My Blue Heaven

Christmas Dinner 2007

A 5.7kg traditional roast goose with pork, sage & onion stuffing with apple sauce, cranberry sauce and gravy plus carrot and parsnips roasted with sage dressing, roast potatoes, gourmet stuffing of pork and mushrooms wrapped in bacon and finally pork and cranberry chipolata sausages wrapped in crispy bacon. Mmmmm….. It was yummy.

Waiting at Cologne Airport

So I’m here at Cologne airport in Germany waiting for my delayed flight back to London. It was supposed to depart at 9:30pm and is delayed to midnight which is only half hour away but no sign of the plane yet. Methinks we will be here past midnight. *sigh* I decided to buy some wifi time on t-mobile to surf the net using my iPod Touch and am now blogging using my Touch. Ahhh technology..

The holiday was really nice.. Very very relaxing. Just what we needed. We spent HEAPS of time at the Taunus Therme saunas and thermal pools, soaking up the healthy minerals and salts and sweating it out nekkid with the germans in tge saunas. A very healthy week in all. Also enjoyed brunch with friends at the fine Steigenberger hotel in frankfurt and again at the Hyatt Regency in Cologne today. Damn I love german brunch buffets.. they sure know how to put on a fine feast. I also got my hair cut and coloured (semi permanent red violet) at my regular hairdressers Obscura in frankfurt.

Ok the plane has just landed w00t! Gotta go.. Will have lotsa pics and vids to upload when I get back.

Holiday Season

Tuesday and Wednesday will again be all about relaxation – with massages booked in on both days. Firstly a two person synchronised massage (yes two people massaging you at the same time – I’ve had this before there and it is AWESOME), and secondly a honey oil massage (really nice and great for the skin too!) We’ll spend heaps of time in the thermal pools and saunas too (yep getting nekkid with the germans). I love it there.. it is so relaxing, de-stressing, peaceful and really re-energising. I always feel so much healthier afterwards.

On Thursday I’m gonna get my hair cut at my usual hairdresser in Frankfurt called Obscura – they’re great and sooooo much cheaper than London. And finally to finish off our holiday, the last two nights will be spent in Cologne, visiting the christmas markets, the huge dom (cathedral – image above) and beautiful Rhine river.. and of course Frühstück at the luxurious Hyatt Regency (image below) where we’ll be staying. :). Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up with AericWinter too as he’ll be at his home town which is nearby that weekend. Should be really nice.

*sigh* I can’t wait! I totally don’t feel like working now… just counting the days.. hours.. minutes..

Whenever I start feeling too fed up, depressed, frustrated, stressed and downright annoyed with living in shitty London… it is these moments that I get to spend on the european continent that remind me why I’m here.

Weekend

Geez my post titles are getting boring. I can’t seem to think of anything witty or interesting for them these days. Anyway as Ella meows at me in the background, I just wanted to make a quick update about the weekend.

I had a rather nice weekend, spending quality time with Kwai. Also, most importantly, I slept in. 🙂 On Saturday, I had a follow up massage (following my acupuncture treatment last Thursday that I had because I was suffering big time from a recurring neck/back injury pain). Then afterwards we went out to see a movie – The Golden Compass. I was interested in seeing it not only because it was based on a fantasy book (and you know how I love my fantasy books), but also wanted to see what the controversy was about. I enjoyed the movie, even though the direction was pretty crap.. typically as happens when they make a movie out of a book.. it just jumped from section to section missing out probably great chunks of important background and depth that would have been explained in the book.. but as I have not read the books, I didn’t have that assumed knowledge. So it all felt a bit disjointed.) Anyway, I still liked the story, though I can also understand why it caused controversy, if you want to look at it in a certain way. But I don’t think it was that bad.. maybe just coz I’m used to fantasy storylines so I know how to read them – as fantasy!

Anyway that was a bit of a tangent. Back to my weekend. It was just a leisurely nice weekend.. as if we getting into holiday mode.. but I still managed to get some important stuff done – sorted out some finances, cleaned up at home, made some final holiday arrangements and bookings, went to the gym today, watched Heroes, and spent quality time at home with Kwai.

Thought of the day

How many times have I learnt in my life that I should never try to be somebody I’m not. Yet how many times have I put myself into situations where I compromise who I am in order to fit into what people pressure me to be, in order to please them or fit in (and why am I always about pleasing others anyway)? It is probably one of my biggest weaknesses, yet knowing what my weaknesses are doesn’t really seem to make a difference or change anything. And people take advantage of it. It always starts bit by bit.. tiny incremental compromises.. and before I know it, I just find myself miserable because I feel chained inside this fake persona that I’m not really carrying off very well to begin with.

Meh. My life has a tendancy to go to crap whenever I start pretending. So I think I should stop. I am who I am and I am happy with that.

Updates

So last Friday my probation period at work officially ended. W00t!!! 😀 It’s good to know the hard work and effort was worth it. After all the early starts.. getting up at 6:30am every morning to get in for 8:30am.. being willing to stay late until the job gets done. I’ve completed this hurdle and I think my boss seems happy with things. I’ve also been put on a new project!! I was gonna approach someone to try push for it, but looks like I didn’t have to.. it just sorta landed in my lap. It will be cool to do something different.

I’m feeling more settled here – getting along well with people I think. I went out twice the other week to the pub with work colleagues – and both were quite late ones. It was great. I’ve never really done the going out to the pub after work with the colleagues before.. but I guess it does help the bonding. Even if I don’t really drink much (as I never have), it’s still good fun.

Anyway life otherwise has been pretty busy. Went to dance class last Saturday for the first time in over a month. Wish I could keep it up more regularly, but still it was nice to get moving again. And my back actually felt better the next day.. sore muscles and all. It was a good pain rather than the bad pain I’d been struggling with for the past week and half. Guess I should keep it up. Still need to go see an osteopath though… once the damn health claim gets sorted. Music college has been good – already coming to the end of first term now – its been exhausting! Next week will be the final performance week for my Tues night class. Its gonna be recorded and assessed. Ack! And I gotta get the full score done to hand in for that week too, also for assessment. Then over the christmas break I’ll have my first assignment for musicianship class – a full transcription of an original piece given to us by our tutor. They keep telling us it will be hard. :/

But there is light at the end of the dark tunnel. I’m going away to Germany for a pre-christmas holiday. We’re going to Frankfurt (6 nights) and Cologne (2 nights) to visit the christmas markets (I LOVE the German christmas markets.. totally beats the crappy over-commercialised over-crowded christmas here in London). Also will be catching up with our friends in Frankfurt, eating lots at Frühstücks and just CHILLING out and relaxing at the saunas (oh the bliss). Can’t wait! I so totally need a holiday.. just been way too stressed lately. Plus we’re staying in a pretty swanky hotel on the last two nights in Cologne too – the Hyatt right on the Rhine river opposite the Cathedral. Nice.

Music makes my world go round

I’ve been getting a rather large dose of music lately. Be it listening to music, performing music, watching people play live music, learning more about music, writing music, arranging music or playing music. And it’s been rather hard work sometimes, especially with trying to balance a full-time demanding career, but I gotta say I’m really, really enjoying it so far. Every aspect.

This week is London Jazz Festival, and I made sure I made the most of it over the weekend by attending two (very different) gigs on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night was opening night, with a fine concert named “We All Love Ella” which was a tribute to the great Ella Fitzgerald – my favourite jazz singer. It was held in the swanky new Royal Festival Hall on Southbank of the Thames River. Me and Kwai had box seats (WAY cool!). There was a full orchestra and big band, and a host of various singers performing songbook Ella classics. Saturday night we went to see Larry Harlow and the Latin Legends of Fania (from New York) perform at the Roundhouse, near Camden Town. The crowd was very, very south american oriented.. the majority seemingly from Columbia (judging by the mass reaction everytime Columbia was mentioned), with smatterings of Venezuelans, Spanish, Brazilian and Cubans I’m guessing. Basically.. the whole gig was pretty much in spanish. The band spoke mostly spanish, with the audience responding in spanish!! I felt like I’d been transported to another country really! But the atmosphere and vibe of the gig was very awesome. Everyone there was just SO into it, and there was heaps of interaction between the band and crowd. There were even people in the crowd with percussion instruments – like shakers and claves. Oh, and this crowd had rhythm. There was no clapping out-of-time simple 4/4… no this crowd could clap not just on the beat, but expertly managed 3-2 clave! I took video from both gigs, so hopefully I’ll get around to uploading something at some point so you guys can get a bit of a listen and looky for yourselves. 🙂

I’ve also now played TWO gigs in London! Yep.. I had my first official gig on Sunday 28th October, 2007. So it wasn’t paid, just a friend of a friend’s party, it was only 4 songs, and I played a bit crap coz the sustain pedal wasn’t working and there were a few stuck keys down the bottom of the keyboard, oh and it was only 67 keys.. but hey, its a start! I got it on video – check it out:

My 2nd gig was another friend of a friend’s party, the weekend before last, but I felt much happier with this one. For a start we had a pro double bass player playing with us – made SUCH a difference. I hate playing without a bass player. We also had a singer for some songs, who also played congas on other songs. AND the venue had a beautiful grand piano for me to play on…. just lovely. We also played about 8 songs this time.. so a much longer gig. I have heaps of video footage, but I still have yet to edit it coz the venue was really dark.

And finally, I’m also really loving music college at Goldsmiths University of London. I’m doing a part time, 6 hours over two nights per week course called Certificate in Music Studies. Its quite cool – I almost feel like a uni student again, except I have full time work on top. But yeh.. it is great.. I love what I’m learning, the teachers are awesome and I’m meeting heaps of great people from all walks of life.. fellow musicians with a common love for music, who are just so supportive and encouraging. It’s really heaps fun, even with the cramming – homework – on – Sunday – night – at – 10pm each week. I mean, the person I’m gigging with at the moment, I met him through Goldsmiths at my Jazz Improv Class last year. So it’s good for networking too! So this year the two classes I’m doing are Musicianship Level 2 in Jazz & Pop and Performance Ensemble in Jazz & Pop. They work really well together – and I actually really enjoy the musicianship class.. probably more so than the Performance Ensemble, even thought the Perf Ensemble is meant to be a more practical class. I actually enjoy the homework for musicianship.. no it’s not boring theory.. it’s basically been all composition.. or various aspects of composition. Writing simple 12-16 bar pieces of jazz & blues music (following certain guidelines which we learnt about in that weeks class).. and I’m loving it.

Ok I should stop rambling coz its nearly midnight, and I’m going to an Ajax training conference tomorrow (which I was at today too). And I have class tomorrow night. Ugh.. Monday and Tuesday’s are always a killer for me.. I’m always totally shattered by Wednesday, and often fall sick too. I was got sick the wed before last, and have only just recovered. *sigh* Methinks I may have too much on my plate. Haven’t even been to dance class in a month (though I still am going) nor have I done much exercise (but I have recently joined the Virgin Active gyms near work and home using corporate discount.. w00t w00t). I just need MORE TIME in a day!! And my body ain’t getting any younger… 8 hours sleep a night is becoming more and more a necessity rather than just a “nice-to-have”. On that note.. good night all. 🙂

Feeling more european

So myself and my aussie colleague made an impromptu visit to the inaugural St Pancras International Eurostar terminal tonight after work whilst en-route to dinner. I’d forgotten it just opened today, so it was rather good timing. Gawking like tourists, our camera phones clutched in hand (just like the other hundreds of people there) we admired the grandeur of the restored St Pancras station. I was rather impressed with the station actually.. the huge dome roof, that unmistakable dents clock and romantic statue of an embracing couple. It was pretty cool. Also the longest champagne bar in europe (with the longest line to get in it seemed) and random performers weaving through the crowd breaking out into dance or artistic posing with music permeating from a DJ’s setup (presumably part of the special opening day).

But just seeing these people arrive on the Eurostar, when only two hours earlier they would have been in Paris or Brussels etc.. really made me feel like jumping on the next train to Pah-ree! It just felt very.. international… and that much closer to mainland europe. I can’t wait for my next holiday to the continent (coincidentally in only 1 months time).

So here I am at home, ready to post my photos on my new blog. And what do I discover but that the folder where my photos are normally saved on my sony memory stick in my phone was, for some unknown reason, set to read-only. Spewin! Oh well.. guess I’ll just have to steal someone else’s.

Kazzart.Com Rebirth

So here it is. My first new post with my new blog software WordPress on my newly redesigned website, hosted on a new server, using my new domain name Kazzart.Net! 🙂 Only managed to get the basics up so far – mainly blog, about page and newly installed and up-to-date gallery (albeit only with basic layout). W00t! It’s certainly taken me a LONG time to get this happening.. moving servers is not easy, especially with the new demanding job and part time music college sucking up all my time. But here it is. It’s only upwards from here.

B-Girl

Last night I went to my first breaking (otherwise known as “breakdancing”) class! It was totally AWESOME! Seriously I had so much fun, I haven’t been this excited about a new thing since.. I tried surfing for the first time a few years ago. I think I’m addicted and I’m definitely going back next week. As much pain as I am in today (and boy is my body in pain.. like.. everywhere) I really loved it! As this was my first lesson, I learnt the foundations – the basic Toprock, Uprock and 6-Step. Very cool stuff. 🙂

However my body is definitely paying for it today. See, I had also attended a 1 hour pilates class just before the 1.5 hours breaking class. So now my quads, hammies, calves, butt, arms, shoulders, back, neck, wrists, abs.. yeh pretty much everywhere.. are feeling reeeally sore. I need a massage. :/

Meez

Heehee.. spending way too much time creating new Meez. I even have one of me breaking! Lol! NB. Click on each picture to get the full size animated version!

Work and Play

Wow it has been a while since my last blog entry. Where to begin? So much has happened in the past month or so. Most recently, I’ve just started my new job – it’s my 2nd week here now. It’s been pretty exciting so far and I’m based in Farringdon in central London (great location with heaps of good food around). The company itself is a leading international interactive agency, and has been described as “a recognised pioneer and innovator, their work is amongst the most influential in the world” and having “paved the way for many agencies and is considered to have “written the book” on digital marketing and e-commerce, without ever having actually written a book”. They have won heaps of awards for the work they’ve done, as well as general awards like “Creative Agency of the Year” or “Interactive Agency of the Year” and most recently awarded “Digital Agency of the Decade” by Revolution magazine. So… erm yeh.. that gives you an idea of how stoked I was to have been headhunted and hired by them!!! 😀

Ok work aside, I’ve also been away on holidays. I spent a wonderful 2 weeks with Kwai and my bro driving through Italy and Germany (as well as passing through Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and France). We started by flying to Cologne, hiring our car there and driving through Germany and Austria to arrive at Venice VERY late in the night. After 2 nights there, we drove to Florence (me and Kwai’s 3rd visit here!), and also took advantage of the Barberino Designer Outlet shopping village for some discount designer clothes, before driving into some proper tuscan countryside. We spent most of the holiday in Tuscany (oh how I LOVE that place) exploring the Chianti and Siena regions (stopping for lunch at the BEST restaurant of the trip in a tiny town called Lamole which is on top of a huge hill with amazing views over the whole chianti region as far as San Gimignano), then stayed overnight in a farmhouse overlooking the beautiful San Gimignano. After a brief visit there we drove down to the southern tuscan town of Saturnia (my favourite destination of the whole trip) for some absolutely amazing food (what is it about Saturnia and great food – incidentally they also produce my favourite olive oil) and much needed relaxation at the local thermal springs (at the Terme di Saturnia. Then we headed to the meditterranean coastal town of San Vincenzo and explored the nearby Baratti gulf (simply indescribably gorgeous – the clearest, bluest waters to swim in) and natural park of Rimigliano, and stopped off at a small town called Suvereto to pick up a WHOLE proscuitto at the local market (yes a whole one, bone and all, yes it was heavy – I think 5 kgs?).

Finally we drove up to our last destination in Italy to spend a few days in the Sestri Levante and Cinque Terre region, staying in a small town called Riva Trigoso. The first day in Cinque Terre, me and Kwai did almost the whole hike across the 5 towns (skipped only Vernazza to Corniglia but we did the hardest bit by far which was Monterosso to Vernazza – lots of steps and narrow dirt paths along the cliffside with AMAZING views!). We then spent the next day on hired scooters exploring the Sestri Levante to Portofino stretch… unforunately we only got as far as lunch in Zoagli before my bro had a scary accident where his scooter met a wall on a blind hair-pin turn along the windy, hilly coastal roads.. fortunately it wasn’t too serious as no cars were around and so no bones were broken – we did however get a ride in the ambulance to the local hospital in Lavagna where we spent the next 5 hours waiting before he was released with some painful looking scrapes) – it was dinner time by then so we decided to stay in Lavagna where me and Kwai took the opportunity to have one last swim in the mediterranean sea as the sun set behind the distant mountains, and then got some yummy takeaway pizza from the local piazza where there happened to be a music festival on and an awesome band played some really nice contemporary jazz mixed with tango/classical featuring a violin and piano accordion. Finally we bade a sad farewell to Italy and with heavy hearts drove that loooong journey up to Frankfurt, Germany (via some SPECTACULAR scenery in Switzerland – in fact we stopped in Switzerland for lunch in a town by a huge lake) where me and Kwai stayed 4 nights spending lots of time at the wonderful saunas and thermal pools of the Taunus Therme and also catching up with old friends of Kwai’s. Finally our wonderful holiday almsot over, we drove off towards London, our car loaded with olive oils from various regions throughout Tuscany and Liguria, some pasta, and that proscuitto ham.. only stopping one night in Brussels on the way.

And that was our wonderful summer holiday, planned 3 months in advanced, over. *sigh* It was wonderful and amazing and we had gorgeous HOT weather the whole time. And I can’t wait to do it again!!! I’ve noted places I wanna revisit, and learned things to do and not do the next time round. In fact I just wish I could move to Italy! I love the culture and life and land and food and everything there. I loved how we were able to avoid a lot of the main touristy things and go a bit “off the beaten track” into places visited only by local Italians, where we were the often the only foreigners (we got a few stares lol), where we were able to get a glimpse into the local culture and life… towns where families were born, raised, worked and lived for generations. What an experience it was.

(Lots of photos and videos to come).

Just to fill in the blank space

Um.. yeh.. been a while since my last blog entry. Life has been a whirlwind of activities. Many of which can be found on various web 2.0 community web sites. Biggest news of the moment is that I got a new job offer from one of London’s top digital agencies. I’m pretty excited about this as I’ve been wanting to work for them since I contracted with them for a few weeks in 2005. They have some really big name clients and the work they produce is always of the highest quality and cutting edge in technology and design.

Ok enough about work. I’m going on holidays soon! Yay! In July, myself, my boyfriend and my brother will be heading off on a big self-drive holiday round Italy. Starting off with flying out to Cologne, Germany then driving down to Venice, then to Florence, then into the Chianti region staying at the World Heritage listed San Gimignano, down into south Tuscany to the hot springs and fine restaurants of Saturnia, then up the Mediterranean coast to the summer holiday town of San Vincenzo, then further north to the Liguria and Cinque Terre region staying a few days at Riva Trigoso, and finally back up to stay in Frankfurt, Germany and visit some old friends. I can’t wait! Italy is my absolute favourite european destination (and not just because of the awesome food). And I really need a holiday!!!

I’ve also been really getting into my piano playing. We had our final performance for the year for my jazz improvisation class last week. I thought this was my best performance and solo out of three we had. I recorded it again and made another video which you can watch below.

I’m also going to be (most likely) starting part time studies at Goldsmith college next academic year. I’m going to be doing the Certificate in Music Studies, which is a modular, part time course equivalent of the first year of a degree in Music. I figured, I would do the modules anyway as I continue to do courses here, so why not get a cert out of it whilst I’m at it? Gonna have to ship my keyboard over here though first.. bit hard learning without a piano or keyboard at home to practice on.

What I don’t like about London

This is an addendum to my “Two Years In London” anniversary vlog, in which I talk about the pro’s and con’s of living in London that I’ve observed thus far over the past two years. This post will be about what I dislike about London – there are so many things I can talk about on this topic. I forgot to mention a few things in my vlog so I’ve decided to blog about these extra things. (I still find it much easier to blog about my thoughts than talk about them.) So here are some extra thoughts on things I dislike about living in London (I’ll also write up an expanded post on what I LIKE about London too later):

• Bad coffee – even compared with Sydney, the coffee in London sucks. Its become the home of coffee house chains like Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Caffe Nero (whose claim is “The best espresso this side of Milan” – which says a lot about the quality of coffee here in London seeing as their coffee is only just bearable). London is sadly missing the individual little cafes that serve great coffee, which are pretty much everywhere in Italy, and are quite prevalent in Sydney too. There isn’t really much of a “cafe culture” in London – which is something I quite miss about Sydney. I loved going to cafes to meet up with friends over a nice coffee or hot choccy. There ARE some cafes in London, but finding decent coffee that doesn’t taste burnt is like finding a needle in a haystack – a haystack that is full of commercialised coffee chains ala Starbucks. Ugh.
• Culture – It’s strange this one. Seeing as both Sydney and London are in english speaking westernised countries, and in fact Australia was born from UK settlers.. one would have thought the culture would be fairly similar. But I’ve struggled over the past two years with a noticeable difference between the culture that I grew up with in Sydney, and the culture here in London and have felt quite a bit alienated sometimes. Londoners seem to be more into the pub/bar lifestyle.. going out drinking appears the highlight of the average Londoners lifestyle. They are less into the outdoors, being active and just less focused on personal wellness and healthy lifestyles. The wellness thing is something I’ve noticed is a priority in continental european lifestyles. They seem to be quite big on this. There’s a similar concept in Australia – but with more focus on the outdoors, being in tune with nature, being active, sporty and healthy. For example juice and fruit smoothie bars have been HUGE in Australia for a number of years, and is only JUST starting to pick up now in London. Smoking has been banned for years in Australia, and is only coming into force this July here. There’s a huge difference that is plainly obvious in the percentage of people who smoke in London compared to Sydney. Also the culture in London has created quite a lonely lifestyle. An article I read in the paper highlighted a survey conducted in the UK about the number of close friends of people in different areas. Unsuprisingly, London came bottom with people having an average of only 5 close friends, compared with Yorkshire, who came top with 15. It is kinda sad, that in London the most densely populated by far, surrounded by the most ppl, people are the most lonely. And I have definitely felt that whilst here. It has been very difficult for me to form close friendships in this sort of culture.
• Quality of life – Closely related to the previous point, I find the quality of life in london is much worse than the quality of life in Sydney and other european cities like Frankfurt, cities in Italy etc. There is a distinct lack of peace in London. Life here is so busy and stressful, compounded by the strong partying, drinking and long working hours culture here. And there is a very strong focus on career, money, fashion and consumerism. I’ve found it hard to find peace as I find myself very often stressed, worried and highly strung. Which I’m well aware is not good for my health long term. And I think Londoners are aware of it too but nobody seems to be able to do anything about it, with the long hours work culture getting increasingly worse.
• Ignorant yobs – I’m often utterly astounded by the amount of people here that have NEVER been outside this country. With so many EU countries on the doorstep, literally a couple hours away (in some parts of england you can actually tune into french radio stations!!!!) it is SO easy to travel to completely different countries and cultures. I think people here don’t realise how lucky they are. Coming from a fairly isolated country that Australia is, London is like a dream-come-true in terms of travelling opportunities. Yet so many here are so ignorant of this and as a result are so close-minded. Or if people do “travel”, for many it is to go to places like Ibiza where they can do exactly the same thing that they do in London – drink and party. They party all night and sleep all day, not knowing nor caring about exploring and experiencing this new country and culture that they are in.

Oye Como Va

I’ve started a new Latin Piano course at Goldsmith College. It’s great fun!! I had my first lesson last night. There are about 10 people in the class and we take turns on the piano. But whilst one person is on the piano, the rest of us form the band taking on various percussion instruments – clave, bongos, bell, casara, congos. There is a bass player too in the class. It’s awesome! I’ve always wanted to learn this latin style of playing – this class has opened up a whole new world of latin music and rhythm. It’s quite different from jazz. 🙂

One of the songs we did was “Oye Como Va” by Tito Puente – a king in the world of latin jazz. He plays the timbale and he is truly amazing! I found a fair few clips on YouTube, but this one just blew me away. It’s of him and band jamming on the streets of the Bronx, playing for his people.

My VisualDNA Profile

Florence Trip

Snippets of Florence – a two part video series I created about my 5 day holiday in Florence earlier this year in January (for my birthday). Enjoy. 🙂

Part 1

Part 2

[Edit: Wed 18 April]
If you wanna see complete versions of the opera singing.. go here and here.

Found some Venice photos

So I was digging around trying to organise all my various photos and videos from the past year – I’m generating quite a large collection and there are so many photos I haven’t touched or shared with anyone or even looked at from past holidays. Like my big week-long drive around Italy in September last year, or my Florence trip from January, or even my visit back to Sydney last March (thats a year ago!!) There are literally thousands of photos that myself and Kwai have taken that are untouched. Small wonder I’ve been putting off attempting to go through, sort and pick out the good ones and photoshop them to decent size. Ack.

Well the other night I decided to make attempt at a small chunk of photos (about 500 or so) taken in just Venice during our 7 day drive around Italy last September. Hopefully I’ll get around to doing the rest eventually. But for now, here are a couple of good ones I picked out. 🙂

(And yes I know I still have yet to finish my Italy series of travel vlogs. Three vids in and we hadn’t even reached Venice!)

He da man!

Fo shizzle.

Meeting random people

I met this guy last Friday night – a friend of a cool well-known London painter called Xavier (who was helping Kwai with a charity thing he organised with an actor friend for Comic Relief on Red Nose day). Anyway this guy is a musician. Get this – he used to be the manager of Duran Duran, was manager of Take That at some point, and was the lead singer of Iron Maiden at some point too. Good mates with Kylie Monogues manager. Oh, and his godfather was Frank Sinatra!! And thats just the little I know as I only met him for 5 mins. Talk about a well-connected man.

Wow.. methinks updates are required!

Ok empty blog main page = Not Good. Lol. Thankyou for everyone’s comments on my previous post. I’ve been going through some ups and downs lately (duh) and things aren’t as bad now.. or I’m just dealing better with them. Whichever one. In any case, I’m ok. 🙂

I know I’ve been pretty slack with my blog. Been too busy involved in other little projects.. as well as that annoying thing called “Real Life”. Work is mega-hectic as per usual (yeh yeh what’s new eh). But I’ve managed to keep up going to the gym every week (yay!) AND I’ve joined up membership at a dance studio in London (Danceworks) which means I pay a monthly fee and it drags my lazy ass to class each week (though I only need to go twice in a month to make it back plus extra savings). My jazz improvisation class is still going too – we have another performance week this week.. I’m gonna be performing “Blue Bossa” on Monday. Yay. I’ll see if I can do another video.. depends how crap it is coz I’ve been a bit slack with attendance the last few weeks and have hardly practiced at all too. :/ So.. there is my life in a nutshell thus far. I’ve attached one of my most recent videos below.. it’s a video blog of me going to dance class last saturday. Hope you enjoy – took me 7 hours of editing to put it together. But well worth it since it got featured.. woohoo! 🙂