Pictures from an adventure

Melbourne has:

-Lord of the Fries. Amazing fries and burgers, and it's all vegetarian/vegan! Yummm!

-My lovely friend Amy. I stayed at her house in Deer Park. Her partner Aaron, and two kids Bailey and Ella were in NZ at the time, but I'll see them over christmas.

-Single speed bicycles. Heaps of them. Maybe 40 percent.

-This amazing bed. It's Amy's son Bailey's, and I got to sleep in it - jealous?

-My pretty friend Annie. She used to host Monday Drive on RDU, and now works in radio promotions.

-Soy soft serve! Avaliable at Tofu Shop in Richmond

-Street art. And public art. Which are the same things, really.

-Riki. My brother-from-another-mother, and an outstanding guy

-Kiri. Essentially the reason I went to Melbourne, she means so much to me. More than I could hope to explain here. So much of who I am as a person, has come from her being in my life.

Because I'm a fairly average tourist, I didn't have a camera with me much of the time. Other highlights were finding the Meet Me At Mikes shop, and talking with the wonderful Pip about crocheting. I also bought a copy of Dawn's zine about sandwiches.

I went to a gig at Pony, and didn't know anyone, so just talked to a couple of girls. Ella and Tosca were lovely, and we met up for a coffee before I left.

And much else happened besides. Stay tuned for a Blog A Day for the month of December.

A trip to Melbourne

I've been in Melbourne for the last ten days, and it was a great trip. My next post will have pictures.

I had a six a.m. flight to get there. Sitting, in the departure lounge, I watched the sky lighten as the sun came up. Sitting, next to the window in the plane, the sun cast long shadows across the runway. As the plane took off, I watched the mis-proportioned shadow of the plane race alongside me, and move across the fields by the airport as I left the ground. I stared at that shadow as it grew smaller and smaller, until it was just a smudge on the landscape. Then less. Then nothing. The plane no longer cast a shadow.

On the way home, the plane was delayed an hour leaving due to wind. I was listening to Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion as the plane taxied, and I left the ground just as In The Flowers musically exploded. I don't think I would've minded if the plane had exploded too - it felt like poetry.

My friend Rose picked me up in Christchurch. "You look beardier", she said.

Do you ever feel like this sometimes?

Today I walked to town, I read in Victoria Square, went to the library, and got some groceries. Out of nowhere, a very familiar feeling develops inside, welling, sprouting, like something growing, expanding, like what’s inside me might be bigger than the outsides, and more than they could hold. Sometimes like electricity, actually fizzing and whirring everywhere, sometimes explosions, like I will be torn apart, like I will lift off and fly through the sweet, warm air. From somewhere way deep down, the soul, the spirit, the chakra, whatever religious people might call it, but it’s so much more, like in that instant, you must change, something, somehow. To laugh or cry or both or just lie on the ground and flagellate and spasm to try and accept what might be happening.

And now

Exams are finished! I think they went really well, and they're quite a relief to be done. No need to go to uni every single day. A few things I learnt:

-Don't pay ridiculous amounts of money for 'energy drinks' - buy a $1 can of Mountain Dew!

-Fuck Buttons are easily the best band I've ever studied to

-There are a lot of pretty girls in The Loft computer room

-Daily consumption of $1 cans of Mountain Dew leads to dependence

-Long days of study leads to emotional fragility

-Healthy eating is required to avoid Study Colds

-Whimsical, light hearted reads such as archy and mehitabel is great after study

-There's always something to look forward to after it all

I'm off to Melbourne next Monday, which is very exciting. And I've got a whole bunch of projects that I've been thinking about over the last few weeks. Stay tuned for more updates

Cupcake

It's taken quite a while to upload this photo - mainly because the camera was misplaced.

I made this for my friend T'nealle's birthday. It's all crocheted. I was inspired by a book called Knit-o-rama, which showed how to knit interesting, decorative everyday objects. I figured I could do the same with crochet, so designed and made this in a couple of days.