tk noblog

Wet Season

2011-12-07T15:29:00.001+11:00

more here:

The streets of Singapore

2011-12-06T14:39:00.003+11:00

Still fun to get out and about with the cameras, and remember there are still places that haven't yet become sterilised incubators of conformity.

A city that eats itself

2011-09-26T19:11:00.004+10:00

Almost a year ago (?) I shot a couple of rolls of film at the old shopping centre at Pasir Panjang as it was being demolished. We'd walked past the night before on our way to dinner and taken some instagram pictures, but I definitely wanted the higher res capabilities of the bronica and MF film... So at 6 the next morning I jumped on the bike and spun down South Buona Vista hill (it's not really that steep) and started clambering over the rubble, just as the soft glow of pre-dawn started to illuminate the concrete and steel reinforcing.

The film lay in the bottom of the fridge for ages, and I've just got around to devving and scanning it. Really love how these turned out! As it happens, construction of the new mixed use condo / retail development has started - will have to wander over the ridge and down the hill soon enough to check out its progress. Very conceivably they will have finished it - which says a lot about how documentary / typology photography here very quickly becomes archival / archaeological photography.

I hope the Japanese supermarket / fresh fish shop is one of the tenants again...

(yes, this neg needs to be washed and rescanned...)

2011-08-16T19:27:00.003+10:00

Some videos from my bike of the Park Connectors that run from near our place along the "Southern Ridges", out to the Singapore River Quays, the Kallang Basin and then the East Coast. More to come soon of the west side...

We just returned from a great weekend away up in Melaka. Think of this as a reminder to self to post pics when they eventually get developed and scanned.

Orient expressing

2011-07-28T19:13:00.004+10:00

Seeing as I missed June, July can have two posts. And this is going to be the third, and last, based around the KTM railway. (Thank the gods, right?)

I'd been talking with anyone who'd listen about taking a train trip up to the East Coast of Malaysia after hearing about the demise of the railway. Unfortunately people either weren't up for it, or had already done it. Then some South African friends suggested we 'do' the Eastern & Oriental Express dinner train. They'd had a great trip (obviously they thought it was great - he proposed to her and she said yes). So without telling J I booked it in as a surprise - it was going to be the (second) last train ever from downtown Singapore - an opportunity too good to pass up!

Oh oh. She wasn't feeling great all that week and sadly had to bow out the day before, so in came the pinch hitter, our mate S. Wondering if people would think we were a gay couple out on a first date (love that pink dollar), we suited up and headed down to the KTMB's Tanjong Pagar Station. The waiting room was pretty sparse (and hot!) but soon enough we were on the platform for some exterior pics, through Malaysian immigration and then into the train's bar car and a nice cold glass of ... Tiger. Or some dodgy Australian wine ('red' or 'white'). I had a Tiger. Honestly after the amount of money you pay for the ticket, you'd think they could serve an imported beer and decent wine at least. Then again, I guess they usually cater for people who've flown into Singapore and are heading up to KL or Bangkers, who are looking for that local flavour. But our fellow passengers seemed mostly to be expats and locals. Maybe it was the "occasion"? We got stuck in to some more Tigers before having to detrain to go through Singaporean immigration at Woodlands. A smooth affair as always but I imagine a pain for the chefs and stewards who were trying to prepare dinner.

Back onto the train and into one of the four dining cars. We had a table for two (how romantic!) while other couples had to share with strangers (on a train...) at four-tops. Unlucky for them. While the beer and wine was a let down, the food I have to say was fantastic. A molecular concoction of tom yum 'cappucino style' as entree, then some huge tandoori lamb chops done old fashioned. Big, meaty and rare. Yum. Dessert was.. I think a panacotta style thing, but to be honest desserts are rarely my thing. No food pics. Puhlease. The couple adjacent to us was getting very amorous during the meal, even (I'm not kidding) going around the table and climbing into each others laps at some points. S had his back to them but I found it hard to concentrate on the lamb. Glad they had a good time though! The guys let us into the kitchen (galley?) for a squiz after dinner, and then it was into the bar car where I made friends with the Italian-Chinese piano player by requesting some Dave Brubeck (he was sick of playing Top40). S then kept the whisky flowing (although again the selection was extremely disappointing) before we headed out to the observation car for the trip back into Singapore. Of which a lot of it was just the teensiest bit blurry. All in all a fantastic night and one to treasure, especially now as it can't be repeated!

We Saved It!

2011-07-28T13:55:00.004+10:00

So it looks like the uniquely Singaporean way of 'protesting' can achieve results, too. I must admit I was extremely skeptical of the Nature Society and Eugene's (of The Green Corridor) strategy of staging guided walks on the railway and gradually attracting more and more 'fans', leading up to getting some Minsters to walk and experience the opportunity for themselves. This was apparently how the Chek Jawa intertidal zone was preserved instead of being turned into another petrochemical processing terminal, but still, it just seemed to me that the allure of the filthy development lucre was going to be a far stronger persuader than a bunch of hippies in sandals and floppy hats going for walks. But I was wrong.

Or, was I? I still think that the government might have had this plan, or something like it, up their sleeve the whole time. They have been saying for years that there will eventually be a 'continuous' network of park connectors encircling the Island, and if they weren't going to use the railway land, how else were they going to complete the western section? The Mandai loop is too central, and the far west is all military reserve. Then again, perhaps I should never underestimate the ability of Singapore's bureaucracy to fail to see a obvious and simple solution to a problem they hadn't yet created, but would have.

But whatever and however, it looks like there will at least be a continuous stretch of greenery incorporating a PCN, and that's an acceptable outcome. I'd like to think that the letters I wrote to Minsters and encouraged others to write, the snarky comments and goading remarks, and links of alternative possibilities from around the world I left on facefuck contributed in some small way. Even better of course would be to hold an International Design Competition to subtly develop the corridor in harmony with the jungle and the cycleway, and offer residents and tourists an alternative to bread and circuses architecture, gambling, and consuming. Hopefully.

When does a city become a home?

2011-05-04T17:58:00.006+10:00

In a radical departure for this little corner of the web, I'm going to talk about something a little bit abstract - that moment when the place you live becomes a place you feel at home.

Having been in Singapore for almost 4 years now, it's interesting to observe our changing response to the place. Going from the time where we loved the differences to Melbourne and saw the good in everything, such as; a thriving urban, globalised city that has managed to retain some unique cultural flavour and preserve at least some of its natural and built heritage; cheap, reliable, safe and useful public transport; a young and burgeoning cultural and scientific scene with the opportunity to both observe a generation opening its eyes to the possible, and to leave our own mark; and a government that actually has a view to the future instead of making unborn generations pay for the priveleges the Boomers are enjoying now, to seeing the not-so-good side of Singapore.

This includes things that don't impact on us directly so much, but affect the overall quality of life here. Things like; the incessant building noise, evident almost absolutely everywhere except the nature reserves and thankfully in our tucked away condo (but not for long...); the "blur"iness of 90% of drivers here and their blatant flouting of road rules (speed limits, staying in lanes, drink driving, stop signs, zebra crossings ...the list goes on); the bureaucracy, red tape and petty rules that you have to periodically battle though; the fluctuating housing rents that can increase 50% in a year (who can say, "hyperinflation"?); the constant bombardment with advertisments, SMS and telephone spam, and commercialisation of public space - because all commerce is good commerce; the slavish devotion to development that means more and more malls with counterintuitively increasing rents - meaning rising cost of goods and diminishing returns for tired, worried and cranky shop owners and customers; and a population who just accepts decisions from corporations and the government with a shrug of the shoulders and a resigned "what to do?" without asking for a discussion, justification or alternatives and a self-perpetuating assumption that nothing can be changed. And I could go on...

But then amongst all the negativity (and amazingly I have been told I often have a gloomy outlook on life, haha) you hear about an opportunity that you just think is an absolute no-brainer, and want to fight for its implemention. That point, I think, is when you go from being a resident, to being a 'citizen', regardless of the colour of your passport.

Such an opportunity has arisen with the transfer of the KTM railway land from Malaysia back to Singapore. This railway stretches from Woodlands in the North, down to Tanjong Pagar - the heart of the financial district and soon to be gateway to a massive waterfront park, once the heavy container terminal has been moved to the West. Part of the deal involves handing land parcels for development over to the Malaysian partner in the deal. Fair enough, you have to give to get. But the rest of the land, a narrow corridor not suitable for large developments, would be perfect as a Rails to Trails conversion like those seen in the UK, US, Australia and Europe.

The Nature Society of Singapore along with other interested parties has submitted a (.pdf) proposal to retain the land as a "Green Corridor". While the government has yet to commit to any course of action, time is running out to persuade them that this once in a lifetime opportunity should not be wasted. Another group, "The Green Corridor" has set up a webpage and facebook group to garner community support.

My suggestion, as I wrote to the Straits Times, is to use the land to connect the Southern, Western and Northern Park 'Connectors'. As can be seen on the Nparks website, at present the "network" is more of a disjointed series of short trails, often just a glorified footpath, cut into portions by major roads. Were the corridor to be used as a cycleway, it would connect commuters from the outlying towns directly with the city centre, bypassing any major road intersection, and keeping them separated from fast flowing traffic. This cycleway would also pass directly by the One North developments of Biopolis, Fusionopolis, and Mediaopolis (who comes up with these names?!) - all areas with a high proportion of environmentally aware employees. On weekends, it would provide an alternative leisure route to the crowded East Coast Parkway, and give cyclists the chance to venture farther afield into Johor Bahru and beyond, as well as catering to walkers who want to tramp in a jungle setting. For those who say that no-one would commute in 30 degree weather, I tell you it's vastly preferable to cycling in snow and ice, which is the reality faced by many of our northern cousins who manage to do just that ;)

I sincerely hope that any Singaporean reading this doesn't view me as an interfering foreigner who should just bugger off back to where I came from and mind my own business. That would be to deny the reality of a globalised workforce, and I hope that my time here means more than just eating chicken rice and learning to talk cock in a few Singlish phrases - I hope to shape this city in ways that make us not want to leave, and I think that helping to preserve this land is probably one of the best ways to go about doing that. It won't be easy, but I think it can be done.

Hanoi Ahoy!

2011-04-26T18:42:00.003+10:00

A quick post just to recap our trip to Hanoi. Jo visited Hanoi in 2000, and I've never been, so we thought it'd be a great shortish trip out of Singapore - not too much overland travel and an interesting place to see the pace of change in SE asia. The weather should also have been a nice change from the heat and humidity which has really been starting to ramp up in the Spore.

After flying in to Hanoi and of course being fleeced (but not too badly) on the taxi into town, we spent the first couple of days exploring the lanes and alleyways of the Old Quarter. The tags 'charming' and 'peaceful' might once have applied to this part of Hanoi, but as of 2011 (and I dare say a good deal earlier) these descriptors no longer apply. Cars trucks taxis scooters harleys and cyclos all compete with pedestrians and pole / basket aunties for space on the road. And horns are freely and frequently used by all who possess them. Interestingly, this is rarely in an "angry" tone, just an "I'm here and I'm coming past" tone. Much like India and I guess rural Indo / Thailand. BUT very much unlike Singapore. hmmm.

Suffice to say that after 2 days we were ready for the beach and some quiet time, but the weather and Uncle Ho had other ideas. The whole region was in an unseasonal cold snap and the average temp hovered between 15 and 20, unlike the 22-27 we (and others) were expecting. Brrr. So, kayaking around Lan Ha bay off Cat Ba island was out. As was sleeping. Uncle Ho visted Cat Ba some time in the 50s. The locals celebrate the anniversary of this fact by erecting a huge wall of speakers on the main dock and blasting viet techno at the line of facing hotels. Other companies and associations join in by putting up small tents on either side of the main dock and installing karoke PAs to compete in who can play the loudest. From 6pm on the first night they played until about 2am. Then they started again at... 6am. And played all day. We had to leave.

But first we managed to squeeze in some rockclimbing in the National Park - great, but the local farmer also got in on the music biz act and started blasting the valley with his techno. Music to plow by, maybe? Incidentally the valley was riddled with craters from American bombs dropped during the war, with the larger ones being turned into dams. The buffalo still had all 4 limbs, so he'd obviously managed to evade the UXO thus far. Exhausted from climbing we had a ... mediocre ... sleep... and jumped on the first bus / boat / bus / bus back into Hanoi. Needless to say, the old quarter now seemed relatively calm! Our last days were spent combing the (real) art galleries where we picked up a piece, and I fortuitously managed to catch up and have a beer or three with Ross W, who was waiting to get back into Yemen after the protests kicked off there.

A great trip in all, pity about the weather and the noise though!

Magical Mystery Fridge Film

2011-04-26T18:25:00.003+10:00

I've resolved to develop and scan all the rolls of film in the fridge that have been sitting there unloved and unlooked at. Of course the easiest way to do this was to start with the colour, so off it went to Joo Ann Foh (expensive but convenient). Lo and behold what should come back but films from my trip to London in September '09! I've already put some shots of that trip up here but I love getting surprises like this so one more can't hurt.

What else has been happening in Feb / March / April? Not a great deal, except for Toby's wedding! I didn't take many (as in, hardly any) pictures while down in Byron Bay, but it was a hectic 5 days acting as T's best man. On the Wednesday we went sailing out on the Richmond River down at Ballina, followed by bbq and drinks at Chris P's apartment and then out for a classic Byron night at Cheeky Monkeys. Thursday was a bit rough but with the champgane during the wedding rehearsal and then a long lunch, the hangover was manageable. Friday was a quiet 'rest' day with some afternoon golf (I still suck) and a family dinner, and then Saturday was the big day!

Tobes and I started early by washing the wedding car and then dropping their stuff off at the honeymoon apartment at Wategos, then heading up to Amanda's place at Teven. Mingling until wedding time, got through the (windy!) ceremony no problems and then off for photos on Broken Head beach - great photog too. Dinner and speeches followed by drinking and dancing at the golf club. T+A left early understandably! The rest of us partied on till after midnight and then home to bed after a few more wines on the couch. Sunday was relaxed recovery at the Beach Hotel, then packing up and up to Brissie to fly home. Fantastic week!

Then a week later it was off to Vietnam for Jo and I, but that might be another whole post...

Haw Par Villa

2011-03-07T14:21:00.003+11:00

During February we had some friends drop by on their way through to the UK from a cruising holiday with their parents around the region (...). Benji wanted to see the "quirky" side of Singapore so I took them down to Haw Par Villa, the compound built by the brothers who established Tiger Balm.

The villa is filled with plaster concoctions of all sorts of weird and wonderful people and creatures from Chinese mythology, with the highlight of course being the pavilion of the 10 (or 18, depending on who you are) Levels of Hell (Diyu). From pits of lava for prostitutes, to being crushed by giant stones, to being ground up by a spiky pestle in a stone mortar, the punishments are detailed with meticulous accuracy. Apparantly legions of local kids have been scared by their parents into (temporary) good behaviour by this place.

Head over to flickr to seem some bad iphone+flash pics of the various floggings, crushings, cuttings, boilings and burnings. Good Fun!

New Eyes

2011-01-04T19:32:00.003+11:00

J has inherited my old iPhone and despite some inital reservations, has now taken to it most enthusiastically (to say the least). She's really enjoying the camera app, and walking around shooting 'on the fly' with her has reopened my eyes to some of the more arcane places and objects that are easy to find around Singapore, but easy to lose 'sight' of. It's a lot of fun, and I even went back and photographed this building site again with the bronnie the next morning. Results coming... sometime this (new) year.

Lake Tahoe

2010-11-01T23:19:00.003+11:00

After leaving Lake Louise I flew down to San Francisco and straight up to Reno / Tahoe, where Ali L picked me up and we drove down her and Mike's place in South Lake Tahoe. Kicked back for the weekend with some disc golf at Zephyr course (the pebble beach of disc golf), a shortish hike down to Skunk Harbour (pictured) and a gondola ride to the top of Heavenly. Interspersed with fantastic (real) Mexican burritos and long walks with the dogs Max and Tess.

A Perfect Weekend!

Lake Louise, Canada

2010-09-30T17:39:00.002+10:00

September seems to be settling in as my conference month. Last year was Edinburgh, this year it was Lake Louise, in the Banff National Park in Canada.

A stunning setting of course, though with our 15 hour days we didn't get too many opportunites to sample it. This photograph was taken at about 7 am, before breakfast. Not too shabby for not having a tripod and resting my arms on a viewing "box". We were allowed an afternoon off on the second day which I took advantage of by going on a 5 hour walk up the valley to the Plain of Six Glaciers, then back via the 'big beehive' and down to Lake Agnes.

After the conference finished I headed down to San Fran and over to Lake Tahoe to visit Ali and Mike. Another stunning area, with the advantage of being (sightly) warmer.

While in San Fran I took a ride around the North bay area too - 60 kms of mostly beautiful scenery and some scary highway on-ramps. Also spent half a day in the SF MOMA checking out the New Topographics exhibition. 75% of the original exhibition was on display, and having just come through much of that landscape and seeing that not much had changed, it was simply unreal. A stunning body of work.

Can't wait to go back in Winter!

View Ride around San Francisco in a larger map

This is the land of Fu Manchu

2010-08-20T16:29:00.004+10:00

Getting a little bit sick of this place at the moment.

2010-07-23T19:00:00.001+10:00

The entrance to the Mohi Museum, about an hour out of Kyoto.

Honeymoon in Japan

2010-05-27T22:50:00.004+10:00

After putting in a few months at work after our wedding, we could finally take off for our honeymoon to Japan.

We arrived just before Golden Week (a national week-long holiday during which almost everybody in Japan takes the opportunity to visit friends and family. i.e. an extremely busy travel period. read: manic).

For this reason we flew into Tokyo and (just made it, seconds to spare) jumped on a shinkansen train down to Nagoya and transferred to Inuyama for a couple of days. Sleepy little town with the obligatory pre-Meiji castle. Thence down to Okuyama and Uno and then a ferry over to Naoshima island.

The island is home to the Benesse Oval House, Benesse Art Museum and Chichu Art Museum, all designed by Tadao Ando, as well as many outdoor sculptural installations. Benesse Art house was amazing, extremely highly recommended for any future visitors. The photograph accompanying this post was taken in the gallery that forms part of the connection between the hotel and the restaurant, displaying photographs from Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Time Exposed" series. We even had an original lithograph of the Becher's Wasserturm series (#6, if that means anything to anyone besides s2 and zb) on our bedroom wall.

Naoshima is also home to the Benesse Oval House (a more exclusive residence, but amazing), Benesse Art Museum and Chichu Art Museum, all designed by Tadao Ando, and many outdoor sculptural installations. There's also an Art House project in one of the port towns, turning old and disused / decaying traditional houses into mini-galleries and works of art themselves. All fantastic, although we didn't allocate long enough for the art house district. 2 days is not enough!

From Naoshima we trained back up to Osaka (great city, friendly, accessible, clean and cool (in both senses)), a side trip to Kobe (great walks up in the hills that ring the city, we spent 2 hours just rambling through the trees) and then to Kyoto (old, dated, fusty, touristy, frustrating to get around by PT).

Besides the "philosopher's walk" and a bamboo plantation out west, Kyoto didn't hold much appeal at all, although our ryokan was cute, and extremely expensive. As you can tell, Kyoto was not a favourite. Jumping on the Kyoto > Kanazawa "Thunderbird Express" (great train name!) and relaxing into the seats was a palpable relief. Oh, the Miho Museum about an hour out of Kyoto was... ok... but after Naoshima it suffered from the comparison. Great tunnel through the mountain to access the museum though.

We loved Kanazawa, as it was a much more amenable city for the car-less tourist, had some great history (castle / geisha houses) but a younger population and great bar / cafe scene. One restaurant we visited based their whole menu around sardines, Iron Chef style. We had the seven course 'degustation-ish' set, and man were we stuffed by the time dessert had been packed up to take home (too full!). So many delicious ways to consume sardines, who knew? My favourite was the Tibetan salt sprinkle, under a slow grill. Simply succulent sardines.

We left Kanazawa early for the day-long trip over the Northern Alps, which involved something like 3 train trips, 2 trolley-bus rides, 2 normal bus rides, a gondola ride, some walking and heaps of spectacular mountain scenery and snow! Kuroba Dam was the highlight of the day's adventures, massive hydro-electric scheme conceived in the 30s but completed during the 50s (i think) as Japan was re-structuring after the war to become an industrial powerhouse.

The day finished with us in collapsing into sleep in Matsumoto, a relaxed town with great castle sitting in the middle of a moat. 2 days was probably more than enough there, but a nice place to recuperate.

Matsumoto was only a short 2 hour hop from Tokyo, where we spent our last 3 days in Japan. The plan had been to see the Mori Museum in Roppongi that we missed last time, and apart from that just chill during the days and catch the Baseball one night and the Sumo on the last full day. Unfortunately I must have eaten a dodgy hotdog at the fantastic Giants vs Lions game - new fan and convert to (Japanese) baseball! - and spent that night and the whole next day ill in our hotel room, thus missing out on Sumo. It was being televised though, so I got to see the gaijin kicking some major (hawhaw) arse. I did manage during the day before to go see a bike shop recommended to me by Shaun (of Vanguard ilk), but the old guy was extremely uncommunicative and not very friendly. For fun, I did manage to extract the price of the Eddy Mercks track bike out front - $6750 sing. Yup. Up round the corner from Dreamworks was a converted Airstream silver caravan cum coffee shop. The guy who owned it has earned his bronze medal on the Goldcoast and his brother was playing for the Paramatta Eels rugby league team. I must dig his name out and look him up...

So, Japan rocked, but it's good (mostly) to be home in the S'pore again.

Another wedding - Hamish and Kirrily

2010-04-13T19:30:00.005+10:00

they're coming thick and fast now - hamish and kirrily were married at the abbotsford convent and i relished the chance to get home for a quick visit to "help them celebrate" (a common euphemism for "drink all their booze and eat all their food and wear out their dance floor").

jo wasn't able to come thanks to the amazingly pedantic bureaucrats at the passport section of the australian high commission here. maybe their nitpicking has something to do with losing a few passports to some pesky mossad agents? in any case, she couldn't make it - but got her own back by going to bali over easter with nell ;)

unfortunately henry is growing out of hamish's head in this picture.

Married!

2010-03-12T18:18:00.004+11:00

on 02 01 2010 we were married down by swan bay on the bellarine peninsula. true to form i teared up as jo was walking towards me down the aisle, but got myself back under control in time to say "i do" ;). although, during the ceremony she did have to remind me to smile - i was trying to look like i was seriously listening to tony, the celebrant. afterwards the champagne (sorry, sparkling wine) was handed round to take the early evening chill off, and then it was off for photos with rob and sandy , one of which is pictured above.

dinner at the vue grand hotel in queenscliff - lovely! - and dancing and carousing into the early hours for our guests - we retired early ;P

thanks to everyone who flew in from interstate and overseas, and to all our friends and family who celebrated this fabulous event with us!

finally, at the other end of the resolution scale, a shot from my friend s2 on his trusty 1.3 MP vistaquest!

Christmas in Melbourne

2010-01-13T20:15:00.004+11:00

after an extremely busy december, planning our wedding and winding up work, we finally took off to melbs for a whirlwind "holiday":

al's 30th birthday first up, then chrissy eve at home with my fam, then the usual xmas day drive down to OG for xmas dinner with jo's fam, then back up to melbs for the morning session of the boxing day test. this was followed by a relaxed beer by the river at fed square, then on to the ferry down to williamstown for a lunch of fish n chips, beer and white wine, then back up to the city for a few more drinks at curtin house then over to victoria st for dinner. next day it was across town to tobes' and amanda's new place for a housewarming, then back down to OG.

wedding plans then took over, interrupted by a day's fishing with ludo and john, a quiet new years eve in queenscliff, then more wedding plans.

finally the big day, but we'll leave that for january...

Hong Kong

2009-11-18T19:10:00.003+11:00

way way way back when (sometime this year though) jo and i took a long weekend in hong kong. it can't actually have been that long ago because i remember it was hot and stinking, like singapore, but without the sea breezes (unless you were next to the sea, which you might argue would have been the sensible place to hang out).

we met fiona and luke for yum cha one lunchtime which was great - still not as good as melbourne yum cha though. they're getting married on the same day as we are so i still feel a bit guilty about stealing toby away from them...

anyway, hong kong was sunkist.

Edinburgh and surrounds

2009-09-29T13:39:00.002+10:00

So as i mentioned, July - August - September have been extremely busy.

Moving and setting up apartments, cranking out experiments in preparation for the ISDB (international society of developmental biology) conference in Edinburgh, preparing a poster for said conference, attending said conference, as well as seeing some of scotland and catching up with shobs mark sima holly, and family, in london.

flew to the uk on the a380 - nothing special i thought, apart from the larger tv screens. leg room still anaemic. - and stayed with sima overnight. up to edinburgh the next day and landed around 2.30. in a hire car by 3 and on the main highways by 3.30. drove to crianlarich and stayed in the crianlarich hotel overnight. everyone must say this, but it was quite fawlty towers-esque. as i was enjoying a read and a pint by the fire the bell boy confided that all the staff called it that too, and the shambolic spanish f&b manager seemed to confirm his theory.

early next morning i set off for some B-roads and smaller A-roads that wove around next to the many lochs in that mid-west part of scotland, finally wending my way up the coast through oban, to fort william and across to mallaig, by way of strontian. absolutely stunning scenery although the roads did sometimes leave something to be desired - and some of the VW golf smeared on them too. mallaig is a functional little fishing town and the jumping off point for the ferry to skye. as such it's not really a tourist town, and thus exactly what i was looking for. the front bar of the pub i stayed in was empty, by way of all the town's residents being at a 21st birthday party at the pub up the road. of course i joined in and we all had a cracking good laugh, before i retired early for the next leg - a loop up to inverness and back down to edinburgh.

one of the characters i met at the pub was an old fisherman called tony and his daughter, who was a welder out on oil rigs in the north sea. a tough girl whose features in no way belied her occupation. tony had given up fishing and now ran a charter boat (a beautiful old cutter) up and down the coast ferrying tourists around. he flew a stars and stripes, not out of any particular fondness for the states, but just to piss off the locals. a contrarian! i liked him immediately. before setting off i visited his boat moored alongside the slumbering fishing trawlers. (licenses have been reduced and the fleet could only fish on certain days / weeks of the year, this not being one of them.) tony and his daughter must have given it a fair nudge the night before after i'd left the pub as there was no sign of life on deck let alone any preparations being made for departure, so i took some film shots of the docks before heading off.

uneventful trip up to inverness apart from the filthy weather for the first hour or so. once up next to loch ness though, the sun broke through and it became a glorious day for driving. (this was 2 days after the torrential rain had flooded aberdeenshire.) too glorious i guess for one person, who must have lost concentration and bounced off the steep rock cliff next to the road, blocking the middle of the two-lane A road. they weren't moving but people were on the scene so i u-turned and headed back to for a mid morning coffee and sandwich at drumnadrochit. it seemed to take quite a while for the ambo and fire engine to make it to the accident site so instead of waiting i detoured on another, smaller, A-road via cannich and beauly, which turned out to be another stunning piece of road and scenery with rocky escaprments and rolling hills studded with the weird glowing scottish sheep.

up to inverness and through grantown-on-spey, then onto the most spectacular road i've ever driven, including of course the great ocean road in victoria, where let's face it, you get miles and miles of, well, ocean. the A939 winds north-south through the central scottish highlands and the vistas are breathtakingly beautiful. simply gorgeous. the light is incredible. i always believed those old scottish paintings were kind of fibbing about the light, but they truly do show what it's really like. not surprisingly i used heaps of film trying to capture this light and the feeling of old-world painterliness. we'll see if i succeeded at all in a few months i suppose.

after driving through the highlands slackjawed with wonderment, the last 50 or so miles back to edinburgh were a bit of a struggle, but after more than 1000 kms it was the only time i became sick of being behind the wheel.

made it backt to edinburgh with time to drop off the car, grab the shuttle into town, check in and have a quick shower then head off to the conference centre for registration and several well-deserved beers.

i've mapped the drive here and as pictures are forthcoming, if any are good enough, i'll try and link them onto the map - without using picasa if i can help it.

oh, this picture was taken on my new iphone (!), through the viewfinder of the bronica after a ladybird had flown into it. insects still rule the roost even in temperate countries i guess.

View drive around scotland in a larger map

been a while...

2009-08-25T14:24:00.002+10:00

july was crazy. we moved apartments - twice - and i've been cranking out experiments trying to get some data together for conference in edinburgh in early september. so, haven't shot any film basically and have a heap lying around waiting to be developed / scanned / uploaded.

anyway, this is another shot from the walk around little india with chris / tomo / bullseyephoto. i like it, heaps.

joss for johns

2009-06-25T18:37:00.005+10:00

most people who haven't yet been to singapore think it's boring, sterile and staid. one trip down to little india or geylang on a sunday afternoon should change that impression pretty quickly.

tourist tat tableau

2009-05-20T14:34:00.001+10:00

last post from our bali holiday - ubud market is one of those deathly tourist traps selling all manner of tat - i love it.

Melbourne in Autumn

2009-05-08T13:32:00.003+10:00

we headed to melbourne over the easter break to attend two weddings - one of my friend's and one of jo's. of course i made a pilgrimage to my little cafe on albert st that makes proper sandwiches with italian ciabatta and pastrami, cheese and salad. washed down with a double espresso.

ah what a joy to hear "espresso" pronounced with an esss instead of an exx. it really is about the little things.

everything but the kitchen sink

2009-03-09T17:25:00.003+11:00

zb was in town for a few days, then he left, then cousin em was in town. we took her down to the arab quarter for a turkish dinner then jazz at the blujazz cafe where nancy's friends were playing. a nice weekend in the 'pore.

2009-02-09T15:14:00.002+11:00

during holidays in rainy season in tropical countries, it's inevitable that rain will fall, heavily, on some days. luckily they give you time, and opportunity, to take shots that you might not otherwise take!

cliché on all levels

2009-01-09T14:52:00.002+11:00

for christmas and new years we headed off to the north east coast of bali - avoiding family, long-haul travelling and the (usually) cold christmas weather at home. we did have some misgivings about "bali", but up on the north east it was beautiful! the main industries are fishing (obviously) and farming corn, peanuts and coconuts, as the area receives far less rainfall than the rest of the island, so it's still pretty idyllic. even better, there are no nightclubs, bars, cinemas, internet cafes, drunken yob aussies, rubbish-strewn beaches, rabid dogs and traffic jams which apparently plague kuta.

as well as those worthy motives, i was a bit sneaky too - and proposed on the stroke of midnight on new years!!

2008-11-26T13:29:00.001+11:00

During the mid-autumn festival (hungry ghost month) a group of us went out to geylang to eat frog porridge, pig organ soup and other sundrey entrails. Yum!

an indian selling western suits in chinatown

2008-10-30T19:58:00.005+11:00

i took part in a portrait challenge type thing on flickr to win another trip35. while not dying of desperation to win another "crappy" camera (relatively speaking of course), it was a great exercise being 'forced' to take random street portraits. of course, i had to have a tiger or two to disinhibit the frontal lobes first...

a flock? a gaggle? a posse?

2008-09-25T17:28:00.003+10:00

a bunch of schoolkids crossing the church courtyard in kochi, kerala. one of the great things about film is finding another roll in the fridge and not having a clue what's on it, only to develop it and find amazing little moments like this that take your mind flooding back to that moment.

time out in tokyo

2008-08-20T13:52:00.002+10:00

spent a long weekend in tokyo - madness i know - running around in 37 degree weather trying to digest it all. impossible. when the bank balance eventually recovers we'll have to make a return journey, absolutely.

kicking it at home

2008-08-06T17:36:00.005+10:00

after galavanting around SE asia and australia i decided to wander around singapore's back blocks for a bit of long exposure night time shenanigans with the holga and some kodak 400 VC. heaps of fun, and now that the bronnie has arrived it might time to repeat this in new locations...

beach days redux

2008-07-07T12:23:00.006+10:00

just another quick one from ali + mike's wedding at byron bay - film this time, expired kodak that came in one of the bulk loaders. cross processed as all good expired slide film should be ;)

sunset? so what.

it's all about the beaches these days

2008-06-03T20:05:00.005+10:00

so it seems to pretty much be all about the beaches these days...

another wedding, another beach, another bucketload of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere from our extravagant globetrotting lifestyle... but this one i don't need to feel guilty for, because the wedding was that of my "second" sister ali - a very close friend (nextdoorneighbour) from childhood (year DOT). she was marrying her man, mike, all the way from the USA, in byron bay. whacky. but lovely.

bathroom wall or bust

2008-05-14T13:43:00.008+10:00

this reminds me of those pics you see on the bathroom wall of rented beachhouses in places like lorne and byron bay and noosa. usually they have some seashells and / or coral on the windowsill or around the sink. perhaps on the edge of the bath. and blue and white stripey hand towels.

but, i still iike it.

taken on a recent trip to rawa island on the east coast of malaysia with a bunch of friends from singapore. best long weekend in a long time.

shoalhaven gorge

2008-04-21T17:14:00.001+10:00

shoalhaven gorge - 20080420-IMG_4759
Originally uploaded by thomask

trying to find "good" light in singapore is an elusive search. i've found some nice light, surprisingly?, at night. at the very least, mixed sodium and fluorescent light makes for some interesting white balance effects.

this pic reminds me of a bushwalk i was on in the shoalhaven gorge (NSW). in the middle of the night several of us woke up due to the streaming bright (full)moonlight, and spent the next several hours madly rockhopping and bathing in the light.

if there's one thing i miss about home, it's the light.

insistent!

2008-03-13T20:48:00.001+11:00

20080228-IMG_4473
Originally uploaded by thomask

so, a long time between drinks hey...

well, we've been pretty busy. i had a conference in bangalore for a few days, then we jumped on a train and headed south to kerala. fort cochin to be specific. thence down to allepey where we hired a houseboat for a couple of days and cruised through the backwaters - lovely. from there to varkala, where i even managed to catch some waves the arabian sea thoughtfully provided, and on to trivandrum to catch a plane back to bangalore, and home again.

phew!

little india - light and sound magic!

2007-12-06T19:53:00.000+11:00

j's friend, r, was here with her boyfriend, also r, over the weekend. after meeting up for a coffee on saturday morning we took them to little india for lunch. happily, the temple on serangoon rd was open for puja, so we were able to show r&r some of the local colour!

yet another new camera...

2007-12-06T16:26:00.000+11:00

so i bought a voigtlander bessaR from a friend in melbourne who'd hardly used it and wanted to offload it cheap(ish). i'm loving beng able to expose my shots (mostly) correctly, but the thing is, i can't use my jupiter (russian) 35mm lens with it. oh, well, we make do with what we've got hey?

one of the first rolls i shot was at a little flea market in tanglin village (dempsey rd), at a place called "house". this dj, wayne, was playing some very tasty electro and minimal tech tunes, which, combined with $5 crownie stubbies and some sunny blue skies, made for a pretty satisfactory sunday afternoon!

roof, loof, moof

2007-11-12T19:47:00.001+11:00

jj and i have been exploring singapore's arty side recently. last weekend we hit the MAAD market at red dot design museum, where i bought a t-shirt by a guy called mike (moofculture.com)

then this weekend just gone we hit a flea market at tanglin village (dempsey rd). not much there for me , but heaps of jewellery and clothes for jj to muse over. there was a great dj (didn't catch his name) and 5 buck crownie stubbies! how good is that?

the pic is looking up the stairwell of a rooftop bar, called loof. figure it out, it's not that hard.

and we're into vietnam!

2007-10-19T18:48:00.001+10:00

well, not really, but i'm churning through the trip pictures and have left laos behind. only hoi an and saigon to go!

2123_just a bit of settling thats all.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask

the law of diminishing returns

2007-10-11T13:34:00.001+10:00

shot with the zorki2c and jupiter12. apart from some exposure / dev/technical probs, i'm pretty happy!

orki_aug07_006.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask

what up dawg

2007-09-13T18:36:00.001+10:00

1861030907_what up.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask

a couple of national park rangers from savannakhet, laos. complete with AK-47s

redangascular

2007-09-01T23:34:00.001+10:00

00140008_redangascular.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask

our first holiday out of singkers. a belated 30th pressie.

lovely....

30 in singapore

2007-08-14T11:41:00.000+10:00

toothpastefordinner.com

i liked this one....

wanking in singapore

2007-07-09T13:38:00.001+10:00

1280_wonky wire
Originally uploaded by thomask

first post from singapore, and it's a bitch. typical me!

so, we all know the joke about investment bankers, right?

well, all banks in singapore, and bankers, turn out to be like those dodgy men loitering outside public conveniences looking for some frottage action...

to begin with, there's the queues. singaporean banks, despite 'successfully' (?) having moved everyone over to electronic banking, are still filled with hordes of people, waiting to see a teller. why? money. well der, it's a bank. but i don't mean just a lobster or two, i mean like 10K and 20K at a pop. as far as i can surmise, these people wait for their pay to be deposited into their account, and then withdraw the entire amount to hide under their beds for the month. or it could be to do with the recent 2-point hike in the GST from 5 to 7% (shops are offering to absorb the GST if you pay in cash.) well, whatever the reasons, they result in queues the length of 3 chinese dancing lions laid end to end, as first the teller puts the cash through the counting machine, then counts it manually, twice, then the customer counts it, 2 or 3 times. all very frustrating.

when you finally get to see a teller to open an account, you have to make sure you bring the "minimum deposit" amount. $500 for our bank, $1000 for most others, and $5000 for the big boys (eg HSBC). this money is the mimimum deposit to open an account, and if the balance ever drops below that level they charge you for the indiscretion. again as far as i can tell, they only use this money to play on the international markets, increasing their profits. it does mean you pay no fees for the account, or ATM withdrawals, but really, who are they kidding? that's the only "advantage" your money gets you.

in a "wired" country like singapore, you'd think at least there'd be no fees for withdrawing money from another bank's ATMs, right? wrong, sort of. you see, there are no fees, but that's because you can't use other bank's ATMs, full stop. don't ask me why, no-one's been able to explain it. the one exception to this is POSB and DBS. (POSB is like the jetstar to DBS's qantas.)

finally, and i only just found this out today (and is what prompted this little tirade), there's a difference between "electronic use only" debit cards and 'real' debit cards. when you open an account, the bank will provide you with an ATM card, on the spot. that's right, the number is printed on the card with a thermal printer, you sign it, and bang, you're ready to spend the hardearned. fantastic yeah? they'll even, once you've filled in the additional form, turn your run-of-the-mill ATM card into a Mastercard debit card, so you can "sign and pay" in shops, restaurants and online. this is what the promotional posters and the teller in the bank will tell you. but hold your horses, sunshine, there's a catch. when you try to use to use said debit card online, it won't be accepted, because it's "electronic use only". what does that mean? isn't the internet electronic? nup. only ATMs are electronic. so what's the point of a debit card you can only use in ATMs? exactly.

so, this lunchtime i'm off to the bank again to apply for a 'real' debit card (the difference being this card has embossed, instead of printed, numbers, and no "electronic use only" in fineprint at the bottom. and that's it. same name. same pool of money. same mastercard symbol. same hologram.

bankers.

jumping for joy!!

2007-06-18T18:03:00.001+10:00

1110_jumping for joy!!
Originally uploaded by thomask

a little happy man in changmai, thailand.

i hope that's his knotty sarong....

zorki2c

2007-03-27T11:18:00.001+10:00

9434_zorki2c.JPG
Originally uploaded by thomask.

i recently received a gift from zb of a zorki2c - he had one too many, and offloaded this on me :)

but it had no lens, so i had to trek out to camberwell to source one at the camberwell photographic swap meet thing. there i found the seething underbelly of used camera trade in melbourne, and a creepy place it was too. i was all at sea, i must admit, until a kindly old gent called oleg (or something) took me under his wing and eventually found me a lens (52/2.8 - industar 61). so now i can shoot old school.

little red balloon

2007-03-08T11:41:00.001+11:00

9383_little red balloon
Originally uploaded by thomask.

ok, so i phinished, too.

screamer

2007-02-15T10:37:00.001+11:00

D_0226_screamer
Originally uploaded by thomask.

this is ebony. my sister's new partner. or fling. or whatever.

she's been snapped with my new toy, the 5D+85/1.8 (!!!) which for reasons i won't go into, came into my life at exactly the right time.

for the moment though, she (miss fiedee) is tucked away, waiting till i have some time and space to head out and test her and myself. basil has been on the receiving end, bastard of a test subject though he is ...

bikes in brunnie

2006-12-21T00:35:00.000+11:00

F20dec06_bikes in brunnie_21.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

so ZB showed me the dark arts of developing B&W film the other night. awesome.

i'm now looking forward to acquiring some equipment - patto tank, spools, dark bag etc etc etc (developer i suppose would help too) and experimenting with more and more filmuses!

once this freakin thesis is done...

hard yakka

2006-12-14T15:26:00.000+11:00

8691_hard yakka.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

after seeing an exhibition at bus gallery, where s2art, barb and scootie had some pictures involved in the "discarded objects poster project", jo and i went and saw the doco "rampage", by aussie director george gittoes. "rampage" is kind of the sequel to "soundtrack to war", but really the only connection is lil 'E, the rapper in "soundtrack" who has three brothers back home in the miami housing estate, brown sub. www.rampagethemovie.com/

lil' E feels safer in iraq than in brown sub, and after several shootouts involving handguns, AKs and shotguns, you can see why. predictably perhaps, one of the brothers gets killed, an event possibly precipitated by the presence of the filmaker. something george struggles with, and which leads him to spirit the boys out to australia for some R&R, and a healing session with an aboriginal elder (slightly tacky).

denzel (aka demo, the youngest at 14 and the main focus of the film) makes the telling comment, "australia is the only place i know where you know that people coming up behind you aren't carrying a gun". he returns to the US to secure himself a record deal, and thus a means out of brown sub, but the producers in NY and miami are reluctant to release a record that isn't age appropriate (i.e., people don't want to hear a 14 year old kid rapping about gun fights, drug deals, sex acts and losing a brother to turf wars). as the pastor at the church screams, "wake up!". finally one producer, ethiopia, encourages demo to keep rapping his life story as he sees it, without the commercial spin, but it's unclear whether he actually gets a deal with her or not.

we're kind of left hanging at the end, with george cutting back to images of US tanks rolling down iraqi streets amongst burnt out cars, corpses and terrorised locals. hopefully demo gets his break, he deserves it.

emerging from the cinema feeling shocked (war zone in miami) and awed (at demo's talent), it was great to see this lady perched up on the bench of a payphone having a good old natter to someone. normality is underrated sometimes, but i like it.

phinished

2006-12-14T15:24:00.001+11:00

jo handed in her phd on friday. after weeks of stress and hard work, this smile made it all worthwhile.

my turn soon.

hopefully.

the end of movember

2006-12-07T17:15:00.000+11:00

8463_movember day 17_kombi mo.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

ok, so this was actually taken at day 17, but the finished product was pretty much the same...

a few dudes i know were going along to the "movember gala parte" at the metro, of all places. haven't been to the metro in over a decade, since high school. i remember sneaking in hip flasks of vodka due to the lack of pocket money ;)

well, i still have no money but at least now i have a mo. so i went along, dressed as a pimp, kind of inspired by the pimp played by snoop-dogg in "starsky and hutch". but not black. [photos taken by michael are on his flickr site.

well, there were many other pimps there (in fact one pimp and his ho won best 'mo couple), as well as dodgy 70s cricketers, VB blokes, porn stars, airline pilots, 70s tennis players, village people, 2x borats and other assorted historical 'mo showers.

what struck me as i wandered around in an increasingly alcoholic daze, being glared at in my mia wallace pimp wig by big beefy blokes with biceps and beer bulges was that the whole feeling was one of pure rank unadorned misogyny. now, i like my beer and cricket as much as the next mo man, but this was almost like an invitation to openly denigrate women, and i saw many examples of such. and weirdly enough the chicks, and i use that word in full recognition of all its connotations, seemed to be lapping it up. in fact i also copped a fair few disparaging looks from several girls. "how dare your hair be glossier and more voluminous than mine!" their eyes seemed to scream at me, hysterically. (another word whose origins i'm fully aware of...).

and all this seemed diametrically opposed to the whole idea of the evening. movember - promoting men's health issues. don't be a typical man, head down to your GP and get the finger up the rectum. admit you're feeling down and talk to someone about it. well, the metro men of movember seemed to take this in the opposite vein and used the opportunity to be as "blokey" as possible. i dunno, maybe i missed the point?

so next year i might skip the party and head to the salon to get my mo waxed instead.

oh, and i raised just over $400, enough for one antibody. just.

movember day 3

2006-11-08T13:33:00.000+11:00

8320_movember day 3.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

so like i said i joined up to become a mo bro - a dude who's growin his mo to raise money for research into prostate cancer and depression. these are two diseases which affect and kill more males than breast cancer kills females.

but more than that, it's about raising the profile of medical research in general in australia. a topic i'm intensely interested in because at the moment it looks like that's where i'm going to be earning my living for at least the next 5-10 years!

anyway, movember has aroused some interesting passions amongst the commentariat, with too much debate to recap here. for the full run down, just click on the ugly mug to the right... ;[)

thanks to lauren for the lively discussion, and to charlie for his passionate defence!

linear love

2006-11-02T11:41:00.000+11:00

8280_linear love.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

taken on a recent trip up to mildura for the "border challenge" - a touch football tournament for victorian 30's and 35's against their south australian rivals. i'm happy to report we beat them 3 games to nil in both divisions. the technical term for such a large winning margin is a 'spanking'.

i've also joined up for movember, and will be growing a 'mo to raise money for men's health (specifically prostate cancer and depression). pics to be forthcoming...

arrive at the point

2006-10-04T10:56:00.000+10:00

8066_and arrive at the point.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

have been at a conference in brisbane the past week - COMBIO 2006.

pretty good meeting overall, made better by the fact that i won a cashmoney prize for my talk... which covered the cost of my recent bike service and a bit more. phew!

then headed down to mullumbimby to stay with J and her new partner S, and the two kids. good times, although the younger kid B can be a bit of a handful!

it was funny that as soon as i stepped off the plane i realised how much i missed brisbane, and how well we complement each other - the city and me. weird that, but it felt like i was at home. then again, it could have been to do with the fact that when i left melbs it was 16 degrees and hailing like a MF.

thanks to nic and michael for letting me crash at theirs too... xox

bar room brawl

2006-09-12T12:04:00.000+10:00

7977_bar room brawl.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

was out on the town (a rare occurrence these days) with an old primary school mate, g, when we ran into another old primary school mate, s.

drunken hours of conversation later, i was none the wiser to what s actually does. in true celestine prophecy fashion however, this didn't matter a great deal, as i ran into s in the supermarket a couple of days later. how suburban.

g is going to auckland to be a powerranger. his soul is now owned by disney, and they didn't even let him choose his colour.

oops he did it again

2006-09-01T14:20:00.000+10:00

7895_mardi shards.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

yet another accident outside our place...

luckily we weren't home, and luckily no-one was killed, and luckily our car survived intact. unlike the total of eight cars thus far that have been smacked upside the panels.

do runs of luck run out? guess they have to at some point.

thesis corrections trickling in. and trickling out again. getting sick of it now.

flickr remixed

2006-08-23T13:51:00.000+10:00

flickr remixed cover_b&w.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

one of the melbourne flickrites, toughlove, decided to pull together a band of ?likeminded? people to make a mix cd of their favourite tunes and send them to 5 other random melbournites.

so this is my contribution.

hope they like it, but more importantly, i hope i don't get 5 cd's worth of barry mannilow, abba or cheesy handbag!

numer 9.... number 9... number 9...

2006-08-09T13:12:00.000+10:00

my life path is number 9, apparently.

funny, cause that's also been my touch footy number since like forever.

Your Life Path Number is 9

Your purpose in life is to make the world better

You are very socially conscious and a total idealist.
You think there are many things wrong with the world, and you want to fix them.
You have a big idea of how to world could be, and you'll sacrifice almost anything to work towards this dream.

In love, you can easily see the beauty in someone else. And you never cling too tightly.

You are capable of great love, but it's hard for you to focus your love on one person or relationship.
You have a lot of outward focus, and you tend to blame the world for your failures.
You are often disappointed by the realities of life - it's hard for you to accept the shortcomings of the world.

What Is Your Life Path Number?

on a seemingly unrelated note, my friend alan in brisvegas has finished his phd, been awarded and is now moving to NY. i mapped his new apartment, thusly:

and man its in a fuckin awesome spot.

i love NY. can't wait to visit again.

and why did i lose my focus on this arsehole of a thesis?
oh well, coulda woulda shoulda.

basil the rat

2006-08-07T16:32:00.000+10:00

impersonating basil...
so i signed up to zooomr using this blog post, and they upgraded me to a free Pro account. pretty good so far...

turn the wheel

2006-08-07T16:19:00.000+10:00

7685_turn the wheel.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

photo from a recent walkabout with barb and s2art.

many more to come.

kinda using this as a test to see whether flickr or zooomr are easier for blogging. zooomr might give me a free pro account.

on initial impressions, zooomr looks like it's copying flickr for all its worth, right down to the positioning and font of the 'beta'...

free your mind

2006-07-29T10:45:00.000+10:00

7599_flower blood 2.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

yep, again it's been a while...

awesome day yesterday out shooting with s2 and barb. over in spotswood. lots of shots to post to flickr in the upcoming days. in the meantime, this was hidden away in a little nook on errol st. so small i had to jam the camera in the doorway and hope. that dark bit is my jacket. the space smelled like piss, hope the artists had a nosepeg on. i need less 'free my mind', and more 'do some work, bum'.

feel the love

2006-07-03T16:04:00.000+10:00

Feel the love
Originally uploaded by F o u t u g r a p h e.

went to the latest flickr meetup yesterday, just to cap off an all round boozy weekend.

caught up with the usual crew there which was fine, except all the newbies seemed to be conversationally challenged such that whenever i tried to initiate a 'hello how/who/what are you?' kind of thing, all i got was a camera in the face. i wasn't the only one...

poor audrey copped the backlash though.

sorry fouts.

struggletown

2006-06-02T10:09:00.000+10:00

7239_struggletown.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

went for a stroll around collingwood, after several other flickrites had done the same. found a different view of a
photo taken by donina. i had the EOS with me, but just found it so much easier to use the little ixus. hence the purpley bits around the edges. soz.

keep clear

2006-05-19T12:05:00.000+10:00

1000019_with a cherry on top.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

kinda sums up this piss poor effort in recent weeks. or is it months? who knows. my worst nightmare has come true - i've become the living embodiment of a piece of fucked 'chaser' satire. middle class white boy starts blog. gives up after 4 posts. well fuck the chaser, i'm back. *shudder*

hi to jimbo in jenoa ;)

old time meadow

2006-04-07T13:00:00.000+10:00

6162_old time meadow.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

a group of us (disparate, but still a group) packed a picnic lunch and headed down to the shitfarm (werribee) to check out the helen lempriere sculpture exhibition.

these fibreglass sheep were grazing next to the carriageway that leads up to the mansion... cute, non?

still, you could cast your mind back to the days of the landed gentry and the 'halcyon' days of riding the sheep's back that allowed melbourne to become so 'marvellous'. all very "pride and prejudice" albeit in a colonial kind of manner. there's some synergy there with the recent empire games, but you can figure that one out for yourselves.

la sister...

2006-03-17T11:41:00.000+11:00

5764_pinprick.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

...is off to ecuador for 2 weeks to compile poems and stories for fidel castro's birthday book (80th? hmmm, i should know that).

imagine che as an 80 year old...

punk rock star

2006-03-01T17:20:00.000+11:00

5562_punk rock star.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

the rockstars and hipsters down in st. kilda are getting visits from the SAS now. blackhawk helicopters are doing circuits above their heads in full nightvision attack mode, in preparation for the 'inevitable' terrorist attack i guess.

this begs some questions:

who does mr. fox sue if the choppers crash into the luna park man?

do the rockstars even notice the noise? no-one else seemed to be looking up...

and, will this be the first and only cliche st kilda shot i ever take?

they said smoking would kill me

2006-01-10T15:38:00.000+11:00

4891_they said smoking would kill me
Originally uploaded by thomask.

well, if the smoking doesn't the steaming will.

despite fighting the crowds at the market for the fish prawns squids, then having to clean marinade cook the lot, xmas eve turned out to be pretty fun. i still prefer the ones where we go out get whacked and have a hangover all xmas day.

the comeback

2006-01-09T17:20:00.000+11:00

4857_smokin hot
Originally uploaded by thomask.

snout - from the mid-late 90's, remember? anyway, greg couldn't handle the sex drugs and rocknroll, so they broke up. a long time on and they're following in the footsteps of the stones, the doors and inxs, albeit without walking frames or reality tv shows.

and the gig was great, excepting some 'technical errors' - re-teething problems i suppose. greg loved it though, you could tell.

crazy cray fishin kringle kristmas kunts

2005-12-22T17:49:00.000+11:00

4825_cray fish fuckin you up.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

we had a crazy kris kringle the other night at this candy striped cheap(ish) chinese restaurant in an 'unusual' part of the city (forefront, on franklin st, if you have to know). it's 'unusual' for 2 reasons - it's away from little bourke st, and it's the northern side of the city, where my friends hardly dare venture since finishing uni all those aeons ago. we were there b/c we always have to go to these 'secret' places which s's dad finds before anyone else knows about them, and before they appear in epicure... i know, don't even start. still, one of their early discoveries was old kingdom in smith st. now you can't even get a table there unless you book, but that's ok b/c you have to pre-order the duck anyway. but i digress.

so we're at this secret candy striped restaurant for the speciality of the house - 'lobster' (except we all know there's no lobster here - they have the claws (like yabbies), and these, crayfish, only have feelers out in front). but more about the 'lobster' later.

first, we had to take care of the kris kringle. now, my family's never gone in for the KK, but i hear it's about getting a random name before the day, shopping for that one random person, who then receives the present, anonymously. our KK was going to be different. each person takes a card from the deck. ace high, suits in order. this ranks people from 1 to 8, say. #1 goes first, picks a wrapped present from the pile and unwraps it. #2 then either steals #1's present, or picks their own from the pile. if #2 steals, then #1 goes back to the pile and unwraps their new selection. then #3 either steals from #1 or #2, or picks from the pile, and so on up the chain. #8 obviously gets their pick of the loot, except for the one remaining "mystery" present in the pile. much hilarity ensues, but here's the rub: some people in this game are going to get screwed, and some are going to come up roses. you get screwed either by having someone steal your awesome present, or by not having the cold heartedness to rip away someone's obviously cherished prize even if you really really want it (which may be taken from you later anyway, except if you're topdog).

now, i realise this is how our society supposedly functions nowadays, but it seems to me that christmas, for all its crass commercialisation, is one time of the year when "screw or be screwed" is not exactly the mentality we should be employing. i mean, what the fuck happened to the "joy of giving"? somehow it got turned into the "joy of seeing someone else's face light up when they are given something they really like, only to see them crestfallen when somene screws them over, and then seeing that same person happy again when the person that fucked them gets fucked themselves, ad nauseum". the point being that at the end of the night, some people are happy, some people are pissed off.

so obviously it starts with tampa and children overboard. then purloining hanson's policies, then continues on to wage an illegal war and kill 1 crore civilians, ends up with race riots on sin city beaches and now culminates in capitalist libertarian kris kringles. i mean, really.

ok, so back to the 'lobster'... you know what, screw the lobster, i feel like steak.

the silly season

2005-12-20T17:05:00.000+11:00

blondes and brunettes.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

jeez. that was a big day. i mean, who starts at 11.30am these days? more to the point, who finished 12 hours later? a few of us stalwarts battled on to the end, and i don't know about them, but i struggled the rest of the weekend.

queen victoria night markets

2005-12-15T17:31:00.000+11:00

4774+5_markets merged.jpg
Originally uploaded by thomask.

one of the best things about 3051 in summer. they used to be called the "gaslight night markets", as they were sponsored by gaslight music. now they're sponsored by a car manufacturer, which funnily enough doesn't have quite the same ring to it. oh, and the price of beer has gone up. typical.

Flickr

2005-12-15T17:21:00.000+11:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

ok so yay i worked out to edit and post from within blogger. i know, i'm a genius.