I MISS MY BIKE

i spent valentines day drinking an espresso and eating free heartshaped chocolates at badde manors cafe, a long standing 'true' cafe in trendy restaurant shitcatcher-pant boutique neighbourhood glebe, with a sixty year old, sydneyborn, gay musician called steven. he had in front of him a spanish made easy book which caught my eye and my lighter prompted him to ask me if he could buy a smoke. i couldn't offer him a cigarette but i asked him about his interest in spanish and we got to talking.
we talked about elizabeth taylor, pisceans, chile and a lesbian falling off a third-storey balcony at a particularily wild party. and after we discussed tailormades versus rollies, we chatted about the curtness and coldness of youth, his past future-wife and his inevitable life of loneliness, and where to explore in sydney. 
i realized after an hour or two that i hadn't explored glebe at all 'cause i was so set on having a coffee before anything else. so it was time to go. i walked up and down glebe point road, got a free yoga class pamphlet, found an identical skirt to one i had borrowed from alicia two days before in a vinnie's but couldn't squeeze my hips into a size 8 and tried on some ugly shoes instead. i found out about a few good weekend markets from the lady behind the counter who had greasy pigtails and three shirts on and wandered back towards central station.
haaaaaaa - last weekend i found v-club downtown. probably the swankiest place i've been in my life, what with its velvet chairs and round glass tables with monitors installed underneith and sneaky keyboards. in the fruity lobby they were playing the shittest top 40 i've heard since hot fm in the braz' babes sample hut and the blonde-bobbed lesbian behind the counter's noncommital enthusiasm made me want to vomit. in my attempt to find free activites in sydney for the backpacking type (i haven't exactly backpacked yet) i came across v-club, a five star gym in the sassy heart of the sydney cbd. i was meant to meet lauititi for a consultation but there was no mauri in sight so i met this german guy who walked me through a membership introduction and through my medical history. the zumba class i wanted to go to (props to sierra and liz scully, muff and susi-q mills, and me) was in 5 minutes so i got changed and joined forty overforty asian ladies, a few young dog owning celibates, some preteens with obviously rich ass moms, and two awkward men in a dance studio called 'hero'. a psycho bounded up to the front elastically, tightened the ponytail on top of her head, cranked the latin dancehall, brightened her underbitten smile and yanked up her pink trackies. she was white as and totes a ghetto babealicious chica. the next two hours i won't describe. if you've ever been to a zumba class you'll know what it's like!
yesterday was wickkeeddd, i met up with theo, a german who lived with me for half a year five years ago. theo plays soccer but has no left foot, he's travelling the world: vancouver/sanfran/cali/lasvegas/grandcanyon/fijiislands/nz/oz and off to hong kong today, his english has improved tenfold, he looks the same as before which is not a bad thing, and he has a black string bracelet that i like.  my favourite memory is when he first arrived in canada he asked my brother 'why do you don't not drive?' which became a long running joke in the hobruecker-thompson household. we got tallboys and sat in hyde park drinking brews and reminiscing a bit and sharing stories of our travels. he just spent a couple weeks driving down to melbourne and back and was just in sydney for a day, fucker!, so we had a few hours to talk about five years and five countries. we'll meet up again in another five, probably in berlin we decided.
saturday night i had the biggest night haha aieaieee. i had a lot a lot a lot of pent up energy that couldn't be released in esperance, not that i really wanted to let it out there anyway. i had dinner and drinks at home with alicia and daniel and snotface and then met up with daniel's colleagues (he's headchef at sepia) at sanctuary for some beers. before they got off work i met some italian, spanish and french backpackers, most memorable of whom was marta, a cute little brune from madrid. i met jason and andrew and after a few beers--jason and i watched man utd vs. man city and andrew watched rugby-- we went to oxford street and hit da clubz. oxford art factory! sick spot, you should go. it's got two rooms: one had a djs and free tunes and the other had a show that you had to pay to get in to.  they were spinning classic dance mash up sample sing along fun. i remember ice cube, stevie wonderous, mickey avalon aaaaaand some outkast, despite dancing there for like sixty hours. so yeah! had a massive dance party with a bunch of cool strangers and had some more beers and got bliiiind.
at one point in the night i realized that my red stripe bottle pendant had fallen off my necklace and i sobered up for about ten straight devastating minutes. i was empty without my empty little bottle, how ironic. somehow i had a search party of about five people all looking for my necklace. i told this one guy curtis that i would sleep with his friend whose twentieth birthday it was that night if he found my necklace. curtis found the necklace. i was sewwwwww happepepiieiyeyeye he got probably the biggest hug i've given anyone in the past four months but i didn't sleep with his friend sowwie. jason andrew and i went next door where there was an electronic hip hop dub step show and where i continued to dance my face off and ruined my favourite new t-shirt by lying back on the stage and chillin with the 5'2" black as night rapper. (class.) it was so good to hear the bassssssssss it's been so long. once it was light enough out and we were ready for our walk of shame we went out onto oxford street and hung out till the trains started running again. since stanmore station was closed for maintenance i had to take a bus from central and since i missed my stop it seemed suitable to alight there and walk back home. best part of my hour long walk home was asking for directions from a bakery 'cause of course at that hour shops were opening up and people were starting their sundays. long story short got home at 8:30 slept till 4. oops sorry sunday.
ok i have a miserable pterodactyl to walk around the neighbourhood for a couple hours, determined to complain until her mummy comes home and sings her i like pie, i like cake, i like anything you make. for now, isobel's longhaired inadequate replacement will have to do. please dear baby god let this child sleep in her pram i am begging you.

lovenatalov.

  http://www.oxfordartfactory.comhttp://www.baddemanorscafe.com/http://www.vclub.com.au

I don't care for no fancy restaurant cause I know when I gets home I can eat anything that I want

read: the third eye by tuesday lobsang rampa
listen to: mojo juju & the snake oil merchants
eat: moro the cookbook's fish targine with potatoes, tomatoes and olives

 right. so it's been over a month since new years and what a goooo00000d month it's been.
since new years, i have gone to some parties, done some art, met some cool people, gone to lovely beaches, eaten delicious food, created art with the intention of making a profit, moved houses, taught an art class, gained 5 kilos, caught up with heidi, had a scrabble night, shotgunned some beers, been to a festival, acquired a few too many new scars, bought some electronics, driven a standard, made some pillow cases, had a sleepover at the airport, but most importantly LEFT ESPERANCE.

first of all let me tell you of the difficulties involved in sleeping at jimmy's house.
a) i slept on a pullout couch with a particularily uncomfy metal bar under my lungs/upper back 
b) sleeping on a fold out in the living room means waiting till the others are sleepy before i can crash
c) mozzies buzzing at night and biting ungodly parts of my body. i'm referring to my legs and hips and feet. i reckon they realyl shouldn't bite us anywhere though.
d) waking up to flies on your face. and you swat them as you fall back asleep. and they land on the other cheek. and you swat them as you fall back asleep. and they land on your other cheek. and then you yell and they still don't leave so you have to wake up and move around and grunt and sometimes they'll find some other unfortunate piece of flesh walkig around in the same room as you. it's a game and they always win every time and it's not even FUN!!!!!
e) the noises!!!! the screen door outside the beaut of a red front door we (they) have is only attached at the top and with the 46928km winds that esperance just can't seem to get rid of, it swings creating a rhythmic knocking. then there's the kitchen window above the sink that doesn't lock properly so it as well taps at night - a little more of a muffled sound though. just after i left esperance our budday joe fixed the shower, but it was leaky, getting progressively leaky and leakier daily. drip drip drip drip drip dirp drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip. sophie did you get a good sleep? hm.. after a while though, probably near the peak of its attention seeking streak, it was doing this dripdripdoubledrip dripdriptri-i-ipledrip riff that i almost wanted to record. it was so consistent and even and mr. reid would've been proud of its staccato quality. creaky bed. wind whistling.screeching of drink-driving drivers' tires. ella's sleep-moaning and grunts. but.. i surprisingly enough found the lot to be a calming whir.


let me expand. at cape arid i met the lovely susi watson and her beautiful family of sid, ruby and brady. to my dismay she spent the following three weeks in sydney when i would have liked to hang out with her and read and go to the beach and play with her kids. she introduced me to elaine, laneo, who saved my withering soul. we met at mamma's and drank coffee and then went to willow relaxation and wellbeing centre which offers, among others, but most notably, rare books for hire and incense. they've got this library of sorts where you buy a ten dollar membership and then you can loan books for 2 bucks a pop, with the perk of being able to keep it for as long as you like. they take your phone number down for when you move to the other side of the country and don't return it, like me. after that, we walked through museum/period village where the transWA bus stop is. there stands the old ticketing building and an old train carriage that had been neglected until elaine and monika decided it would become their art space/studio/gallery. it's still in progress but well underway. i've enjoyed a fair few instant coffees on the picnic table by the pond and marveled at the stash of danish butter cookies and gin the carriage hides. that day i told laneo about my lighters and she loved the idea and we came up with a POA. game plan: i teach her how i make them (she learnt well) and we sell them in the gallery shop with incense to veer the train stopper off the association of lighters and smoking (maybe even by calling them butane lanterns) and since she has a abn, australian business number, i can electronically receive a percentage of every sale. ta da! in the weeks thereafter, elaine and i spent many hours on her shag rug around a coffee table lsitening to music and eating fresh salads of rocket, tomatoes, amaranth fresh from the garden whilst crafting away. she has a collection of 60s and 70s scientific encyclopedias that needed some scissor-action so we decoupaged the shit out of them and it resulted in some very wild lighters. 

through elaine i met her sister anna. anna is also initially from esperance but she managed to escape years ago; spent some time in perth, moved to melbourne for a few months and now resides in the house that she owns, at the young, nascent age of twenty, in mt. lawley. i spent a few days with her the week before i left esperance, while she visited her family. we too spent a string of days doing crafts: sewing clothing for a miniature doll; sewing pillowcases for ella and jimmy's trip out of shirts that i couldn't fit in my luggage, couldn't make my mind up about whether or not to bring, or simply felt like chopping up and giving a new life; making birthday cards; and if music counts as a craft we had a jam sesh featuring a guitar, a melodica, and a wooden washboard. i spent an evening with anna in perth before i flew out which was one of the loveliest nights i had had in a whiiiiilllleeee. i ended up at her house after a night in mandurah and was greeted by her shirtless roommate ben. i put down my sweaty 17kg bag and freshened up, then we wandered through mount lawey where i proceeded to have a little (big) ankle bleed in the middle of planet video. my boat show looked full of blood as it pooled on the edge - i was very dehydrated, my blood was thick, anyway, whatever. wandered round, bought us a hefty block of chocolate, went back to the homestead. anna was home! so was her other roommate michael! we all hung out and michael serenaded us and anna and i caught up a bit. we spent the rest of the evening eating lime/lemon/mandarin hybrids; playing music; talking about collecting things and reusing other things and recycling and future projects for anna to do for the two of us; attempting to fill my new harddrive with music but failing; making the most delicious meal of eggplant, chickpeas, cannelini beans, tomato and hazelnut meal garnished with fresh tomato, avocado and greek style yogurt, devoured with flat bread; washing that down with wine, and chocolate, and rollies; and eventually becoming too tired to even watch robot chicken.
anna and i will meet up at some point, it is in the books for us.

so somehow it became three o'clock in the aayyy emmm. and i promised alicia i wouldn't sleep in till two again. so i guess i should speed up this ending, introduce alicia, and explain how i got here.. and where i am for that matter: i left anna's sleepy and ready for a seven hour turbulent nap, taxi'd to the airport, waited for ages, flight had a gate-changeal, flight had a cancellation 'cause the crew was spewing, met a kiwi boy named kel who i spent the following 5 hours with in wheelchairs pretending to need them, watching south park and the beginnings of many movies and shows, laughing with tired giddiness and that new-acquaintance energy. we didn't take the free-accomodation offer due to the fact that we'd have to pay for the cab there and back and the other fact that his replacement flight left in 4 hours, and instead had a sleepover. no we had a stay over in the airport. sent him off at 5:45 and then lucidly lazed in the sunrisey terminal till my flight at 7. up up up i went, met a weirdo next to me who wanted desperately to be my new middle-aged miner man friend, landed in sydney, had a little sit while i charged my phone and my body, embarked on a train journey and ended up in the welcoming yet full-of-baby arms of alicia mintzes. i feel so goddamn welcome here, she lives in a beautiful house on harrow! road with her man daniel and her seven-month-tiny bundle isobel. i have been here all of one night and have already done good things and seen good sights and met memorable people. we cooked the aforementioned fish meal (replacing the potatoes with couscous and adding a healthy dose of eggplant - both white and purps), wandered through some of sydney, sat in hyde park, ate some jap food THANK GOD FOR MULTICULTURAL FOODS THANK YOU BIG CITY YOU ARE GOOD TO ME, and i topped off the night with baking a banana bread. wwawaweewa yeooww.

in the next few weeks all i have planned so far is to:
-meet the german aupere girl that lives nearby
-babysit for the neighbourwoman wendy
-go to pickup soccer in fowler park
-go to 5$ yoga
-cook and bake
-find a spanish speaker
-go to the rose pub and take it from there.

adioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo0000s te amo, photos eventually
 xxxx-s