Pasar Malam

There is a big pasar malam or night market every Tuesday night a whiles away from my dad's place. The colours and the smells and the people ... it's crazy but kinda fun too. All the food smelled sooo delicious and the fruits were such vibrant shades of red, green, yellow and orange, shining under the golden lights powered by smoking diesel generators. Fresh fish on ice, their eyes dull but their scales glistening. Hot, bubbling, syrupy oil deep frying tasty treats. The crush of people. A visual and olfactory feast. Love it.

FRIM

The Forest Research Institute of Malaysia. (After our abortive four hour reconaissance mission, we took a street map and promptly found it the next day).

Big bloody trees with big bloody leaves. (Yes, that's my foot. Ok, I know I have a small foot, but come on, the leaf is at least TWICE the length of my foot).



Hiking trails and a canopy path. Ovals and other recreational facilities. Wetlands.

Research facilities, guest houses, residential villas. All in all, a pretty cool place, especially as it's more or less right in the middle of some pretty overdeveloped land. I had a good time.

Kuala Lumpur

Thus far I have:

* Spent far too much time wandering 1Utama shopping mall
* Enjoyed three different kinds of bananas for brekky
* Visited various local markets
* Eaten most my favourite Nonya foods (nasi lemak, roti canai, cendol, the list goes on ... bliss!)
* Listened to all the same stories I heard last time I was here
* Developed some wicked callouses using my dad's guitar and three chords
* Driven around for four hours trying to find the Forest Research Insititute of Malaysia (sans map or even a complete set of verbal directions)

Staying with family whilst on holiday is always a bit of an odd one.

My Life in a Bag

I have one item of carry on luggage and one check in bag. My life for the next however long is going to be 20kgs in a duffel bag and backpack. I like the simplicity of this. Maybe this is why I like turtles.

Anticipation

This is one of my favourite photos at the moment -- it's actually my current desktop picture. It was taken by my shutter mad friend, Karel, and is of an airport runway in Prague, where he lives. It's just magic, the indigo sky changing into a golden glow where the sun is setting; the colours contrasting so starkly with the shadowy silhouettes of the ground and plane.

Tomorrow I fly.

The Princess Bride

S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure

[Taken from the forward by William Goldman, abridger]

I know I don't expect this to change anybody else's life the way it altered mine.

But take the title words -- "true love and high adventure" -- I believed in that once. I thought my life was going to follow that path. Prayed that it would. Obviously it didn't, but I don't think there's high adventure left any more. Nobody takes out a sword nowadays and cries, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father; prepare to die!"

And true love you can forget about too. I don't know if I love anything truly any more beyond the porterhouse at Peter Luger's and the cheese enchilada at El Parador's.

[A little part inside of me died when I realised that I feel this way now too.]

[Addendum March 17: Nevertheless, I really wanted to say to him, I still love you.]

The Coloured In Version

Seoul Tower Blues

Besides doing practice runs at packing and saying goodbye, at the moment I'm also doing some design for a guy writing a book? a travelogue? a e-zine story? -- well, he's writing something. It's been really interesting because it seems very much autobiographical and journal like -- I love love love getting to see inside someone else's mind. You can force someone to strip off their clothes and be physically naked, but getting to see the world through their eyes or seeing them behind the facade is something really special. Some images for one of the page designs I've done so far ...

Saying Goodbye

I fucking love Australia, from the bush, to the beach, to the city, and I fucking love WA and Perth. Last time I left I was all overwhelmed with excitement of travelling and fairly ran off without looking back. This time, the leaving the leaving is much more measured and drawn out; I know what to expect in front of me and, not being blinded by the ideal of life as a nomad, I'm able to see what's behind me.



Don't get me wrong, I still want to leave, and there's a plane ticket with my name on it that will ensure I will, but this leaving is different to any leaving I've ever done, different to leaving school and university, leaving home, leaving relationships. You are alone, saying goodbye to the people and places you love in your mind, and you could weep or you could smile. But you do neither and the road lies ahead of you.



Good bye, Perth.

A Wistful Rant

What do you do when you understand someone so well that the difficult or uncomfortable conversations don't need to be had, or that having these conversations won't achieve anything? You already know what they think and what they are going to do and why and that they don't want to hear your opinion, they mostly just want you to agree with them.

After really getting to know someone, mostly all you've got is a bunch of no surprises and a sense of despair and resignation over the inevitability of more no surprises.

I guess if said person was amusing or had a sense of humour that meshed with mine then at least there'd be some laughs, but the particular people I'm despairing over don't.

So the moral of this story is, you can be flawed, but for the love of Joss, don't be boring.

Landscape 003

This was originally sketched on paper whilst sitting in the passenger seat during my cousin's driving shift when we went up north earlier this year. In its current digital incarnation I sketched (not scanned) the lines in using the tablet and then did some colouring in (ahh, I harken -- or is it hearken? back to the good old kindergarten days).

Given that we were travelling at 110km/hour it isn't an exact location as such, more of an amalgamation of various things I saw along the way. If you want a more precise idea of what we were seeing on the road, spread all the landmarks (trees, hills, grass) out over about 10kms and put a lot of red dirt and bitumen in the blanks and you'll have a pretty accurate view of the road we travelled: empty.

Thwarted

A friend of mine has pointed out that the wind appears to be blowing to the right, wherease the tangled string of the kite is blowing to the left. I know. That's what I like about it.

I clicked this one in the same day I found out I'd been withdrawn from the art competition for being too small.

Fat Man with a Can

I found this guy really difficult to draw, for a number of reasons. Firstly, he's fat, which means all the proportions I normally use to draw people don't work so well(all my prior subjects have been less than obese) Secondly, he's all pixels -- I drew him straight into Photoshop using my tablet. Since I've discovered the world of tablet, I've learned that quite a few digital artists do things on paper or canvas and then import it into Photoshop. There are a few out there who start with a blank screen, such as Min Yum, who is a concept artist that does some really cool stuff. Check her out at http://www.minart.net

Free as a Kite

Bright and untethered, soaring high in the stratosphere.

Only slightly enigmatic and shrouded from view.

When I travel alone, this is what I feel.

BIG art -- AKA I'm No Longer a Finalist

Is impressive.
Is expensive.
Makes a statement loudly.
Can be interacted with at a distance.

Is not what I do.

Despite giving them the dimensions over a month ago, I've just been told by the folks at Artrage/adultshop.com that my entry is too small to be exhibited and therefore I am no longer a finalist in the competition.

To be crude, how utterly shit.