It's a miracle! Finally after 5 days of trying, Blogger's page is finally able to load. So siti, it ain't my fault for not updating.

This morning, I was walking home with my bag of groceries when I met this Italian old man. He speaks like Marlo Brando from Godfather. He was really nice and let me walk past him first because of the big bag. Said hello to each other and he gave me a pat on the back, saying 'good girl', his eyes on my groceries. Had a small chat and I think he lives along the street. I walk on that street too often, maybe he decided to say hi. Nice guy.

My kitchen light is spoiled and the electrician has yet to call me back. *growls* I had to hold a torch under my chin and wash the dishes. Used the torch to check whether my turkey was cooked properly. Luckily I remembered the lamp.

It's gonna be a long post (which I'll try my best to cut short) but I'll bore you further with pictures. First the Jonquils. They're still here, but soon I'll have to throw them out. Drying up and the smell has gone alittle off. These are pictures when I first brought them home.

Had to stuff it in my boot before I went out to buy a vase

I reckon they look like wedding flowers

Giving them abit of sunshine.

And we visited the Botanical Gardens, a while back and I took a video of these two kids chasing a duck and a pigeon. It was hilarious!



I reckon we fed the ducks too much that they decided to fly over to visit me. Renee came over and told me there were two ducks resting outside my place.

Resting under my letterbox

I ran into my house and grabbed my camera even though my legs were stained with black ink from the work I've been doing.



We gave them some bread before they decided to head to someone's house.

Ever seen ducks cross the road instead?

Working with the posters or rather banners. Managed to accomplished and combined some of my work. Thankfully Tanya loves them. Phew!





My favourite. Looks like a time warp.

Saving the best for last. On Wednesday, Suzy, Renee and I decided to look for that hot chocolate cafe Camilla was telling us about.

LV chocolate bag. I reckon this is way better than the real thing.

We settled for ice cream instead. Yums! *thumbs up*

Cocolat Cafe

Suzy and me

Me with Renee

In the end, we found out that we went to the wrong cafe. This was Cocolat and the one Camilla was telling us was Chocolate Beans where they served hot chocolate in huge soup mugs for $3.50-4.50. She was so funny. She told me about the place and was like 'first thing I must bring Claire here'. I get cold and hungry during studio and that's the first thing I go for so it must have embedded in my friends' minds. Hey...at least it's better than coffee lol. Anyway, I found out that bakery near my place with fantastic cake artworks is also Cocolat. This is the cafe brunch of it. Way cool!

Yesterday, I was exploring around Young Street and Hugh Street to take pictures. Tanya was nice enough to let me take the proper pictures as the previous film we were using came out unexposed. We should have asked the people at Duck pond what happened but surprisingly I didn't even panicked or freaked out. Usually I would but I just didn't care. Plus it's a good thing to live next to a sports car club. I saw the rows of vintage cars (vintage, I mean like back to 1920s). Polished and shiny and sundays is the day where the old folks go to church then, take a drive with their partners to wow the people at King William Road and Hyde Park. Now, that's driving with style.

Finally reviewed my wishlist. Old one was getting...yeah well...old.

'A dusty storm has been reported in Adelaide', says Channel Seven's news.

Ok I didn't know it was a dusty storm. I thought only really strong winds and stuff flying around. Yesterday, I was forced into a new exercise called 'resistance walking'. The wind was so strong that it was so hard to walk. Wind blows from the left, my body starts moving towards the right. Worst of all, wind blows from behind. It would have been good as pushing me to walk really fast and then fall flat on my face. Really wished I had carried those heavy journals to weigh me down. No, it wasn't cold. It was by far the hottest day of winter as it's coming to spring. 24 degrees and everyone was in their summer clothes. Seriously when the wind blows, you can feel all the dust and particles hitting against your skin and it does hurt. But I have to be thankful it wasn't a hail storm like in Sydney.

Tanya forgot about me again. She was supposed to go from table to table to help everyone out and this is the third time she forgot about me. Anna was saying that maybe she thinks I can handle on my own. During the presentation, the splashes of paint and ink, impressed her that she called it 'dynamic'. Hoho...I really don't like that piece but she does. So I stayed behind for 10 minutes and I missed my bus. Had to wait for half an hour in the dark but luckily not that cold.

During that long wait, i had my earphones on with my huge art tube with me. Before you read on, I am not bias about people from hong kong but if you continue on, you will understand. So I was the only asian girl standing in line at the bus stop. Then comes this asian couple and the girl spots me and gets in line next to me. Her ABC boyfriend joins and she starts flirting loudly. How did I know she was from hongkong? While flirting aloud, she was saying 'back at hongkong...', the rest was all sounds of drone in my ears. She was talking so freaking loud that I was so tempted to use my bazooca tube to knock her out. Even the lady next to me was staring at her. That was not only the annoying part.

When I stare at a spot on the ground, she moves in front of my eyes with her boyfriend and does her kissing, flirting, hugging which I don't give a f***** damn. So I choose another spot to stare. She pulls her boyfriend to that spot. I'm like 'what the hell is your freakin' problem? Can't I get a decent spot on the ground to stare at without you stepping into the picture?' And so much I wish her boyfriend would shut her trap. Worse of all, we had to take the same bus. She started her loud nonsense again but she stopped after the businessmen from outside the Commonwealth bank got onto the bus. Thankful for these gentlemen. Seriously, fake and 'acting' cute people, please step aside and save the community of people waiting for their buses. We have had long days and your annoying loud display isn't gonna cut it in our books.

This situation reminded me of two asian girls during last summer. At the same bus stop, one of the girls started talking loudly about a car she liked. Starts calling her dad and talking loudly again, and tell him that she wants that car. 'Oh daddy! But I want that car! It's so pretty!' Oh I pity her daddy.

Anyway, been working alot with ink and I need to get some more huge sheets of brown and craft paper. Luckily they're cheap. Oh! I just found out why my electricity bill has been high. My australian 'mother figure' told me that those fan heaters consume alot of electricity and those are the ones which keeps me warm! Grrr.... I'll try to sleep without at night. The deafening silence of the unit. And I saw the Jonquils. I'm starting to love them now. Pretty and small and smells nice and I hope the power of claire's hands won't kill them cos I need to draw them. *cross fingers*

Plum pie... *thumbs up*

Crazy splashes of ink and paint

Random Splots

This is my favourite...Hoo!

Bilby says goodbye for now

Phew! Weekend is almost here and i'm done with friday! Been pretty tiring but not as tiring as last thursday. Lack of sleep which lead me to buying a hot chocolate with extra cocoa to keep me awake. Plenty of coffee drinkers in my class but hot chocolate is my coffee.

Been having nutty weather I'll say. Having warm days to sudden cold days and I went through two really cold mornings. On my way to the swimming academy, I was wondering how the hell it's so freaking cold until i read the weather report. It was 2.5 degrees that morning. Luckily I was on my way to a nice heated pool. Then this morning, another 2.5 degree morning. Emma and I were 'smoking' alot as we walked all the way to school. Brr...

First time national day, in australia for me. Funny thing is that I have a duty to Australia on the night of 8th August. Every single soul who is in australia on that night has to fill in the Census form which will help shape the future of Australia. Happens every 5 years so lucky me? Did it online and now waiting for the people to collect the receipt number.

What has been up? I have been to the SALA festivals around the city. Showcases of art and design in different places which are beautiful. There are 200+ showcases and we're required to visit at least 4. Reckon I've been to 10. 6 of us went together. There was one showcase on Hindley Street where the artist was working mostly about the female sensuality and sexuality. He had one area purely dedicated to breasts. For the guys, I did take photos (but not the breast sections) but I won't put them up in case I get banned or something. Went to the Festival Theatre for more exhibitions for the aboriginal art work. Happened on the same day we had to get our film developed and normal film shops can't develop the chrome so Nick, Cindy and I had to take the bus all the way to Norwood. We were walking on and on cos we weren't sure what shop it was. Bought the mounts and developed it. Visited a photography showcase in Greenville. Really stunning!

On the way back in school, we bumped into Ben whom what he was holding in his hand, drew my attention. A Nikon SLR. Not digital but the real deal people. Asked him how much he spent on it, he replied 'too much to answer' with the painful look on his face. He was a photographer for skateboarding magazines so the 'real deal' gear was definitely needed. Lucky bloke!

Now I really like film photography. When we mounted the slides and showcased it, surprised that it turned out pretty well. Even though it's expensive since now film is going out especially chrome, somehow I would like to still do experiments. I love the results...I love everything!

Today we were made to draw names of flowers from a lot and I drew a Jonquil. What the heck is a Jonquil? Since spring is coming, we were made to do 10 studies of a flower in season. Everyone's like 'oh...jonquil'. I'm not a flower person to know names so I was .... Finally searched the net for the Jonquil. Have to get a fresh one from the market. Tanya also surprised us today. Can't say much about it. She wants me to loosen up with my next assignment when I thought I already loosen up by messing up and getting dirty with black ink. More loosening up? Better dig up angry music.

I was watching an episode of Oprah where they were interviewing Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. He was one of the prisoners from the Holocaust camp. Camps were the size of half of manhattan. If you want to know the real history, this is the real deal. I felt sick, angry and disgusted all at once but simply I have no word to describe it. Part of me feels like buying the book to read it, other part of me feels like I might stop halfway because it might be too much. See how that goes.

Ooh! I caught another episode of Queer Eye. Turning the guy into a Cary Grant and everything. That episode made me say 'would the fab 5 please help my boyfriend?' Nothing wrong with zeren but any girl would say that for their boyfriends. Cary Grant is a suave dude especially in that black and white movie with elizabeth taylor. *faints*

Enjoy your weekend!

Ah...Jonquil flower

Horse carriage outside Rundle Street. Next month, this street will be closed every sat for the markets! Yay! I love markets!

Outisde Festival Theatre with Camilla running to take a photo

My favourite piece from the showcase at Norwood

Simply love this

This potrait is made up of 8 art pieces, mixed around to create this face

My slides for this week. I want to develop them especially the one with the little girl in red. She's really sweet.

Just finished watching a powerful episode of One Tree Hill. It's about a kid who thinks everyone's the enemy. The people who never saw him. He brings a gun to school and you know what happens. While watching it, straight away I thought of one person. The guy who is always by himself in my class.

He strikes up a conversation with other people in a funny way. He criticizes others and does his best to show how much better he is than everyone. My friends who are younger than me do the obvious. Back talking and all. They're just fresh out of high school. I do my best to listen to him if I have to. But he knows everyone just don't want to be his friend. Just like the character in the episode. Only a gun could make everyone listen. How sad can that be.

You may think that I'm just over reacting to this but I'm in a country where you can easily get a firearm. Everyday I hear sirens. Shooting, arson, beating up people, accidents and murder has now become a norm. You see it on the news everyday. It's not like Singapore. I was shocked at first by the rate of crime but now I'm so used to it. I dare not step out the door at night. The dangerous street is behind my uni where many crimes have taken place even though there is a police precinct along the street.

Just praying everyday.