well well, many things have happened and many places seen since the last update a few days ago, all of which have resulted in two incredibly and probably permanently sore legs....
i belive it is on thursday that i really gave my shoes a chance to show me what they could really do.
Paul lives next to a part of town called capitol hill, which is the equivalent of Oxford st for the aussies reading this. it has all the cafes, rainbow flags and an abundance of piercings, tatoos and scary dogs on leashes. the main street that goes through it is Broadway and when you walk all the way up that street, you suddenly end up in a neighbourhood of beautiful old victorian houses, and when i say beautiful, i mean it. so i walked around thoses streets for a bit and ended up in Volunteer park, named after the soldiers who volunteered to fight in the spanish-american war sometime the in past.
the park is really quite nice and i walked the 100 or so steps up the water tower which gives alright views of seattle, unfortunately, a lot of greenery hides most of the views plus there are grilles on the windows, so actually you can't see that much but i was proud of myself for walking up anyway....
the park is also the site of the Asian Art Museum, and not only is it currently hosting the collection from the seattle art museum (under renovation), it was also the first thursday of the month so the entrance was free. they had a really beautiful photography exhibition on but the thing i fell in love with was all the blown glass stuff they had on. apparently seattle is quite good at it and i can believe it because some pieces did not make sense to me, so ridiculously beautiful!!!
a bit further down the track, there is a green house which you can also enter for free and i hesitated a bit because i thought it would be kinda boring, and i was wrong. they had the most beautiful orchids and all kind of flowers and plants, plus a really good section of cactus, some of them in bloom. the whole thing was quite small but it was like another world and definitely worth it.
finally, the park sits next to the cemetery which was interesting because a lot of stones were chinese and looked quite cool. it is also the resting place of Bruce and Brandon Lee, so i payed them a quick visit. i'm not sure why someone would want to see the tomb of a famous person but maybe you learn something about people when you see where they will be for rest of times. just after leaving their spot, i wandered around just a little longer, sat down and turned around to take one random photo of the cemetery. the funny thing is that i realised afterwards that i coincidentally took a photo of Princess Angeline, the daughter of the indian chief Seathl who gave his name to the city i am visiting.... i thought it was some kind of sign, not sure what it means though.
with the walk back, i would say that my whole journey got me going for a good five hours and i had two pretty tired legs by the time i got home. we had a sushi dinner, it was tasty.
yesterday, the sun decided that it was time to shine and for the clouds to leave which made it the perfect day to go back to Pike Place Market, which has a variety of flowers, fish, vegies and whatever else you find on markets. it's pretty nice though because it's right on the water front so you can catch glimpses of the harbour here and there, and you can buy some nice little bits of food along the way.
From there, we caught a ferry to Bainbridge island. in a way, it feels a bit like going to manly because the ferry ride is about the same time (although the ferries here are a lot bigger since you can take your car on it and a lot faster) and you leave a beautiful harbour so plenty of picture opportunities there. in the distance we had a magical view of mount rainier and it's snow covered top. it looks like it is floating just above the horizon line and it sure feels special.
the island is pretty nice, it has a decent main street with the usual expensive artist and design like things and we discovered a really really good bakery. i hadn;t had good bread for tooooo long!!! we walked around the island for a bit and got back on the ferry.
Last night, i organised to catch up with John and Devin, two of Paul local friends who had visited nice a year and a half ago. John loves to cook and god, we looooved to eat the food. he cooked up a storm in 1 hour and it was sooo delicious, it was great. and of course, we had a really nice time catching up and laughing away.
the entry is getting long and thank goodness, it's up to what we did today now. we woke up pretty late, around noon and had some asian breakfast as the local Chinatown had a festival on. it was ok and certainly better than the sydney one we went to last year where thorpedo was posing on packets of instant noodles..... china town has one massive supermarket called wajimaya and that was good fun since they had all kinds of fun asian things like cool chopsticks and sushi themed stuff. we walked downtown but didn;t really do much down there, just went into a couple stores and i just dropped by here to write this entry on the way back home,
i think that;s enough information for now, if you even got to this point.....
the trip here is coming to an end but i am really satisfied with what i got done so far, i'm not sure what the plan is for tomorrow but i believe there is a game to watch so you'll most likely find me at the pub....
ciao for now amigos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and next time i write it will most likely be back in Cowtown!!!!

sleepless in seattle....

but don't be mistaken by the title, i am still the party pooper i have always been, it's just that i force paulu to wake up early so that we can do as much as possible...
So far, seattle has been very good to me although considerably colder than TX and starting to realise that i should have packed a few less fancy tops and skirts and a couple more less revealing garments.... oooh well...once again, my reputation as a "badpacker" shall be confirmed...
Paul is being a fine host so far, if you can ignore the tornado that blew his house inside out and upside down..... i have met many of his friends (all of them females so far) and am forced to come to terms with the fact that paul is a fearless womaniser..... i believe he has introduced a good 50% of his friends as "my future sister-in-law" which makes me think that it must come from the jordanian side of him.... still, it's fun and they are all nice, tanned (too many of them come from hawai) and like to take photos of all of them making faces or getting dressed up... yeah i know....
as far as seattle goes, i really like it but the weather is clearly a downside in my case (not for this week of course, who cares) but if i ever was in a situation where i had to chose a US city. seattle is cool but i need more sun!!!
I spent most of the day, yesterday walking around the downtown area. i started by a walking tour from the lonely planet and that wasn't the best so i took off on my own and that was better. i walked into a couple stores, and even bought some mega-touristy shoes that will be very good for lots of walking and also if we do some hiking/strolling with christo around sydney or in tazy.... i realised that i hadn't worn comfy shoes for decades and it made such a difference yesterday, i was bouncing off the sidewalks and so now, i categorically refuse to take them off..... i do look like a bit of a dagg but they are starting to grow on me or the opposite so i like them!!!
also, i have never seen so many starbucks in my LIFE, and i mean in my whole life, if you combine all the starbucks i had ever seen before. well of course, it's a seattlite company but still, what happened to fair competition laws!!! there is no way out of it so i think i already had about 5 starbucks coffees but i only get normal boring coffee unlike people who regurlarly enjoy mocha lattes with soy milk and raspberry dripping down a whole lot of cream and chocolate bits.....
anyway, all of this to say that when a group of tourists came over to ask me where THE starbucks was, i didn't even bother answering..... or i didn't notice their white canes.......
by the time i started exploring the famous market here, paul called me (he is taking a summer class) to come and meet him before we went to "gas works park" to watch the 4th of july fireworks. we went there with his harem and had a great time, except for the incident when i thought i had dropped fro's phone in the grass, only ot discover later that i had left it at home.... the park is really awesome, it has fanstic views of the city skyline and the harbour, plus it is the site of an old gaz factory of something but i'll show photos as soon as they are devellopped and they will speak for themselves. the fireworks were amazing and i don't have photos of them so you'll just have to take my word for it....
this morning i dragged paul to see the "experience Music Project", a big blob designed by frank ghery. we didn't go into the exhbition spaces but the outside was what i wanted to see so that was fine. i'm not sure how feel about it, it seems like a bit of a waste of resources to me and the area around is a bit sad compared to downtown, plus it was grey today... we'll see if the pix turn out.....
oh and of course, France is in the FINAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

me and my (lil) bro

photos

photos will come but as I am currently deprived of my usual computer tools such as photoshop, i am having a bit of trouble uploading anything... probably the files are too big or who knows but I am working on getting them onto my photo page... will keep you updated....

almost week 2 and hardly nothing....

these extracts are taken from various emails i have sent since i got here, all of them to Chris I believe. I think it will give a good idea of what has been happening here and will get me back on updating schedule...

June 22nd
...." today i woke up pretty late and went for a swim; mum showed me around a bit more and tonight we went to the movies with marc and mothe (lolo is on a business trip) to see a pretty stoopid and really funny movie, Nacho Libre... we laughed a lot.

Oh yeah; we went foodshopping as well at one of the two main supermarkets. that one is the "fancier" one and it had some really nice looking stuff and i got plenty of things for a delicious barbie one of these days; probably when lolo comes back; they are sooo boring; they only cook steak on the barbie; i'll teach them!!!! "......

June 23rd
We went to the Kimbell museum, designed by Louis Kahn in the "cultural disctrict". The building itself was awesome and i took quite a few photos of that. i wanted to write something a bit more complete about it but have been too lazy so far... and i don't think it will happen... the museum is pretty small and the exhibition inside is mainly oldish stuff; which is quite pretty but not my favourite. Still; I was there for the building and I was not disappointed. Hey Christo, I was wondering if you had heard of Louis Kahn....?

June 24th
....." i went swimming with Emmanuelle, from laurent + mum's work this morning at the unipool, their pool is not as good as ours because it's not as wide and there is only one 25m long pool + a diving area. well, they also have an outdoor pool though; i didn't go check it out. on the other hand; their gym bit is a lot nicer than ours; well from the outside anyway and they even have a climbing wall so i thought of Chris. i swam 2.2K ....pretty good hey; i think that's further than ever so far so... i'm still trying to teach myself freestyle but i really look like a wet dog... oh well, it does get better after a couple tries...i'm not sure what we'll do today actually but it's time for me to get into the shower; wash the chlorine off and see what happens....."

A few hours later
....." today was pretty good; this arvo, we went to do a bit of shopping and we got me quite a little collection of new clothes already... it's a good start.
We also went to the Museum of Modern Art; also in the cultural district and this time designed by tadao Ando. This one is much bigger than the Kimbell and has a lot of interesting artworks.
tonight; we went to the stockyards, the part that looked so western on those photos my mum sent the other day. I didn't take any photos there because it was night time and i don't have a flash but we'll go back during the day so nothing to worry about. we had really tasty ribs for dinner and walked around a bit. it's where they have rodeo and cattle auctions and stuff... and heaps of stores for hats;boots; saddles, you name it... it's pretty fun and we found me a really good looking winter rain hat, it's not totally cowboy and looks really nice; you'll see..."

June 25th
......"today was good; we went to dallas at around midday and went to the Kennedy musem actually called the "6th floor museum". the guy who killed Kennedy was on the 6th floor of this warehouse and you can see Xs on the road, 6 floors below, where Kennedy was shot. the museum was good; it told about that time in the states; the 60s, what kennedy meant at the time with all the civil rights things happening; and the cold war etc... and what he meant after he was assassinated, "what could have been"...well i can tell you that you walk out of there wondering how such an idiot as G.W.B can be in the office now.... also; I'll have to say that his wife Jackie was really quite beautiful and sophisticated.We walked over to the Kennedy memorial designed by Phillip Johnson and well; i can't say i was very impressed with it... it's a pretty ugly structure but it has a "concept" about an open tomb thing which isolates you from the world outside but you are connected to the earth and the sky; it's basically 4 concrete walls and you can walk through it and that's all....after that; we went to a place called the Spaghetti warehouse....sounds tasty hey. well, it's about 10:30 pm now and i was just getting hungry again...when we got back home; i went for a little swim in the pool with marc and i kicked his skinny ass at volleyball... well not really, and i think i would be totally useless at waterpolo..."

June 28th
..."today has been good. we started by my second appointment at the dentists so my teeth look really nice now although they are a bit sensitive still... they do look nice!!!this arvo; we went to yet another museum; the amon carter museum and it's all american art. a fair bit of stuff about indians etc.. and some more recent stuff. A lot of beautiful paintings and we even got some prints of two paintings by Georgia O'keefe... hopefully we can hang them somehow...i'm also starting to stock up on goodies for everyone; it's pretty exciting..
tonight; we are going to the musical Oklahoma and that's downtown in a very handsome looking building, the Bass Performance Hall, although i have only seen it from a distance...
oh yeah; and we dropped off two loads of film today; although one was started in sydney when we walked around the stables... i have a feeling the photos will look funny because the films spent quite sometime in the boiling car... oops; we'll see.i can't rememeber all the things i wanted to tell you so that's all for now; plus we'll be leaving really soon..."

well it's all action in Fortworth, TX too....

I woke up this morning feeling hungover, possibly a combination of jetlag and last night's wino...
Around 11am the day began by picking up marco from his SAT (a standard test everyone takes in high school) and dropping him off at home again, he will be able to drive on his own soon which should put a stop or at least slow down mothe's taxi carreer. anyway, the next thing we did was hit the mall and the buying urge started to grow on me relatively quickly. the mall is alright; probably quite small in US standards but seeing different stores than the ones in Sydney was a slight relief. we didn't buy anything as I was only on a discovery tour and you wouldn't want to take all the fun out on the first day.
the problem i guess here is that to a store accross the street/highway we had to take the car and drive for five minutes... By that stage i was getting hungry so we got a sort of burrito and a place that works like subway, meaning you chose the ingredients that way. there was a whole array of sizes you could chose for you wrap, going from 1/2 freebird (name of the place) to monster freebird. we got the normal freebird and shared it. it wasn't bad at all but i don't think i want to see what the monster version looks like since the guy looked at me funny when i said that my miserably small one was HUGE....
we walked/drove around for a bit longer and decided to go home. some houses on the way were quite astonishing and absolutely gigantic... those families must AT LEAST have 2 kids (with only one of them in college) to "need" such a big house...
once at home, I managed to convince Marc to have a dip with me and we had heaps of fun; plus once i got into the shower, I was already a couple shades darker, yeeeee haaaa!!!
Marc was playing basketball at school tonight so we went and watched that. it was pretty exciting, as far as a bunch of distorted and sweaty teenagers go but Marc played well, scored a few baskets and they won a very close game so that was really cool.
well we're back home now and i'll go make myself something to eat,
more news soon, hope everyone is going well wherever you're reqding this from,
lot's of love, FB

don't mess with texas!!!

yeaaah ha there; well here i am writing from texas (on french keyboards though....) after a pretty long and somewhat painful trip... indeed flying with United Airlines proved to be pretty rough; a bit messy and just not the nicest. The long flight, a bit over 13 hours, felt VERY long, and i mean really loooong. i didn't manage to sleep much at all and watched too ,any bad movies... for which i cried a few times (usually for the most ovioulsy emotional bits) because i was thinking about christo... i mqde the departure overly dramatic;;; crying way too mqny times considering it's only a few weeks but i think it really annoys me now that he couldn't come, not hiom of course but just the situation of him not being here... oh well, i am here now and that's really nice: how funny to land into this whole new world and call it "home"...
the house is splendid, just really nice and well, BIG but homy. once i feel less tired, mothe will take me through the story of every new item in it....
the weather is quite warm and it didn't tqke long to transfer into a light summer dress....
tonight, we had dinner out and christo; you*ll be glad to know thta i was very "sensible" and had a very nice salad... hopefully it will last a bit...
anyway, looking at the screen is threatening to put me to sleep qny second but i shall be back soon; time to catch up on some sleep for now,
ciao ciao, more news soon,
FB

caz, secret weapon..............

THE SYDNEY BUSKER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA

reply to comments on previous entry

I started by wrting this as a new comment but realised that i might as well make it into a blog entry.... so
caz, i thought that you would feel a bit nostalgic seeing my hot looks in winter. i tried to remain as desirable as i could for as long as possible but it's just too cold now.. so out came the big green socks.. on the other hand, you should see chris' winter attire... it involves some massive himalayan socks which can only fit in his hiking boots....glad to see you will have a look at those tickets, and you have mishaped my comments about your dad and dallas slightly missy but it was probably for comment's sake...will speak to you soon, skype is cool and i hope the roast was good.
yo, ph, cool de voir que tu lis toujours mon modeste blog, le tien me manque il faut l'admettre. je serai bientot en vacances, donc on pourra mieux se causer. j'espere que tout se passe bien a paris et qu'un beau nuage de pollution se forme joyeusement pour l'arrivee de l'ete... hihihi, l'autre jour il faisait pourri ici et ca nous a fait penser a l'ete en hollande.... aaaaaaah, deux poids, deux mesures comme on dit chez nous......muahahha
mothe, i hope you had a mega cool time with john and mathias, you'll have to tell me about their waltzing skills...yeah, i'm back at work because the house i had been working on for so long had a big change and it needs about one or two days of work to get finished so it hurts me too much to leave it off when it;s so close to being finished....oh well, i estimate i'll be on vacation on wednesday. i certainly hope so because there are a few things i need to get done before i get on the plane. i bet it's getting warm in your parts, i can;t wait although poor chris will be sooo so cold... the poor.
the long week end was really good, we had a really nice time since chris didn;t do ANY work (he was meant to but manouf) so we rented some movies, had some nice snacks, went for walks and spoke on skype!! that was cool, i had a nice long chat with cazita, and then chris spoke to Jacinta in barcelona for quite some time. She is on her way to Nice next, possibly to find a cook job on a yacht... or something like that.
so mothe you should get on skype too for when i come back here and papa, si tu lis ce message, il faudra que tu me donne ton contact skype par email. ph, t'as skype toi? surement donc donne moi ton contact aussi!!!
well now, that;s a pretty long entry.
well, i might go get myself a coffee and until the next one, take care of yourselves and each other,
ciao

fiiinally

a photo is worth a million words so i won;t go into too much detail on that one, since you will all guess that the entry is about how we finally got the bed done. it's nice though, really nice, so well, we're two happy chaps!!!
also i was going to keep my updating for next week when i had all the time in the world for it since i wasn;t going to be working but a message on someone else's blog forced me to update sooner..... sucked in!!!!
ps: mothe, we were quite excited to inaugurate your new sheets on the new bed!!!

sucking concrete through a straw...

that's what chris and I have been sounding like in our sleep this week as we both have a cold....
anyway, that might explain the long silence, we have either been working or going to bed at 9:00.... an exciting life we have...
i will be replying to everyone of you this week end,
Leanne and Caz about the road trip USA...
papa about ton programme qui a l'air super,
mothe about your packie,
and Dawny, if you are reading this, about your last email and our date in a year from now......

Simon's "bush" 30th...

Last night was Simon's birthday, and the theme was bush so we all put on our sunday bests and gathered at the pub for some tucker and chilled Ale...jolly good times them were!!!!!!!!!

a word of reassurance

not to worry, all is fine, i was a bit upset off a few days ago but it's all fine now!! indeed, it wasn't because of chris!!
will be booking my tickets today and will let you know the exact dates..
speak to you very soon, ciao ciao

DOES IT HAVE TO GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER????????????

OR DOES IT ONLY GET WORSE??????? THAT'S ALL I HAD TO SAY FOR NOW......

shnitzel shnitzel and more swimming....

the most information in the minimum number of words...
friday morning we got to Albury, leaving at 4am and getting there for morning coffee and hot cross buns, we had a good week end, cold but had an electric blanket!! photos are on the way!
We travelled back on monday, and because of trackworks, had to be bused to Cuttamundra before getting on the train to Sydney central... we were surrounded by young germanics, female in tears from leaving their aussie host families and males offering a reassuring shoulder to cry on, as well as wandering hands.... Soon the tears were replaced by german manifestations of joy and excitement to which chris systematically replied to with a series of "shnitzel shnitzel..."
Went back to work on tuesday and back to the pool after work, am a good breast stroker, although not surprising according to chris since I am a frog afterall..... muscles aching a bit two days later but feeling good, going back tonight!!!!!
Last night, a fantastic dinner was awaiting my return with candles and beef kebabs...what else could you want!!!!!!!!

underwater australia

this is where i got the photo for the post below, papa je pense que tu devrais aimer.....
http://www.underwateraustralia.com.au/

just can' get enough of it

all day long, i am forever thinking of things that i want to put on this blog and then, i get home and the idea of going through my brain to remember what i was thinking of is overwhelming and so nothing appears on here for you.
so, let;s try to change that.
first of all, i did not mean to offend anyone by saying that J. Simpson was useless and that we shouldn't bother talking about her. eventhough i mean it, feel free to continue these interesting debates on this blog. i am happy to be the host of it and it makes me laugh a lot to read what you two have to say (mothe and Caza of course). knock yourselves out!!!!
Also, not much happened over the week end, except that i got out of the house on saturday and ended up spending 5 hours reading on the floor of a book store in the city. that was cool and, well.. i had a damn good time and might do it again sometime... i mainly spent my time in the photography section and then bought myself two novels, we'll see if they were good choices.... so tough which reminds me of one of my potential blog thoughts on how hard it is to chose a book.... in retrospect, i think it might be pretty boring for anyone but me to analyse the criterias i have set up to pick a book so i won;t go into it....
on saturday night, we went to watch "the world's fastest indian" and I really liked it, i cried the whole time and mothe, i think you would too. it was a happy emotional follow your dreams kind of movie with an old chou.... puuuurfect. This also reminds me that we saw "V for Vendetta" last thursday I believe and it was pretty cool except that I, by principle, hate a woman who looks super hot with a shaved head and prison clothes... so that was a real problem as you can well imagine.
Yesterday, which would be sunday, we went for another swim at 8 am and i totally broke my record as i swam 1.5Km and loved it....i'm mega supa sore as I speak and it should be even worse tomorrow but we might go after work tomorrow night....it was my idea so we'll see if it really happens, the main problem being that i am submerged with work and not sure what time i'll be getting out of that fish bowl......
i think that's about, we shall be on our way to Albury in a few days, normally going down with Carolinna and Simon on their way to Melbourne... from what I understand, we might leave on thursday night and camp in the bush......in-te-res-ting.......
ok bye bye for now, keep writing comments, it's so mega exciting to check everyday and see what you have to say about brangelina and whatever else, and i mean that!!!!!
CHEERIO as they say..........................

I tried...

... to accuse chris for the lack of social events in my recent weeks... the truth is , it's not really his fault at all and while i might not be any kind of Paris Hilton party animal, I certainly make for a good granny... just a bit in advance!!
So I have decided to take control of my life and kick start this whole friendship thing that a lot of people seem to enjoy so much.... problem number 1 is that I have temporarily lost my best friend in the whole southern hemisphere (probably northern too since emails haven't exactly been flowing that direction either lately....bad) and problem number 2, I never see chris anymore and so hanging around, mindlessly dragging myself from one room to the other all week end might give me a chance to bump into him if only 5 minutes.....i guess i see him physically but we never have time to play anymore... :(
Back to the control thing, i suppose that in a time of serious drought, we could say that this week was a moonsoon season as I have met up with Tuna (tina) last night and we had delicious japanese food and ridiculously expensive beer..... and have a double date organised tomorrow night (to celebrate the week end I guess and catch up mostly) with should include Charmaine and her boyf and the boyf and I...we're going to Newtown which puts us a few notches higher on the scale of coolness.........no need to say Newtown wasn;t my suggestion as I would have settled for randwick even, so i guess it only makes me cool by association to Charmaine but i can live with that!!!!!!!!

bam bam chicccc (drum joke sound)

Frenchbeach: Hum Baby, you are the reason for the downfall of my social life...
Hot dot: oh really, and why is that?
FB: hum, because i have too much fun with you and so I don;t want to do anything else...
HD : Baby... the downfall of your social life was when Caz left.

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! and so I picked up all my teeth from the floor and went to bed.....

boy oh boy

it's the start of anotehr year on this blog and so i really ought to put a bit of effort into it and write a line or two from time to time....it's all about discipline...
and not only the blog, this mornong we (as in Emma, Chris and meself) went to the Unipool...at 8 (thank god for day light saving business as it changed this morning so it was really 9 o'clock...) anyway, i swam 800 m while the Van Lint gang swam 2.5K but I don't care because I had a whole lane all to myself and i was making up my own very personal swimming style...kicking and using the floating kick board as a pillow....so cooool!!
i finished swimming a tiny bit before they did and so I was able to observe real discipline... when they swim, their bodies are like machines, with every movement so clear and sharp and defined within time and space.... pretty cool to watch plus i get to see how the sommersault thing at the end of a lap is really done, like on TV...
around 9, we went to Em's house and has deeeelicious pancakes, ohh so yummy!!!
After that we went home and that;s about where the exciting stuff ends really. oh yeah, i repoted my cactus friends (still alive) and so I expect them to loook very happy soon, at the moment they still look fairly tiny in their new big pot...
and now that;s really it, chris is stuck doing homework and I wander from one room to the other finding temporary occupations, i think i might go put my glasses on and have a bit of reading time.... reading a supa good book at the moment, but can;t say too much about it yet....
ciao, i hope this new entry will set a pattern for the year to come....

this is what happens when an obsession is pushed too far

Chris has a uni assignment on photoshop due this week so I put my two cents in....pretty funky huh?

happy.............

Birthday to youuuuuuuu!!!
In a few different ways, today or tonight is a bit special and it’s like everything came together to make it that way.
Special because I am able to take the time to write an entry…(it could be a long one my friends) as Chris is out at a rugby game with his uncle tonight (a kind of bonding session I suppose) which means I can use the computer and it is Friday night which means I don’t have to do any homework either ( and yes, I have been bringing work home with me….).
What’s special is not so much the entry itself though but more the fact that it is TODAY and why is today different…?
Well, precisely!! Because, we are celebrating this blog’s first birthday!!!!!! Wouhou partay on!!! So we are celebrating the existence of this blog but does anyone remember how or why this blog came about?? Well yes again, a year ago today, Chris left and was on his way to Nepal which was the subject of the very first entry…
So as things don’t always follow the plan (ask Caz), this blog was intended to be a record of Chris’ travels and I guess it started that way but quickly turned into a big jumble of stuff, from daily life material to whatever crossed my mind… I don’t think I will forcefully subject anyone to a long and tedious flashback session but I will definitely skim through the “pages” myself and have a good laugh or a private smile about what appears on the screen…. How time flies, it’s funny and how small events, because they were recorded at the time keep their freshness intact…. And so Caz, you might remember the “Macarena” entry quite well, and or the photos of one fateful night at the CBH when we met the Frog man…., possibly even our daytrip to East lakes…. I realise by going through it that most of the blog ended up being dedicated to you and our common silliness (caz), that;s alright, I don’t think I’ll stop laughing about it for a while still….
Anyway, Revisiting all these great memories makes me regret not having posted more often lately and well, this blog is also the proof that nothing is ever too boring to find it’s place in there…. So after a whole year of random bable, I decide that it must go on for at least another one and another one and…… because, it’s actually pretty cool!

surprise surpise!!!!!!!!!!!

this is what 3 months in front of a computer will do to you......................

not to worry though, they are only for comfort and my sight is fine.....

.....DKNY......

here we go here we go

hey, long time no see... or write... anyway, we still don;t have internet at home (should be working soon) so here i am, at work, about to send you the first photos from the new love nest. the main problem, which caused the delay, was that it is quite a difficult exercise to take photos inside that will look half decent, not too dark and dingy and give something close to the right impression of the thing.
Anyway, it still probably doesn't and i'm afraid all of you out there will have to come (back) downunder to appreciate it. as it is now, we're pretty happy and the furnituring?arranging of the place on a tight budget is making significant progress, well mainly on week ends but still. things have changed slightly since the photos but not much, and more photos will come shortly... (i promise.. to try)

other than that, things are going fine, as I said, the place is going great and we are having a good time trying to make it even better. we had a few feasts on the bbq already which was very exciting, we have a matress which actually hurts my back more than when we were sleeping on the floor... and my only wish would be to spend more time in there, making it feel like home...

Chris has just started Uni again, and the poor thing is going to be a busy man for the next few months. he's going to learn french which is cool and we'll see how that goes. the studio is actually the most elaborately furnished room in the house so he should be very comfy in there.

Work is going well, and I am still learning a lot everyday, plus I'm getting used to this new lifestyle and i don;t really mind it at all. still, it would be cool hanging out at Uni and sleeping in from time to time but that will come back, very quickly too since time is flying these days and have realised that I am already halfway through work experience, which is hard to believe. The other cool thing about work experience is that this uni session is costing us $39... hihihi!!

I' afraid that's about it for now.... will be back soon for more, take care, love you, Laure

love shack...baby love shack!! (2)

so this morning, at 9 0'clock, the lease was signed with both our names on it!! we now have the keys and no time to go admire our new home...
Anyway, we have also been packing the infinite number of things of all kind that I have managed to accumulate. I am being careful to use "I" as chris' stuff took about 5 minutes and one suitcase to pack... while I'm still going and going and going.... i like it though and my only regret is not having time to look at every thing and tell chris the related story and ask him if he remembers when we took that photo or went to this cafe etc etc..... i hope we can do that when we unpack... and again, you'll notice the use of "i" as I am probably the only one hoping....
It is all highly exciting although the week end might be a bit loco!! we have booked a van for tomorrow and so we can move all our stuff and also find a fridge and maybe a bit of furniture if anything nice comes our direction... on sunday, we'll have to get on our hands and knees, and as Cinderella probably did it better than us, clean and scrub and dust and wash and wipe.....
The going away inspection will be next friday and i hope i get all my money back, normally, I should...
I think we'll try to spend our very first night, sleeping on piled up blankets and sleeping bags, in the new place tomorrow night!! i don't really care about comfort, I'm just way too excited and all my clothes are packed up anyway!!
So that's what is going on right now... we're both really really excited and i hope it is as good the second time as it was when we visited it for a whole five minutes...
I can't wait to hang the thong shower curtain on a real steel bar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* In the Realm of the Senses ( Sens Dessus Dessous) is at Alliance Française, 257 Clarence Street, until February 28.
* Salt, Lake Eyre Photographs 2005 by Murray Fredericks is at Boutwell Draper Gallery, 82 George Street, Redfern until March 11.
* Family is on view at Point Light Gallery, 4/50 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills until March 12.
* Bougainville, Revolution/Evolution is at the Mori Gallery, 168 Day Street, Sydney, until February 25.

Loooove shack... baaaaby luuuve shack!!!!!!!!

so during all those weeks of silence, we were actually kept very busy... working (a total of 60 hours for me last week) and looking for a new love shack...
We applied for one on saturday, as quick as lightnening and we got the good news today... we'll be moving in on next saturday!!!
the place is really nice, it is much bigger than where we are now... it has a balcony for a future barbie..., new paint, new carpet (not green), a new kitchen and bathroom (with colors similar to papa's bathroom: nice almond green and white...) it looks like it will be sunny, and it will be very quiet...
anyway, we are very very happy and super excited, especially about the coming-up housewarming partay!!!
obviously, the only thing is that it will look BIG and EMPTY for a while but slowly, we'll find nice furniture to cover up the floor and walls, and in the mean time, we can admire the cleam mould-free walls...!!!!!!!!!
except some photos of the new nest soon!!!!!!!

cool website

just a quick link to a really cool website and material which makes me want to do my own...
www.3-form.com
I think that papa will enjoy looking at that, really beautiful!!

camping photos

Welcome to Mountain Creek!!!!!!

Here are the long awaited photos from our camping trip to Mountain Creek, right near Mount beauty over NY's.
They come as a celebration to the fact that Chris' computer coming back from Albury!!!!!!!!!!! yeah!!!!!!!!! Anyway I hope you enjoy them, we enjoyed the trip!!

from the left, we have Emma, Jordan (her man), Lochy (the circus boy), Alex (chris' only Albury friend and also, Lochy's bro), Cecilia (Alex's girlfriend) and the Christo.... enjoying a chilled beer in the equally refreshing creek right next to our campsite.

Emma and Christo, with Cecilia and Lochy in the background.

me with my new backpack....I loooove it!!!

my christmas and birthday present from papa...

now i'm ready to be a real country girl, well, once i get the sneezing and coughing when in close contact to grass... thing fixed...

oh and mine is red...

fine but more computer problems....

we got home fine and are having a great few days before work starts again, the only problem is that the compter decided to break something else, so now all the USB ports are broken meaning that i can't connect anything such as keyboard, mouse, memory stick etc etc..... for some reason the originally broken keyboard is now working... but for how long???
Anyway, don't want to use it too much and that's why i'm not writing....
more news once i figure out what to do now, love you all, laure

and christmas dinner......

A FIEST!!!!!!!!!!!!! hum mothe, maybe i should try to remember some of the table presentations I have seen here..... I mean... you know.... not that ours aren't as good but...

more photos....

i don't feel like writing much so i'm posting photos instead. yesterday was x-mas day, so we started by opening presents and then did nothing for a while.... but then, Rob, Melissa's farmer boyfriend invited us for a ride in his header while he was "stripping" or a better known version of this word, harvesting...
that was good fun and interesting, Here are a few photos to show where we were...

x-mas brekkie

i look a bit funny but anyway....
from left to right... the christo, me, Marie (Mum), Gav, Emma and Katrina.

nice photos taken at various occasions...

the two photos above were taken at Emma's 21st
and the ones below were taken at Leanne's with the massive king island double brie that Carol made Leanne get me for my b-day.... yum, i'm trying not to eat it all at once but it's difficult!!

dedication!!!!

i worked for 15 hours yesterday, which got me home a bit after 2 in the morning!!!! I just finished what I had to do now, around 1pm....

where do you start after so much and so long...?

the last time I wrote on this blog, it was to announce that I had gotten the job, and I was pretty excited about that. now, a bit more than a week after starting, i'm happy to notice that I am still fairly excited. things are going really well, the office is a great size and everyone there is really friendly and helpful (which is good since I need quite a bit of help). i've been given real jobs, which take me 5 times longer than if anyone else did it, but I think I am learning along the way, and generally going ok. my first conclusion about the purpose of work experience is to make you feel really stoopid and help you realise that everyone goes through that and one point or another... well I feel stoopid at the moment, and I wonder how long it is going to last...
there are two things I am finding harder to adapt to... and that's the fact that what I am doing is for real and not for some 5 minute long jury, which means that things actually have to work and be accurate, which i find pretty difficult still, and the other thing is that I still don;t understand when people are meant to do stuff outside of work, like writing emails, or food-shopping etc... I've been working until 6:30 or 7 every night so far... but it;s ok, i'll get used to that too....
Anyway, besides work, it has also been a really good week with lot's of stuff happening! I'll just quickly run through them, without too much detail...
saturday 3rd and sunday 4th of Dec : we went to Albury for Emma's 21st
Monday: 1st day of work
tuesday night: graduation exhibition opening night in Woolloomoolloo (pretty boring and bad bad food)
Wednesday: My B-DAY!!!! we had sushi on the beach in Coogee.... and Chris got me a wonderful new lens for the camera (28mm)
Thursday: office x-mas party: Golf in the arvo and dinner at night in Paddington
Friday: hungover at work....
Saturday: Breakfast bbq in Coogee with a small crew (that was really nice), clothes shopping at Burkenhead Point, beers at Kris' in Ashfield
Sunday: Heleana's b-day cruise, awesome as you can well imagine, lots of yummy food, drinks and swimming!!
and back to work.................
Well I hope that gives you a small idea of what;s been happening and gives me an excuse for not having been the best with emails.....
I love you all so much, your laura
ps: Caz, thank you for your email, don;t worry about being late, I know you were thinking of me and i was thinking of you too, wish you could have been here, but we'll have plenty more to celebrate together later, and in the mean time, you can travel the world and i can commute to work, but no matter what, our paths will meet again soon enough... I miss you a lot and love you even more!!
pps: I took many photos with the new lens of the bbq etc... which i will try putting on the blog sometime soon hpefully, doing my best at the moment...

quick news before we go

For those who don;t know the great news yet, I just want to let you know that I had an interview yesterday for a job. They mainly do commercial work like office buildings, restaurants, retail, hospitals etc etc... + some residential. Anyway, I am very happy and excited to announce that I managed to convince them that I was good enough and so I will be starting this coming monday at 9am!!! my job will mainly be drafting on Cad but that's ok since i still have a lot to learn from that.... and whatever else comes up for which i can be useful....
More details when we come back, we are just about to leave for Albury for Emma's (chris' baby sister) 21st. we will be back on sunday, before my first big day which will obviously be the subject of a posting on this blog in the very near future,
I have to go now, but will be back very soon,
Love, Laure the Happy Yupy

if i can....

- Beyond Real - Making a Scene is at the Australian Centre For Photography, 257 Oxford Street, Paddington, until December 24.

- Trent Parke's exhibition at Stills Gallery, 36 Gosbell Street, Paddington, is open until December 17.

- David Stephenson's Drawing Time is at Boutwell Draper Gallery, 82-84 George Street, Redfern, until December 17.

- Points of View: Australian Photography 1985-1995 is at the Art Gallery of NSW until January 29.

- Summer Heat is at the Australian Photographers' Gallery, 143 Beattie Street, Balmain, until January 31.

what the goss mags are saying

ok this is bad but i can't help it, i love reading this section of the smh..... evil...
so what exactly are the gossip mags saying this week...?

occupation deficit syndrom....

the jobhunt is NOT looking good, if i'm lucky it might change and otherwise, i won't get anything until january, we'll see, no matter what, i'm not giving up yet...
so anyway, to avoid becoming an unemployed drunk with a gambling problem, i've become the perfect housewife...
i know... weird!!
yesterday, i cleaned up and re-organised the house, my motto being " a place for everything, everything in it's place"
I know... weird!!
today, I am baking a cheesecake.......don't say it, I know!! it's still in the oven but if by some strange miracle, it is successful, then it will be a happy welcome into the world of cake baking... as it is my first attempt ever....weird? no not really, I am a city girl afterall, i don't DO cakes, I eat them!
anyway, the oven is my new best friend so i might go hang out in the kitchen for a while...
c yas

geezus, what a trip..!!!

this posting is a celebration to the fact that I am still here to tell you about a quite perillous week end......
As you know, we went camping with a few other people (9 of us all together) for Carolinna's 29th b-day. most people were her and simon's friends from Melbourne, and Chris and I were the little kiddies....
On saturday, the week-end's quality seemed a bit compromised by the amount of raining pouring dowm but as we travelled through the country, well the suburbs, the weather started clearing up and what were first patches of blue sky quickly turned into a bright, hot, sunny day!!!!! All our hopes were raised again and the party could start..........
The site where we were to spend the night belongs to the National Park, a bit south of Sydney, and to reach it, cars have to be left at the carpark, bags tightly straped to the back and an evil hill must be climbed. the journey took about half an hour and it was hard but we were then greeted by a delish VB offered by our first settlers there, so the pain was forgotten almost instantly.
The site itself was quite beautiful, and being the only ones there, we had it all for ourselves. it was surrounded on three sides by hills and on the fourth, we had a beautiful beach waiting just for us. life was good in those days, and we made the most of it, contemplating our luck of having such a beautiful weather after a rainy morning.
things went on like that for a few hours, first trying to consolidate a tarp to serve as a communal shelter. lots of engineering and thorough designing went into the process, but the tarp was standing as a sign of what was coming next............... basically, pretty shaky and unstable.
it didn;t keep us from enjoying the waves, although a bit rough for my liking, lazing around in the sun and covering our skins with sunscreen oil.....
we had a nice dinner mostly made up of sausages (snags for the aussies reading this) and as the night covered us with it's dark blanket, we were greeted with an amazing spectable. all around us, the most amazing lightning was taking place, and as we were rejoycing in the fact that the storm was moving around and not above us, we sat there and oooohed and aaaahed at the fierceness of the "fireworks". slowly but surely, a few of us started feeling a few drops and we all made the wise decision to seek refuge under the tarp. the only problem was that the wind was pretty fierce by then, and well the tarp was not anymore, it had changed from a safe and sound shelter to a big piece of blue material flapping around in the wind......
the drops became bigger and we had no solution but to run to the "taj", the biggest tent available and all 9 of us squeezed in there. what was nice and cozy for the first few minutes changed into a toasty leeking environment soon deprived of oxygen..... soon emotion overtook us, as i discovered two leeches on my leg and in a movement of panic sent them flying accross the tent. as of today, one of them might still be crawling around the "taj"....
After a little bit, everyone decided to go back to their tents to sleep until the next morning, convinced that the storm would be gone and we would have a bright sunshine to accompany our pancakes......
the storm went on all night, it was crazy with the tent fighting like a little soldier against the harsh elements. we managed to stay pretty dry although the side where the wind was blowing kept bending quite dangerously on top of us, going from a three men igloo to a one man typee..... the skies were going mad and when your only protection is a small piece of fabric attached to the ground, I think that the conscience of the storm is exponentially increased...
The next morning, after a pretty rough night, we took advantage of a small break in the weather to cook some pancakes. it wasn;t very long before it was pouring again and we all ran back to our tents. about an hour later, a decison had to be made and facing teh elements, we were all packing up. it was pretty cold, all our clothes were damp but there was no point waiting there and the thought of getting home where we could take a nice hot shower kept us moving.
so we went back the way we came, up the hill.... the only difference was that the steps were now covered in mud and very slippery. at least, the climb didn;t seem so bad as we were focused on not sliding off or flying away. the way down was very slippery too but at least, it wasn;t nearly as tirering as the way up.
once in the car, my little story is over..... in less than an hour, we were able to get rid of the damp clothes and warm up in the shower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we then went on with our civilised lives, the memory of the storm still alive but as a new week starts, it already seems quite far away....

job safari

life is a jungle but it helps having a phone...
yesterday was pretty disastrous in terms of working possibilities, i called 15 places again, didn;t send many resumes and got rejected by the one place who had available positions.... i sent a 2nd email showing my great determination but haven't got an answer yet.... they wanted someone who can use archicad and i can use autocad, which could be a problem except that for minor adaptations, they all really work the same so i could learn......
anyway, today is looking a bit less gloomy as a few people asked for my resume, including one place looking for someone... so lets all cross our pretty fingers and wait.... again, they use a progam that i don;t but the guy was nice and said that really, it wasn;t a big problem and that previous students had converted quite smoothly.... there is hope my friends, there is hope!!!!!
now i better get back to calling the other 13 firms on my daily list.....
a new update soon as I doubt this is the end of the adventure..... oh sorry, safari (hey caz, i wonder if our great humanitarians theories apply to the work force or only uni....)

oh goood!!!

as i have announced earlier, today was the big day to start looking for a job a bit seriously, and god, it's not gonna be a piece of cake, here are some statistics to give an idea to my dear readers:
-15 phone calls
- one "good luck" (much appreciated)
- one friend on the phone (charmaine)
- about 10 "no jobs available but send us your resume to keep on file", yeah right....
- and about 3 or 4 absolute bitches who would be better off jumping in a lake and smashing their heads against a rock
- and overall 15 places where i won;t be working....
with x-mas and new year coming up, it's not looking so good for me to get a job right now but persistence pays and so i will keep going.... before i start crying....
i don't believe there is a god watching on us, but i think i can use some prayers anyway, so pray for me as, and i know that will sound weird to a lot of you, i actually want to work.......!!!!! god damn it!!!!

who am i?

Originally, I am full of food, then I am used to carry a million trees (poor things) cut in flat white rectangles with lots of meaningless black traces on them, and finally, I go to the beach carrying a towel and water..... who am I?

born again... not christian

after a quick trip through drakness, i have finally seen the light, but it's just the sun waiting to fry up my skin all afternoon on the beach..... and boy, does the idea just sound delightful, my dears!
they say that it's not about the destination, but the journey... well, i disagree completely with that theory and obviously the people who came up with that never had to take a "building services" exam. the journey was treacherous, no sweet flowers to bend down to and smell, just the needles, and not acuponcture needles either. the ones that will give you a sore neck, an upset tummy and strange dreams full of service cores and vents (not even making that up, i swear I had such nightmares, and well, it's mostly disturbing to draw vents and pipes to the rythm of the alarm clock....)
yesterday was obviously the moment of epiphany where we had to combine all the confusions and mis-understanding about air-conditionning, with single or multi-zone AHUs, VV or CV, CWS or DX etc etc.............. into 7 hours of panic, unrelated thoughts and sun withdrawal effects. let me just tell you that aussies are not trained for the deprivation (if that word even exists) of the precious sun rays, we're not in bloody finland for god's sake!!!!!
Anyway, the 7 hours went by like a watch on speed, no one was able to properly finish the damn exam and so we all went to drown our sorrows and the end of another year of uni (4 now) into the grog..... and boy does life taste sweeter since..........
the birds are singing, the sky is blue, the book I am reading at the moment (color, thank you mothe) is divinely inspiring and from my ground floor apartment, I am feeling on top of the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I said joyful news would be coming any minute, well while it lasts, here they are, love you all, fb the conqueror!!!!!

brain dead on D-4

Only or still three days to go before the D day...? that is the true question really.
on one hand, I am still far from being ready for this exam, it's huge and i don;t understand half of it....
on the other hand, I just want to get it over with and be free of uni work for ages.......
right now, all i want is a nap and i might as well take it since i don't have the capacity to think about toilets and air-con.... and that will probably be the case for the next few hours. i feel exhausted today, i'm not sure why since i've been sleeping really well and much lately but still.... a bit like shopping centres, long hours of studying suck the life out of you.... and i've been studying for way too long now..... but i can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel..... i'm afraid a 7 hours long trip to hell will be mandatory before being born again....
the sky is blue and the sun is hot today, i should be at the beach but no, i was stuck in the ressource centre for most of the day, and now i am here, undecided between sleeping or reading, or reading and sleeping for a couple hours before i can get back to it........
more joyful news soon, i promise,
love, fb

hey mothe, check out the quiche we made for dinner tonight, spinach, ricotta et tomato... please....

tarantula tarantulaaaaaaaaa

no caz, i'm not singing the french national anthem, i am screaming for my life as chris is on the bus going to a party and i'm at home with a huntsman spider locked in the bedroom.......

gimme a break!!!

hello all, i'm taking advantage of a small interstice in my end of session schedule to get back on mr. Blogger... it's been a while and this prolonged absence can be explained by the simultaneous lack of time and inspiration that has overcome me in the last couple weeks.
well, i don't know how interesting it is to write about uni work, uni work and always uni work. it wasn't inspiring to write about it, and certainly wouldn't have been to read.
it's been a bit crazy, but yesterday, i finished one big assignment which is a relief. now i have to move on to writing an essay and preparing for two exams... huggghhh i don't like exams too much especially when one of them is 7 hours long on positioning toilets in an office building..... more on that lata.
other than that, i think that everything is going fine. chris is having quite a few interviews this week which is really good. hopefully, it will put an end to his boredom soon. still, it's quite nice for me having him around like that.
speaking of jobs, i haven't had a chance to keep looking since my first attempt about a week ago. i'll get back into it shortly, and hopefully, won't have too much trouble finding something good.
caz is doing absolutely great in Buenos Aires, partying hard and not studying too much, but deep down, she's a nerd and won't accept to be slack with the spanish for too long......
last night we went to see the "40 year old virgin" which is pretty bad and not that funny unless the words "fuck" and "pussy" crack you up everytime... there were some funny bits and pieces though and the main actor, who plays a nerd, (he's also the geek in the Anchorman) is really charming, and the end scene is great so that makes up for the whole movie...
anyway, it did stop me from thinking about assignments or any kind of deep feeling or emotion so it achieved it's purpose.... the pizza we had before did too, maybe even better, yuuuummay!!!!
alright ladies and gents, boys and gals, i better get the show on the road for today,
will try to come back a bit more often,
tshussay!!!!!

correction for those who read this blog...

Caz isn't in Argentina, she's in Chile! and doing fine!
i'm doing fine here too, with the Christo, it's great, it's wonderful and I'll write more later, but for now, I've got some kissing to make up for... Ciao

crazyo

Wednesday was a crazay busay day!!!
We had a field trip organised for the "architecture and consumer society" class, so we visited the Casino, which was sort of crazy. It was sad to see people at 10 o'clock on pokies all by themselves... wasting their money... anyway, we heard many crazy facts... for example, you have to be able to see a clock wherever you are standing in the casino so that people won't lose track of time, since some people stay for days and days in a row, without seeing daylight...
After that, we visited the Powerhouse Museum, which was interesting. I had never been there so that was a good occasion, and the guy who gave us a talk and a tour was pretty interesting. He's the guy in charge of designing all the ehibits for the museum, it was really good.
After the visits, I invited Charmaine and fff to come with me to a photo exhbition opening in Paddington, at the Stills Gallery, where my current photo teacher also works.
The opening was pretty good, and some photos were really beautiful but the prices were equally impressive... well, I guess not so much if you have an extra 5000 dollars floating around with no purpose in your wallet....
After all that, I was exhausted, partly because of the interesting Sydney bus system... let me explain, you can take about 500 buses if you are going to circular quay, 300 for central and about 1456 to Bondi Junction, but when your destination is somewhere else, then you walk because approximately 0 buses go there..... so I walked and we walked and I walked again, all day long... with uncomfortable shoes giving me blisters... it was great!!
Yesterday (thursday), I went to another opening night, at the Blenders gallery this time, and it was great!!!!!!!! the exhibition was called the "body confessional" and it was exciting because the photographer had done precisely what I tought of doing a few weeks ago... The idea is basically to ask people to chose the part of their body they would like to have photographed and explain why. The thing that was interesting about it is the variety of reasons to picking a particular area. It went from basic reasons like the favourite part, to much more sensitive reasons like a family ressemblance, or a part they didn't like, or parts that people gave some kind of almost spiritual meaning to... etc.... It was good, and it confirmed that my idea wasn't that bad at all, and much more interesting than I had actually imagined when I had thought of it.
The other cool thing that happened last night, is that when I went to get some cake for Tina and me, (tina came along too), I put all my courage together and introduced myself to the photographer, Paul Mallam, who was the one cutting his own b-day cake and explained that i was getting into photography and told him that I had thought of doing the exact same thing a few weeks ago and so that i was really happy to be there because it proved that it was a good idea afterall, and that seeing it done showed me how much potential a simple idea like that did have...bla bla bla.... anyway, he was really nice and asked me questions about what I was doing, and how i thought of doing that too etc etc.... and the conversation concluded by exchanging our names, shaking hands and him telling me "well, you should really do it and contact me because i would really like to see your work" and me going "hiihihihii, thank you, hihihihi" (dork) but smiling broadly, I left and kept smiling!!!!!!!!
yesterday was also Christo's b-day so happy birthday again my little angel, I love you and we will be able to celebrate very shortly!!!! the man will be back tomorrow morning!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah!!!!!!!!!
Caz' blog has been updated too, she's going fine and is still in Argentina having a wonderful time!!

inspiration...?

no, more like not wanting to work anymore and knowing that a film is waiting to be used in the fridge....
there are a few more additions to the photo album, just for fun...

to many more, even better.....

it's been a year since midnight last night, and I hope we have many more to come and celebrate, I love you my angel

who's gonna finish the week with me??

Hey Caz, you're not here to end the week end with a sunday night beer at the Royal... what am i supposed to do now.... this week can't ever end without a beer, it just goes against the rules of science and common sense too.................
This week end was pretty alright though.
Yesterday, I met up with fff and we went to the Primavera exhibition at the MCA. Well let's just say that, like last year's, the Primavera stuff, which is an exhibition for young australian artists, is the obvious manifestation of good will in this country.... could do better but they are trying.... which is still more than I can claim for...
After that, we went to the SuperStudio exhibition/opening/jury night... at Walsh Bay Piers near the Rocks. The superstudio is an archi student competition, that runs for two weeks and the winners win $5000.... noice. It was pretty interesting, we listened to the 6 finalists presenting their schemes for the East Darlingharbour development and then, the booze came out with loads of food, all for free, and so we didn't care about the schemes much anymore. They announced the winners a bit later, and everyone was happy, at least I was... well, jolly anyway...
We ended with one last beero in the Rocks with fff, and went home. While we were walking from the pub to the bus stops, fff's and my foot met accidentaly and it broke the buckle on my shoe.... so i had to walk with one shoe on my foot and the other in my hand.... as fff rightly pointed out, at least there isn't doggydo all over the place here....
Today should have been very busy with me trying to catch up on my work and well, I did try since I spent a couple hours at the library but overall, I don't really feel like working hard right now. I will give it another go a bit later but I can't be bothered right now....
Have you noticed a pattern in my behaviour....? the most prolific blog writing periods are exactly at the same time as my most intense times of the session.... hmmm interesting...

for the curious ones out there

hey all, I've updated my photo album so click on the link "my new super cool photo album" on the side bar and go check out some of the intensive studio photos that i've put on there....

photography, society and the built environment

This is the first draft for the panel that I will be presenting for my elective called "photography, society ...." in a couple weeks. This is not the panel that will be shown at the EBHouse.
For this one, the idea for the layout, and also for the actual pix that I took during the studio, was to go from the general to the detail... with steps in between. This is generally the way photo-journalism is approached, so I haven't really invented anything on that one, but what I am trying to express is the approach to a design project, going from a very general idea and going deeper and closer into details. This was even more relevant in an intensive studio setting when the changes and the level of resolution appears very clearly in an extremely short time. The thinking process has to happen fast and the decisions have to be made even faster because of the time restrictions and the need to have something to show for at the end.
It's really good though because in normal 14 weeks studios, the strong initial ideas never make it to the end, they are somehow lost in the process and as much as we try to hold on to them, they are never quite so powerful when the main concern becomes the color of the tiles in the bathroom...
Of course, in one week, there is no time for tiles, and there is no time to afford to lose anything, so all the strong powerful, and sometimes good ideas stay with the project because that's all we've got, no time, just ideas and decisions to make.
The idea is that the first photo, the biggest, is a general view of the studio itself, which then starts to break down into smaller photos of the general studio atmosphere, then portraits and then details. As the pictures get smaller and there are more of them, the viewer is actually forced to move in and get physically closer to the photos to look at them. As in a design situation, we focus on smaller and smaller things as the design progresses. Even our face gets closer to the page...
The other thing about the layout is that it is very dense, all the image are compressed into one block and from far away, would probably appear as a mosaic of colors. You do need to know that the panel it will be mounted on is 82x102 cm, which is huge, and at the moment, the first photo in this first proposal is about the size of an A3, so that gives an idea of the scale. Anyway, The block of photos is very dense and I guess that I was trying to express the intensity and business of the studio, rather than having lot's of white between the photos, there will be white around, but not in between them. The studio was concentrated in one time (one week), one space (studio space) and I think that it should also be concentrated in that manner on the pannel.
We are allowed to put text on our panels but I don't think I want to do that, I hope that it speaks for itself as it is now, but i might be wrong. I will be showing it to my tutor on thursday, and if any of you have suggestions, they are all welcome, i just want it to work....

still recovering

Yellow, I don't know why this is taking so long but eventhough i have been sleeping like a baby for the last week, i still feel pretty tired from those two all nighters in a row. It's taking me a while to get back to normal...
Anyway, the exhibition business is all done, we went there today to set it up and it looks good. I took a few more photos while we were setting it up and i think that it will be enough on this topic. Maybe i'll take a couple more on the opening night but that will be it. I have more than enough for the elective anyway and I think that people are getting sick of me taking photos of them all the time, following their every move.... The little photo panel looks nice, and it must have been funny for some people to see photos of themselves and not knowing when I took them, hiihihii.
Fff just won a competition at his uni or a short film about campus life etc... he's done good and won a nice 1000 bucks... good on him as they say.
I feel like taking a nap again....
I have to reinstall photoshop tonight because I had an evaluation version and last night, it decided it didn't want to work anymore, which is just not the right time to let me down right now.... i need you Adobe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need you so badly, why do you do that to me?? why me?? why now???? Hum, i'm sure it's nothing personal but it does suck so i better fix that...
Ok, i'm back in the swing of writing on this blog, maybe it's the emptiness that caz left when she got on the plane. I miss you a lot Cazito, I wish we could go have a beer...

aaaaaaall done...

... well nearly... after a hectic run from EB House to the city and back and forth, we managed to get everything ready to be set up for the exhibition tomorrow. The model is soo purty and the drawings look amazing. We had to reduce them and paste them onto one A1 sheet of drafting film, it looks really really good... so we're pretty excited about tomorrow I think. After that, we won't have to worry about anything for another 6 months which will be nice since this studio was quite the time and money investment of the season. It's crazay how much you can end up spending on materials, and photocopies, and.... coffee....
The photo panel will also be ready for tomorrow and I'm glad I wasn't in charge of having it printed. I hope it looks good, i'm sure it does.
Also I spoke to Rod on the phone today which made me happy. Rod was the tutor for the Landscape photography course i took last year, and he is always good advice and a nice person to talk to. He will be letting me know if he's going to any exhibition openings in the near future, so we can enjoy the free boooze and I can show him my new work... I hope it has improved since last time... I think so, but we'll see when it's a professional speaking...
Now all I want to do is work on my photo elective and get that panel together but there are many other things to get done to and so i'm a bit confused. I should be putting things in order of priority but what seems to be coming first is sort of boring right now..... uuugggh, it doesn't matter really because at the end of the day, i have to do it all, so who cares about the order... right?
Anyway, I feel like a little brain rest right now, so i might just put on some musica and lay on the coucho for a while,
see ya'll lata

rich and famous...soon

Hey yellow there,
I'm just dropping by to give a little update on what has been happening with the design studio and everything else...
After almost 48 hours without sleeping, we (as in Tina and I) managed to produce a great presentation with drawings, and a model of our project. I knew that the last night would be very very loooong so I brought what i would take along if i went camping. I brought lots of food, mainly peanut butter and cheese, a blanket, and the best was the kettle and some instant coffee to keep going at night...
The presentation went on all day sunday and went well. We could have talked about the project about many hours but only had 5 minutes which was very frustrating... Anyway, a few of the projects have been selected after the presentation to be part of an exhibition organised by the Historic Houses Trust in Sydney.
Let me explain, the design studio was based on the Elizabeth Bay house that I have shown in an earlier post on this blog. And the HHT is inviting designers and architects to propose ways of changing the house, which is a museum at the moment, back into a house...
So as students, we are also invited to participate in that project and, well, I know the suspense is unbearable but Tina and I are amongst the lucky ones who will be on show for the next 6 months...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the stuff has to be ready by thursday which is a drag since we have other things to do as well, but it's still very very exciting!!
the other, and maybe even more, exciting news is that , since I have taken photos all week of the studio, I have also been invited to make a panel of a selection of photos that will be shown at the exhibition too!!!!! yeah, i know, that's pretty cool and i'm really excited about that...
Ok enough talking about me,
Chris got back for the week end, and eventhoug I was in the studio half the time, it was still wonderful to spend some time with him. We went to a bbq this afternoon with a few people from Uni and it was really nice. It was very hot and the food was yummy, and basically, it was just nice to hang out for a bit. He is leaving tomorrow morning to go spend a week in Albury and then, he'll be back for good. In teh mean time, i'll just have to catch up on a few classes and it should all be good.
Finally, my Cazita has left this morning to go on her big trip to South America. The new link on the side is to her blog. I guess mothe will be interested in following that daily. I sure will be, if it makes her feel closer to here and the Randwick Royal. Oh cazita, what am i meant to do without you here!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not sure how long you still have to go on the plane but you should be getting tehre fairly soon, i love you dragonita, fb
love ya'll

this is my message to you ou ou

hey, i'm baaack!!! it's been a while!!!
i've been pretty busy in the last few weeks, but only good stuff, lots of work and lots of social events!!! it has been good.
Chris is back toooooo!!! finally, after all these months he has been back on our beloved continent for a few days. he is in Albury now, and will be back for the week end, will go back to albury for a week or so, and then, he will be back for good..... it looks like i might have to share him because i'm certainly not the only one who's excited about his return, he's even getting a barby organised for the occasion this coming monday... it should be really good, but after that, he's all mine, miiiine!!!
His temporary return falls right at the end of the studio i am doing this week, and eventhough it won't be the ideal circumstances for a romantic reunion (i will probably be spending the night at uni the day he arrives in Sydney...), i still can't wait to run towards him with my hair floating in the wind on the Uni Mall...
The studio is going great so far, the lecturers are very very good, and the project is equally interesting. Difficult, challenging but great. Let's hope it continues that way. Still a bit to go but it feels like it's under control and on the great road to success... cross your fingers...
In parallel to the studio, I've been documenting it photographically. I'm having a really good time doing that, and although it's not, it feels like the first real project i take on using photography as my tool for investigation. I will be using the results for another elective this session, and i think it will be successful. The first couple rolls are quite promising and I'm enjoying every bit of it... we will see how it turns out but i am confident about it. Even if it doesn't turn out as I want it to, i will have no regrets. I think that it is also acting as a sort of mild therapy, helping me to get into the realm of photographing human beings, and giving me confidence with that. I don't feel ready to approach people on the street, so this is a scale i can handle and in just a couple days, I already feel stronger in my approach...
On the social side of things, I am loving every minute I can spend with my Cazita, who is nearly on her way to becoming the most beautiful dragonfly in the whole safari of life... I will miss you so much cazita/cazito, but have no fear, you'll still be with me everyday, whenever I hear "by the rivers of Babylon" on the radio, or when I walk by the Royal, or when I imagine reepers and gravelings on the streets.... they are everywhere....
I think that overall, life has been good to me lately, and it's a nice feeling. there will be ups and downs in the coming weeks, but as Bob says so brilliantly "everything is gonna be alright... everything is gonna be alright....this is my message to you ou ou..."

salaam namaste

I went to see a Bollywood movie last night with my friend Suajata from Uni. I has asked her to introduce me to the intimate universe of the largest movie industry in the world and it was well worth it. Plus, I'm usually the one showing off my tan but i hadn't felt so white since I went to a Cap Verde wedding ceremony...
The story was soapy and the fashion tendencies of Indian men was questionable but overall, i had a great time, it was refreshing and put me in a good mood. The singing was fun and it was heard not to take part in a bit of head and shoulders swinging action.... It was interesting to see what made people in the audience (99% indian, except for me...) laugh, the sense of humor they display is quite different since characters are pretty much caricatures of people and the jokes are pretty heavy and obvious but I can't deny that it made me laugh from time to time too, and, I know that might seem surprising but I actually found some charm in the main male character and couldn't help smiling at him.... weird....
I guess I hadn't realised that for a lot of people Bollywood is so real, with favorite actors, superstars, exciting movies coming out and such a big part of a different popular culture... All I can say is that it's a big world out there, and it was cool taking part in something new...

Well, it's sunday night and boy, this was quite the hectic week, so of course it just flew right by my open eyes... and i was mega busy, running around from the city to uni back to the city back to uni etc etc..., thinking about a million assignments at the same time and trying to make everything fit in so little time. It feels kind of good though, and eventhough it's a lot of work right now, i certainly like that much better than last session, that was such a boring version of hell !!! I'm feeling more active and am being forced to organise my time and be productive with it too. In the end, i've been putting more effort into things, getting pretty decent marks so far and, well, liking it, i must confess.....
the only problem is that i've been going to bed way too late and i'm feeling exhausted especially since these days, sleeping in is quite the treat and doesn't happen as much as i would like it to.... Surprisingly, although i'm really tired, i feel like i have a bit more energy to do things so it's all good...
Yesterday, Caz and I went to eastgardens shopping centre and we managed to find a few goodies. I came up with a moto to prevent myself from excessive consumption "if it's over 50, it's not for me!", firm and effective, no? well it worked even better than i thought because i managed to get a jacket, 2 tops, and a dress for precisely 50 bucks... what else can you ask for ?
Today, I went to Tina's in the city to start working on a design project. She lives in the CBD, on george st so that was exciting i guess. We didn't get much effective work done but we got some good ideas and a real starting point to work with... it should be fun, and i have never worked with her so we shall see how that goes... new experiences are good!
well taht's pretty much all i can think of for now so i'll let you go for now, and shall be back soon for more news

uber-productive

yeaaaaah today was so much better although i'm so tired that i feel almost like i hadn't slept at all. Anyway, no time for winging, and i can only blame myself for going to bed way too late.
I did everything that was on my schedule today, and I sill have time for more... brilliant!!! Went to E Bay house in the early afternoon, took all the measurements to draw the section due on thursday, and went to Bondi Junction and shot two rolls of film, legally too... well, I had the permission but it's a bit restrictive because I won't be able to go as much as I would need to... but i'll figure it out in time. At least, I should have good material to start with...
Mothe you're the absolute best in the world, i went to pick up the package and i luuuuuv every single thing in it, it's great, and i must say that the krispy cream paper hat is the booooomb!!!!
fff will be coming here tonight to have a look at the lappy baby since it's kind of sick right now, but should be all better after fff's magic takes care of it...
Alrightyo, I better clean up this pigsty before he gets here or he will never want to set foot in here again, and i might even do a little bit of work if i still have some time before he arrives....
I love you all soooo much, what would i do without every single one of you...???

counter-productive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Geez, is it just me or today is just not happening!!! I wanted to go to the site to work on the drawing assignment and of course, it's raining!!! So in an attempt to be productive anyway, I switched my planned schedule around and went to Bondi junction instead to start working on a new idea for the project, and of course, I forgot to bring the authorisation letter from uni so I take one photo and a security guard starts speaking to me in sign language style because apparently, it looked like a couldn't understand a word he was saying.... hum, I told him that I could understand him fine... So he started using his mouth, rather than the rest of his body to inform me that photos weren't allowed inside....
Conclusion, I will have to go back tomorrow with the letter and speak to the management service... and cross my fingers for them to let me do it.... with the letter, it shouldn't be a problem... we shall soon find out. Oh well, because I am so full of ressources, I will make today a at-home/theoretical research day, wouhou!! can you feel the joy?

early week-end

It's only saturday night and I don't really feel any frustration about not going out tonight, well a bit but not too bad since this week we sort of had an early week-end with Caz.
The grand opening of "Charlie and the chocolate factory" was on thursday night, so Caz came here right after work and we didn't miss our chance of being amongst the first aussies to watch it. And, as I was hoping, it was well worth it. Johnny Depp is such a good actor and that role reminded me of him as edward scissor hands, slightly weird, intriguing and sooooo charming.... well, sort of. I think I might want to re-read the book, i don't care if it's for kids, even better in fact.
Yesterday (friday), we met up with fff in Newtown and I brought my computer for him to transfer most of his music and a few other goodies, so basically, name it, i've got it now!!!!! i've been burning for hours and i'm still not finished..... good stuff!!!!!
From his place, we went to the Law review, the syd uni one, and although some jokes were impossible for the poor frenchies to understand, it was great. It was just amazing how well it was planned and prepared, it all went so smoothly and was very funny. Most of the skits were a few minutes, there were some in between bits that were about 20 seconds or so (i liked those, they were cool) and some much longer ones, well singing bits with dancing and everything, that was awesome, especially the grand finale. Although the subject (the bali 9) was sad, it was hilarious and well, it confirms that humor is a good way of talking about delicate subjects. of course, a bunch of guys in tutus probably helped too...... they were so cute though and they all looked so happy.
Today, I can't really say I did much work but at least I went out for a little bit. Went to Westfield Bondi Junction and spent most of my time at the bookstore.... hihihihi, that was cool, well in a geek sort of way but i love bookstores so.....
That's about it really, I've been burning eversince, and watching episodes of Daria, the second best cartoon ever, after the Simpsons of course.
I have to force myself to do work tomorrow, and I will, no choice in the matter really or i'll be in biiiiig trouble anytime soon,
Well, time to go to bed on this side of the world amigos, I'll write again soon, youhou!!!!!
ps : did i forget to mention that in one bit of the review, the students were......... (sorry about the bad quality of the photos but it's there... no?)

site visit at E Bay house

Design started today, and first things first, we went to our site for this project "changing spaces". The Elizabeth Bay House is a heritage building in the close suburbs of Sydney. It overlooks a "picturesque marine landscape" and is, apparently, a manifestation of the neo-classical/greek revival era.... or so they say.
It used to be a house, then it was divided into small independant apartments, and is now a sort of museum. From what I understand, the project will be to change it into a house again, or appartments, not sure...
I guess it was interesting enough, and certainly unusual on this side of the world, but really, the space I found most interesting was the central area and the staircase. It has an eliptic shape which, after enquiry, is because in that time, they were obsessed with natural studies and notably that the earth travels around the sun on an eliptic orbit, rather than the sun traveling around us on a circular orbit.......... Who knows......... the staircase is "geometrical" but I didn't exactly follow the explanation for that, but what I did get is that if you took out even only the first step, the whole thing would come crashing down, so basically, you don't want to do that. That space was interesting because it resembled an outdoor space but inside, with a sort of arcade creating an internal corridor distributing the upstairs rooms. Also the quality and amount of light coming from the windows around the ceiling, gave a completely different feel to the space, with the other rooms being generally quite dark. Of course, the double height and all the other spaces coming off this central space also gave it a quality of breathing space, at the center of a clustered and divided periphery........ Hum, ok this is all pretty jargonish bs right there and i'm sorry about that, i'm just trying to put into words how I felt before i forget... which should happen anytime soon.
We'll have to go back because we have to do some sketching there but the guided tour we had was an interesting starting point.......................................................................................................
That's all folks