Air out - Radiate

Rockstar!

2008-06-06T01:20:00.002+01:00

Santa Monica

2008-06-06T01:15:00.003+01:00

Universal Studios rides

2008-06-03T22:54:00.002+01:00

So Don't go to Universal studios if your pregnant as you cant go on any rides.
Totally sucks if you cant go on rides.

Baseball and cheeky cheeseburgers

2008-05-31T00:21:00.009+01:00

Our friends Paula and Jason took us to a game of baseball, Anaheim Angels vs LA dodgers at the Anaheim stadium. Before we got there we stopped at the camera store and I bought a new lens. Check out some of the piccys.

Vegas

2008-05-23T05:03:00.003+01:00

We took a trip to Vegas when I arrived here in Los Angeles. Niki and her friend Jen and Phillip and I took off in Niki's little car via the 15 and past the worlds largest thermometer!.
We stayed at Caesers palace which is probably one of the best due to its central location. I played craps and drank some nice riesling. I lost all my money but Phillip played and won it back again plus some. Phillip also stayed up later than any of us so he could play with the sexy blackjack girls. Don't ask :P
Pictures coming soon.

Meatscapes

2008-05-17T19:55:00.002+01:00

Look here at the collaged meatscapes of Nicholas Lampert. Thank Phillip for the link.

Meat Meat Meat!

2008-05-17T02:36:00.002+01:00

I have had a bit of an obsession with painting meat of late. I found this amazing work that is very similar to what Id like mine to look like. Brilliant!
Click here to see Victoria Reynolds work.

Venice Beach Bus 1

2008-05-17T00:02:00.003+01:00

I was sitting on the 1 blue bus from Venice to Santa Monica. There were 2 goodlooking young boys around 14-15 years old sitting right across from me. They were talking alot and laughing and generally having fun.
As the bus came to a stop and old man standing near them tried to take off the sneaker of one of the boys. There was a struggle for 2o seconds and then the old man got off without the shoe. The boy looked confused and upset while the other boy asked him "Did you know that guy?". He answered "ummmm. no." I looked at them and smiled and giggled. The boys got off at the next stop.

Goodbye Toronto. Hellooo LA

2008-05-14T18:22:00.002+01:00

Phillip and I finally left Toronto, Phillip a few months ahead of me.
We are about to have our biggest adventure yet. Those that know what I mean, know what I mean!!
We landed in Venice Beach for a few weeks in a little pad right near the beach. It was a little cramped and a bit sketchy so we looked for another place. Turned out Niki was leaving for OZ so we took over her place. Its very sweet and is still close to the beach and the pier in Santa Monica. It will do for a few months while we figure out where we are going next.
Phillip and I have started our old fogy nightly walk along the cliffs. But its pure bliss!

Rauschenberg dead!

2008-05-14T01:48:00.006+01:00

The prolific American artist Robert Rauschenberg has died at age 82.
See the New York Times article here
You can see his work in LA at the
LACMA gallery.
5905 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
http://www.lacma.org/

Outside my window

2007-06-03T19:01:00.000+01:00

Outside my window I see cars, streetcars, drunken drake hotel people, people in shorts walking, an art store, some art galleries, bikes and most importantly NO SNOW. Have a look woohoo! Compare it to then

Kensington Markets - Spring

2007-05-27T23:02:00.000+01:00

Spring has sprung! People are coming out of their winter holes and walking the streets! Its fabulous! This place feels like a new city!
Kensington Markets is a great place to take a stroll. Its full of retro crap and organic food stores. Our fave food place there to snack Tacos Al Pastor. It has the best Guacomole ever!
This weekend the streets were closed to cars and open to pedestrians only.
There was some slam poetry, street chess and badminton. It sounds naf but i kinda enjoyed it!

BATTLES - LIVE

2007-04-09T01:47:00.000+01:00

Toronto is the place for live bands so if you have spare time on your hands here then thats what you do. Its not really my thing to see bands but this one certainly made me want to see more and more. This clip doesn't do justice to how great they were.

regular blog reads

2007-04-02T00:24:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd share some of my regular blog reads. They are mostly design and handmade blogs. Go Fug yourself is kinda funny sometimes. The others are nice for design brain food.
oh joy
design sponge - my fave really
giant robot - store with goodies
poppytalk - all kinds of stuff
bloesom - more design
design spotter
etsy - of course
design milk - another design blog
treats and treasures
berlin fashion blog
design notes
design boom

2007-03-18T22:20:00.000Z

A little snow storm filmed from our apartment window in Toronto. Note the size of the snowflakes!

Skiing Canada

2007-03-18T21:56:00.000Z

2 hours north of Toronto there is a little (emphasis on little) ski village called "bluemountain". We spent Phillips birthday weekend there with Aaron, Tina, Rubens and Kevin. Day Spa for me and snowboarding for Phillip. Bliss!
Cherry pie on the way home!
Right after I took this photo of the fellas (below), a whole bunch of snow came crashing off the roof above and crushed the promo tent and some people under it. Nobody injured but certainly made a "crash".

10 False Flags That Changed the World

2007-03-04T18:19:00.000Z

http://www.911blogger.com/node/6633

Interesting read if your still not sure about 911. This might just sway your vote!

Winter Wonderland

2007-02-05T02:59:00.000Z

Giant snowflakes falling and the cold reaching deep into our lungs. Phillip and I love the snow. Its so bright and glowing. I am amazed at how it sits on things. It is so different to what we are used to. Something as simple as a branch covered on the top half full of snow has a strange fun feeling to it.

And so many types of snow. Its different nearly every day. I love it most when its like powder and as we walk through it it moves like sand. Its sticks to everything. Tina, Aaron, Phillip and I spent a great evening dinner at a place called Julies snack bar.Its South America Tapas inbetween where we both live. They left the car as it was inebriated and we ran to a little bar called "The communist daughter" with a chill in our lungs and our hands deep into -20 degrees. The whiskey was well recieved!
Here is a view of the winter cold through our window at home....

Niagara

2007-01-07T00:51:00.000Z

Tina and Aaron drove us to Niagara falls. It was three below zero and raining and there was alot of mist coming off the falls. It was so cold that we kind of looked at it for about 1o seconds and then headed into the restaurant with a view. My gosh this place felt a little like Vegas once we drove a little up the street too. Lots of lights and fun park kinda things..
It was great to get out of Toronto a little bit. We stopped by a vineyard on the way home that sold icewine - one of the best apparently - Inniskillin.

kuviasukpok ('happy' in Inuit)

2007-01-01T22:51:00.000Z

Its been a big year with 2 moves for us to 2 cities in 2 different parts of the world. We are happily settling into Toronto in a great little warehouse loft in West Queen West. Its so much bigger than our London pad and we been crazily filling it up with ideas from climbing walls to more table tennis. For now the minimal seems to work. At our little new years eve party with Aaron and Tina (and Rubens) we spent about 30 minutes playing air guitar and sliding with our socks from one end to the other. Fantastic way to bring on the new year! I have a feeling this year is going to be the best yet. My resolution lately is "throw all fear to the wind" so I guess my New YEar resolution should be that aswell. Oh and "play more squash" is a good one too.

Urban legend - Do Inuits have many words for snow?
http://www.answers.com/topic/eskimo-words-for-snow
http://www.native-languages.org/inuktitut.htm
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~pullum/eskimo_quotes.html

Seeya London Hello Toronto

2006-12-07T08:20:00.000Z

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

2006-11-29T20:24:00.001Z

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

2006-11-07T17:52:00.000Z

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

2006-11-07T10:58:00.000Z

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.

2006-11-01T11:57:00.000Z

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

2006-10-16T11:04:00.000+01:00

Sparkass - the band

2006-09-18T14:57:00.000+01:00

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

2006-09-14T15:35:00.000+01:00

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

2006-09-10T21:06:00.000+01:00

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

2006-09-03T12:05:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-29T21:04:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-22T11:18:00.000+01:00

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

2006-08-18T12:02:00.000+01:00

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

2006-07-25T10:52:00.000+01:00

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)

2006-07-10T20:38:00.000+01:00

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

2006-06-27T20:16:00.000+01:00

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

2006-06-18T19:05:00.000+01:00

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

Portugal (Bernies request)

2006-06-15T18:30:00.000+01:00

Sardines, beaches and Portwine. Nice combination really in any order.

We spent a week in the southern region of Portugal called the Algarve, staying in an old Portugal villa called the Quinta Do Santo Phunurius 15 minutes walk from the centre of Lagos.
It had a pool and a frog pond but we mostly spent time away swimming or driving around exploring the beaches and small towns to the south west.

Day 1 and 2 - Lagos and Portimau- Arrived Saturday evening and stumbled into town at 10:00pm looking for something to eat. The first thing I noticed about Portugal were the chimneys on all of the houses. We found a cafe where we ate fresh swordfish and pork and drank what seemed to be a bucket of wine. The Portuguese red wine (vinho tinto) was really cheap and light (like a merlot) and they also make a sparkling green wine called vinho verde which is fresh and quite good before a meal.
The town of Lagos was quite interesting with an old fort near the marina a few hundres metres from the fish market and main square and some really beautiful beaches with some scattered grottoes.
We caught a train to Portimau on day 2 hoping to catch a glimpse of the "Gyspy" market. It was quite a pleasant train trip despite the smeltering heat but when we arrived at Portimau we could not find the markets. We had not map and spoke no Portuguese so this was a bit challenging on the brain. Finally once we found it and we both had heat stroke, everything was crap and we left in about 30 seconds. It was totally not worth the trip so we decided to go to the Marina and try the infamous Sardines.

Day 3 - Monchique + Silves.
We hired a car and drove to Monchique and Silves. This is where we came across an old man and a donkey. The old man insisted I get on his donkey and when I did he tried to put his hand up my skirt as he asked me what country I was from. What a sneaky old perv. I jumped off very quickly and we drove on further and up the montain as far away as we could.
The drive was fun and I kept having to remind Phillip to keep to the right side of the road much to his annoyance ;P The most challenging bits were where we found ourselves in very small towns with cobbled streets so narrow that no car could fit through (like Silves on the way back from Monchique). We had to back out a few times. That tested the relationship for sure but we laughed alot about it afterwards and we got to see quite abit by just throwing caution to the wind.

Day 4 - Aljezur + Villa Bo Bispo + Sagres + (the edge of the world)
This day was great as we found an amazing beach (Amoreira) just north west of aljezur that our photos just don't quite give justice to. We were actually lost and were driving along a dirt road past cows and a little altar when we spotted the beach. We realised it was on the map.
There was a river running into the Atlantic ocean on one side of the beach. It was relatively deserted with only a handful of surfers there. It was like bondi with long waves on a long beach not like the Bronte dumpers. The Atlantic waters were crisp and fresh and Phillip and I body surfed for what seemed like hours. It was glorious.

Sagres - The name Sagres comes from the Latin Promentorum Sacrem / Sacred Promentory. This place has been considered sacred for a very long time, even before the Romans were here.
In Sagres there is a fortified Navigational School on top of a cliff that was interesting and great to take photos of.
This is where "Henry the Navigator" established his famous Navigation School. He was the person responsible they say for helping to discover the rest of the world. (See Cape St Vincent below). There was a 16thC chapel called Nossa Senhora da Graca (left) in the middle of the grounds and a very large and strange sundial looking thing that they called a solar clock. Be buggered if I know how it works. It kind of looked looked like an Andy Goldsworthy sculpture. We walked around the whole grounds but it was way too hot to be outdoors for too long. We were also eager to get to our next stop.

Cape St Vincent - This was a very special place. Called Cabo de São Vicente, it was once thought to be the "edge of the world." Sailors would not venture beyond this place as the cliff tops that we stood represented the edge of the known world. We aimed to be there for a sunset but it was around 5:00pm, there were vans there selling sausages and postcards and we thought "this just doesn't really smell like romance right now". But it was nice to be able to stand on the rocks and look across the ocean and imagine what people were thinking when they thought this was the edge of the world.

Day 5 - Lagos and Prai Da Ana. Prai Da Ana is a small beach near Lagos surrounded by cliffs and grottoes. The water was quite warm and we hung out there most of the day before heading back to the villa where we chased frogs on the pond and drank Portuguese Rose.

Day 6 - Lagos chillin and early happy hour at the villa. We made the effort of seeing the Lagos museum and Gilded church of St Antonio and found it was worth it. I enjoy seeing the carvings in these kind of churches. The interior of this one was completely covered by wood angels and Saints and decorative patterns. We spent some time swimming and watching the butterflies back at the villa and later ventured into town for the infamous Portuguese dish called "Piri Piri".

Day 7 - Faro was the place we flew into and now are flying out of on this day. The plan was to try to see the chapel made of bones. We arrived by train in Faro from Lagos (about 1.5 hour trip) later than expected so most of the town was closed including the chapel of bones. The Portuguese practise the siesta so you need to time if you want to do things that require them to be involved. We found a great little restaurant just near the train station that was still open where we enjoyed the best meal since being in Portugal. Fresh fish and steak and goats cheese and more wine. I left Phillip here to watch the football while I ventured to see the old part of the city and soak up as much as I could before we had to brave the crowds of sunburnt English golfing tourists at the airport.

We really enjoyed the trip and recommend to anybody to go here sooner rather than later as the tourist industry is booming. Even the Villa we stayed in is being sold to developers soon and will be knocked down to build more apartments.
You can see more photos here http://airout.myphotoalbum.com/

Birdflu

2006-06-14T11:33:00.000+01:00

I think Tina's prediction that the hamstead pond is full of bird flu, may be correct as I am down with a rotten cold of sorts.

Footy fever - Jim dodd request

2006-06-13T12:24:00.000+01:00

Phillip and I ventured to the most aussie of pubs that we could find ** a walkabout in west hampstead**. eeek! shame shame shame !!. We watched the Australia vs Japan game amongst a very loud and raucous group of 20-30 year old Aussies and also a few brave Japanese who thought a walkabout pub might be a good place to watch the game. It was looking like a sad result so we began to drink too much and almost decided to leave, when Cahill scored that first goal. I think Phillip was in tears after he stopped yelling and smiling.

After the game we took a little swim in the dark and murky Hamstead Heath ponds as it was a bit of a 32 degree stinker. It almost reminded me of the Boy Charlton until I nearly swallowed some duck poo. Well that was the end of that swim really. Refreshing atleast.

We are heading to Berlin next friday the 23rd to watch the Tinisia vs Ukraine thanks to Brett and Helen who got us some tickets and Kris for letting us stay in his parents flat in Berlin.

Missing youse all..
k

Back Blog 1 - London calling

2006-06-13T12:14:00.000+01:00

Phillip and I have settled into our little love-nest in chalk farm.
Its a cute little pad right near the chalk farm tube. A close stroll to both Camden markets and Primrose hill.
I like the area as its really crazily full of people sometimes and especially now the weather is ace! Its easy to get to most places from here and feels pretty safe considering its reputation. Its not Newtown but it will do for now ;P
k

Begin-Start-One

2006-06-13T11:43:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Tina for the inspiration to start our own Blog. This might be a better way to keep track of our travels and keep everyone updated on what we have been doing.
I might do a "Back Blog" of what we have done so far. Sounds like a plan!
I just need to figure out how this thing works.

The title of the blog is relating to the purpose of this trip - to air out our lives a little and get some freshness in there (sounds like a tampon comercial but hey).
k