29 February 2012

Callan Mulvey's wife reads my blog! Some wedding photos.

I always wonder who reads my blog. When I look at the google statistics and keywords I wonder why someone was thinking of me enough to google me. Once someone googled 'what does Carly Findlay look like naked?' at 3 am. I thought I'd hit the big time. My Mum said to me (and the doctor because we were discussing my blog in the emergency ward) that the googler was probably drunk. Because according to my Mum, apparently someone will only think of me naked when they're drunk and it's 3 am. (I look hot naked, in case anyone is wondering. It'll save you a google.)

I digress. I am always excited when readers reveal themselves.

I was walking down the street one day with a colleague when someone stopped me mid tram track to say 'great blog'. Recently I had a lady in the lift at work ask me for my autograph because she's watched me on TV and reads my blog. I had to laugh!

So about month ago when I got an email through my comment form from someone called Rachel Mulvey I was equal parts excited and nervous. As some of you may know one of my idols is Callan Mulvey, the Australian actor in Rush and Underbelly. I've met him at the season 2 premiere of Rush, filming, at the season 3 premiere of Rush, and at the Logies. And he wrote me a letter.

Rachel Mulvey is Callan's wife.

Oh my gosh!, I thought. Callan's wife knows there's another woman out there who admires him almost as much as she does. And I worried she may have seen a picture of me kissing the TV screen when I had that Rush themed birthday party and I had to kiss the nearest man in the room - Callan in character as Sgt Brendan Joshua.

Her email was really nice - very complimentary. She said she has been reading my blog (and Callan has too!) and wanted to send me a message of thanks for my support and admiration, and offer me some photos. We've been emailing for a few weeks now.

Callan told Rachel about me after he'd met me, and Rachel found my blog. She came across my post about their wedding. She has been kind enough to send me some good quality pictures of the wedding and given me permission to share them on my blog. So here they are :)








I am incredibly grateful and lucky for her to take the time to email me and give me a little insight into their lives. She's passed on a few messages from Callan too, and he seems the loveliest. I am so looking forward to seeing Brothers in Arms this year - it's coming soon I think.

Blogging. You never know just who might be reading. Wow.

And it turns out we both like Callan looking long haired and scruffy! ;)

27 February 2012

Roxette - live at Rod Laver Arena

Roxette
Rod Laver Arena Melbourne
22 February 2012
Concert and meet and greet
I was incredibly excited to win tickets to see Roxette and meet them last night. My friend Joel and I (you may remember Joel from when he rubbed nipples with Steve Poltz way back in January last year) had dinner (Mexican) and drinks (Sangria) at the night markets and then excitedly made the walk to Rod Laver Arena.

On the way we saw a bagpipe playing bird - Joel posed for photos - and this set the scene for a fun night ahead.

Before the meet and greet, I bought a program, and then we waited for the tour representative to fetch us and the other winners to enter the stadium.
One of the reasons I have been slow in posting this review is because I wasn't sure how I would write about the meet and greet without sounding resentful. I'll try my best. The chance to meet Roxette was an amazing opportunity. They're a huge band. The meet and greet was very brief, and very impersonal. I understand that there were time constraints and they were there to perform a show. But there were only 10 of us there to meet them, and some of the people seemed like HUGE fans. Two members of the Roxette crew advised us that we were only able to have one item signed, and that we weren't able to take individual photos with the band or of the meeting. When we did take photos, we weren't allowed to have flashes on. Someone volunteered their camera for the crew to take some candid shots and one group shot at the end. That person will email the pictures around the group. I have not yet received these pictures, I hope to soon.

We waited around 15 minutes to meet the band as we waited in the corridor then the green room. We were all really excited - I know I'd been counting down the days.

When they entered the greenroom, it was an exciting moment. I met Per Gessle first. Here's the only photo Joel took on his phone - I ran it through Instagram and like it this way.
I said hello and he signed my CD cover. That was it really. It was so quick that I don't remember what else I said to him or what he said to me, other than hello. He was very happy and smiley.

Before I met  Marie Fredrieksson I took a couple of photos, but they're not that great I am sorry. 

Marie had the nicest leather jacket on that I've ever seen. Soft white, with a Beatles tee underneath. She is tiny. I said hello, gave her the blog post I wrote about Crash Boom Bang, and she signed my program. I asked for a quick photo - looking at the camera - as Joel was there posed with my camera, but she said we'd take one at the end. 
And I managed to get this one of Joel and Marie, but very little of them on screen! 
And that was that. They were both so nice, and I am really grateful for the wonderful opportunity, but I wished it was a little longer.

Unfortunately we missed the support act 1927, but we heard them sing their biggest hit If I Could. A lot of the women at the meet and greet said they wish they could have seen 1927!

Our seats were great - all the meet and greet winners were in Row H on the floor.

The concert was amazing. Really! Roxette have bgeen a band that I've loved for a long time but thought I'd never see. They played all their hits - a very extensive catalogue - plus some new songs.


The show opened with Dressed for Success and continued with Fading Like A Flower, Spending My Time, Almost Unreal, Sleeping in My Car, Joyride (where bouncy balls were released, see my picture above!), Listen To Your Heart, Dangerous and more, ending with The Look. 
Despite the song with the sad lyrics, Per was happy all the time. At times it reminded me of a Eurovision concert, in a good way. It was fun! He danced around the stage, smiling and playing guitar. And he could sing!
Marie's voice wowed me. So very powerful. She seemed to have limited movement, perhaps due to illness in 2002, but she gave it her all.
The best bit - like the Cold Chisel concert - was that we all sang along. The audience sounded amazing.

One of the guitarists did a solo of Waltzing Matilda, which was Joel's favourite part. My favourite was Crash Boom Bang, which I recorded.

It was a really fun night. As I wrote, the opportunity to meet the band was fantastic, I only wish it was longer and more personal. Thanks so much to Mix FM for the tickets.


26 February 2012

Saturday night. The heat. Sydney Shop Girl. My Mexican Cousin. Tania Doko.

When the temperature is 38 degrees and I get in my hot car to drive into the city  - fortunately not a long trip - but seems longer with the blistering sun and airconditioning that takes a while to warm up (cool down?) - I know that I've made plans for a good night ahead. Or I wouldn't be going out at all. I much prefer to hibernate at home sitting in my bedroom with my new airconditioner on its coldest setting. But last night I had made plans to catch up with two of my favourite people in two separate events - dinner and seeing a band.

First stop was picking Sydney Shop Girl - I am always embarrassingly early and this trait worked out well as I got to wait for her in the coolness of the hotel lobby, admiring a beautiful bride, and just being thankful I wasn't in the heat. 15 minutes later and SSG came down to meet me, I was calm, and we were set for a fabulous dinner.

We headed on to My Mexican Cousin - which is situated in the Melbourne Recital Centre on Southbank Boulevard (where I won my Yooralla Media Award). Unfortunately there is a big lack of parking in the area, and we had to park around 500 metres away. Ok, it was probably less, but in that heat it seemed a bigger distance. I was pleased to be able to swing my car into a tight spot (I am not good at reverse parking, having only ever done during my driving test back in 2000 - gosh, it pains me to admit that in writing, on the internet, which will be forever - but with SSG's guidance, I made it. And also did another semi reverse park later in the night! Things are looking up for my reverse parking skills. Note - I am pretty competent at driving forward.

It was a good job we parked so far away because we ate So. Much. Food. And needed to walk it off. My Mexican Cousin is not the Mexican I've been obsessed with lately. It is more like home-style Southern American tapas and mains. Which may prepare me well for my American trip.

We were perched at the bar, where the cool kids sat, quipped the barman, drinking wine and starting off with bar snacks.

First up - spicy and sweet popcorn. It had bites of chilli and perhaps honey. I definitely know there was chilli on the popcorn as some of it ended up in my eye and I had to make a hasty trip to the bathroom to dab my eye with water and eye drops. I want to try making the popcorn at home. I promise to be careful with the chilli.
 Entree was salt cod fritters - cod and mashed potato with a side of garlic aioli. The fritters were deliciously fishy.
Our first main course was the Poboy sandwich - shared - deep fried prawns, lettuce, mayo and a semi spicy Creole tomato chutney. It reminded me of eating a Vietnamese Banh Minh. The prawns were big juicy and flavoursome. I could eat a whole Poboy.
The second main we shared was the pulled pork topped with crusted cornbread. While maybe a little too hearty for the temperature outside, it was such a yummy dish. It was served in a hot skillet. The cornbread was just crisp enough, and between the cornbread and pork was a layer of melted cheese. I do think it could have been a touch more salty though.
We had a conference about dessert and decided our tummies could withstand two desserts to share. So we chose chocolate brownies and pecan pie. Wow. Perhaps on this rare occasion, my eyes were too big for my tummy. But I ate for Australia and made it through the not very arduous task of finishing my desserts.

The chocolate brownie was fudgey and dense, filled with pistachios and cardamom. It was served berries in their juice, the most delightful sweetened cream, strawberries and mint leaves. When eaten altogether, the flavours were amazing. 
But it was the pecan pie that won my heart. There were shards of toffee were scattered over the plate was a brown sugary-pecan filling was atop a shortcrust pastry. The vanilla bean icecream was a perfect match - but it melted too quickly for me to eat it with the pie.
We enjoyed sitting at the bar - the staff entertained us with their cocktail skills and humour.


Sydney Shop Girl and I had a lovely chat and she promised me she will give me some tips on eating affordably in London, as she heads off there next week. She tried to convince me to buy that spotted blue dress from Target but I stayed strong.

My Mexican Cousin
After getting lost around the maze of streets at Crown Casino (I always do) I said goodbye to SSG and headed to Northcote to meet my friend Melissa at the Wesley Anne. Again I drove around and around to find a park. At one stage I entered a tiny, dark and isolated carpark in a backstreet, and a man looked to be walking to his car. I he waved to me, gesturing me over to his park and I started to turn around, nodding that I was coming. He then ran to my car, shaking his hands around. I got a bit scared, and sped off. Anyway, after driving for about 10 minutes, I scored a carpark right out the front of the venue!

Mel and I were there to see Tania Doko - formerly from Bachelor Girl and She Said Yes. The show was acoustic, and really lovely. Mel and I got there just in time to see Janine Maunder who sang such pretty songs. Janine also performed backing vocals for Tania.
She did a mixture of old and new - it was nostalgic hearing the Bachelor Girl songs. She also did two songs by the Eurythmics which matched her voice perfectly.

Lots of her friends and family were in the room - she told funny stories about her Dad, and gave shout outs to her boss at White Lion where she's a youth worker, and mentioned her Italian teacher.

My favourite part of the show was Buses and Trains where she sang parts of it in Italian, and got the audience to sing along. If you listen closely you can hear me singing at the end. The chorus seems to go on forever and today it is in my head - in a good way!

So apart from the relentless heat, last night was a really good one. Great to catch up with BFFs, eat good food and see wonderful live music.

25 February 2012

Lazy blogging

It's been a draining week. Some parts good, some parts bad. At one stage, I'd had such an awful day and a sore face that I'd forgot to eat dinner, took a phenergan and drank a glass of wine, not remembering I had taken the phenergan. Very rockstar indeed. That night's sleep commenced at around 8.30 pm and the next morning when I woke up, it was like the previous day had never happened.

All I can say is I have a new found appreciation for coconut shellers and book spirallers.

I'm exhausted, and it's taking too much brainpower and warmth to write the Roxette review, so you'll have to make-do with this picture for now.

 
My renewed passport arrived I spent yesterday after work writing to and calling the airlines to check out the rules about carrying liquid paraffin on board and in stowed luggage - it is more complex than I imagined.
I have been making mini pizzas for weekend lunches lunch and quick dinners. They are yum!
The toilet sign outside the Roxette green room.
 Dinner at the night markets - I am going again this Wednesday.
I received a call yesterday from ABC Local Radio in Canberra, asking if I could speak on Monday. I said yes - it's a great opportunity - and will be speaking about beauty and what it's like to look so visibily different in a beauty focused world. I'll be on at 2.30 pm AEDST You can stream the program at  http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/.

Also, if you could pop over to BlogHer and vote for my blog entry - I may get a chance to read it out at the conference in NYC. Thank you :)

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