Sasa Stanisic in Sydney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ther eis a heaven! Shooting star Sasa Stanisic, Bosnian born and raised in Germany who recently debutetd with his genuinly novel "Wie der Soldat das Grammophon repariert" is actaully gonna read in Sydney! In March 09! Can you believe it? That guy is awesome! check out http://www.goethe.de/INS/au/lp/ver/vsy/en4017129v.htm.
Thank you, Goethe Institut!!!
yipppiehhh

kim is here!

Kim is here! finally! It took ages to cathc her from the airport, because the bloody trains were in major delay, which made me spend the early morning at the bloody trainstation. But eventually, I got there, met my sister and we got back to my place, where we had breakfast on our terrace in the light shadow. Now she is resting and I took the chance to buy some booze for tonight. We are gonna go to one of Annes sisters' rooftop cocktail party, since the traffic is gonny be chaotic in the city today. I´ll keep you updated :-)

ps. Thank you all so much for the loely Christmas/B*day presents Kim brought! DANKESCHÖN!!!!!!!

a bag, a dress and a book

yesterday was a good day. In one of my favourite cafes, Cupcakes on Crown, I was asked if I was Swedish. That alone usually makes it a good day, but after an extensive session on the net (they have free wireless there), a delicious vegetarian quiche and a nice coffee, I payed a visit to all my favourite vintage shops that are in that area.
There are two with remarkably discount prices and although you have to search a lot through ugly 80s dresses, you can make a goos catch once in a while.Yesterday I was lucky. In the first on Crown Street, I found tiny gold glitter purse with a little cigarette bag for unbelieable 15AUS§!

In one of the side streets, there is another vintage outlet, where I found a gorgeous dress, and yes, it is pink or better altrosa with silver dotts on it. I am turning pretty girly, I feel.

Later on Oxford Street I passed by the cutest bookshop ever and found a book on Australian-German Literature for 1AUS§, so I took it home. It is actually quite interesting.
so it was a pretty good day yesterday! yay!

Christmas on the beach

just to make you jealous, we did go to the beach yesterday because it was so very hot.. but I don´t want to torment you too much, so no private pictures
;-)
but, we were not alone...

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

a very merry Chrismas to all of you!
god jul & buon natale


(Anne as this years Chrismas Angel)

Flippers wider family

I am happy to inform you that Flippers Cousin is not alone! yesterday I came across this fella in my street:

message in a bottle

ever since I started to report me seeing Elvis, our encounters seem to increase. Not only was his conterfeit depicted on a wand hanging in a second hand shop I went to yesterday, but last night he appeared to me again. Following the British tradition of trivia pub quizes, the brewing company Tooheys puts funny little nonsense questions and answers in the caps. Guess what was the answer to the question of last nights stubbie.....



and here you can sing with Elvis: http://www.singwiththeking.com/
thanks to Ulli!

to all you ipod lovers....

thanks to the good people at free.uni.bz

a Saturday in Sydney

Thick grey clouds dwelled in the sky, occasionally throwing heavy drops into the leadgrey sea. Apparently, not the best weather to hang out on the beach, but Sydney would not be Sydney if there was nothing else to do: The Paddington Markets opened their gates around St. Johns Cathedral on upper Oxford street, selling new designer and vintage clothes, jewellery, bags and much more. After a stroll up Oxford ST (which was more like a hike, since Oxford ST is pretty damn long), I admired the pretty little things on offer, many of them known to me from either frankie magazine or 2000, but still could not find anything that screamed the name of a person I still need a Christmas present for - which are many since I am not in a Christmassy mood at all due to the warm weather.
The best find of the day was the ACP, the Australian Centre for Photography which is close by. I have been looking for it before, but apparently mistook the house number by a 100. The ACP hosts not only various exhibitions, but displays also the works of its students, and guess who I discovered in one of the students works….Elvis!

Flippers Cousin

Have you ever wondered why my blog is called lassie_fury_flipper? It is time now to at least explain flipper. And here is why: One of my first cars was an old BMW 2002 from the 1970s. It was the most beautiful car ever and its colour was called dolphin metallic, therefore it was named Flipper. Flipper died a natural death of over-aging, but I still keep up his memory. The other day outside Annes house I ran into a cousin of this car:


It is the same model, only in light silver, without hatchback and a bit younger. Apparently, this car lives somewhere in the area, because I saw it around the next days. Awesome car, that brings back nice memories

apparently, it lives somewhere close by because I keep seeing it...I`m kinda in love ;-)

a Trip to Newtown

Anne and me went to have breakfast at a café in Mosman this morning. Funny enough, the cookies that accompanied the coffee were in the shape of little bears. Even more funny, Anne got a smiling one, while mine was grumpy. I ignored any deeper symbolism.


Everybody else working but no job to keep me busy, I set out to explore Sydney some more. Today my trip took me to Newtown, a more alternative quarter in Sydneys South West, by some compared to Londons Camden Town. The only thing that makes Newtown more “alternative” in the eyes of the obviously more ordinary people are the many second hand shops and frequent urban arts on the walls. Besides this, it has not much more atmosphere than many other parts of the city. One eatery after the other (Australians appear to eat out much more than I am used to), mainly Asian, the cafes were not much more cosy than the ones in Surry Hills and the second hand shops did not offer anything interesting (and I have been to all of them!)

"Australia", a girl's day out and barbie

There is no other movie as big as “Australia” here right now. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackmann are busily promoting their movie, funded for a great deal by the Australian Ministry of Tourism (they have even been on Wetten Dass? As the Sydney Morning Herald proudly reported). What could be better suited for a girls’ night out than this epic movie with the lead actor voted sexiest man of the year (or something like that). Monday, my moving day, was the day to be and Karo took the journey from Milperra to the Mosman, though we had to skip dinner due to some missed bus stops and went straight to the wine. The movie itself was rather disappointing, an unsurprising plot permanently commented by the bad aboriginal English of the little boy you most probably have seen on the ads. But we really enjoyed Hugh Jackmans shower scene and the popcorn.
Next day we took it easy, grabbed some food and sunscreen and headed down to Balmoral, the nearest Beach in Mosman. It is a most beautiful bay, with a small rocky island that is connected to the beach via a little bridge. There is not much surf, but very few tourists and I enjoyed the worlds best cookies, Digestiv, and Australias best arty-and-crafty-magazine, Frankie.

(my knee and the view)

In the late afternoon we inaugurated the enormous bbq at my new places terrace with Anna, a co-worker of Anne, Anne and Jess and my landlord Steve. My first real Aussie barbie was so authentic, that the guys refused to grill the vegetables I had prepared, but we had enough meat anyway.

Road Trip to Canberra

here finally, the report: (more pictures later)
I met Karo in my first days in Sydney in the hostel, though I do not remember how we actually got to talking. We went out once in Sydney, then she started working with KEA Campers and I moved to the country. Karo is amazing, 26 (like me!), Reiseverkehrskauffrau from Lübbecke, dumped her boyfriend she was supposed to marry and went to Oz out of a sudden.
Working for a camper van rental agency, she gets special rates and turned up with a deluxe version for our road trip. The initial plan to go to Canberra was met with disbelief by almost all Australians I told about it, so - fed up with the Blue Mountains - we decided to head to the beach. Since Karo lives far away in the outskirts of Sydney, we were both longing to get to some inner city beach and therefore decided on Cronulla. 3hrs later at 9pm we arrived at Cronulla Beach - in pouring rain. We parked our motor home directly on the beach’s parking lots and had our first beer listening to rain and waves in the dark. Although it was Sunday we had an urgent desire to got out and went to the next Bar/Disco we had seen on the way. As always, we felt heavily underdressed which did not get any better when a Balinean Guy called our looks “sophisticated”. As the pub closed at 10pm we went for a late night snack into a pizzeria and then returned to our mobile home on the beach. After chatting till late the waves and the constant sound of raindrops on the roof eventually lulled us into sleep. The morning woke us with dramatic grey mountains of clouds in the sky and a silver grey angry sea. Coffee in hand we walked along the surf on the clean, fresh and nearly empty beach, the waves spotted with some hard core surfers. Feet in the water the waves quickly lured me in deeper, until the waves rolled over my shoulders and I couldn´t help but laughing out loud. My first time in the sea since I got here made me feel like a kid again.
After a cold shower in the public facilities, Karo and me set out to find breakfast and Anne who by that time was on her way from Mosman to Cronulla to join on our road trip. Some coffees and an extensive shopping stroll through Cronullas promenade later we finally set sail on Princess Highway down south along the coast. Heading down the scenic route to Wollongong, the weather refused to get better and so the plan to abandon the coast and head inland towards Canberra became more and more attractive.

(we could not not take a picture of Ulladulla, the name is just too hilarious)

After a quick stop in Batemans Bay we found ourselves beer drinking on the lonely route through rural New South Wales in direction of the Australian Capital. We´ve been warned, Canberra is boring, and now after having been there I can only confirm this common knowledge. Daring as we were we decided to camp in front of Parliament House in the middle of the city. This large areal offered toilets and was guarded by funny looking police officers on bikes. We set up our van for the night and drank some more beer, untill we saw one of the bike cops approaching. Anxiously we opened the door as he knocked, expecting to be driven out of this lay sanctuary. But Philip, as his nametag said, just wanted to say hello and see if we were ok. He refused a beer as he was on duty and parted with a friendly “see you later!”. soon after that another camper pulled into out parking lot, out came a Norwegian Couple who had the same idea. After we finished our beers we decided it was time to try the Capital nightlife, although on a Monday night we could not expect much. Indeed, we did not find much. An hour walking distance we found what the lonely planet marked as the pub area. Only there were not many pubs open, let alone clubs or discos, and most of the people frequenting them were obviously on Christmas parties. A few beers later, with our bad expectations confirmed, we walked back over the bridge spanning the shores of manmade lake Burley Griffin and went to sleep in our spacious van named Ulla Dulla. Next morning we woke from a deep sleep and went to brush our teeth in the Parliaments House public toilet. After a brief visit to the halls of decision making, we set out to return to Sydney.

Annes roommates

I finally got some of the pictures of Annes roommates (which are actually flatmates, to be accurate) from their legendary stay in the Blue Mountains.
Jess, by now Annes boyfriend is 26 and working as a electrician. Marco is 27, half Irish, half Italian. They are really nice guys and pretty funny :-)


(anne & me)

(Marco, Anne& Jess)

catch up with me if you can

a lot happened these past days.
I spent the last weekend in Sydney, Kathy, my boss had a seizure of anger caused by her miscommunication and nicotine deprivation so that I ended up fired and thrown out which I am still quite happy about.
I spent two nights at Karo's place in Milperra on the outskirts of Sydney, got the rest of my pay with some troubles, and found a room close to where Anne lives on Monday and moved in Tuesday. So now I am living in Cremorne, which is just across the Harbour Bridge and 5 min by bus from Annes WG. My room is rather tiny, 10sqm I´d say, but the apartment is quite spacious and there is a terrace with a bbq, plus it´s all new and clean. I gotta get you some pictures soon! My rommate and landlord Steve is a bit weird, he`s 26 and working for a radio station, born Canadian, raised in New York with rich parents but spends most of his time in his room at the computer. Unfortunately, he is the only one who has acces to the internet, and although he offered me to use it there, I prefer going online at Annes place. my other rommate is Ben, who I met only once and who is qite nice but always busy and away.
Anyway, it is only for a short while and Christmas and New Years Eve is comming soon! With all the sunshine and up to 30° there is no Christmas feeling at all here. I have to remind myself to buy presents ;-)
So far from here
cheers!

B*day presents

Those of you who know me might be aware of the fact that I do not like my birthday that much. An ideal b*day is spent with a couple of movies at home in front of the tv eating my body weight in ice cream. This year’s came and went, I was working and most of my co-workers forgot about it, and therefore did not make the customers sing happy birthday all day. Lucky me.
At this point I wanna thank all you lovely people who send me sms, emails or wrote on my wall on facebook! Thanx for thinking of me and sorry for forgetting your birthdays!
Although I do not like this all so special day, I take the opportunity to get myself a present. This year it was the first season of “The Tudors”, a British TV series about the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII. You might think, “boring history bullshit”, but don´t be fooled! King Henry is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, a pretty yummy actor and a sticker on the dvd warns of “strong sex scenes and coarse language” (which is not that bad actually), therefore it is more entertaining than educating and I hope I might pick up some old-fashioned English terms I can confuse other people with ;-)!



Anyway, I got more presents!! Karo who came over on Sunday not only took me on our gorgeous road trip I´ll tell you more about in another post, but also gave me a book about Australia which serves as a nice inspiration for our next trips.



Lizzy gave me a stuffed horse which after a brief fight with the cat took refuge in my bed now and keeps me company at night. Is there an age where you get to old to get stuffed animals for your birthday? I love it and it is a nice reminder of my time here on the farm in Oz! Thank you Liz!

paranoid pete

on wednesday the 3rd december we went on a mystery tour through some of the most spookiest places in the blue mountains. the guy giving the tour calles himself paranormal pete but soon became dubbed paranoid pete. We started in an old guesthouse where someone died in almost every room and numerous ghosts are now said to haunt the place. We did not encounter any though. Further on we went to an old cemetry, where pete told us stories of the dead and kept mentioning where he and his psychics usually see lights and aer touched by ghoosts. Unfortunately, they must have been all on holiday since no one of us experienced anything unusual. The next hautned place was an old court house that also served as a prison back in the days, but again no paranormal activity. The last spot, some mysterious wells in the middle of the forest were more cold than spooky, but we had fun anyway ;-)

long live the king

On one of my last trips to Sydney I stumbled upon a DVD store close to George Street that had its final sale. Since I do not have tv on the farm and watched almost all better ones from Kathys enormous collection, I figured it was time to buy some of my own taste. Searching through the boxes with movies of minor quality, suddenly a well known handsome face smiled at me from a dvd cover: dark black hair styled in 60s fashion, a charming smile in a beige army uniform, decorates with a guitar and a beautiful woman by his side…I could not believe my eyes and smiled happily back: it was the King, Elvis Presley in his younger years on the peak of his career, when he made millions with music movies. Since the offer was 3 for 20AU$, I picked “King Creole” (1958), “GI Blues” (1960) and “Easy come, Easy go” (1967). King Creole is actually still shot in black and white and starrs a young Walter Matthau. GI Blues is shot in Germany around Frankfurt and Elvis sings “muss I denn zum Städele hinaus” - awesome! Easy come, Easy go, the latest one of them, reminds of the James Bond movies of those days, Elvis being a diver in the army, wearing a at the times futuristic wetsuit, people do yoga and wear pretty futuristic costumes as it was typical of that time. It is interesting observing the fundamental change in popular taste depicted in those movies that span only a decade. Unfortunately, no one could understand or share my happiness about such a rare find… (“Banausen!”)
Thank you Elvis. Long live The King!

was bisher geschah...

Long time no see...so here is a short summary of these past days:
Kathy quit smoking which resulted in one of the worst days at work ever. Literally everyone got yelled at, a junior guide almost fired and the morale sank in so far unheard-of depths. Rene, a new roommate from Denmark, came (and went); he wanted to work on a cattle station but had never sat on a horse before, so they send him to Werriberri to teach him how to ride. To our great pleasure, he had to be taught everything else aswell, so we ended up supervising him brushing, saddling and bridling, where he showed a high degree of creativity that did not always make much sense. Anyway, he was a wimp and certainly no natural talent and left after not only a week. We assume he is gay and went to live with his mate in Sydney. I do not even have a photo…
Monday&Tuesday Anne set out to test her riding skills again, this time with the support of her roommates Jess&Marco. They turned my free days into the most fun I ever had up here, with a dramatic sunset, a lot of beer and Jägermeister.
Last Wednesday night we went on a mystery tour through some of the more spookiest parts of the Blue Mountains, although paranormal pete (which got called paranoid pete in the end) failed to make me shiver, although it was pretty chilly out on an old cemetery in the middle of the night. I did not see any ghost, and even the pictures do not reveal any evidence of paranormal life.
On Sunday Karo, a girl from Lübbecke I met in my first day in the hostel in Sydney, came by with a camper van and we took off to our first road trip, which took us eventually along the coast to Canberra and back. Since the batteries of my camera were low you need to wait till the weekend to get a detailed report with pictures. Let me tell you, it was AWESOME!