Seeya London Hello Toronto

We are off to Toronto today WOHOOO!. We have been well looked after by Brett and Helen in their rock star pad and we will miss them greatly. We will also miss the "London gang". Here are some of the ones who couldn't avoid my camera on our goodbye drinks. I can't believe Todd and Nigel avoided the hat.

Battersea Power Station

Battersea Powerstation and the Serpentine Gallery just put on a great show of Chinese artists as part of the final viewing of the station before re-developement. What an amazing building and thanks to Simonne and Elaine (birthday present) we got to see it in its final grand state before it gets all joojied up.
(Trying to upload photos but this blog seems to have a bug at the moment)

Paris

Well for me Paris was cold and spectacular and certainly there was alot of romance and dreaming with Phillip. We saw alot! I am a bit of a crazy siteseeing maniac. I just have to see it all. I think we probably saw about a weeks worth of Paris in 3 days and we were totally exhausted in a good way by the time we reached the Eurostar train on the last day.
The hotel we stayed at was recommended by Matt taylor and was a cute little themed hotel nestled in Rue Nesle in the Latin Quarter. At the desk sat a charismatic old lady with heavily mascara eyes; above her hung about 100 bouquets of fragrant dried flowers covering the ceiling. What a dreamy introduction to the city. It was a great place to stay as it was so close to alot of restaurants and only about a 4 minute walk to the Notre Dame cathedral.
We took a bus trip around the city the second day. We sat under the eiffel tower and gazed up while eating chips and drinking coffee. We kept seeing posters of 'Happy Feet' everywhere including about 20 different metro stops, nearly all of them from the Odean to Porte Cligancourt.
The Louvre and the MuseeD'Orsay were a must for both of us as we both love these kind of grand galleries. Of course we saw the "mona lisa" and some amazingly huge french 19th century paintings that totally blew us away. We tried to see the L'Orangerie and Monet's largest Waterlillies but sadly it was closed so next time we will definately do this and also a bunch of other galleries I wanted to see.
After seeing the Sacre coeur and Montmarte we walked to a cemetary nearby to try and find Degas tomb (and Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir). It was getting dark and a little scary when from out of the darkness came a guard with a whistle yelling at us in french to leave. Great atmosphere I have to admit and some very ornate tombs like I've never seen before.
Just before you get to the Moulin Rouge as you walk down the hill towards the city there is an erotic museum which I recommend to everyone. 5 floors full of everything from erotic illustrated cards to paintings to deity's to dildos. Some interesting and highly imaginative stuff that we both enjoyed and had a giggle at.
We spent Sunday at the biggest Flea and antique market which is near the Porte Clicancourt stop on the metro. It was huge and crazy and we bought 2 vintage prints that was well worth the trip. It seemed expensive at first but the shop owners seemed willing to negotiate.
On the final night while having dinner the lights went out on a large part of the city so it was romantic candle light, how appropriate!
More photos coming soon!!!!


FRANK SINATRA

I love paris in the spring time
I love paris in the fall
I love paris in the summer when it sizzles
I love paris
in the winter when it drizzles

I love paris every
moment
Every moment of the year
I love paris, why oh
why do I love paris
Because my love is here

Maddam T

This is me at Maddam Tussauds. I was there for about 3 hours I think, passifying the sculptor in me. I have worked with wax before and it was great to see the way they transformed it into flesh. John Wayne was sooo big! I know why they called him "Big John" now.

Madam Tussauds and the Battersea powerstation coming soon!
Its my birthday today.. Wooohoooo. I'm 32.. Blimey, where did that all go?
I love my birthday day! I really do. Its the one day where I let myself soak up the love guilt free ;p
Woohoooooooo

Oxford St in Autumn

Sparkass - the band

This one's for you helenzo!
When we were in Berlin we started a new band called Sparkass (after the bank we kept seeing everywhere). Band members are Phillip, Karen, Helen and Brett.

Check out the tape generator http://www.says-it.com/cassette/index.php

Handheld

I used to love handheld games. I think I clocked DonkeyKong 3 times over. It was such a delight and nothing much has changed. I still love these things. Check out this site. http://www.handhelden.com/

Online shop now online

I have finally decided to be a little serious about all the bits and pieces I have been making and have started an art collective. I even have a little WWW shop on Etsy that has the jewelry pieces for sale. Have a look. I'd love to hear what you think?
Go to my new online shop.
Helen and I are thinking about having a market stall at Camden Markets just for a bit of a laugh sometime before Xmas.

Big Bass - Nottinghill carnival

There is nothing like being part of a huge crowd, getting squished and shaking your body to some tunes all at the same time. I think my heart nearly stopped at the amount of bass going through my body. Phillip said his eyeballs were shaking. It was amazing! We ate some Jamaican food which was a first for me, Salt fish and Ackee and we drank Rum. Yummee!

You can see more photos here.

Green eggs and ham

I have started making some art again and to get my hands dirty I started making some jewelry first. Have a peek and let me know what you think?? I have sold one on ebay already which is kinda weird because I did it as a dare from Phillip.

PAsta paSta PastA with Simonne

Making Pasta with Simmy yesterday was fun. I have never made fresh Pasta before. Its great to have the time to do this kind of thing. Its not as easy as it looks!




Pasta recipes
http://pasta.allrecipes.com/
http://www.ilovepasta.org/recipes.html

Looking for Bono - Dublin

We didn't see Bono even though Cam and Tash said he is everywhere. But Dublin was full of leprechauns and we did drink some Guinness at the factory.
It was nice to see a little of my Grandads history and I felt a connection here to the people and a strange familiarity to the place.

Damien Hurst / Francis bacon

If I get an inch of doubt being in London then I have to do is look at some galleries.
I mean sheesh! Damien Hurst and Francis Bacon in one large commercial warehouse gallery at one time, with no entrance fee, with not many people, on a weekend. I call this bliss!
Of course I went for the price list thinking " yes i could fit the 3 metre x 3 metre tank of a rotting corpse in the loungeroon somewhere".
Gagosian gallery

Back Blog 3 - Yorkshire Dales and the Lakes District (May 06)

Phillip and I spent some time with his parents Jenny and Volker travelling North.
We visited alot of little towns from Yorkshire to the Dales to the Lakes district then down to the Cotswalds.
There is a fantastic gallery/park called "Yorkshire Sculpture Park" worth visiting in West Bretton with sculpture of James Turrel, Antony Gormley, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Eduardo Paolazzo, Rachel whiteread and the list goes on and on. The James Turrel light installations were as exhilarating as epected. "Light is his material and obsession."
Rachel whiteread had some interesting metal etchings displayed near the canteen. An interesting technique I did not realise she played with. You can also see her work that was at the Tate Modern here.

Here are some of the photos from the trip. They are mostly scenery and i did not take many.

Bolten Abbey It was totally pouring down with rain so that we could not even see much. We nearly gave up and went back to the car but I was determined to follow in the footsteps of Constable and see this amazing Cathedral. It was well worth the drama!




Yorkshire Dales - I have never seen so much water. With waterfalls coming down the sides of the mountains everywhere I felt like a small child in wonderland. What a beautiful place to be! We stayed in some cute little B&B's. My favourite one had a bar with an honour system. This is where I aquired a taste for Sherry. I think Sherry should make a comback.
On our way across to the Lakes district we drove on some pretty hairy scary little roads on the top of the mountains. I now understand what mini minors are for.
















Castlerigg Stone circle (Keswick) - This stone circle was way better than stonehenge as you could actually walk right up to the stones and around them and the view was spectacular across the cumbrian mountains. It felt like a very special place and I am glad that I fought the wind and sheep poo to see this.






















Muncaster castle

I love Berlin

Berlin is a city of intrique for me with its mix of war history and art collectives.
Phillip loved Berlin also and has been talking about the desire to move there ever since we returned. I like the idea of moving there but since my German was restricted to "Meine Deutsch ist nich gudt. English Bitte" perhaps we could wait until I did a language course so I can order beer and pretzels with confidence.
http://airout.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php
Bretts World Cup podcast - http://hutley.net/brett/WorldCup2006.mov



Day 1 - World Cup Ukraine 1 vs Tunisia 0 + Freidrichstein
We landed at Shonefeld Airport and made our way via the S-Bahn (above ground) to Christophs apartment in Neukolln, the Turkish quarter south east of central Berlin. (THANKS CHRIS!) A great place to stay in Berlin. We had to power nap as we caught a red eye flight via luton and hadn't slept until 2:00am that morning.
Ukraine vS Tunisia - The game was quite lame but the atmosphere was great! We sat up high in the Olympiastadion so we had a good view of the play and also the 70,000 people, all dotted with either Ukraine (yellow/blue) or Tunisia (red/white) colours. It was such a high to be there.



Day2 - City frolicking + World Cup in TierGarten + Tacheles cocktail hour/s until 3 am
We saw alot of the city today on a bus tour with the world cup gang. It was fun to see the city like this and we stopped at a really interesting and famous part of Berlin called "Checkpoint Charlie".
Later in the day we found ourselves in the park TierGarten with 1/2 million Germans watching the Germany vs Sweden game. It was hot and raucous and I had a headache but nothing could have been better than this. Crazy and excited people yelling German at us as each goal was scored. Brett and Phillip spent a bit of time drinking beer and Phillip nearly got in a brawl (in German) at the beer tent. But I'll let him tell you about that.



After the footy we finally found a great place to relax and spend the afternoon, called Tacheles.
Near Oranienburger Straße Tor U-Bahn (East Berlin), Tacheles was a department store built in the early 1900s that ended up as headquarters of the Nazi party in WW2. Apparently they detained french POW here on the 5th floor where there now is a large art gallery. The building was bombed heavily in WW2 and from the back you can see alot of the damage where this happened. Tacheles link with some history also http://super.tacheles.de
There are now a whole bunch of little bars (one a combi van) selling bratwurst (and veg delights) and vodka cocktails. It was here that we drank and listened to Tom Waits etc for hours sitting on the giant steel lettered seats in the sand. Great place to hangout with a few people as you can float from bar to bar and do some people watching.



We later moved to another bar in the complex to watch Mexico 1 Vs Argentina 2 (M..E..X..I..C..O..chanting) I was trying to avoid the crazy fire juggler in the courtyard who thought that giving a flamethrower to a drunken Canadian Backpacker might be funny.. ummm. somehow not!
Later upstairs we drank Vodka and Apple cocktails and checked out the art studios where we bought a few little pieces of art. www.pivoandpivos.com We listened to James Brown in one of the bars (and formed a band called Sparkasse where Phillip plays the skin flute) and drank until the early hours of the morning. What a great place to party and this was certainly a highlight of the trip.
Cocktail - Beer and Ruddelers in the Tiergarten + Vodka and Apple cocktails
Food - Bratwurst and more Bratwurst



Day 3
Early rise to meet the gang in a little cafe near the brandenberg gate for breakfast and hangover talk. Nigel at this point is still hassling me over the Aussies we saw last night singing oi oi oi. My head is aching but the coffee is just what the doctor ordered to keep me alive long enough to see the holocaust memorial, the berlin guggenheim, the reichstag and some more walking around east Berlin. What a great city. I am so in love with this city.
Cocktail - Water water and more water. Very hot today with a hangover. Both scared off all thoughts of a hair of the dog.
Food - Breakfast at Il Punto next to Brandenburg gate + Awesome kebabs (Sharwarmas) in Neukoln.

Some Berlin LINKS for yee all :
- Checkout some funky "Mitte" Moosik at Kitty-yo http://www.kitty-yo.de
- Some history about Berlin and the Berlin wall http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/
- Berlin travel tips. Alos check out this bloggers storm photos http://www.nodium.com/articles/147_berlin-travel-tips/

Back Blog 2 - Sultans Elephant

When I left Animal I was given a Timeout subscription by everyone which has been really great for getting out and about in London (thanks Sam and Amanda). We have seen comedy and music and all kinds of stuff. However this one so far has been the highlight, called Sultans Elephant. I can only describe it as giant street puppets. There was a huge elephant puppet and a large girl puppet and the puppeteers made them seem so real I was mesmorized. The girl puppet was followed down the streets of London by thousands of people, tripping over and hitting each other just to get close to the action. It was quite spectacular and I have never seen something captivate so many people.























You can see the website and official photos here.
http://www.thesultanselephant.com/home.php