LeishBlog

Is it wrong to say I want to shed this year like a piece of crusty old skin? I am not going to write a retrospective, look what I’ve learnt blog…..you’ve just got to scroll through my past entries to see that I have had a year of ups, downs and sideways experiences. Sometimes I think I’ve done a good job, the move to Sydney, the jobs, living for the first time in a share house with Flat Mates Mick and Sarah, but then I often wake up and roll over towards the wall and stare for half an hour, contemplating whether to bother hauling arse out of bed at all.

Actually at the moment, I feel like I am in a Weezer song. Life is sort of bopping along but there is an undertone of moroseness that I can’t shake. I am back at my desk again in Sydney, after a whirlwind trip to Tassie for Christmas. In the past month I have spent 2 nights in my own bed and being back here now is a bit of a downer. Maybe not a downer. It just doesn’t feel right.  I wasn’t going to go to Hobart but I had a change of heart and booked an exuberantly expensive airfare at the last minute, which was worth every dollar. As well as the festive season I retuned home to tend to matters of the heart. I don’t know how successful I was. I mean I do, but I don’t. I do act on impulse maybe a little too often. My friend Suze dropped me of at the airport yesterday and said

“You wouldn’t be Leish if you didn’t fully put your heart into everything and it could have turned out worse….”

She’s right there on both counts. I am passionate. I do jump into things without perhaps thinking about the consequences, sometimes it works and often it doesn’t. But I still keep doing it.

Before I left for Tassie I had breakfast with Positive Simone and she said to me.

“Listen if this boy is right for you, you should stay in Sydney and give it some time. Don’t rush things. Ease into it a bit. Why must you rush?”

I can’t answer that. I hate being left out. I hate not knowing. I hate not being in control. Hate is a very strong word.

Anyway I had this fabulous week that was full of passionate experiences that I shall store in my romantic memory cavity but now I am sitting at my fucking desk again in Sydney.

Why is that you ask? Who is the boy? What happened? Why did you go home? These are decent queries.

Well matters of the heart are never easy. Actually I lie because this was easy. I didn’t try. I wasn’t panicked. I wasn’t a smart arse. I laughed with ease. I felt comfortable. Which is unusual because in every relationship or encounter I have had this year I have had been surrounded by this counterfeit tone. Trying too hard. Wanting it to work a bit too much.  That’s why I felt inclined to travel to Tasmania and I was right by going.

The boy isn’t a boy, he is a man who is intelligent and complicated and funny and they are hard to find. He is also neat and likes red and black, like me (I am not implying I am neat, I just like red and black!). He thinks he thinks too much. Who doesn’t?  Really after some of the boys I have met this year, an over thinker is a treat. He is a writer, a talented one at that and he read aloud to me, which is one of my favourite things (mainly because I am lazy…..that is not true…actually it is). 

Anyway now I am in Sydney exercising patience. Fuck knows what that really means.  Maybe I did ruin it by rushing to Hobart? My Dad said

“Time will tell” and never has a cliché been more spot on. Good one Father.

Anyway, it was nice to be welcomed back to Sydney yesterday by the crew, when I attended the grand even that is Princess Nicole’s 26^th birthday. It was on the harbour darling at Café Sydney. Very ritzy and proper. We dressed up, ate wonderful food and after lunch watched the sunset at the Opera Bar followed dancing at the Argyle.

The Crew……….and the beautiful view.

Nicole and I must have looked light nutters jumping around on the cobblestones to a cover band that we could hear through a nearby window (we think it was a private party) but it was 80s music and it was the Princess birthday and she wanted to dance, so dance we did, while Rowan the Hawk and Joel K B ( and the rest of the courtyards inhabitants) looked on.

The ladies

Bad dancing…

This photo sums up Leish and The Hawks relationship quite nicely!

Feeling pretty hungover today which is weird because I feel that I will be a lot worse tomorrow morning.

For New Year Eve we are heading to Cremorne point. A fantastic spot that requires us to nab a place very early in the day. Princess Nicole, even under the influence of the birthday booze delegated jobs for today in the cab on the way home. I am he chef for today which is great. Love cooking and I ma happy I don’t have to man the picnic rug because I would either go nuts or drink too much to early and pass out by 6pm. SAAADD.

I have 2 weeks left of my holidays, or unemployment before I start my uber job. I am excited but  also scared that 2 weeks in my own mind will send me insane and therefore uber job will be wasted. I plan to write. We’ll see.

Happy New Year.

Well it seems to bit weird to be sitting here in my bedroom, typing LeishBlog after such a whirlwind Japan trip. Not surprisingly, I didn’t really want to journey to end and I must say am very envious of Kath and Anth, on this massive worldwide journey, being in love and sharing this amazing commitment to helping each other fulfil their dreams. Kath is working her arse off teaching English in Japan while Anth continues his architectural internship and Kath will soon be following her passion, cooking in France where she will hopefully be learning the tricks of the trade from the French patisserie professionals. I think I said in my last entry that I really gained a lot from this trip. As well as seeing Kath and Anth and having a wonderful ski holiday in Northern Japan with my Dad, I also believe now that I can fend for myself and not have a nana when shit hits the fan and I don’t have a companion to cling on to. I mean I certainly had moments that I panicked having no Japanese language skills such as when I headed back to my hotel one night and Kath told me to

‘Just get on that train ad get off in one stop!’

Sounds easy. Well it would be if that train wasn’t an express and took off towards Russia at a thousand miles an hour leaving Leish wide eyed, heart pumping ferociously and having a complete blank out about the name of a familiar train station. I wanted to cry but that is super babyish and no one would have cared about the silly western girl having a break down because she was lost. I got off the train as soon as it eventually stopped and headed straight to the station masters office. Everything is very official when it comes to the trains. The stations dudes all wear lovely blue suits, with military style hats and white loves….very different to the city rail workers in Sydney who barley manage a pair of tracksuit pants and a shirt without chocolate milk stains.

I approached the station  manger a bit flustered and simply said

“Where am I? Can you please tell me where I am? What station is this? (all of the signs where is Japanese) “

I might have well just said

“I am a monkey, please feed me bananas and I will dance,”

because he stared at me blankly and then pointed to the exit.

I knew that wasn’t a good idea and with the pressure of the last trains looming (Japanese trains stop at 12.30 and you sleep where ever you can because cabs are exuberantly expensive!). I needed the train station name in order to call Kath and get her to help me. I took a deep breath and said my little spiel again, slowly and without panicked. I  did charades, impersonated a train, pointed at the sign and suddenly he clicked, got a paper and pen and wrote out the station name.

“Arigato gozaimasu, Arigato gozaimasu”

I repeated thankfully as I headed to the phone.

“Hi Kath, you know when you said it was only one stop. Well I think I am nearly at the end of Japan. Help me….”

Luckily I was only a couple of stops away and with some good directions I made it back to my hotel. It was decided the next day that I should stay with Kath and Anth and for the next four nights we shared a futon.

Anth said last night

“I feel like Hugh Hefner!”

 It was snug but it was lovely to be with them all of the time and to have Kath there in the morning to explain where I catch what train.

I did do a fair bit of solo touring throughout the trip. My favourite alone day was my trip to Kamakura, where The big Buddha sits and there are lots of temples. I don’t follow a religion but I felt really comfortable and calm around all of the history. I liked the vibe of the temples and I had a chat to Buddha and he told me that everything was going to work out just fine.  It was on for those days were I was happy to wonder on my own, taking photographs and I didn’t feel like I needed the company of anyone. Of course I would have loved to have been with someone to point out strange and wonderful things like these little dudes.

For some reason someone has tea cosied them up. I couldn’t find any English speaking staff so I took a guess that there heads where cold and they sent some spiritual message to a nanna to knit them little hats! I bet that is the reason.

I must say a highlight of the trip for me was our trip to Disney Land for Kath’s Birthday. We had all been building it up for months and when the big day finally arrived we were all very disappointed to see that Disney Land had reached its capacity and were ‘No longer selling tickets for today’. How many people were there before us???? Well here is the car park, totally full.

             Kath giving Disney Land the finger!

Fuckers. We were really mad and Kath was so disappointed. We decided to soldier on and buy tickets for Disney Sea, the other side of the Disney theme park. We were a bit sceptical at first but it didn’t take long for us to get excited. What was a shock was that all of the rides had at leas a 50 minute to 2 and a half hour wait on them. Yep. If you wanted to ride the rides you had to pay your time in the lines. At the beginning of the day we thought we would neve have the patience to hand around in lines for that long but with determination and good solid gossip sessions we made it al right and every ride that we waited for and enjoyed made us hungry for the next one. There is one way to avoid the lines and that is to get a ‘fast pass’ this is all very well but you can only have one fast pass every 2 hours and then you bypass the lines and only have to ait about 15 minutes. When we arrived, the first fast pass that was available was for a ride at 8pm that night. We snatched it up pessimistically saying that if that was the case we would never get to ride on anything.  We were wrong. The biggest wait we had was for the ‘tower of terror’. It was 180 minutes. Anth wasn’t too keen but Kath and I begged like kids and we joined the line, leaving it only for toilet stops and to try and warm up (it was about 7 degrees). The ride had such a big build up and was pretty good but the highlight was for sure our last ride of the day, and was the first fast pass that we had collected, journey to the centre of the earth, it was cutesy and then there was a massive blackout and you go whizzy around and then fall suddenly. Magic. I could really spend some serious time in theme parks. Love the thrills. We were really surprised by the way that everyone contently lined up and commented that if Dreamworld or BoganWorld asked their customers to stand in a line for 2 hours per ride, Aussies would have speck attacks. I suppose Japan is very busy and you spend a lot of the day queuing in orderly lines.

                Lines, lines lines

       Ride waiting times 

We finished the ride just in time for the fireworks which we watched while running because we wanted to get to the train station before the other 6 million people all got there. It seemed that about 3 million people had the same idea and ran along with us. We were laughing like idiots while gunning along, trying to dodge people and look up at the sky to ‘ohh’ and ‘ahh’ at the lights!

I know I keep going on about the food and everything but really Australian food is a massive pile of poo mostly. I know people will disagree…we have KFC, urger King and McDonalds but the access to fresh food and quick meals that are cooked in front of you is awesome. For my final lunch in Japan Kath and I randomly chose a little restaurant of the side of a shopping mall and stumbled into Bento heaven, where you sit in lovely private booths.

Things I like and have learned on my trip to Japan.

1.Even though I don’t like fish (cooked) I quite enjoy sashimi

2.I love heated toilet seats and bidets should be mandatory (who doesn’t like warm water spurting towards heir arse!)

3.Coffee in an can is a genius invention. For $1 at any vending machine you can buy a can of paradise!

4.Bowing is fun

5.People work so hard they sleep in, so often work doesn’t start to 11am!

6.The hand dryers in the toilets make our dryers look like old men coughing on you hands

7.People wear masks when they feel sick, so as not to pass on their diseases, V thoughtful.

I was surprised that people were queuing up for Krispy Kreme donuts the other night. The store had just opened in Tokyo and there was a 45 minute wait for a heart attack pastry!

Finally Anth doesn’t like being on LeishBlog. He thinks it ruins his privacy and he said he would sue me if I wrote about him.

Bring on the injunction ‘Hef!’

Back to reality….and a new TV job for me in a couple of weeks. I am not allowed to say what but the best thing is I am going to be credited as a writer. Fuckin’ Aye!

The last few days of our Ski holiday flew by. I think by the end of it Dad and I couldn’t believe that we had been there a week amongst all of the snow and food and happy people and that we had to leave. It sort of bummed. We had some really good skiing days at the end of the trip. We found a few fresh powder trails that were fun and I finally got some movement back in my legs after suffering and whinging terribly for a good portion of the week because my shins were killing me. It turned out that my boots were too big and after a refit and a new pair of faster skis I was ready to kick arse.

On the final day of our trip we headed to a different resort that you had to take a bus to. I had a laugh listening to Dad try and have a conversation with a guy that clearly couldn’t speak much English but both Dad and the dude were trying really hard to get their points across. I was then accosted by an older Japanese man sitting behind me who wanted to know all about where I lived and if I had a husband.He was straight in there talking about his handsome sons who were ‘tall’ and ‘had good jobs’ he said that I would learn Japanese easily and I thought I was going to have a Hessian sack put over my head and taken away on the spot. No seriously he was lovely and his wife nodded along to our conversation very politely. 
I think I am used to hanging around naked in the Onsen now. It’s a lovely soothing experience but part of the deal is training your brain to say yes you aren’t wearing clothes but it is fun, it isn’t sexual and the hot water will help your aching out of condition body! I had a funny conversation while in the onsen with a three Japanese girls. They didn’t speak English and I tried to do my usual charades show but it would have looked pretty weird with me floundering around, nudey rudey trying to ask them if they skied or snowboarded??!!

A bodgy onsen photo…notice the snow!
Me eating……again
 
ice…they clear these everyday and they just come back! Pretty. 

Well here I am in wintery Japan. Leishblog has been all over the place the past few days but I have finally reached my first destination, the lovely northern Japanese ski village of Niseko. Travelling with Dad has been fun and the `Dave quotes` page in my notebook is filling up fast. He really does come out with some gems, many of which are intentionally funny. Like when we arrived in Tokyo, we were guided around all of this rabbit warren passages, through the terminal until we got to some glass doors. They were fuzzy and we did‘t quite know where they were going to lead us to. Dad said `It looks like a bloody gas chamber`…..I don`t know where this stuff comes from.  He is going pretty well dealing with all of the cultural differences and it was cute watching him on the plane trying to go through all of the popular Japanese phrases,.

I am very much enjoying Japan. The people are very friendly and polite and I like the head bowing. I think we should introduce it into Australian culture. I also like saying `Hai` really because it`s the only Japanese phrase that I can say with confident conviction.

The snow here is beyond awesome and the funniest thing is that Niseko has had more snow this past 2 weeks than Perisher had the whole last season. It is very powdery and the snow makes a lovely squelchy sound, a bit like skiing on cornflour。It snows a lot here, and the average temp is about -8, so very　ｃhilly。

The other fantastic thing about coming to the snow at this time of year is the complete lack of people. . There are a few aussies and lots of french people but other than that, it is very quiet. Dad and I were marvelling at the the lifts yesterday with about 8 lifts in between us and the next skiers. It is really unusual to be in such wonderful conditions and to also have no　one to run into or get in your way. Prettｙ special really and we have been very lucky that they have had such wonderful snow dumps this early in the season because it was a bit of a risk!

I don`t know if this surprises me or not but there is only one Internet computer in the whole of Niseko but there is wireless access everywhere, so I should have lugged my beloved laptop around and I could have been blogging a lot more often. Sometimes while typing this I have been looking down at the keyboard, typing like crazy (Mrs Rawling my High School typing teacher would have rapped my fingers with a ruler by Now) and I look up and for some reason I have touched something on the keyboard a ruler by no) and I look up and for some reason I have touched something on the keyboard that has made everything I have typed into Japanese text. 亜lてょうghティsぉ尾ksファンcy意t意s一板チンg案dpロバblyのt無ch尾f亜へlpとノン。。。。。There it goes again. Although this looks pretty it　Is not that helpful for non Japanese readers of LeishBlog.. I am suspecting that is all of you.The food is magnificent here. I don‘t think I have stopped eating  or thinking about food since we got here. Our hotel provides dinner and breakfast and we marvel at some of the magnificent tasting and Wonderful looking food that arrives at our table each day. We have ordered the Western breakfast each Morning, which is fairly interesting. The meal starts with a green salad, followed by a bowl of potato soup　Scrambled eggs, yogurt, toast and coffee.  We are so full by the end oｆ it you could push us down the mountain and we would roll all of the way.

I am pretty into Japanese TV, no English, lots　Of graphics and giggly girls. At night I watch the telly and piss Dad off by creating　ｍy own commentary to the shows. It is sad。

Finally I must rave about the onsen. The hotels Hot Springs.　Like oh my god it is relaxing. The only sort of challenging thing is, is that you have to get your kit off but after you get over the initial weird feelings of being naked in a public place, it is pretty cool. They separate the chicks and the dudes. You wash yourself with all of the lovely lotions and potions they provide and then you head outside into the minus 10 atmosphere and go for a dip！The water is very hot and it feels pretty ｍarvellous swimming next to the snow but not feeling cold.  I have photos of the Onsen……me in it？…..you will have to ｗait and see。I shall put them up when ever I can find somewhere to connect the camera.

Anyway must go and eat another meal！L

（Apologies for the random capital letters but it is the only way to stop it going into Japanese…..I think I am turning Japaneses….a bit weirｄ)

My Goodness how time flies when you have 81 social events to attend in 2 days. Before I left Sydney I was talking to Flat Mates Mick and Sarah about how I seem to always over commit my time when I come home. Word spreads quickly about the arrival of Leish and I feel guilty so I say yes to every invitation and spend most of the time clock watch as to not be late for the next meet up. This tip has been a bit better but I still found myself last night agreeing to 3 meet ups today when I knew that if wasn’t human possible to do so.

The gig on Thursday went tremendously well from m point of view. I felt confident and actually found myself in the moment on stage. I mean I was standing there delivering my act and I was speaking and thinking ahead at the same time. Something I have never found myself doing before. I adlibbed a few throw away remarks, which later, people who had seen my stuff before said really worked. Some people even came up to me after the show and said hey wished my set had gone longer. It felt good. Dave Callan was as expected, totally kick arse funny. He is a real master of the craft with lots of topic movement in his act but still being able to wrap it all up neatly in the end.

Friday night I stayed with my mates Hayley and Rob at their new house in the beachy suburb of Lauderdale. They are grown up. They have a mortgage and are getting married! I have a lot of shoes and DVDs and take skiing holidays! I jest. They have super well, the house is beautiful, in a great location and I can’t wait for their wedding in February! We went out for dinner, got mini smashed and then went home to try and work out Hayleys ‘walking down the aisle’ song. We plugged our ipods in and went through our various play lists with Hayley shaking her head in horror at the songs that Rob and I chose.

I personally like a bit of Jurassic 5. You could slink down the aisle while grooving to the beat!

Hayley didn’t buy it. We went through a lot of songs and it ended with Rob and I going through all of the dance songs for the reception and dancing like uncos while Hayley sat shaking her head telling us that she was going to have to walk down the aisle in silence because we hadn’t been helpful! It was fun.

Saturday was a big one. I met up with Suze Luke and the kids and nearly had a biffo with a bogan woman who was running the ‘have your photo taken with Santa’ bullshit business. Suze paid $30 to have Katelyn and Will photographed with the big guy. As they were talking to Santa I took a photo.

Bogan Photograph Woman:

Hey no photos!

LeishBlog:

Oh I’m Sorry, it’s just that Suze just paid you $30. So I don’t see the difference….

Bogan Photograph Woman

Yeah well, there is a big difference so NO photos.

LeishBlog:

You really don’t have to be rude about it, I just don’t understand your logic if we have already paid for it

Bogan Photograph Woman

Yeah well……it’s the rules!

Here’s something lady, your rules suck and you know what would be good, not charging $30 for a photo with Santa. What happened to the old Polaroid at Kmart or Myer for $6 bucks? Bring back the old Santa! Scum Bags.

“The photo”

After my reign of terror with Bogan Photograph Woman I went home and had another afternoon nap (it’s really working for me) in preparation for my bowling night and inevitably drinking too much

I met Dad quickly for a coffee and he, for some reason tried to explain in 10 minutes to me, the workings of a turbo diesel engine. I think it was because we were talking about Top Gear and he got started on petrol prices and how diesel is the way of the future or something. Anyway it was complicated and there were lots of crazy Dad hand gestures explaining pistons and engines and stuff. Dad…bless. Bowling was rad.

Although I did do my best chucking a whammy when I wasn’t winning….come to think of it I didn’t win, but I did do my usual, getting some random kick arse strikes!

Me cracking the shits at the bowling hecklers

Suze, Leish and Hayley

Leish and Adam, we deemd this the best photo of the night!

Later that night I met up with my High School Boyfriend Greg. He was great and it was a real blow out seeing him (in a good way!) We caught up with lots of old stories and I do believe drank too much! Good times! He reads LeishBlog, so Hello Greg!

 Laura, Greg and Leish

The last couple of days of my Tassie trip were full on, moving from one coffee appointment to another. Then this morning came around and I had to do a super dash home, faff around with job interviews and the like and pack my bag for Japan. I feel well munched but I think I have everything ready for the big ski trip. I can’t wait to write lots of LeishBlog from Japan.