The Warriors

I rolled out of bed early Saturday morning and drove with my siblings to the Glenworth Valley. Instead of the typical serene sounds of a bubbling brook or a chorus of chirping birds, the valley was filled with thousands of people screaming WARRIOR!!

Finally the day of the warrior dash arrived!

The cross country run was broken up with obstacles like the deadweight drifter, rivers of mud and high ropes. I got to fulfil my dream of pretending to be rookie cop from Police Academy - by sliding across the bonnet of a car in the junkyard jump.

[kilts]

There were heaps of people dressed for the occasion, with a heavy contingency of kilt wearing warriors present. Unfortunately I didn't spot anyone dressed up like one of 'The Warriors' from the 1979 cult classic film. Perhaps next year I'm be a bit more organised!

[Dancing with fire]

[clean up]

I was feeling pretty hard core about leaping over a 'wall of fire'...until I watched 127 hours. Amazing film.

Grrr Giraffe

[images via smilebooth]

Most ingenious costume ever? Sure she can't move her shoulders or walk through doorways, but it is just so gosh darn clever.

There were giraffes in the 1950s....

Golden

There are few things better than lying on the grass, listening to music in a warm patch of afternoon sunshine. Perhaps if the music were live and maybe if you were on holidays with a bunch of your mates. Yup that sounds nice. Very nice indeed. The organisers of the Golden Plains Music Festival think so too:

"It is staged in Autumn so the weather is warm and stable. Afternoon goes on all day; the sun like honey on the trees, then a giant spike of excitement goes kabloooey at nightfall. The Summer Fool is spent by March so GP is oblivious to that particular strain of vain folly.

Camp wherever you like, bring almost everything and anything if you want – you can bring a couch (perhaps with matching armchairs and an occasional table, with a drawer) and plant it in the Amphitheatre for the weekend, and soak. it. all. up. For a long weekend."

This isn't a commercially sponsored event, the fun isn't forced into a strict timetable, "so there’s room for traditions to evolve naturally and spontaneously. So far those to do so include The Boot, whereby for some unknown reason the crowd ’salutes’ their favourite performance of the festival by holding one of their shoes/boots/footwear of choice aloft.... Then there’s The Lampshade and The Door, both of unknown origin."

Believe it or not there are still tickets available and I haven't even mentioned how amazing the line up is (Joanna Newsom,Belle and Sebastian, Best Coast, Wavves, Architecture in Helsinki, The Middle East, Boy & Bear). I'm getting hot sweats just thinking about it.

It's times like these I wish I wasn't saving my moola.

[images via Aunty Meredith]

Mad for Mad Men

I'm going to a Mad Men party soon. To say I'm peachy is a bit of an understatement - I love the show so much I would happily enrol in the uni course.

It seems like most major fashion magazines have featured a 1950's/1960's inspired shoot in the last 18 months. But this one featuring Catherine McNeil in Vogue Australia is a show stopper, the styling is a flawless blend of vintage and contemporary references.

I know that there are no rockabilly characters in Mad Men - but I'm sorely tempted to slip into a pencil skirt and prance around with cheeky indifference.