neonascent

After many quiet, stillful nights in this concrete city of digital dreams, I have returned to blow new life and fresh colour into these pages. “O frabjious day! Calooh! Calay!” I hear you chortling in your joy.

In case you wonder: Christmas involved mild yucky-illness, though was nice and toasty and mince-pie-ish.

First post back is a photoset of pictures from my daytrip to Amsterdam with my cousin. Unfortunetly, the digital camera died right on cue as we got into Amsterdam Central Station, but did managed to get some chill-evoking white snowscenes captured on the way there. In case you are unaware, a large portion of the Netherlands is reclaimed wetlands (hence “Low Lands”) and so tends to be vast swathes of completely flat land. The wind struts unchallenged where it will, and makes for chilly times.

I’d love to say that our visit to Amsterdam revolved around the enormous collection of museums and galleries, beautiful architecture and canals, but this would be a big fat lie. Realistically, my cousin is an excited teenager who/and so has very specific things in mind when in comes to the Big A. Our day was spent roughly devided between oogling through the seedy quarters of Amsterdam’s red light district, and relaxing (with some herbal assistance) in some of the many Coffee Shops. Some shopping, a little cultural osmosis, and introduction to some traditional Dutch food helped to even things out a bit, and all in all the day was turned out to be fun.

• >> Link to Flickr Set

I was standing outside a restaurant with my mum yesturday, debating whether to go in. A policeman (English; decked out in the usual english policeman getup) came up to me.
In a tone of sombre authority he said something along the lines of:
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this sir,” <dramatic pause used to full effect> “but you have a tail.” He then called to his police chums down the road suggesting that they “Have a look at this!”

It was quite funny, though it’s certainly indicative of a different reaction from this hemisphere.

While going through security at Changi in Singapore, the security detector was evidently more sensitive than the one at Heathrow; it went off. I was taken quite benignly to one side, and a security woman used the magic wand on me. After buzzing around my stomach, she lifted up my T-shirt and said “You’ve got a belt buckle.” I replied that yes I did. She then noticed something else, and said with an amused smile, but in the same voice “You’ve got a tail.” Yes, I replied, just the usual. Maybe this anecdote could be told better, but the point is really that it is lovely when my tail gets to bring warmth into two people’s day: the security woman for seeing it, and myself for sharing

Just finished an epic 34 hours of travelling, including hiring a car and driving to where I’m staying. Incredible culture different. got to go.
tired.

Well. I’m in Singapore’s Changi airport waiting for a transfer. I’ve just had a nice shower and complimentry green tea, so I’m all fresh-faced and bushy-tailed for the next leg.

Ain’t I just the international traveller?
My fellow companions were very friendly. Talked mostly to the Gary on my right who is a Ski judge on his way to the north of China for a “world cup” ski event.

Well got to go.
Love is all around

It’s over. My head is still buzzing with wonderful experiences with wonderful people. What an absolutely fantastic time.

In a few days I’ll be heading from this (currently) golden city of Sydney to London. Normally I leave for England early in November, but this year I’ve chosen to make a shorter trip over in anticipation of an extended stay once I graduate.

Until today I hadn’t thought much about it, but it looks like the difference in temperatures will be pretty servere this close to Christmas - with the two hemispheres being polarised in mid-summer/winter.

I remember a few years ago I was flying alone back to England just in time to take my Uni exams (what a great end to a holiday! ). It had been an extremely hot summer in Sydney, so when after around 21 hours of flying I looked out to see Europe below, it took a lengthy “paradigm shift” to realise that the white stuff on the ground was snow!

I must say though that personally I prefer the cold; one can always throw more clothes on, and it’s a good excuse to get comfy beside an open fire sipping Cocoa.

I’ve just changed my flight arrangements to allow me to attend the Petes Ridge Festival (of sustainable art and music).

I will now be leaving at 4:55pm on 12th December. I also managed to score some good seats - the emergency exit and one of the back two - so the trip should not be uncomfortable (touch wood).

From then, my previsional itinerary is as follows:

• 5:25 AM 13th Dec - Fly into London Heathrow
• 22nd Dec - Fly to the Netherlands with my cousin to enjoy Christmas at home
• 29th Dec - Head back to England in time for New Years parties
• 8th Jan - fly back to Holland to start IT contract on Monday 9th (local work until Friday 20th)
• 21th Jan - Head back to Oz, maybe via Hong Kong

This morning I went for an early morning run. I was planning on making it two laps before heading home, but half-way through the second I noticed a very bright orange light in the southern sky. It was very overcast this morning, and at first I thought it was just ligh polution, until the fact that it was fading brighter and softer made it obvious that it was not. After climbing up some of the rocks near the running track, I could see that it was a massive flame from the top of a smoke stack. My guess is that it was from the refinery, although I would of thought that too far away to see.

Yesturday I went for a little ride on my bike, after having left it for more than a week in the rain without giving her exercise. The performance had been shockingly bad, so I took the excuse of checking out the flames as a chance to ride hard and get rid of any muck from the plugs.

It was great fun riding at 5am, as one can imagine, though I’m surprised how unconfident I am after just a few days off the bike. Couldn’t find signs of the flames, but headed to La Parouse as a good destination (near the refinery), and kept the bike in 2nd most of the way. The conclusion: Nice and cleaned out bike, and a happy owner proud of a bike that can do 130kph in 2nd gear!

(Sorry for the obligatory bike-geek post. I’m really not that boring, but have just got back from the ride, so still buzzin’. Also, you may have noticed that I missed my chance to refer to the bike as a “she” and used “it” most of the time. I really love my bike, but have inexplicably given it a guys name: Christopher Walken. I think it’s probably traditional to do a girls name, but CW just came to mind. :S)

Note that the image accompanying this entry is for illustration only. The original can be found at www.fotosearch.com/comp/GSH/GSH177/GS067002.jpg

Today’s exciting event was the setup* of Kudos gallery in preparation for an exhibition opening tomorrow evening. More specifically, the exhibition is the one we successfully applied for 3 months ago (application documents are linked to from my original blog entry). Aptly name “Material Satisfaction”, it is a dedicated 2nd year Sculpture, Performance & Installation showcase. A press release for the show is available on the Kudos website, and it is amusing to note that the promo image is a photo of the inside of my locker!

An early phonecall from Nyssa saw me enjoying a nice cafe breakfast and coffee - and with a nice relaxed atmosphere, as she’d heard we were starting an hour earlier than we actually were, giving us plenty of time.

As always, exhibition setup was no barrel of laughs. It’s generally an everyman-for-himself scramble for the best position and resources - a study in compromise and harsh politics. Thankfully the general amicability/friendship/love between the SPI students meant that despite the stressful environment it was incredibly heartening spending some time with them all again.

Needless to say, everyone is most earnestly invited to the opening tomorrow evening (Tuesday 22nd Nov) 6-8pm, at Kudos gallery. If you are unaware of where it is, the address can be found at the bottom of the press release. There is some very good work featured, and it is well worth a look-in. Pictures from the opening and of the general layout shall be available within the next couple of days.

* or Bump-in as it is apparently called

For the last few days I’ve been getting back into a routine of running. Routine is probably a misnomer actually, as the times of the runs have been very sporadic - ranging from 12am to 5am. It feels good to be back on the familiar Centenial Park track, and I don’t know how I ever let myself forget that I love running!

Running at night has been amazing; I’ve seen many possums, rabbits, and bats, and had a nice time to think to myself. Once or twice I’ve run through the sunrise. Fantastically, I’ve also managed to see two shooting stars in the space of 4 days!

Note that the image accompanying this entry is for illustration only. The original can be found at http://www.orlandosentinel.com