Category: Australia

Today my friend Corbin and I headed for Bondi Beach to see the Wind Festival. This is the day that everyone brings out kites, both professional and for kids, and flies them along the beach. We saw some really interesting colourful kites, but the wind wasn’t extremely strong, so a lot of them weren’t in the skies for very long. The pictures can be seen at my images site. The day was nice and warm and we just enjoyed relaxing in the sand getting some sun.

This is so strange. Just in the past 3 days, I have heard from 3 separate people that they have seen my twin (geographically impossible that it’s the same). My friend Ian said that he saw my twin in San Francisco, and Joi, my twin (from the back) in Oakland, and then my Mom & Dad in Chattanooga (my profile and mannerisms). I know of this phenomenon because I’ve seen people that I think look exactly like someone else I know, but what I’d like to know is in this day of technological advances why someone can’t take a picture and let me see too! Or, do I really want to?? :)

Last night, the package from my brother arrived with a videotape of the Series Finale of Six Feet Under. As this was a show I started to watch during my summer in LA, it’s amazing how connected to the characters you can become. Though when I moved to different places, I didn’t have HBO, and wasn’t able to keep up with it as I liked. But, I did get the DVD’s to catch up, and I’ve been reading avidly this past season so I can see the finale.

What an amazing piece of artistry. Even from the beginning scenes, with Ruth’s falling into depression, I was teary up until the end where I was absolutely balling uncontrollably. The way Claire moves on to see what’s out there for her, and the separation from your family of what during your childhood would seem like an eternity. When she takes the picture of the family and Nate is whispering, you can’t take the picture because it’s already gone–the evolution of growing up and older and on and forward, it was just so intense. Bravo to Alan Ball and the cast for making such an amazing piece of creativity affect so many people’s lives. And what a gift to be able to make so many people realize what life is about and encourage everyone to LIVE.

Over in Australia, I’m offered a very interesting view of life in the US. The coverage of Katrina’s disasterous plough through Louisiana was nothing but startling, and appalling. The report started out with Bush’s smug face, saying that he knew what people were going through (as he sat in his air conditioned room, dressed in suit and tie), and that they have so many boats and helicopters ready to help, but people have to realize it takes time to get those boats and helicopters down there. What? Why weren’t these relief efforts being positioned days before this category 5 storm was heading directly for the path. And how is it that even 3 days after the storm, people still didn’t have food and water at all shelters? And the sickest part of all, a story of Aussies who were hiding in a church scared for their lives, not because of mother nature, but the monsters that arose from the victims that raped and murdered a 7-year-old child in that very church. Gunshots and gangs kept the Aussies put hidden, and racism drove many other victims away in search of survival from crime and murder–not cholera or typhoid. Why is it that that the richest nation in the world harbours such disgusting humanity within its own borders and exports our heros to protect other countries from their monsters? And despite this humongous bill for restoration and aid that will pour into the stricken region, we will be pouring good money into the waste of warfare abroad, and still fight silly cultural differences in our own country. I hope everyone who voted for Bush can see what type of government has been instilled in our country, and that they feel it was a good decision.

Tonight, Hiromi, her brother and myself headed downtown to go to Karaoke for a girl named Nao, who’s leaving to go back to Japan. Though I didn’t know anyone, it was fun to be surrounded by Japanese people again. There was another American too, actually from New Orleans. He couldn’t really speak Japanese, but he could sing a song in Japanese–which happened to be from the same artist as I love! So together, the two white boys sang this Utada Hikaru song (quite well I might add ;) ) and had a good time. The smoke was a bit Japanese too, so we ended up leaving just after an hour.. We then headed to the Rocks for a famous Pancakes House, and had a great Bananarama–banana and caramel pancake with vanilla icecream! YUM.

This is a pretty cool link I found. It’s a very good webcam looking out over the Harbour near the Opera House. You actually can take control of the camera and pan around–It is looking at the opposite side of the Opera House that I look at, so in essence, the camera is pointed towards me a little.. Anyhow, try it out!

Today Paula and I headed to our spot in the Domain for lunch–the weather wasn’t the greatest and we were worried about being rained upon, but alas, our luck held out for the entire 3-hour chitchat, munch lunch session. During our lunch, we had a visit from my old friends, the Cockatoos. Who knew they liked chips so much??

We had a lot of stories to tell, and we figure this is going to have to be at least a weekly lunch session to keep up with each other’s lives! See you soon Paula!

I’ve often wondered when you dream something, that you don’t really ‘understand’ or ‘know’ per se, that if you checked to see if those ‘facts’ or things that happened are actually true. This mainly happened in my dreams when they’re in Japanese–if during conversation there’s a word I don’t know, and I stop to ask what that word is, when I awake, if I’m able to recall that word, would it mean what in my dream the person told me it meant? It’s hard to wrap your mind around that, but it happened again to me last night when not only I ended up having an Australian accent in my dream, but I also was told a joke, that I didn’t get, but only got when the person in my dream explained it to me, to awake, to totally get the joke, but not know where in the world that joke came from. Are these experiences that we actually have gone through, or are we constantly churning out good humour and knowledge through our dreamscapes?

Tonight, the flatmates, Mikey and I all went out to the Verona Theater near Paddington for a movie. We headed to dinner at Bill & Tony’s, which Stephen and I had Veal and Vegetables (which was so so) and Mikey and Chris had the Veal Schnitzel–which was quite good. Of course, here I am trying to be healthy and have ‘mixed vegetables’ with my meal, which was a mix of carrot and cauliflower. So alas, I needed a dessert. So we headed to the theater to get our tickets, and then went over to the cafe next door and had the BEST chocolate cake. It was SO good! We then headed over to the theater and watched Mysterious Skin, which was a controversial film that almost didn’t even make it to Australia. It stars the boy from 3rd Rock from the Sun.

Tonight, Paula, Sarah and I all met up for a much needed reunion as we’ve all either had colds, school work, or something else hindering us from actually all getting together. We met up at Martin’s Place downtown and headed toward the Rocks near Circular Quay. It’s really beautiful at night as you can see the Opera House in its grandeur. We headed for an Italian place and had a great meal complete with a dessert–my dessert? Mortal Sin. We spent the entire evening chitchatting about what was going on in each of our lives and finally got caught up. Looking forward to our next outting!