Some things

-I've started a new job. It's at (one of the best) French bakeries in Melbourne, 'A Treat of France'. I make coffee and dish out croissants, and I'm quite enjoying it. It'll allow me to save money and work towards traveling, which has been on hiatus. I'm also still working at the cinema, and going to see lots of films. My Top Five films so far this year are
1 - A Separation
2 - Shame
3 - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
4 - The Muppets
5 - Battleship (oh, this was supposed to be the The Avengers)
I'm a sucker for Big Budget Action Thrillers. And the first two are just absurdly good, with engrossing storylines and so well acted
-I've met some new people lately and it's been great. I've been feeling super comfortable and relaxed. Perhaps in the past it's made me nervous, but there's so much exciting potential with someone new. One particular new person has been making me feel quite giddy (more info to come)
-I'm helping to try make a baby. Sadly, things didn't work out with the couple I blogged about previously. We tried again, but they decided they were happy with how things were. I'm helping another couple now, and fingers crossed for them
-This post on Tumblr got quite a lot of attention, which was great because I think it's awesome

Suburb

I often cheesily say that Northcote is "the best 'Cote." It's amazing. I love the suburb, and in particular where I live - it's got everything I want.
-My room is big, affordable, and gets lots of sunlight. I found a double bed a few days ago from next door's hard rubbish (upgrade from foam mattress). Perfect.
-My flat/'share house' is awesome. The people are really great (fun, friendly, stimulating, challenging), and the house is full of character.
-Within five minutes walk is a supermarket and shopping plaza, library, train station, tram stop, parks. My work is 15 mins walk.
-I can cycle to Brunswick, Fitzroy etc in 15 mins, the CBD in 25. Or train or tram similar times
The suburb is beautiful, and full of nice people. I'm pretty happy here

Give Blood

Last week, I gave blood. It's something I enjoy, and one of the best things you can do. Each donation can help or save three lives. One in three people in their lives will need blood or blood products, but only one in 30 donates! It's such an altruistic act, and is so helpful, only inconveniencing you slightly. Like, an hour of your time and a little scratch to save lives? Okay.
As a vegan, I feel good seeing my iron counts at good levels. I was once told 'you must eat a lot of red meat' - nope.
Please consider donating, it'll make you awesome(er) - New Zealand / Australia

Conceive

A while back, my friend Kiri called. What I'd not mentioned before, but is relevant to this story, is that we broke up because she realised she was gay. We're still really close, and her and her fiance MJ have a lot of gay friends. She mentioned that a couple she knew were looking for a sperm donor so they could have a baby. They'd described the kind of person they were seeking, and Kiri decided that I could be up for the job. It was a big suggestion, and something I thought about a great deal. I thought about 'fatherhood', and what it would mean in this instance. I thought about having a child that was biologically mine, but that I'd not nurture. I thought a little about morals, and felt that the 'right thing' would be to help and donate. And at the most basic level, I saw this as an opportunity to help by providing a key ingredient, so agreed to meet Bec and Michelle.
And it was great. We were on the same page about everything. I would be an uncle/godfather kind of guy; they'd be very open with the child about where they came from; I'd be the donor, they'd be the parents (on the birth certificate, etc). They're a lovely couple, we were all happy, and agreed to go for it. I made two donations of Baby Magic (he he) for Bec, who was going to carry. I guess we make a good combination, as she's pregnant!
They're hoping for a boy, and are due in June. I knew that I was happy for them, but when I noticed my arms flailing and that I was shouting the news to Fran, I guess it really hit home that I'm a part of something really cool and special. I'll keep you posted.

Participation

Most days I'm in town, I have a look around different laneways, and try and check out the street art 'hotspots' (Hosier Ln, Centre Pl, Union Ln, etc). There are always people taking photos, and enjoying the art. Fair enough; it's Melbourne, and the city certainly has a well justified reputation. It does frustrate me though. Not the picture taking (people should embrace art), but what I see as lack of participation. It seems like loads of people observe, but don't realise that it is super easy to be a part of street culture. I believe it's a right (almost imperative) that people interact with their environment. It's yours. Engage with it. Do whatever you want.
Tonight I did some pasting, slightly drunk (thanks Riki!). I put up 60 hearts. 60. And it was super easy. And fun. And think of how many people will see them (and hopefully smile a bit. Or engage romantically). One guy said 'you're doing a great job'. Get out there and do something. You'll probably surprise yourself.
(I also found (via the lovely Georgiebird) this picture by Vivian Maier, which made me want to cry. I drew a picture of it - I was happy with how it turned out)

Inscensed

Work at the cinema has been pretty great. The first week of the final Harry Potter film is over, so things will be toned down from 'maniacal'. I had no work today, so intended to make the most of it. This morning I showered, trimmed my beard, and gave myself a haircut. I find few things as rewarding as cutting your own hair. It just takes a bit of moxie (and scissors). What's the worst that could happen?
I caught the train down to Prahran, to check out a gallery show by Urban Cake Lady, but alas, the gallery was closed! Instead, I walked around, bought the new Cabinet (ooooh, 'Infrastructure'), checked out an incense store (with free samples!), and had a look in a hotel/gallery. And spotted a stencil by Blek le Rat, which was an oh-my-god moment. I then headed to town for lunch with Annie, which was nice, followed by a tram to Brunswick. I met up with Dove, and we went to a cafe. I'd 'known of' Dove in Chch, but hadn't met him until we both dined with Kim in Melbourne. He's very nice, and we went to a cafe. I had (by my count) the fourth coffee of my life. I've never liked it, but feel now could be the time. I like the romance, but wouldn't want the addiction. We walked around the streets a little, and I caught the train home with the commuters, amidst the drizzle.
(Oh, and I added a new page of music I'm enjoying at the moment, with streams where available)

T'nealle

Earlier in the year, T'nealle sent me this picture: "I made some fan art for you. but you look a bit crazy.  hope you like it in a not too creepy way."

It is a bit creepy, but I like the look of my Hypno-Glasses. If you've read this blog in the past, you'll know that T'nealle and I are good friends, and we spent a lot of time hanging out and exploring central Christchurch. She's one of my favourite people, and I think she really typifies all the great people I met in Chch. She's always up for an adventure (one time we were exploring a carpark, which led in to an office building, where we found an empty office, and climbed out the window, across the rooftops, up and down fire escapes, oh!), and is wonderfully creative. And she's probably the most 'can-do' person I've ever met, able to turn no food in to a meal for all, and re-imagining what things can be  (forts!)

Public transport

I caught the train to Hawthorne today. I'm taking part in a clinical trial that looks at the effects of multivitamin use on mood. I get paid, and get free vitamins, so any changes are likely to be positive.
I caught the the train home at 5pm. It was obviously very crowded, but I felt in a good mood. I was reading. A guy nearby ate a mandarin. It matched his orange hi-vis. The lady next to me was also reading: Marian Keyes' Last Chance Saloon. "'You should wear your red dress', Thomas coaxed." I thought that it's nice to be living inside your head, reading, but looking out at the sunset, I felt like I'd much rather be living out there, amongst everything.
I looked around the train. Everyone looked content. Everyone looked so beautifully human, and I felt good for all of them. In the seat opposite me, there was an 8-bit explosion of music, as a girl started playing Pokemon on her phone. I smiled, and she laughed: not stifled, embarrassed laughter, but 'I can't believe that just happened to me on a crowded train' laughter. Near the door, a really blokey looking guy was on the phone, sorting out a deal. "Look, it's fine. Na, just get me some Neutrogena Face Wipes, and some of that Nivea Face Cream. Yeah, from Safeway. Cool."
The book I was reading was Submarine by Joe Dunthorne. I'd just read about how life doesn't race by, but it's 'a series of moments, like now now now now now now now.' The train ride felt like one of those nows.

A Saturday

Yesterday I caught the train in to town. I was off to Footscray to have a look at a bicycle. The public transport is great here, but I'd much rather zip around on my own. I had a bit of time to kill, and found an all-you-can-eat vegetarian restaurant (called 'Om'. It was om nom nom), and walked around the CBD. I headed to Flinders St station, and was asked if I'd like a Free Stress Test. I said Yes, and was tested by Helen. The test consisted of me holding two cylinders which was attached to a machine with dials. The machine sat on the table next to a large pile of books by L. Ron Hubbard. I asked how the test worked, and she said 'it could detect if I was feeling stressed', which seemed a little tautological. Despite an initial spike when she asked about people I knew, I was one cool customer. She seemed vexed that nothing in my life (no job, moving to Aus, family, social problems etc.) was causing me stress, and really struggled to find a line of questions to get me worked up. I smugly asked if I'd passed the test, and she said yes, but I took some information about Dianetics anyway.
I jumped on the train, and waited for the person with the bike to arrive at Middle Footscray. It turned out to be the guy's grandmother, and though it was a nice bike (and I did want to say Yes), I decided not to take it . Which was a shame, as I was really looking forward to cycling home. With an afternoon to kill, I went to the museum. On the tram there, my friend Annie hopped on! It was really cool to see her (and felt right - she has a blog about trams), and we chatted until my stop.
The museum was great, but I wish I'd had more time. There was a pretty amazing dinosaur exhibition, and the stuff on geology was incredible. There were some imperative displays: 'touch these teeth, imagine it biting a branch'; 'touch this rock' (which was more than four billion years old. I teared up a little, it was all very overwhelming). I then headed to Brunswick to meet Riki for a beer.
While I waited to him, I explored some alleys off Brunswick St, and was absolutely amazed by the quality and size of some of the wheat pasting. It was a little off-putting but also really inspiring, and it's something I'd really love to do more of. It was great (as always) hanging with Riki, and after I while, I caught the tram home

Wish Box

Here's a new project I came up with. It's called Wish Box, and aims to make the world a wee bit better
 

It's simple

1. Write your wish on a slip of paper
2. Put it in the box
3. I'll try and make it come true.









I hope that it will get people to think about what they really want. Then I can try to make it happen. I figure most wishes will be anonymous, so perhaps I can turn the wish in to a random good deed. Raise the World Goodness Total a bit.
Wish Box is in place now, attached to a traffic camera on the south east corner of the Colombo/Bealey corner.

Moving to Melbourne

In about a month, I'll be moving to Melbourne. It's been on the cards for a wee while. I'd imagined I'd only stay in Christchurch while I was studying, before moving on. Somewhere along the way, I really fell in love with the city (and its people), and it's not been the easy next step I'd envisaged.
Nevertheless, I think it is the right move. At the moment, my job, radio hosting, and many other things I enjoy are in limbo. Most of town is still out of action. Now feels like the right time to go.
In spite of all that though, I still love living in Christchurch. The people I know are incredible, I love my flat, and I know things are getting better. And then there's Gina - she's amazing, and I can hardly bare thinking about leaving her. She's in her final year at uni, so I guess we're in different places in our lives. We'll be breaking up, due to circumstances rather than things not working. I guess that's some kind of bittersweet plus.

So, Christchurch, you're a sweetheart. You've been more than I could ever have hoped for, and I'll be back. I'll let you know more about my plans before I go (May 13).

And Melbourne, hello. I'm looking forward to getting to know you. If you live there now, maybe I'll catch you around. And if you know any amazing jobs or cool places to live, drop me a line - superchai(at)gmail.com

Hitchhicking

As mentioned in the previous post, I set out to do a bit of hitchhiking around the country. I guess it went okay, but I headed back to Chch after a few days. A few people picked me up, but I guess that after trying it, I'm not a huge fan of hitching. Gina drove me to Ashburton where I spent the night. In the morning I was picked up by Vince, the most Kiwi bloke I've ever met. He was great to talk to, and dropped me off in Timaru.
From there I was picked up by Chrissie, who took me to the Waimate turnoff. I was aiming for Oamaru, and being on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere seemed to be quite a hindrance. After a few hours of standing there, I decided to walk the 8km to Waimate, which was tougher than I'd wanted on a really hot day.
After spending the night in the beautiful little town, I caught a bus back home. I had realised that I don't really like relying on other people for rides (which is the whole idea behind hitching), and that I'd much rather be out on my bike, instead of waiting around for hours for a possible lift.
I didn't feel too bad about; I'd given it a shot, and found that it wasn't really for me. I'll be fixing Sally up a bit, and then we'll hopefully be out for an adventure before it gets too cold.

Friends

Toward the end of last year, I got an email from a friend of Jordan O'Jordan's, saying that he'd be travelling to New Zealand and was wanting to hang out. I said yes, and it turns out that Michael is a really great guy. It's been fun spending time with him, and we share a lot of the same interests. It's also got me thinking about a couple of things. One: friends of really nice people are usually really nice themselves. It's obviously quite a cliche that 'any friend of ... is a friend of mine...', but it seems to hold true in almost every occasion. (Plus, people who travel the world are usually very easy going).
And Two: the people I live with are great. I've been working a lot over the last few weeks (and had to head straight there after grabbing Michael from the airport), but I know that my flatmates are so accommodating that everything would be fine. I'm lucky to have such a good group of people in my life. And I guess One and Two combine rather nicely.
So, as mentioned, we have shared interests, and spent an evening pasting. Michael took a picture of my hand, traced it, and did a bunch of editing magic. We then got a whole bunch printed, and walked about sticking them up

Relate

I work in customer service, as a 'Cinema Attendant' at Rialto. It's a cool job, and I like dealing with people. I often get annoyed when treated like some kind of automaton, and it's surprising when people don't even respond to something personal, something more than 'here's your ticket', because it seems outside the realm of a typical exchange. So of course it's great when customers are personable, and treat you like a person. Customer conversations can lead to respective favourite movies, and much else. It doesn't have to be much, or too deep, but we are all people.
Tonight at work, a man said he was enjoying the music. It was Belle & Sebastian, and one of the big perks is being able to select the music played. He complimented my taste, and said that he always tries to tell people when he enjoys something, which is about a good as rule to live by as any.

In the city

I really enjoy spending time in the central city, as you probably could've guessed from a number of my posts. It feels like there's always the possibility for discovery: you can see people living their lives, evidence of their previous actions, or completely serendipitous moments. The thing that continually surprises me is that everything, everything, is the result of human action. All the buildings, every sign, each piece of graffiti - all were done by a person, at some definite point in recent history. Adbusters often talk about the disconnect with the natural world, which is certainly a problem, but being able to connect with people, directly or implicitly, in an urban setting, is something I will never want to stop.
To that end, about a month ago, Simon and I were exploring a carpark, when we found a basketball hoop on an adjoining rooftop. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, we settled on Christmas Eve as the date for court action. Today, he and I and six other friends squeezed through a gap in the fence, and shot some hoops on a lovely day, in a place that just seemed perfect.

Kiri

I'm really excited, because one of the greatest people ever (and one of my especial favourites) is coming to Christchurch! Her name is Kiri, and as I've mentioned before, she means more to me than I could ever hope to really explain here. Regardless, here are some thoughts:
We met when I was 17. I was in my last year of high-school, and we started going out.We were together for three and a half years, and so many things happened in that time. I think the biggest one was that Kiri really helped me 'open up', and become the kind of person I wanted to be - I always found it difficult to express myself. A lot of our early relationship felt up and down, but things really worked out, and we lived together for two or so years. She just has the biggest heart, and... I don't really know what else to say. I was just listening to God Only Knows, which really made me think of her.
Together, we experienced: elation, miscarriages, terrible decisions, love, many kittens, caring for a two-year old, making things work from nothing, serendipity, death, wonder, late nights, illness, togetherness. She changed my life in so many ways.
And she's in town for a few days this Sunday. I can't wait.

You, and you

I enjoy writing this blog, and I hope you enjoy reading it. A few readers have told me how positive and happy it seems, and as it's a reflection of real life, that's how many people also describe me. I know that that's the truth, but I do find it a bit strange. I'm happy, but feel a bit weird being known as this really happy person. It's certainly not a bad thing, I'm just not too sure how to accept such praise.
At the same time, it feels like some of my favourite people are unable to see how amazing they are. It's so sad (and inexplicable) when I find out that someone I really care for and admire has such a low sense of self esteem. That they're unable to see all the special things in them is surprising, and feels like quite a shame. At the same time I seem unable to fully appreciate myself as much as others. Objectivity can be a difficult task. Addendum: In the end, you're probably better than you think. Which is a nice thought.

Rugby

Tonight I had work. It was very quiet; New Zealand were playing Australia in a game of rugby in town. Because this was a 'big deal', some roads in the central city had been closed, and there was a parade to the stadium.
When I was younger, I cared immensely about rugby. In fact, at the corresponding NZ/Aus match in 2000, I cried and sulked when we lost. I was 15 - how embarrassing. I'm glad I 'grew out of it', to the point where I don't know most of the team members, or care about the results. Well, care only to the point of how those results affect the 'national psyche': elation or despondency depending on eighty minutes.
I cycled home from work, through the road closures. There were more people, more yelling, and more police than a usual Saturday night. Why don't people get this excited about art? Or music? Or touching moments of beauty?
I'm lucky that while most people don't, my friends do.

Titles

When I was cycling to uni this morning, there was a man walking his two sons to school. He was walking with a bike, and was wearing a high-visibility jacket. On the back, it said 'driver' 'cyclist' 'person!' As I passed him, I said, 'I like your jacket', and he smiled and thanked me. It got me thinking about social roles, how we change, but also how easy it is to label people, based on a glimpse of their actions.
As a 'cyclist', I've felt the anger of motorists; conversely I've been angry at how stupid 'motorists' can be. Of course, we're all just people, but things seem to change once someone's in a car, or on a bike. It feels harder to reach out and make a connection to the other person you're interacting with.
As I cycled home, I crossed a bridge over the Avon in Hagley Park. There was a family of four playing 'poohsticks', and it made me immensely happy.