Sorry as it's been a while since my first and only post, and I have no excuse other than to say that I was primarily withholding from writing in an effort to be productive in my schooling....but that hasn't happened so much. School in Melbourne is beginning to be in full force now and I am starting to feel the pressure of assignments on my back. I am currently researching for my upcoming collection due at the end of the semester and being the perfectionist that I am, I was of course plotting this grand display, complete with several garments and an even grander presentation with fully rendered fashion illustrations and mood pages...but now it looks like time is running from me and I'll be lucky to finish 2 garments at this stage. Just to give you a heads up about what project is about to consume my mind for the next 13 weeks: I am creating a collection consisting of eveningwear, daywear, as well as lingerie that is being inspired mainly by Australian sunsets with a looser inspiration in Melbourne architecture and gleaming glass panels. I'm also hoping to complete a jewelry line for the collection that is inspired by shadowed gumtrees, which coordinate in with the sunset theme. It's a bit hard to conceive at this point but I will try to keep you updated as it unfolds.
Enough with fashion, and onto current life events. Who knew they have earthquakes in Melbourne? I didn't. Had no clue in fact until I experienced one and didn't even know quite what it was at the time. But after looking up online news sources I could confirm, that yes, I had experienced my first earthquake in Melbourne, which is apparently a common occurrence. I was sitting in the sewing lab at my school with Sandra next to me and we were both talking when I started to feel a slight shaking. I wasn't sure if perhaps the sewing machinery was the cause or if the ground was in fact really shaking, so I took a look around and noticed that it seemed the whole room was shaking. We heard a rumbling noise and Sandra mentioned that perhaps it was a train coming? But there are trains all the time passing, so I knew that the train was not capable of shaking the school! So we continued to sit there and no one else in the room paid any attention, and then the shaking stopped and we both shrugged it off only thinking it was mighty weird. However, later over cocktails with a friend, it was mentioned that there was indeed an earthquake at the same time I had felt the shaking, so I returned home that night to confirm it with Sandra that we wen't crazy and that we really had felt the shaking. I have learned over cocktail hour as well that American Idol is not chosen by the American public as they lead you to believe and that the producers do in fact have a larger say in the winner. And also within the same beer, I found out the story behind Russian Idol and that it involves guns, military tanks, and high security with a $12 million agreement. And apparently the most amazing club in the world lies in none other than India and takes over 2 hours to reach.
Upon leaving NYC, I admit that I breathed a sigh of relief to be escaping the troubles and situations of the NYC subways(many of you have heard my stories), and was happy to see that the Melbourne tram system is quite clean and enjoyable, however it seems that where there is public transport...there are loony people. Apparently the homeless people like to hitch a free ride as well on the trams just as the homeless people do in NYC. Last week I was on my way to work in St. Kilda, which is a 20 minute ride, and a homeless woman and a man stepped onto the tram and stood in front of me. I heard the woman babbling on about how she was an Australian and she was born and raised in Australia, and seemed to be preaching to the man about how she was an Australian damnit! She was cussing up a storm and started yelling at the man who appeared to be slightly sedated and could probably care less about what she was saying. He paid no attention which perhaps made her more irate and she began talking crap about love and how love sucks and F*%# love and F@#* you. Then the tram stopped at the stop I was getting off at and the man and the woman got off first, well actually she pushed him out and he went straight onto the pavement and just laid there on his stomach and she began kicking him and still cussing, and I don't think anyone knew what to do about this so most just continued walking. So that's the end of that story as I don't know what became of them, but I would hope they went and took a shower after that because they smelled of garbage.
Work is another adventure and it usually involves some sort of drama. My first night there one of the bartenders cut her leg with a bottle(don't ask me how it happened) and they brought her into the back kitchen and laid her down after she fainted from the sight of blood, and finally they carried her out to be taken to the ER, which immediately following another worker almost fainted from seeing the open wound and we had to nurse her as well. That same night one of the bartenders went to the bathroom and was in a stall peeing when a guy knocked on the door repeatedly, which in turn pissed the bartender off and he opened the door and made some slick comment and all the sudden the intruder popped him one in the face. Last weekend we hosted a 21st Bday party, and they rented out the venue for the whole night(who knows how much that cost), and then they happened to run up a tab over $8,000! Of course I, as well as the rest of my coworkers, was thinking that $8,000 is a heck of a lot of money and could be used more preferably on so many things other than a freaking party that lasted one night! But to each his own.
