A secret you and me house

A tree house, a free house,

A secret you and me house,

A high up in the leafy branches

Cozy as can be house.

A street house,

Be sure and wipe your feet house

Is not my kind of house at all -

Let's go live in a tree house.

- Shel Silverstein

In winter I went on a holiday to a treehouse. I've always been a tree lover, so it was a dream come true. Everywhere is lovely wood, with driftwood art installations and sketches from the artist who used to live there. The house is built on stilts on the top of the highest cliff in the area. The balcony is in the treetops, and the backyard is a national park. I'm hoping to go back this summer, because apparently you can sleep out on the balcony then, and look at the stars. 

leather rhinocerous

I went to Melbourne. Fell in love a little bit. With Dali, and with shoes, and with silk dresses. Laughed out loud many times in the Dali exhibition, much to the irritation of the schoolteachers trying to impart a but of culture to their hairsprayed, farting, shrieking charges. Well I’m sorry, but there is no way that a skull sodomising a piano isn’t funny, no matter how old or how educated you are. 

My new job is going awesomely, thanks very much for asking, GOD, why so rude? I won't lie, I'm enjoying wearing pure wool pants and cotton/viscose shirts. I'm a sucker for gorgeous fabrics but they don't fit in too well with my lifestyle since I like to lounge around a lot...(read: I'm very lazy) as a result I own a lot of cashmere jumpers covered in pills. Ohhh, little tip, ebay is great for luxury fabrics because people tend to buy things based on how they look on ebay, not how they feel. As a result, plain and boring garments of the highest quality can be a bargain.

Didn’t take the camera in Melbourne which was a good thing, because it is an excessively photogenic city and I would have been pointing and shooting and wildly abusing the ‘Auto’ setting. The food was excellent, the boy ate duck and kangaroo for the first time (on different nights, I promise), watched the light show during dinner at South Bank, went to hole-in-the-wall fancy-pants posh place tucked in a laneway and ordered a side of fries with the $$$ meals. Just ask if you want to know where to get some cracker chestnut chocolate mouse with spiced wine pear and a hazelnut cigar. Gorged on Mexican on Chapel Street, got takeaway churros, ordered room service because we could. Damn straight. 

For some reason the boy bought three hats (though if he had a blog he would be writing "For some reason the girl bought three pairs of shoes") and he looks like the hardest, meanest criminal in his new slouchy beanies. "It's been emotional", I said to him, and he had no idea what I was talking about until I said it in a scouse accent. And if you don't know where that line is from then your cultural education is sorely lacking. 

Falkor

Today is a great day for luck dragon riding. Falkor the luck dragon is one of my favourite characters in fiction. Or reality. Whichever. I'm still a bit peeved that I haven't found the book that will take me to Fantastica, or the wardrobe that will take me to Narnia, or the wings that mean I can take the second star to the right and straight on til morning to Neverland. But I think there's hope yet. 

"Once someone dreams a dream, it can't just drop out of existence. But if the dreamer can't remember it, what becomes of it? It lives on in Fantastica, deep under earth. There are forgotten dreams stored in many layers. The deeper one digs, the closer they are. All Fantastica rests on a foundation of forgotten dreams."

The Neverending Story is a wonderful book, much better than the movie, and Michael Ende is also well known for his other children's book, Momo. As with most good children's books, it is one that most adults would do well to read. It is the story of a little homeless girl who begins to realise that everyone around her is becoming the victim of a complex plot to steal their lives, a second at a time. 

"People never seemed to notice that, by saving time, they were losing something else. No one cared to admit that life was becoming ever poorer, bleaker and more monotonous. The ones who felt this most keenly were the children, because no one had time for them anymore. But time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart. And the more people saved, the less they had. " 

"Calendars and clocks exist to measure time, but that signifies little because we all know that an hour can seem as eternity or pass in a flash, according to how we spend it." 

Let's talk numbers

AU $2000 is:

a) the cost of a week in Thailand, including accommodation and return airfares,

b) what LiLo Mischa and Paris probably paid for those hair extensions (whoops),

c) the cost of return airfares to France,

d) the cost of staying in a castle for a month,

e) (you knew it was coming) all of the above.

 

So if you and 23 close friends wanted, you could stay here:

Chateau de Veilette, Paris

Or here:

Chateau Durantye, Dordogne

www.simplychateau.com has other such decadent places to stay. What is mind-boggling is that if you can fill the place with willing guests, this is budget accommodation. No joke. It is cheaper than hotels, apartments, or cottages. But of course the tricky part is getting the numbers. 

Financially, this would cost more than the average student holiday. But not that much more. When you consider what backpacking around Europe costs, which is probably somewhere in the region of $10,000 to $15,000 for a month’s worth of budget traveling, chateaux start to look even better. You would be buying food from the local patisseries and boulangeries rather than truck stops, which is both cheaper and less disgusting (forget what you’ve heard about European food – if you are poor and hungry it is very hit-or-miss).

Now for a biased overview…would you rather come out of a month in Europe with a shopping list of countries visited, one great story from Amsterdam, and the biggest hangover you have ever had in your life or…

Memories of games of petanque on the lawn with views of the Pyrenees, a tan from whole days spent lying by the pool drinking Bombay Sapphire and soda, life-long friendships formed with locals, a ridiculously chic wardrobe, and a completely relaxed smile that even rainy days and job related stress can’t get rid of.  

Chateau de Chalaine, Loire Valley