Well, I had a mission on Sunday afternoon: to search for and meet up with Candice De Ville, aka Super Kawaii Mama.

We were both going to be at the Rock ‘n Roll & Alternative Markets at Tempe – how hard could it be, right? Surely we’d both have our blogger-seeking missiles and radar set to ping? Hmm…

I’d somehow managed to miss the Rock ‘n Roll Markets, run by Barfly Promotions, last month, and this time I was determined not to. After all, so many of my friends had been to the last one and said it was amazing, with vintage and burlesque fashion stalls, Doppelganger Vintage hairstyling, cupcake stands, Deadbeat magazine stands and more.

This Saturday night I’d been up way late at a club, so was a little late in my preparations. I knew the music started around 2.30pm, and I wanted to catch at least some of it, especially Backy Skank, one of my fave aussie Ska bands. We arrived a little before 5pm, and unfortunately some of the stalls had begun closing…but many hadn’t!!  And so my hunt began…not only for Candice, but for cool threads and accessories.

Before long I saw the stall “Bexterity” and was immediately taken with these cute eyeball hairclips!

To the side of the stand my eye alighted upon 2 things…a groovy polkadot dress, and a hair/make-up artist doing make-overs. Of course, I had to snap some photos!

I also took some pics of the make-over…

Now, those amongst you who are Einsteins might be seeing something I totally missed…

But as I hadn’t yet seen Candice anywhere I continued my travels around the market precinct, buying a Deadbeat magazine here and saying hello to friends there.

A bit later we went inside and joined some more friends drinking in the TAB section. I kept my eye out, looking for that distinctive white streak in otherwise black hair…to no avail…

And then sometime after 8pm, I’d say, I went out to watch Backy Skank, who were awesome…and someone tapped me on the shoulder. CANDICE!! Super Kawaii Mama in the flesh!! Well, it was like we’d known each other for ages and we chatted excitedly, as I brought her to where my friends were and introduced everyone. Candice said she’d been at the Bexterity stand all day. “Oh no”, I said, “I must have been there when you were on your break”.

But I was wrong. Go back up the page and look at my photos again. Who is that you see, right behind my own face, in the Bexterity pics?

DOH!! Hand-forehead-staple.

Yes, Candice had been there all along and I’d taken some lovely photos of her at work, without even knowing it. How, you ask? I guess I just didn’t expect her there.  Anyway, we got a few snaps together; apologies for the poor quality (although she certainly still looks great!)

And so the hunt was over. Not too long after, the night was over, and I and my friends staggered out to Harrys Cafe De Wheels for a pie or chilli dog. The evening was not without further event, however.  Just after my chilli dog, I was most ignominiously humiliated when BOOM! I went down on my knees. No, I wasn’t that drunk. There was a bleeding great crack in the pavement. I should sue…

But like a brave little soldier, I picked myself up, dusted myself off, grabbed my husband’s arm and carefully caught the next taxi.