Murder Mystery

Dena and me

Can you see my fake eyelashes? They were purple tinted and so fun to wear!

Dena, a friend from work, invited me to join her group of friends for a Murder Myster dinner party her sister Dana organized at a Lebenese restaurant, Kanzaman, on Bridge Rd in Richmond. I knew only Dena when I arrived as my character, Betsy Devine. I was a flambuoyant waitress at the "Pink Palace" but more importantly an aspiring actress who had a very small part in a movie (only one line where she shot someone) which she couldn't seem to get right. Type casting, ya think? I took it on fully, and played into it completely. Ben, an actor from the Murder Mystery company was at the dinner, orchestrating the evening, playing three different characters, and moving us along. He pulled me into play heaps because I was silly enough to improv all kinds of crazy plots. He even accused me of being the murderer in the end to which I responded that my motive was that the victim ordered too many salads and no one eats that much salad. What do you say on the spot like that? The murdered ended up being a more likely suspect when the truth was unveiled. At the end of the night, I was awarded a prize for the best bad acting. How should I take that? The food was interesting. I found it incredibly similar to Greek food, though more oily and salty. The kebabs were stellar and the baklava was sickeningly sweet. Dena and Dana's friends were very welcoming and inclusive, and even gave me a lift home at the end of the night.

Sydney Road Street Party

Sunday happened to be the Sydney Road Street Party in Brunswick, just a few blocks down the street from our house. I rode my bike to Sydney Rd to do a little costume shopping in preparation for the murder mystery party later that evening, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a raging festival and mobs of pierced, tattooed hippies. There were music tents set up on every block with the most random and diverse collection of performers, some of which were extremely political. Endless rows of tents housed street vendors with arts and crafts, clothing, jewelery, food, and volunteer organizations. There were gobs of people, some dressed in quite the get ups for the occasion (leather pants, red streaked hair, and lots of guys in make up). It reminded me a little of a Mardi Gras celebration on a much smaller scale.

Joe's Band at Idgaff

Liam, Liam (yes 2 of them), Tom, Rami (girl drummer!), Joe


Tom is the lead singer


Joe, the rockstar

Liam, in one of his THREE bands

me, Tom, Narelle

Is this crew looking a little familiar? Joe, Liam, Tom, Narelle, and I all made the Great Ocean Road trip together, and we had a little quasi reunion to see Joe's band finally debut once again. It's been a long time in the making, but they sound awesome! They played at Idgaff in Abottsford. I didn't find out about the gig until they called begging me to come half an hour before it started, so I took a detour on my way home via bicycle. It was a rather circuitous route as I tried to avoid the massive hills that faced me in every direction. It was worth the effort to see them play. We are tentatively planning our next big voyage to Wilson's Prom or Venus Beach, where Liam's family has a beach house. Ah, to be connected. I was very thankful this night that these people are part of my world here.

YP BBQ

Narelle, Dills, and Alex

I'm on the Young Professionals (YP) committee at work and my first major undertaking of the year was to organize our first social event of the year, a BBQ with the young professionals (less than 10 years experience) and the senior principals. Dills, Alex, and I went to Vic Market Thursday morning to buy all the essentials for the evening - heaps of sausages, chicken skewers, veggie burgers, and watermelon (that's my American influence). Grillmaster Liam was the hero of the night, cooking up all our tasty food. We also had salads catered and of course drinks. We have such a great balcony on the sixth level of our office building, overlooking the river, and allowing us to enjoy the outdoors from the office. We did a "funny fact" get to know each other activity. My fact was about my accidental shoplifting experience of the thong from Victoria Secret. It was hilarious to watch one of our senior principals ask EVERY person in the room who'd done it. I saw he had mine and steered clear of him until the very end. Evil, huh?!

Dan is way too nice...

and when people are way too nice, they end up agreeing to do things that other people wouldn't even consider. For example, Dan met a homeless woman while smoking a cigarette on a bench outside a cafe. Moments later, he was rushing back to the city in Jade's car to retrieve the woman's dog since she did not have a place to keep the dog that night. Apparently this suspected drug addict had just left her abusive partner and was staying in a hostel for the evening, one that would not allow dogs. Dan brought Sasha, a maltese terrior, back to our house (which also does not allow dogs) for the evening. One evening turned into two, then three, and on and on. Dan fell in love with dog and changed her name from Sasha to Gerty. She is a very sweet, submissive, surprisingly well trained dog. He loved the dog but hated the responsibility. She's been reunited with her mom now. As much as I miss Jack, it was good for me to be reminded of how different my life in Australia would be with him here.

St Kilda Festival

St Kilda Festival is an annual (27th year) week long FREE festival culminating on Sunday 10 Feb. It boasts great Australian music (5 stages), comedy, extreme sports, rides, arts, street performers, and loads of hippies all set alongside the iconic bay in one giant street party. Somewhere around 350,000-400,000 people came out Sunday to laze in the sun and take in the scenery. Everywhere I looked there was something to see and more people than I could imagine. I tried to meet up with a couple different groups of friends to no avail. Many, many, many texts and strained phone calls later (you can't hear a thing!!), I decided to enjoy this experience solo. I heard a surprisingly great band called Labjacd, which is a nine-piece mesh of completely (seemingly) incompatible music stylings including hip-hop, rap, salsa, jazz, and folk music. Somehow they completely pull it off with trumpets, a saxophone, record spinning, breakdancing, and the most entertaining live show I've seen in a while. It was a perfect festival show. Have I mentioned the day was FREE?! I couldn't believe it.

Foil Madness

Every hairstylist wears such a getup right? Short shorts and nothin' else! Jade's fabulous new do was a staged process occuring over two or three nights with partial foil highlights and a fabulous new cut to boot.

What else did I have this week?? Urban Life was on Wednesday this week. I chilled at home with Dan and Jade a few nights - just ate dinner and watched movies. Hmmm... I stretched or tore a back muscle lifting too much weight at the gym, so I was forced to lay off boxing to recover. I took up swimming instead. I haven't swam laps since I moved to Melbourne so it felt REALLY good to get back into it. I am happy to report it all came back to me, just like riding a bike.

Oh, I also voted in the primaries! Apparently there are 16(?) votes delegated to Americans living abroad. Casey and I went Thursday to a paper ballot vote on the second floor of a bar just outside the city. There was no line and it was so simple and convenient that I think I'd like to continue voting from abroad. In my candidate research, I came across a quiz I found rather interesting. Check out: http://selectsmart.com/ and click on "The 2008 Presidential Candidate Selector" link in the upper left corner. It will ask you about 25 political questions, then give you the % correlation between your answers and each of the presidential candidates. Really interesting.

Southbank Sunday Market

Keithy's birthday surprise. Doesn't it look like a 5-yr old's birthday party? Though tempted, I spared him the pinata.


This huge blockade is adjacent to the office and you just never know what you're going to see. Today it was a country concert for line dancing along the river.

I started the day far too early for a Sunday. I'm in desparate need of a sleep in!! I returned the rental car first thing and headed off to an introduction to leadership program at Landmark at 9AM. After lots of laughs and inspiration, I quickly stopped by the office to decorate my pod mate Keithy's cube. He jokingly refused to tell me the date of his approaching birthday and I had to make good on my teasing that I'd decorate his cube with balloons and streamers every day until the actual day. Just outside our office was plenty of hubub and commotion with some country line dancing on the promenade. Not too far down the river, I stumbled onto the weekly Southbank Sunday Market. I'd never been so I stopped to take in the local art - lots of photography, painting, candles, jewelery, and odds and ends - similar to a First Thursday in Austin. I biked up to Carlton Gardens, my favorite spot in all of Melbourne. I first visited the gardens within a week or two of my arrival and I loved it at first sight. It's just a huge beautiful peaceful garden with the Melbourne Museum and Exhibition Hall in the center. I later learned that many people take wedding photographs in this garden. True to form, there was a wedding party parading around today while I sat talking on the phone with my family in the U.S. My next stop was Planetshakers, the mosh pit church, where I am starting to feel at home. From there, I biked home. I'm still loving this fast and at-my-fingertips new mode of transport. Hairstylist extraordinaire Dan was foiling Jade's hair in the courtyard out back with the bunny Lucy running circles around them. Joe, Dan, Jade, and I later poked fun at "So You Think You Can Dance" and watched a funny David Spade movie. It's been a full weekend, but sometimes when they're so full, I feel like I sneak an extra day into the weekend. Time to go back to work and relax a little. Kidding, kidding.

Point Nepean

From the tip of Point Nepean looking inland. I loved being on this peninsula with the ocean all around me.


The engine house which provided power to search lights, nearby the bunker from which the first Australian shots of WWI and WWII were shot.

Look at those big guns, Casey!

While Casey was "reading" and "learning" about this historic site, I was feeling the ocean breeze whip across my face and soaking in the beauty of the Mornington Peninsula.


Casey and me on the south (ocean) side of the peninsula.

Does anyone actually follow this rule? Isn't it one for me, one for the basket, one for me, one for the basket...?!

We paid for the container, not by weight. As Casey pointed out, it's a good thing we're engineers. We know how to pack 'em in! After my container was full, I just kept picking and devouring until I'd had my fill. Yum!

We didn't have enough time to complete the maze challenge, so we're planning yet another trip to the peninsula, this time with a group challenge to be proposed. Feb 18-Apr 30 this place also hosts a maze maze (corn husks) - oh yeah!!

Our final hike of the day was to King Falls. Can you spot the waterfall??? Neither could we.

Casey and I made our way down the Mornington Peninsula again on a mission to do a few things we missed in our first trip around the bay. First stop of the day was at the very tip of the peninsula, called Point Nepean. It's a national park with limited entry so you can take a bus through the park, walk, or cycle. We opted to take the bus out to the point and hike back. Casey was interested in the historical significance of the site, while I had failed to realize it had historic signficance. I would have been satisified with the natural beauty alone. We saw several people trekking out to the point on our return hike, many of whom asked "how much further?" My answer was always the same - it's about a kilometer and practically all downhill. Casey razzed me a little and said "still?", but I was just trying to encourage them.

Our next stop was Sunny Ridge, the strawberry farm. We stopped here for ice cream during our last visit but had arrived too late to pick strawberries. This time, we made sure we allowed ourselves plenty of time for picking. It was Casey's first experience picking strawberries. I filled him in on the picking procedure, meaning that he should consume plenty while filling his basket. He was surprised by how amazing they tasted fresh. I also purchased raspberries, watermelon, and green beans from the store inside. Of course, our hard laboring in the field was rewarded with strawberry ice cream as well.

Having completed the two primary missions of our trip, we decided to check out the 'Amazing Maze'. Unfortunately, they were closing within 45 minutes of our arrival, which did not allow us sufficient time to fully peruse the site and complete the challenge. However, we did have time to shop around the 'Amazing Lolly Shop'. Casey proposed we make it a group venture to complete the amazing maze and maze maze on a return trip. Big group... I love it!!

We had just enough daylight for one more hike at Arthur's Seat. It was a short loop hike to see King Falls, which Casey had wanted to see during a couple previous visits but never had. Unfortunately, he didn't get to this time either. No rain and a 10 year drought left the falls bone dry. We must have been teased on our walk down to the falls because I thought I heard water, but perhaps it was rustling leaves. Yet another thing to do again later... after a lot of rain. In hindsight, it's rather amazing that we had such perfect weather for the day. After all, I was there, and I have a track record for bringing the rain! The Aussie sun is HOT HOT HOT - I got a little scorched, third weekend in a row now. It's a small price to pay.

Little Italy #4

Joe, me


Dan, Jade

Bring back the sparring!! My last boxing match preceeded Christmas so when Brando and a few of the guys suggested sparring after class, my biceps bulged. Okay... I got excited. Woo! What an adrenaline rush. I escaped with only a few bruises and was told I'm getting stronger, a lot stronger. I got cleaned up yet again (seems like I'm personally sucking Australia dry with as many showers as I need) and gave the Italian district along Lygon St a fourth chance. I don't consider myself a tough food critic, though my previous three visits to "Little Italy" have been rather disappointing. This experience was no different. The food was completely ordinary, rather bland without spice or pizazz, anything to separate it from a very basic slop job in the kitchen. Despite the bad eats, I thoroughly enjoyed the dining experience. Dan, Jade, Joe, and I can create a good time wherever we go. It was a perfect end to the week, a nice leisurely dinner outside on a beautiful evening among good friends.

Alright all you facebook junkies... I finally caved to the pressure and created a profile. Look for me under 'Jen Sorenson' in the Australia network.