In the first week back at work for the year (only 51 more to go, people!) – a week where public transport ticket prices went up, Melbourne weather fluctuated between ridiculously hot and wind chills, each hour during the day felt like three and I took a fleeting interest in cricket (Michael Clarke 329 not out), there was only one certainty. Laksa King for dinner tonight.

When I went to go to get my cider (what a bargain it was at $13 for a six pack!) while I waited for my laksa to be made, the takeaway beeper started vibrating and beeping. I felt very important, like I was very busy in two places at once, being called to attend to a very important situation – picking up laksa. I almost felt like a doctor. A doctor of food appreciation perhaps. I feel very cross-cultural with my Tasmanian cider and Malaysian laksa, all the way from Flemington.

This arrived in the mail today. It’s my Darren Hayes fanclub pack. Very exciting! I especially love the patch, which I have considered using as a feature on a handmade iPad case, when I get my iPad (I neeeeeeeed one for BlogHer in New York. I do.).

Progression has been made on the New York trip planning front. I booked my leave yesterday (nothing like preparing for a holiday on the first week back at work for the year). I am taking four weeks and one day off work – one day to get my stuff together, three weeks overseas and one week to recover. I also sourced two luggage tags (I think they’re going to be my new interest, the way I love brooches), and got one of my passports acquainted with its new home – a beautiful leather passport wallet which I received for Christmas. I especially like the popcorn luggage tag. My mission for America is to pack light, so I probably won’t need any more luggage tags because I shall only take one suitcase and a carry-on.

And I now have a small collection of New York travel books, and a large collection of travel brochures. All I want to do is eat street food, visit everywhere Felicity went and perhaps go to Sesame Street, but it appears New York City has so much more to offer.

With these small things sorted, I feel like my trip is becoming a reality. I have a list of questions to ask my doctors when I go to hospital on Tuesday. I am sure I will be over prepared.

Something else that became a reality this week was my excess Twitter use. Just as I sometimes spend time frittering my money away, this week I was twittering my time away. I was tweeting on two devices – my iPhone and MacBook (hello Apple!) and my cerebral something or other in my brain was getting quite the intellectual workout. I spent quite some time thinking of ‘less ambitious books’ – using the hashtag #lessambitiousbooks. Some of mine were ‘Snugglepot and Cuddlepastry’, ‘Charlie and the Carob Factory’, ‘The Guinness Book of MP3s’ and ‘Pippi Ankle Sock’. LOL indeed.

And today I pretended to be a supermodel. I won’t get out of bed for less than $5K. Unless you were giving me any amount of vouchers from the shopping centre to spend, then I’d get out of bed. Or if I was hungry – then I’d get out of bed for free. It wouldn’t take much actually. The lovely Cam took some photos of me in different outfits for an upcoming feature somewhere. Vague I know. It was fun, but the constant changing of outfits meant I got a bit sore from the scraping of the clothes. Here is a sneak peak.