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Another chink in the armour

August 31st 2010 09:47
It was bound to happen. The last of my family's generation of 1920's children has passed away in her sleep, in the confines of a nursing home.

They say it happened the way she wanted it to, in fact the way most of us would want it to. I have not thought about it myself, but being of the generation of 1980's children I would probably feel the need to die for more of a cause.

You know. Making poverty history, having a world without strangers, all that jibe. Something to believe in, without buying into.

And I do feel a bit of a sellout, having long forgone the person the matriarch had wanted and expected me to be. A jazzed up banker who resurrected the jitterbug at nights out with workmates or something similar as one may speculate.


Admittedly it is exactly that with which I would wish to remember her by, an image that I hope never completely shattered her expectations, due to a lack of actualisation. Might have to meet her at the half way mark, with memories of her owning the dance floor even well into her ninth decade.

It certainly makes a difference to the family structure, now that my immediate elders are the eldest in the family. Its one less layer of security, a chink in the armour of the ever multiplying family unit.

Yet it also raises the bar, time for present generations to take the responsibility of leading the group. Leading it further astray maybe, but still leading.

I'll just keep up my misplaced Czechoslovakian Prince routine and see where it gets me, let the rest of the squadron do what they feel. Whether we are living a lie or living the life, we're still alive.

Salut, Saude, Salute, and Cheers.
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The further from the city, chances are the bigger the space is between the roof over your head and the blanket over our heads that is the sky.

Exemptions are to be made for the aggressively rich with private beaches as front yards and the like, but for the innercity kids one must improvise when explaining what the front yard consists of. So if you live in between two urbanised green spaces but have nothing but a mailbox past your front door, one might say for instance 'Hyde Park is my front yard, the Domain is out the back' for Sydney.

Melbournites could say 'Fitzroy Gardens is my defacto patio, Chinatown is the back yard.' Citizens of Madrid could say they have Plaza de Espana for a courtyard and Plaza da Orient as a terrace.


It may sound like a desperate bid from the homeless to claim ownership, but what little space we can actually own in the middle of the big smoke often comes with a complementary right to express oneself as being part of something bigger.

As the wheels churn to our taste throughout time, I find myself sitting in my front yard with a laptop while enjoying the last rays of sunlight for the day.

Limoncello anyone?
Front yard chill spot
chuckiechillouts




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Lisbon Writer's Festival

June 14th 2010 01:17
It's a tough gig.

Having foregone both the Sydney Film Festival and Sydney Writer's Festival, I had made a big sacrifice and a tough decision.

Yes, I decided to travel to Europe. Determined to not feel too many withdrawal symptoms (backed by the decision to quit smoking before the trip) as to ruin my European Vacation, I made a clean break from the family and friends that have been such a big part of my life and did the runner - equipped with a camera phone and an international sim card - without the running shoes.

The trip was absolutely unforgettable, life-reaffirming, and well worth the experience. If you haven't been to europe before, and have only the slightest inclination and funds with which to do so, I can highly recommend it.

I travelled with a small pioneering group of 20, through Topdeck Tours, to Spain, Morroco and Portugal, and then a group almost double the size through Busabout, to Sorrento and surrounds. All while stopping in between to do my own thing in Venice and buy a flamenco guitar in Madrid.

My Madrid guitar shop
Where my guitar was made, and bought


Possibly my favourite place would be Lisbon, in the heart of Portugal. I chose Topdeck because they included more of Portugal than most other tour agencies, and realise now what a wise decision it was. Somehow managed to stumble across the Lisbon Writer's Festival while there, which was one of many festivals we stumbled across in Sportugal, but this really was the icing on the cake.

Lisbon Writer's Fest2010
Lisboa!


Even though I couldn't read the books they were selling, nor understand the talks they were giving, it was a privilege to be in the right place at the right time, one more time.

Feel free to check out the photos from the travelling on my new blog, Really Long Link
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Travellin' Shoes

May 8th 2010 01:23
A dingy old shoe collection is like baby boomer parents - you can't live with 'em, you can't live without 'em.

There was a time when I would take a huge chunk of my CD collection with me whenever travelling, which is quite stupid and embarrassing when I think about it. What I would prefer these days is to take my shoes, all my shoes, with me


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Chanel's Dolorien

April 10th 2010 06:35
As we take a trip back in time, prepping ourselves in 1920's garb as one half Fred Astaire and the other Shirley Temple, to the 2010 French Film Festival where we can observe the forces that bind one muse to another like only the big screen can provide for.

Chanel, in her latest biopic, is presented as a down-the-line enterprising sign of the future. She has allowed an east-meets-west mish mash of a household to define her post WW1 mansion, at least for the duration of Igor Stravinsky and family's stay


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Champion of the Pause

February 21st 2010 03:03
I often go to a cafe across the road from my college, called Pausa. In Italian, the name means 'break' - like cigarette break, lunch break, coffee break. I use the place for a combination of the three.

Matter of fact, I use just about everywhere as a combination of the three, if I can get away with it. Waiting at the doctor's surgery, all the cafes surrounding the workplace, the park around the corner, and of course my own back yard


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Fashion and Literature

January 31st 2010 09:24
Slowly but surely, the topic of who imitates who will rear its debatable bosom into our collective conscience.

Back in my late teens, I found myself a wonderful imitation of life in the novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Although the style oozed by the count was more felt in certain pockets of New York throughout the nineties, there stood myself as a Sydneysider acting like I had found a supply of unlimited credit which was to be used for the greater good


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Some just aren't coming to the party

December 30th 2009 05:17
I have heard that women are more inclined to mill over small pieces and thoughts with others, while men prefer to let information sink in without a word being said. This backs the theory that many women prefer to indulge in small talk, and prefer to avoid those that don't, and can also be vice versa for males.

Often with blatant disregard for the subject of conversation, and not allowing for the subject's side of the story, men can find themselves pitted against the opposite sex when they are being talked about without their knowledge. Mind you, these are the same women who did the same thing to girlfriends in high school when a mutual decision is made to have one of the girls ousted


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The Pretension of Promotion

November 28th 2009 23:33
For those of us who survived walking the streets of the inner suburbs of Sydney in the 1980's and 90's, it can be forgiven that one will feel out of the loop with the swell of over-promotion and population that has come to define this old town.

As another summer rolls in, the 'most popular beach in the world' is forced to deal with mass migration on a daily basis. From four corners of the world they have come, and it is commonplace for us to note that with every bus ride down to the beach there will always be a few people on the bus who receive a rush of adrenaline, curiousity and porous salt as they prepare themselves to see Bondi for the first time


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Italian Film Addiction

October 18th 2009 01:43
It all happens so fast. One week you are functioning perfectly without the need for excess, the next you are at odds with yourself - unsure why such a strong craving has developed over such a small period of time.

As it was with myself and this years Italian Film Festival. One simply cannot get enough of such refined cinema. The final film, for me, was the one to bring about the greatest insight about the Mediterranean boot-shaped country. Vincere (Win) is about Mussolini, the fascist leader who dragged Italy through the two world wars. Parallels with the current leader Silvio Berlusconi were obvious - wanted by women all over the country and maintaining a stronghold on most media sources


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