Legacy of two worlds

There will always be an exquisite thing somewhere..... 
It is sometimes the search and other times the loss that brings pain.

dheborah

Perth Fashion - Solar storms and false eyelashes.

A four day heatwave is expected in Perth as predicted solar storms hit the planet. Last night temperatures cooled to  around 33 degrees Celcius after dusk. Tomorrow  Perth can expect Autumn temperatures up to fourty degrees as another solar storm hits us. Spectacular Auroras have been observed in New Zealand and Northern Australia.

This afternoon the 'United Cycle Council', an affiliation of the most notorious bikie clubs in the region, protested against formiddable new laws that have been proposed to make illegal any congregations and associations of club members. In Western Australia, groups such as 'Rock Machine' have been behaving like pseudo-urban terrorists in a society that has been sheltered from crime until the arrival of the internet.

Last year we saw customised false eyelashes from the Tokyo Lash Bar, gold leaf eyelashes, peacock eyelash extensions and photo manipulations but Perth is still waiting for Paperself's Art lashes, the funky laser-cut paper lashes that have been around "forever".....their absence is a fashion crime:  we  need these more than ice cold beer, bikinis and  air-conditioning.

www.paperself.com

www.paperselfstore.com/

Land of Oz...

You are not a tourist...you are a traveller. You have finally decided to buy that one year ticket to Australia. It's going to be hot. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be Hell.

Before you leave, there are so many things that you need to know and so many things that you'd rather not. If you want to have fun, listen to me and me only. I am going to give you the essentials.

1. Only order Emu Bitter or Pure Blonde premium beer. Blondes are fantastic.
2. You can usually purchase panadol in mini-packets at petrol service stations. 
3. Carry a packet of steri-strips (to close  cuts and lacerations until you can get medical treatment). 
4. Dial 000 for emergencies (fire/police/ambulance).
5. Use the bus service between towns when back-packing. West Australia has Transwa bus services. The distance between towns is too far and the conditions are extreme.
6. Boardies and cotton tee-shirts are the easiest to travel around in. Most Australians don't dress up too much in summer. Bathers are easy to find in Perth's larger suburban shopping centres (Karrinyup, Innaloo and Garden City). 
7. Purchase 1 litre bottles of sunscreen at Coles and fill everyone else's sunscreen bottles with it.
8. Look for military camel-packs at places like Big W and K-mart so you can have fluids with you whenever you are walking around places like Perth and Alice Springs. No-one will bat an eyelid - some of the West Australian nurses even use them at work. 
9. Many small towns don't have banks but you can use Eftpos at most stores and petrol stations.
10. Australia Post have everything from bubblewrap to prepaid envelopes to post gifts and purchases home with.
11. Most country pubs will let you purchase a few take away beers.
12. You may be broke and starving and lonely at the end of your year so, prepare before you reach this stage.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml3ybCxxMRk

chinatownnightmarket.com.au

PREPARATION FOR LAST WEEK IN AUSTRALIA.

Book accommodation in a serviced apartment in Wooloomooloo (pronounced Wool-uuuu-ma-loo) in Sydney for your last week: keep funds for basic purchases for  this (unless you want to  sleep at a bus-stop). You can relax and walk every day from Wooloomooloo, along the Sydney Harbour to the Sydney Opera House.  In the Gardens, you can take a left under the tree with the bats  and walk over to the Art Gallery. Relax on the lawns or eat your lunch on the steps of the Opera House while you soak in your last few hours. You are only a walk away from the Friday night Chinese markets and Paddy's markets. If you get lost, just remember that Chinatown is downhill and  Belmore Park is uphill. Note your own landmarks. Every taxi-driver will know what days they are open (you can flag down taxi's easily in Sydney). You will find that famous van that was mentioned in the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy. Leave the night-life alone and get up early so you can just hang out on the lawns of the Governer's House and experience it without feeling like a tourist. One last thing... every evening, the bats make a pilgrimage across Sydney's skies at dusk and every morning they return, one by one to their resting places. Batman, move over.

Hosts.

Vandalism is the most pointless and useless  form of expression.

Design is a significant architechtural attempt at creation.

Durban Beachfront.

"Busker".
Photo taken by George and Craig.

This is one of the world's best beaches.....as long as you are blissfully unaware of it's dangers. Large sharks, high crime and pesky sellers are the order of the day. The Shark's board is presently  making changes to Natal's 320 km of shark-nets that were put in place in the fifties and sixties to reduce the effect on other  marine animals, while keeping shark numbers down. Experienced divers may be interested in looking at  www.sharkbookings.com/dive-packages for some interesting dives.

On the Maharani Hotel end of the Durban hotel strip is a small market where you can pick up beautifully made Zulu beadwork, hand-made leather belts from Mozambique and grass bracelets. "Durbs" has only one thing in common with Jo'burg: Bunnychow. Don't wear large pieces of gold jewellery and  do have the courtesy to give a fair  tip to anyone who helps park your motor vehicle and offers to watch it for a few hours....this is almost a South African tradition. You can get to the city by taxi , bus or Combi (the Combi taxi's will charge a very small fee and you simply wait until the driver is happy that he has enough fare-paying customers). You must remember though, that Durban has had taxi wars so shootouts are not anything out of the ordinary. Durban has a population of over three million people; many languages are spoken but English will get you around easily. South Africa has seen turbulant times and most Durban residents are cautious but friendly.

" Hippy - Asprins "

Explaining death. There is no formula to do it. Designers use it as themes and combine it with design concepts to acquire a design conclusion. It is an artistic means to an end…..just as our lives are a means to an end. I wrote a short fiction piece for an assignment submission recently. As a puppeteer will tell you that every puppet must have a reason to be made, this story was written for the the mother; for the soldier; for the day any adult needs to explain softly about death to  someone's child.

" HIPPY - ASPRINS "

 There had been fourteen days of catastrophic rain. Dead stock lay near dams and the seeding wet grains could now only be used for animal feed. A  baby rabbit lay near the porch steps…drowned in the deluge and washed out from it's warren. I buried it in the corner of the hospital garden and planted a pale white and pink Hippeastrum next to it. One of the flowers had withered and fallen off, leaving three strange spell - like balls filled with seed wafers, suspended on an elegant stem. Leia had watched me from the  ward window.

  Leia was a  translucent, blue veined  eleven year old with eyelashes that swept the room like a butterfly-wing flicker. We spoke about the fragile grey animal and  we talked about death…it wasn't the first time. Carcinoma was her uninvited daily companion.  As I was leaving the ward, she said,  " Do they come in different colours?". I said, "What?". She answered, "The Hippy-asprins." I  laughed and said, "Yes, they come in all sorts of colours. The  wild  ones in South Africa  are called  'Naked Lady'  but  centuries ago the  Greeks  called them the  'Knight's Star' . The silver - eyes love them".  

 The silver-eyes are a shivery, little smokey green- grey bird with silver rings around their eyes, outlined in black. Their  tiny bowl-like  nests are crafted from spiderwebs, grass and a little bit of moss. They migrate North at the end of summer in flocks, travelling unbelievable distances during the night.  They love fruit and shoot across the garden like electric bullets whenever anything disturbs them while they are chatting or feeding. Every year, a handful migrate South and return to the  garden of our hospital near the Springs.

 Sybil the giant walked in to the ward with two tiny  silver-eye finches held captive in her big fists. She was in a good mood today. Be careful…..she's going to eat them for breakfast on the first day of her holidays, Leia thought. This nurse was a deadly weapon on two legs with military training in weapons disposal :  that is exactly what she looked like…..a giant weapons disposal unit with a voice like a projectile missile about to explode. Her age belied her strength. The earth shuddered when she moved and she could lift three children off the ground with the  swoop of  one arm. The silver eyes had flown against a large window and stunned themselves into a dazed stupor. The imprisoned  birds enchanted the  delighted Leia into a mesmerised silence which faded when the birds were released into the courtyard.

 Every morning, J.J 's flotation chair was wheeled outside  into the haven of this courtyard garden. Her paralysed hand would rest on a soft, purple butterfly cushion and the breeze would stroke her old face. Leia ate her hospital breakfast  of fruit and brown bread next to J.J and would watch the silver-eyes bounce between long soft, moving plant fronds and Hippeastrum straps, sometimes clinging upside down like delicate trapeze artists as they sipped a little nectar from dainty flower cups. The days were changing and all the spoilt summer fruit under the trees had been eaten. The birds didn't return to the garden one day. 

  " Do you think J.J  is scared of dying? " Leia had asked. She had been more tired than usual and was struggling with her bird-sized breakfast. The child waited for the inquisitive  pale green- feathered garden bullets and they did not come. 

  " No, she is ready …  the day J.J  goes to sleep forever, she will leave  with the silver- eyes and fly north in the dark. She  can fly back next summer and eat fruit from the apricot trees in the courtyard. It will be her turn next. Her  life is almost  like that special shadow that roses cast when the sun flickers through onto a white wall in the early morning",  Sybil the giant had said. The child understood. She was ready too. Her life was like the seed of a 'Hippy-asprin', she thought. The following afternoon, it was Leia who went to sleep and no one could  wake her up. The last thing she had said to J.J was, " I don't like the stuff in the bread".

 Every year one little silver - eye makes it's nest in the hospital garden, close to old  J. J's chair;  sometimes in the old apricot tree. It makes a swift flight across the garden in front of her chair as she is wheeled out in the mornings. The garden has filled with hundreds of majestic pale pink and white ' Naked Ladies '. In my own garden, a little further from the Springs, the Western silver-eyes bounce on the  Hippeastrums in the large shaded  pots outside my window. Like the little girl that left to look for her "Knight's star" at the end of her eleventh summer, these are not quivering, frightened mice-like birds…their wing-beats are fierce;  their eyes are calm; and their  spirits are as big and tough as the old forgotten  size 16 leather army boots of Sybil the giant.

 Written by Dheborah Quirke

 8th January 2012.

Tattooed Valentine.

(Guys only)

Give your Valentine a controversial "Year of the Dragon 2012" coin (the dragon has been scrutinised by experts and described by some as looking both hungry and drunk ) from the Perth Mint and suggest you both go and try Ashtanga yoga together or a Chanting and chai course. One special creature has a red finish and an inset ruby eye. In the dragons of the world collection is a wonderful little Welsh dragon. Have a look  at www.yogaspace.com.au/events/retreats.php    and
www.perthmint.com.au

Go and see ' U Ram Choe '   kinetic sculptures exhibition at the John Curtin Gallery in Kent Street, Bentley, Perth. Then try making a 'Monk's Tipple' in Irish coffee glasses at home with Benedictine (instead of whiskey), brown sugar and coffee, drizzled with cold, thickened, fresh cream (try pouring it gently over a warm spoon). Don't buy glasses just for this....nice coffee mugs are fine. You can use a  tiny sprinkle of chocolate (on the cream) before you watch a movie. Scatter some rose petals somewhere. (ie.  in the empty and clean bath,  across the freshly made bed,  or on the clean board that the Monk's Tipples are standing on).

www.johncurtingallery.curtin.edu.au

Visit  Penguin Island, near Rockingham. The ferry runs all day and only takes 15 minutes, leaving  on the hour from Mersey Point, near Safety Bay Road. Pay the fare at the office next to the pier. Take some fresh rolls, cheese, ham and  and frozen juice in a small cooler bag and don't worry too much about a camera…enjoy the gentle experience. You may see sea lions from the ferry but the penguins will be in the backs of the caves on  the beaches that are not out of bounds. Give yourself plenty of time to get to the last ferry and don't wade over if you are planning to woo someone gorgeous.
www.penguinisland.com.au

The 2 hour walk around 51 black steel sculptures at Lake Ballard is  a great idea but not on  Valentines Day. 40 minutes drive from Menzies and over an  hours drive from Kalgoorlie, you will need to be prepared for extreme  conditions. Limping home tired, sore and thirsty is not very romantic. You will need insect repellant. headshade and fluids. Think….windburn, sunstroke, heatstroke.

Lie on a quiet grassy hill. Hand paint a tiny frog and glue to a piece of red string and tie on your pal's wrist. It will bring good luck and they  should wear it until the cord falls off. 

Have a moon-picnic outside  in your own back garden. Lay everything out on a blanket and lie and watch the stars. Turn off the phone. Give your mate a small stone or a piece of driftwood  you picked up on a walk together with "I love……….."  engraved on it. An old boyfriend carved me a bird from cuttlefish while we sat on the beach and I adored him for it. Leave them with a little survive-without you pack when you  leave:  put a note which says, I'll call you soon" in it,  a tiny package of fudge or a special chocolate, a tiny flower, and little treats to nibble on.