montage monday: kites

kite festival 2008This is the Montage that would have been posted LAST Monday had it not been for the fact that my camera battery died...

I would have made the whole montage of "things against blue" except that I really wanted to use the seahorse shot, and sadly, it never made it much further off the ground than that...

The shot directly in the middle is Ma's bird kite... I do have a couple of shots of mine in action, but, to be honest it just looks like a black rectangle with two red streamers... not quite so photogenic...

The dragon right next to it was amazing... it really looked like it was flying, and because it's head was anchored by the lines, it had that predatory bird thing going on (when the body moves, but the head is locked in position), and it looked like it was about to swoop out of the sky any moment. And the phoenix on the bottom row was good too... the flame edges were all ragged, so as it was moving it actually looked like it was on fire (not actually, because it would have burnt to a crisp in seconds, but, you know, figuratively).

In other news there really isn't very much to report... as I said yesterday, I think it's possible that Tribal is a big game-playing liar... partly because nobody's life is that interesting and fabulous, and when it all sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The thing is, if he IS a big ol' liar, then he's way up in the rank of the clinical sociopath, because he's putting some thought into stuff... and there's nothing that I can quite point to yet and go "A-HA! You big bad lie making man!"... it all seems reasonable... but at the same time it all kinda walks like a duck...

I never quite get that whole "make up a complete and total story and string people along" thing... well... I kinda do... but I don't get it when it's aimed at me...

Speaking of men and their manly ways... I got a text message from Marc yesterday... which is something of a record, I would have expected it to take him a week or more before he got in contact (although I had sent him a totally random message on Gaydar during the day just to show him something)... and we have a coffee "date" on Tuesday. Because the last one of those wasn't at all confusing...

On the up side, I do think that I actually know what I want this time around... "friends with benefits" with more of the emphasis on "benefits" than "friends" would be good, although I think that's actually what I said before the previous coffee date. I do know that I wouldn't want to date him, and I can't really see myself developing strings beyond the "I enjoy having the sex with you... can we please have more of the sex?" kinda strings... if they're actually strings.

I'm sure this is going to make me either sound like a bimbo who can't keep a thought in his head, or some kind of rampaging slut (I wish), or some combination of both... but really, when has that ever stopped me before?

Is it hideously tragic that I actually made a database to keep track of the guys I've been talking to (and/or have hooked up with)... I have a shitty memory for names, particularly profile names online... and there is one particular guy who I hooked up with a while ago that I wouldn't mind a repeat meeting with, but I can't remember his profile name (having said that I think I just found his email, so I might just email him)... and I completely forgot about one possible guy I could have met in Sydney (not that I really had the time... and I'm not sure how fussed I was anyway)... and sometimes you just need to remember that THAT particular guy is a wee bit psycho and should be avoided at all costs and on all possible sites.

So just a wee bit tragic then... yeah, figured as much...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 269

The Unconscious Mutterings page is all broken right now, so I had to be all sneaky and find the words through the back door...

  1. Stuffed :: To the gills (which ties in nicely with the next one)

  2. Gills :: Fish

  3. Distance :: Travelled

  4. Panties :: Lace

  5. Checkered :: Past

  6. Fill in :: The blanks

  7. Taunting :: Teasing

  8. Diner :: Fifties

  9. Pizza :: Boy

  10. Best friend :: Wedding

Current Mood:

black is the new black

My instincts were right about Tribal, my city-dwelling, spa-owning, jet-setting, possibly flakey "date" for the evening... just got off MSN with him and he's suddenly not due back until next Friday...

I sense a timewaster... but I'll give him one more chance...

It's typical though...

You Need Some Black in Your Life

Black will make you feel powerful, in control, and not bound to what other people think of you.

And with a little black, you will project a aura of mystery, rebellion, and dominance.

If you want people to respect you, you've got to get a little black in your life!

For extra punch: Combine black with orange or red.

The downside of black: People won't be able to "read" you - and may perceive you as more aggressive than you actually are.

The consequences of more black in your life:

You'll become a figure of intrigue and speculation.

You'll be better prepared for life's unknown path.

You'll rest better and free yourself of expectations.

Current Mood:

surprisingly good sauna adventures

i'm pretty sure the one in the blue briefs was in the movie summer storm...Sometimes there are good days to go to the sauna... sometimes there are very, very bad days to go to the sauna (which usually don't end up getting blogged about)... fortunately last night was very much one of the former...

I also figured that since it was Earth Hour last night, that shutting down all my electronic equipment (well, turning it off anyway) and leaving all my lights off while I was out was a good plan too... go and use somebody else's electricity, where the lights are only really on in selected areas anyway, and who would be using the power anyway... yeah, I know... it really didn't have a damn thing to do with my decision, but since I was going out anyway and since I wasn't sure I could be bothered with the whole Earth Hour thing, I figured I just wouldn't put any lights on...

But anyway, back to the fun stuff...

When I got to the sauna, there was a sign I only half read on the inner door saying something about the steam room being closed... and because I didn't read it properly, and then, when I went down towards the steam room and saw one of the guys shooing everybody out, turning on the lights and (I think) scrubbing it all down, I wasn't overly optimistic... partly because I've never seen them actually do that before... at least not while people are there anyway... yeah, they do a clean up circuit looking for condoms and wrappers or whatever, but not the whole scrubbing thing.

And of course, I also had a momentary freak out because one of the people that was being shooed out of the steam room was Marc (last seen at Marion in February waving at me like a crazy person)... well, obviously it did have to happen at some point... but the combination of factors just made me turn on my heels and walk back the other way.

It did turn out that the steam room was going to be closed from, I think, 9pm on Sunday until Tuesday... which was good, because it did factor quite often and quite happily in the rest of the evening.

Just before I continue on with the fun stuff... I need to mention something... there was a guy there last night... probably late twenties, perhaps early thirties, pretty good body, seemingly had everything in the right places, but he was acting so strangely and so "weaselly" that it was actually had not to laugh at him. For a starters he was wearing a bandanna and some sort of sandals, added to the fact he never took his towel off... okay, the towel thing isn't that rare, and maybe he had him some toe fungus so the sandals were a good idea, but honestly, between those and the bandanna he was just an instantly recognisable shape no matter where he went... as was the fact that he kept partially covering his face as he was running around. Maybe he was a straight guy in massive amounts of denial (although if so I'm not sure what the hell he was worried about, everybody in there is there for the same reasons, so it's not like anybody is going to out him... I wouldn't think anyway)... but again, all the peeking and the face hiding and whatever else he was doing was just drawing attention to himself. He also did a lot of crouching and sitting in weird weaselly positions, legs tucked up under him, usually near anybody who was getting busy in the steam room, and then suddenly he would be up and gone out the door...

I actually first ran into him in the antechamber (I love that word) for the dry steam room... I'd taken up a spot while the wet steam room was out of commission, he sat down and seemed to be doing the "across the room genital semaphore signals" that show that you're good for approach... legs up on the bench next to him, spread open, hand all busylike... so approach I did... and... nothing...

Weird, weird, weird little man...

Anyway...

Eventually the steam room was opened up again, so I wandered in there and kinda sat watching a show that, I think, was already in progress... or else started not long after I'd sat down. For the record (and I think I've probably said it before), darkness plus steamy room plus me not having my glasses on usually leads to not only me not being able to see very far very clearly, but sometimes me either thinking somebody is somebody else, or whatever...

So I'm watching the guy at the centre of what seems to be a three ring circus where he's the main event, and I thought... "Hmmmm, he looks a little bit like Puggle! But if that is Puggle, then Puggle is way more of a slut, in a good way of course, than I would have ever thought!"...

And after watching for a while, I moved position, got closer to where I could actually see the Possible Puggle in action... turns out that yes indeed, it WAS Puggle...

Puggle was a guy I knew through a friend of a friend years and years and years and years and years ago (when I first came out)... Puggle always seemed to be this shy, quiet, skinny little guy, who was incredibly cute, but seemed a little reserved.

Oh how the years have changed you Puggle!

He's still skinny and little (about 5'9" I think... and pretty much the physical type that makes me fall to my knees and weep... skinny but toned, and tiny enough to throw around like a rag doll if I so chose)... but he wasn't the shy guy I remember.

He did seem to be very "open" about his choice in partners... so when one of the guys moved away and was no longer "manning his post" to coin a phrase, I figured I would move in and see what happened. The worse I was going to get was pushed away, but if I hadn't tried I would have wondered for the rest of the night.

Thank all the little gods and goddesses that I did... P. L. A. Y. T. I. M. E! I'll say this for Puggle... not only does he have an impressive and beautiful "post", but damn the boy can kiss. I even ended up with him on my lap at one point (while the other end of him was occupied), and could pretty much wrap my arms totally around his waist, and almost touch my own chest again... *sigh*...

I really should have asked him to go upstairs with me (well, I did, but I didn't phrase it the right way)... but even though I had to "share" him, it was completely worth the price of admission...

Seriously, if that had been all that happened last night, I would have been reasonably okay with it... okay maybe a little frustrated by the end of the night, but still...

I saw him dive into the pool later, and swim around... he even looked incredibly sexy doing that... he just stepped off the side of the pool into the deep water and disappeared beneath the surface, then he was swimming underwater and I happened to catch a brief glimpse of when he tiny, perfect little butt broke the surface before he disappeared down again... yum!

And yes, I know that all of you who followed the seemingly neverending disaster that was my previous interactions with Marc are going "Yes, that's lovely... but what the hell happened with MARC!"...

This is what happened...

I'd just done a circuit upstairs (I think) and was headed downstairs (or vice versa, it doesn't really matter)... and who should be coming up the stairs, but Marc... no way to avoid or run or hide... I was trapped like Bambi on the Interstate...

Which was actually fine... we said hello and ended up going downstairs to find somewhere to have a little chat... we ended up propping up the pool table for a while (well, okay, I was... mostly because I'd not long finished with Puggle and I had a serious case of "Jelly Legs"), then we ended up moving to the big teevee room and took up far too much space and had a good long natter.

Turns out (according to what he tells me anyway) that he wasn't sure what I wanted when last we parted... so he didn't contact me, and then he thought about, saw me online a few times, but never did anything about it... which was pretty much what I'd eventually done... figured if he was interested, he'd contact me... so we'd both thought ourselves into a corner and nobody did anything about anything... ahhhh, men, gotta love them...

Add to the fact that he got my name wrong... silly rabbit... although interestingly, what he ended up calling me is actually Ludo's real name... and I wasn't overly insulted.

While we were chatting, this reasonably young (20-21, something like that), really skinny, really tall, REALLY hung (like scary, half way down his leg soft... kinda like a babies arm holding an apple kind of hung... and it was very obvious because he basically took off his towel and was showing everybody in the room that he was pretty much a tripod), fairly cute in a "dumb as a box of rubber puppies" kind of way (my usual like is "dumb as a box of rubber hammers", but while we were out shopping yesterday it became "dumb as a box of puppies" for some reason... then last night it morphed into "dumb as a box of rubber puppies") guy came into the room... and I will admit, because he was flashing the room his giant lunchbox, I turned my complete attention on him (and he was actually slightly behind me on the left) until he finally sat down... and Marc whispered something to be about "go for it"... to which I made that "yeah, in a pink fit" face at him (as a brief side note, Marc just finds me hysterically funny... and half the time it's not even like I'm trying), and he pointed out that Rubber Puppy didn't seem to be overly discriminating with his choices of "dates" throughout the evening, and I should go for it anyway.

And given the events of the evening thus far, I figured that if it was ever possible, it was possible then and there...

But I never seemed to be in the right place at the right time with him... and the more I watched him, the more I realised that he was going for a very particular type... the Big Hairy Daddy... now, I may be a lot of things, but Hairy Daddy, I am not... firstly, not hairy... secondly, waaaaaay too young to be anybody's Daddy (yet... *grin*)...

It was interesting to watch him wandering around though... at one point he was "holding court" (although I'm not sure that he knew that's what he was doing, or was even doing it intentionally) with five or six Daddies in the teevee room with the pool table...

What I didn't realise until this morning was that Rubber Puppy was actually Young & Pretty from a while back... which makes more sense now...

Anyway, putting aside the things I couldn't have... Marc and I chatted for a bit longer, then he went for a wander (I hung around checking out Rubber Puppy until it seemed like a lost cause, then went on my own wander, complete with interesting but not overly noteworthy pitstops), we ran into each other a couple of other times and I made a point of telling him I was going to drag him off into a dark corner at some stage, which he rather coltishly avoided making either a confirmation or a refusal of... then I went back into the steam room at some later stage (again... dark, steam, blind), looked at the three guys all arranged on the long section of the bench, thought the one at the far end looked fairly hot... shortly after which, he moved... and yes, you got it... Marc.... *grin*.

He had his hand full (well, as it turned out... not FULL... but occupied) and I just sat there watching him for a while... it was a good view, it was nice to watch him "work", I didn't feel any twinges of "why isn't that me" or "I want that"... but I did figure that he probably wasn't going to chase me away if I joined in... so I did. I don't know what the other party thought about it... but he didn't push me away either (actually he didn't seem to have much of any expression on his face the whole time), so I hung around for a bit... then took my leave at what seemed to be the appropriate moment.

Marc had actually mentioned, when I said about the dark corner, something about me being "rough"... to which I replied that I could be very, very, very gentle (this from the guy who started off the post-orgasm wrestling match when he was here)... and made sure that I was as gentle as possible with him, to prove my point if nothing else.

Anyway, we ran into each other again shortly after (which is interesting, because you can actually go for hours and hours without bumping into people in that place... but there we were bumping into each other every half an hour or so)... and were again trying to find somewhere to have a little chat... so I suggested the spa, we'd both be naked, close physical contact (if I had anything to say about it), some degree of privacy... we ended up being in there for at least three bubble cycles... I'm not sure how long the cycles last... you press a button, the spa goes all spa-ey, eventually it stops, you press the button again, it restarts... we were in there for three, nearly four cycles... so I'd say somewhere between forty minutes and an hour...

First we chatted, then we wrestled a bit and messed about, then I carried him over to the opposite side of the spa and started on the kissing... and HOLY DAMN the boy can kiss... if I was going to add to the list of memorable kisses... this whole session would be up there... okay, maybe it wasn't "memorable" in the same way... but damn it was good.

The only downside was that I was pretty much on my knees the whole time, and once the frottage started, well, it was occasionally less comfortable from a knee perspective (and, I'll be honest, when you're rubbing certain body parts between flesh and a molded plastic seat section of a spa, you just have to be glad that there is water involved, otherwise it could have been painful).

It was enjoyable though... very, VERY enjoyable in fact... and it wasn't even like we jumped right out after that... we just sat around some more... I rediscovered (or just discovered, although I don't actually remember being aware of it before) that he has a major thing about the nape of his neck being licked and sucked (not bitten though, that's my thing), although whether that's actually a sexual thing or more of a "I really need a massage, but I don't know it" thing, I'm not sure.

After a bit more floating around and making more comments on Rubber Puppy and his body language as he tried to pick up another Old Daddy (not so hairy this time, just old)... and the fact that Marc hasn't ever watched the body language of people around the sauna (which just boggles my mind, because the place is RIFE with body language... good, bad and indifferent... and I would have thought that he would totally be the kind of person who would pay attention to that stuff)... he finally declared that the spa was now officially "too cold" for him and went off to warm up. I stayed put for a little bit longer until the bubble cycle finished, then hopped out, put the cycle back on for the guy who was still in there, and went on a wander of my own.

I just couldn't get interested in anything or anybody though... Rubber Puppy was a lost cause... there was a very "scene" gayboy (blonde streaks, cute little body, just the kind of boy you'd expect to see waving his arms over his head at a gay nightclub) wandering around, but he was kind of keeping to the fringes of things... and so I just ended up sitting in the little alcove upstairs watching the exact same piece of porno footage with one of the Bel Ami boys humping the pole leading into the swimming pool that I ended up watching the second time I saw Marc...

And of course, just after the scene changed he wandered past... and I told him I was probably going to scram shortly thereafter since I was kinda over it, and it wasn't far off midnight either. He made promises to call me (since, unlike me, he never deleted my number from his phone), so we'll see what, if anything, happens there...

I stayed put for a while, caught the eye of a cutish guy with a not overly dissimilar build from my own briefly, thought about following him... kind of wandered downstairs, saw he was in the spa, couldn't really face another round in the spa, so just wandered around a bit downstairs, then ended up back in there again with him. I wasn't completely sure to be honest... a little bit like me, his face didn't really reflect his body shape that much (ala thin boys with fat heads, fat boys with skinny faces, etc), and I wasn't sure it was him... we played the "look, catch your eye, look away, half smile, look, catch your eye..." game for a bit... and I took it up a notch to the "watch you until you look at me" game... to which I got a smile, and then a headshake... I wasn't sure about it at first... then he did it again, so I figured that a) it wasn't the guy I thought it was, and b) he was all about the mixed signals. So I did what any self respecting mental patient would have done, and poked my tongue out at him, then proceeded to pretty much ignore him the rest of the time I was in there.

But of course the Universe was playing games with me, and when I eventually hopped out, I picked up his towel instead of mine (they'd both originally been hanging on the hooks, but mine fell down, and his didn't), and when I realised it was red, not black, I went back and apologised to him and took my own towel... to which I got this strange headbob/nod/smile combo thing that was just odd. A little bit "stuck up bitch snob" really... but at the same time not... weird. That was his general vibe all over really... a little bit stuck up bitch, a little bit not...

Anyway, that was the point when I decided to call it a night... so I got changed, went to dump my towel (although, right now, while I'm thinking about it, I don't actually remember dumping my towel, just returning my key... so maybe I didn't), and who should be standing there, getting a new towel and showing off a long, lean, naked length of thigh and a glimpse of donkeycock as he rewrapped himself... yep... Rubber Puppy... so that was the very last thing I saw before I left...

We'll also have to see how the rest of today pans out... in theory I may have a "date" tonight... and the guy just happens to have a spa out on the balcony of his city apartment... so this could end up being one of those "slutty" weekends... that is if he doesn't turn out to be a complete and total timewasting flake...

I'll keep you posted...

Current Mood:

less interesting shopping

big blue supermarketNot really an overly interesting shopping day today...

Although due to the fact that The Powers That Be are currently dicking around with Daylight Savings (another freakin week until the clocks change again... bored now... could we just go back to it ending at the beginning of March please?) I got up to pretty much pitch dark (which is nothing new, because I've been doing that for my walks for a while now)... and then it started raining... so not really a very welcoming start to the day... but on the up side I did have my new favourite item of clothing, my scarlet Bonds zip up hoodie, to keep me warm.

Oh, and we stopped off to fill up my car with petrol on the way to the stoopidmarket I made a rather annoying discovery... at some point in the slightly recent past I filled up my car and forgot to put the petrol cap back in, so drove off without it (either that or somebody managed to be very sneaky, break into the cover that closes over the cap, steal the cap, the close the cover again, but I'm not sure how likely that is)...

Shopping was about the same as normal... well, except for the fact that we ended up buying far too many cheap Easter eggs at Coles... seriously, they must have radically over-ordered, because they had about half a billion eggs of various descriptions left over. Sadly we also did the same thing on Tuesday before we went to the movies... and doubly sadly, I'd already eaten pretty much all my share by last night.

So no more chocolate for a while (after I consume this new lot) *sob sob*...

Then, after the usual unpacking stopover, we headed into town to find out what this "early phone upgrade" thing was that Ma had been called about before we went to Sydney... for whatever reason the nice folks at Optus decided that we could have new phones again and restart our contracts a couple of months early (we only got the current phones in May 2006)... so we went to torment the poor girly in the shop and find out what the deal was and what they wanted to offer us, blah, blah, blah...

Turns out that yes, we can upgrade now... but, to be honest, with the plan we're both on, it's not really that worth it... the new phones really only have the fact that they're "new" going for them... also, my phone is not even two years old... why do I need a new one yet, I don't even use half the features on this one as it is! So, yeah... ugly, non-sliding phones (and the two I might have considered are both "sliding" models, the one with the "Navigator" thing on it and one that was all pretty and brushed aluminium... mmmm purdy... cost money per month, so they can shove that in an appropriate place)... so I think we're just going to keep doing what we're doing for right now... maybe renew the contracts for another year, then see what kinda phones are on offer after that... I dunno really.

And that, it turned out, was all we really wanted to do in town... we kind of wandered about aimless for a bit (and, as a bonus, there was a LOT of purdy men wandering around town), saw that they've ripped the ceiling out of the front of Regent Arcade (so now you can see up and up and up and up and up to where the pretty, pretty, pretty ceiling is in what used to be the cinema, and they seem to be doing the whole thing up, putting shops upstairs (and maybe downstairs too, I'm not completely sure)... which should be interesting. As is the brand spanky new Adidas store at the front of the arcade... not sure I would actually shop there, but it was very groovy looking.

Anyway, we took a little sidetrip to Arndale, mostly just to poke around Big W at DVD's...

While we were there I realised that I have this particular compulsion when browsing through tables full of DVDs... I've known about it for a while, but it really seemed to come to the forefront today (and I'm sure I've never mentioned it on here before). If there's a table full of rows of DVD's, and a large number of them have been taken, so that the rows are all kinda slanty or falling down or whatever, or when they've been taken out of the rows and just laid on top... I can't help myself... I have to squish up the remaining DVDs and move them around so there are, for example, three full rows where before there were four incomplete rows. Sometimes I just do it without thinking about it in the course of my general browsing... but today it was very much a conscious thing... there were a bunch of tables, each with three or four little wire baskets on them, each with four rows of DVDs... and I must have turned four rows into three in about five or six baskets... couldn't help myself...

Then we took another sidetrip down towards Port Adelaide so we could go to The Mill Bakehouse for lunch... somewhat out of the way... but still worth it, although they don't seem to be making the lemon tarts that I really, really, really loved anymore *sulk*...

After that it was home again, but via Arndale for the second time (because I didn't think about it at the time) so that we could stop off at the big auto parts place (the name of which escapes me right now, and even if it didn't I might not care because the service was pretty much shitty) to get a new petrol cap...

So, yeah... a lot of stops, a lot of locations, but not really that much to report...

Current Mood:

photo friday: crash test dummies

This is one of the golden crash test dummies that are impaled on poles like some sort of safety sacrifice in Hindmarsh Square...

My photos from Monday ended up being a little "contrasty" since the sky was quite grey and I was shooting up against it, so the dummies were really dark... and after the usual Photoshop "fiddle" the sky disappears completely.

You would think that a set of half a dozen gold crash test dummies in the middle of a park in the city would cause a large-ish ripple online... but it took me two different search engines before I could find anything at all... and that was just a brief mention on the City Council website...

Turns out that they are by an artist called Jamie Willis, and they have the rather unsurprising name of "Crash Test"... supposedly the polished bronze 'crash test dummies' were temporarily installed for twelve weeks... but I'm not sure how long they've actually been there (especially since the website "approved" them in October last year.

They're a little bit quirky, a little bit whimsical, and, if I'm completely honest a little bit sad (they all seem to have that whole "broken neck" thing going on... plus they're impaled on those poles.

Current Mood:

random caspian hotness

Today's Random Hotness is actor Ben Barnes who is playing the title character in the upcoming Narnia sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian... after I saw the photo of him all kitted out as the character (mmmm chainmail!) I knew I had to use it... but I also thought it would be nice to show him as "himself" too...

I've actually been drooling over Mr Barnes since September last year when I first saw the poster for Prince Caspian... but as I was looking for some other photos of him the other day I discovered that he based his character's Spanish accent on the one that Mandy Patinkin did for The Princess Bride... which made me love him just a little bit more...

prince caspianben barnes

Current Mood:

my blogger code

I did one of these once before... but this one has more options I think... plus it has pretty icon thingies...

my blogger codeCurrent Mood:

chinese garden

chinese pagodacarp pond with willow
A couple of bigger shots from the Chinese Garden of Friendship on Day Three of the Sydney Trip...

I actually got a magnetic bookmark from there which has almost the exact same shot of the pagoda on it too... and I like that you can see the carp under the water in the other shot.

I don't think I mentioned it at the time, but those carp were freakin insane! They'd swim around all sedate and lovely like you expect carp in a Chinese garden to do... then suddenly it was like they were staging a production of West Side Story, and there seemed to be little fish gangs and a lot of rushing backwards and forwards and swarming and swimming in big packs... and then they decided to start jumping out of the water for no apparent reason... very odd.

Current Mood:

movies: horton hears a who

horton hears a who - a persons a person no matter how small!"I meant what I said, and I said what I meant!
An elephant's faithful one hundred percent!"

Interestingly, even though that line appears in the movie version of Horton Hears a Who! it's actually from a different Horton story, one that I had a cassette tape of when I was a kid... Horton Hatches an Egg...

So I already had a built in soft spot for Horton before we saw the movie (plus he's an elephant, and I have a soft spot for elephants anyway).

I will by saying the same thing that I say just about every time we see the latest and greatest CG animation extravaganza... the textures and the rendering, from the ultra closeup shots right at the beginning, through to all the fur on all the Whos and a lot of the jungle animals, is all first rate. Yeah, there are a couple of "water issues" at the start, but since I know water is the hardest thing to do realistically, I can forgive that.

A case in point (of the good stuff) is the render they gave to Vlad the Vulture... his wings just look incredible when he's flinging them around like a cape when we first meet him... there's this oily black sheen to them that's just fantastic.

There's not a whole hell of a lot of story (but then, if you're turning what is essentially a picture book into an 88 minute movie, you're going to get that)... but what there is is quite sweet, and quite touching towards the end.

Both Jim Carrey and Steve Carell turn in quite good performances... perhaps somewhat understated... but that could just be that they had multiple takes to use and they chose some of the subtler ones, or it's just the use of the voice and not the visual that makes it feel that way.

Actually my favourite character had almost no lines at all... Jojo, son of the Mayor of Whoville... who's all grey and black and floppy haired and just all around EmoWho... the animators really do a great job of putting across his personality without any dialog.

There were a couple of really good moments (and a somewhat weird one at the end involving a song that just comes out of nowhere)... but I have to say that the traditional 2D animated "Japanimation Horton" section was pretty damn amusing... and the very brief use of original Suess style drawing in another one of Horton's daydreams was a nice touch.

It's a sweet movie, with a good message, but I don't think it's going to light the world on fire.

yani's rating: 2 Whoville Mayors out of 5

wet wet wet

i couldn't have been any wetter if this had happened to meWell I think Autumn is officially here now...

A couple of days ago we had the coldest night in three months only a week after having had the hottest March night on record...

And we haven't had rain in I don't know how many days (literally I don't know... I tried looking it up, but couldn't find it)... but after a few specks yesterday it came down with avengence this morning...

Yes, this morning... while I was on my walk!

I haven't been THAT wet on a walk since the Drowned Rat Incident back in April last year... I wasn't quite as wet this time... I mean my underwear stayed mostly dry this time... but I still got very, very wet!

And like last time the rain decided that it would be a good game to absolutely soak me to the skin when I was in the middle of a very open and exposed area... and then stop right around the time I managed to find shelter under the University Footbridge, leaving me to finish my walk in soaking wet clothes.

It was weird actually... I was standing there, pretty much in the dark (the end of Daylight Savings can just hurry up now) and soaking wet, under the Footbridge, and I could see rain against the street light back the way I'd come, but there didn't seem to be anything against the light in the direction I was heading... like the bridge was some mythical cut off point for the rain. Very weird, and also very annoying.

But unlike last time where I tried to wring the water out of my teeshirt as best I could while still wearing it, I decided that since it was dark, and mostly deserted (and I could see a long way in both directions), I would just take off my top and wring it out... which is actually a very out of character thing for me to have done, but in the end turned out to be the right one...

Luckily the wind didn't seem to be that cold, so I wasn't left shivering in a wet teeshirt (although most of me was pretty cold when I got home, I just didn't feel it). And now all my gear has been shut up in the bathroom with my oil heater to try and dry it out...

On the upside, I was showered, dressed and organised just after I got back (I didn't see the point in putting another set of clothes on after I'd taken off the wet ones, only to take those off to put on my actual clothes after my shower)...

Current Mood:

religious icons

sun crosschurch tower
Something with a religious vibe to round out the Easter holiday...

I actually went out this morning and did something of a "Hunt and Gather" photo safari... it started out because when we were on our way down to the Kite Fesitval on Saturday I was looking out of the car window as we were driving through a fairly industrialised area and happened to catch sight of something at the far end of a street as we whisked by... and in the two or three seconds that my eyes had to tell my brain what they'd seen, I knew it was a Benzobot (and a big one at that)... but then we were over the railway line and there was no way back around (actually there was, I just didn't know it at the time)...

Then, on the way back from Semaphore I saw what appeared to be a very cool Icon mural outside one of the churches on Port Road, so I figured I would head out and snap some photos while it was somewhat cloudy and the light was mostly soft... then as I was heading out, I decided I would go via one of the places I'd shot before which was on the way... then come back via the city and maybe snag a few bits and pieces there too.

So basically it felt like I was in and out of the car every few minutes.

There wasn't that much to see in the first street... but when I finally found it again, the Benzobot was very cool... possibly a commission piece, since it was the only piece of street art on the whole building... the Icon was less so... nice idea, but not great.

When I got into the city I did a bit of revisiting of previous sites, just to see if anything was different, although I did see a few new bits and pieces too... and I discovered this house with an amazing front garden, just chock full of, well, STUFF... sculptures and signs and hanging things and whatnot. I'm not sure I would want to live there... or even next door to it... but it was definitely worth a look.

And also in the "interestingly enough" column, even after the guy did all that whinging about Jules' "Phoenix Crane", he never did anything about getting rid of it, and it's still there... which was nice to see.

I stopped off in a couple of other places to reshoot some shots that hadn't come out all that well on previous occasions due to the harsh light (in between going around and around and around and around the same block far too many times because now you can't turn across King William Street because of the stupid tram *grrrr*)... and oddly enough, even though it's a public holiday, I seemed to keep coming across people in the backalleys (I actually saw a couple of guys on BMX bikes who were either tagging or doing stencils or possibly stickering... they kept circling the area while I was there, and then as I was driving away I saw one of them doing something to a wall)...

I also swung by the gold crash test dummies on poles in Hindmarsh Square... I'm sure it's "art"... but I have no idea what the hell it's all about (and I can't find anything about it on Google)... they sprung up just before the Fringe started, but they're still there, so they weren't just a Fringe thing obviously... and they're outside where the old RAA building was... and being crash test dummies, maybe it's significant... buggered if I know...

Then after trying to find the stuff that Benzo and Co did during the Fringe that I couldn't find previously (I even went as far as knocking on the closed door of the pub to ask the guy mopping the floor about it)... turns out they weren't permanent things, they'd been done on board and disappeared after the Fringe was over... buggery buggery bugger!

But at least I know now...

And yes, I realise that this little story has nothing at all to do with the photos at the top of this post, but I've had these shots for a while and Easter seemed to be the appropriate time to post them... and I'm sure I'll find more than a few chances to post the stuff from today later on.

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 268

Tumpty tumpty tay... Poor little rowing boys... all locked out of their shed in the chilly morning air wearing lycra suits and not much else... tumpty tumpty Unconscious Mutterings...

  1. Money :: Talks

  2. Unhappy :: Chappy

  3. Joking :: Only

  4. Chipmunk :: Chip and Dale

  5. Date :: Movie

  6. Slideshow :: Powerpoint

  7. Chicago :: All That Jazz

  8. Lifetime :: Once in a...

  9. Skid row :: Little Shop of Horrors

  10. Edward :: Scissorhands

Current Mood:

the exquisite sting of sunburn

pink and white mickeyI grew up as a child in the late 70's and early 80's in Australia... so I'm no stranger to the exquisite pink sting that is sunburn...

But I haven't been sunburnt over quite the amount of skin that I was yesterday for a long while... usually it's just my face or one arm or both arms... not my face and both my arms and the backs of my hands and my fingers and the back of my neck and the sides of my neck and even my lips I think...

And so it got me thinking about sunburn and my childhood and the strange and somewhat specific phenomenon that IS sunburn...

Like I said, as an Australian child, especially in the years before "Slip, Slop, Slap" came in, I'm no stranger to the concept... and I have more than a few childhood memories of warm Summer nights, after having spent the whole day at the beach, feeling like your whole body was on fire and dreading even the seemingly incredibly scratchy and heavy press of a light cotton sheet on hot, tight, pink skin (okay, that last bit sounds a bit filthy)...

Then there's the additional joy I had given that I have a mother who seems to have a particular thrill over peeling off the skin once it starts to flake and peel... and she's an evil wench, she really likes to peel it off in as big a piece as she can. She's the same with glue on fingers actually... I have no idea what that is all about... weird, freaky woman...

I know there's a whole bunch of science behind sunburn, and the fact you've probably cooked the top couple of layers of skin, but this is one of those cases where I'm far happier not knowing the exact whys and wherefores... but just the fact that your skin suddenly holds all this heat in it, and tightens up like a $3 facelift, and even the slightest kiss of either additional sunlight or water that's anything other than freezing cold will make it burn with the most exquisite pain imaginable.

And I also know I've used the word "exquisite" a lot during this post, but it was the one that sprang into my mind while I was in the shower this morning when the warm water was hitting the back of my left hand and the right side of my neck, the two most badly burned places on my body... it was that level of pain that is so sharp and bites so unexpectedly... but at the same time I didn't want to make it stop. But then that's probably just because my brain is wired all wrong when it comes to certain kinds of pain.

When it comes to pain from sunburn though, there have been two instances that are possibly the worst in my memory. I'm sure there were others that were more painful at the time, but these two stick in my mind possibly because they weren't "usual" cases. The first I think because it was just really, really odd, and the second because I wore that particular sunburn like a badge of honour...

Back when I lived in the house I grew up in, we had a big conifer tree in the front yard, right next to the front fence... and then, for some reason (maybe it had dropped a branch, maybe it was the wrong kind of tree, I honestly don't remember why), it was being cut down. So I sat on the front step in a pair of shorts (which tells you I must have been fairly young at the time) and watched them cut it down (the only thing I actually remember is that when they felled the main part it fell the wrong way and hit the gate and we had a huge dent in the top of the gate from then on). And that night, I had sunburn in the oddest of places... not, as you would have expected, on the tops of my legs... oh no... I was only sunburnt behind my knees! The only thing I can assume is that it was reflected sunlight from the step... but even that just seems really, really weird.

My badge of honour sunburn comes from my brief, but enjoyable, stint going down to the nude beach at Maslins with a former friend a few years back. And no, it wasn't where you would expect (everybody always assumes that certain parts of your anatomy will get burnt, but if you look at the skin on them, it's always much darker than the surrounding skin, so your chances of sunburn are much less likely)... and it wasn't even my butt if memory serves... but that section right at the top of the thigh. So for the next three or four days try to sit for any length of time while at the same time trying no to put any pressure on the sunburn... there wasn't a position known to man...

I've always wished I was one of those people (like my buddy J for example) who tan to a consistent, even, deep, golden brown in the Summer (or any time really)... but thanks to however many thousands of years of probable genetic inbreeding by my hardy English peasant stock ancestors (at least on Ma's side... although I would imagine that the ancestors on the paternal side disappear back to the Mother Country before too long too), I have basically three and a half skin colours... I have "Never Sees The Sun White", "Too Much Sun Pink", "Gradual Repeated Exposure Light Tan" and then the "half colour", which also happens to also be the slight bane of my existence on occasion, "Proper Golden Freckle".

The freckles were cute when I was little (and to be honest, on the right kind of guy, grown up facial freckles are still incredibly sexy)... but now they're just my skin's way of mocking me by producing little tiny blobs of tan in a sea of mediocre pink or beige.

For now, however, I remain pink and white...

Current Mood:

happy easter

happy easterCurrent Mood:

too much shopping and semaphore kites

I'm a dick! I'm a dick! I'm a dick! I'm a dick! I'm a dick! I'm a dick! I'm a dick! I'm a dick! I'm a dick! I'm a dick! I'm a dick!

But more on that later...

This morning was the first time in three weeks that I've actually been able to do a proper shop... first there was the pre-Sydney shop, so not much point getting too much stuff... then there was the post-Sydney shop where it was just too hot and too soon after Sydney for me to even think about what I might need, so I didn't end up getting much of anything... so today was a bumper, bumper shop...

My kitchen counter still looks like there's been some sort of supermarket explosion happen on it...

Then we kind of wandered around looking for bargains of an Easter Egg nature... and due to Ma being, well, Ma... we had to go to three different shops before we came back to the first shop we looked in (Target) and bought things there.

After we came back here and I'd unpacked everything and Ma had taken ten minutes to read like six pages of the paper (whereas I can usually read the whole thing in about that time), we hopping in the car and headed down to Semaphore...

The 11th Adelaide International Kite Festival was on down there... so, like last year, we had to go and have a look (actually I've had it in my Outlook diary and my phone calendar since after last year's trip).

It was a seemingly perfect day for it too... clear blue skies, not too hot (a total of 22°C according to the news earlier), the wind picked up not long after we arrived, and although they didn't get EVERYTHING into the air, there were a lot of the big floaty, flying things up (as proved by the small selection in the photo to the left), including some nipple showing mermaids, a couple of cute owl, various sea creatures, three cupids of various sizes and much to Ma's delight, a big pink and purple seahorse (sadly it never got that far off the ground because it was on the same line as the owls and the whole thing kept crashing, but it did look pretty good when it was up).

However, THIS is the point where the phrase "I'm a dick!" becomes relevant...

After all the photos I took on the last day we were in Sydney, I never recharged my camera battery. Yes, after the debacle on the third day, you would have thought that I would have learned my lesson... but, sadly, I didn't...

So as we were driving down the road towards the beach I suddenly realised I might be working on low battery and turned on my camera... yep, the little "one third of battery power left" icon was on. But that might not have been too bad... I did pretty much a whole day in Sydney before the battery finally conked out late in the afternoon... I could do this...

Errr.. not so much...

I managed 21 photos before the camera fell on it's ass... bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger...

It wasn't a complete disaster though, I just took charge of Ma's camera (at her insistence) and used it like I would have used mine... so I just have to get the photos from her on Tuesday. It does mean no Montage Monday though... at least not this week.

Other than that it was a pretty good day... we got down there at around 11:30 or so... we watched the kites for a while, I took photos, then we went and moved the car, came back, watched more kites and then went off and had some fish and chips for lunch (well, what else are you going to have beside the seaside?), then wandered a bit more before we went into the Kite Shop tent and I bought this cool little black "super sled" kite with a flame design and long red streamers (and interestingly, I seemed to be the only person on the whole beach who was flying one of that particular style... either officially in the Festival or out of it)... then we went back down onto the "public" end of the beach (ie not where all the official kite flyers were) and I flew it for ages. It was fun actually... although it's one of those things that once you get it up in the air, you don't really have to do very much to it.

Except that is, if you happened to have my kite. Somewhat like it's owner, my kite was equal parts suicidal and homicidal... it either wanted to keep crashing into the ground or else it looked like it was going to fall out of the sky and take the top of somebody's head off.

After she'd watched me for a while Ma decided she wanted a kite too, so she ended up getting this smaller kind that was actually shaped like a little bird, and we headed out onto one of the grassy areas to fly both of them. Poor Ma, she had all kinds of problems with her line snagging, and not being able to get it up in the air... although I think she was just being wussy about it... when I swapped kites with her briefly, I got hers up really easily and it was flying quite well until I gave it back to her (hehehe).

We hung out for ages just flying the kites and having fun... well, I was having fun because my kite was flying quite well and really high (if a little erratically from time to time), but poor Ma... her birdie kept doing spiral nosedives.

Anyway, I think it was about 4:30 or so by the time we'd had enough and we decided to leave... so we'd been there for about six hours...

Which would have been fine, had it not been for the fact that we only applied some sunscreen before we left my house, and hadn't taken any with us. Fortunately we were both wearing our hats... but my arms are all pink and slightly crispy... and so are the backs of my hands, oddly enough... which I think is a result of the kite flying... it's actually some really oddly orientated sunburn... weird.

Thank all appropriate deities for After Sun Gel... I'll be applying it all evening, and probably for large chunks of tomorrow too.

Current Mood:

photo friday: white bunnies

Bunnies!

In fact, they're white Sydney bunnies made of some unspecified material...

There were in this ginchy little chi chi la la store across the street from our hotel and they appeared the last morning. Sadly they were $45 for a set of three, because if they're actually just been $15 each I would have stuffed one in my suitcase somehow.

Actually a set of three would have been cool because somebody had set two of them up in an obscene pose (and it was just funny... bad and wrong, but funny)... I think it was the one laying down and the one sitting all the way up... you know, so they were doing it bunny-style.

I've had a slightly odd Good Friday... I'd been planning to make Toona Noodle Do, but I'd used up all my milk and grated cheese, so I had to go to the 7 Day Supermarket to grab some... which was fine... except when I got home I looked in the cupboard and discovered I didn't have any Cream of Celery soup... which is basically the glue that binds the whole thing together. So back to the supermarket I had to go... but it turned out they they didn't have any celery soup (I can't imagine it's a high demand item)... Cream of Chicken, Pumpkin, Mushroom and possibly some other random vegetable, but no celery. So I had a minor sulk in the supermarket (slightly tempered by the very tall and very obviously formerly private school gay guy who sasheyed past me while I was looking at soup) and ended up picking Cream of Mushroom...

Which I have to say, didn't work out that bad in the end... especially given what it looks like when you open the can... oh, and I need a new can opener... the one I have is a waste of time...

And then I had a conversation with a guy I've wanted to get groinal with for... oooh, about ten years... and it may just happen. I'm not counting chickens or crossing fingers, but the omens look promising...

Current Mood:

another deco thing

I lifted this one from Muzbot the other day... and interestingly enough after my comments about Art Deco last week, I came out with what I think is the most Deco sounding font...

I'm not sure how accurate some of the details are, but I do love the aesthetic!

typecast yourself!Current Mood:

sydney statue template

sydney statue templateThat our house may stand forever
and that justice and mercy grow.

The Offerings of War - Gilbert Bayes

I'll let you in on a little secret... I was actually bored with my last template fairly quickly... which isn't that great to be honest!

And while I wasn't constantly thinking about taking shots while I was in Sydney that I could use as new templates, it did cross my mind a couple of times, most specifically when we were outside of the Art Gallery on the first afternoon.

I just loved the two equestrian statues outside the Gallery (actually I loved the whole frontage of the Gallery to be honest)... interestingly enough I preferred this one, The Offerings of War, to it's flanking statue, The Offerings of Peace.

If I had to pick a reason, I think it was the staff with the little winged figure on it... and to be honest, I think the lighting was better on War than it was on Peace. But he just fitted quite nicely into the long narrow template format.

I also did a little bit of fiddling around and I came up with a new subtitle for the blog... which I have to thank Andrew for. I don't think I was very THAT "vague and esoteric"... well, esoteric maybe but vague not so much... but when I saw his description of me as "garrulous" and found the definition (adj, excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner, esp. about trivial matters) I just knew I'd found the word and description that totally sums up both me and the blog.

Oh, and to match in with the "Sydney" template, I added a somewhat iconic wallpaper... *grin*

Current Mood:

random hoodie hotness

This week's bumper Random Hotness takes a slight detour through my psyche... so grab a pair of wading boots and come along.

I don't know that I would exactly call it a fetish... but I have this thing about a guy in a hoodie and not much else... actually the ultimate is a guy in a hoodie and NOTHING else... and it should be the jacket kind with the zipper, open... and the hood has to be up. I know... but trust me, it's by no means the strangest thing that turns me on.

Oddly enough, for whatever reason, photos like that are in reasonable short supply, so these are some I've managed to scrape together...

Mmmmm... hoodie...

red hoodiewhite hoodie
blue hoodieskull hoodie

Current Mood:

self indulgent meme

I nicked this one from Sunshine, but then Tom did it and Andrew nicked it from him...

The house I grew up in... was boxey, semi-detatched and, although I didn't always realise it at the time, a pretty wonderful place to be.

When I was a child I wanted to be... a librarian (I even did work experience at a library... I forgot that it was mostly about dealing with people... books are good, people not so much).

The moment that changed me for ever... meeting Ludo.

My greatest inspiration... sounds pretty hokey, but it's the best I can come up with... is the world outside.

My real-life villain... are my neighbours.

If I could change one thing about myself... it would be to trade in my body and get the upgraded model.

At night I dream of... nothing... or nothing I remember very often anyway.

What I see when I look in the mirror... is a fine layer of dust... I really ought to dust my bedroom mirror actually...

My style icon... is anybody who knows what suits them and makes it look good.

My favourite item of clothing... changes frequently.

I wish I'd never worn... pastel green pants with a pastel pink, yellow and green shirt accessorised with a knitted pastel tie and pale grey velcro shoes... and I remember it in such detail because there are photos. I was about 12 at the time though.

It's not fashionable but I like... jeans with rips across the knees and below the butt... not on me obviously, but just as a look.

You wouldn't know it but I'm very good at... procrastination... oh, wait, you might know that already...

You may not know it but I'm no good at... reverse parallel parking.

All my money goes on... essentials.

If I have time to myself... I read or fiddle on the interwebz or... oh, who am I kidding, I have nothing BUT time to myself.

I drive/ride... a silver Daewoo Lanos.

My house/flat is... sadly not the peaceful haven it once was.

My most valuable possession is... I'm not sure what my most VALUABLE possession is (maybe my car?) but my most VALUED posession would be my digital camera.

My favourite building... would be something Art Deco just at the moment.

Movie heaven... is a tube of Pringles, a packet of Maltesers, a bottle of water and seats in the dead centre of a quiet cinema and a movie that doesn't disappoint.

A book that changed me... Milkman's on His Way by David Rees, the first gay novel I ever read. It just widened out my world.

My favourite work of art... is the naked male body.

The last album I bought/downloaded... was so long ago I can't actually remember what it might have been.

The person who really makes me laugh... Ma.

The shop I can't walk past... is a bookshop (or, more recently, somewhere that sells DVDs)

The best invention ever... would have to be the photograph.

In ten years time, I hope to be... sorted!

My greatest regret... is having so many other regrets.

My life in seven words... "not quite where it should be yet".

Current Mood:

movies: vantage point

vantage point - 8 strangers. 8 points of view. 1 truth.Since we missed out on a movie last week due to the Sydney trip (it's already been a week since we left... *sob*) and the fact that Ma had this week off work, we decided to go and see a movie today.

We went down to Marion and had a choice between a couple of things, but ended up seeing Vantage Point (oh and the dumb ticket girl at Marion asked me if I wanted to sit in the centre, since they've started allocating tickets... and I just said sure... there was no way I was going to sit in the "allocated" seat anyway... they can do whatever they like, I'm gunna sit wherever the hell I like thank you very much!).

I didn't know a great deal about the movie, other than it repeats the same event from the viewpoint of eight different people... and really, once you know that, there really isn't anything more you need to know.

You watch the first version, and then the rest of the movie is spent going over and over and over the same events until at the end you work out what the hell has really been going on.

I just wish that the people responsible for cutting the trailers didn't always find a way to put a bunch of spoilers into the trailers... specifically the stuff involving William Hurt's presidential character.

It's something of an odd film... it's equal parts a movie where you put your brain in neutral and just enjoy the ride and a movie where you're trying to work out what the hell actually happened. And just when you think you're getting close to working something out, it fades to white, then to black and you get the time in the bottom corner counting down to noon again and you're off with another character.

The plot is possibly a little bit thin on the ground, since they only really have about 20 minutes worth of actual film, the remaining hour and a bit is taken up with redoing it over and over and over.

And there were certain characters I kind of suspected from the beginning... in fact even within the very first loop of the story I thought... "well, you're going to be up to no good!"... and I was proved right.

The action scenes and fast cutting and everything get ratcheted up as the movie goes along, so you start off at a reasonably sedate pace and pretty much inside one room, and by the end it's all fast editing and quick camera work and whatnot.

While Ma had a bit of a nitpick about what Dennis Quaid's character manages to walk away from, that didn't bother me so much as some of the very fast driving sequences... either they used a fair bit of CGI to put the cars on the road, or something, but they were all driving very fast, and often going through spaces that, as you're looking at the character's POV you're thinking... "well now you're screwed, the car isn't going to go through there"... then you switch to an exterior shot and suddenly the car has made it through the gap and seemed to have a ton of room to spare.

It was an interesting premise though (the repeating time thing), and while it's not the greatest movie ever made and you can quite easily pick it to pieces after it's over, it's still fairly entertaining.

yani's rating: 2 repeating storylines out of 5

unconscious mutterings 267

*sigh*... The routine begins again... I couldn't actually remember whether I was supposed to go clockwise or anticlockwise on my walk this morning... couldn't remember which way I went last Monday... couldn't remember which I'd gone the week before... we might only have been gone for four days, but if really feels like much, much longer...

I think I've finally broken in my stupid New Balance sneakers though... since they didn't give me any trouble...

And now... Unconscious Mutterings...

  1. Paranormal :: Abilities

  2. Alarm :: Clock

  3. Operative :: Secret Agent

  4. Changing :: Face

  5. Framed :: Roger Rabbit

  6. Beer :: Mmmmmmm.... beer bad....

  7. Referral :: Doctor

  8. Unmasked :: Ninja

  9. Movie star :: Brad

  10. Handbook :: Guide

Current Mood:

sydney icons

sydney icons - bridgesydney icons - opera house
I spend most of yesterday afternoon struggling with a temperamental and hideously slow computer while going through all my photos from Sydney so I could have something to post with my day-by-day account of my trip... and then most of today, on and off, writing up my original notes into a slightly more readable format...

So now we have Yani on Tour: The Complete Collection... Day One, Day Two, Day Three and Day Four...

You may require a packed lunch and a thermos... they're pretty extensive posts... I do know how to tell a story... and you all know I'm garrulous at the best of times *wink*... I've also probably been more than a little fast and loose with my tense on occasion... trying to write a post in the past as though you're in the present all gets a bit much after a while...

Current Mood: