The Setting: Fountain Gate shopping centre.
Dramatis Personae:
Me (myself and I)
The Sonia (almost-sister-in-law)
Trinny and Susannah
Sundry others

This is what happened: Trinny and Susannah from the original What Not To Wear were coming to Australia and I asked my almost-sister-in-law, Sonia, if she’d like to go and see them. She’s a mad fan of them (I'm pretty sure she even has all of their books) so of course she said yes.

There’s a question that automatically goes through your head when you know you’re going to be in the very near vicinity of such style gurus: Should I dress up to impress, or dress down to get their attention and a make-over? I opted just to stay casual. It was the weekend, after all... it seemed like an acceptable option to me.

We got there in plenty of time and quickly decided that Fountain Gate needs lessons in signage. Sonia spotted the sign for Trinny and Susannah in Centre Court (“I see legs!” – it was a completely surreal statement until I saw the banner draped from the ceiling, legs-first) but there was a complete lack of signage directing us to said Centre Court. Nevertheless, we made our way there and found a spot that wasn’t too bad, vantage-wise and the show began at long last. They began with a bit of banter, then headed into the crowd in search of victims. Trinny headed our way, so our attention was naturally focussed on her as she talked to people and sent one or two in the direction of the stage.

We happened to be standing in a spot where people seemed to ask a lot of questions, such as:

Would you like this brochure? (Yes, thank-you.)

Where do you get those ice-creams? (Look for the ladies with giant bags on the edge of the crowd.)

The ice-creams weren’t any good, by the way, even though they were free.

Sometimes, we even asked ourselves questions, such as:

Why are those girls wearing robes? (We never did find out.)

So when someone tapped me on the shoulder, I was expecting to turn around and face another mindless question. Instead, I found myself face to face with Susannah, an encounter that left me kind of speechless. Which is lucky, because the only thing I could think of to say was “Oh, it’s you” which seems slightly on the inane side. She appraised me for a bit while I stared in bewilderment and then said, “I think I’d like you to go on stage”.

And go on stage I did, all the while wondering what was so bad about my outfit. I mean, sure, it was a bit casual, but I’d been shopping that morning and I wanted something that was easy to change in and out of. Why, why had I been chosen? These thoughts were still going through my head as they started talking about the first lady, taking every opportunity to grab her boobs (as is their wont). What’s wrong with my outfit? What are they going to pick on? I was torn between excitement and anguish.

Finally, it was my turn and Susannah led me to the front of the stage where she actually said I was dressed pretty well for my shape. “But we want you to go a step further,” she said. “Show off those curves.” And I was sent backstage, into regimented chaos.

“I think she’d look fantastic in this blue dress,” was Susannah’s verdict, as she dragged a rather gorgeous, slinky thing off the rack. There was a brief moment of concern when it was thought that someone else was already going to wear it, but it turned out to be a myth and the dress was bestowed upon me as I was bestowed upon Bridget, the make-up artist.

Poor Bridget – she wasn’t to know that my eyes practically weep at the mere thought of eyeliner. She was constantly being harried as she tried to deal with my overly sensitive blink reflex and she managed to make me look amazing regardless. Make-up done, into the changing room; then off to step into some gorgeous shoes and to be draped in chunky jewellery. Then passed back to Bridget for hair. At one point Susannah had suggested a quick trim to give me a fringe, which likewise gave me a moment of despair – But I’ve just grown my fringe out! I don’t want it back.

No time for a fringe – Bridget just sprayed my fine, disobedient hair into submission and was even there as I was waiting to go on stage, applying some last touches.

And then I was taken back out and there was applause and Susannah insisted I turn around so everyone could see what the dress was doing for my back view... It was madness and so much fun and completely surreal. If only we’d been allowed to keep the clothes! Everyone kept telling me I had to buy the dress – the colour was so amazing and it suited me perfectly – and I was thinking, Yeah, but with what money?

Turns out I might be able to after all. We were all given a little goody bag afterwards with the standard set of things in it: dodgy pen, discount offers, a recipe book and a rather nice notebook... plus a voucher. I thought it would be for some tiny amount – ten, twenty dollars maybe – and I didn’t investigate further until I got back to the Boy’s place and discovered it was actually for $150! So wow.

As for Trinny and Susannah themselves, they were completely lovely and approachable; they didn’t give themselves airs about being famous or completely glamorous. It was non-stop fun.

Well... all except for the slightly terrified lady who didn’t quite want to be there. I don’t think she had quite as much fun as the rest of us did.

But I did. It was surreal and amazing and it still feels slightly unreal. Thank goodness I actually do know what not to wear.

This, alas, is the only picture I have, taken by the Sonia on her phone from behind the Stupid Woman Who Kept Getting In Her Way. You'll just have to take my word for it that the blue blur is me and the black one is Susannah:

Dearest crazedturkey,

I have found you a new political ship. Forget Howard and Bush; now it's all about Hockey and Turnbull. Have a look at this darling picture of the two of them below:



See how Malcolm is gazing adoringly at Joe? See how Joe is so passionately talking about... whatever (probably something about he's such a good cook and is always in the kitchen, whipping up some fantastic treat after those long sessions in the Cabinet... oh, how I wish I hadn't said that now - it sounds far too euphemistic for my liking). Of course they're not about to contest the leadership of the Liberal party! They couldn't bear to be apart from each other for a second!

I hope I've given you something to think about at least (and at the same time, I apologise for giving you something to think about...).

Much love,
Katie(foolery).

...and wear an awesome t-shirt.

I just couldn't resist getting out my "Buffy staked Edward" t-shirt, especially considering that both Tuesday and Friday have worn theirs in their videos of the past two weeks.

Apart from that, this week's (or last week's) video is a slightly rambling affair, mostly due to the fact that I was procrastinating about a vast number of things whilst being distracted by this stupid game on my iPhone. Stupid, addictive game... My cat makes a random appearance though, so huzzah for that!



In other news, my holidays are pretty much over and I am completely unprepared for the impending return to work. On the up side, in a bit under two weeks, there shall be LorFers down here in Melbourne and it shall be awesome fun! I CANNOT WAIT.

I refuse to believe that my holidays are almost half-over! It can't be true! I have rather successfully wasted a lot of time and taken it rather easy, though. And I have made a start on some of the things listed in this week's video:



I am quite interested to hear answers to the question I ask. It's something that has fascinated me since I read about an author who really wanted to write romance but ended up writing fantasty instead. Sometimes the genre we want to write in isn't actually the genre in which we write the best.

So which genre are you secretly tempted to try?

Last week was quite good, actually. I meant to write about it here - several times, in fact - but work kept getting in the way. Work even got in the way of my video, which had to be posted on the weekend this time around.

There are good and bad sides to everything really. For instance:

Good: Work is more interesting these days and involves far fewer library-oriented tasks.
Bad: It also involves fewer actual breaks.

Good: People keep complimenting me on my (apparently) awesome taste in shoes.
Bad: This fills me with uncertainty every morning as I choose my footwear AND causes me to wonder if I should have a lot more shoes.

Good: I was complimented within an inch of my life on Friday.
Bad: I'm not quite sure if it's OK just to say "thank-you" or if I should return the compliment if at all possible.

And now I am on holidays and am being kept company by actual, real internet! Internet that's much faster before! Ironically, I spent the first day of said holidays far from this fast internet and instead in the company of people from Ober.net. (Although, as you can see here, we were all very close to mobile forms of internetness...) It was a splendid day! There was an almost-rained-out picnic, followed by unintentional spending of money in Minotaur. This required us to sit down in Borders with a beverage of some sort... followed by further unintentional spending of money.

But seriously, Borders had the "Buffy staked Edward" t-shirts! As part of a stand of Twilight merchandise! How were we supposed to resist, especially when they look this awesome?



I don't have mine on because I wanted to preserve the integrity of my gypsy outfit. *cough*lazy*cough* Oh yes, I didn't mention the gypsy outfits, did I?

We were wearing gypsy outfits.

There you go. It was part of our theme for the picnic and we didn't actually stand out too much, thanks to the fact that we were in the city on Talk Like A Pirate Day. However, according to various bystanders, we could also double as:

1. Authentically-dressed Russian villagers


2. Pirate wenches


3. Pre-Buccanneer-era pirates

Of course, the 3D glasses add considerably to our authenticity in that pic. We were just waiting to see Up in 3D, which is possibly the most gorgeous movie I've seen in ages.

And once all that was over (although none of us wanted it to be), I got right on to my delayed video. Unsurprisingly, it's writing week again and this week's theme is to do with authors we admire or who have influenced us. Since I was in a rather grateful mood all week, I decided to make my video into a thank-you to all the authors who've inspired me in one way or another. Watch to see who makes the cut!



I'd love to know which authors you guys would like to thank, even if it's for trivial reasons. Comment! Make a video! Send me a smoke signal!

Yes, I'm still alive. No, I don't have internet yet. This is causing the house to echo with the sound of gah from noon to night. We have a line, we have sync, we have a perfectly set up modem/router... but we unfortunately have an ISP on the failboat as they still haven't done whatever it is they have to do in order to give us precious, precious internet.

Therefore, gah.

It's at times like these that it's good to have an iPhone, I tell you what. Mine is currently packed with things that keep me in contact with people: Twitter, YIM, Beejive (for MSN - Microsoft and Apple still aren't talking), Facebook and this thing I'm using for LJ. It makes me laugh a bit, considering I'm supposed to be this shy, anti-social thing... yet here I am, ensuring I can be in contact with people even when I'm asleep.

Although I hear I'm not all that communicative when I'm asleep.

If only everyone had iPhones - then we could judge them by the apps on their front page.

I should have my internet back tomorrow and I cannot wait to get back to watching pointless videos on YouTube and actually keeping up with my flist. And any other things I might care to do to get in the way of writing.

And then, holidays! Packed full of things to do! So many things to look forward to; I just hope it's the same for everyone else, too.

Over the past couple of days I have come to a rather alarming understanding: Facebook and Twitter have eaten the internet. It's true, though; every word of it is true.

For instance, I fully suspect the main reason I haven't been posting here as much is not, in fact, because of laziness but is rather due to the fact that whatever I would have posted already appeared piecemeal on Twitter throughout the day.

Then again, it could be due to laziness.

Or the fact that I still do not have proper internet at home, due to Netspace fail. Seriously, last time it took them two days to re-connect us. This time they claim they actually need to come out to the house to make sure we're not lying about having a telephone line or something, just like Telstra before them. I'm on the verge of sending them detailed photos of said telephone lines, complete with handy labels so they can't miss a thing.

On the other hand, it could just be that their internet technicians are crying out for human contact. Or at least a nice cuppa and a biscuit.

Regardless, at this point, I won't have proper internet until the 13th, which is almost a month after they promised us internet within two weeks. I AM GOING CRAZY HERE.

Anyway, to return to my point: stealage of internet by Twitter and Facebook.

I have my LJ posts set to ship to Facebook automatically. It seemed like the thing to do. Mostly, they just wandered off there and passed by without comment, except on rare occasions. Now I get almost as many comments on Facebook as I actually do on LJ.

Everything just seems to filter through Facebook or Twitter. Once upon a time, I used to get breaking news on my flist; now it's through Twitter that I find out that water minister Tim Holding hasn't ironically perished at the hands of snow.

Why the transition, though? Why have we gone from blogging to micro-blogging? Why have we been drawn in to wasting our time on quizzes or, even worse, farming, on Facebook? Personally, I think it's because it's more immediate. You can have Twitter and Facebook in your pocket with your phone - you can always be up to date with what's going on, no matter how mundane.

Am I right? Horribly wrong? I guess I'm just fascinated to know what inspires these changes. Why have you been drawn in, against your will or not?