artchitecture in melsinki

alooooo

sitting in the gardens of the melbourne museum near my hostel, the nunnery. reading impress, 'victoria's highest quality street press', aka melbourne live music directory. checking out the red stains on my big where bunions would be if i had any. spent the arvo wandering around in fitzroy along bumpin' brunswick and smith streets soaking up the delicious weather. fully blue skies and hot sun with autumn nippy air. i'm used to this in october, my favourite month of the year for that particular reason but if i were in the northern hemisphere i would be working my way into lame rain april so ha! i had a full summer, jumped into spring and relived another summer and now i get another autumn UNH!
its getting properly freezing now, at least given the little clothing i'm wearing and my being in the shade of a big fig so i'm going to pop back into my slumber party bunk room to change into PANTS! thank god alicia and daniel got me a pair of lees for my birthday or i would be a stubbly prickly pear and nipply glass cutter--i thought i was chasing the sun...
xxnatalov

ny is killing me - gil scott-heron and jamie xx

 

i'm the laziest at updating this even though i always have something to talk about! sydney yeaaahhh i'm leaving in a week, booked my flight with virgin blue monday at 0645 i'll be up up up for an hour and a half maybe the shortest plane ride i've ever taken? that means i have to be prepped and awake enough to whip out the right printed confirmation of an e-ticket and mi pasapuerta at about oh five hundred hours on the 15th of march. melbourne here i come ovaaa

accion reaccion repercusion - ojos de brujo

i've been staying with alicia mintzes an old friendioso of mine and her boyfriend daniel who i always want to call nathan, and their now 8 month old babe isobel. we live in stanmore near newtown which is fist pumpppinnngg. always happy people and delicious food, tasty bakeries all ova but may we suggest black star on australia street? word. real real good real pies, yum coffees, good outdoor seating for ideal voyeurism:  peaceful protestors, popo on bikes, so so many lesbionds!! such cutiesss, bikers, yogis, students 'cause we're near sydney uni, and a fair bit of babies in prams.
mmm spent my first week here hanging out in the homestead, baking banana bread and lemon loaf, drinking tea, cooking gourmet meals, making espressos, reading haruki murakami and lobsang rampa, getting take away from enmore road--thai usually--,sleeping in and listening to this american life: no reason to leave the house.

then, it hit me that i had spent a good amount of time lounging and chilling with alicia so i played faggy lil tourist for a week straight. i hit up the ridiculously expensive transit system and copped a free three-hour guided walking  tour of sydney. precisely what i need, a long walk, some education, to save money and to open my eyes to this place. our tour was wicked. the tour guide evan was a journalism and law student with a drama background. i feel like i've written this before.. anyway, learnt a lot of sneaky things about sydney from him none of which i am going to unveil to you. convicts that built the earliest architecture, whole neighbourhoods carved out of the sandstone headland, best places to eat shop people watch, galleries to go to, etc. he was like a personally teacher and motivator. 
that night i went to a systainable eating workshop at the watershed which was heaappscool. felt like going to nightschool. got some sweet resources and links regarding that and am so soskdokslososos excited to get dirty and backaches in the garden when i get home. truly the best way to eat locally, seasonally and eco-friendlilyyy. 

went to some flea markets where alicia looks for kitchen and diningware, silverware and hats, estate sale steals basically. i found new sunnies, a dress and a bunch of things i couldn't afford or carry with me. i went to the nsw art gallery by the domain and saw a whole collection called art express of art students' work that inspired me and of which there is a possibility i saved photos. 
that first week of productivity started off with my joining synergy yoga newtown! anyone or any yogi checking out sydney should go to at least one of simon's safe balanced challenging sweat inducing intelligent and new style of yoga. i got a two-week unlimited $25 pass which after seven uses in the first week, rendered each class three or four dollars each brooouuhhhhh and for truly the best most beneficial full body workout relaxing effective kind of yoga ever. going to yoga brought  a little routine into my life which is weird. AT YOGA I MET THIS GUY NAMED JONATHAN WHO HAS THE SAME IRREGULAR SPASTIC LIL HICCUPS AS ME! I'VE NEVER MET ANYONE ELSE WHO GETS THEM! 


one day i got on the wrong bus and had a gorgeous little indian lunch in surry hills by accident, but what is there that i'm doing these days that is really purposeful or right? events come and go and grab my attention in passing so i go fleeting along too!
one day i went on a free! guided! walking! tour! of the royal botanic gardens your majesty. it was sweet we had the greateast guide named i forget with a wide brimmed hat like good ausis are born n bred to wear. he knew so much about all the native and introduced species and genuses and latin names and aboriginal interpretaions and had a full on bag of tricks in his bag of seed pods and paper tree bark (the coolest- it feels foamy to the touch like a soft fabric-like mille-feuilles). there i met a tall german med student visiting his girlfriend at uni here named sebastian. hahhaa his girlfriends name wasn't sebastian. we walked around sydney for another two hours wandering on the hunt for delectable food but we just ended up walking in big loops for hours and settling for shitty sushi and a rubbery dry teriyaki chicken wrap. m. i went on a shoe search too and found my birthday shoes--thanks mama love them love you-- at the qvb, the queen victoria building, which is an old beautiful shopping mall queen vicky figured should get named after her and get a queen-plopped-in-a-throne replica parked outfront with a talking wishing dog.
that night i was SUPPOSED to go watch fantasia and cafe bagdad and i <3 huckabees after yoga at a new little gallery opening up on enmore called plump gallery but it was a hoax! such a glorious cheap movie showing couldn't be true. the doors were very locked during and between showtimes. puta madree.

plump djs - shifting gears

let's seee what else i been doing! alicia and isobelnecessary and i did the coogee too bondi beach walk. its on cliff pathways and through bays where people go for ambitious runs with their rat dogs and perfume and make up on. oh and we saw an obese australian actress named magda who apparently is the face of heaps of weight loss programs.there's a gorrrrgeeous cemetary overlooking the way, in bronte! or no, it wouldbe in waverly since it's the waverly cemetary. anyway, the tombstones and graves are literally lying above the beach. the pathway ont he walk used to go directly through it so you'd ahve to tiptoe over people on your way through but they changed that...
the day before i had a soliid beach day. i haven't had one of those in..a month! sicne i left WA. i do miss it there...the slow life and the most perfect beaches in the whole world with not a soul on them. there's nothing. noothinng like jumping int he ocean everyday. hungover? jump int he water. tired? jump in the sea. bored? jump in the sea. hot? jump in the sea. overweight? jump in the seeaa. it was about 35 degrees out and sunny, and its been really overcast lately so that was a loovely greatly appreciated change. i fought the massive swell for a good twenty minutes coming back in - there are strong rips at bondi and they section off this tiny swimming area with flags. body surfing was so good! everyyone was doing it. get amongst it.


nextttt i went to the bluemountains!!!! wawawwwwa it was sooo beautiful. i went with a little international multiculti group of ladies:bianca the ausi, orlagh the irish, emisha the kiwi and la canadienseeee. we took a lil rollercoaster down that nearly made orlagh pee and then did the 12km hike to the ruined castle which took us 4 horus there and back. you walk along the base of huge cliffs and through ferncrazy woods and up and up and up and 600m of 80degree incline bushwalking and along a ridge till you get to the most amazing impresseuive 360 of the blue  mountains, valleys, rock formations and complete wide blue sky. so worht the sweat and i finally trod right through my favourite shoes. but they needed a reason to finally die, hanging on by a thread for way too long. after our mega burn of a hike we stopped at a steakhosue so orlagh could get a steak in aus-checkkk off the tourista lista. i had been dreaming abotu caeser salad all day so i ordered a massive grilled chicken caeser salad and it took atleast 10 mintues after the two steaks and the chicken parma came out. i guess its my fault for ordering somehtign they probably don't even know how to make. whats salad? (whats facebook?)

that niiiiigghhhtt after dying and reincarnating a bunch of us hung otu at leigh's in newtown aand had soem drinks and headed to surry hills to see lorn play at tone. it was a fun shooow and leigh's friend was working the bar so  we got cheap drinks all night. then we went to hermann's and saw the lowsociety djs play and dz i think? honeslty cant remember. i met another canadian that night. he was flaunting it wearing a montreal canadiens jersey and his name was sean. i also met a french character named sebastien (again, weird) who i literally spoke at for about 5 straight minutes. i was so stoked to meet another french speaker so i just went bolistic and probably recited every french word i know and told my life story. he said my french was good. the next morning leaving leigh's place bede and andrew and i saw a gorgeouuuss sunrise tunneling through king street. it was so inviting and ..yellow. really really sunny and golden and warm. then alicia and i didn't do much but watch rake all day wchich is an ausi show set in sydney. its sweet to recognize streets and intersections and bars and neighbourhoods. its about this lawyer cleve and each episode revolves around a new case, his relationships with an exprostitute now lawstudent, his son and psychotherapist ex wife, and his best friend and wife. its funny: cleve's a witty charming seedy gambling gruff-voiced guy who associates with interesting people.
during this city dwelling week i also went to the mca, museum of contemporary arts and saw an annie leibovitz photography exhibition. it was amaazing. it was a combination of her personal life, travel documentation and family life, as well as her professional work with vogue, vanity fair, and with famous peeps in general. she has such an impressive collection and it was really special to see both aspects of her life so casually brought together. i mean she toured with the rolling stones and lived their life for a while, there're pictures of brad pitt sprawled across a vegas motel bed and demi moore nude and preggo with bruce willis' baby, and then there are shots of annie's practically disintegrating jolly dad and a sequence of  her woman susan sontag showing her a)think something is wrong b)go to the doctor c)get diasgnosed with cancer d)go through chemo e)lose her hair and eventually die. there's a picture of her late partner! dressed in her burial ..apparel! check out her photos in jordan and of sarajevo they're really good.

lamplight - bombay bicycle club

bianca and i decided that i should have twenty days of twenty. so i started my birthday bender last tuesday, the 1st. alicia and i rented season 5 of weeds and had a marathon all arvo, then i went for thai with b. well, i had eaten not long before we went out so i jsut had an appy and she had a stirfry. she was driving so i was drinking our bottle of rose (most restaurants here are byo btw! so sick) which with only the help of one glass by bianca, i had to tackle on my own before we went elsewhere!  b and i were supposed to see lanie lane play at daniel's friend's pub called the shady pines saloon. i thought dan called it shitty pints and couldn't see why he wanted me to go there. we got there at 8.30 and she played at 8 but only had a half hour set so by the time we sat and got settled with drinks we realized she wasn't 20 minutes late starting but way finished aready. so we just hung out and enjoyed the heat and peanuts in their shells and blonde wood panelling and wall mounted elk heads and two way swinging doors! oh and the strangest most alcoholic delicious mix ever. in a massive metal camping cup. covered with shaved ice, garnished with an orange slice and a cherry. etrange! 

wednesday i went to see some bands play at the annandale with bayan. the annandale is the classic grungy, feet-stick-to-the-carpet sorta dive bar where all the up and coming asui bands play before they get big! pretty sweet. we saw pikelet, the holidays and missed another band whose name has escaped me. the holidays were sewww gooda and pikelet was too but the lead singer made a bit of a booboo. no one was dancing so she advertised the last song as a dance song lala and then took it back and said she didn't mean to put the pressure on or anything and int he end no one danced to the last song.. it wasn't bad or anything i just was jiving to it and i s'psoe it wasn't making anybody elses hips gyrate either. 
after the musica andrew and i went to the cross and went to a teaparty at world bar! they sell drinks in teapots with shotglasses and all the drinks are day glo colorus. he knew one of the dubstep djs stacey and we chilled behind the djbooth and made a ruckus dance party!

thrusday bayan, bede and his girlfriend nicolein and i went to diplo's baile funk movie in the favelas at goodgod, this late night dance club. with outdoor indoor plants. marissa will appreciate this. it was so sweet. he pretty much had a green card into these ghettos built up on top of eachother like a beehive with tiny walkways and stairs and gorgeous views and so much heart. its dangerous but the big drum beats of baile funk have become a nonviolent resource and outlet for young people who buy second hand computers and mixing boards and whip up an mc name. they  sing about the frog frog frog do the frog position and about screw you screw you i'll screw you you stinky bitch! and they dance. aowoiuhuh they dance haha. olele olala olele their bootatays be bouncinn. it! was a good movie.
friday was ma actual birthday yeoowowowowwww no more kidding around its big girl time. it was a glorrrious day and i made a delish capuccino to start off the day. b and i met up and got janet's pies and went for a walk through newtown before hitting up paddy's markets and chinatown. i made myself a royal blackforest cake for my birthday! i'm SO proud. hollyyyy. swartzwalderkirschtorte has always been soemthing my mama specializes in and makes for scrumptious occasions so i figured i should take it on. theres still some in the fridge. not like it isn't the best thing in the world its just massive and creamy andi can't justify having two slices a day anymore. it seems wrong after a week. that night i went to a SUPERTOPSECRETUNDERCOVERHIDDEN WAREHOUSE DUBSTPE SHOW SHHHHHHHHHHHHH. andrew the basshead and i saw brokennote and the lowsociety djs. i met some sweet guys who live in the suburb over from stanmore and we hung out at tom's place who has a huge room full of dj gear its like any of my bros form home's dream room.  too much technology to even comprehend. buttons an lights and knobs and tables and switches and a massive set of headphones.

day five big saturday was the mardi gras parade! i met up with b and her friend barbara and we went to her pilot friend mtich's place on crown street right by oxford streert righhhtt near where the parade goes. he just happens to live on the wrong side of hte building to get a view at all but we had drinsk and dressed up like gay bunnies and ran around and borrowed milkcrates attempting to catch a glimpse of the rockin bods and dancers and sponsors and floats and  the carnival band. daddy i tried to get a picture of them for you but there were too many heads in my space and cameras in my face and then there's the problem of beign 5'2".

by your side - cocorosie



we walked through the shitshow that was the aftermath of a massive parade in a city of 4 millie who don't sleep to get to chinese laundry. bianca's faavviie club. its got three different stages, a couple bars and a massive courtyard veranda patio outdoor space. spent the night saving bianca from two extremely persistant stalkerboizz. she's jsut way too nice to figure it out and make them leave so i'd let her run off and chat to them and then steal away myself and reconvene haha it was a silly game. spent the remainder of the night dancing with the happiest danciest group of pommies that were so energetic and stylish and i coudln't really understand their accents. they all live in a share house in bondi, besides a couple from manly, so we cabbed out to bondi for the rest of night and hung out in a heavy smoke filled living room with big windows with the bay in the distance. stayed up to see a gorgeous sunrise from the rooftop and woke up to dominos pizza and a breeze stirring up the morn chron gyyeeaaa. had a yuumymym vego breaky of cauliflower and potato korma, roasted vegetables and salad in bondi at a wee cooperative owned and run restaurant and then slept aaaaaaaaaaaaaalllll arvvvvvooo.
i played domestic housewife and baked some more and sewed a few shirts and hemmed my birthday skirt the next day, ooh and i bought myself a new tooyyyy! i hit up office works which is a really nice walk through newtown and then through sydney uni which is very old and has big trees and the nicest sandstone res buildings! its also right by the hospital so people blind after going to manning bar can make it home safe evvvery night. be it on foot or by ambulance. i bought myself an acer netbookkoookk! its sucha  great little light suave laptop travel companion! now i can finally access all the music and movies i've been hoarding on my harddrive and have a resevoir for my photos.

mmm it smells so good alicia is cooking chicken and pesto pasta w tomatoes and mucho garlic and its wafting. speaking of delicious food, i went on a date last night! haha dane and i hit up baja cantina and had such an unbelievably good mexican meal and sorta shit sangria holy. i had chimichangas and he had fajitas with prawns. mmm camarones te amo te quiero te extrano! den gat sum beers at the lansdowne and called it a night. but that mexican food. it was so good i got a burrito from guzman and gomez today just to keep the mexi alive. and then ate a bunch more food and watched weeds all night. primmeee holiday life.

the children - yeasayer

my condolences go out to leigh tonight who lost his guardian angel this morning, his nan who raised him to be the funny charismatic guy he is...and i'm sure was a beautiful person. rest in peace, love you bro xx.

gotta jet, i have to be up and aware and awake in order to watch over little coughing radish girl tomorrow. (she has a radish shirt). might go stay in a backpackers in bondi over the weekend but theres also chasing shadows at tone which is really.. tempting..and a reason to stay in the city.. aieaieieieaie
wish me good decisions and boldness in this 21st year of my life
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxn.lov

I MISS MY BIKE

i spent valentines day drinking an espresso and eating free heartshaped chocolates at badde manors cafe, a long standing 'true' cafe in trendy restaurant shitcatcher-pant boutique neighbourhood glebe, with a sixty year old, sydneyborn, gay musician called steven. he had in front of him a spanish made easy book which caught my eye and my lighter prompted him to ask me if he could buy a smoke. i couldn't offer him a cigarette but i asked him about his interest in spanish and we got to talking.
we talked about elizabeth taylor, pisceans, chile and a lesbian falling off a third-storey balcony at a particularily wild party. and after we discussed tailormades versus rollies, we chatted about the curtness and coldness of youth, his past future-wife and his inevitable life of loneliness, and where to explore in sydney. 
i realized after an hour or two that i hadn't explored glebe at all 'cause i was so set on having a coffee before anything else. so it was time to go. i walked up and down glebe point road, got a free yoga class pamphlet, found an identical skirt to one i had borrowed from alicia two days before in a vinnie's but couldn't squeeze my hips into a size 8 and tried on some ugly shoes instead. i found out about a few good weekend markets from the lady behind the counter who had greasy pigtails and three shirts on and wandered back towards central station.
haaaaaaa - last weekend i found v-club downtown. probably the swankiest place i've been in my life, what with its velvet chairs and round glass tables with monitors installed underneith and sneaky keyboards. in the fruity lobby they were playing the shittest top 40 i've heard since hot fm in the braz' babes sample hut and the blonde-bobbed lesbian behind the counter's noncommital enthusiasm made me want to vomit. in my attempt to find free activites in sydney for the backpacking type (i haven't exactly backpacked yet) i came across v-club, a five star gym in the sassy heart of the sydney cbd. i was meant to meet lauititi for a consultation but there was no mauri in sight so i met this german guy who walked me through a membership introduction and through my medical history. the zumba class i wanted to go to (props to sierra and liz scully, muff and susi-q mills, and me) was in 5 minutes so i got changed and joined forty overforty asian ladies, a few young dog owning celibates, some preteens with obviously rich ass moms, and two awkward men in a dance studio called 'hero'. a psycho bounded up to the front elastically, tightened the ponytail on top of her head, cranked the latin dancehall, brightened her underbitten smile and yanked up her pink trackies. she was white as and totes a ghetto babealicious chica. the next two hours i won't describe. if you've ever been to a zumba class you'll know what it's like!
yesterday was wickkeeddd, i met up with theo, a german who lived with me for half a year five years ago. theo plays soccer but has no left foot, he's travelling the world: vancouver/sanfran/cali/lasvegas/grandcanyon/fijiislands/nz/oz and off to hong kong today, his english has improved tenfold, he looks the same as before which is not a bad thing, and he has a black string bracelet that i like.  my favourite memory is when he first arrived in canada he asked my brother 'why do you don't not drive?' which became a long running joke in the hobruecker-thompson household. we got tallboys and sat in hyde park drinking brews and reminiscing a bit and sharing stories of our travels. he just spent a couple weeks driving down to melbourne and back and was just in sydney for a day, fucker!, so we had a few hours to talk about five years and five countries. we'll meet up again in another five, probably in berlin we decided.
saturday night i had the biggest night haha aieaieee. i had a lot a lot a lot of pent up energy that couldn't be released in esperance, not that i really wanted to let it out there anyway. i had dinner and drinks at home with alicia and daniel and snotface and then met up with daniel's colleagues (he's headchef at sepia) at sanctuary for some beers. before they got off work i met some italian, spanish and french backpackers, most memorable of whom was marta, a cute little brune from madrid. i met jason and andrew and after a few beers--jason and i watched man utd vs. man city and andrew watched rugby-- we went to oxford street and hit da clubz. oxford art factory! sick spot, you should go. it's got two rooms: one had a djs and free tunes and the other had a show that you had to pay to get in to.  they were spinning classic dance mash up sample sing along fun. i remember ice cube, stevie wonderous, mickey avalon aaaaaand some outkast, despite dancing there for like sixty hours. so yeah! had a massive dance party with a bunch of cool strangers and had some more beers and got bliiiind.
at one point in the night i realized that my red stripe bottle pendant had fallen off my necklace and i sobered up for about ten straight devastating minutes. i was empty without my empty little bottle, how ironic. somehow i had a search party of about five people all looking for my necklace. i told this one guy curtis that i would sleep with his friend whose twentieth birthday it was that night if he found my necklace. curtis found the necklace. i was sewwwwww happepepiieiyeyeye he got probably the biggest hug i've given anyone in the past four months but i didn't sleep with his friend sowwie. jason andrew and i went next door where there was an electronic hip hop dub step show and where i continued to dance my face off and ruined my favourite new t-shirt by lying back on the stage and chillin with the 5'2" black as night rapper. (class.) it was so good to hear the bassssssssss it's been so long. once it was light enough out and we were ready for our walk of shame we went out onto oxford street and hung out till the trains started running again. since stanmore station was closed for maintenance i had to take a bus from central and since i missed my stop it seemed suitable to alight there and walk back home. best part of my hour long walk home was asking for directions from a bakery 'cause of course at that hour shops were opening up and people were starting their sundays. long story short got home at 8:30 slept till 4. oops sorry sunday.
ok i have a miserable pterodactyl to walk around the neighbourhood for a couple hours, determined to complain until her mummy comes home and sings her i like pie, i like cake, i like anything you make. for now, isobel's longhaired inadequate replacement will have to do. please dear baby god let this child sleep in her pram i am begging you.

lovenatalov.

  http://www.oxfordartfactory.comhttp://www.baddemanorscafe.com/http://www.vclub.com.au

I don't care for no fancy restaurant cause I know when I gets home I can eat anything that I want

read: the third eye by tuesday lobsang rampa
listen to: mojo juju & the snake oil merchants
eat: moro the cookbook's fish targine with potatoes, tomatoes and olives

 right. so it's been over a month since new years and what a goooo00000d month it's been.
since new years, i have gone to some parties, done some art, met some cool people, gone to lovely beaches, eaten delicious food, created art with the intention of making a profit, moved houses, taught an art class, gained 5 kilos, caught up with heidi, had a scrabble night, shotgunned some beers, been to a festival, acquired a few too many new scars, bought some electronics, driven a standard, made some pillow cases, had a sleepover at the airport, but most importantly LEFT ESPERANCE.

first of all let me tell you of the difficulties involved in sleeping at jimmy's house.
a) i slept on a pullout couch with a particularily uncomfy metal bar under my lungs/upper back 
b) sleeping on a fold out in the living room means waiting till the others are sleepy before i can crash
c) mozzies buzzing at night and biting ungodly parts of my body. i'm referring to my legs and hips and feet. i reckon they realyl shouldn't bite us anywhere though.
d) waking up to flies on your face. and you swat them as you fall back asleep. and they land on the other cheek. and you swat them as you fall back asleep. and they land on your other cheek. and then you yell and they still don't leave so you have to wake up and move around and grunt and sometimes they'll find some other unfortunate piece of flesh walkig around in the same room as you. it's a game and they always win every time and it's not even FUN!!!!!
e) the noises!!!! the screen door outside the beaut of a red front door we (they) have is only attached at the top and with the 46928km winds that esperance just can't seem to get rid of, it swings creating a rhythmic knocking. then there's the kitchen window above the sink that doesn't lock properly so it as well taps at night - a little more of a muffled sound though. just after i left esperance our budday joe fixed the shower, but it was leaky, getting progressively leaky and leakier daily. drip drip drip drip drip dirp drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip. sophie did you get a good sleep? hm.. after a while though, probably near the peak of its attention seeking streak, it was doing this dripdripdoubledrip dripdriptri-i-ipledrip riff that i almost wanted to record. it was so consistent and even and mr. reid would've been proud of its staccato quality. creaky bed. wind whistling.screeching of drink-driving drivers' tires. ella's sleep-moaning and grunts. but.. i surprisingly enough found the lot to be a calming whir.


let me expand. at cape arid i met the lovely susi watson and her beautiful family of sid, ruby and brady. to my dismay she spent the following three weeks in sydney when i would have liked to hang out with her and read and go to the beach and play with her kids. she introduced me to elaine, laneo, who saved my withering soul. we met at mamma's and drank coffee and then went to willow relaxation and wellbeing centre which offers, among others, but most notably, rare books for hire and incense. they've got this library of sorts where you buy a ten dollar membership and then you can loan books for 2 bucks a pop, with the perk of being able to keep it for as long as you like. they take your phone number down for when you move to the other side of the country and don't return it, like me. after that, we walked through museum/period village where the transWA bus stop is. there stands the old ticketing building and an old train carriage that had been neglected until elaine and monika decided it would become their art space/studio/gallery. it's still in progress but well underway. i've enjoyed a fair few instant coffees on the picnic table by the pond and marveled at the stash of danish butter cookies and gin the carriage hides. that day i told laneo about my lighters and she loved the idea and we came up with a POA. game plan: i teach her how i make them (she learnt well) and we sell them in the gallery shop with incense to veer the train stopper off the association of lighters and smoking (maybe even by calling them butane lanterns) and since she has a abn, australian business number, i can electronically receive a percentage of every sale. ta da! in the weeks thereafter, elaine and i spent many hours on her shag rug around a coffee table lsitening to music and eating fresh salads of rocket, tomatoes, amaranth fresh from the garden whilst crafting away. she has a collection of 60s and 70s scientific encyclopedias that needed some scissor-action so we decoupaged the shit out of them and it resulted in some very wild lighters. 

through elaine i met her sister anna. anna is also initially from esperance but she managed to escape years ago; spent some time in perth, moved to melbourne for a few months and now resides in the house that she owns, at the young, nascent age of twenty, in mt. lawley. i spent a few days with her the week before i left esperance, while she visited her family. we too spent a string of days doing crafts: sewing clothing for a miniature doll; sewing pillowcases for ella and jimmy's trip out of shirts that i couldn't fit in my luggage, couldn't make my mind up about whether or not to bring, or simply felt like chopping up and giving a new life; making birthday cards; and if music counts as a craft we had a jam sesh featuring a guitar, a melodica, and a wooden washboard. i spent an evening with anna in perth before i flew out which was one of the loveliest nights i had had in a whiiiiilllleeee. i ended up at her house after a night in mandurah and was greeted by her shirtless roommate ben. i put down my sweaty 17kg bag and freshened up, then we wandered through mount lawey where i proceeded to have a little (big) ankle bleed in the middle of planet video. my boat show looked full of blood as it pooled on the edge - i was very dehydrated, my blood was thick, anyway, whatever. wandered round, bought us a hefty block of chocolate, went back to the homestead. anna was home! so was her other roommate michael! we all hung out and michael serenaded us and anna and i caught up a bit. we spent the rest of the evening eating lime/lemon/mandarin hybrids; playing music; talking about collecting things and reusing other things and recycling and future projects for anna to do for the two of us; attempting to fill my new harddrive with music but failing; making the most delicious meal of eggplant, chickpeas, cannelini beans, tomato and hazelnut meal garnished with fresh tomato, avocado and greek style yogurt, devoured with flat bread; washing that down with wine, and chocolate, and rollies; and eventually becoming too tired to even watch robot chicken.
anna and i will meet up at some point, it is in the books for us.

so somehow it became three o'clock in the aayyy emmm. and i promised alicia i wouldn't sleep in till two again. so i guess i should speed up this ending, introduce alicia, and explain how i got here.. and where i am for that matter: i left anna's sleepy and ready for a seven hour turbulent nap, taxi'd to the airport, waited for ages, flight had a gate-changeal, flight had a cancellation 'cause the crew was spewing, met a kiwi boy named kel who i spent the following 5 hours with in wheelchairs pretending to need them, watching south park and the beginnings of many movies and shows, laughing with tired giddiness and that new-acquaintance energy. we didn't take the free-accomodation offer due to the fact that we'd have to pay for the cab there and back and the other fact that his replacement flight left in 4 hours, and instead had a sleepover. no we had a stay over in the airport. sent him off at 5:45 and then lucidly lazed in the sunrisey terminal till my flight at 7. up up up i went, met a weirdo next to me who wanted desperately to be my new middle-aged miner man friend, landed in sydney, had a little sit while i charged my phone and my body, embarked on a train journey and ended up in the welcoming yet full-of-baby arms of alicia mintzes. i feel so goddamn welcome here, she lives in a beautiful house on harrow! road with her man daniel and her seven-month-tiny bundle isobel. i have been here all of one night and have already done good things and seen good sights and met memorable people. we cooked the aforementioned fish meal (replacing the potatoes with couscous and adding a healthy dose of eggplant - both white and purps), wandered through some of sydney, sat in hyde park, ate some jap food THANK GOD FOR MULTICULTURAL FOODS THANK YOU BIG CITY YOU ARE GOOD TO ME, and i topped off the night with baking a banana bread. wwawaweewa yeooww.

in the next few weeks all i have planned so far is to:
-meet the german aupere girl that lives nearby
-babysit for the neighbourwoman wendy
-go to pickup soccer in fowler park
-go to 5$ yoga
-cook and bake
-find a spanish speaker
-go to the rose pub and take it from there.

adioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo0000s te amo, photos eventually
 xxxx-s

as promised

welcome to my life

my teeth aren't actually this yellow

"michelllllleeeee there's a truuuckkkkkk!"
three months of my life this is the heavy machinery i operated

karri forest: i felt like the happiest nymph here

mmmmmmargaret river

on the walk home

home

happy coziest new years

i wish you all well

hello world

i figured i should start keeping you or at least myself up to date with the goings on in my ever-transitional life.
as many of you may know, i aimed to softland onto the icing sugar beaches of esperance and into the nurturing arms of wide-eyed-heidi, armed with work, a travelmate, and with irrepressible openness.
however, many of you may also know that the path i have been following (note: not the path that i have been making for myself) has been a slightly more organic and a bumpier terrain than i had expected. and who was i to expect anything less.

i have been living in a seaside country town by the name of esperance ('hope' in french) in western australia for the past three months. we've got a population of about 14,000, many of whom i can't seem to find; three IGAs where we shop regularily; a Woolly's for those it's-cheaper-at-a-big-supermarket-items; a few juice bars; some craft shops where i've purchased embroidery thread for ella's hairwrap; a camping world where i found 20 cent national geographics; a library where i am currently plopped in a comfy plastic chair next to the cutest old man; the pub the Pier; a few restaurants including the new addition of a Maccas, also known as McDonalds, which has become the social hub for preteens and a topic of boycott or disinterest for many others. there's more, i'll just let you imagine it. (post office, banks, leisure centre, cafe or two, movie places-of both the cinema and the renting variety, etc.) without a car, as ella and i have found ourselves for the past QUARTER OF A YEAR, it has been difficult to extend our experiences to the beauty esperance truly beholds. the beaches. go google them, they are fantastic! whitest and finest sand i have ever plunged my toes into, most amazing turquoise and nippy water, good surf, good fishing, the lot.

when we first arrived in esperance one of our flatmates' worker wasn't using his car and they lent it to us for a week or so. we went to cape le grand national park about 30 ks out of town and went to lucky bay and climbed frenchman's peak woohooho00 adventure time! it was sewww fun. way too soon thereafter, we did our training for work and after a week of getting powerepointed in the right direction (grain is food!), we passed our assessments and had a month off before starting our slave la- i mean work. during that month, we mosied up to perth (mosying means taking the longest straightest bus ride of your life only stopping in truckie towns for a diluted flat-white or something deepfried - instead we starved in silence and watched flicka II,  thanks to our geriatric driver for the movie choice) and spent a few weeks in perth, margaret river, and madurah. i found perth to be a great city for travellers, 'cause you can get around quite easily by foot and it's all smushed into small area. there's lot's to see, lots of people watching opportunities, boho suburbs and neighbourhoods only a train station away, blah it's cool. margaret river is gorgeous: you really feel like you're far away when you're surrounded with vineyards, karri tree forests, scrumptious beaches, and sangria. mandurah is small and home to the ever so delightfully welcoming collisons! thanks to brendo, cam, vicki and pete for showing us around and for the memorable times.

then there's this huge void that encompasses working for CBH. cooperative bulk handling. i sampled grain which consists of spearing a truck with a hydraulic spear and then running samples through dr. seuss-like machines that sort out moisture, protein, screenings, etc, while looking for various grain defects, weed seeds and contaminants. each sample takes maybe 10-15 minutes and just put that on repeat for 10 hours each day, and 13 days a fortnight leaving spare time to sit around, read bitch mags, chat with the geuurlls, and most importantly to snack. the weather was worse than we'd(they'd) hoped so we had more days off than we thought, but oh well! we're done with that now and are doing 2 more weeks sampling for the agriculture  department then we are free from our rural shackles.

i had the chance to play at the beaches extensively over new years when a group of us went to cape arid.
about 120 ks out of esperance. it is beauuutiifulll!!! there are amazing unspoilt dunes and gorgeous white sand beaches, ausi headlands and bush between the bays and beyond the dunes with robust low lying brush and pretty wildflowers. there were also big mountains that remind me of argentina and weird plains that looked like mars.
we were with a gang of aboutttt 20? this included the people we've gotten closer with, jimmy, kyza, mousie who're in jimmy's band, rosco, rowan, two guys in a band called firehorse, they're crazy and fun, marley, mmmnah i s'pose these names don't mean anything to you! i also met a beautiful family who camped with us ON the beach. i thinkthis was the first time i camped directly on the beach, in a swag (google). susi watson is the mothers name, she has red hair, wore cinnabar jewelry and sarongs, is a photographer and graphic designer, and was reading the wind up bird chronicle by haruki murakami-i loved kafka on the shore by the same author- and she read outloud to me! it was great. she has two children, syd/sid 3 and ruby 9 or 11 maybe. they were easy going, selfentertaining, happy kids and we all played beach games together. she's out of town for the month but i'll see her when she gets back yaayy.
camping: we listened to music on the PA system kyza brought up, and there were nighttime jam seshs as well, as most of hte musicians brought their gear. dancing, cmap fires, goon bags (wine in a bag),
sunsets. also went swimming often! i swam right near a seal on new years day MY THIRD WARM POLAR BEAR SWIM IN A ROW and tried to body surf a bit, unsuccessfully, as the waves break right into masses of seaweed which aren't the most desirable of landing pads. it's sweet to camp ehre because everyone does it, but you can go anywhere on the beaches so you're secluded. four wheel driving on the beach is a necessity and way too much fun. its best on the flatest hardest sand where it hasnt been too wet and its fun to drive over the headlands in soft deep sand with safari like bushes scraping hte sides of the car.

i have some big decisions to make in the next few weeks in regards to my solo travels that are coming up much quicker than i expected. more about this later, i'm getting ushered out of my itnernet hotspot by vicky gabereau's ausi twin.
today i met two amazing spiritual artists who're turning the old bus stop into an art gallery and studio and being-space, who i was able to get extremely personal with and who will no doubt help me out of the internal jam i ahve worked myself into. don't get your knickers in a twist, all will be well, i have faith.

take care of yourselves
xxxxxxxxxx


photos soon, promise