only down side was that the audition lasted for 2 hours and I felt shit because it was like I was paying $500 (for the flights) just for 2 hours of dancing. Also probably didn't help that the audition was smack bang in the middle of lunch so I started getting hungry half way through and was like shaking... got to say good experience though.

The last day I spent the day quite upset. I had blisters on my feet, I had to return these shoes for Grace which I didn't end up returning, just buying them off Grace and exchanging them for a smaller size and watched my friend Elle performing in the King and I. There was a lot of waiting around, walking around, freezing my ass off because oh my god, Melbourne was cold. I also managed to get my boyfriend angry because I called him forgetting the time difference between Melbourne and Perth and woke him up from his sleep.

Anyway. I don't have much to say other than I spent $600 on clothes and food, which is ridiculous!

Oh well, I'm broke now but at least I'm happy!

I got a job interview tomorrow so hopefully I'll be getting that cash rolling in!

I'm back in Perth, Australia!

So its been 2 days since I've arrived home from the beautiful Hong Kong. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to blog during the last few days. I have a legitimate reason. I was very busy with work and they were taking us out afterwards for dinner and drinks! By the time I got home, it was probably about 12am. And my last reason is that on the last night, the internet gets cut off.

Ridiculous.

My friend Wendy and I were pretty much struggling (not really... we did for the first 20 mins).

Because I missed out on so many days I'm going to sum it up below

Day 6:

- Last day of the workshops.

- Mainly took lots of photos and videos.

- Worked with people with different forms of dissabilities. Some were in wheelchairs, blind, autistic, etc..

- Spent lots of time with my new friend Bruce.

- Lots of questions and answers.

- Saw what living in Hong Kong looked like.

- Didn't get home till 2:30am

Day 7:

- Decided to wear my new shoes.

- Picked up more face masks.

- Received new fresh blisters from my new shoes.

- It was too fucking hot.

- Stood in line for a good 30mins in the sun to get some cookies (Jenny Bakery Cookies). Was it worth it? not sure... the cookies are yummy though.

- Spent 5 mins contemplating whether I should walk home with two heavy bags of cookies, my two carry bags falling all over the place, and cut up bloody blistered feet; or to take a taxi back (even though the hostel was literally around the corner)

- Decided to stick it out, endure the pain, and walk home.

- Had Dim Sim lunch

- Had dinner at Themis's house with a whole bunch of great people.

Home:

- Woke up early and caught up with Kristen... it's been so long since I've seen her.

- Walked around the shops with her.

- Went home and started packing.

- Found out the cleaner had threw away some of my toiletries... bastard. At least they weren't as important.

- Caught the bus to the airport with Wendy.

- Made a new friend on the plane.

- After a long plane ride and a sleepless night, I made it home!

Being back home has been good. I do miss my family, boyfriend, and friends... though I've got to admit, I had a blast in Hong Kong.

I have the travel bug!

Just feel like getting up and going again! When I got back, I went straight to work. I had the day to rest and chill out. Of course go see Matt, and then had to work straight away that night. The next day, I didn't wake up till 11am... I was that tired!

I'm working with Daisy again which is good. I do miss her lots :) Also, I got offered another contract from Buzz to perform the Plain Jane duet for the Awesome Festival! How exciting. It's going to be full on because once that performance finishes, I perform with Daisy in the Blueroom.

I must stay calm and focus. I need to switch in and out just like that.

I'll be okay.

Spent too much since I've came back. Of course after I've done a big shopping in Hong Kong, I come back and there is a crazy mid season sale going on.

HATE THIS!

Today was a huge day.

I didn't get to sleep till 2 last night (and the same will happen tonight as well) and had to wake up at 7 this morning. I was so knackered. I had this bun thing that is very popular in Hong Kong. They're called pineapple bun with butter. So basically they're these buns with a block of butter in the middle of the bread and it has like this crunchy yummy thing on top of the bun which is also butter. It's also supposed to have like a enhanced taste but to be honest it just tasted like bread with a block of butter. Healthy breakfast much? I had to had something on the go... Anyway, I caught the MTR to Fortress Hill and according to my map it said it takes 7 mins to walk to Studiodanz.

It took me almost an hour.

I was freaking out because that side of town didn't have any road signs or maps on the corner of the road saying "you are here" so most of my morning consisted of wandering around trying to find a road name and just trying to use my sense of direction to figure my way around. I almost had a breaking point because there was only 5 mins till 9 and I haven't reached my destination. I just wanted to catch a taxi. Eventually I decided that this was bull shit and that I should find any western shops so I could ask for directions. Luckily I found Starbucks (and once again I walked out without a coffee in my hand - pathetic) and the girl at the counter helped me out heaps. She drew a picture and said which buildings to look out for.

I wasn't that far away from the studio.

When I reached there, I was like thinking "what the fuck" because the area was a dead end and the building was like for trucks to off load things. At this point I just wanted to give up and go back to the hostel. After wandering around in circles for about 3 mins and asking 2 people where this is, I finally found it (it was in the building) and raced up. When I got up there (about 9:05am), no body was there! I was so confused. I asked the ladies at the desk what time the workshop started... it started at 10.

kill myself.

At least I wasn't late! Though I was extremely tired.

The studio is called Studiodanz and it's a really pretty studio space. I've never seen so much art and beautiful dance space in such a long time. So fancy. I did Lee's workshop in the morning and afterwards semi-assisted and did Philip's workshop. It was fun and I got to meet lots of Hong Kong artists which was fantastic! Not going to lie I'm super sore now and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do tomorrow.

I got to meet some really interesting people and got to listen to their lives. I really enjoy that, listening about peoples lives and their adventures. I think thats why I kind of suck at researching people up because I realized today, I don't like knowing who they are before I meet them. It's much more interesting when you find out that persons biography when you speak to them. Also if I know who they are, it'll make me nervous and I won't be able to talk to them at all. I think its a bad thing to have this especially in the dance industry, but there is something so raw and real about listening about one human beings life story. And they're right in front of you.

Afterwards, I headed back home and met up with my roomies. We all went up to Prince Edward station and ate at One Dim Sim. Holly shit it was amazing!!! The dim sim was incredible and we just loved everything we ordered. Something new that I had that I just loved was custard buns. They were terrific! I hope they sell good ones in Perth... probably expensive though.

Shopping came next! We walked down the street towards Mong Kok where the street markets were as well as local roadside stores and holy shit I went mental. I legit spent half my money on shopping. So worth it though! In total I got:

2 sweaters

1 dress

1 cardigan (finally got one)

2 notebooks (for shu)

3 little handmade cards

1 pair of shoes

1 hand bag

In total, the cost was $132 australian dollars! Such a win! The most expensive things were the shoes and the handbag, they cost around $82 australian dollars, and this was after discount because I was such a cool gal (I got a special discount! The store lady called up her boss just for me!) I was stressing out before because I was thinking it was exactly the same price as in Australia but I justified myself by saying it is one of a kind, it is good quality, and when I finally found the shoes and bag I should get it. I've been looking for these type of shoes and handbag for so long and especially something that is good quality so I'm quite happy with my purchase.

No more shopping for me though, except for presents... broke life.

After lots of shopping, we headed back home and had liquid nitrogen ice cream! amazing stuff! the flavours we had were HK crispy toast, bakedwell tart, and mango and pineapple greek yoghurt.

Awesome way to end the day :)