Essential liquid to Taiwanese crazy train obento
Thank you Aunty!!
Thank you Aunty!!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Things ppl think about by the river
So it’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I’m sitting on the jetty on the river at my parents’ place. I just love the escapism of it. I am 10 minutes walk from the house and 10 minutes walk away from various continuing feuds and disenchantment amongst my five young squabbling cousins who can’t agree on the right design to build a chicken house etc. No one will find me here and I am sure that the 47% alcohol content duty free gin is burning a whole in my water bottle. I feel it slowly pulling every vain in my brain into a big fur ball and wedging it at the back of my neck. Happily.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Windy Wellington
Wellington 11-16 April
The weather was unbearably cold on Friday the 13th. I wore two coats and two scarves and downed a very very long shot of coffee from Fuel just downstairs from Jennifer’s apartment. Listening to Yoshimi Battles The Robots I bounced towards the bleak harbour hoping for another coffee. Kaffe Eis on the lagoon was closed on this unhappy occasion but the harbour looked just nice and quaint and full of memories.
On a day like this I am reminded of a younger me - pondering at the cross roads and trying to get to some place far ahead in the clouds that loom the harbour. Its these grey days that bogged me down. Somehow I feel like I'm almost there again in that dark place. Not really knowing what's ahead but knowing that the future will clear up soon and it is up to me to make the most of life and opportunities.
I thank every day for the friends I still have here those that I know their face and voice and person and soul where ever I am no matter how long its been since I last saw them. They will never let me down and they will do anything for me. I feel very priveledged to have them with me unconditionally, even when I turn up at their house with a suitcase and covered in rain. I think when you become older you understand these connections much better, and you don't need to put any effort into understanding each other - it comes so naturally and transcends time, space and distance.
I look around the street, full of people moving a hundred miles an hour, searching half heartedly for faces I know. There were three or four. They looked at me and looked away - they know me but they chose to not engage - a mutual way to say that the other person is not really in their phone book anymore.
I have lost a few good friends from my youth for various reasons. I used to grieve, perhaps I still do. But you learn that there's a reason for everything and you almost make yourself believe in things like karma or fate. To console yourself? I miss those people in my life, like there's a hole in my heart, but you learn that they have moved on and maybe you have too. Its the people that can move with you and will always be with you spiritually that are worth the effort.
I felt like I was getting swirled into the crowd on Lambton Quay. I am surprised that hardly nothing has changed in the four years I’ve been away. Particularly for a big city. Updated fashion and new coats of paint I suppose. But the expression on people’s faces and the distance and pace of their stride, the way they dodge oncoming pedestrians and protect their latte from spilling. The way they look side ways when they see a person with a beautiful coat on wondering if it was from Kate Sylvester or Gregory’s. The way they glance at their reflection in the shop windows to see if their recent weight-gain had shown.
Looking at myself in the mirror I don’t feel like I’ve come far. But when I close my eyes I do.
It is the land, the weather, the clashing tides on the rocks and the new sprouting fern in the gully, that breeds this quirky clan of people. Darkly dressed, unassuminglt chirpy, laid back but serious, . I felt like I’ve returned to a mystical retreat in the depth of the bush.
I'm at Wellington Airport now bound for Hamilton, place where I grew up, and perhaps fled. Sitting against the bay window in the rare boarding gate at Wellington Airport and a flight to Chatham Islands is about to take off 5 meters in front of me. A white koru speeds past me and I somehow still wonder why I ever leave.
The weather was unbearably cold on Friday the 13th. I wore two coats and two scarves and downed a very very long shot of coffee from Fuel just downstairs from Jennifer’s apartment. Listening to Yoshimi Battles The Robots I bounced towards the bleak harbour hoping for another coffee. Kaffe Eis on the lagoon was closed on this unhappy occasion but the harbour looked just nice and quaint and full of memories.
On a day like this I am reminded of a younger me - pondering at the cross roads and trying to get to some place far ahead in the clouds that loom the harbour. Its these grey days that bogged me down. Somehow I feel like I'm almost there again in that dark place. Not really knowing what's ahead but knowing that the future will clear up soon and it is up to me to make the most of life and opportunities.
I thank every day for the friends I still have here those that I know their face and voice and person and soul where ever I am no matter how long its been since I last saw them. They will never let me down and they will do anything for me. I feel very priveledged to have them with me unconditionally, even when I turn up at their house with a suitcase and covered in rain. I think when you become older you understand these connections much better, and you don't need to put any effort into understanding each other - it comes so naturally and transcends time, space and distance.
I look around the street, full of people moving a hundred miles an hour, searching half heartedly for faces I know. There were three or four. They looked at me and looked away - they know me but they chose to not engage - a mutual way to say that the other person is not really in their phone book anymore.
I have lost a few good friends from my youth for various reasons. I used to grieve, perhaps I still do. But you learn that there's a reason for everything and you almost make yourself believe in things like karma or fate. To console yourself? I miss those people in my life, like there's a hole in my heart, but you learn that they have moved on and maybe you have too. Its the people that can move with you and will always be with you spiritually that are worth the effort.
I felt like I was getting swirled into the crowd on Lambton Quay. I am surprised that hardly nothing has changed in the four years I’ve been away. Particularly for a big city. Updated fashion and new coats of paint I suppose. But the expression on people’s faces and the distance and pace of their stride, the way they dodge oncoming pedestrians and protect their latte from spilling. The way they look side ways when they see a person with a beautiful coat on wondering if it was from Kate Sylvester or Gregory’s. The way they glance at their reflection in the shop windows to see if their recent weight-gain had shown.
Looking at myself in the mirror I don’t feel like I’ve come far. But when I close my eyes I do.
It is the land, the weather, the clashing tides on the rocks and the new sprouting fern in the gully, that breeds this quirky clan of people. Darkly dressed, unassuminglt chirpy, laid back but serious, . I felt like I’ve returned to a mystical retreat in the depth of the bush.
I'm at Wellington Airport now bound for Hamilton, place where I grew up, and perhaps fled. Sitting against the bay window in the rare boarding gate at Wellington Airport and a flight to Chatham Islands is about to take off 5 meters in front of me. A white koru speeds past me and I somehow still wonder why I ever leave.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Guess Where I Am?
Woooosh - at Sydney International Airport again. It feels just like the local mall now, I know every corner, every toilet, every e-portal.
Still cutting it fine in Baroness fashion I am completely wasted from 3 nights of not sleeping, taking cold tablets
, drinking rest of the cellar and god knows what else.
The bus was also late in fine Greyhound fashion, but here I am, 10 mins from boarding call. BONZAI!!
I do also have my real trim fur coat (Vintage sale) and my bright red kimono birkies, and that funny vietnam hat. Style does compromise comfort!!
I do wonder when I will be posting from here again - it might not be for a long time...
Love to you Australia!
Still cutting it fine in Baroness fashion I am completely wasted from 3 nights of not sleeping, taking cold tablets
, drinking rest of the cellar and god knows what else.
The bus was also late in fine Greyhound fashion, but here I am, 10 mins from boarding call. BONZAI!!
I do also have my real trim fur coat (Vintage sale) and my bright red kimono birkies, and that funny vietnam hat. Style does compromise comfort!!
I do wonder when I will be posting from here again - it might not be for a long time...
Love to you Australia!
Monday, April 09, 2007
Maiden (Bon) Voyage
Apparently its one of the top twenty things a person will never forget in their life - the first time they drove solo.
To cut a long story short I haven't been able to get hold of a vehicle my "licence class" could drive till yesterday, that's why I have been putting off my Maiden Voyage. But special thanks to Claire - my almost housemate and definitely friend, I have a little Mitzy till Tuesday night.
Apart from the fact that I left the hand breaks on till about 2 blocks down the road (I have to say its a pretty shit car so it was moving and all I thought was that the wheels felt like they were falling off) it was smooth as into Civic. And apart from failing to parallel park twice it wasn't really a big deal getting the shopping done - something I would have had to do on the bus or the bike before, and taken 3 times as long!!
I sat there in the car not having to ask the person next to me where they'd like to go, thinking, gosh, this is soooo amazing! Me and the world and off we go. Since I was in the area I thought I'd drop into my old neighbourhoods in the inner north for the last time.
So the Maiden Voyage was also a bit of a Bon Voyage. I knew these streets back to front, each tree and the colour they'd turn into each time this year. The same pot plants and deck chairs on people's patios, same cars parked outside, same art works on the same letterboxes.
I drove into MacArthur Place where I had my first flat in Canberra when I started Masters at ANU (interviewed over the phone, they were amused at the accent). Where I learnt the words "chunder" and "booner". Where I chewed Swedish tobacco and had that random-as one night stand. Where I got my kiwi accent beaten out of me and where I learnt how to make soychinococktail. And where I learnt to appreicate Fat Pizza and The Chaser's War on Everything, and CNNNN. And listened to George and The Waifs for the first time. The backyard's been dug up and the crop-circles we made is long gone; but the vege patch at the top of the road is still going strong. Same old lady came out and waved.
It still sends chills down my spine thinkng of those days biking through O'Connor on my $40 bike in the dry bleak cold with my lips bleeding and those giant parrots scooping down at me. Those really lost times where I wish I wasn't here alone in this ghostly flat and brown town. Biking around and around to houses in the dead heat of February begging for a room to rent, and Sunday mornings wishing I hadn't had that last mojito at Trinity. Pollies striding pass down the corridor all with the same expression when they see an Asian constituent, and dropping off releases at the Press Gallery on Budget night; running up Mt Ainsley out of breath around giant Kangaroos and the jet planes overhead at the War Memorial. Or the kid who fell into the Pool of Reflection at the War Memorial!!! Same spot where Templeton turned up with a red rose one Valentines day next to the Menin Gate Lions. Now I could see Shiner and Milly sitting there purring instead: Eyes closed, whiskers drawn back, contented in the sun; Girl Guides, not soldiers, marching by.
Canberra Canbeera - how did I ever think leaving would be so hard?
To cut a long story short I haven't been able to get hold of a vehicle my "licence class" could drive till yesterday, that's why I have been putting off my Maiden Voyage. But special thanks to Claire - my almost housemate and definitely friend, I have a little Mitzy till Tuesday night.
Apart from the fact that I left the hand breaks on till about 2 blocks down the road (I have to say its a pretty shit car so it was moving and all I thought was that the wheels felt like they were falling off) it was smooth as into Civic. And apart from failing to parallel park twice it wasn't really a big deal getting the shopping done - something I would have had to do on the bus or the bike before, and taken 3 times as long!!
I sat there in the car not having to ask the person next to me where they'd like to go, thinking, gosh, this is soooo amazing! Me and the world and off we go. Since I was in the area I thought I'd drop into my old neighbourhoods in the inner north for the last time.
So the Maiden Voyage was also a bit of a Bon Voyage. I knew these streets back to front, each tree and the colour they'd turn into each time this year. The same pot plants and deck chairs on people's patios, same cars parked outside, same art works on the same letterboxes.
I drove into MacArthur Place where I had my first flat in Canberra when I started Masters at ANU (interviewed over the phone, they were amused at the accent). Where I learnt the words "chunder" and "booner". Where I chewed Swedish tobacco and had that random-as one night stand. Where I got my kiwi accent beaten out of me and where I learnt how to make soychinococktail. And where I learnt to appreicate Fat Pizza and The Chaser's War on Everything, and CNNNN. And listened to George and The Waifs for the first time. The backyard's been dug up and the crop-circles we made is long gone; but the vege patch at the top of the road is still going strong. Same old lady came out and waved.
It still sends chills down my spine thinkng of those days biking through O'Connor on my $40 bike in the dry bleak cold with my lips bleeding and those giant parrots scooping down at me. Those really lost times where I wish I wasn't here alone in this ghostly flat and brown town. Biking around and around to houses in the dead heat of February begging for a room to rent, and Sunday mornings wishing I hadn't had that last mojito at Trinity. Pollies striding pass down the corridor all with the same expression when they see an Asian constituent, and dropping off releases at the Press Gallery on Budget night; running up Mt Ainsley out of breath around giant Kangaroos and the jet planes overhead at the War Memorial. Or the kid who fell into the Pool of Reflection at the War Memorial!!! Same spot where Templeton turned up with a red rose one Valentines day next to the Menin Gate Lions. Now I could see Shiner and Milly sitting there purring instead: Eyes closed, whiskers drawn back, contented in the sun; Girl Guides, not soldiers, marching by.
Canberra Canbeera - how did I ever think leaving would be so hard?
Saturday, April 07, 2007
< < Leaving on a Rocket ~~<~<<
The cake from the party mentioned in the email below;
debrief report waived on grounds of poor health
debrief report waived on grounds of poor health
..............
28/3/07
Dear Canberra Crew
I am saddened to let you know that I am leaving town possibly for good in a few weeks time (flying out 11 April). My four year dip here has been fun, exciting, educational, fulfilling and most of all, given me the chance to meet you lot - a fabulous variety of fascinating, intelligent, inspiring & beautiful people. I will take your friendship and fond memories with me where ever I go. And I will now always love straight roads, straight trees, and pretty September flowers planted in the patterns of flags belonging to countries which don’t recognise Taiwan .
But as a travelling showperson I must push on in my journey to infect the world with crass jokes and cheap alcohol – London , Casablanca , and Bangladesh are on the hit list. (BTW [you know who]'s arrived in Bangladesh and on his behalf - "Hi everyone!") When I fix my blog I’ll send it to you on request or you can keep in touch with me here. Please do update me on how much you loved booting Libs out of the office and watching Hicks get off the plane.
To say good bye and also to celebrate turning 13 ½ for the second time, I’d like to invite you to an environmentally friendly ROCKETAIL** PARTY this coming Saturday- we are doing Earth Hour http://earthhour.smh.com.au/ for the entire evening so please wear your cycle vests and nothing that's likely to catch on fire.
Saturday 31 March 2007 - 7.30pm till late
[You Know Where]
BYO all alcohol in your parents’ cabinet
RSVP not required
** rocketail = rocketfuel drunken in style accompanied by bit of Gore-met.
** rocketail = rocketfuel drunken in style accompanied by bit of Gore-met.
Hope to see you all then!
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