Listening: 'Beautiful' by flickerstick

Of course!! Haha. A good mate of mine are making fun of these two words. The way it's being used in a certain context. Well, we had to entertain ourselves and I had to keep her awake.

Haven't updated my blog in a while because dear old dad came over to visit me and he's also here on business. So my stock from Singapore has arrived. Haha. It's my yearly stock so better make the best of it. Took advantage of the fact Dad rented a car. So travelled around to do my homework. Taking photos of everything or anything that catches my eye. Even stooping down to the same level as anything I find fascinating. Found some good stuff like the best mates in the world, a sheep and a horse.

Yesterday, I had a photoshoot with Ben. He was my model. Haha. Not really a model. I had him to skate for me to get some shots for my stock photography. He used to take photos for a skateboarding magazine though his advice was 'do whatever you want'. Sounds good? *shrugs* I just didn't want to be in the way of the other skaters but turned out it was him and other bikers just using the bowl. The other skaters were trying to keep cool from the heat.

Speaking of heat, we had drastic weather change that resulted in most of us, catching something. It would rain heavy and get cold. (Thank God for the rain) Followed by hot sun, humidity. I can't stop coughing and most people got the sniffles. I don't want the sniffles.

I was teen sitting yesterday. Renee brought her sister to uni and it was her free day from school. I ended up entertaining her with Renee going at Jackie 'Thought you're supposed to be sitting quietly at this corner'. I don't mind really. Kept me awake in class. So she came along with me for the photoshoot. We tried skateboarding. I reckon surfing is easier. No worries mom. Not going into skateboarding.... yet? Haha kidding. Renee wanted to take Jackie home but Jackie wanted to stay. I told Renee she could follow me for the rest of the day. Check out the photography studios and all. She ended up going home with me. Not literally my home but took the tram together. No worries Renee, Jackie was alright. ;)

Now that daylight savings is over. I'll dread in time to come though only one good thing came out of it. When I woke up on monday for my swim, it felt like I woke up at 7 instead of 6. That was all good. Anyway, gotta do some painting and enjoy the photos.

Weird weather changes we have here. Clouds coming in.

Sunset at Glenelg

Birds at the sunset, Glenelg

Sunset behind my house. Rushed out to capture it.

Dad and me at Shark's rock cave, Victor Harbour.

Sign of autumn at last, Maclaren Vale

Poser model skateboarder, Ben

Skating outside our uni

Look ma, no hands

Jacks give it a shot, holding onto Ben

Renee gets on too, with help too.

Waiting and watching

Best shot of the day

Listening: 'Vacuum bag' by Stroke 9

Wonder if anyone ever had those screaming pain in the head. Literally. I'm having one right now on the side. I had the worse one on tuesday where the pain shoots through the head. I think the brain must be screaming 'Claire! Sleep!' Tuesdays are my longest days waking up at 6am and i reach home about 6.45pm. Oh well, pain pain go away.

Rain came over night for two nights but it brought along humidity. Grr... I thought it might be chilly but it was very muggy. Should have worn shorts to uni instead of jeans. Especially when one air-condition decided not to work for us.

Now we have a new illustration teachers for thursday afternoons. Robin Eley. An illustrator now mainly based in New York and did work for the Wall Street Journal and Time magazine. Yeah all of us were thinking it must be some old dude but it turned out to be a young surfer dude. Renee repeated my comment about him to other people. 'What's he doing here? He should be catching some wave or something'. But we're pretty lucky to get a specialist to teach us to paint with acrylics. Speaking of acrylics, I've never worked with them before. Never painted since high school. The gouache was used differently last year, just filling solid spaces. Now we have to work with tones. It's hard but I'm practising at home. I really want to survive in this illustration class. It's one class I definitely enjoy.

First colour acrylic painting

On tuesday, we were left without David, our main illustration teacher. He had a baby!! So we had to be split up to join the graphic design studios and unlucky me, Renee and Camilla. We had to go with Big Stuart. We jinxed ourselves. In the end, we ditched half of the class cos what they're doing wasn't quite the same. Walked around the uni, went to the Quirk gallery with really eye popping stuff. *rubs sides of the head* Pain shot through my head again.

Stella McCartney Range arrives in target! Thousands of dollars reduced to less than $200. So the aussies became singaporeans! Queuing up overnight and rushing in to grab the clothes. In Sydney, clothes were torn off the models and all were sold out in 7 minutes. So we decided to check out the city Target store. To our disappointment, the Adelaideans are more civilised and there were still some clothes left but pretty crowded in that department. To think I had my camera to film some action.

Speaking of camera, I had to bring it back to fix. It died on me completely. *growls* Wonder if anyone had fluke moments? I had two. Well, I needed to get a ceramic palette for the acrylics. Got an expensive one from Premier ARt. Ouch! But I walked past the tile shop near my place. Decided to try a tile and it was only a dollar!! Now I want to return my palette. Second fluke. I wanted to get Baker's Delight Choc Chip Hot Cross buns. Promoting on tv like mad. And they are seriously delicious. Why fluke moment? I was supposed to have bread for lunch but I opened up to find mould. Thank humidity. Luckily I bought hot cross buns.

Wednesday, Suzy, Renee and I went to the adelaide fringe festival --> Danny Bhoy's comedy showcase. He's a scottish stand up comedian who's really hilarious. The live performance is really different from watching him in youTube. I like the way he describes Adelaide right now. We have the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Womadelaide (just finished), International Buskers Festival & the World Fire and Police Games. To quote Danny, Adelaide has ADHD now. I love festivals. Fun stuff. My ticket is actually an early birthday gift from Renee. She joked with Suzy and Suzy thought it was my birthday and got me a present. Ah...suzy, two more months exactly.

Alright, some photos while I rub my head. Oww!

The crowd and Camilla at Stella McCartney's range at Target

My new window seat in our studio

Tyler wants a shot

All waiting for David

Evening in Victoria Square

Sunset in the city

Suzy and Renee at Danny Bhoy

Me ticket

Baker's Delight Choc Chip Hot Cross Buns rock!!

Listening: Man shouting and trucks driving by outside

I would update my blog over the weekend but I had such an interesting encounter that I had to blog. A stranger came up to me, kissed my hand and told me I was beautiful. The reactions from Brett, Dad and Zeren was 'WHat?!' No I'm not kidding. I was walking back to uni after collecting my camera where this man who is not quite right in his head was walking towards me with a young man who seems to be keeping an eye on him. He shouted 'Konichiwa!' (pardon my jap spelling) and he pulled away from the young man, put his hand out and I shook it, smiling back to a man who has this genuine smile on his face. He took my hand, kissed it and placed it over his heart and went 'you are beautiful!' And shouted to strangers, 'isn't she beautiful?' I gave the 'ok, please don't shout anymore' look. He asked if I was japanese but told him I was chinese instead. 'Beautiful hair!' I quickly said 'have a nice day!' so that both of us can be on our way. He held my hand until the young man had to pull his away. It felt weird from this encounter but meeting a man like that, even though he may not be right up there, does make a difference to your day. You can see he has heart. I know some sane people who don't have the heart at all. Heart as in not admiring beauty but as in you can tell he's a good man. And I hope for everyone to meet a person like that though I know most will duck for cover especially in singapore.

So it's the long tuesday. It was one of the coldest morning I've experienced in many many months. 14 degrees in the morning and I thought it was gonna be warmer so I just wore a tee and a light jacket. Met Emma on the tram. Both of us were freezing ourselves, walking to uni. Nearly fell asleep in Stuart's lecture. Gosh. Went through type with David. Took Nick and Emily on a ride with me when I nearly lost my way to the camera shop. But luckily, they made the right decision to head back for their class which starts half an hour earlier than mine. A girl was flirting with Dale, the guy in the camera shop. So he was the one who sends me those emails. Hmm...spare part has not arrived then, spare part has arrived. It has been fixed, both emails in less than 2 hours of each other. Well, just happy to collect the camera and not go back there again.

Photography. The class feels like being with my relatives in chinese new year. Hiding my identity of Claire, just sit, be quiet and smile alot. Well, this situation is a tad bit better cos I was learning studio lighting and studying photos. I find my class is alittle anti-social because everyone has their own groups. So I'll be the invisible Claire in that class until there is an opening in the 2 way street. Though, I wished Toby hadn't highlighted my test ranking. But I'm pretty stoked about playing with lighting. Feels like back in poly but Toby ain't as cheesy as Rodrigues.

Been thinking of how to work out my way around the days on what to do. I have a photography journal to start on. I've been issuing days to do what work so that I'll be nicely occupied and not worried all the time.

Since this is a slightly smaller entry, I'll just put in two pictures, a link and surf videos. Link and videos which I highly recommend you take a look at. First is a video of wine-maker/surfer, Damon Eastaugh who won $20,000 ofin the Big Wave Awards. He surfed one of the biggest waves ever which was 10metres and was successful. Beautiful and literally my jaw dropped and took a while to push it back up.


News Report on Damon


The winning wave


Surfing Mice! Hey Dad, should have gotten Finn & Fievel into surfing!

I thought this ad was funny. Kangarilla and meadows is one of the most beautiful country side I've ever seen so no cats and dogs but horses negotiable. Hmmm... (pardon for the bad photo)

One of the cars outside the sports car club. I enjoy admiring these vintage cars. Beautiful!

One of the most beautiful photoshoots I've seen with playfulness in styles and genres and techniques (even if there's one drawing)
Jennifer Connelly: The Actor's Actor

Listening: 'Great Companion' by Landon Pigg

Just finished sending emails and registering with several recruitment companies online to increase my chances of getting a job. Well, I've already started my weekend which is today. I get 4 day weekends from fridays to mondays. Good for catching up with assignments but I don't mind working 2 days a week for some extra cash and experience. God knows I need some.

Right now we're having the Clipsal 500. Motor racing festival where the V8 supercars are racing. The usual Holden and Ford battles haha. Surprisingly, I can hear the cars racing on my way to get some groceries in my area. I thought it was further north east? I even heard fireworks last night. *ponders* Helicopters flying around the area, trying to capture the Clipsal from the air.

I've started uni this week. Studio is pretty different because I think there are 3-4 classes of graphic design and 1 class of illustration and I am in that illustration class. Feel kinda special eh? Thought that we'll be away from Stuart's reach but guess again. He rescheduled our lectures to be together with the graphic design students which is 8-9am on tuesday mornings. *faints* It means I'll be in school from 8am till 6.30pm. Yeah I was whining about it but today I woke up and said hey, it's the price I gotta pay for having a 4 day weekend right? So, I'll go with it. Commercial and professional photography. Somehow I'm more worried about it. When I first went into class, sheez, everyone knew almost everyone. I only knew Yo. And the guy I seriously least expected has enrolled in the same class. I was very surprised to see him. Since there was only an empty seat in the corner, naturally i took that seat. Just kinda worried that it'll be hard to break into groups in this class. But I'll wing it. Just like what zeren says. I hope so too.

Nick and I were sharing our worries on msn last night. Both of us feel lost, empty and scared. Yes brother. Haha. I thought I was the only one feeling like this for over a week since I got my lousy mark for my black and white photography. (Thanks for deceiving us,teacher) Pretty hard to explain to zeren cos he'll reckon I'm just being very negative as usual. But my brother understands haha. No offence dear. It's the university nerves. We were talking about how much we miss Suzy and Freya. All of us are being seperated. But I think Nick's happy that our lectures are now combined with the graphic design students. We get to hang out in lectures now. Both of us are worrying, feeling unprepared for what's to come even though I keep telling myself to stay calm and it'll be alright. Taking it a step at a time. We're also guilty of wishing we were surfing haha. One day Nick, my brother, we'll surf to destress! If possible, drag our amigo Suzy along!

Other than that, more fun people in studio and our lessons has abit more life now that we have a different teacher. We'll be getting a illustrator who broke into the US market to come teach us every thursday afternoons. I think that's really something for David to do. Still can't believe he's a single dad. Oh well. At least he gets to skip early morning lectures. Hung out with Renee, Camilla and Ben yesterday mostly. I started to miss Zeren after listening to Ben's story with his girlfriend. So sweet. *sniffs* 11 years being together and still going. At the same time, I was kinda egging him on to buy my unit so that when I get a job, I'll save up money and buy it from him. Haha. I think he was considering it at one point. Cos he was talking about buying property and get some money out of it. Grr...can't stand my real estate company that's all. Pesky peeps! And then I found out Stuart (not teacher stuart) is younger than me by a few months. All along I thought he must be around my sister's age. Now Stuart gets to laugh at me for being older than him.

Anyway, I found something in Coles. A light shone behind it and my eyes widen as I stared at it. My hand reaches out and grab it. Studies it and puts it in my basket and walk away with a huge grin.

Almond Beancurd Dessert

Ok, this is rare to find in a australian supermarket so I was so happy and delighted! It tastes great too and the beautiful texture. Yum! Thank you Unley Coles. You are the greatest supermarket ever. Of course, I went back to buy more. Mango flavour too. *grins* And I even managed to get a kitchen scale. Small and compact! I like. Feels like that time I introduced the dragon fruit to Nick. He bought one from the market in Hahndorf to try. He liked it and it was $3+ for one. Ok, some pictures from Hahndorf when my sis was around.

Compact in size

Able to hold up to 1kg

Welcome to the Meditarrean Twist Restaurant in Hahndorf

Today's specials

Looking at what to order

Sis's raspberry tea

Nick with his orange, mango and banana juice. It's very yummy!

Sis, alittle sun burnt

Me fooling around

Nick's chicken pasta and salad. Huge!!!

Sis's german sausage burger

To seriously beat the cravings of Quince bruschettas, I had to have one. Biggest I've ever eaten and the waitress made it extra large for me after I said I was hungry. And I finished it all. B-e-a-utiful!!!