Thursday, April 3, 2008

Storm at Philip Bay

100km winds and wild dramatic skies. The wind was a bit much for the kite-surfers, but Erdem, you'd appreciate it.

NGV


I took Mara & Tia to the National Gallery of Victoria. We actually spent over 5 hours, and absolutely loved it! There is a photo show - 'Body Language' - from China (Zhang Huan & Chi Peng) that's really amazing; and also a totally petulant, whimsical series of contemporary video - 'Resonant Visions' by artists from latin america. One I loved - 'Returning a Sound' (by Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla) was about this skinny chap in a singlet riding a moped through this small town, with a trumpet attached to his exhaust pipe! Oh what joy. Controlling your trumpet with a throttle!! Wynton Marsailis what do you say about that? And the reaction from the bystanders.... You have to go to this link to find out more about the show, and about our visit, the images below...




And check out these heels from Balenciaga.....

Bill & Adrianna & Krishna with calf...

Here's Bill and Adrianna at Pu Tien - a great restaurant shown us by Adrianna. We were working on our script (even though it doesn't look like it!).
I also had to visit our family favorite spot in 'Little India' (which is the only real funky part of Singapore), and I spotted this whimsical Krishna cuddling up with a calf! Kitsch meets religion in Singapore.

Mat Who?

On my recent trip to Dubai, I stopped in at S'pore for a week, I saw these 'wanted' posters everywhere. Mat Selamat on the loose. An Al Qaeda/Jamia Ismalia operator - And he escaped from a Singapore detention centre! 'Impossible', said some and 'in collusion with the guards' said others. Whatever, intense excitement all around. This has spawned a flurry of mat-related blogs from the erstwhile Mr Brown. One quirky blog suggested - open a satay stall at the outskirt of the forest he was supposed to be hiding out in - and that would flush him out - crazed with hunger. An oddball side effect of the eventual manhunt was that the police captured 60 'illegal' labourers who wer camped out and hiding in the forest!! Ah well....
I also got to ride on the new Singapore 'Flyer' -currently the world's largest - till China (of course) finish building theirs. It was a rush, and a great view, but beware - if you're stuck in one of the pods with a family with screaming kids, you're trapped for 30 min (one revolution). So, even a great view is a matter of chance. I went twice (once at night) and my second trip was torture with a mewling, puking screamer...



Yarra Trail

The Great Yarra Trail and then to the Gardinier Creek Trail is one of my most enjoyable bike rides. It's all of 30km, undulating, mixed surface, some scrabbly, some dirt, a few bridges across the Creek (six), and oh so beautiful. It gets brrrrr along the river if it's real early morning (the rowing sculls are out before 5am!), but on my return, I always stop for a cappuccino at Kanteen (right opp. Herring Island) on the way back.