Delicious Sydney
Last modified on 2010-03-02 12:20:42 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
I felt like I was Leon and Liz this weekend. It was all about food and wine. And a warning for you my lovely vegetarian friends. This post is all about meat. Who knew I was such a carnivore?! I started with the beautiful Kellie Julia and Dale, accompanying their luscious view with some tasty cheeses, olives, prosciutto and a very drinkable Marlborough Sav Blanc on their veranda overlooking the heritage listed Cook Island. Seriously, I could have eaten the view it was that delicious. Gorgeous gourmet pizza for dinner was accompanied by vodka and soda, and followed by a trip to the local.
Sunday Kellie and I discussed life, love and all those morning-after-the-night-before things over perfectly pink salmon in rosette’s. I met the beautiful sisters and did some blissfully kid free shopping (red hats and red lipstick), followed by a leisurely steak lunch. With many laughs, and a few tears (as you sometimes do with your sisters). With more wine. Mmmm more wine. For dinner we got taken to The Argyle in Sydney’s Rocks by our sweet Argentinian roommate Maria. I decided to order the Mussels. And the pot was ginormous, steaming and salty. The house red was good. Delicious. Full. Early night in eager anticipation of the following day.
Monday we snacked on chocolate, too busy being naked to eat. Our celebratory steak lunch was devoured. We almost licked our plates. More red. And before I bore you to death just a few more words – The Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe. Enough said? Mmmm, a few more words. Tawny Port and a dark chocolate strawberry ganache. Sure beat Melody’s apple slices in a bag.
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Tessa Jane
Last modified on 2010-02-21 12:27:23 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
Tess slept on the couch, angelic and weary from a weekend of beach. While she slept Nicolai and I talked about our lives and drank the bottle of red wine he bought me for Christmas. I love being with my family.
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Happy Birthday Shaneo
Last modified on 2010-03-06 05:24:56 GMT. 2 comments. Top.
It is my sister’s birthday today. I spent the morning sitting in her backyard drinking champagne and orange juice, chatting and watching our Dad play with her son. It was a lovely way to start a Sunday. Then later I was driving to a friend’s house and saw a sign by the side of the road. ‘Happy Birthday Shaneo’ it read. And I idly wondered who Shaneo was, and what kind of person he must be to inspire a loved one to write a sign that would flash him on the way home from his Sunday lunch. It must have been someone who knew him well enough to know he would drive that route that day, or someone who engineered that he would. And then I though how nice a day it was to have a birthday, sweaty and sunshiney.
Later after a lazy, humid afternoon full of conversation with old friends I drove back past and noticed that the sign was double sided. And that on this side it was accompanied by a cross and some plastic flowers, gathered in the typical formation of a roadside memorial. My heart lurched. Shaneo’s loved one put the sign up in memoriam of his birthday. That spot was not chosen because he was going to drive past it and see his special birthday message, it was chosen at some point, by some strange and unfair hand of fate to be the spot Shaneo died.
As I drove past I felt so sad for the people who were celebrating his birthday without him. I felt sad that I had the luxury of spending the day with my loved one for her birthday and that they didn’t even have his body to hug and love. I kept driving, on my way to a dinner with my parents until some synapse in my brain fired and I swung the car around to go back to Shaneo’s memorial. I was twisted by thoughts of not wanting to upset anyone, unsure of why I wanted to photograph his sign. To be honest I am still unsure of why I wanted to photograph his birthday message but it felt important to celebrate his birthday in some way.
So Shaneo your birthday was a beautiful day. We took good care of it, filled it with lovely Sunday things like wine and fish and chips, and spending time with the people we love. As I haven’t yet determined a fixed position on these things, like what happens to our souls when we die, I’m not sure where you are, but I hope somehow you saw us enjoying your day and felt happy that we used it well.
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Night in my room
Last modified on 2010-02-17 03:19:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I’m packing. Everything in boxes. It’s raining. I feel restless. I turn off the light and look at the patterns the streetlight makes on my wall, my boxes. I perch in the window and look at the rain falling for a while. Still restless, I pace my dark, crowded room. Stub my toe. Grab my camera. Taking photographs always makes me feel better.
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First, a cup of tea.
Last modified on 2010-02-17 03:10:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I’ve been stuck inside all day. Partly because the rain has been pouring down so heavily it floods our wooden house, gushing under doorways and through windows. Partly because I’m suspended in state of panicky limbo and I can’t bear the thought of dealing with anyone or anything. I woke up this morning, half buried under a big pillow and my first thought was to wonder what I am going to do if all my plans fail? Essentially it was a ‘then what?’ moment. A moment that came almost before my consciousness did, like the dream I’d been having about the failed pedicure business* transferred to my own life.
So the question. Then what? What the f*#k do I do if none of my plans work? Breathe I guess. Take a big, deep breath. And remember the story my friend Melly told me about her two friends on their first day back at work after a very extended break;
Friend One: “You must be feeling a bit like me today. Like – ‘What do we do now?’”
Friend Two: “Yes. What do we do now?”
Friend One: “First we make a cup of tea.”
Friend One and Friend Two go to the work kitchen and make a cup of tea.
Friend Two (sips tea): “And now what do we do?”
Friend One: “We wing it”.
So if all else fails I’m going to make a cup of tea, and then I’m going to wing it. And be eternally grateful to Melly for sharing her story.
* On a side note I was quite surprised to see said business alive and well when I went to my local shopping centre the other day. It was such a vivid dream I was sure they really were closing down.
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Happy Birthday Mr President
Last modified on 2010-02-14 08:11:29 GMT. 2 comments. Top.
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” – Kennedy, John F. (1962-09-12)
Melody you are the JFK of our life (which I guess makes Lily our Marilyn Monroe). Happy 28th Birthday little sister. I love you all the way to the Moon, and back.
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Angel Fish
Last modified on 2010-02-10 23:23:35 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
My favourite of Samala’s pet names for the girls is Angel Fish. Nell looks a bit like an angel to me – though I imagine Samala has good cause to snort at that description at times. Three-year-old’s might look angelic, but looks can be deceiving. When I stumbled out of bed after a recent sleepover Nella spotted me sleepily lurching into awakeness and launched herself up the hallway, flinging herself at me for a full body contact cuddle. Little arms wrapped fiercely around me, squeezing tightly. It was a nice way to wake up having a little body loving me.
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Running Wild
Last modified on 2010-02-09 03:20:46 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I’m fairly sure the funniest moment of my weekend was when Charlotte asked Ronin to marry her. He laughed, stole her stickers and ran away.
Sexy vocals courtesy Marilyn Monroe, from the movie Some Like It Hot (1959).
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Newspaper rejects
Last modified on 2010-02-09 02:06:31 GMT. 3 comments. Top.
I’ve been sorting all my photos lately – doing the external hard drive storage shuffle that is often required when you take quite as many photos as I do. And I’ve been looking through photos that I have from old newspaper jobs, and rescuing the rejects.
They are rejects because when you shoot for a newspaper not only is your print space limited, but you just can’t print lots of the blurry, underexposed, too dark pictures that you quite like. My newspaper (thank God) didn’t have the light, tight, bright regulations of some, ahem cough, ‘newspapers’ but these pics would never have made the cut.
They aren’t the pics that would have illustrated the story in the best way, given the space available. To be honest, they wouldn’t have printed very well on those super absorbent paper pages. It wouldn’t have been worth the time lightening and sharpening them. And I’m guessing my aesthetic has changed a lot since I stopped photographing six jobs a day and started teaching and experimenting more.
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