"Nobody ever died of laughter." (Max Beerbohm)

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is in full force at the moment… the city is filled with hysterical laughter and cynicism… well those of us that are somewhat attempting to be cultured are! Those who know me know that I am somewhat of a control freak when it comes to entertainment… not something to be proud of at all. But lately I have little carefactor (I went to Xanadu  The Musical for goodness sake!) and am letting others decide the time and place. So when Danny Bhoy tickets were purchased I went with the flow even though I knew I may not like his humour and he has become a little too mainstream for me. He packed out the Arts Centre to his credit but the show it lacked something… a spark. I didn’t pay forty bucks for him to just stand there and watch him look good and imitate the Aussie accent… I want to laugh till I can’t breathe… which I can do for free most days of the week!

A few weeks ago whilst hanging out at my new favourite place the Comic’s Lounge, I was lucky enough to see over ten comedians. I walked out of the place with mascara all over my check bones from tears of laughter. So these are the comedians I am recommending at the festival:

• Adam Rozenbachs in Singledumber
• Ben Lomas in Battle of the Bulge

Laughter is the best medicine for everything and according to my Dad it is great for the heart!

"You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else." (Albert Einstein)

Yesterday I got home to find my answering machine flashing with two messages. One message was my usual mate from India always asking for the same person... dude I have been telling you for the past two years that I don't know Silvia and I am not Silvia... The other message was from a good friend and she was mad... not just angry, shirty, irritated... but M-A-D!!! Initially I thought oh my gawd... what have I done and the past ten years flashed through my mind... no I am clear as... I replayed the message and between all the profanities I made out that someone had let her down and she wanted to talk!

I jumped on her facebook before calling her back... "Every dog has its day" status update. You know you mean business when you start using the dog word. So hesitantly I called her back with the receiver not too close to my ears and listened attentively as only a good friend does... this is not her blog and although the story was extremely riveting, unfortunately it is not mine to tell to the cyber world. What I can disclose is that someone she thought would never let her down... well they let her down bigtime.

How bad does it feel to be let down? To expect things from people and feel disappointment when they do not deliver? To realise someone you care about really does not care if you are happy or not? To feel that someone only wants you in their life because of what YOU bring to THEIR life and what YOU can do for THEM? I could go on for a little while... LOL We have all been there but when it suddenly hits you in the face, well hell have no fury like a woman scorned. So my friend was pretty furious and uttered something along the lines of when will I ever learn... She so wanted to be bitter and hate the world but after thirty minutes of coaxing and empathising she realised that you just got to take a deep breath, take the situation for what it is and let it go. You also got to block that person off your facebook immediately!!! (OUCH:)!!!!)

So sometimes we never learn... we make the same mistake over and over again... so what? There will always be someone to help you pick up the pieces and make you laugh again... and one day when you least expect it you may even be able to tell that story to a group of friends over dinner and make them cry with laughter about how you got the ultimate revenge without even trying!!! (OUCH:)!!!)

Found this snippet by comedian Dave Barry. Some good advice to take on board.

Things that it toke me fifty years to learn:

1. Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings”.

3. There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.”

4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

5. And when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.

6. You should not confuse your career with your life.

7. No matter what happens … somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

8. When trouble arises & things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution & is willing to take command. Very often, that person is crazy.

9. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

10. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.

11. Never lick a steak knife.

12. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.

13. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

14. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

15. Your friends love you anyway.

“My only hobby is laziness, which naturally rules out all others” (Author Unknown)

Relaunch partay! Well not quite… a few people have asked me how is that blogging thing going… well let’s face it… nonexistent this year. I even threatened to shut this cyber rant and moan thing down but the shrieks that came from one particular reader was enough for me to say ok one more chance… they know who they are!

This happens all the time in the blogging world though… bloggers vanish… consumed by their cyberless life, travel, relationships, paid jobs, passions and problems. A little indication on what's been happening in my world.

So I was speaking to a bunch of friends the other day who are avid motorcyclists… they live, breathe and dream bikes and according to them spend a lot of money on this hobby happily. Feeling a little left out of the conversation, the closest I came to riding a bike was in Thailand this year when I sat on a scooter hit the accelerator for a whole one metre take-off and was politely told by the “dealer” to give the bike back, I realized I don’t have a fanatical hobby. My friends shoke their heads when I revealed my lack of interesting hobbies… to my surprise they unanimously agreed my hobby is going out and getting dressed up… what the? Since when did that become a “hobby”? Most people brush their teeth in the morning… does that make it a hobby? After much debated discussion I realized they were kind of right… I love getting dressed up and I love going out… and it costs me money. I am definitely not the type of person who just chucks anything on and is out the door in a few minutes… and the few times I do this I live to regret it because I always bump into someone I don't want to! So here is to having a hobby and whatever it may be… from pay TV to drinking coffee to window shopping online… as long as it makes you happy and only hurts your designer wallet!

Here are some things inspiring my hobbies in no particular order and absolutely no relevance:

• Suede ankle boots
• Hanging out at the Comic’s Lounge
• High-waisted skinny jeans
• Lindt Cafe
• Short black puffy dresses
• Rimmel nailpolish in Black Cherry
• Checkard shirts inspired by Farmer Wants a Wife
• Running on the beach with one of my besties
• Headbands with exquisite details worn with ripped jeans
• Daily Turkish coffee
• Victoria Secret leggings
• Bright pink lipstick
• Anything with black lace details
• Swimsuits with cuts outs on the side (yes I know Summer is overrrr)
• High fiving random people just because you are alive!

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. (Voltaire)

Censorship in its most basic definition is the control of information and ideas within a society. It seeks the purpose of suppressing or in some cases altering information deemed by those with power to be objectionable or furthermore offensive. Rationales for its existence are varied but generally fall under the guise of protection. Not all censorship is equal, nor does all arise from government or external forces. People self-censor all the time; such restraint can be part of the price of rational dialogue of participating in a well functioning and unproblematic community (if such exists).

For a lifestyle blog about supposed frivolous stuff… this is getting deep! Occasionally my life revolves about more then fashion and entertainment…

As a media junkie I understand the need for censorship in some cases and that there is a time and place for regulation however I am ultimately all for free speech. Do I really want my little family members watching whatever they want or playing whatever violent game their heart desires… well no. Do I want to know what my government is doing majority of the time… well yes.

For the last few weeks I have heard alooottttt about WikiLeaks (you shall have to google it yourself as no point in linking it as it keeps changing) mentioned in the media. I ignorantly assumed that it had something to do with good old Wikipeadia… it does not! However Wikipeadia was basically the only route to fill my curiosity on this organisation as WikiLeaks is in the process of being digitally destroyed. Its CEO has been charged with some offensive alleged crimes and it is all smelling a little suss to me.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit media organisation that publishes submissions of otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous sources. They post some pretty scandalous stuff relating to wars, government policy, corruption etc (I am a long way off Victoria Secret posting here). The journalists have won major awards for their work and this isn’t no backyard blog. But now the tide has turned and people in power feel that they have gone just way too far! Or perhaps they are feeling a little threatened?

*I find it very interesting that the Australian Prime Minister can’t even seem to coherently state what law WikiLeaks has broken yet she is threatening to cancel its CEO’s Australian passport today. Are you serious Julia from Altona??? Attached is an open letter to Gillard from some seriously notable people of our country. I am not as informed on the issue as I’d like to be nor do I probably have the time to get as informed as I should and for all I know there could be some major issues with WikiLeaks that personally offend me. However the journalist in me wonders how much are we really being censored (not a brain wave here) and why are the leaders of our supposed friendly countries wanting to adamantly take down this organisation… what are they hiding? What happened to free press?

Promise my next post will be more light hearted and happy!!!

Mix Rhianna and Pink and you get Fefe Dobson.

My sister introduced me to Fefe Dobson and I just love her! Attached is her newest song, called Stuttering, my favourite song of hers which is Ghost and just because I love my sister, her favourite song Don't Let it Go to Your Head.

Ohhh Bob Marley!!!!

“You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She’s not perfect - you aren’t either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break - her heart. So don’t hurt her, don’t change her, don’t analyze and don’t expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she’s not there.”

In an ideal world all guys would take Mr Marley's advice!

"The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times." (Paulo Coelho)

Lately I have been addicted to two things: True Blood and Paulo Coelho. True Blood deserves an entry on its own… it got me through the flu over the past week. Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian writer, is getting me through life in general at the moment and has been hanging around me for a few years now… a bit like the uncle I never had.

I was first given The Alchemist by Coelho many years ago. I was about to embark on a year abroad to live in Japan… an apparent adventure. I ended up passing it on to someone I met on my journey because I felt they really needed to read it. That is the kind of writing he does. You just feel the need to share it with others. He writes about love, life, destiny, pain, surrendering, passion and so much more. Dee recently lent me Eleven Minutes. Well actually she didn’t lend it to me… I saw it in my scan of what can I borrow from her and what new magazines does she have that she may give me. Basically the plot of the book is that everyone lives their lives searching for that infamous “eleven minutes”. I shall let you use whatever imagination you’d like to define what you can do in that time.

Coelho’s writing is profoundly spiritual and makes me think about life in ways that provide insight and understanding. I did a bit of a google search and found so many inspiring and poetic quotes. Here is a random list of quotes I liked from his various books. His books are all amazing literature that have a story that everyone can relate to.

"Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?"

"When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being who I am, I found myself."

"Waiting hurts. Forgetting hurts. But not knowing which decision to take is the worst of suffering."

"If I am really a part of your dream, you'll come back one day."

When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds."

"Stay mad, but behave like normal people. Run the risk of being different, but learn to do so without attracting attention."

"Life takes us by surprise and orders us to move toward the unknown -even when we don't want to and when we think we don't need to."

"Haters are confused admirers who can’t understand why everybody else likes you"

"Every blessing ignored becomes a curse."

"When we set out on the path, we always have a fairly clear idea of what we hope to find. Women are generally seeking their Soul Mate, and men looking for Power. Neither party is really interested in learning. They simply want to reach the thing they have set as their goal."

"No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it."