like watching a conversation in sign language

Went to see a South Indian dance production. At first I wasn't that impressed, but I soon became fixated with their hand gestures and eye movements. Very theatrical, and almost like watching a conversation in sign language, each posture and expression had meaning. But at the same time, all so subtle. I can still hear the rhythmic slapping of their feet on the stage accompanied by the rattle of bells around their ankles, and I many of the poses I recognised from ancient art/sculpture I have seen at the museum. Nice to see something you know nothing about and would not normally go to.

Funny, this is only my 3rd blog post since returning from Adelaide. I must have been occupied! :)

The grey space

Have been listening to Horrorshow - The Grey Space, another release from ElefantTraks (home of the Herd, Urthboy etc). Have to say it's a bit depressive (see Track 7 - Celapram) but I do like the secret track/coda on Note to Self (No. 81)

She wraps (raps) a smile 'round his tired face
and he around hers
and for a moment - they aren't so tired

made me smile :)

Adobo!

First post for so long I forgot I had changed my blogger template, whoops. Looks ok, I just didn't recognise my own blog!

There must be thousands posts about how awesome adobo is so I'm not going to dwell on it too much except it is delicious and wish it didn't take so long to cook! I love the way it smells, and how it works its way into every room of the house.

last night

Tonight's my last evening in Adelaide for a while. Adelaide's been a sport and put on some fine weather to see me out. Wanted to go for a final swim this arvo but feel guilty about not doing some last minute work, especially with time lost to cleaning and packing.

The leaves are starting to turn here and despite the heat in the day, there is already a bite in the evening air, especially walking home into the southerly. Said goodbye to the guard dogs at the mechanics the other night and it's silly how little things like that can make you melancholy.

There are lots of people and places I will miss here, but I am looking forward to getting back to NZ. Like last December, I'm in transition again. It's always unsettling and makes me feel unproductive. I am looking forward to settling back into NZ and finding my place again.

...beating like a hammer...

really really like this acoustic version of Metric's Help I'm Alive. I'm gonna miss you JJJ!

Black sand

I am leaning over the sink washing up when I hear it again over the late news:

"...oil spill..."
"...Moreton Island..."
"...wost environmental disaster in Queensland's history..."

I pause and dry my hands and watch as scenes so familiar to me drift across the screen. Tears prick my eyes again and I dare them to spill over.
They don't, this time.

Of course I am angry about the spill. Why my island? Why? It's a rare occasion I don't listen to the rational, marine biologist in me, who would play it down, and explain it was only accident. They didn't mean to ...did they?

I have a vague recollection of hearing about an oil spill when I was child, still living on Moreton Island. (It was probably the Exxon Valdez.) I remember thinking, that I hoped it never happened on my island. And now it has.

I remember seeing for the first time the fine black mineral sand in the Philippines, and thinking how much I preferred the bright white sand back at home. Now the sand is black there too. They say the oil is being covered up by sand drift already, but it still lurks below the surface.

I'm not sure now what upsets me about it exactly. I feel guilty, like one might when you find out your grandmother is gravely ill, and you haven't seen them in a long time. Why didn't I visit more?

I feel like a traitor as well. Here I am, working as a marine biologist, using my training to protect another country's environment.

I feel a bit helpless too. What could I do anyway? Fill plastic bags - oddly a petroleum product - with oily sand? Help rescue sea birds that will probably die anyway?

I think I need to go back there again sometime, touch the sand, climb the trees and feel the water again, and make peace with it.

no sex for ramen

Have been eating surprisingly well, not sure if it is actually a symptom of procrastination or a sign of maturity...? When I was writing up my Honours, I was still living at home, which meant lunches made for me when I had no time, and dinners kept warm in the oven. Looked up on my filing cabinet just now and see that my packet of ramen - normally a staple of mine, even when not busy! - has gone untouched. It could be that it has been buried under a mountain of empty coke cans and beer bottles up until recently - but I'm sure if I'd become hungry enough, I would've dug them out! Today I ate 2 hot X buns for breakfast, bacon/avocado/tomato sandwiches for lunch, more hot X buns for smoko and I have yummy leftover roo bolognese at home for tea - not bad! I must admit there is much repetition in my diet - I have been eating roo mince since Saturday, and will have enough for at least another meal after tonight... But healthier than ramen I guess!

Poor ramen - don't worry, my sweet, I will have you before my time is up here... :D

Master thesis

...well I wouldn't call myself one just yet! But after much procrastination this weekend, I finally reminded myself on driving master docs in Word again and created my first thesis master, with five - yes five! - COMPLETE sub-documents/slaves, aka chapters....! OMG it's alive, IT'S ALIVE! Muahahahahahahah! :D

links

yep totally procastinating this Saturday evening. have a massive chocolate craving, but none in the house!! argh. anyway, thanks to some referring links, my SiteMeter is through the roof. Lol. Almost a visitor a day of late! Hehe. that's ok, don't want too many people reading this, otherwise I'll have to start making an effort.

Anyways, thought I'd return the favour and add their addresses to my sidebar... please do visit them!

So many things to blog about but another time... fucking oil spills! RAGE

Three weeks

It's hard to believe that I've been back here for 10 weeks, and away from NZ for almost 3 months. Crazy. SO much has happened in that time, it feels like I've shed so many skins, and there are still probably a couple more to be sloughed off! Hehe makes me sound quite reptilian, doesn't it.

I am handing up 5/8 chapters - complete - next week, and the whole thing has been a bit exhilarating and terrifying. One because it almost feels like I can finish this, and I occasionally wondered if I really could do it. And two, because I know I still have so much work ahead of me, I don't want to get too excited and take my eye off the prize at the end.

I am getting excited about returning to NZ, even though I know the weather will not be half as nice as it has been here. I am looking forward to getting Harry out of the cattery and finding a cool pad for us to live in the city and kicking tyres while looking for a new car. But again I don't want to get too distracted and lose momentum right before the end.

At this stage I am still aiming to be back before Easter, which is scary because really - that is only 3 weeks away. Need to start thinking of booking flights and packing up my life here, and also my plan of attack when I get back. Realistically, despite all good intentions, I don't look like printing and handing in before I leave, but if I can at least get the writing - and most essentially the thinking - out of the way, the formatting and printing I hope can be done from the other side of the Tasman.

I know I have said it before, but I think by the end of next week it will all start to fall into place. :)

Somewhere in between

Went for the most awesome night dive last Sunday. It was so good - perfect weather, perfect viz, lots of critters. My tempermental dive computer absconded as soon as I hit the bottom, which meant we did not have a timing device (naughty naughty). That and I couldn't equalise past 5m! Slightly annoying but wasn't going to let that stop us though.

Would like to get out again this weekend but we'll see. So much to do, so much to do. Would be cool to help out with removing some Sabella spallanzanii . Preferably exclaimed SAH- BELLAH, with an Italian accent!. Lol. I'm such a nerd. I just want to take some photos of this infamous worm for show & tell back in NZ.... ;)

Got I.M.D. last week, and quite enjoying it. Definitely some snowboarding tracks there. Also found Module while listening on random. Think I must've got it from K before I left. cool to find some awesome musix I didn't know I had.

Yesterday was Hump Day and tomorrow is Fun Friday and I'm somewhere in between!

floods and fires

it's a crazy dichotomy, two states of emergency, one on fire and one in flood. can't help but think that we have really pissed off Mother Earth, Nature, God or whoever your deity of choice is.

driving in the car this morning, it was terrible to hear of the ever-increasing death toll from the fires. discussion ensued as to what is the best thing to do?? been a while since I've lived anywhere which is vulnerable to bushfires. I guess we were discussing the number if people who died in their vehicles. I guess the issue of whether to stay in your house or try and flee was the main thing we were talking about. Many people choose to stay and "defend" their house, but realise too late that not only can they not save it, but may not be able to save themselves. then again, I think the cool change that came through last night and everyone was counting on for relief was actually the Devil in disguise... turning the fire front around and caught people unawares. maybe they didn't have time to evacuate. stories of houses, and trees, literally exploding into flames. sounds so scary.

watching the news and seeing the red cross coordinator, reminded me of the CIMS training we did. I wondered at what point they declared a state of emergency etc... having the assembly points etc, having counsellors on site, food for the volunteers, etc...

weirdly, this made me think of the way I reacted when the GWS swum past the boat a couple of weeks ago. I was unsettled by the way i reacted, the initial panic etc. In the past I have been pretty good at taking control of a situation, but I just felt so helpless. I don't like feeling helpless. I guess I didn't do too bad. I checked the position of the sharkshield, I got the diver recall running. I had a pretty good idea of the position of all the divers. I think when I realised M had untied the mermaid line from us and couldn't start his boat and was drifting off into the distance, and I realised I was left as the next qualified person to drive the boat we were on, it gave me a bit of fright. and I was just annoyed I hadn't familiarised myself with it... and the whole thought process, what if someone surfaced in distress? Could I get the boat to them without running them over (?!). then again I couldn't leave the divers ascending on the anchor, save the life of one only to put the others in danger... it seemed to take an age to think through this. what if what if what if... in the end it was all fine, and the shark didn't come back and noone was hurt, but obviously I was pretty shaken by it. I wasn't expecting to be the one who might have to take charge. I remember driving up the Mountain for a snowboarding trip early last Sept, and passing all these road accidents... two of them we were minutes from being first on the scene. Weirdly was mentally prepared to having to deal with an accident that day, of having to become the "incident controller" for a couple minutes. I guess when I debriefed myself with L, I realised, yeah course I could've driven the boat, used the marine radio, administered first aid and O2, hell I wasn't such a bad candidate to have on the boat afterall. but I guess it just caught me unawares.

phew. what a post. guess I've been stewing on this a while. looking forward to getting underwater again.

Jellyfish

I reckon I will hate this theme in a day. But it's called jellyfish!

ch-ch-ch-changes

changed my colours last night but I don't like it. looked waaaay better on my screen, but bit too dark and brooding, looking at it now I reckon. been trying to think of a new name as well, but nothing as yet. will keeep thinking on it....

traction control

Argh cannot get traction on this chapter... clearly or I would not be here, procastinating. Went to gallery today to try and clear my head, and see the Heysen exhibition before it closes. Wasn't expecting a lot but was really cool actually - definitely awesome in real life. So Australian, could almost smell the eucalypts and dust. I like the stuff he did around Victor Harbour and the oils of the Flinders Ranges are amazing. The droving ones, especially "into the light" made me think of Dad - wish I could give it to him :)

back to finding traction... listening to Big Angry Musix atm to try and channel energy into finishing this and then moving on to something fresh. Bought dinner in tonight, might be here a while.

time to pretend

Awesome lyrics. Sometimes I wish I didn't look up the words to songs, but MGMT is cool. Very strange, but cool. Their video clips look like a lot of fun to make too.

where my songs roll

Australia Day was awesome. Did some work in the day then rattled home in a tram with no air con, with the mercury pushing 37deg (little did I know it was going to be conditioning for the next 10 days of weather...?!). Fired up the BBQ, drank beer and turned snags and generally roasted while listening to the J's. Have to admit I was a bit disappointed by the countdown, but I think I'll still buy it when it comes out in March. So where did my 10 songs roll in?


#70 Kings of Leon - Crawl
#24 Kings of Leon - Closer
#3 Kings of Leon - Use somebody
* Goldfrapp - Clowns
#5 MGMT - Kids
#2 MGMT - Electric Feel
#18 MGMT - Time to pretend
#63 The Herd - 2020
#13 The Herd - The king is dead
* Jay-Z feat. Santogold - Brooklyn Go Hard

So 8/10 got a mention :)

And what was no. 1? No points for guessing! Disappointed but not surprised - too much airplay!

Day 4 or Day 5?

Not sure if it is Day 4 or Day 5 of the heatwave... depends on whether you count from >35 or >40...? arrrh sooo tired, interrupted sleep is starting to take its toll. Have been getting up crazy-early (before 6am is crazy for me) and getting to uni before the tram lines buckles and my shoes melt to the asphalt. Then leaving as close to dark as possible, >12hrs at uni.... I guess the difference from when I lived here last is that we'd be just about due for a cool change right now. no relief in sight in the forseeable weather-future - 35-40deg till next Thursday they say. Without the generosity of the neighbour with the pool, I would be insane from complete lack of sleep by now, and would have moved into the cool dark space under my desk at uni. As much as I love my little granny flat it does not withstand the heat at all. My last flat here was an old stone cottage that barely changed in temperature from Winter to Summer; dark as hell but at least it was a different temperature from the outside.

Power-napped at my desk just before and now have weird lines from the edge of the desk, keyboard etc across my chest and face. Nice! Was too tired to care. Despite heat and fatigue I am otherwise enjoying myself. Cooked BBQ again last night, I swear we didn't even need to put the hotplate on. Drinking lots of Coopers (and must remember you can now get 10c/bottle when returned in SA!). Had last weekend off diving, trying to get things finished, but now must get back underwater and clear my head. I want to do a twilight or dawn dive, to avoid the heat, and maybe I will try L's drysuit? hehe stealth ninja diving under the cover of Darkness. So many things to do, so few weekends....

Been thinking about bloggin'...

...but haven't quite got around to it. Even jotted notes on scraps of paper so I don't forget! haha. Been busy, actually working I guess. Goes back to that old adage eh...

Those who can, do.
Those who can't, talk about it on the internets.

;)

Have you voted?

Just voted in JJJ's Hottest 100. I always mean to then promptly forget, but seeing as though I'm in the country this time, I have no excuse. So what was my top 10? Well actually it was hastily put together list (in no particular order):

* King of Leon - Crawl
* Kings of Leon - Closer
* Kings of Leon - Use somebody
* Goldfrapp - Clowns
* MGMT - Kids
* MGMT - Electric Feel
* MGMT - Time to pretend
* The Herd - 2020
* The Herd - The king is dead
* Jay-Z feat. Santogold - Brooklyn Go Hard


I don't think the KoL will need my help to be honest, and besides I am happy to say I already had their album before they went mainstream... my money's on them for the #1 spot. Hopefully the Herd will make the top 10. I should've nominated Goldfrapp's A&E rather than Clowns, but didn't realise you could nominate unlisted songs till after (darn). Nevermind. As for the Jay-Z song, it was a bit of an afterthought - it's on constant rotation on JJJ at the moment, and I can't get the bloody thing out of my head... B, R, O - OK! - L, Y, N.....come again?!

Jaaaaaaaam hot

Cool free download from my favourite radio station JJJ: JAmHot by Koolism
Almost beach-o'clock :)

Something sea kitten-y going on...

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24889685-5001021,00.html

WTF......?! I doubt there's much "fish" in "fish sticks" anyway!

I don't care. As much as I like diving with sea kittens, I'm still gonna eat sea kittens and chips. . Actually I saw a good recipe for battered sea kittens just the other day! And I know all the sea kittens I worked on, I euthanased humanely.

LOL. I like this game.

Backloading

Has been a good start to the working week. So many people back at uni, and so many that I know from when I was here before; either still here or been away and returned. It is so strangely familiar. Walking up the stairs to rm104, right next door to my old office. The green tree frog still on the wall, and even stranger, still photos of me all over our noticeboard. Got a decent desk, and getting into some kind of routine at last. need to go to sleep a little earlier though because I've been getting up at 6:30 every morning! I like catching the tram in, despite the crowd of commuters. So, SO good to see EP again; had dinner at her place twice. Wish I lived a tad closer so I could walk between her place and mine. Out of the blue AM rang me and will be coming to Adelaide to catch up. Has invited me back to Arno Bay for a visit. My immediate reaction was HELL NO, but actually, might be good to just visit, without the stress of fieldwork or being there for months on end. Dad may have found a car for me and will look into backloading to get it down here. Seems crazy but when I had the VW trucked it wasn't very much at all. Bit of a deviation from the original bike plan but I think I will still get plenty of exercise walking around. And look into getting a MTB when I'm back in Welly. Been a little windy, hopefully it will die down and be ok for diving on Saturday. Hopefully we will get to do Northern Outer because that means NUDIES :D but I am just itching to get into the water to be honest...

Saturday evening light

Saturday evening light
Originally uploaded by ristari

Love the fading light in the evening Was thinking of going to the beach this to see the sunset, but got distracted by the local cricket instead being played across the road. It was funny, the men all anonymous in their whites, faces hidden under brown caps and wraparound sunglasses, barking unintelligible encouragement (or otherwise) at each other. Haven't been to a local cricket match since going to see Alan play in Yelarbon all those years ago. got attacked by ants, retreated up into the playground equipment to get away from them. I have not missed the ants, nor the flies which found their way around this afternoon as well. Laying quietly watching TV, a black cat with a tinkle-bell slinked in, but startled when it realised I was present. will have to work on him/her. Fed the local magpie familie ham fat; the young one dragging it around the lawn did not knowi what to do with it!

Went for a walk

...and saw some sunshine, located the bottle-o just around the corner and also found an indoor netball place, will definitely put my name down as a fill-in. Saw a flock of galahs tearing into a tree and feeding their overgrown babies, and watched the cricket team in the park training. Felt much better after stretching my tight calves. Still a bit too windy for my liking, but sat in the sun in my courtyard and drank Coopers, and read last Monday's Australian. Two of the other flatmates came over and introduced themselves and gave me some free bread, nice. starting to feel like a poor student again, hehe.

so the New Year begins...

Managed to make it through NYE, although my attempt to use the trains without a timetable was a bit of a disaster! nevermind. will have a bike soon.

Was in bed before the countdown and woke at 6:30am; have been having vivid dreams lately that run like a movie. Didn't get out of bed till around 8:30am though. Was thinking of going to the beach but never made it out the door, got as far as getting changed then all my impetus dissolved, feeling a bit fragile; brittle. It is far too windy now, to be down there anyway. Still might go later in the day, we will see how things go.