cool things – Page 5 – helenthura.com

April 16, 2009April 16, 2009

Melbourne, Day 1

Well I am well and truly back from Melbourne, though I would move there in a heart beat and a half if offered the chance. I figure I got about 80% of the things I wanted to do in Melbourne done and I managed to get about half the things on my pre-planned shopping list.

Lesson #1, Qantas time and Helen time are not calibrated. I was supposedly 1 minute too late to drop my bag for my flight. I had already checked in online the day before but had to queue for the bag drop. I was in the bag drop line for about 4 minutes. The lady at the counter said they had put an announcement over the loudspeaker for people to come out of the line. I just shook my head and if I hadn’t been so tired I would have argued it because there was no announcement. She also tried to tell me that I had to have my backpack in a bag before it could be dropped. WTF? Never heard that before – you just buckle all the straps up and it is fine. Though I must admit I heard her a little later telling another passenger that the wooden box they were checking in as luggage had to be in a bag. WTF? I didn’t queue in her line the next time. Back to the story. $44 later I was on the next flight to Melbourne – it left Brisbane at 0655 instead of the 0555 I had been booked on. Still I was ahead because the Qantas fare was still cheaper than Virgin or Jetstar and they would have made me pay the entire fare again to get on the next flight.
When I went back to check in and drop my bag for the next flight, I joined a different queue and the man at the counter had no problems with my backpack just as long as I buckled the straps up. Silly lady.

Lesson #2, do not make eye contact with the person with the explosive trace wand, because she will target you and wave the magic wand over you.

Lesson #3, Helen â™¥s Melbourne.

I picked up the May issue of Real Living at the airport, so that with The Australian and The Courier Mail courtesy of Qantas were my reading material for the flight. I â™¥ Real Living. I had a really pleasant flight down. The breakfast was good and one of the flight attendants, commented on my ear-rings which was nice, I returned the comment by saying I would love to be able to style my hair in the way she had done it.

Some photos from the flight.
This is the view as we flew over the Murray, I love the patchwork.

I landed in Melbourne to drizzly rain and grey skies. ugg not the Melbourne I wanted. Still this is the city of “four seasons in one day” by the arvo it would be blue skies. I again stayed at Greenhouse Backpackers. I can not recommend them enough. $30/night, free breakfast if you are up early enough and in such a fantastic location. On Flinders Ln between Swanston St and Degraves St and it has a rooftop 🙂 It is great. Once I had unpacked my bags and grabbed a bed. I was off to explore.

I started on the corner of Flinders and Swanston and walked down to Spencer, back up Flinders Lane to Swanston, down Collins etc in a similar manner till I reached the corner of Little Lonsdale and Swanston. Oh the sights I saw and the sights I didn’t see.

Flinders Lane was great and I must say I loved living above it. The Aesop store has the most incredible fit out, the entire shelving system is made from cardboard. Didn’t go in but I loved what I saw. There was another shop just down from the Greenhouse entrance that had the most gorgeous emerald green wool shift dress in the window. If I was a size 10 and lived in Melbourne I would have stolen it from the window. Had a browse in Polyester Records but didn’t find anything that tickled my musical fancy. Had lunch at Le Petit GÃ¢teau but that will be another post. Really enjoyed walking round the court district, lots of nice buildings and nice looking people.

Saw some lovely bicycles, one great thing about Melbourne is that because it is so flat it is very cycle friendly. I was suprised to see many ladies in full office wear, cycling home after work in high heels and all. I guess you don’t really work up a sweat cycling home in the cooler Melbourne weather.

Had a fantastic time on Little Bourke between Elizabeth and Queen. Wilkins and Kent was a fantastic shop, I picked up a cute little wooden tree brooch from States of Nature, a lavender heat pillow from Tonic Australia and placed a Jo Luping tile on hold that I would pick up from the Fitzroy store the next day. If you go to this article at Lost My Way and scroll down to the Jo Luping section, I got the tree tile that is in the middle. I love it! I had a little look in Paddy Pallin and tried on a great pair of shoes but the size 9 was too tight, tried on the size 10 in a similar style as they didn’t have the size 10 in the style I wanted. The good news was that the Fortitude Valley store had a size 10. Called Pabbi and he went in the next day and picked up a pair for me. Score!!! These are the new shoes, that were waiting on my bed when I got home from Melbourne. They are made by Simple (a shoe company that I just adore) and they can be found on Zappos here

Went to Metropolis Books and oh my I l â™¥ that shop. I love how much space they were – it was great not having a really cramped bookshop. I picked up the Sublime Stitching Pad which I had been looking at for a while and a book called It’s So You, edited by Michelle Tea, writings from thirty-five women about personal expression through fashion and style. It looks like it will be a really great read. The lady behind the counter said she had loved it, so should be good.

I also stopped by Made in Japan where I picked up three very lovely ceramic pieces. I got the 18cm open shape bowl and 25cm large shallow bowl in Embossed Asanoha, they looked lovely nested together. I also got the 25cm large shallow bowl in Blue Blossom.

Mmm what else did I do? I walked and I walked some more and took photos! Took some street art photos for Karl

Another thing I â™¥ about the Melbourne CBD is all the rooftop spaces with gardens on them etc as well as all the balcony/window sill gardens.

This photo made me laugh

I loved the grid of the tram lines against the blue sky and the number 39.

A little lane way off Little Bourke

This photo reminded me of a show called Loot I once saw on the ABC.

Something a little arty.

The Myer windows in the Bourke St Mall, had costumes and props from Australia. I loved this outfit in the movie.

dead umbrella, no longer needed, the sun is out.

and I leave you with one last photo. You would want to hope that this building never changes street numbers 😀

I retired back to the hostel with a bag full of goodies and a very tired Helen.

December 22, 2008

Christmas Lights

I have gone out two times in the last few weeks to have a look at Christmas Lights, the first time it was just Karl, Mum and I. We stopped first at a street in Carina which is where the following photos were taken.

We then continued on our way to Rochedale South where Mini Sal (the little brother of a friend of Karl’s) had put on a *little bit of a light display*. Such a *little display* that he won the best new entrant in the lights competition. Which is pretty cool. So cool that he got on Gizmodo a couple of days ago. It was so cool.

Here is a little bit about the display as written in an email that Mini Sal sent.

– It’s all computer controlled, with almost 300 individually controlled channels of lights,
– It’s synchronized to music, which is played on speakers in the yard and broadcast over a low power FM transmitter (which you can listen to by tuning to 91.7 FM),
– There’s about 600 metres of rope light and about 420 sets of fairy lights used in the display, which gives a total of more than 70,000 individual lights,
– The entire display consumes about 85 amps of power when fully on — I don’t actually have the power capacity to turn it all on at once, even after getting 6 extra dedicated circuits installed for the display. 🙁
– The display this year is dedicated to the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, and there’s a collection box out front if anyone would like to make a donation.

The display was soo cool. Lots of red, white and green lights, Christmas music and a whole heap of lights. Here are a few photos from the display and then I will put some of the youtube videos at the bottom which give a good picture of how the display works.

This row of Christmas trees was probably my favourite part of the display, so keep an eye out for them in the video and watch them dance.

The introduction to the loop and a little about the display.

Silent Night – I love how the the lights “wake up” in this.

Wizards in Winter – like many others inspired by this youtube video from a couple of years ago

Good King Joy- watch the row of Christmas trees.

Jingle Bell Rock – do the rock.

Christmas Eve Sarajevo – lots of colour runs in this, I love it

The house is on Childs St, Rochedale South, so if you are in Brisbane and have a free evening, take the kids, take the dog, take the neighbour, it is well worth it.

October 8, 2006October 8, 2006

Camera Obscura

I had a book out of the library the other day of the most coolest camera obscura photographs by Abelardo Morell funnily enough called Camera Obscura. I can’t descirbe how much eye candy was in this book, so you should race straight down to your nearest library and borrow the book out (Dewy Decimal – 779.092 MOR, Library of Congress – TR268 .M67 2004). Most of the photos in the book are eight (8) hour exposures!

My original plan was to black out one of the rooms at home and observe the world but following what was set out on this page, I just grabbed a cardbord box and some tracing paper/vellum for my first trial. I figured our pretty quickly that I needed a couple of blankets over the top of me to block out stray light so I could see the projected image better.

The resulting projected images whilst simple, upside down and dim are so cool!! Go grab a box, some tracing paper and a couple of blankets and play with it yourself, fun for the whole family!

October 6, 2006

Exploring West End

Mum and I spent went on a little outing this morning to West End browsing, shopping and eating our way along Boundary St, up a few of the side streets and some other places on the way home.
The highlights included:
Bent Books, where Mum picked up the LP book – Trekking in the Karakoram & Hindukush (sigh, wouldn’t it be lovely? We both watched a doco the other week called “Karakoram Highway: The Road To Globalisation” and it is also the where “Three Cups of Tea” is based (my top book of the year if not the last couple of years)).

Swiss Gourmet Deli – looking at all the yummy smallgoods and grocery items, so many wonderful things. We stopped here for morning tea where the lady behind the counter was shocked that we don’t drink coffee .. at all! It was a bit of a laugh. Mum had a Friand and I had a Cannoli. mmm yummy.

Now we continued to stroll down Boundary st, seeing what we could see and just enjoying the “scene”, I picked up a recycled Sari silk bag which is just gorgeous I will have to take a photo of it tomorrow.

The next stop was the real target of the day, ara beeka, the most delectable Lebanese(?) pastry shop. My eyes were twinkling and my mouth was watering at all the pretty pastries and biscuits in the display case. I could have just gobbled up the entire case and died in a nut and sugar bliss. (76 Boundary St, West End).
This is a selection of some of the goodies we got, most of them are priced at about $1 a piece of you can buy by the kilo ($22ish) or half kilo which works out much cheaper if you are buying more a couple. The staff behind the counter are great and up for a laugh as well which was nice.

The next substantial stop was at the West End branch of the City Library network, it is the cutest little library I have ever seen, it is a very small one room library that is about the size of our lounge room and eating area combined. It was soooo cute!

Then it was The Language People, a bookshop that specialises in mmm well language books from ESL (English as a second language) to Literacy to learning foreign languages. The first thing I checked out here was if they had any Icelandic books and sure enough they did – Colloquial Icelandic, we then had fun seeing what other “rarer” language books they had, I was quite impressed with the range of Tetum books they had.

We then left Boundary St and headed over to Reverse Garbage, one of the most interesting stores in Brisbane. I picked up three partial Letraset sheets for $1.50! Mum scored some assorted fabric pieces for 90c.

The last stop for the day was Simply Good at Alderly which is a loose bulk bin food store with all sorts of wonderful dried fruits, lollies, legumes, nuts, flours etc all at very, very good prices.

September 15, 2006

I cried

Nearing the end of four years at uni, yesterday I came home and cried for the first time about events that had happened at uni.

I didnâ€™t cry because someone had said something mean to me or a friend.
I didnâ€™t cry because I had fallen over or stubbed my toe.
I didnâ€™t cry because someone had died.
Instead â€¦
I cried for the students and teachers who will say that we are above the general public in our understanding of a topic but then we put ourselves below then them when we display our ignorance about a topic.
I cried for the people who use Arab and Muslim interchangeably.
I cried for the people who will talk about the Middle East but display no idea about the diversity that exists there or the history of the region.
I cried for the people who see a bias in media that is not Western but don’t see a bias in our media or donâ€™t see anything wrong with our bias.
I cried for the future of the world and for humanity.

I know I am not perfect, I know I don’t know everything, I know I am not the most eloquent but I will be the first to say I don’t know enough about a topic to comment fully on it.

I was able to say a few things at the start of class before it turned but after that I sat there shell shocked about what was been said or perhaps more about what was not been said.
It was a very quiet class compared to our usual class discussion and I was glad that there were two people who were trying to voice views that are similar to mine but saddened that what they tried to add seemed to be largely ignored.

Every so often I will hear things in public life that may be factually wrong and you make a comment and try to move on but hearing those things in a university context just makes you cry and realise that the future of humanity is perhaps more shaky than I like to think.

Man In Black
Johhny Cash (1971)

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.

Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought ‘a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen’ that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen’ that we all were on their side.

Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,

But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black

Now for some lighter notes.
Carlton has just released their new Carlton Draught ad for the year following on the success of the Big Ad. This year the ad spoofs off that memorable dancing scene from Flashdance. It is not up on youtube yet so just go to the Flash Beer website to view it.

I have had the most delightful birthday week. Matthew gave me Bride and Prejudice on DVD (Bride, not Pride!) and then one of my dearest friends at uni gave me a Corban & Blair notebook as well as piece of cake! The cake was not just any ordinary cake but Date and Pecan in a Polenta Ricotta cake! Total yumness!

July 17, 2006July 17, 2006

Laughs and Shoes

After much phone tag and clashing schedules (Andrea works mon-fri and I work on sat) we finally manged to get a Sunday where we were both free. Of course then we were at odds at what to do! After checking out her newish flat we went in to the Valley where we had fun cruising the aisles of the Asian variety stores and found a source of little containers for when we next need to make jelly shots.

We then hit our primary target for the day; The Valley Markets, however I guess because it was bit overcast it was pretty dead so we didn’t stay there long before having fun checking out all the aisles in one of the Asian grocery store and seeing what things we could see such as the whole frozen Durians or the 1000’s of different dried mushrooms or MSG powder (mmmmmm MSG…..). After we had done a little bit of shopping we headed into the city to have lunch at Sizzler.

After a brief poke round Borders we headed back into the Myer Centre to find all the goodies. Our first stop was the Oxfam shop where after much drooling I walked out with a new hair tie and a bag made by Timor Leste women who are part of the Alola Foundation. The bag is gorgeous, it has a tais panel which I just love!

Our next stop was Myer where we were drawn in by the super big sale they are having and the tables upon tables of shoes they were clearing out for $20, $30, $40 etc. Andrea hit the jackpot and got a new pair of shoes and I well I thought I had hit the jackpot. These orange shoes, so very, very nice and the only size they had them in was 9.5 which was a tad tight. Ok well they also come in black, brown, white, baby pink, red and olive (I wanted the red, the orange or the olive) but no the only 10’s they had were in white or black 🙁

Since I had fallen in love with them I resolved to ring round the stores in the morning. Once we had a bit more of a browse and a 100 more laughs we hopped on the train back to her flat and had a little hang out chatting with her boyfriend and showing me some scrapbooking she had done 😀

I tell you when Andie and I get together we just become the biggest giggling gerties, it’s a total crack-up 😀

Fast Forward 16hrs.
After I finished work this morning at the grand time of 9:45am I went down to the Myer in our centre but they only had the 10 in white :(. I get home and do some ringing around and get told by more stores we only have the white or the black :(. Dude, those shoes were so funky but alas it seems it was not meant to be.

I wanted a new pair of jeans and since I had nothing pressing yet to fill my day with. I headed out to DFO to see what I could find 🙂 Well I walked out with a new pair of jeans from Country Road and almost walked out with 2 new skirts. The biggest find however are the shoes in the photo below.

The ones on the left are Simple and the ones on the right are Teva. They are both the first pair of thonged shoes I have owned in years and years as I normally find the thong bit between my toes very uncomfy but these ones don’t seem to be too bad and they both have soles which feel like clouds which is what my feet like 🙂