tigertail in new york

Before the heat and hot water fiasco, I got a haircut. It had been far too long. I had been postponing it in the vain hope I'd win the lottery and could fly my hairdresser from back home here. But I finally faced up to reality and went to find a hair salon near me. I wanted a neighbourhood salon, cos I like to support local businesses - it's about supporting community... that and the fact I can't afford an expensive salon downtown :^)

There are 3 salons near me - right around the corner. I sussed them all out, and chose the one I know is always busy - like restaurants, an empty salon is never a good sign.

It's a Dominican salon - so we negotiated colours for my hair partly in Spanish, and partly in English. Then I held the protective cape around my neck as I leaned back in the chair to get to the sink. No lounges and scalp massages here..

The colour on my head was bright red. I asked in Spanish if it was going to be that bright.. no no no I was assured.

Eventually it was washed off, my hair cut and to top it all off, they blow dried it straight, and curled the ends. It looked amazing. I still don't think straight hair really suits me, but it was really good. I walked out into the street and suprised the guys hanging outside who always see me go by to take my washing to the laundromat.

I saw my brother that night and 2 other friends, and then worked the next day with straight hair. Most people were suprised, a few didn't notice! One guy I know asked if the curly or the straight hair was natural. I told him how my mother is convinced I actually have straight hair, and if I just left it alone, it'd be fine. Once I went round to see her after the only other time I've had my hair blow dried straight. She saw me and said "See??!! I told you if you left it alone it would be straight!" I had to tell her that it had taken 3 hours to get it to look like that :^)

The best thing about the haircut is that now I have a great local salon to go to, it isn't that expensive, and I even managed to negotiate the discussing hair in Spanish and mandatory tipping.

Posted by Ness at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments

Degrees that is - in my apartment...

Last Thursday and Friday it was 90 degrees - so hot I had to sleep with the window wiiiiide open, and thought I was going to die of asphyxiation. Then our heat and hot water went out for three days. Oh there were times when it came back on briefly. Just none of those times happened to coincide with me being home to take a shower.

Now I'm a tough woman. I've been to 10% of the world's countries. I've slept in a thatched shack on stilts in a coconut grove in the far reaches of Indonesia's eastern islands, where the bathroom was a tiled floor, open to the sky so you could see billions of stars as you used the facilities late at night. Where the bak mandi was filled with cold water that you ladled over yourself in order to bathe.

I've also had a mandi in the disabled toilet in Jakarta airport after 30 hours of flying from London via Frankfurt and somewhere in the United Arab Emirates.

In fact I've gone without showers before - sleeping overnight in villages in Vietnam, once in Sapa, where to bathe would have used far too much of the village's water supply, and once in the Mekong, where out host had kept us up the night before drinking banana palm wine till we were totally drunk and stumbled to sleep on whisper-thin mattresses on the ground beneath mosquito nets.

I've had a freezing cold shower in winter in Spain before leaving a hostel because the hot water wasn't turned on until half an hour later - no exceptions! I've developed an entire bathing system based on 2 plastic bags and a door handle to cope with showers the size of portaloos in unisex bathrooms in Italy. And I've negotiated the difficult twist and press method of getting hot water and water pressure out of showers in Cochabamba in Bolivia.

But when I came home yesterday after fighting my way through crowds at the supermarket, dragging my shopping up the hill, with just enough time to shower and get to my friend's Oscar party, and got in the shower only to discover the hot water wasn't on again, I almost cried.

And when I got home from the party - in a snow storm - to find there was still no heat or hot water, I only got more upset. And then this morning - still no heat or hot water, and to top it off, my light blew as I was trying to get ready for work in the semi-dark.

So what did I do? Well, it was as if I could hear my mother's voice from some long ago distant memory of childhood blackouts and baths taken by the light of oil lamps. I put a large pot of boiling water on the stove to heat the apartment, and filled up the tea kettle and let it boil.

Then I had a warm bak mandi with the tea kettle water mixed with some cold water in a bucket in the shower.

I am nothing if not resourceful... ;^)

Today I came home to hot water and heat and had the best shower I've had in a long time.

But I'm afraid that I may have jinxed my friend who had the Oscar party. Because today she emailed me to tell me that her heat and hot water went out the day after I was telling her about mine...

Posted by Ness at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

I just watched one of my favourite documentaries - Paris is Burning. I had been planning on going and wandering around, but it's cold, and I'm heading out later, so when I saw it was on, I stayed and watched.

I've always loved this doco - it's about a specific community celebrating who they are and in the process influencing fashion and culture in general, although that wasn't necessarily the intention. I hadn't seen it for many years, and seeing New York in the late 80's and the culture of the ballrooms made me wonder if any of it had survived. A few Google / Wikipedia searches later, and I discover that not only have several of the major players since passed on, but that one of them has her own myspace page, and has appeared in a film with with Danny Glover and Matt Dillon, however the director hasn't really made that many things since. And the ballroom that featured many of the balls is still a venue, soon to be hosting an American Metalcore band concert...

Posted by Ness at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments

I have been planning to write a post here about my new job (well - my new 4 week gig, which counts as a job in this industry)... except that I've been so busy with aforementioned new job that I haven't really had time to write it (or to finish responding to my 70+ emails, and so I'm still a slackarse to all my friends, but that's another story)

So I'm finally sitting here, I've eaten dinner, it's not after midnight and I'm not exhausted. Why? Because aforementioned job ended early - shooting was pushed back to June, and consequently I'm unemployed again.

So being made redundant has its benefits - I slept in till 1pm today - catching up on much needed sleep. I wasn't even woken up that much by the guy who came to fix the hole in the ceiling. I managed to clean my room, the kitchen and the bathroom. Tomorrow I may go to a museum or do some wandering around the city if it isn't too cold. Or go to Central Park and take pictures of the snow.

The job was really good - costume assistant on a documentary series. I got to use my research skills, got to go and hunt down samples of things in the fashion district, make contacts with wholesale suppliers of cloth and braid. I was learning new things - I felt challenged. And I need to feel challenged, otherwise I get very bored.

But the shoot has been pushed to June, so for now I'm out of work. In June, they'll bring me back on board, and I have a few days lined up in the meantime, but nothing long term, and nothing seems to be really busy here.

But that may change. The designer I was working for was fantastic, and he's going to recommend me to other people he knows. It is pilot season here, which is when the TV stations commission one-offs of all their new shows in the hope that some of them will be good enough to be picked up.

I don't want to say more, because I don't want to jinx things. I was so excited about the 4 weeks of work that I told a bunch of people and then it all ended. Call me superstitious, but in an industry where things change so quickly, and everything is flexible and moveable, I guess it's not such a good idea to be so public in discussing what you're doing, in case you come in the next day and find it's your last ;^)

Posted by Ness at 9:53 PM | Permalink | Comments

This is for SimplEnigma - to help her overcome her fear..


sorry - that was mean... ;^)

But blue tongue lizards are nice...

Posted by Ness at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments

Things I'd do if I could just pop home for a few days

(in no particular order)


[visiting friends and family is a given, no questions asked, so not included here]:

* go to the doctor. Free healthcare is a wonderful thing: self-diagnosis via the internet is scary and depressing

* ditto the dentist. Although not free, no-one would be trying to make me have a root canal.

* eat Binkas all-natural snakes or jelly babies. Hmmm.. maybe why I need aforesaid trip to dentist? LOL

* visit Hung, my amazing acupuncturist

* go to kickboxing with my girls (although this would be made harder by the fact the dojo actually closed - hey to Sensei Jo and Shihan if you're reading this)

* go to the beach and the women's baths at Coogee, and snorkel at Clovelly.

* visit the Korean baths. A long soak in the ginseng bath followed by a full body scrub, a facial and shiatsu massage.

* get my hair cut by Zaya at Cazac

* eat tons of seafood from the fish markets

* buy a case of sirena tuna in chilli oil to bring back here

* listen to the sound of the wind whistling through the bamboo in the botanic gardens

* do the cliff walk Coogee to Bondi via Waverly cemetery and Bronte

* Smell the salt air and feel salt water on my skin while feeling the sand under my feet and between my toes

I'm sure I'll think of more...

Posted by Ness at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments

Both my mother and my aunt have pointed out that Invasion Day actually commemorates the landing and settling of Captain Phillip and the first fleet at Sydney Cove, not when Captain Cook "discovered" Australia, which was in 1770.

In any case, as they would both agree, the whole terra nullius thing is still dodgy..

Posted by Ness at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

13 days later...

Posted by Ness at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments