Stephy

Its me! Just wanted to share some snaps of Peakhurst sky from my weekend visit to the Phan Family Unit house. It was a wild mishmash of whispy cirrus, and various levels of cumulus clouds, washed with a setting sun that made it look like paint on canvas. Life's been busy but fine. Now autumn is around the corner, expect more pictures of the sky because that is what I've been in to lately. Oh that and insane hours on Fields of Mistria and Coral Islands lol.

Blooming Souls Soul Club Sydney We’re back for round two @abercrombie.sydney 💫 After a beautiful first night on the dance floor, we return to keep it moving. Saturday 18 April 7pm – 1am Abercrombie Rooftop, Sydney 🎶Selectors @beatonthebrain @pattilabeefe @dj_burn_hard @sistersavage5446 @_foxy_fuzz @andymyattphotography Agent00 Soul Special guest Joel Hamlin (Melbourne), loved in the scene for always bringing incredible selections. Alongside Sister Savage (Lynda Savage), a lifelong soul devotee championing Northern and deep crossover cuts, and Andy Myatt delivering his UK-rooted Northern Soul sound. A night for the music, the records, and the dance. Strictly vinyl. 📍 Rooftop, 100 Broadway, Chippendale NSW Keep the faith ✊🏽

I'm so bad at promotion and socials in general (yes, I'm still alive lol) but tomorrow night is the second iteration of a lil soul night we put on back in 2013! @_foxy_fuzz and I had an aching for a good ol' night of the music that was the catalyst for our record collecting, the sound which helped us find community and friendship throughout our 20s. Blooming Souls Soul Club was borne of a desire to combine our wee bby record collections with other young soulies, to keep the faith, so to speak. We're now closer to our 40s so, whilst we arent exactly blooming much any more, our love for Northern Soul still remains. So pull out yer Oxford bags for a night on the talc at Abercrombie tomorrow! P.s. tonight ill be a guest on Sounds of Soul! Tune in to Eastside FM to hear me ramble on about how much I love Northern Soul hahaha. P.p.s. I'm stoked that Juana decided to use an old image i made back in 2012 for the logo haha. Last pic was the original image from my old insta account.

In tribute to The Cider Striders returning to the decks tomorrow night, I thought I'd post some golden oldies of Missy and I in our 20s, bringing the fun chaos of two best mates being paid in drink tickets to play records we like in public spaces. We met in the smoking area at Take It Or Leave It in 2009 and became firm friends immediately after. We decided to double deck as a way to merge and encourage the growth of our burgeoning record collections and chose our name to pay homage to our favourite tipple at the time, a legendary powerwalking group, Peaky Striders and on top of that, it rhymed and was alliterative! Although we didn't play records at TIOLI, we regularly double decked at Rat Race, Reggae Got Soul, Rock n Roll Markets, Modtober Fest, All or Nothing, at gigs, and of course Uptown Top Ranking, amongst other places. It was pure joy (and Bulmers lol) which fueled our sets and our coordinated dance routines and sing-alongs. So do come down to Uptown Top Ranking at Moshpit Bar tomorrow night, to witness the reunion (of sorts, i mean, we haven't stopped being best friends and still see each other) of The Cider Striders! Ps. Bonus last image is not of us, but is the one image that sums up my DJing brand and philosophy.

Farewell Terry Hall. Your voice was a huge part of my teen years to early adulthood and is still a huge part of my life’s soundtrack. I found out you passed away a couple days ago, but I’m thankful I got to see you perform back in 2009 and thankful I get to enjoy your music still. Edit: also, RIP Martin Duffy of Primal Scream (!?!?!!) that’s enough learning about important musicians deaths for the night :(

Life update for whoever: National Northern Soul Weekender was amazing albeit overwhelming. I caught up with my Northern Soul fam; some of whom I haven’t seen in many years. I was anxious about a lot of little things; making small talk, forgetting names (look, realtalk, it was hard back then and so there was very little hope for me now) and so struggled with shit like whether to make eye contact, or not, whether not doing so makes me seem like a snob etc, and just knowing that I look and vibe really differently from what I was, even a year ago. In the end tho, getting to see Dan, Paul, Brittany and Joel was the absolute highlight, and sharing the dancefloor once again with my Stomping Mums was what my heart needed, I think. In sad news, Moggy passed away. Not many of you had the pleasure of meeting her, but she was one of Hansi’s family cats who moved in when Hansi’s mum passed away. They got her as a kitten when Hansi was like 13, so yeah, she was around 22 and why I used to call her The Ancient One. She was tiny, grumpy but so sweet and affectionate to us. All she wanted was lap time or a nap in the sun. All she did was nap tbh. I got to hold her in the morning before she passed. She’s buried next to Queenie at my parents house, so I get to say hi to both my girls when I visit. In better news, I got to see Sisters of Mercy AND Peter Hook and the Light. Both were amazing. I also got to run into some old faces at the gigs too (hiii Shelley!) Lastly, Hansi and I are moving to Forest Lodge next Thursday (lol). We saw the listing on Friday. Inspected it on Saturday. Applied on Sunday and got approved yesterday (Monday). So yes, it hasn’t really sunk in, like…I’ll be moving out of Newtown after 13 years?!? I know I’m moving “down the road”, but when I moved into Newtown, it felt like coming home. I lived a few minutes away from the flat my family lived in when my parents moved from Indonesia in ‘89. So in a weird way, it feels like I’m moving out of home. The next 2 weeks are gonna be hectic as (boooo). Photos: watching a storm roll in from Missy’s verandah, Moggyyy, Northern Soul family portrait, Dan and Brittany <3 and videos are of recent fun, tactile nail art.

Just thankful that I got to cross the mid-thirties threshold with my three best. These are friendships that have been forged over years spent at gigs, on dance floors, in each other’s loungerooms. They’ve been strengthened wth each birthday, celebration, heart ache, wedding, house move, weekend bender and subsequent recovery curry or pho. Thankful they are patient with me when I go MIA, thankful they are in my corner, thankful to be in theirs, thankful they know how to party, thankful to see them grow and to be part of their journeys. Last pic: despite being my closest friends, none of them appreciated Two Metre Tall’s Cleansing Ale. If you do, plz add me on Untappd because the only people I have on there is Hansi pretty much lol :(

I keep forgetting about this. So what’s new? Well I’m almost a month into a new job, going to see KISS tonight (lol), went to The Northern Territory for the first time, and of course, I’m newly engaged (aww ye boi). New job has been excellent, although I’m still amused at how happy I am to land a salaried, 9-5 style desk job. As an early Millennial, I’m wedged between Gen X’s disdain for the mundane and materialistic pursuits that’s adulthood demands, and the almost manic Millenial desire for creative entrepreneurship. But Covid has just left me with the need for security, so now I’m a proud owner of a white collar job where most of my colleagues are white, male and/or over the age of 50, but I get more money to do less work. Speaking of men over the age of 50, I am going to the KISS concert in Qudos Arena tonight. I don’t have much to say about it other than no I’ve never really been into KISS, but I do think it’s kind of cool that I’ll get to see them (albeit from a great distance) since It’s their last ever tour. Speaking of septuagenarians on tour, our trip to NT was amazing and it was fun getting shuttled around on sightseeing tours with pensioners. I also got to finally see more than a dozen stars in the sky and thoroughly indulged in our included breakfast buffets. I really can’t wait for retirement tbh. It’s how I want to live. Lastly, I came back from NT with a fiancé which is pretty cool lol. We haven’t set any plans for celebrations yet, but this September will be our 6th year anniversary. Aside from the proposal itself, I’m still so impressed at how Hansi found a heap of courage and did an actual public proposal. One of the nicest things about it was we had a bus load of pensioners wishing us well wishes and sharing their own lil love stories for the rest of our trip haha. Pic: A romantic pat on the bum in central Australia.

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Trawled through a few other pics from 2011/when I was 22-23, and want to mark it with a bit of reflection. Firstly, I feel the need to address my hair colour; a year before I chopped my hair into a Bob and then eventually coloured it bright red. And then, I'm not entirely sure why, I just bleached it out at home which is why I have bright orange and yellow hair in some of the pics. Eventually I get it sorted out and revert to a kind of dark burgundy colour. Secondly, Jan 2011 is when I move into Club Trade and it was the last year of Take it or Leave it, but there was Uptown Top Ranking, Reggae Got Soul, Sunday Dub Club, and I had started going to Northern Soul nights and weekenders. This year I also saw Bad Manners, The Aggrolites, Toots and the Maytals, Cherry Poppin Daddies, Dropkick Murphys, Stranger Cole and Dawn Penn and also saw The Rumjacks a billion times. I also still went to a few rockabilly things but ska, mod and northern soul reigned in my heart. So many of my friends lived in Newtown and we had housecrawls between houses, we had a party mascot which was a head named Alison. Toby eventually kicked her out of Juana's window and we never saw her again. The last thing on this post is a video from '11 of me dancing with Bruce at Swingtime HQ. I took the video because mum didn't trust I had been going to dance classes for years LOL. I also took up playing the spoons and bodhran and still have Benjamin's that he loaned me back then. In 2011, I hung out with Missy every Wednesday and we made Skinpress Zine. My vinyl and dress buying really ramped up this year and I started DJing. It is only the next year that I would leave a box of records in a taxi and never found it again. Every weekend was spent out and dancing. I don't think there was a weekend without dancing and drinking and mates and sweating and durries (4am kebabs and hangover curries). If anyone else has memories of what we got up to, plz remind me. I said I wouldn't do it, but I feel like a death by nostalgia.

Just got back from the Royal Easter Show! Hansi and I have been going every year since we started dating (except for the year it was cancelled) and it's always the best time. We always buy honey and hot sauces. We also usually take Hansi's niece, Ella, to see the animals but this year it was just us so we got to day drinking some very nice beers. The arts and craft section is probably my favourite though. We also spend a lot of time looking at beautiful chickens. This year part of the entertainment were trampoliners lol. Anyway, hope everyone had a nice long weekend <3

A tribute to yesterday's birthday boy <3 There's no one else I'd rather try new foods and drink exceptional beer with. Aside from lunch and dinner, yesterday we also went on a speed boat tour (lol). I think I may have enjoyed it more than him tho haha.