Post Title: 1/365: the beginning of the photo a day project
Excerpt:
Anyway, this particular day has already been mentioned briefly below: I took Sandi, Jeff and their kids to Differ Ariake for the Muay Thai championships on Sunday July 6th.... In this shot, he had just punched the guy to the ground - I got a shot of the poor fella flying through the air but I preferred the look on blondie's face in this one.
July 16, 2008 7:44 PM | 1/365: the beginning of the photo a day project | Comments (2)
Post Title: And then bang! Suddenly everything was different...
Excerpt: I hope the next couple of months will be as interesting as the past few weeks have been.
Life is good. I now wear 3 hats in any one week.
July 4, 2008 2:16 AM | And then bang! Suddenly everything was different... | Comments (9)
Post Title: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination
Excerpt: The best presentations, the best speeches, the best advice are usually about what people learned from their failures.
June 10, 2008 3:19 PM | The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination | Comments (4)
Post Title: What is my "visual integrity"?
Excerpt: I've been working on building a number of portfolios for a while but keep getting stuck. I need to write a positioning statement. I know I want to do primarily portraits (I think that's where my strength lies) and events mostly, with some travel, street and live performance photography on the side.
But I'm stuck. I need help. I need YOUR help.
June 7, 2008 6:36 PM | What is my "visual integrity"? | Comments (15)
Post Title: Annual massacre of a garden
Excerpt:
The following day, the rains returned as this is, indeed, the wet season.... All I could do is sit inside with my camera and record the evil event.
June 7, 2008 4:16 PM | Annual massacre of a garden | Comments (1)
Post Title: Leechblock, my lifesaver.
Excerpt:
Either a symptom or a cause (or both?), one of the big problems has been time wasted on internet sites like facebook, flickr, asoboo, bloglines, google news, etc....... You can check a box that forbids you from making any changes to the settings during the times that the blocks/limits are imposed to make it impossible for your resolve to be compromised.
June 2, 2008 4:23 PM | Leechblock, my lifesaver. | Comments (3)
Post Title: I built a home for you, for me.
Excerpt: Kawaguchiko yabusame. Taken back in April, when I did the anniversary pics with Sigsy & Kei. I'm a Sagittarius and am quite drawn to horseback archery. Magnificent stuff. Especially out there at Kawaguchiko, without all the stupid crowds of Tokyo. It's my 3rd time at this festival. I doubt I'll ever tire of it. I used Blurb to make a book for Christian's 30th birthday. Yuiko and I compiled messages and photos from his rather large circle of friends and family bothe here and in Australia, and edited them into this big, beautiful book. It was all a surprise,...
June 2, 2008 2:53 AM | I built a home for you, for me. | Comments (4)
Post Title: April (and a new enterprise) begins...
Excerpt: Hello again! I know, I know, it's been quiet around here, but that always just means I've been busy. I got back from an awesome 12 day photo-jaunt to Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Onomichi, Kurashiki, Nara and Kyoto last week and have been buried up to my eyeballs in catch-ups, backups and meta-overhauls of all things (and a little cherry-blossom madness, too). I'm in the process of eliminating all unnecessary things from my wardrobe, my house, my computer and my lifestyle. Running and doing yoga on alternate days and have actually - foolishly? - signed up for the TELL annual charity...
April 8, 2008 1:01 PM | April (and a new enterprise) begins... | Comments (4)
Post Title: The Crystal Ball
Excerpt: I spent quite a lot of my holiday time back in Australia rummaging through the mountains of crap in my storage shed in West End. Boxes and boxes of memories. I threw half of them out, I was ruthless. I can't believe the stuff I thought was important enough to save. Boxes of paperwork - old contracts, invoices, PR releases, emails, demo CD'S and so on - from a life long ago....
February 17, 2008 4:27 PM | The Crystal Ball | Comments (6)
Post Title: 5 years on....
Excerpt: It's cold and wet in Tokyo today and I wish I was back on Gili Air, Indonesia instead of nursing a rather nasty hangover and being stressed about the exhibition and confused about the coming changes (aka The Leap). I took the above photo on one of my many wanders around the island in August and messed around with it in Lightroom to get the bright night look... This is one of the large prints I've included in the exhibition opening tonight. Anyways, more on that later....
November 10, 2007 12:50 PM | 5 years on.... | Comments (16)
Post Title: A mid week post!
Excerpt: On Sunday I had a little adventure, heading out to Hakone for a day in the mountains for a little hike and an onsen with Kenta. We visited these massive grassfields at Sengoku Kogen, and went hiking through long grass and mud for a couple of hours (something you just don't do in Australia for fear of snakes, spiders, toads, etc). Sounds kinda horrid but actually it was great fun and there is definitely something about long grass that brings out the little kid in us all... lots of hide & seek and slipping and sliding and falling over...
October 17, 2007 11:27 AM | A mid week post! | Comments (9)
Post Title: The Canadian-Microbiologist
Excerpt: As I stumbled in through the front door in a post-jog breathless, sweaty mess to collapse on the hallway floor, Greg the Canadian Microbiologist called out Okaeri, the pancakes and cappuccino'll be ready in about 15 minutes. I love my new room mate. He comes fully equipped with excellent cooking and cleaning skills, gorgeous crockery and glassware, a cappuccino maker and guitar skills. He bought new strings for my guitar and re-strung it for me without asking. He likes to stay home and eat dinner with me. He enjoys a drink. He's fit and healthy and offers great advice...
October 10, 2007 12:51 PM | The Canadian-Microbiologist | Comments (4)
Post Title: Fuku-chan
Excerpt: I think it was 2004 when Fuku moved in to the big, chaotic, dirty share-house in Komaba Todaimae, where I lived with Timbo-the-punk-rock-pimp, Big-Gay-Dave (his home-town nickname, OK!), Seth the gloomy Jewish spanker, Dave the SF granola whinger, Gabe the boy-voted-most-likely-to-be-taken-home-to-Mum-Floridian, and Takako the girl who was never home....
October 9, 2007 3:51 PM | Fuku-chan | Comments (0)
Post Title: The 10 laws of simplicity
Excerpt: Continuing my philosophical slant this long weekend, my friend Shen sent me a link to a video presentation by John Maeda at the always inspirational TED.com. Maeda-san is head of the MIT Media Arts Centre and his big "thang" is simplicity. He wrote a book. These are his 10 laws of simplicity. Nice reading for a 3 day weekend... Law 1: REDUCE. The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. Law 2: ORGANIZE Organization makes a system of many appear fewer. Law 3: TIME Savings in time feel like simplicity. Law 4: LEARN Knowledge makes everything simpler....
September 24, 2007 12:20 PM | The 10 laws of simplicity | Comments (1)
Post Title: Simplicity
Excerpt: I finally got around to picking up my India holga prints from the new sparkly Yodabashi in Kichijoji. Sadly over half of them have some weird triangular obstruction over the bottom right corner, strange that it appears in all rolls, but not all prints. The joys of toy cameras. Anyway, this is one of them - I took it inside one of the side Mosque halls at the Taj Mahal. It's my fave so far, but there are a few other shots I quite like too. I'm slowly uploading them to Flickr... Productivity and life-hack blogs have become quite...
September 23, 2007 11:49 PM | Simplicity | Comments (6)
Post Title: Back.
Excerpt: Well, I'm back in Tokyo, back: in my own bed, in my own kitchen, at my job, on my bicycle, in my fab shower, with my turtle, on a fast internet connection and *sigh, an underwear drawer that has *more* than 3 pairs of underpants and 2 bra's to be washed daily on rotation.... after 50 days on the road....
September 4, 2007 9:21 PM | Back. | Comments (6)
Post Title: 10 000 angry monks
Excerpt: Please visit the 08-08-07: Tibetan protest demo in Delhi album at Flickr. What an amazing day this was - and it just happened to fall on my last day in India....
August 11, 2007 4:20 PM | 10 000 angry monks | Comments (3)
Post Title: The night before the Tibetan protest
Excerpt: Written on August 7th, 2007 in Majnu ka tila, Delhi.... It's still about 33 degrees in Delhi tonight, and the lanes of Majnu Ka Tilla are uncomfortably damp and steamy as they cope with the influx of many thousands of Tibetans from all over India. Huddles of older mountain folk in traditional dress standing around piles of bags as they seek some place to sleep, in this little colony where virtually every room is overflowing. Packs of roaming Tibetan youths - some of them monks and nuns, carrying Tibetan flags and newly bought tee-shirts with Free Tibet slogans, occupy every...
August 11, 2007 4:09 PM | The night before the Tibetan protest | Comments (0)
Post Title: The distance calls
Excerpt: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1Listen can you hear the distance callingFar away but will be with you soon Well, here I am.... Sure I've forgotten some annoyingly important things but they'll just have to wait.
July 15, 2007 3:44 AM | The distance calls | Comments (6)
Post Title: Mishaal and miscellania
Excerpt: Mishaal is a Tokyo based belly dancer.
July 3, 2007 2:34 AM | Mishaal and miscellania | Comments (10)
Post Title: It's 44 degrees in Delhi and 30 degrees here in Tokyo (finally!)
Excerpt: A lot of people assume that Inokashira Koen is just that little park around the lake, but actually, it's a huge horse-shoe shaped thing that streches from near Kichijoji Station, up, around and across to Studio Ghibli on the other side, in Mitaka. Recently it seems that every man and his dog has discovered Kichijoji and the lake-part of the park, especially on weekends - the crowds have been getting insane.
June 20, 2007 6:44 PM | It's 44 degrees in Delhi and 30 degrees here in Tokyo (finally!) | Comments (6)
Post Title: Review
Excerpt: Hello again and apologies to the RSS feed subscribers who copped my grumpy whiney post from last night (which I deleted as soon as I woke up this morning)........ Apart from working too hard and not exercising enough (meaning I'm probably the biggest I've ever been), things are generally pretty ace.
June 13, 2007 1:18 AM | Review | Comments (5)
Post Title: Fever
Excerpt: Fever.
May 18, 2007 11:05 PM | Fever | Comments (12)
Post Title: A Day in Photos
Excerpt: In lieu of any real news, apart from the fact that things have been pretty quiet around here, I figured I'd follow in Flickr's footsteps and do a Day In The Life Of Me for Saturday, May 5, 2007.
May 6, 2007 9:15 PM | A Day in Photos | Comments (0)
Post Title: Fuku-chan
Excerpt: My new flatmate is even wackier than my old one.... In other news, I told my aunt (also an English teacher, but in Brisbane - not Japan) that I've taken on too many classes.
April 25, 2007 1:04 AM | Fuku-chan | Comments (2)
Post Title: My baby's back!
Excerpt: Picked up the newly repaired Canon 300D from Fujiya this afternoon.
March 16, 2007 1:51 AM | My baby's back! | Comments (6)
Post Title: Reflections
Excerpt: It's been raining a bit round here...
February 18, 2007 9:55 PM | Reflections | Comments (5)
Post Title: The see-saw is level but the foundations are a little cracked...
Excerpt: I was mulling over the events of the past 15 months and had a kind of epiphany the other night.
January 28, 2007 10:14 PM | The see-saw is level but the foundations are a little cracked... | Comments (9)
Post Title: What are you optimistic about?
Excerpt: What are you optimistic about?
January 16, 2007 7:48 PM | What are you optimistic about? | Comments (3)
Post Title: The dusk of another year
Excerpt: So. Here it is - the dusk of another year.
December 31, 2006 6:17 PM | The dusk of another year | Comments (5)
Post Title: The new tattoo
Excerpt: So I got a new tattoo...
December 31, 2006 5:53 PM | The new tattoo | Comments (9)
Post Title: しあわせ (Shiawase): A fortunate life.
Excerpt: 4 years in Japan. I was thinking of calling this post “the girl who stopped running” but that seemed kinda naff and I figured “a fortunate life” was more adult and appropriate.
December 11, 2006 11:16 PM | しあわせ (Shiawase): A fortunate life. | Comments (7)
Post Title: A different life part 2
Excerpt: In keeping with the Australian bush theme, here are some pics my brother sent me of their recent holiday on a cattle farm near Cooktown, in Far North Queensland - complete with authentic Aboriginal cave art. Enjoy.
October 31, 2006 1:18 AM | A different life part 2 | Comments (3)
Post Title: A different life
Excerpt: On my fathers side of the family there is a long history of “bush” Australia.
October 30, 2006 5:35 PM | A different life | Comments (3)
Post Title: honouring the ancestors
Excerpt: Memorial days and anniversaries and birthdays and other such sundry annual signpost events are a singularly strange phenomenon. Why do we bother? What does it signify other than the fact that time marches on and we're collecting more lines on our faces and scars on our souls (hopefully getting a little wiser as a result)...
October 22, 2006 1:56 AM | honouring the ancestors | Comments (9)
Post Title: How little we know...
Excerpt: Technorati Tags: friends, japan, kichijoji, life, portraits...
October 13, 2006 2:59 AM | How little we know... | Comments (1)
Post Title: Speeding towards that time of year...
Excerpt: “So we're speeding towards that time of year
To the days that mark that you're not here...”
October 5, 2006 5:00 PM | Speeding towards that time of year... | Comments (3)
Post Title: Going on walkabout
Excerpt: My long planned hazy crazy 44 days of summer in Thailand begins tomorrow.
July 24, 2006 1:13 AM | Going on walkabout | Comments (7)
Post Title: So, you wanna hear a saga?
Excerpt: So, you wanna hear a saga? I got a good one for you.
July 17, 2006 5:41 PM | So, you wanna hear a saga? | Comments (6)
Post Title: Oh the pain
Excerpt: Teen angst is such a drag, but it makes for great photos.
July 6, 2006 9:29 PM | Oh the pain | Comments (2)
Post Title: The Red Eye
Excerpt: One of my elderly students arrived with a eye full of blood after a vessel burst. Wasn't painful at all, she was more concerned that I would be freaked out and offered to wear an eye patch.
June 26, 2006 11:16 PM | The Red Eye | Comments (5)
Post Title: Melancholy
Excerpt:
I saw this woman at Kichijoji Station yesterday. She had the saddest look on her face and was standing an almost empty platform. It was quite beautiful. Seems the wet season (and a little death) is perfectly conducive to melancholy.
May 28, 2006 7:50 PM | Melancholy | Comments (2)
Post Title: Another death in the family
Excerpt: My little buddy Percy died about an hour ago.
May 28, 2006 7:25 PM | Another death in the family | Comments (5)
Post Title: Looking backwards. Looking forwards.
Excerpt: Back in Tokyo and it's cold and wet and it's hard to believe that I was standing on a warm Queensland beach less than a week ago with my family. This trip was an interesting one for me in that it's the first time I've gone back and had no anchor pulling me to a certain place: my 2 central anchors (Mum and Dad) are both gone now. And so I was wondering which places would feel the most like "home". And you know what? I arrived in Brisbane and sighed happily and said, ah, it's nice to be...
May 15, 2006 1:12 AM | Looking backwards. Looking forwards. | Comments (4)
Post Title: Short attention span....? Get some time out.
Excerpt: Ever wonder what all those electronic poking sticks might be doing to your attention span? Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell has identified a late-onset cousin of ADD that he calls “Attention Deficit Trait,” a “condition induced by modern life” and the endless “chatter” generated by our beepy devices and interrupt-driven lifestyles. (via 43 folders) CNet has an interesting interview with Dr Hallowell about this new affliction... Q: What is ADT? Hallowell: It's sort of like the normal version of attention deficit disorder. But it's a condition induced by modern life, in which you've become so busy attending to so many inputs...
April 11, 2006 7:37 PM | Short attention span....? Get some time out. | Comments (1)
Post Title: I got soul but I'm not a soldier
Excerpt: A miracle: a quiet night at home with no work to do. So why don't I just make more work for myself and make a couple of blog entries. Me and my computer - attached at the hip....
April 10, 2006 8:41 PM | I got soul but I'm not a soldier | Comments (6)
Post Title: In sight of the crossroads
Excerpt:
November 24, 2005 10:37 PM | In sight of the crossroads | Comments (6)
Post Title: Red, yellow.... and blue
Excerpt: Ventured out to Saruhashi in Yamanashi on Sunday for a barbeque with my old work colleagues. The colours were amazing and kouyou (the changing of the leaves) has only just begun!...
November 14, 2005 7:46 PM | Red, yellow.... and blue | Comments (6)
Post Title: Heaven-sent
Excerpt: Mr Maxwell, you are an angel. There is nothing quite like getting home after a long day, towards the end of a long week and finding an unexpected Australia Post Box jammed into your mailbox. It's even more special when it's an entire box of chocolates. And a little letter saying "Heard you've been blue, so thought I'd make ya smile"....
October 6, 2005 6:52 PM | Heaven-sent | Comments (2)
Post Title: In the Thick of Thin Things
Excerpt: Living with a genuinely mentally unwell person - slowly uncovering all their faults with growing irritation and aghast apprehension - without knowing that she is genuinely sick until very recently, has been a distressing process. It's made me think about how I played my part in all this. And about my past, how I have behaved in my relationships and innumerous share-houses. And my own dirty linen. That deep, musty closet of shameful secret acts and lies has been well aired this past week. It's been painful and powerful. I can feel my paradigms are shifting.
May 29, 2005 8:43 PM | In the Thick of Thin Things | Comments (3)
Post Title: I should have told you
Excerpt: "I should have told you". I guess that's supposed to make me feel better but, well, it's still a messy situation. Last Wednesday, after 3 months or so of living with my new flatmate in what was meant to me a fabulous new apartment to match my fabulous job, I met with the woman who offered the room to me (my former Japanese teacher), and told her I didn't think I could live here much longer. I battered her ears earnestly for more than an hour. Then she started to tell me all the problems that she's also having...
May 22, 2005 4:15 PM | I should have told you | Comments (10)
Post Title: Time out
Excerpt: I'm off to Kyoto till Monday for some solo naval-soul-temple-japanese garden-weeping cherry blossom-geisha gazing. See ya!
March 29, 2005 11:31 PM | Time out | Comments (6)
Post Title: *sigh. 10 more days...
Excerpt: Another very short entry without pretty pictures. I'm sitting in a very grooooovy internet cafe in Shibuya trying to work out how the hell I can get my emails without using my own computer.... I have set up so many filters and pop server accounts that I honestly cannot get my emails unless I use my own computer. They are playing a really discordant jazz album and it's adding to my building frustration. I'm about to blow a fuse. Guess I need to find a place that will let me plug in my own laptop. In 10 more days I...
February 28, 2005 10:55 PM | *sigh. 10 more days... | Comments (2)
Post Title: still alive and in the new 'hood
Excerpt: A tree outside my window.
A great big one. And another 3 or 4 beside it, and grass underneath it.
Grass.
I love green. Shame Tokyo doesn't have much of it.
February 23, 2005 1:15 PM | still alive and in the new 'hood | Comments (2)
Post Title: Everything is connected
Excerpt: Boing Boing (and now also Metafilter) has a fascinating post (and a skeptic rebuttal) about an interesting scientific study on Collective Consciousness:...
February 13, 2005 5:36 PM | Everything is connected | Comments (2)
Post Title: Singin' in the Rain 21st Century-style
Excerpt: If you have some time (and cable), check out this fabulous TV commercial with one of the most innovative dance routines I've ever seen - a remake of Gene Kelly's Dancing in the Rain for the new VW Golf GTI, by astonishing dancer Elsewhere (aka David Barnal) via Kottke And you MUST check out some of the incredible photos at The World Press Photo Awards 2004. Powerful stuff....
February 12, 2005 4:16 PM | Singin' in the Rain 21st Century-style | Comments (3)
Post Title: Ch-Ch-Changes
Excerpt: I took this photo in the grounds of the Reclining Buddha Temple, in Bangkok last month. I love the look on this guys face, he's just so... full of amused watchfulness and clarity and contemplation... Quite fitting for tonights entry, coz I'm feeling all those adjectives myself. The Four Sisters has been flowing, the lamps are on, i-tunes is set to play my coolest playlist and the incense is burning.
February 11, 2005 10:14 PM | Ch-Ch-Changes | Comments (0)
Post Title: Post-vacation blues
Excerpt: So here it is, midweek in my first week back from vacation. It's dauntingly cold. It's a wonder my turtles are still alive, but alive and thriving they are, yay.
January 12, 2005 2:19 PM | Post-vacation blues | Comments (9)
Post Title: Tadaima Komaba
Excerpt: I'm back in my toasty little room in freezing Tokyo, after 8 plane rides (todays flight [and subsequent Kichijoji otsukare dinner] was made easier with the sweet company of Kat and Darin who I caught up with in Bangkok), 54 flight hours, 3 countries, lots of beer and wayyyy too much good food, 2 years worth of belated hugs, lots of gossip and giggling, lots of late night long conversations, lots of thinking, lots of adventures, lots of beach time, and a fair bit of groaning about my horrible 2004 and how my life really must become my own again....
January 9, 2005 11:36 PM | Tadaima Komaba | Comments (0)
Post Title: Home again
Excerpt: Life is steamy, spacious and oh-so-tropical in my old home town. Immediate observations include the friendliness, chattiness and helpfulness of complete strangers, the magnificent outdoor dining options with incredible food (yes, I will be putting on a few KG's, no doubt about that!), especially tasty deli food like sundried tomatoes and open sandwiches on fresh baked breads/foccacia's/panini, etc etc etc. Brisbane is being developed at an extraodinary rate - in some parts almost to a soulless degree - New Farm is full of apartments and has lost many of its beautiful old rambling Queenslanders. It is heartbreaking to see. Highlights...
December 18, 2004 12:07 PM | Home again | Comments (1)
Post Title: All tuckered out
Excerpt: Despite the fact I feel like a truck ran over me and my nose turned into a tap somewhere in the past 32 hours, I feel mightily proud of myself.
December 10, 2004 11:11 PM | All tuckered out | Comments (3)
Post Title: It's THAT time of the year again
Excerpt: I can't believe it's come around already. I miss you Mum....
December 9, 2004 12:32 PM | It's THAT time of the year again | Comments (2)
Post Title: Testing times
Excerpt: Woohooo - looks like we're making some progress here in backend land... big thanks to my lovely server-hosts who have now extended their sponsorship deal to include more server space....
December 4, 2004 12:32 AM | Testing times | Comments (0)
Post Title: Kevin Sites Open Letter to the Devil Dogs of 3.1
Excerpt: (c) Photo by Kevin Sites I have been a regular visitor to Kevin Sites Blog for some time now. Kevin is a multi-media journalist currently in the employ of NBC. He is quite a unique character in the world of news broadcasting. I love the "behind the scenes"-ness of his blog (which, BTW is not affiliated or supported by NBC). My Granddad was a soldier and I've always been fascinated (in a totally horrified voyeur kind of way) by soldiers lives (I loved Black Hawk Down), so Kevins words and pictures did a nice job of satisfying me with...
November 22, 2004 10:57 PM | Kevin Sites Open Letter to the Devil Dogs of 3.1 | Comments (0)
Post Title: CalorieMate is my friend
Excerpt: Calorie-mate is my friend....
November 7, 2004 8:18 PM | CalorieMate is my friend | Comments (0)
Post Title: Ahhhhh, the serenity
Excerpt: Just returned from a solitary sojourn to the mountains - did some hiking on Takao-san, then out to Saruhashi to my friend Stephen's very cool, run down old two storey apartment in a very cool, run down old town nestled in the mountains with a small river canyon running through it. Stephen wasn't there, he was spending the weekend with his girlfriends relatives. It was just what I needed. Time out. Time alone. Some time for reflection and pure solitude. I feel great, like I've had a whole week away - not just 24 hours. And, of course, I...
September 20, 2004 3:11 PM | Ahhhhh, the serenity | Comments (1)
Post Title: The Numbers Game
Excerpt: | updated | Earlier today I found, in my inbox, a link to an amazing photo of the Earth at night. It's a beautiful photo. And it really got me thinking about Japan and the density. If you look at the photo below, you'll see Japan lit up like a christmas tree. Insane. I decided to look up a few facts and figures (I guess partly inspired by Buggery.org's hilarious reworking of the Olympic medal tally according to GDP and population) and get the big picture as accurately as possible. Who woulda guessed the CIA would be helpful for...
August 24, 2004 4:31 PM | The Numbers Game | Comments (3)
Post Title: tink tink tink
Excerpt:
July 30, 2004 2:56 AM | tink tink tink | Comments (5)
Post Title: the colours of summer
Excerpt: these beautiful coloured glass balls are modelled after traditional style japanese fishing net floats. over the past hundred years or so, thousands of these have washed up on australian and nuiginian beaches. my family collected the ones we found, and although mum and dad ended up selling a heap of them in a garage sale many years ago, i hung on to a few of them. i was stoked to see these fishing balls for sale in a tourist shop on enoshima island. i will be going back there and buying some. in other news, i am happy to...
July 2, 2004 2:00 PM | the colours of summer | Comments (6)
Post Title: ukelele
Excerpt: i have always had a thing about ukeleles. blame it on my dear old granddad dunka. his name was actually duncan, he was my mum's father and he was quite an amazing man. he served in both WW1 & WW2 and became quite a high ranked, well decorated soldier. he wrote about a lot of his adventures and misadventures - like the time he and his troops were trapped on crete and had to scatter and live like guerillas, hiding from the nazis, until he managed to sneak them all off the island safely in fishing boats. when mum...
July 2, 2004 1:44 PM | ukelele | Comments (1)
Post Title: transmission resumed
Excerpt: inokashira park in the perfect spring weather hanami weekend frenzy........
March 29, 2004 10:49 PM | transmission resumed | Comments (11)
Post Title: so what letter of the alphabet are you?
Excerpt: tenzin phentok (second from right) with one of her brothers (left), her mum & dad (centre) and 3 of her 4 uncles, at her house in patlikuhl. the photographer was hunched in the far corner and what you see are the full dimensions of the entire house. today i received a letter from my sweet little penpal in india. tenzin phentok is a tibetan girl of 14. we met when i travelled to india with her (tibetan) uncle tenzin choegyal and his wife (good friends of mine) back in 2000. choegyal, bronny & i stayed at a nearby guest...
February 17, 2004 12:10 AM | so what letter of the alphabet are you? | Comments (6)
Post Title: so now it's official. i'm an idealist.
Excerpt: yesterday I had my second job interview in a week, again in tokyo. these interviews have been interesting experiences. the first interview immediately offered me 2 positions (one of them an office based admin position, which i turned down) and the second interview felt pretty much like a done deal to all of us who participated. it was actually more of an "interview seminar" with 8 others, all of us japan based teachers. 3 australians, 2 americans, 1 canadian, 1 new zealander (who lived for 7 years on queenslands gold coast) and 1 brit. this company has a huge percentage...
February 8, 2004 2:26 PM | so now it's official. i'm an idealist. | Comments (11)
Post Title: i am 3 years old
Excerpt: my new favourite australian blog. damn it makes me laugh and laugh. and from one extreme to another, here is another favourite from australia. it's called buggery and is written by a witty bugger with sharp political and social commentary. this site keeps me informed with real news from home and around the world. homophobes beware....
February 3, 2004 10:05 PM | i am 3 years old | Comments (2)
Post Title: damn, why aren't these for real?
Excerpt: jeez, if i actually kept a tally of all the money i've "won" or been offered (to be deposited into a "bank account of my choice") i'd be richer than mr bill gates hisself..... another one just arrived. **** 10 mins later. and yet another one. man, those spambots are busy tonight. check 'em out... _____________________________________ 12th feb, 2004: update: seems a hell of a lot of people are receiving these emails. i am getting dozens of search hits for the valley line lottery international program....
January 19, 2004 11:35 PM | damn, why aren't these for real? | Comments (20)
Post Title: the busy-ness ain't over
Excerpt: seems i was a little pre-emptive about getting time to breathe. still very busy. and this morning i made the 2 hour round trip over to kofu, yamanashi-kens' capital city to apply for my visa extension. this was one of the views on the way there, passing lake kawaguchi. one of the local hotels blasts a firehose up into the air during the night to create this spectacular vista. so i see from the leap in referrals from flyingchair.net that the asian weblog award results are in. thanks to everyone who voted for me, i am sincerely surprised to...
January 9, 2004 3:40 PM | the busy-ness ain't over | Comments (3)
Post Title: definitely NOT japan...
Excerpt: my uncle tony recently sent me these beautiful pictures of queenslands lamington national park. he took his 2 oldest sons for a 20 km bushwalk there, i suspect in celebration of their great uni results last month... doug, the oldest, graduated his bachelor of business, and chris, the second son, got high distinctions in his graphic design course and is off to melbourne to try his luck getting into swinburne, a very cool art college/uni there. anyway, these photos packed a punch with me, sitting here in the bloody freezing japanese mountains. they made me ache for a glorious...
December 23, 2003 3:23 PM | definitely NOT japan... | Comments (4)
Post Title: this one's for you, mum
Excerpt: mum, dad and me in nuigini in early 1968 a good friend here in japan sent me this email a few months ago: do you mind if i ask you a personal question? please don't answer if it upsets you. not my intention at all. and perhaps email isn't the appropriate forum, but i can't see a time soon enough that we can meet and have a long chat about this.. i was just thinking about you and your mum. i read on your site that you took off and started around australia. i guess there's no norm for...
December 9, 2003 2:52 AM | this one's for you, mum | Comments (4)
Post Title: they say it's yer birthday...
Excerpt: happy birthday to me happy birthday to me happy birthday dear me happy birthday to me mystic medusa says: Not that you need it, but the Moon in Aquarius all day is striking in your Comms sector, allowing you an even more fluent oratory than usual. At 18.25 (AEDST), the Sun sextiles the Moon giving you the power to be on stage/on a table, singing your lungs out. thanks mystic. off to karoake after work tonight. so, another year, another birthday. lots of pressies coming from australia. feeling ever so homesick today. ann, thank you so much for the...
November 28, 2003 10:20 AM | they say it's yer birthday... | Comments (9)
Post Title: decisions and misadventures
Excerpt: hope i never get this bent.... there are so many bent old women here, many much worse than this woman. thanks so much for all your emails and comments regarding my confusion about whether or not to stay here in the lovely mountains or move to tokyo. some great food for thought there.... still quite confused, of course, but I've got plenty of time to make my decision so it's time to sit back and just live for a while. in a strange and unexpected adventure today, i headed off to the hairdressers. my friend emi-san now works saturdays...
November 8, 2003 11:12 PM | decisions and misadventures | Comments (13)
Post Title: true grit
Excerpt: i took my first real sick day off today - and no, it wasn't to go see mogwai play at the shibuya ax. it was to genuinely stay in bed all day and recuperate after being under the weather for over a week now. monday saw me decend into the depths of head cold hell, trying to teach between sneezes, blowing my streaming nose and trying to ignore the intermittent pain in my sinus's. i have spent the entire day in bed. damn glorious. my lovely friend misae came over with a bag of food and cooked me a...
November 5, 2003 7:46 PM | true grit | Comments (15)
Post Title: old friends
Excerpt: so yeah, i've been a little sick. i always get slightly shocked and annoyed when i get sick. and i get really quite pathetic and sooky. the past few days i've sat here at this computer and shed a pathetic tear or two at various emails i've received from loved ones far away. the cheesy get well card from my aunt and uncle was particularly eye-watering, as was the post from my bestest friend, jackie. but tonight. tonight. ahhhhh, the best email i've had in months....years....? "hiya baby! seated and sorted through a handfull of odds and odds, been though...
October 30, 2003 11:22 PM | old friends | Comments (2)
Post Title: feel it like a sickness.... again
Excerpt: sick. sick. sick. sick as a ...... bad headache for 2 days, every muscle group in my body aches, i have chills, and no energy. great way to start the week of halloween festivities at school. a week of costumes, crafts and cameras. s'posed to be all yahoooo-like. somehow got through work today (dressed as a panda - very comfy, indeed). been swallowing lots of vile tasting chinese medicine from the local pharmacy, some ascorbic acid and water. how i wish i worked in a place that didn't fall apart if one of the gaijin teachers gets sick. hope i...
October 27, 2003 10:28 PM | feel it like a sickness.... again | Comments (3)